Project description
'Gated' control of spin–orbit coupling enables very fast manipulation of magnetism
Much as the earth spins on its axis while rotating around the sun, electrons do the same while rotating around the nucleus. Spin–orbit coupling – the interaction between the spin and orbital motion of electrons that is related to a magnetic field – is associated with unique electromagnetic and magnetic effects. These are harnessed in organic spintronics devices for information storage and processing. The EU-funded INTERFAST project is planning to enable very fast "gated" changes in magnetism at the interface between magnetic materials and organic ones via voltage control for a path to exotic spintronic functions.
Objective
INTERFAST will develop a novel technological platform for the voltage control of interfacial magnetism. The key idea is to manipulate, via a gate, the hybrid states at the interface between a magnetic material and an organic layer, in a way to affect the effective spin-orbit coupling at such interface. This will allow us to actively control the interfacial magnetism of a wide range of magnetic and supporting compounds, thus providing a universal platform, which is not specific of the rare magnets having massive voltage-control magneto-crystalline anisotropy coefficients. INTERFAST will demonstrate the applicability of this technology to a range of key spintronic functions, encompassing voltage control of magnetisation reversal at fJ/bit energy cost, drastic reduction of the spin-orbit-torque switching currents, and ultrafast THz information processing in all-metallic spintronic devices aided by gateable hybridisation unit.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
00185 Roma
Italy