1. The storage and transfer of information using the spin state of electrons as well as their charge.
2. A new technology exploiting quantum properties of electrons' spin for a new generation of electronic devices.
3. Known as "spin-based electronics" it is also known as magnetoelectronics and it is an emergent technology which exploits the quantum spin states of electrons as well as making use of their charge state.

Spintronics is an advanced form of electronics that harnesses not just the electrical charge of electrons; such as, in conventional electronics; but also a property called "spin" that makes electrons act like tine bar magnets.

Some computers already contain the first and most rudimentary commercial applications of spintronics. Since 1998, hard-drive read heads have used a spintronic effect called giant magnetoresistance to detect the microscopic magnetic domains on a disk that represent the 1's and the 0's of the data it contains.

• Electrons carry both charge and spin, but only spintronic devices exploit the two properties simultaneously to achieve innovative capabilities.
• Spintronics brings us disk-drive read heads and non-volatile memory chips today and perhaps instant-on computers with reconfigurable chips tomorrow.
• Synthetic semi-conducting diamond may be the new silicon for a future era of quantum spintronic technology that manipulates single spins, enabling quantum computers, and other quantum information devices.

The advantages of spintronics