Spintronics News - Page 1

Researchers from the University of Utah demonstrated that organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites are a promising material class for spintronics applications. These perovskite materials feature two contradictory properties - easily controlled electron spin and long spin lifetime (up to a nanosecond). This is a unique combination of two highly sought after properties for spintronics devices.

The specific material used in this research is the hybrid perovskite methyl-ammonium lead iodine (CH₃NH₃PbI₃). In their study, a thin film of this material was placed in front of an ultrafast laser that was used to set the electron's spin orientation and also observe the spin precession.

Researchers from the NUS discovered that manipulating the electron spin lowers the contact resistance in graphene electronics.

Graphene is an excellent conductor, but metal-graphene interfaces suffer from large electrical resistance. The researchers have shown that edga-contacted device geometries in metallic-graphene interfaces feature some of the lowest contact resistances reported to date - significantly lower than in surface-contracted interfaces. The researchers explain that this is due to the different behavior of electron spins in these geometries.

Researchers from the Institut Néel in France and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany developed a non-destructive method to continuously read out the state of a single electron spin. The technique is based on the exchange interaction between the spin and a nearby readout quantum dot.

The quantum-dot material is made from a single terbium-two phthalocyanine ligands (Tb-Pc2) molecular magnet embedded in transistor geometry. The QD is cooled down to 40 mK, and at that temperature it can be used to measure electron transport through the ligands, which behave as a readout quantum dot.

Spintronics developed NVE Corporation reported its financial results for Q1 2017. Revenues reached $6.85 million (up 12% from Q1 2016), due to 23% increase in product sales (offset by 49% decrease in contract R&D revenues). net income increased 16% to $3.03 million.

NVE recently introduced three new and improved products; a low-field angle sensor, a new spintronics mangetometer sensor (which is the world's smallest high-performance integrated circuit analog sensor) and the world's smallest high performance isolated network transceiver.

Researchers from the DoE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory discovered that 2-D chromium germanium telluride (CGT) feature an intrinsic ferromagnetism. Up until now it was not clear whether magnetism could survive in such thin materials - but this discovery proved that it could of course.

The CGT flakes were produced using exfoliating (the scotch-tape method, the same one used to produce graphene in Manchester in 2004). This discovery can lead to extremely thin spintronic devices.

Researchers from the NIST were granted a patent for a device that combines a spin valve with a memristor (a device that is the basis of next-generation RRAM memory devices). The device can be used to turn on and off a spin channel.

The researchers say that their patented device may be a fundamental building-block in future spintronic devices as it combines the non-volatile memory in memristors with the technology of a spin valve. The intention is simple and can be used in several ways - as an on/off switch for spin currents, as an interconnect between different spintronic components and as an interface between magnetic and electronic features.

Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Milan discovered that germanium features a very strong spin hall effect and spin accumulation over long distances Germanium interfaces easily with silicon which means that it could be a strong candidate for future spintronics devices.

The team fabricated a 100-by-250-micrometer germanium rectangle doped with phosphorous on a silicon surface. Driving a current int he long dimension, the spin hall effect was measured by detecting the accumulated spin density vs position across the short direction (spin-up electrons should accumulate at one edge and spin-down at the opposite edge).