SEMINAR ON

SPINTRONICS

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

MR. MUKESH GUPTA AMAR CHAND
(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR) (B.TECH FINAL YEAR)
DEPARTMENT OF ECE 07EC09
The Future Belongs To Spintronics

What is Spintronics?
Principle
Fabrication & Working of spin devices
Electronics Vs. Spintronics
Applications
Conclusion
 What is Spintronics?
 Spintronics is a blend of electronics with spin.

 It refers to the study of the role played by the

electron spin in solid state physics and possible
devices that specifically exploits spin properties of
electrons instead of it’s charge.

 It promises new logic devices which enhances

functionality, high speed and reduced power
consumption.
 Principle
 Spintronics is based on the spin of electrons rather
than its charge.
 Every electron exist in one of the two states- spin-
up and spin-down, with spins either positive half or
negative half.
 In other words, electrons can rotate either clock
wise or anti-clockwise around its own axis with
constant frequency.
 The two possible spin states represent ‘0’ and ‘1’ in
logical operations.
 Principle
 These have tiny regions called domains in which an
excess of electrons have spins with axis pointing
either up or down.

 The domains are randomly scattered and evenly

divided between majority-up and majority-down

 But, an externally applied magnetic field will line

up the domains in the direction of the field. This
results in a permanent magnet.
 MECHANISM

 When a pool of spin-polarized electrons is put in a magnetic

field, precession occurs.

 The frequency and direction of rotation depends on the

strength of magnetic field and characteristics of the
material.

 Thus, if a voltage pushes an electron out of gallium arsenide

into zinc selenide, the electron precession characteristics
change. However, if a higher voltage pushes the electron
sharply into zinc selenide, the electron precession
characteristics don’t change.
 Fabrication

 Spintronics devices involves two different

approaches for designing & manufacturing.

 Perfecting the existing giant magneto resistance,

GMR based technology by developing new
materials with larger spin polarization.

 Finding the novel ways of both generation and

utilization of spin polarized current
 Working
 All spintronic devices acts according to the simple scheme:
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 (nanoseconds, compared to tens of
femtoseconds during which electron moment decays) which
makes spintronic device useful for memory storage and
magnetic sensor applications.
 Working
 These are used for quantum computing where electron spin
will represent a bit (called ‘qubit’) of information.

 When electron spins are aligned, this creates a large scale

net magnetic moment.

 The basic GMR device is a 3 layer sandwich of magnetic

metal (such as cobalt) with a non-magnetic metal filling
(such as silver).

 A current passes through the layers consisting of spin up

and spin down electrons.
The electrons oriented in the same direction as the electron spin in
the magnetic layer pass through quite easily while those oriented in
the opposite direction are scattered.
If orientation of one of the magnetic layers is changed by the
presence of a magnetic field, the device will act as a filter or a spin
valve letting through more electrons when spin orientation in the
two layers are the same and fewer electrons when spin orientation
are oppositely aligned.
The electrical resistance of the device can therefore be changed
dramatically.
The above diagram depicts the nature of the spin valve when the two
layers are oppositely aligned.
 Electronics vs. Sprintronics
 One of the main advantage of spintronics over
electronics is the magnets tend to stay magnetize
which is sparking in the industry an interest for
replacing computer’s semiconductor based
components with magnetic ones, starting with the
RAM.

 With an all-magnetic RAM, it is now possible to

have a computer that retains all the information put
into it. Most importantly, there will be no ‘boot-up’
waiting period when power is turned on.
 Electronics vs. Sprintronics
 Another promising feature of spintronics is
that it doesn’t require the use of unique and
specialized semiconductor, there by allowing
it to work with common metals like Cu, Al,
Ag.
 Spintronics will use less power than
conventional electronics, because the energy
needed to change spin is a minute fraction of
what is needed to push charge around.
 Electronics vs. Sprintronics
 Another advantage includes Non-volatility
Spins don’t change when power is turned off.

 The peculiar nature of spin and quantum

theory describes it point to other wonderful
possibility like various logic gates whose
function can be changed billion times per
second.
 Application
 The Magnetic version of RAM used in
computer is nonvolatile.

 Other advantages of MRAM’s include small

size, lower cost, faster speed and less power
consumption, robust in extreme condition
such as high temperature, high level
radiation and interference
MRAM
 Applications
GMR sensors find a wide range of applications:
 Fast and accurate position and motion sensing of
mechanical components in precision engineering
and robotics.
 Missile Guidance
 Position and motion sensing in computer video
games.
 Key Hole Surgery and post operative care.
 Automotive sensors for fuel handling system, speed
control and navigation etc.
Spin Valve Transistors:
It is based on magneto resistance, found
in multi layers (Co-Cu-Co) forming the
base region.

The collector current becomes strongly

field dependent, the extreme magneto
sensitivity makes the transistor, an
interesting device for high technology
hard disks and magnetic RAMs.
 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.
Any Queries.......?