Spintronics: How an atom-thin insulator helps transport spins

Halle-Wittenberg is a university by Martin Luther University.

The transport of spin currents from one material to another is improved by an intermediate layer consisting of a few atoms. This process used to involve significant losses. A team from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics, and the Freie Universitt Berlin have reported on how this can be avoided. The researchers show new insights relevant to spintronic applications, including energy efficient and ultra-fast storage technologies of the future.

The charge of electrons is used to carry information in modern microelectronics. The charge transport requires a lot of energy. An energy-saving alternative could be offered by Spintronics. Spin is used in information processing. The electrons have a magnetic moment when they spin. The magnetism that will be used to process information is generated by this.

In spintronics, spin currents have to be transferred from one material to the next. The team looked for a way to mitigate these losses by using an approach that, at first, sounds rather contradictory: they integrated an insulation barrier between the two materials.

We designed the insulator at the atomic level so that it could conduct spin currents. This enabled us to significantly improve the spin transport and the interfacial properties. The material samples were made at the institute. Measurement of spin transport was conducted at MLU. The theoretical basis for the new discovery is provided by the team. This can be described using relatively simple models.

The results are relevant to many spintronic applications. They can be used to improve spintronic terahertz emitters. Terahertz radiation is applied in a wide range of technology.

More information: Mohamed Amine Wahada et al, Atomic Scale Control of Spin Current Transmission at Interfaces, Nano Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c04358 Journal information: Nano Letters Provided by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg Citation: Spintronics: How an atom-thin insulator helps transport spins (2022, May 10) retrieved 10 May 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-05-spintronics-atom-thin-insulator.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.