I wanted to post about this video I found on Youtube because it finally gave me the “ahah” moment I have been waiting for! So what did I learn? I learned that an electron is a lot like a ball that is spinning… except it is not a ball, and it is not spinning. It really is that confusing! Instead, an electron has an intrinsic angular momentum that causes it to behave like a ball of charge that is spinning.
An easier way to think of an electron is like a tiny weak magnet that can have two values for “spin.” Think of “spin-up” as an electron with a small northern magnetic field facing up, and “spin down” as an electron with the northern magnetic field facing down. The “spin” of these electrons can be manipulated in a number of ways to create the field of spintronics. The basis of this field is rooted in the conservation of angular momentum. I’m no expert (yet) so I’ll let the Youtube video do the rest of the talking. Up next, I will investigate how spin is generated and transferred, and the corresponding effects of each.