They have found a way to make a superconducting current spin in order to potentially revolutionize computing.
“We’ve discovered something that’s fundamentally very exciting and transformative,” says Robinson. “That’s a huge adventure and a privilege from a scientist’s point of view.”
In 2010, Robinson and his colleagues validated a theory by Drs. F.S. Bergeret, A.F. Volkov and K.B. Efetov, and proved they could transform superconducting Cooper pairs into ones able to carry both charge and spin. And just recently, and more important, they’ve proved that they can distinguish between these Cooper pairs with up-up spins and those with down-down spins — which is essential to spintronics.