Spintronics-Info: the spintronics experts

Researchers from the University of Groningen developed a device made by 2D sheets of graphene and Boron-Nitride that showed unprecedented spin transport efficiency at room temperature.

The research, funded by the European Union's $1 billion Graphene Flagship, uses the single-layer graphene as the core material. The researchers say that graphene is a great material for spin transport - but the spin in the graphene cannot be manipulated. To over come this In this device, the graphene is sandwiched between two layers of Boron Nitride and the whole structure rests on silicon.

Researchers from the University of Nottingham discovered a new method to control the structure of magnetic domain walls. Controlling and reading the chirality of the domain wall can be eventually used to create information and logic devices.

In a magnetic wire, magnetic domain walls are areas that separate regions where the magnetisation points in opposite directions. Under certain conditions it consists of a region in which the magnetisation rotates around a central vortex core, which points into or out of the wire. The rotation 'direction' (clockwise or anticlockwise) of the vortex wall is called the chirality.

Researchers from France, the US and Japan a spintronics-based oscillator that can mimic the behavior of neurons. A nano-neuron could be used to create new kind of chips that mimic the brain's computational style.

The spintronics oscillator is a small cylinder composed of stacked magnets separated by an insulating, non-magnetic, barrier. This design enabled the fabrication of a nano-neuron that is capable of recognizing an input signal, which was in this case a spoken digit (0–9) pronounced by different speakers, with a success rate of 99.6%. This result is on a par with other state-of-the-art technologies.

Researchers from the University of Würzburg developed a new room-temperature 2D topological insulator material that is promising for spintronics applications.

To create this material, the researchers used a single-sheet of bismuth atomsdeposited on a silicon carbide substrate. The silicon carbide structures causes the bismuth atoms to arrange in a honeycomb structure - which resembles the structure of graphene films. The researchers call their new material "bismuthene".

Researchers from Chalmers University developed a new graphene-based room-temperature spin field-effect transistor (G-FET).

As part of the research, it was demonstrated that the spin characteristics of graphene can be electrically regulated in a controlled way, even at an ambient temperature. This structure is not only useful to make spin-logic devices - it can also be used to integrate device-level magnetic memory (MRAM) elements.

Researcherrs from Likoping University in Sweden demonstrated a method to generate and manipulate the surface spin current in topological insulators.

The researchers used a combination of a topological insulator (Bismuth Telluride, Bi2Te3) and a regular GaAs semiconductor. The electroncs were generated with the same spin in the GaAs using polarized light. The electrons were then transferred to the TI.