Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SCHINES (Spatially-Separated Chirality Inspired Networks)
Período documentado: 2020-01-01 hasta 2021-12-31
Creating a brain-inspired technology through neouromorphic engineering could achieve or even surpass the extraordinary ability of the brain to grasp the world. The brain operates at an extremely low power consumption yet with the most complex interconnectivity known to mankind (maybe an order of magnitude number would be useful). The main goal of SCHINES is to set a clear direction to solve one of the biggest technological challenges that hinders this revolution: in existing physical neural network architectures, the desired interconnectivity can hardly be achieved. We will fabricate and design devices to demonstrate radically improved signal routing using topological metals. The design principle is simple: the environment of chiral electrons, electrons with spin locked to its momentum, can be engineered to create rich electronic lensing effect, analogous to light in-media propagation, yet broader. Positive and negative effective indices of refraction for electrons, and lossless signal crossing can be engineered while maintaining, selecting or filtering the intrinsic topological protection of chirality, a degree of freedom that can be used for computation. These design principles are the basis for our device goal, creating scalable interconnectivity and are highly transferrable to devices based on different architecture: they apply to strained materials, magnetic domains and heterostructures. SCHINES bridges the gap between the most abstract quantum field theory calculations and microscopic modelling to sample fabrication and measurement, culminating in device assembly.
Among the main results of the efforts were the prediction of a novel filtering mechanism of chirality, the materials screening and the initial efforts to grow and characterize these materials. The observation of bulk quantum Hall effect in HfTe5 is a major scientific result. A high-frequency amplifier using Weyl semimetals has been proposed at the International Electron Device Meeting (IEEE) in 2019.
At the end of the project we hope to have demonstrated devices that manipulate chiral currents through spatially separation of chirality. The potential impact for the use in future information technology should be indicated through theory and experiments.