Spintronics News - Page 1

Tohoku University published a short video that introduces the spintronics research performed at the University's Center for Science and Innovation in Spintronics:

Researchers from the University of Groningen developed a spin transistor based on magnons (spin-waves). This transistor allows the researchers to alter the flow of spin waves through a magnet - with only an electrical current.

To create the transistor, the researchers used films of platinum that inject magnons into a magnet made of Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG). A third platinum strip, inserted between the injector and detector allows the researchers to either inject additional magnons in the conduction channel or drain magnons from it.

Researchers from Russia, Germany and Spain managed to modify graphene to make the material both magnetic and with spin-orbit interaction, for the first time. This could make graphene suitable for quantum computers.

To achieve these new properties, the researchers combined graphene with gold and cobalt. The spin-orbit interaction, unlike in gold, is extremely small in graphene. The interaction between graphene and gold increases the spin-orbit interaction in graphene, while interaction between graphene and cobalt induced magnetism.

Reserachers from Spain's nanoGUNE Cooperative Research Center (CIC) developed a method to connect magnetic porphyrin molecules to graphene nanoribbons. These connections may be an example of how graphene could enable the potential of molecular electronics.

Magnetic Porphyrin, a molecule that is responsible for making photosynthesis possible in plants and transporting oxygen in the blood, is an interesting spintronics material. The researchers now report that even after injecting electronic currents into the Porphyrin via the graphene wires, the molecule maintains its magnetic property. Small variations in the way the graphene nanoribbons are attached to a molecule can alter its magnetic properties - and the molecule's spin can be manipulated via the injected currents.

Researchers from Montana State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developed a new thin film from iron, cobalt and manganese that boasts an average atomic moment potentially 50 percent greater than the Slater-Pauling limit -a magnetization density of 3.25 Bohr magnetons per atom.

The Slater-Pauling curve describes magnetization density for alloys. Up until today, the material tthat posted the maximum average atomic moment was an iron-cobalt (FeCo) binary alloy - with a maximum average atomic moment of 2.45 Bohr magnetons per atom.

Zeila Zanolli,a principal investigator at RWTH Aachen University and the European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF) gave a lecture at the MaX Conference on the Materials Design Ecosystem at the Exascale last month, titled "Spintronics at the interface".

Zeila specifically discusses the interface between Graphene and BaMnO₃ materials.

Researchers from Australia's La Trobe University find that when diamonds are treated in hydrogen plasma they incorporate the hydrogen atoms into the surface, and when exposed to moist air, they become electrically conductive. The researchers measured how strongly a charge carrier's spin interacts with a magnetic field in this diamond-based material and found the material to be promising for spintronic devices.

The diamond material features strong spin-orbit coupling, which enables one to control the particle's spin with an electric field. Following previous researchers, it is now found that these material features several interesting properties that could enable manipulation of spins in the conductive surface layer of diamond by either electric or magnetic fields.