The isolation of graphene has triggered an avalanche of studies into the spin-dependent physical properties of this material, as well as graphene-based spintronic devices Here we review the experimental and theoretical state-of-art concerning spin injection and transport, defect-induced magnetic moments, spin-orbit coupling and spin relaxation in graphene Future research in graphene spintronics will need to address the development of applications such as spin transistors and spin logic devices, as well as exotic physical properties including topological states and proximity-induced phenomena in graphene and other 2D materials

Graphene Spintronics

Electrons have a charge and a spin, but until recently, charges and spins have been considered separately. In conventional electronics, the charges are manipulated by electric fields but the spins are ignored. Other classical technologies, magnetic recording, for example, are using the spin but only through its macroscopic manifestation, the magnetization of a ferromagnet. This picture started to change in 1988 when the discovery Baibich et al., 1988; Binash et al., 1989 of the giant magnetoresistance GMR of the magnetic multilayers opened the way to an efficient control of the motion of the electrons by acting on their spin through the orientation of a magnetization. This rapidly triggered the development of a new field of research and technology, today called spintronics and, like the GMR, exploiting the influence of the spin on the mobility of the electrons in ferromagnetic materials. Actually, the influence of the spin on the mobility of the electrons in ferromagnetic metals, first suggested by Mott 1936 , had been experimentally demonstrated and theoretically described in my Ph.D. thesis almost 20 years before the discovery of 1988. The GMR was the first step on the road of the exploitation of this influence to control an electrical current. Its application to the read heads of hard disks greatly contributed to the fast rise in the density of stored information and led to the extension of the hard disk technology to consumer’s electronics. Then, the development of spintronics revealed many other phenomena related to the control and manipulation of spin currents. Today this field of research is expanding considerably, with very promising new axes like the phenomena of spin transfer, spintronics with semiconductors, molecular spintronics, or single-electron spintronics.

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Nobel Lecture: Origin, development, and future of spintronics

Giant magnetoresistance (GMR) is observed in a new type of nanostructured material consisting of magnetic multilayered nanowires formed by electrodeposition into nanometer-sized pores of a template polymer membrane. The composition of these nanowires is modulated over nanometer length scales with distinct magnetic and nonmagnetic metallic layers. Magnetoresistance measurements with the current perpendicular to the layers were performed on the array of parallel nanowires. GMR of about 15% was observed at room temperature on Co/Cu multilayered nanowires. (C) 1994 American Institute of Physics.

Giant magnetoresistance in magnetic multilayered nanowires

Oscillatory interlayer coupling and giant magnetoresistance in Co/Cu multilayers

(1993). Ultrathin metallic magnetic films: magnetic anisotropies and exchange interactions. Advances in Physics: Vol. 42, No. 5, pp. 523-639.

P.A. Schroeder

Papers

Oscillatory interlayer coupling and giant magnetoresistance in Co/Cu multilayers

Magnetoresistance of Co-Based multilayered structures