welcome

welcome
 SPINTRONIC
S
Guided by, APPU JOSEPH XAVIER
Mrs. Asha Murali S7-A
25
 OVERVIEW

 INTRODUCTION.
 HISTORY OF SPINTRONICS.
 WHY SPINTRONICS IS IMPORTANT.
 MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF SPINTRONICS.
 GIANT MAGNETO RESISTIVE.
 HOW GMR WORKS.
 DATTTA DAS TRANSISTOR.
 MRAM.
 PLASTIC SPINTRONICS.
 PRESENT DAY SPINTRONICS.
 ADVANTAGES AND FUTURE OF SPINTRONICS.
 DRAWBACKS.
 REFERENCES.
 INTRODUCTION
 Conventional electronics based on charge.
 Have problems like power dissipation and energy loss in
nanoscale devices.
 Spintronics based on spin of electrons.
 Clockwise spin and anticlockwise spin.
 Spin controlled electrons used for transfer of info.
 Longer relaxation time and easily manipulated.
 Provides faster and more efficient devices.
 HISTORY
 Started in early 80s with experiments on spin dependant
electrons.

 In 1988 Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg  discovered GMR.

 Giantmagnetoresistance(GMR) brought rise in spintronics.

 In 2004:A family of silicon-based semiconductors that exhibit

magnetic properties has been discovered.
 In 2008: came the most significant breakthrough in
spintronics.

 Scientists discovered methods to inject spin polarised

electrons in semiconductor.

 Radically transformed semiconductor spintronics with many

other findings like MRAM , liquid ferromaterials for electron
injection etc.
WHY SPINTRONICS IS
IMPORTANT

Can be easily manipulated by applying electric

field.

Another property is its long coherence or

relaxation time.

It is not easily destroyed by scattering or

collision defects,unlike charge states.
 MAIN CATEGORIES OF
SPINTRONICS
Metal based spintronics
_This category of spintronicshas been successful in providing effective information
storage.
_eg: Giant Magneto Resistance(GMR).

Semiconductor based spintronics

_Compared to metal based spintronics, semiconductor spintronics is more promising.
_Compatible with existing semiconductor technologies.
_Contains spin injector , spin transfer and spin detector.

Devices that manipulate the quantum spin states of individual electrons

_category of spintronics is looking forward toward the more distant future
 GIANT MAGNETORESISTIVE(GMR)

 GMR has triggered the rise of a new field of electronics

called spintronics
 used extensively in the read heads of modern hard drives and
magnetic sensors.
 In 2007 nobel prize was awarded to Albert Fert and Peter
Grunburg for the discovery of 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
 How GMR works
GMR structures are ferromagnetic alloys sandwiched
around an ultrathin nonmagnetic conducting middle layer .

When the magnetization of the two

outside layers is anti parallel, high
resistance.

Conversely when magnetization of two outside layers is

parallel, low resistance.
 Applying an external magnetic
field (D)aligns magneticmoments
in alloy (B) layers.
used to construct exquisitely sensitive detectors of
changing magnetic fields such as marking the data
on a computer hard-disk platter.
 DATTA DAS FET
One electrode acts as an emitter, the other as collector
(similar, in effect, to the source and drain).
The emitter emits electrons with their spins oriented along the
direction of the electrode’s magnetization
while the collector (with the same electrode magnetization)
acts as a spin filter and accepts electrons with the same spin
only.
the gate electrode produces a field that forces the electron
spins to precess.
An electron passes through the collector if its spin is parallel,
and does not if it is anti parallel, to the magnetization
 MRAM
 Conventional RAM chip technologies store data as
electric charge or current flows.
 In MRAM , typically a”0” for aligned state and“1”
for anti -aligned state.
 MRAM uses electron spin to store information.

 It requires less power than the conventional

magnetic magnetic storage technologies.
 Plastic spintronics
 Epstein and his coauthors reported that by using
magnetic field ,spin polariazation can be made in
plastic.
 The advent of plastic electronics opens up many
opportunities or new technologies such as
flexible displays and inexpensive solar cells.
 Weigh less and less cost.
 Present day spintronics

Three main steps involved in information transfer

in semiconductor :
SPIN INJECTION,SPINTRANSFER,SPIN
DETECTION
Was possible at low temprature earlier.

Hence needed costly equipments for this purpose.

 But now charges can be transferred at room temprature.
 Done by introducing a thin layer of oxide betweem the
magnetic material and semiconductor.
 This in effect creates spin polarised electrons in the
semiconductor.

 This breaktrough helps in making energy efficient chips.

 Power loss also very low.
 ADVANTAGES

 Spintronic devices are smaller, more versatile and more robust than
those currently making up silicon chips and circuit elements.

 Make energy efficient chips. 

 Spintronic RAM chips:
– increase storage densities by a factor of three
– have faster switching and rewritability rates.

 Since Spins don`t change when power is turned off, the memory remains
non-volatile. 

 Battery sizes considerably reduced.

 DRAWBACKS

How to efficiently inject spin polarized currents

into a semiconductor;

How to maintain the information stored in spin-

polarized current during the transport and
manipulation;
 Future scope
• MRAM has been introduced and is gradually gaining prominence.
• A 1.2 petabyte (1200 Terabyte) disk drive based on Spintronics is
almost ready.
• A new memory technology based on Spintronics called Racetrack
will soon be available .
• Information transfer to a semiconductor at room temprature opens
window for faster chips.
 CONCLUSION
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.
 REFERENCE
 Peng Xiong, Department of Physics and MARTECH,Florida State
University “Spin Electronics” (June 2002).
 Spintronics Research Group, University of Plymouth“Spintronics – The
21st Century Electronics”.
 Lynn Yarris, Berkeley Labs “The Current Spin onSpintronics” (January
2006).
 From hard-disk to healthcare: What canSpintronics do for you? - Summer
Science Exhibition(2008).
 Josh Schaefferkoetter, “Introduction to Spintronics”(February 2007).
THANK YOU…
QUESTIONS?