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nanotimes News in Brief

switching off current supply, which means that the component can store information without any ener- gy consumption.

The German-French research team has now com- bined these concepts. The organic molecule H2-phthalocyanin that is also used as blue dye in ball pens exhibits a strong dependence of its re- sistance, if it is trapped between spin-polarized, i.e. magnetic electrodes.

This effect was first observed in purely metal contacts by Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg. It is referred to as giant magnetoresistance and was ack- nowledged by the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2007.

Stefan Schmaus, Alexei Bagrets, Yasmine Nahas, Toyo K. Yamada, Annika Bork, Martin Bowen, Eric Beaurepaire, Ferdinand Evers, Wulf Wulfhekel: Giant magnetoresi- stance through a single molecule, In: Nature Nanotech- nology, Vol. 6(2011), No 3, March 2011, Pages 185-189, DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2011.11: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2011.11

11-04 :: April/May 2011

A research team at the Institute of Applied Phy- sics, Hamburg University in Germany combines bottom-up atomic fabrication with spin-resolved scanning tunneling microscopy to construct and read out atomic scale model systems performing logic operations. The concept utilizes substrate- mediated indirect exchange coupling to achieve logical interconnection between individual atomic spins.

Alexander Ako Khajetoorians, Jens Wiebe, Bruno Chilian, and Roland Wiesendanger: Realizing All-Spin–Based Lo- gic Operations Atom by Atom, In: Science Express, May 05, 2011, DOI:10.1126/science.1201725: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1201725

Oleg D. Lavrentovich at Kent State University, USA, presented in PNAS an article on liquid crystals (LCs), photonic crystals (PCs), and metamaterials (MMs).

Oleg D. Lavrentovich: Liquid crystals, photonic cry- stals, metamaterials, and transformation optics, In: PNAS Early Edition, March 18, 2011, DOI:10.1073/ pnas.1102130108:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1102130108

Using chemical activation of exfoliated graphite oxide, a research team around Rodney S. Ruoff from University of Texas at Austin, USA, Quanta- chrome Instruments, and Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA, “synthesized a porous carbon with a BET surface area of up to 3100 square me- ters per gram, a high electrical conductivity, and a low O and H content. This sp2-bonded carbon has a continuous three-dimensional network of highly curved, atom thick walls that form primarily 0.6- to 5-nm-width pores. Two-electrode superca- pacitor cells constructed with this carbon yielded high values of gravimetric capacitance and energy density with organic and ionic liquid electrolytes. The processes used to make this carbon are readily scalable to industrial levels.” © Science