June 28, 2024
Keio University
A research group including Assistant Professor Hiroki Hayashi (a KiPAS researcher) from the Keio Institute of Pure and Applied Sciences (KiPAS) and the Graduate School of Science and Technology at Keio University, and Associate Professor Kazuya Ando (a KiPAS principal investigator) from the Faculty of Science and Technology at the same university, has successfully observed "orbital pumping," a new phenomenon that generates "orbital currents." Electrons have three properties: charge, spin, and orbit. The flows of charge and spin are called "electric current" and "spin current," respectively. While modern electronics based on electric currents continues to develop remarkably, in recent years, spintronics, based on the new concept of spin current, has opened up new frontiers in the evolution of electronic technology. However, generating the corresponding orbital current has been difficult until now. The orbital pumping discovered in this study is expected to provide the foundation for pioneering new electronic technologies based on orbital currents, following electronics and spintronics.
These research findings were published in the online edition of the British scientific journal "Nature Electronics" on June 27 (UK time).
Please see below for the full press release.