Descripción del proyecto
Un innovador material nanoporoso abre el camino a la espintrónica de alto rendimiento
El equipo del proyecto SPIN-PORICS, financiado con fondos europeos, pretende revolucionar las aplicaciones de la espintrónica incorporando materiales nanoporosos especialmente diseñados para mejorar la eficiencia energética. Sustituir la corriente eléctrica por un campo eléctrico podría ayudar a reducir el consumo de energía al minimizar la disipación de calor y evitar los problemas relacionados con la tensión. Estos problemas suelen plantearse en los dispositivos de almacenamiento magnético y magnetoelectrónicos. Mediante la tensión, se ajustarán las propiedades magnéticas del nuevo nanomaterial compuesto a temperatura ambiente. El material podría utilizarse en la grabación magnética asistida eléctricamente, la conmutación por tensión de memorias magnéticas de acceso aleatorio y los transistores de efecto de campo de espín.
Objetivo
This Project aims to integrate engineered nanoporous materials into novel energy-efficient spintronic applications. Magnetic storage and magneto-electronic devices are conventionally controlled by means of magnetic fields (via electromagnetic induction) or using spin-polarized electric currents (spin-transfer torque). Both principles involve significant energy loss by heat dissipation (Joule effect). The replacement of electric current with electric field would drastically reduce the overall power consumption. Strain-mediated magneto-electric coupling in piezoelectric-magnetostrictive bilayers might appear a proper strategy to achieve this goal. However, this approach is not suitable in spintronics because of the clamping effects with the substrate, need of epitaxial interfaces and risk of fatigue-induced mechanical failure. The exciting possibility to control ferromagnetism of metals and semiconductors directly with electric field (without strain) has been recently reported, but most significant effects occur below 300 K and only in ultra-thin films or nanoparticles. This Project tackles the development of a new type of nanocomposite material, comprising an electrically conducting or semiconducting nanoporous layer filled with a suitable dielectric material, where the magnetic properties of the metal/semiconductor will be largely tuned at room temperature (RT) by simply applying a voltage, via electric charge accumulation. The porous layer will consist of specific alloys (Cu-Ni or Fe-Rh) or oxide diluted magnetic semiconductors, where surface magnetic properties have been recently reported to be sensitive to electric field at RT. Based on these new materials, three technological applications are envisaged: electrically-assisted magnetic recording, voltage-driven switching of magnetic random-access memories and spin field-effect transistors. The obtained results are likely to open new paradigms in the field of spintronics and could be of high economic transcendence.
Ámbito científico
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectrical engineeringelectric energy
- natural sciencesphysical scienceselectromagnetism and electronicsspintronics
- natural sciencesphysical scienceselectromagnetism and electronicssemiconductivity
- engineering and technologynanotechnologynano-materials
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringnanocomposites
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitución de acogida
08193 Cerdanyola Del Valles
España