Spintronics

Electronic Structure of Molecular Materials

Daan Buseyne
Andries Paesen
 Introduction

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Magnetism

• Magnetic Dipole moment 

• Magnetic Susceptibility
• 2 types of material: 
o Diamagnetic
o Paramagnetic
• Magnetic Torque --> line up dipole with B-
field
• 𝐸 = −𝜇  ∙ 𝐵.

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spin magnetic moment
• Electron possess Magnetic dipole
• 3 effects
o orbital magnetic moment.
o spin magnetic moment
o nuclear magnetic moment

• Spin is fundamental quantum-mechanical quantity (Relativistic QM)

• Up or Down/ +½ or –½
• Zeeman effect

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Magnetic Materials
• Hunds rule's: Each e-state can be occupied by 2 e
(up and down)
• If B applied: paramagnetic or diamagnetic
• Fermi's Golden rule
• Even without B field magnetization
o Ferromagnetic
o Ferri magnetic
o Antiferromagnetic

Merckling, C., & Molina Lopez, F. (n.d.). Magnetic materials Materials Physics and Technology for Nanoelectronics.

6 THIBAUT DEVOLDER AND CLAUDE CHAPPERT advanced nano electronic components:Course 11-12 Spintronic
devices
 Spintronics

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Principle
• Spin-electronics
• Study of intrinsic electron spin (and magnetic
 moment) together with electronic charge
• Extra degree of freedom ict electronics
--> electron spin
• Becomes much clearer in concrete examples

Merckling, C., & Molina Lopez, F. (n.d.). Magnetic materials Materials Physics and

8
Technology for Nanoelectronics.
GMR
• Nobel Prize in Physics in 2007
• First: Spin Polarized Devices:
o From FM to NM to FM
o Resistance is Spin dependent!
• Actual devices more complicated geometry, but
the concept is the same

Merckling, C., & Molina Lopez, F. (n.d.). Magnetic materials Materials Physics and Technology for
9
Nanoelectronics.
GMR
• thin magnetic multilayers. 
• Change of Resistance in relation to
magnetic field 
• Applying a B drastically changes the
resistance
• Because the effect is so large (Giant
Magneto Resistance)
• Other Geometries can also be used

10
 Merckling, C., & Molina Lopez, F. (n.d.). Magnetic materials Materials Physics and
Technology for Nanoelectronics
 Applications

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Electronics
• Problem: electronics chips consume a lot of energy
• Possible solution: spin-wave computing
o No electron flow
o Voltage due to electric field
• Use of spin-waves (magnetoelastic waves)
o Use of electron spin instead of charge
o Combination of both
• Coupling of physical properties
o Possible approach: applying strain

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Magnetic Tunnel Junction
• Basic structure for spintronics devices
• Consists of two ferromagnetic layers
o Hard magnet
o Soft magnet
o Separated by oxide
• Tunneling probability
o Dependent on spin

13
Merckling, C., & Molina Lopez, F. (n.d.). Magnetic materials Materials Physics and Technology for
Nanoelectronics.
MRAM
• Non-volatile random-access memory
• Data is stored by magnetic storage elements
o Use of magnetic tunnel junction
o “1” = Low resistance (parallel)
o “0” = High resistance (antiparallel)

• Writing
o Current through bit lines

Fong, X., Gupta, S. K., Mojumder, N. N., Choday, S. H., Augustine, C., & Roy, K. (2011). KNACK: A hybrid spin-charge mixed-mode
14 simulator for evaluating different genres of spin-transfer torque MRAM bit-cells. International Conference on Simulation of
Semiconductor Processes and Devices, SISPAD, 51–54. https://doi.org/10.1109/SISPAD.2011.6035047
STT-MRAM
• Spin-transfer torque MRAM
• Use of polarized electrons to alter magnetization direction
o Electron spins align with layer magnetization
• Free layer
o Electrons exert torque on free layer magnetization
o Induces magnetization switching

Makarov, A., Windbacher, T., Sverdlov, V., & Selberherr, S. (2016). CMOS-compatible spintronic devices: a review. Semicond. Sci.
15 Technol, 31, 113006. https://doi.org/10.1088/0268-1242/31/11/113006
STT-MRAM
• Writing “0” or “1”
o Change current flow direciton
o Less current needed vs. MRAM
• Free layer magnetization switch
o If current > critical current
• Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation
o Spin torque must be > damping

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Slonczewski, J. C. (1996). ~H journal of magnetism and magnetic ~H materials Current-driven
excitation of magnetic multilayers. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, 159, 1–7.
Magnetic sensors
• Basis Principle: Resistivity is dependent on the magnetic field
• Based on the physics, different kind of sensors
• anisotropic magnetoresistance 
• giant magnetoresistance
• AMR:  Resistance is dependent on angle
E and B field
• GMR:  see above
• Use: Transmission and distribution lines monitoring,
Biodetection, IoT, biomedical imaging

• Liu et al., "Overview of Spintronic Sensors With Internet of Things for Smart Living," in IEEE
17 Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 55, no. 11, pp. 1-22, Nov. 2019
Extra slide: Magnetoelectric pillar transducer
• Spin waves in magnetostrictive waveguide
• Electric field across the piezoelectric induces strain
ct OUT
• Change in magnetic anisotropy Dete
agate
• Change in magnetization orientation P rop

ne rat e
Ge
IN

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 Spintronics in Computing

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Future devices for computing
• Von-Neumann architecture causes
o long memory access latency
o limited memory bandwidth
o huge power dissipation
o --> Not ideal for AI, IoT applications
• Processing in Memory 
(PIM)

• Spintronics great way to do this due 

o Nonvolatilatity,
o Scalability,
o Compatibility 
Z. Guo et al., "Spintronics for Energy- Efficient Computing: An Overview and Outlook," in Proceedings
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of the IEEE, vol. 109, no. 8, pp. 1398-1417, Aug. 2021, doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2021.3084997...
Future devices for computing
• List of novel spintronic logic devices goes on
o Domain wall 
Luo, Z., Hrabec, A., Dao, T.P. et al. Current-driven magnetic domain-wall logic. Nature 579, 214–
218 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2061-y
o Skyrmions
Zhang, X., Ezawa, M. & Zhou, Y. Magnetic skyrmion logic gates: conversion, duplication and
merging of skyrmions. Sci Rep 5, 9400 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep09400
o Spin-waves
Jamali, M., Kwon, J., Seo, SM. et al. Spin wave nonreciprocity for logic device applications. Sci
Rep 3, 3160 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep03160
• Neuromorphic computing
Grollier, J., Querlioz, D., Camsari, K.Y. et al. Neuromorphic spintronics. Nat
Electron 3, 360–370 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-019-0360-9

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 Conclusion

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Conclusion
• Electron spin principle
o Sensors
o Computing
• Energy efficient
o Not charge-based
• Hot research topic
• Spin principle already applied
o STT-MRAM

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 Time for Questions

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References
• Z. Guo et al., "Spintronics for Energy- Efficient Computing: An Overview and Outlook," in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 109, no. 8, pp.
1398-1417, Aug. 2021, doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2021.3084997.
• Atsufumi Hirohata, Keisuke Yamada, Yoshinobu Nakatani, Ioan-Lucian Prejbeanu, Bernard Diény, Philipp Pirro, Burkard Hillebrands,
Review on spintronics: Principles and device applications,Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials,Volume 509,2020,166711, 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2020.166711.
• X. Liu et al., "Overview of Spintronic Sensors With Internet of Things for Smart Living," in IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 55, no.
11, pp. 1-22, Nov. 2019, Art no. 0800222, doi: 10.1109/TMAG.2019.2927457.
• Merckling, C., & Molina Lopez, F. (n.d.). Magnetic materials Materials Physics and Technology for Nanoelectronics.
• Fong, X., Gupta, S. K., Mojumder, N. N., Choday, S. H., Augustine, C., & Roy, K. (2011). KNACK: A hybrid spin-charge mixed-mode
simulator for evaluating different genres of spin-transfer torque MRAM bit-cells. International Conference on Simulation of
Semiconductor Processes and Devices, SISPAD, 51–54. https://doi.org/10.1109/SISPAD.2011.6035047

• Slonczewski, J. C. (1996). ~H journal of magnetism and magnetic ~H materials Current-driven excitation of magnetic multilayers.
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, 159, 1–7.

• THIBAUT DEVOLDER AND CLAUDE CHAPPERT advanced nano electronic components: Course 11-12 Spintronic devices

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