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Unlike classic or vintage electronics operating on electronic charges, spin-based electronics uses the spin of electrons to carry and store information. Although researchers predict spintronics will revolutionize the electronics industry, the technology hasn't yet been widely applied because scientists have difficulty controlling, manipulating and measuring the electrons.

But a team of Ohio University and Ohio State University scientists -- led by Ohio University postdoctoral fellow Erdong Lu -- have created an effective interface between a semiconductor and ferromagnetic metal. The researchers say the two-layer "sandwich" of gallium nitride and manganese gallium nearly eliminates any intermixing of the two layers and allows the spin to be "tuned."

"We found a way to grow the metal on the semiconductor", said Arthur Smith, associate professor of physics and director of Ohio University's Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena Institute. "The crystalline match between the two materials was nearly perfect. The advantage of this finding is in the growth process. By adjusting the conditions of the growth, we can tune the spin."

The research appears online in the journal Physical Review Letters.