Spintronics

Properties of Electron
 Electron has three properties.
 Charge

 Mass

 Spin
Conventional Electronics

 Conventional Electronic devices rely on the transport

of electrical charge carriers.

 It utilizes only the charge and the mass of electrons.

Why Spintronics?
 Moore’s Law:
Number of Transistor doubles in every 18 months

 Complexity:
Complex Chip Design & Power Loss
What is Spintronics?
 It deals with spin dependent properties of an electron
instead of or in addition to its charge dependent
properties.

 It promises new logic devices which enhances

functionality, high speed, reduced size and reduced
power consumption.
Need for Spintronics
 Storage device of size of atom working at a speed of
light

 Computer memory thousands of times denser and

faster than today’s memories.

 Cancer cells detection even though they are small in

number.
Principle
 Based on the spin of electrons rather than its charge

 Two spin states: spin-up and spin-down

 Spin makes an electron a tiny magnet with north and

south poles.
Working
 The information is stored (written) into spins as a
particular spin orientation (up or down).
 The spins, being attached to mobile electrons, carry
information along a wire and the information is read
at a terminal.
 Spin orientation of conduction electrons survives for
relatively long time which makes spintronic devices
useful for memory storage and magnetic sensor
applications
GMR
 Magnetism is the integral part of data storage
techniques.
 Data is stored as tiny areas of magnetized iron or
chromium oxide.
 Magneto resistance is the property of a material to
change the value of its electrical resistance when an
external magnetic field is applied to it.
 GMR is more sensitive.
Spintronic Devices
 Some of the Spintronic devices are
 MRAM ( Magnetoresistive Random

Access Memory)
 Spin Transistor

 Quantum Computer

 Spintronic Scanner
MRAM
 It is based on integration of MTJ (Magnetic Tunnel
Junction).

 In this data is not stored as electric charge or current

flow, but by Magnetic storage elements.

 Advantages of MRAM are that it is non volatile, small

in size, lower cost, faster speed and less power
consumption
 Spin Transistor
 It is based on magneto resistance, found in multi layers
(Co-Cu-Co) forming the base region.

 Traditional silicon chips-flow of electrical current is

controlled by modifying the positive or negative charge.

 Spin transistor-spin is used to control the movement of

currents. 
Quantum Computer
 The basic principle behind quantum computation is
that quantum properties can be used to represent
data and perform operations on these data.

 A quantum computer maintains a sequence of qubits.

 Solve problems much faster.

Spintronic Scanner
 It is an efficient technique to detect cancer cells even
when they are less in number.

 Exposing to strong magnetic field and passing

electrons with polarized spin.
Electronics vs. Spintronics
 No ‘boot-up’ waiting period required.

 No need for specialized Semiconductors.

 It can work with common metals like Cu, Al, Ag.

 Less power consumption than conventional

electronics.

 Non-volatility.
Conclusion
• With lack of dissipation, Spintronics may be the best
mechanism for creating ever-smaller devices.
• The potential market is enormous, In maybe a 10-
year timeframe, Spintronics will be on par with
electronics.
• That's why there's a huge race going on around the
world In exploring Spintronics.
References
 www.dac.neu.edu
 www.physics.umd.edu
 www.nano.caltech.edu
 mechanisms of spin relaxation in electronic systems
(metals and semiconductors) in J. Fabian and S. Das
Sarma, J. Vac. Sc. Technol. B 17, 1708 (1999).
 www.physicsweb.com
Thank You