Research

 Spin lifetime of electrons in metallic nanoparticles has successfully been observed in magnetic single-electron device structure. It has been found that the spin lifetime is greatly enhanced in nanoparticles compared to that in bulk. The spin lifetime is one of the most important factors to dominate the performance of spin-electronic devices, and this result is promising for potential application of nanoparticles as basic elements of spin-electronic devices. This work was made in collaboration with Japan Science and Technology Agency, Graduate School of Information Sciences (Tohoku University) and Research Institute for Electric and Magnetic Materials. The result was published in Nature Materials Online (December 5, 2004), and also reported in Nikkei-Sangyo and Nikkan-Kogyo newspapers (December 6, 2004).