Graphene

Researchers from the National University of Singapore, University of Manchester and National Institute for Materials Science have shown that magnetic proximity can be used to electrically control large spin signals in graphene superlattices, achieving spin polarizations approaching 50% and nonlocal spin resistances above 300 Ω near charge neutrality. 

By placing graphene in close proximity to a magnetic material, they induce a magnetic proximity effect that spin-splits graphene’s bands via interfacial exchange coupling, without permanently magnetizing the carbon lattice or degrading its intrinsic transport properties. In their devices, cobalt contacts are used to generate this exchange field, while pure spin currents are injected and detected nonlocally, allowing the team to map how spin transport responds as the Fermi level is tuned across different charge density regimes.

University of Manchester researchers have shown that electrons in ultra-clean graphene can be steered with high precision while keeping their spin information intact, a key requirement for future low power electronics and quantum devices.

The team demonstrates how electrons can travel ballistically, i.e. without experiencing any scattering or resistance, over micrometer distances in graphene at low temperature and maintain spin coherence all the way up to room temperature. By using a technique known as transverse magnetic focusing (TMF), they were able to bend electron trajectories like light rays traversing a lens and show that these curved paths carry a clear spin signature.

Researchers from Penn State, University of Oxford, Zhejiang University, Diamond Light Source and the University of North Texas have engineered an atomically confined gallium trilayer between graphene and silicon carbide that hosts robust Ising‑type superconductivity under strong in‑plane magnetic fields. This interface‑driven superconducting state in a light‑element heterostructure opens intriguing opportunities for integrating superconductivity with spin‑based functionalities in future spintronics devices.

The device consists of just three atomic layers of gallium sandwiched between a graphene overlayer and a 6H‑SiC(0001) substrate, grown using plasma‑free confinement epitaxy assisted by a carbon buffer layer. Within this ultra‑thin “quantum well,” superconductivity emerges at low temperatures, while the graphene capping layer protects the gallium from oxidation and contamination and the SiC substrate provides a structurally and electronically active interface. The result is a clean, strongly confined 2D superconducting channel whose properties are dominated by interfacial quantum interactions.

Researchers from Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Yancheng Polytechnic College and Soochow University have investigated spin transport in spintronic devices built from rhombus-shaped nanographenes (RNGs) contacted by zigzag graphene nanoribbon (ZGNR) electrodes via carbon chains. These RNGs exhibit measurable magnetic exchange coupling and robust all‑carbon magnetism, making them promising candidates for room‑temperature spintronic applications.

In the parallel magnetic configuration of the two ZGNR electrodes, the devices show a pronounced spin‑filtering effect that allows only spin‑up electrons to pass through. The connection geometry between the RNGs and the carbon chains is found to strongly influence the quantum transport characteristics.

An international team of researchers, led by Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), has directly observed how electron spins behave in real space, providing a new understanding of this complex interaction. 

The phenomenon where electron spins align in a specific direction after passing through chiral materials is crucial for future spin-based electronics, yet the underlying mechanism has been unclear. The team’s work shows that chiral materials actively change the spin orientation of electrons, overturning the long-held belief that these materials simply filter spins without affecting their direction.

Researchers from the Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (ICN2), CSIC and BIST have reported a theoretical framework and numerical confirmation for fully efficient spin-charge interconversion in graphene. Efficient conversion of charge current into spin current is a central objective in spintronics, and the intrinsic properties of graphene make it an attractive platform to explore this phenomenon.

Joaquín Medina Dueñas, Santiago Giménez de Castro, Jose H. Garcia, and Stephan Roche from ICN2 demonstrate that a complete conversion can be achieved by controlling the coupling between spin and pseudospin degrees of freedom. The study shows that a combined spin-pseudospin operator remains conserved in graphene, enabling fully efficient spin-charge conversion through the Rashba-Edelstein effect. The results also reveal the presence of a spin Hall effect that is resilient to disorder, indicating a stable mechanism for spin transport in realistic graphene systems.

Researchers from Kobe University have investigated how fabrication techniques influence the interface between graphene barriers and nickel-iron alloy electrodes in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). These interfaces play a crucial role in determining the performance of spintronic devices, but their atomic structure and resulting electronic properties can vary significantly depending on how the materials are combined. 

By comparing two main approaches - transferring graphene onto a nickel-iron substrate or depositing the alloy directly onto graphene - the team uncovered how the choice of process governs the stability of nickel-rich versus iron-rich surfaces, ultimately shaping the spin-dependent behavior of MTJs.

Scientists from TU Delft National Institute for Materials Science, University of Valencia, University of Regensburg and Harvard University have observed quantum spin currents in graphene for the first time without using magnetic fields. These currents are important for spintronics and could promote technologies like quantum computing and advanced memory devices.

Quantum physicist Talieh Ghiasi has demonstrated the quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect in graphene for the first time without any external magnetic fields. The QSH effect causes electrons to move along the edges of the graphene without any disruption, with all their spins pointing in the same direction. “Spin is a quantum mechanical property of electrons, which is like a tiny magnet carried by the electrons, pointing up or down”, Ghiasi explains. “We can leverage the spin of electrons to transfer and process information in so-called spintronics devices. Such circuits hold promise for next-generation technologies, including faster and more energy-efficient electronics, quantum computing, and advanced memory devices.”

Researchers at the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester have announced milestone in the field of quantum electronics with their latest work on spin injection to graphene. The team reported ballistic injection of spin polarized carriers via one-dimensional contacts between magnetic nanowires and a high mobility graphene channel. 

The nanowire-graphene interface defines an effective constriction that confines charge carriers over a length scale smaller than that of their mean free path. This is evidenced by the observation of quantized conductance through the contacts with no applied magnetic field and a transition into the quantum Hall regime with increasing field strength. These effects occur in the absence of any constriction in the graphene itself and occur across several devices with transmission probability in the range T = 0.08 − 0.30.

Researchers from China's Tianjin University, Fudan University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology and Tsinghua University have introduces a new technique, called the "Wax-aided immersion method," to produce controllable chiral graphene rolls. This advancement provides a novel approach to chirality modulation in two-dimensional materials and their potential applications in spintronics, laying a foundation for future developments in quantum computing and spintronic devices.

Chirality refers to the property of objects whose mirror images cannot be perfectly superimposed, much like the relationship between a person's left and right hands. Chirality is omnipresent in nature, from molecules to materials, and chiral structures often exhibit unique optical, electronic, and chemical properties. For example, the biological activity of many drug molecules differs significantly based on their chirality. In materials science, the development of chiral materials is crucial for advancing frontier technologies such as optical devices, spintronics, and quantum computing.