A new spin on silicon

'Orbitronics' could keep silicon-based computing going after today's technology reaches its limits
For about 40 years, the semiconductor industry has been able to continually shrink the electronic components on silicon chips, packing ever more performance into computers. Now, fundamental physical limits to current technology have the industry scouring the research world for an alternative. In a paper published in the Aug. 1 online edition of Physical Review Letters (PRL), Stanford University physicists present ''orbitronics,'' an alternative to conventional electronics that could someday allow engineers to skirt a daunting limit while still using cheap, familiar silicon.