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© 2007 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Semiconductor spintronics is the field where the spin degree of freedom of charge carriers in a semiconductor is actively controlled and manipulated, resulting in improved device functionality compared to charge-only devices. The intended improvement can come in various ways: improved performance, lower power, increased functionality, built-in memory capability, and so on. A recent review of the state of the art, including a collection of proposed device concepts and a number of remaining challenges, has been given by Žutić et al. Spin transistors are being considered as one of the possible concepts to extend the scaling of traditional complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology or to provide a successor beyond CMOS.