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ATLANTA – Scientists from Georgia State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have found a new way to examine certain properties of electrons in graphene – a very thin material that may hold the key to new technologies in computing and other fields.

Ramesh Mani, associate professor of physics at GSU, working in collaboration with Walter de Heer, Regents' Professor of physics at Georgia Tech, measured the spin properties of the electrons in graphene, a material made of carbon atoms that is only one atom thick.

The research was published this week in the online-only journal Nature Communications.

Electrons, which follow orbits around the nucleus in atoms, have two important characteristics – charge and spin.

The electric charge is the basis of most electronic devices, but spin – which Mani and co-workers examined using a new technique – forms the basis of new "spintronic" devices, and can serve as a building block for new computers in a field called quantum computing, as well as other technologies.

Graphene is thought to be a key material for spintronic devices, but it is so new that scientists must perform a lot of research on it to understand its capability. The GSU and Georgia Tech study propels this research forward.

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