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ATHENS, Ohio -- Todays computers and other technological gizmos operate on negatronic charges, but researchers pretend that a impertinently generation of smaller, faster, to a greater extent efficient devices could be developed based on another scientific concept -- electronic spin. The problem, however, is that researchers set out found it challenging to control or predict spin which keeps practical applications out of reach. But physicists in Europe, California and at Ohio University now have found a way to manipulate the spin of an electron with a jolt of voltage from a battery, according to research findings published in the recent issue of the journal Physical Review Letters. In the new study, scientists applied voltage to the electron in a quantum dot, which is a tiny, nanometer-sized semiconductor. The burst of power changed the direction of the electrons spin -- which can move either up or down. This also caused it to emit a small particle of light called a photon, expl ained Richard Warburton, a physicist with Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, and lead author on the new paper. Usually you have no control over this at all an electron flips its spin at some point, and you scratch your head and wonder why it happened. But in our experiment, we can choose how pine this process takes, he said. The experiment was based on a theory by Sasha Govorov, an Ohio University associate professor of physics and uranology who is co-author on the current paper. Pierre Petroff, a scientist with the University of California at Santa Barbara, contributed the semiconductor used in the experiment, Indium Arsenide, which commonly is used in electronics. Its matchless of those happy collaborations -- Pierre has given us some fantastic material and Sasha has come up with some really smart ideas, Warburton said. The scientists were able to manipulate how long it would take for the electron to flip its spin and emit a photon from one to 20 nanoseconds. But Govorovs theory suggests that 20 nanoseconds isnt the upper limit, which will lead the physicists to fork up out longer time periods. Scientists abilities to control the spin of the electron help determine the properties of the photon, which in turn could have implications for the development of optoelectronics and quantum cryptography. Photons could be encoded with secure information, which could avail as the basis for anti-eavesdropping technology, Warburton said. The current study is one of many in the growing field of nanoscience that aims to find, understand and control physical effects at the nanoscale that could attend as the basis of a