Spintronics and Spin Current

傳統的電子學完全忽略了電子自旋,這使人們在探索未來半導體工業發展時有了新的契機和可能的研究方向.自旋電子學旨在利用電子自旋而非傳統的電子電荷為基礎,探討研發新一代電子產品的可能性.文章簡單介紹了自旋電子學的動機、物理基礎以及研究內容,并重點介紹了在自旋電子學器件中起關鍵作用的自旋流.文章從自旋流的定義、它能產生的物理性質和最近有關自旋流探測的理論和實驗進展等三個方面進行闡述. \nConventional electronics completely ignores the electron spin, which provides us with an unprecedented chance and new starting point to explore the future of the modern semiconductor and information industry. Spintronics, or spin-based electronics, aims to exploit the subtle and mind-bending esoteric quantum properties of the electron to develop a new generation of electronic devices. In this paper the motivation, fundamental physics, and scope of spintronics will be briefly addressed. The spin current, one of the essential concepts in spintronics, will be discussed in detail, introducing its definition, physical effects, and recent theoretical and experimental progress.