Nanospintronics: when spintronics meets single electron physics

Abstract

As spintronics goes nano, new phenomena are predicted resulting from the interplay between spin dependent transport and single electron physics. The long term goal of manipulating spins one by one would open a promising path to quantum computing. Towards this end, there is an ever-growing effort to connect spin tanks (i.e. ferromagnetic leads) to smaller and smaller objects in order to study spintronics in reduced dimensions. As the dimensions are reduced, spin dependent transport is predicted to interplay with quantum and/or single electron charging effects. We review experiments and theories on the interplay between Coulomb blockade and spin properties (namely magneto-Coulomb effects) in structures where a single nano-object is connected to ferromagnetic leads. We then discuss briefly future directions in the emerging field of nanospintronics towards quantum dots, carbon nanotubes and single molecule magnets.