Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MagnEFi (Magnetism and the effects of Electric Field)
Berichtszeitraum: 2019-10-01 bis 2021-09-30
The consortium provides a rich training environment where the PhD candidates will study at the cutting edge of science and technology, and also come to appreciate the breadth of the field in terms of its intellectual challenges, commercial concerns and relationship to society’s need for ever more powerful information technologies with a reduced environmental footprint.
nanomagnetic structures, with pioneering studies predicting that in combination with a low level of conventional stimulus (magnetic field or electric current), or even using E-fields alone, the reversal of magnetization may be achieved at low power. This has led to spintronic circuits containing magnetic materials modified by E-fields becoming competitive with contemporary electronic integrated circuits (ICs) in terms of their switching energy, and being better in terms of implementing complex logic functions with smaller numbers of elements. The key factor towards making technologies based on nanomagnetic structures competitive with CMOS and other approaches is thus to enhance and diversify the E-field control of magnetism.
This project explores a variety of ways of applying E-fields to nanomagnetic structures using strain, gating and light, and also combines them into integrative devices. These three approaches are at different levels of research and development: Strain is most developed and spintronic circuits in this area have been benchmarked against rival beyond-CMOS technologies, while Gating is beginning to spark interest in industry, and Light is still at the stage of fundamental physics exploration. One of the strong points of this network is bringing these three approaches together which will produce novel multifunctional S+G, S+L and G+L devices. We expect that combining E-field effects will reveal more new physics as well as promising device concepts.
Within this exciting scientific framework, our project will enhance the career prospects of its ESRs through a uniquely cross-linked and research-focused training programme. The intertwining of three scientific approaches to applying E-fields to nanomagnetic structures will produce young researchers with a breadth of expertise that will be vital to sustaining the research and development of electronics for GreenIT in the EU in the future