INTRODUCTION TO

SPINTRONICS
Josh Schaefferkoetter
February 27, 2007
 INTRODUCTION

 Conventional electronic devices

ignore the spin property and rely
strictly on the transport of the
electrical charge of electrons

 Adding the spin degree of freedom

provides new effects, new capabilities
and new functionalities
 FUTURE DEMANDS
 Moore’s Law states that the number of transistors on a
silicon chip will roughly double every eighteen months
 By 2008, it is projected that the width of the electrodes in
a microprocessor will be 45nm across
 As electronic devices become smaller, quantum properties
of the wavelike nature of electrons are no longer
negligible
 Spintronic devices offer the possibility of enhanced
functionality, higher speed, and reduced power
consumption
 ADVANTAGES OF SPIN

 Information is stored into spin as one of two possible

orientations
 Spin lifetime is relatively long, on the order of
nanoseconds
 Spin currents can be manipulated

 Spin devices may combine logic and storage

functionality eliminating the need for separate
components
 Magnetic storage is nonvolatile

 Binary spin polarization offers the possibility of

applications as qubits in quantum computers
 GMR

 1988 France, GMR discovery is

accepted as birth of spintronics
 A Giant MagnetoResistive device is
made of at least two ferromagnetic
layers separated by a spacer layer
 When the magnetization of the two
outside layers is aligned, lowest
resistance
 Conversely when magnetization vectors
are antiparallel, high R
 Small fields can produce big effects

 parallel and perpendicular current

 PARALLEL CURRENT GMR

 Current runs parallel between the ferromagnetic layers

 Most commonly used in magnetic read heads

 Has shown 200% resistance difference between zero

point and antiparallel states
 SPIN VALVE

 Simplest and most successful spintronic device

 Used in HDD to read information in the form of small
magnetic fields above the disk surface
 PERPENDICULAR CURRENT GMR

 Easier to understand theoretically, think of one FM layer

as spin polarizer and other as detector
 Has shown 70% resistance difference between zero point
and antiparallel states
 Basis for Tunneling MagnetoResistance
 TUNNEL MAGNETORESISTANCE
 Tunnel Magnetoresistive effect combines the two spin
channels in the ferromagnetic materials and the quantum
tunnel effect
 TMR junctions have resistance ratio of about 70%

 MgO barrier junctions have produced 230% MR

 MRAM

 MRAM uses magnetic storage elements instead of electric

used in conventional RAM
 Tunnel junctions are used to read the information stored in
Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory, typically a”0”
for zero point magnetization state and “1” for antiparallel
state
 MRAM

 Attempts were made to control bit writing by using

relatively large currents to produce fields
 This proves unpractical at nanoscale level
 SPIN TRANSFER

 Current passed through a magnetic field becomes spin

polarized
 This flipping of magnetic spins applies a relatively large
torque to the magnetization within the external magnet
 This torque will pump energy to the magnet causing its
magnetic moment to precess
 If damping force is too small, the current spin
momentum will transfer to the nanomagnet, causing the
magnetization will flip
 Unwanted effect in spin valves

 Possible applications in memory writing

 MRAM

 The spin transfer mechanism can be used to write to the

magnetic memory cells
 Currents are about the same as read currents, requiring
much less energy
 MRAM
 MRAM promises:
 Densityof DRAM
 Speed of SRAM
 Non-volatility like flash
 SPIN TRANSISTOR

 Ideal use of MRAM would utilize control of the spin

channels of the current
 Spin transistors would allow control of the spin current in
the same manner that conventional transistors can switch
charge currents
 Using arrays of these spin transistors, MRAM will
combine storage, detection, logic and communication
capabilities on a single chip
 This will remove the distinction between working
memory and storage, combining functionality of many
devices into one
 DATTA DAS SPIN TRANSISTOR

 The Datta Das Spin Transistor

was first spin device proposed
for metal-oxide geometry,
1989
 Emitter and collector are
ferromagnetic with parallel
magnetizations
 The gate provides magnetic
field
 Current is modulated by the
degree of precession in
electron spin
 MAGNETIC SEMICONDUCTORS

 Materials like magnetite are magnetic semiconductors

 Development of materials similar to conventional

 Research aimed at dilute magnetic semiconductors

 Manganese is commonly doped onto substrate
 However previous manganese-doped GaAs has transition temp at
-88oC
 Curie temperatures above room must be produced
 MAGNETIC SEMICONDUCTORS

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40  A. M. Nazmul, T. Amemiya, Y. Shuto, S. Sugahara, and M. Tanaka, “High Temperature Ferromagnetism in GaAs-Based Heterostructures with Mn Delta Doping”; see http://arxiv.org/cond-mat/0503444 (2005).

41
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48  H. Saito, V. Zayets, S. Yamagata, and K. Ando, “Room-Temperature Ferromagnetism in a II–VI Diluted Magnetic Semiconductor Zn1−xCrxTe,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 207202 (2003).
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51
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53
 CURRENT RESEARCH

 Weitering et al. have made numerous advances

 Ferromagnetic transition temperature in excess of 100 K in
(Ga,Mn)As diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS's).
 Spin injection from ferromagnetic to non-magnetic
semiconductors and long spin-coherence times in
semiconductors.
 Ferromagnetism in Mn doped group IV semiconductors.
 Room temperature ferromagnetism in (Ga,Mn)N, (Ga,Mn)P,
and digital-doped (Ga,Mn)Sb.
 Large magnetoresistance in ferromagnetic semiconductor
tunnel junctions.
 CURRENT RESEARCH

 Material science
 Many methods of magnetic
doping

 Spin transport in
semiconductors
 CONCLUSION

Interest in spintronics arises, in part, from the looming problem of

exhausting the fundamental physical limits of conventional
electronics.
However, complete reconstruction of industry is unlikely and
spintronics is a “variation” of current technology
The spin of the electron has attracted renewed interest because it
promises a wide variety of new devices that combine logic,
storage and sensor applications.
Moreover, these "spintronic" devices might lead to quantum
computers and quantum communication based on electronic
solid-state devices, thus changing the perspective of information
technology in the 21st century.