E-Mail The movement of electrons can have a significantly greater influence on spintronic effects than previously assumed. This discovery was made by an international team of researchers led by physicists from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). Until now, a calculation of these effects took, above all, the spin of electrons into consideration. The study was published in the journal "Physical Review Research" and offers a new approach in developing spintronic components. Many technical devices are based on conventional semiconductor electronics. Charge currents are used to store and process information in these components. However, this electric current generates heat and energy is lost. To get around this problem, spintronics uses a fundamental property of electrons known as spin. "This is an intrinsic angular momentum, which can be imagined as a rotational movement of the electron around its own axis," explains Dr Annika Johansson, a physicist at MLU. The spin is linked to a magnetic moment that, in addition to the charge of the electrons, could be used in a new generation of fast and energy-efficient components.