September 2017

Researchers from the RAS in Russia and RIKEN in Japan have proved the existence of a new class of materials, spin-valley half-metals. This discovery could lead to devices that enable both valleytronics and spintronics.

In "regular" half-metals, all the electrons that participate in electric currents have the same spin - and so the current is always spin-polarized. These materials have interesting applications for spintronics devices. In the new class of materials now proven theoretically to be possible, there are two valleys present - one providing electrons, one providing holes.