Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T02:52:32.894Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New Materials for Spintronics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Scott A. Chambers  and
Young K. Yoo

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This article introduces the October 2003 issue of MRS Bulletin on “New Materials for Spintronics.” As a result of quantum mechanics, the carriers in ferromagnetic metals such as Fe, Co, and Ni are spin-polarized due to an imbalance at the Fermi level in the number of spin-up and spin-down electrons. A carrier maintains its spin polarization as long as it does not encounter a magnetic impurity or interact with the host lattice by means of spin-orbit coupling. The discovery of optically induced, long-lived quantum coherent spin states in semiconductors has created a range of possibilities for a new class of devices that utilize spin. This discovery also points to the need for a wider range of spin-polarized materials that will be required for different device configurations. In this issue of MRS Bulletin, we focus on three classes of candidate spintronic materials and review the current state of our understanding of them: III–V and II–VI semiconductors, oxides, and Heusler alloys. The field of spin-polarized materials is growing very rapidly, and the search for new magnetic semiconductors and other suitable spin-injection materials with higher Curie temperatures is bringing spintronics closer to the realm of being practical.

Keywords

ferromagnetic semiconductorsspin-polarized transportspintronics
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Bulletin , Volume 28 , Issue 10: New Materials for Spintronics , October 2003 , pp. 706 - 710
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2003

References

1.Kikkawa, J.M. and Awschalom, D.D., Nature 397 (1999) p. 139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Munekata, H., Ohno, H., von Molnar, S., Segmuller, A., Chang, L.L., and Esaki, L., Phys. Rev. Lett. 63 (1989) p. 1849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Ohno, H., Munekata, H., von Molnar, S., and Chang, L.L., J. Appl. Phys. 69 (1991) p. 6103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Fiederling, R., Keim, M., Reuscher, G., Ossau, W., Schmidt, G., Waag, A., and Molenkamp, L.W., Nature 402 (1999) p. 787.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Ohno, Y., Young, D.K., Beschoten, B., Matsukura, F., Ohno, H., and Awschalom, D.D., Nature 402 (1999) p. 790.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Dietl, T., Ohno, H., Matsukura, F., Cibert, J., and Ferrand, D., Science 287 (2000) p. 1019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Matsumoto, Y., Murakami, M., Shono, T., Hasegawa, T., Fukumura, T., Kawasaki, M., Ahmet, P., Chikyow, T., Koshihara, S.-Y., and Koinuma, H., Science 291 (2001) p. 854.CrossRefGoogle Scholar