A group of scientists from the University of Leeds, UK, created a device that can be called a spin capacitor, in the depths of which the spin of a group of electrons (the moment of their rotation) can remain for several hours. For comparison, other previously created similar devices were able to maintain the electron spin for only a fraction of a second. In the future, such tiny spin capacitors may become the basis of highly efficient and economical information storage devices, the information density of which will be at the level of 100 terabytes per square inch of area.

“The quantum effects used in our technology ensure the complete absence of heat losses and other types of energy losses. This means that the practical implementation of some information technologies based on spin capacitors will be more efficient, more stable and will require less energy for their work”, they write Researchers, – “We are confident that the computing systems of the future will not rely on traditional hard drives. Instead, they will use devices based on spin-capacitors in which are controlled by light or an electric field, which will make them very, very fast and efficient”.

The spin capacitor is based on a fullerene molecule (buckminsterfullerene), to which electrodes made of manganese oxide and magnetic cobalt are connected. The zone that arises in the contact region of manganese oxide and the spherical carbon structure of fullerene makes it possible to capture and hold the spin state of a group of electrons. And the decay time of the spin state of an electron group was dramatically increased by organizing specific interactions between the carbon atoms of fullerene and manganese oxide in the presence of a magnetic field generated by a cobalt electrode.

However, a few hours of conservation of electron spin is still not enough to use this technology in practical information storage devices. But scientists believe that further research in this direction will allow them to find new combinations of materials and auxiliary technologies that can create conditions under which the electron spin will be maintained for periods of time, the duration of which will tend to infinity.