रासटीय पदोिगकी संसथान हमीरपुर

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

HAMIRPUR
Centre for Materials Science and Engineering

AN INTRODUCTION TO SPINTRONICS
BY: SAMIR KUMAR
10M601
ST
M.TECH 1 YEAR
Center for Materials Science and Engineering
Introduction
What do we mean by spin of an electron
Why Spintronics
Spintronic Effects
Phases in Spintronics
Materials of Spintronics
Conclusions
Acknowledgments

Outline
INTRODUCTION
Electron has :
Mass
Charge
Spin
 •One can picture an
electron as a
charged sphere
rotating about an
axis .

•The rotating
charged sphere will
produce magnetic
moment in that can
be either up or
down depending upon
whether the
rotation is
anticlockwise or
clockwise
What is spin?
Electron Spin is a Quantum
phenomenon
•A spinning sphere of charge can produce a
magnetic moment .
•
•Considering Electrons size to be of the
order of 10 -12 m at that size a high spin
rate of some 10 32 radian / s would be required
to match the observed angular momentum that
is velocity of the order of 10 20 m / s .
Electron Spin

The component Sz along z axis:

 SPINTRONICS = SPIN + ELECTRONICS

•Conventional electronic devices ignore the spin

property .
•Random spins have no effect on current flow .
Spintronic devices create spin - polarized
currents and use the spin to control current
flow .
Spintronics=spin based
electronics

What is Spintronics?
Moore’s Law
Moore’s
•

Law states
that the
number of
transistors
on a
silicon
chip will
roughly
double
every
eighteen
months
•

Why Spintronics?
 Can Moore’s law keep going?
Power dissipation=greatest obstacle for Moore’s law!
onsume ~100W of power of which about 20% is wasted in leakage throug
ation has been to scale down the operating voltage of the chip but voltage
 •Non - volatile memory
•Performance improves with smaller
devices
•Low power consumption
•Spintronics does not require unique and
specialised semiconductors
•Dissipation less transmission
•Switching time is very less
•Compared to normal RAM chips , spintronic
RAM chips will :
– increase storage densities by a factor
of three
– have faster switching and
rewritability rates smaller
•Promises a greater integration between
the logic and storage devices

Advantages of Spintronics Devices

Spintronics Effects

 GMR (Giant Magneto-

Resistance)
 FM- Metal - FM

 MTJ (Magnetic Tunnel

Junction)
 FM-Insulator - FM
Giant Magneto-Resistance (GMR)
• The 2007 Nobel prize for physics was award
jointly to Fert and Grunberg for giant
magnetoresistance ( GMR ) discovered
independently in 1988 .

This discovery led to development of the “ spin

valve ” and later the tunnel magnetoresistance
effect ( TMR ) which found application in advanced
computer hard drives , and more recently magneto -
resistive random access memory ( MRAM ) ( which is
non - volatile ).
Giant Magneto-Resistance (GMR)
Discovered in 1988 France

A multilayer GMR consists

of two or more
ferromagnetic layers
separated by a very thin
( about 1 nm ) non -
ferromagnetic spacer ( e . g .
Fe / Cr / Fe )

When the magnetization of
the two outside layers is
aligned , resistance is low

Conversely when
magnetization vectors are
antiparallel , high R



Condition for GMR : layer thickness

~ nm
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


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




Concept of the Giant Magnetoresistance
(GMR)
1 ) Iron layers with opposite magnetizations : spin up
•

and spindown are stopped → no current ( actually

small current only )

2 ) If a magnetic field aligns the magnetizations :

spins go through
Applications of GMR
It is used in Hard
Drives
0.5 MB
← 1975

100 GB hard disc

(Toshiba), →
soon in portable
digital audio-players

1997 ( before GMR ) : 1 Gbit / in 2 , 2007 : GMR heads ~ 300

Gbit / in 2
Magnetic Tunnel Junction
•A magnetic tunnel junction ( MTJ ) consists
of two layers of magnetic metal , such as
cobalt - iron , separated by an ultrathin
layer of insulator .

Ferromagnetic
electrodes

•Tunnel Magnetoresistive effect combines the

two spin channels in the ferromagnetic
materials and the quantum tunnel effect
Magnetic Tunnel Junction
Devic
•
Ferromagnetic leads L Insulating spacer
e &R S

Parallel alignment Antiparallel alignment

(P) (AP)
Measured: tunneling current I,
conductance G
Tunneling magneto-resistance (TMR)
Applications

•The read heads of modern hard disk drives .

•Is also the basis of MRAM , a new type of
non - volatile memory .
M agnetoresistive R andom A ccess
M emory
 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 combines the best characteristics of Flash ,
SRAM and DRAM
Phases in Spintronics

SPIN INJECTION

SPIN MANIPULATION

SPIN DETECTION
•
Spin injection
It is the transport or creating a non-equilibrium spin
•

population across interface

•
Using a ferromagnetic electrode

Effective fields caused by spin - orbit

interaction .

Tunnel barrier could be used to effectively

inject spins into a semiconductor

Tunneling spin injection via Schottky barrier

By “ hot ” electrons
Spin Manipulation
 To control electron spin to realize desired
physical operation efficiently by means of
external fields
•

 Mechanism for spin transfer implies a spin

filtering process .
•

 Spin filtering means that incoming electrons

with spin components perpendicular to the
magnetic moment in the ferromagnet are being
filtered out .

 Spin - polarized current can transfer the
angular momentum from carriers to a
ferromagnet where it can change the
direction of magnetization This effect is
equivalent to a spin transfer torque .
 Spin Transfer Torque

S
v v

The spin of the

conduction electron
is rotated by its
interaction with the
magnetization .

This implies the magnetization exerts a torque on

the spin . By Conservation of angular momentum , the
spin exerts an equal and Opposite torque on the
magnetization .
Spin Detection
To measure the physical consequences of
spin coherent states in Spintronics
devices.
The injection of non - equilibrium spin
either induces voltage or changes
resistance corresponding to buildup of
the non - equilibrium spin . This voltage
can be measured in terms of change in
resistance by potentiometric method .
Spin Detection Technique

An ultrasensitive silicon cantilever with a

SmCo magnetic tip positioned 125nm above a
silica specimen containing a low density of
unpaired electron spins . At points in the
specimen where the condition for magnetic
resonance is satisfied , the magnetic force
exerted by the spin on the tip.
Materials of Spintronics
Problems
•Currently used materials in conventional
electronics are usually non - magnetic and only
charges are controllable .

•Existing metal - based devices do not amplify

signals .

•Whereas semiconductor based spintronic devices

could in principle provide amplification and
serve , in general , as multi - functional devices .
•
•All the available ferromagnetic semiconductor
materials that can be used as spin injectors
preserve their properties only far below room
temperature , because their Curie temperatures
( T C ) are low .
Spintronic Research and Applications

 GMR - Giant magnetoresistance - HDD read heads

 MTJ - Magnetic Tunnel Junction - HDD read
heads+MRAM
 MRAM - Magnetic RAM - nonvolitile memory
 STT - Spin Transfer Torque - MRAM+oscillator
Solution
•Diluted Magnetic Semiconductor or ( DMS ).
Add Fe or Mn to
Si / GaAs

•Half - Metallic Ferromagnets

ØFe 3 O 4 magnetite
ØCrO 2
ØHeusler FM
•Ni 2 MnGa
•Co 2 MnAl
Diluted Magnetic Semiconductor
or (DMS)
One way to achieve FS is to
dope some magnetic impurity
in a semiconductor matrix .
( Diluted Magnetic
Semiconductor )

Magnetic impurity
Semiconductor
host atom
 Various DMS displays room temperature
ferromagnetism!

Theoretical
predictions
by Dietl, Ohno et al.

cienS 287 ,()1092

& 63 ,(19520 )

Curie Temperature — The temperature

above which a ferromagnetic
material loses its permanent
DMS materials I: (Ga,Mn)As

Max TC
~ 110K
x ~ .05
[ Ohno et al ., APL 69 , 363 ( 1996 )]
DMS materials II: (Ga,Mn)N
Highest Tc
in Dietl’s
First room prediction
temperature DMS
discovered in 2001
•

High curie
temperature
◦ Experiment: up to Tc
=80 0 K
◦ Theory: up to T c =940 K
 DMS materials III:
Transition metal doped oxide
 Room temperature
ferromagnetism
discovered in Mn
doped ZnO in 2001
•

 Material :
◦ Mn doped ZnO
◦ Co doped TiO
 Reported T c up Hysteresis
to curve at Room temperature
400K for Mn doped ZnO ( Sn )
Half-Metallic Ferromagnets
Half metals are ferromagnets with only one
type of conduction electron , either spin up ,
↑, or spin down , ↓
The valence band related to
one type of these electrons
is fully filled and the
other is partially filled .
So only one type of
electrons ( either spin up or
spin down ) can pass through
it .
Half-Metallic Ferromagnets
E.g.:
Chromium ( IV )
oxide
Fe 3 O 4 magnetite
Heusler alloys
Future Outlook

 High capacity hard drives

 Magnetic RAM chips
 Spin FET using quantum tunneling
 Quantum computers
•

•
 Limitations
Problems that all the engineers and
•

scientists may have to overcome are :

 To devise economic ways to combine
ferromagnetic metals and semiconductors in
integrated circuits .

 To find an efficient way to inject spin -
polarized currents , or spin currents , into
a semiconductor .
•

 To create long relaxation time for

effective spin manipulation .

 What happens to spin currents at boundaries
between different semiconductors?

 How long can a spin current retain its
polarization in a semiconductor?
 THANK YOU
for your kind
attention
☺