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
Moores 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 a0 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:
Density

of 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 metaloxide 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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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).

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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.