Spintronics: a new paradigm for electronics for the new millennium

Wolf, Stuart A.; Treger, Daryl

doi:10.1109/20.908580

Cited by 71 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(7 reference statements)

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“…8 The Zeeman-3 Reviews on emerging applications include those of Das Sarma et al (2000a, 2000c); Wolf and Treger (2000); ; Wolf et al (2001); Oestreich et al (2002); Rashba (2002c);Ž utić (2002a. 4 Established schemes and materials are reviewed by Tedrow and Meservey (1994); Prinz (1995Prinz ( , 1998; Gijs and Bauer (1997); Gregg et al (1997); Ansermet (1998); Bass and Pratt, Jr. (1999); Daughton et al (1999); Stiles (2004).…”

Section: Spin-polarized Transport and Magnetoresistive Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications

2004

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Spintronics, or spin electronics, involves the study of active control and manipulation of spin degrees of freedom in solid-state systems. This article reviews the current status of this subject, including both recent advances and well-established results. The primary focus is on the basic physical principles underlying the generation of carrier spin polarization, spin dynamics, and spin-polarized transport in semiconductors and metals. Spin transport differs from charge transport in that spin is a nonconserved quantity in solids due to spin-orbit and hyperfine coupling. The authors discuss in detail spin decoherence mechanisms in metals and semiconductors. Various theories of spin injection and spin-polarized transport are applied to hybrid structures relevant to spin-based devices and fundamental studies of materials properties. Experimental work is reviewed with the emphasis on projected applications, in which external electric and magnetic fields and illumination by light will be used to control spin and charge dynamics to create new functionalities not feasible or ineffective with conventional electronics. CONTENTS

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Section: Spin-polarized Transport and Magnetoresistive Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications

2004

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“…These exhibit high-tunneling magnetoresistance ͑TMR͒, 1-2 and can potentially be applied to magnetic-field sensors, 3 magnetic random access memories ͑MRAM͒, 4 -6 and read-head applications. [7][8] MTJs have a basic FM/I/FM structure, where FM are ferromagnetic electrodes and I is an insulating barrier of ϳ1-2 nm in thickness. Most of the research has been undertaken on insulating barriers based on an Al layer which is oxidized after being deposited by either natural oxidation in air, 1 plasma oxidation ͑oxygen glow discharge͒, 2,[9][10][11][12][13][14] or oxidation in pure oxygen.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study of Al/AlOx bilayers

Batlle

Hattink

Labarta

et al. 2002

Journal of Applied Physics

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An x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy ͑XPS͒ analysis of Nb/Al wedge bilayers, oxidized by both plasma and natural oxidation, is reported. The main goal is to show that the oxidation state-i.e., O:͑oxidize͒Al ratio-, structure and thickness of the surface oxide layer, as well as the thickness of the metallic Al leftover, as functions of the oxidation procedure, can be quantitatively evaluated from the XPS spectra. This is relevant to the detailed characterization of the insulating barriers in ͑magnetic͒ tunnel junctions.

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“…1 The recent discoveries 2,3 of ferromagnetism with high Curie temperatures in a number of conventional semiconductors doped with magnetic impurities hold promise for the implementation of spintronics in semiconductors.…”

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confidence: 99%

Spin separation in digital ferromagnetic heterostructures

Fernández-Rossier

Sham

2002

Phys. Rev. B

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In a study of the ferromagnetic phase of a multilayer digital ferromagnetic semiconductor in the mean-field and effective-mass approximations, we find the exchange interaction to have the dominant energy scale of the problem, effectively controlling the spatial distribution of the carrier spins in the digital ferromagnetic heterostructures. In the ferromagnetic phase, the majority-spin and minority-spin carriers tend to be in different regions of the space ͑spin separation͒. Hence, the charge distribution of carriers also changes noticeably from the ferromagnetic to the paramagnetic phase. An example of a design to exploit these phenomena is given here. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.66.073312 PACS number͑s͒: 75.70.Cn, 75.50.Pp, 75.10.Ϫb The research in proactive use of the spins of the carriers to add a new dimension to electronics starts a new area known as spintronics.1 The recent discoveries 2,3 of ferromagnetism with high Curie temperatures in a number of conventional semiconductors doped with magnetic impurities hold promise for the implementation of spintronics in semiconductors.Inhomogeneously doped semiconductors, such as the p-n junction, play a crucial role in conventional electronic devices. Their properties depend on the distribution of the itinerant carriers, which is governed by the Coulomb interaction of the carriers with the impurities and with other carriers. In this paper we study the charge and spin distributions of the itinerant carriers in semiconductors ␦ doped with magnetic impurities, such as GaMnAs.4,5 Our theory is within the mean-field, effective-mass, and virtual-crystal approximations. In addition to the electrostatic forces, the itinerant carriers have an exchange interaction with the magnetic impurities. Our calculation shows that the magnetization of the high Mn concentration in the ␦ layers in the ferromagnetic phase gives rise to a spin-dependent potential experienced by the carriers comparable in order of magnitude to the charge potential of the ␦ layer. The effect of the spin-dependent potential on the inhomogeneous spin distribution of the carriers was noted by Loureiro da Silva et al. 6 in multilayered GaMnAs with 5% magnetic impurities. By contrast, the ␦ doping with a nominal concentration per atomic plane of 25-50% Mn atoms gives rise to a qualitatively different phenomenon of spin separation. This creates the possibility of the magnetic control of the itinerant carriers by manipulating the magnetization of the Mn ions. In particular, the spindependent potential may be used to influence the spin dependence of the distribution of itinerant carriers. The majority carriers 7 accumulate in the region of the Mn layers whereas minority carriers are repelled from the Mn region. In the paramagnetic phase, the spin potential averages to zero and the magnetic influence disappears. To show the potential of the spin separation for device applications, we give an example of how heterostructures may be designed to engender spin separation. This paper is organized as follows. A brief review...

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Spintronics: a new paradigm for electronics for the new millennium

Cited by 71 publications

References 8 publications

Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications

Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications

Quantitative x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study of Al/AlOx bilayers

Spin separation in digital ferromagnetic heterostructures

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