Spintronics: Theory, Modelling, Devices

by Tomasz Blachowicz, Andrea Ehrmann

Overview

Spintronics, being a part of electronics, is under intense development for about forty years and mainly concerns transport of electronics spin in low-dimensional structures. This field, based on often difficult theoretical concepts of quantum physics, has surprisingly strong and real technological and application consequences. Thus, spintronic solutions concern memory systems, information processing devices and are used as sensors to detect variety of physical fields. The early development of this field can be associated with the names of such scientists as: E. I. Rashba, A. Fert, P. Grünberg, J. Barnaś, B. Hillebrands, G. Güntherodt, I. K. Schuller, M. Grimsditch, A. Hoffman, P. Vavassori, and S. Datta. This list is absolutely not closed and might be easily extended, however, it results rather from scientific history and contacts with people who influenced the research carriers of the authors. The authors give in this up-dated 2nd edition an insight into this emerging field providing theoretical and experimental aspects of spintronics and guide readers from a basic understanding of fundamental processes to recent applications and future possibilities opened by ongoing research.

The textbook is suited for students and for interested scientists who were discouraged by the theoretical formalism only.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783111383835
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	10/07/2024
Series:	Graduate Texts in Condensed Matter
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	306
File size:	23 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Tomasz Blachowicz currently works as full professor at the Institute of Physics – Center for Science and Education, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland. He does research in applied physics and material science as well as within the emerging field of big industrial data analysis including machine learning methods. He is member and co-creator of the VIARAM (Virtual Institute of Applied Research on Advanced Materials). Since two years he is also the head of the R&D department at PROPOINT SA company, operating in the field of industrial automation. He holds 4 patents, authored or co-authored 2 books and 152 papers indexed in the Web of Science. His dominating research disciplines are: physics of materials, physical computing and simulations as well as geo-physical data analysis, spintronics, geomorphology, optics, magnetic materials, micromagnetic simulations, signal processing, fractals, and deterministic chaos. The last industrial activities concern detection of failures, so called predictive maintenance problem. In the recent scientific publications the author took the problem related to analysis of the exchange-bias phenomenon in low-dimensional magnetic structures as well as reported practical issues like the use of fibrous materials for shielding of electromagnetic radiation or for medical sensing applications.

Andrea Ehrmann is a full professor at Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Germany, responsible for physics, measurement technologies and lectures in the range of materials sciences. Her research includes a broad range of topics, from magnetism to optical technologies, from additive manufacturing to nanotechnology. She is a member and co-founder of the Virtual Institute of Applied Research on Advanced Materials (VIARAM). She holds several national and international patents, has published around 250 papers indexed in the Web of Science, is co-author of two scientific books and editor of several books. In most of her publications, she aims at interdisciplinarily combining several of her research interests.

Table of Contents

Preface v

1 Introduction 1

1.1 What is a spin? 1

1.2 Singte spin algebra 2

1.3 A spin in a real material 4

1.4 The 3d electrons in ferromagnetic atoms 5

1.5 An electron in a phase space - the density of states 8

1.6 Full quantum perspective for the electron spin description - the second quantization 11

1.7 Spin transport and random-walk 13

1.8 Magnetization and micromagnetism 16

2 Physical effects in spintronic structures 21

2.1 Classical dipole interactions versus quantum exchange interaction 21

2.2 Double-exchange interaction 22

2.3 The RKKY interaction 24

2.4 Examples of anisotropy effects in low-dimensional objects 25

2.4.1 Dots (OD) 26

2.4.2 Wires (ID) 35

2.4.3 Layers (2D) and spatial systems (3D) 40

2.5 Magnetization dynamics in tow-dimensional magnetic systems 42

3 Micromagnetic equations in magnetization dynamic studies 51

3.1 Magnetization dynamics in materials with strong spin-orbit coupling: The Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction 62

3.2 Skyrmions 70

3.3 Magnetization dynamics for temperatures above 0 K 74

4 Sensing magnetization dynamics 89

5 Contact effects in Layered structures 117

5.1 Boundary conditions and magnetic interface effects 117

5.2 Ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic junction: EB and 90° coupling 119

5.3 Superconductor-normal conductor junction: Andreev reflection 125

6 Transport in spintronic structures 129

6.1 Diffusion and drift of spins 129

6.2 Tunnel effect 132

6.2.1 The single tunnel junction 136

6.2.2 The lead-island-lead basic three-component system 142

6.3 Coulomb blockade 150

6.4 Kondo effect 153

6.5 Reflection and scattering of carriers 155

6.6 Spin injection and spin accumulation 156

6.7 Spin-transfer torque 160

7 Spintronics devices 165

7.1 Electronic parameters of spintronic devices 165

7.2 Spin valve 165

7.3 Magnetic tunnel junctions 170

7.4 Magnetic diode 173

7.5 Magnetic electroluminescent diode 176

7.6 Single-electron transistor 177

7.7 Bipolar magnetic transistor 182

7.8 Magnetic NOT logic gate 183

7.9 Other magnetic logic gates and devices 185

7.10 From magnetic tape storage systems to hard disk read/write heads and beyond 187

7.11 Magnetic memory cell - MRAM 197

7.12 Beyond von Neumann architecture - neuromorphic computing 199

7.13 CMOS-compatible spintronics and hybrid solutions 208

7.14 Quantum interferometers, Aharonov-Bohm, and Fano effects 211

7.15 Magnetic markers and biochips 214

8 Influence of external factors and physical fields onto spintronic devices work 217

8.1 Temperature-supported switching of elements 217

8.2 Spin caloritronics 219

8.3 Pressure 222

8.4 Strain 223

8.5 Electric field 224

8.6 Light 225

8.7 Electric current and switching of spintronic devices 226

9 Materials in commercial applications 227

9.1 Metals and half-metats 227

9.2 Diluted magnetic semiconductors 228

9.3 Multiferroics 228

9.4 Antiferromagnets 229

9.5 Organic spintronics 229

9.6 Other materials in layered systems 230

Bibliography 231

Index 283