This review describes a new paradigm of electronics based on the spin degree of freedom of the electron. Either adding the spin degree of freedom to conventional charge-based electronic devices or using the spin alone has the potential advantages of nonvolatility, increased data processing speed, decreased electric power consumption, and increased integration densities compared with conventional semiconductor devices. To successfully incorporate spins into existing semiconductor technology, one has to resolve technical issues such as efficient injection, transport, control and manipulation, and detection of spin polarization as well as spin-polarized currents. Recent advances in new materials engineering hold the promise of realizing spintronic devices in the near future. We review the current state of the spin-based devices, efforts in new materials fabrication, issues in spin transport, and optical spin manipulation.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/294/5546/1488.full.pdf

Spintronics: a spin-based electronics vision for the future.

Spintronics, or spin electronics, involves the study of active control and manipulation of spin degrees of freedom in solid-state systems. This article reviews the current status of this subject, including both recent advances and well-established results. The primary focus is on the basic physical principles underlying the generation of carrier spin polarization, spin dynamics, and spin-polarized transport in semiconductors and metals. Spin transport differs from charge transport in that spin is a nonconserved quantity in solids due to spin-orbit and hyperfine coupling. The authors discuss in detail spin decoherence mechanisms in metals and semiconductors. Various theories of spin injection and spin-polarized transport are applied to hybrid structures relevant to spin-based devices and fundamental studies of materials properties. Experimental work is reviewed with the emphasis on projected applications, in which external electric and magnetic fields and illumination by light will be used to control spin and charge dynamics to create new functionalities not feasible or ineffective with conventional electronics.

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Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications

Electrical current can be completely spin polarized in a class of materials known as half-metals, as a result of the coexistence of metallic nature for electrons with one spin orientation and insulating nature for electrons with the other. Such asymmetric electronic states for the different spins have been predicted for some ferromagnetic metals--for example, the Heusler compounds--and were first observed in a manganese perovskite. In view of the potential for use of this property in realizing spin-based electronics, substantial efforts have been made to search for half-metallic materials. However, organic materials have hardly been investigated in this context even though carbon-based nanostructures hold significant promise for future electronic devices. Here we predict half-metallicity in nanometre-scale graphene ribbons by using first-principles calculations. We show that this phenomenon is realizable if in-plane homogeneous electric fields are applied across the zigzag-shaped edges of the graphene nanoribbons, and that their magnetic properties can be controlled by the external electric fields. The results are not only of scientific interest in the interplay between electric fields and electronic spin degree of freedom in solids but may also open a new path to explore spintronics at the nanometre scale, based on graphene.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/cond-mat/0611600.pdf

Half-metallic graphene nanoribbons

The recent advances in electrocatalysis for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are thoroughly reviewed. This comprehensive Review focuses on the low- and non-platinum electrocatalysts including advanced platinum alloys, core–shell structures, palladium-based catalysts, metal oxides and chalcogenides, carbon-based non-noble metal catalysts, and metal-free catalysts. The recent development of ORR electrocatalysts with novel structures and compositions is highlighted. The understandings of the correlation between the activity and the shape, size, composition, and synthesis method are summarized. For the carbon-based materials, their performance and stability in fuel cells and comparisons with those of platinum are documented. The research directions as well as perspectives on the further development of more active and less expensive electrocatalysts are provided.

http://repository.ust.hk/ir/bitstream/1783.1-77094/1/acs.chemrev.5b00462_withlink.pdf

Recent Advances in Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Graphene, a two-dimensional, single-layer sheet of sp(2) hybridized carbon atoms, has attracted tremendous attention and research interest, owing to its exceptional physical properties, such as high electronic conductivity, good thermal stability, and excellent mechanical strength. Other forms of graphene-related materials, including graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, and exfoliated graphite, have been reliably produced in large scale. The promising properties together with the ease of processibility and functionalization make graphene-based materials ideal candidates for incorporation into a variety of functional materials. Importantly, graphene and its derivatives have been explored in a wide range of applications, such as electronic and photonic devices, clean energy, and sensors. In this review, after a general introduction to graphene and its derivatives, the synthesis, characterization, properties, and applications of graphene-based materials are discussed.

Graphene-Based Materials: Synthesis, Characterization, Properties, and Applications

Half-metallic materials are characterized by the coexistence of metallic behaviour for one electron spin and insulating behaviour for the other. Thus, the electronic density of states is completely spin polarized at the Fermi level, and the conductivity is dominated by these metallic single-spin charge carriers. This exotic physical property could have a significant effect on technological applications related to magnetism and spin electronics. Some ferromagnetic systems, such as Heusler compounds1 and chromium dioxide2, have been predicted theoretically to be half-metallic. However, a half-metallic system has not been demonstrated directly and the predictions are still in doubt3,4. Here we report spin-resolved photoemission measurements of a ferromagnetic manganese perovskite, La0.7Sr0.3MnO3, which directly manifest the half-metallic nature well below the Curie temperature. For the majority spin, the photoemission spectrum clearly shows a metallic Fermi cut-off, whereas for the minority spin, it shows an insulating gap with disappearance of spectral weight at ∼0.6 eV binding energy.

Direct evidence for a half-metallic ferromagnet

For the purpose of recovering the intriguing electronic properties of freestanding graphene at a solid surface, graphene self-organized on a Au monolayer on Ni(111) is prepared and characterized by scanning tunneling microscopy. Angle-resolved photoemission reveals a gapless linear $\ensuremath{\pi}$-band dispersion near $\overline{K}$ as a fingerprint of strictly monolayer graphene and a Dirac crossing energy equal to the Fermi energy (${E}_{F}$) within 25 meV meaning charge neutrality. Spin resolution shows a Rashba effect on the $\ensuremath{\pi}$ states with a large ($\ensuremath{\sim}13\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{meV}$) spin-orbit splitting up to ${E}_{F}$ which is independent of $\mathbf{k}$.

Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Quasifreestanding Graphene on Ni

Voltage-controlled spin electronics is crucial for continued progress in information technology. It aims at reduced power consumption, increased integration density and enhanced functionality where non-volatile memory is combined with high-speed logical processing. Promising spintronic device concepts use the electric control of interface and surface magnetization. From the combination of magnetometry, spin-polarized photoemission spectroscopy, symmetry arguments and first-principles calculations, we show that the (0001) surface of magnetoelectric Cr(2)O(3) has a roughness-insensitive, electrically switchable magnetization. Using a ferromagnetic Pd/Co multilayer deposited on the (0001) surface of a Cr(2)O(3) single crystal, we achieve reversible, room-temperature isothermal switching of the exchange-bias field between positive and negative values by reversing the electric field while maintaining a permanent magnetic field. This effect reflects the switching of the bulk antiferromagnetic domain state and the interface magnetization coupled to it. The switchable exchange bias sets in exactly at the bulk Neel temperature.

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Robust isothermal electric control of exchange bias at room temperature

The surface-boundary magnetization $({M}_{\mathrm{SB}})$ for a manganese perovskite ${\mathrm{La}}_{0.7}{\mathrm{Sr}}_{0.3}{\mathrm{MnO}}_{3}$ has been investigated using spin-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, which has an $\ensuremath{\sim}5\AA{}$ probing depth. ${M}_{\mathrm{SB}}$ shows the full moment at very low temperature but decays much faster than the bulk magnetization $({M}_{B})$ upon heating. This result provides direct insight into various novel properties at grain and surface boundaries observed in the polycrystalline samples and junctions of manganese perovskites.

Magnetic Properties at Surface Boundary of a Half-Metallic Ferromagnet La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3

Roughness-insensitive and electrically controllable magnetization at the (0001) surface of antiferromagnetic chromia is observed using magnetometry and spin-resolved photoemission measurements and explained by the interplay of surface termination and magnetic ordering. Further, this surface in placed in proximity with a ferromagnetic Co/Pd multilayer film. Exchange coupling across the interface between chromia and Co/Pd induces an electrically controllable exchange bias in the Co/Pd film, which enables a reversible isothermal (at room temperature) shift of the global magnetic hysteresis loop of the Co/Pd film along the magnetic field axis between negative and positive values. These results reveal the potential of magnetoelectric chromia for spintronic applications requiring non-volatile electric control of magnetization.

/pdf/robust-isothermal-electric-switching-of-interface-4m66t0dqv7.pdf

Elio Vescovo

Papers

Direct evidence for a half-metallic ferromagnet

Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Quasifreestanding Graphene on Ni

Robust isothermal electric control of exchange bias at room temperature

Magnetic Properties at Surface Boundary of a Half-Metallic Ferromagnet La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3

Robust isothermal electric switching of interface magnetization: A route to voltage-controlled spintronics