Carbon - and in particular graphene - has excited
scientists in recent years with its potential applications in computing.
The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for their contributions to understanding the material.
However, it has historically not been associated with a further significant development in computing - quantum calculations based on electron spin.
That is because a flat layer of carbon does not appear to exert any aligning force on the electrons passing over it.
However, when graphene is formed into a tube and electrons swirled through it in a circular motion, their spin lines up with the centre of the tube, report
scientists from the University of Copenhagen.
Notably, this occurs even if the tube is imperfect, with any number of electrons and without the need for a vacuum to exist.
Each of these issues was previously thought to be an obstacle to using the principle - and could now allow spin-based computers to be built using graphene.
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