ABSTRACT

THE SPINTRONIC SCANNER FOR CANCER DETECTION

Spintronics is a study that deals with spin of an electron, ("spin-based

electronics") also known as magneto-electronics, is an emergent technology which
exploits the quantum property of electrons to spin as well as making use of their charge.
There are two spins (UP spin and DOWN Spin).This spintronic scanning technique is an
efficient technique used in the medical field to detect cancer cells.
Cancer cells are easy to be identified only when they are large in number. These
cells when matured results in formation of tumor, which has to be removed by surgery.
After surgery there may be presence of even a single cancer cell, which would result in
growth of tumor in effected part of the body. The spintronic scanning is an efficient
technique to detect cancer cells even when they are less in number.
A Patient is exposed to a strong magnetic field so that his body cell gets
magnetized.
A beam of electrons with polarized spin is introduced on the uneffected part of the
body and the change in spin is detected by a polarimeter.
A beam of electrons with polarized spin is introduced on the part which had
undergone surgery.
The difference in spin of electrons when introduced to normal area and abnormal
area indicates whether cancer cells have been removed from the body. If not, it indicates
the presence of traces of cancer cells and it has to be treated again for ensuring complete
safety to the patient.

Thus this technique efficiently identifies the presence of cancer cells in that part
of the body that has undergone surgery to prevent any further development.

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INTRODUCTION:
An emerging research field in physics focused on spin-
dependent phenomena applied to electronic devices is called spintronics. The promise of
spintronics is based on manipulation not only of the charge of electrons, but also their
spin, which enables them to perform new functions. Currently, the ability to manipulate
electron spin is expected to lead to the development of remarkable improvements in
electronic systems and devises used in photonics, data processing and communications
technologies only.
Now this paper brings out an innovative idea of extending the
hands of spintronics in MEDICAL FIELD, in the detection of cancer cells even when
they are very few in number in the human body.
This approach is relied on two important aspects:
• the behavior of electron spin in a magnetic field
• the cancer cell’s abnormality over normal cells

SPINTRONICS:
Spintronics, or spin electronics, refers to the study of the role
played by electron spin in solid state physics, and possible devices that specifically
exploit spin properties instead of or in addition to charge degrees of freedom. In
spintronics electron spin, in addition to charge, is manipulated to yield a desired outcome.
An electron is just like a spinning sphere of charge. It has a
quantity of angular momentum (its "spin") and an associated magnetism, and in an
ambient magnetic field its energy depends on how its spin vector is oriented. Every
electron exists in one of two states, namely, spin-up and spin-down with its spin either
+1/2 or –1/2. In other words, an electron can rotate either clockwise or counterclockwise
around its own axis with constant frequency. . Two spins can be "entangled" with each
other, so that neither is distinctly up nor down, but a combination of the two possibilities.
In order to make a spintronic device, the primary requirement is to have a system that can
generate a current of spin polarised electrons, and a system that is sensitive to the spin
polarization of the electrons. Most devices also have a unit in between that changes the
current of electrons depending on the spin states.

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The simplest method of generating a spin polarised current is to inject the current through
a ferromagnetic material. The most common application of this effect is a giant
magnetoresistance (GMR) device. A typical GMR device consists of at least two layers
of ferromagnetic materials separated by a spacer layer. When the two magnetization
vectors of the ferromagnetic layers are aligned, then an electrical current will flow freely,
whereas if the magnetization vectors are antiparrallel then the resistance of the system is
higher. Two variants of GMR have been applied in devices, current-in-plane where the
electric current flows parallel to the layers and current-perpendicular-to-the-plane where
the electric current flows in a direction perpendicular to the layers.
Applications
Spintronic devices are used in the field of mass-storage devices; recently (in 2002) IBM
scientists announced that they could compress massive amounts of data into a small area,
at approximately one trillion bits per square inch (1.5 Gbit/mm²) or roughly 1 TB on a
single sided 3.5" diameter disc. The storage density of hard drives is rapidly increasing
along an exponential growth curve known as Kryder's Law. The doubling period for the
areal density of information storage is twelve months, much shorter than Moore's Law,
which observes that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles every
eighteen months. Also the hard disk drives use a spin effect to function, the Giant
magnetoresistive effect (see below).
The most successful spintronic device to date is the spin valve. This device utilizes a
layered structure of thin films of magnetic materials, which changes electrical resistance
depending on applied magnetic field direction. In a spin valve, one of the ferromagnetic
layers is "pinned" so its magnetization direction remains fixed and the other
ferromagnetic layer is "free" to rotate with the application of a magnetic field. When the
magnetic field aligns the free layer and the pinned layer magnetization vectors, the
electrical resistance of the device is at its minimum. When the magnetic field causes the
free layer magnetization vector to rotate in a direction antiparallel to the pinned layer
magnetization vector, the electrical resistance of the device increases due to spin
dependent scattering. The magnitude of the change, (Antiparallel Resistance - Parallel
Resistance) / Parallel Resistance x 100% is called the GMR ratio. Devices have been
demostrated with GMR ratios as high as 200% with typical values greater than 10%. This

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is a vast improvement over the anisotropic magnetoresistance effect in single layer
materials which is usually less than 3%. Spin valves can be designed with magnetically
soft free layers which have a sensitive response to very weak fields (such as those
originating from tiny magnetic bits on a computer disk), and have replaced anisotropic
magnetoresistance sensors in computer hard disk drive heads since the late 1990s.
Future applications may include a spin-based transistor which requires the development
of magnetic semiconductors exhibiting room temperature ferromagnetism. The operation
of MRAM or magnetic random access memory is also based on spintronic principles.

CANCER CELLS:
Cancer cells are the somatic cells which are grown into abnormal
size. The cancer cells have different electromagnetic pattern when compared to normal
cells.
For many types of cancer, it is easier to treat and cure the cancer if
it is found early. There are many different types of cancer, but most cancers begin with
abnormal cells growing out of control, forming a lump that's called a tumor. The tumor
can continue to grow until the cancer begins to spread to other parts of the body. If the
tumor is found when it is still very small, curing the cancer can be easy. However, the
longer the tumor goes unnoticed, the greater the chance that the cancer has spread. This
makes treatment more difficult.
Tumor developed in human body, is removed by performing a
surgery. Even if a single cell is present after the surgery, it would again develop into a
tumor. In order to prevent this, an efficient method for detecting the cancer cells is
required.
Here, in this paper, we introduce a new method for detecting the
cancer cells after a surgery. This accurate detection of the existence of cancer cells at the
beginning stage itself ensures the prevention of further development of the tumor.

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PROPERTIES OF SPIN:
• The spin of an electron has a great dependence over an external
magnetic field. If a polarized electron is exposed in a magnetic field,
its spin orientation gets varied. This behavior of the electron plays a
crucial role in the presented approach in this paper.
• Polarization of spin of electrons is possible so that the spin of all
electrons orient in a particular direction.
• The electron spin can be detected by using devices like polarimeters.
• The electron spin can be controlled electrically just with the
application of few volts.

DETECTION OF CANCER CELLS:

It is very important that the cancer cells should be diagnosed at the earlier
stages itself failing which develop rapidly into acute tumors.
AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO DETECT THE CANCER CELLS WITH
THE HELP OF SPINTRONICS IS PRESENTED HERE.
The following setup is used for the detection of cancer cells in a human
body:
• Polarized electron source
• Magnetic field
• Spin detector
POLARISED ELECTRON SOURCE:
A beam of electrons is said to be “polarized” if their spins point, on
average, in a specific direction. There are several ways to employ spin on electrons and to
control them. The requirement for this paper is an electron beam with all its electrons
polarized in a specific direction.
The following are the ways to meet the above said requirement:
• Photoemission from negative electron affinity GaAs
• Chemi-ionization of optically pumped meta stable Helium

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 • An optically pumped electron spin filter

A spin filter is more efficient electron polarizer which uses an ordinary electron source
along with a gaseous layer of Rb. Free electrons diffuse under the action of an electric
field through Rb vapour that has been spin polarized in optical pumping. Through spin
exchange collisions with the Rb, the free electrons become polarized and are extracted to
form a beam. To reduce the emission of depolarizing radiation, N2 is used to quench the
excited Rb atoms during the optical pumping cycle.
SPIN DETECTORS:
There are many ways by which the spin of the electrons can be detected
efficiently. The spin polarization of the electron beam can be analyzed by using:
• Mott polarimeter
• Compton polarimeter
• Moller type polarimeter
Typical Mott polarimeters require electron energies of ~100 keV. But Mini Mott
polarimeter uses energies of ~25 keV, requiring a smaller overall design. The Mini Mott
polarimeter has three major sections: the electron transport system, the target chamber,
and the detectors. The first section the electrons enter is the transport system. An Einsel
lens configuration was used here. Two sets of four deflectors were used as the first and
last lens.
The electrons next enter the target chamber. The chamber consists of a
cylindrical target within a polished stainless steel hemisphere. A common material used
for the high-Z nuclei target is gold. Low-Z nuclei help minimize unwanted scattering, so
aluminum was chosen. Scattered electrons then exit the target chamber and are collected
in the detectors.
Thus there are many methods for detecting the spin polarization of electrons.
EXTERNAL MAGNETIC FIELD:
An external magnetic field is required during this experiment. The magnetic field
is applied after the surgery has undergone. First, it is applied to an unaffected part of the
body and then to the surgery undergone part of the body. It is already mentioned that the
magnetic field could easily alter the polarization of electrons.

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APPLICATION OF SPINTRONICS IN MEDICAL FIELD.
EXPERIMENTAL SETUP:

MOTT POLARIMETER OPTICAL SPIN FILTER

HUMAN BODY
The procedure for doing this experiment is as follows:

• After surgery and the removal of the tumor, the patient is exposed to a
strong magnetic field.
• Now the polarized electron beam is applied over the unaffected part
and spin orientation of electrons are determined using polarimeter.
• Then the same polarized beam is targeted over the affected part of the
body and from the reflected beam, change in spin is determined.
Based on these two values of spin orientation, the presence of tumor cells
can be detected even if they are very few in number. Hence, we suggest this method for
the detection purpose. A detailed view of this innovative approach is given as follows.

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SPIN ORIENTATION OF THE UNAFFECTED PART OF THE BODY:
APPLYING MAGNETIC FIELD:

When the magnetic field is applied to the unaffected part of the human
body, the normal somatic cells absorbs the magnetic energy and retains it.

DETERMINING THE SPIN ORIENTATION:

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 When the electrons get incident on the cells the magnetic energy absorbed by the
cells alters the spin orientation of the electrons. These electrons get reflected and it is
detected by the Mott polarimeter. Then the change in spin orientation of the electrons is
measured as Sx.
SPIN ORIENTATION OF SURGERY UNDERGONE PART OF THE BODY:
APPLYING MAGNETIC FIELD:

In the surgery undergone part of the body an external magnetic field is applied.
The cancer cells which are present, if any, will absorb more magnetic energy than the
normal cells since they differ in their electromagnetic pattern.

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DETERMINING THE SPIN ORIENTATION:

Now an electron beam which is polarized is incident on the surgery

undergone part of the body. The magnetic energy absorbed by the cancer cell alter the
spin orientation of the electron beam. Since cancer cells absorb more magnetic energy,
the change in orientation caused by them are also more. If no cancer cells are present the
amount of change is equal to the previous case. The change in spin is measured by the
polarimeter as Sy.

INFERENCE:
If the change in the spin in the unaffected part of the body is same as that
of the surgery undergone part, i.e.
If Sx=Sy
Then,
There are no cancer cells in the surgery undergone part of the body
and all the cells have been removed by the surgery.

If the change in spin in the unaffected part is not equal to the change
caused by the surgery undergone part of the body, i.e.
If Sx not equals Sy
Then,

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 There are some cancer cells in the surgery undergone part of the
body and the cancer cells are not completely removed by the surgery.

CONCLUSION:
Thus the usage of electron spin in the cancer cell detection
provides way for the entry of spintronics in medical field. The approach suggested in this
paper acts as an efficient way of cancer cell detection after surgery thereby preventing the
further growth of tumor cells.

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