The World's First Electron Thrown Like a Baseball Curveball

Korean Researchers Successfully Control Within Transition Metals
Published in International Journal 'Nature'

Domestic researchers have succeeded for the first time in the world in controlling the movement of electrons to curve like a baseball breaking ball.

Orbital Hall Effect.
Electrons (gold spheres) have different orbital angular momenta depending on the direction in which they orbit around the atomic nucleus (blue spheres). The phenomenon where the electron's trajectory bends according to the direction of the orbital angular momentum is called the orbital Hall effect. This orbital Hall effect provides a principle for controlling the trajectory of electrons in electronic devices.
Image source: Provided by the Ministry of Science and ICT

On the 6th, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that Professor Choi Kyung-min's research team at Sungkyunkwan University, in collaboration with Professor Lee Hyun-woo's research team at Pohang University of Science and Technology, succeeded for the first time in the world in controlling the trajectory of electrons inside light metals to curve like a baseball breaking ball.

The results of this research were published in the international academic journal Nature on the same day.

Just as a baseball pitcher improves winning rates by skillfully throwing fastballs, slowballs, straight balls, and breaking balls, if the trajectory of electrons inside solids can be freely controlled, the performance of electronic devices can be enhanced. While methods to control the speed and number of electrons flowing in solids are currently being developed, methods to control the trajectory of electrons to curve remain very limited.

The well-known Hall effect, where the trajectory of electrons curves when a magnetic field is applied to a solid with current flowing, requires a high current to generate the magnetic field and is difficult to control partially. Applying this method to electronic devices with numerous integrated components requires magnetic fields in different directions according to each component’s operation, which is limited in highly integrated electronic devices.

Due to these issues, a new technology is needed to individually control the trajectory of electrons existing inside nanoscale (nm) fine devices using low power without using magnetic fields.

Previously, it was reported under the name “spin Hall effect” that electron trajectories can be curved by using spin angular momentum (electron spin), but this effect only manifests in heavy metals with large atomic numbers.

The research team demonstrated the “orbital Hall effect” for the first time in the world, which curves electron trajectories by using orbital angular momentum (generated by electrons orbiting around atomic nuclei) rather than electron spin, in titanium (element symbol Ti) metal.

This research is highly significant because it experimentally demonstrated the “orbital Hall effect,” which had only been theoretically known until now, for the first time in light metals with small atomic numbers rather than heavy metals.

Most currently used devices only utilize changes in the number of electrons caused by electric fields, but magnetic memory (MRAM), which is being developed as a future electronic device, uses electron angular momentum. Therefore, it is expected that the properties identified by the research team will contribute to improved energy efficiency and speed.

Professor Choi Kyung-min stated, “This research achievement provides a fundamental principle for controlling the trajectory of current in electronic devices.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.