Non-volatile spin switch for Boolean and non-Boolean logic

We show that the established physics of spin valves together with the recently discovered giant spin-Hall effect could be used to construct Read and Write units that can be integrated into a single spin switch with input-output isolation, gain and fan-out similar to complementary metal oxide semiconductor inverters, but with the information stored in nanomagnets making it non-volatile. Such spin switches could be interconnected, with no external amplification, just with passive circuit elements, to perform logic operations. Moreover, since the digitization and storage occur naturally in the magnets, the voltages can be used to implement analog "weighting" for non-Boolean logic. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4769989]