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

Magnetically engineered magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) show promise as non-volatile storage cells in high-performance solid-state magnetic random access memories (MRAM). The performance of these devices is currently limited by the modest (< approximately 70%) room-temperature tunnelling magnetoresistance (TMR) of technologically relevant MTJs. Much higher TMR values have been theoretically predicted for perfectly ordered (100) oriented single-crystalline Fe/MgO/Fe MTJs. Here we show that sputter-deposited polycrystalline MTJs grown on an amorphous underlayer, but with highly oriented (100) MgO tunnel barriers and CoFe electrodes, exhibit TMR values of up to approximately 220% at room temperature and approximately 300% at low temperatures. Consistent with these high TMR values, superconducting tunnelling spectroscopy experiments indicate that the tunnelling current has a very high spin polarization of approximately 85%, which rivals that previously observed only using half-metallic ferromagnets. Such high values of spin polarization and TMR in readily manufactureable and highly thermally stable devices (up to 400 degrees C) will accelerate the development of new families of spintronic devices.

Giant tunnelling magnetoresistance at room temperature with MgO (100) tunnel barriers

Learn the basic properties and designs of modern VLSI devices, as well as the factors affecting performance, with this thoroughly updated second edition. The first edition has been widely adopted as a standard textbook in microelectronics in many major US universities and worldwide. The internationally-renowned authors highlight the intricate interdependencies and subtle tradeoffs between various practically important device parameters, and also provide an in-depth discussion of device scaling and scaling limits of CMOS and bipolar devices. Equations and parameters provided are checked continuously against the reality of silicon data, making the book equally useful in practical transistor design and in the classroom. Every chapter has been updated to include the latest developments, such as MOSFET scale length theory, high-field transport model, and SiGe-base bipolar devices.

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Fundamentals of Modern VLSI Devices

http://files.janapv.webnode.cz/200000097-8a03f8afdf/ex_bias_nano.pdf

Exchange bias in nanostructures

The field of magnetoelectronics has been growing in practical importance in recent years1 For example, devices that harness electronic spin—such as giant-magnetoresistive sensors and magnetoresistive memory cells—are now appearing on the market2 In contrast, magnetoelectronic devices based on spin-polarized transport in semiconductors are at a much earlier stage of development, largely because of the lack of an efficient means of injecting spin-polarized charge Much work has focused on the use of ferromagnetic metallic contacts3,4, but it has proved exceedingly difficult to demonstrate polarized spin injection More recently, two groups5,6 have reported successful spin injection from an NiFe contact, but the observed effects of the spin-polarized transport were quite small (resistance changes of less than 1%) Here we describe a different approach, in which the magnetic semiconductor BexMnyZn1-x-ySe is used as a spin aligner We achieve injection efficiencies of 90% spin-polarized current into a non-magnetic semiconductor device The device used in this case is a GaAs/AlGaAs light-emitting diode, and spin polarization is confirmed by the circular polarization state of the emitted light

Injection and detection of a spin-polarized current in a light-emitting diode

Exchange biased magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) structures are shown to have useful properties for forming magnetic memory storage elements in a novel cross-point architecture. MTJ elements have been developed which exhibit very large magnetoresistive (MR) values exceeding 40% at room temperature, with specific resistance values ranging down to as little as ∼60 Ω(μm)2, and with MR values enhanced by moderate thermal treatments. Large MR values are observed in magnetic elements with areas as small as 0.17 (μm)2. The magnetic field dependent current–voltage characteristics of an MTJ element integrated with a silicon diode are analyzed to extract the MR properties of the MTJ element itself.

Exchange-biased magnetic tunnel junctions and application to nonvolatile magnetic random access memory (invited)

A nonvolatile magnetic random access memory (MRAM) is an array of individual magnetic memory cells. Each memory cell is a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) element and a diode electrically connected in series. Each MTJ is formed of a pinned ferromagnetic layer whose magnetization direction is prevented from rotating, a free ferromagnetic layer whose magnetization direction is free to rotate between states of parallel and antiparallel to the fixed magnetization of the pinned ferromagnetic layer, and an insulating tunnel barrier between and in contact with the two ferromagnetic layers. Each memory cell has a high resistance that is achieved in a very small surface area by controlling the thickness, and thus the electrical barrier height, of the tunnel barrier layer. The memory cells in the array are controlled by only two lines, and the write currents to change the magnetic state of an MTJ, by use of the write currents' inherent magnetic fields to rotate the magnetization of the free layer, do not pass through the tunnel barrier layer. All MTJ elements, diodes, and contacts are vertically arranged at the intersection regions of the two lines and between the two lines to minimize the total MRAM surface area. The power expended to read or sense the memory cell's magnetic state is reduced by the high resistance of the MTJ and by directing the sensing current through a single memory cell.

Magnetic memory array using magnetic tunnel junction devices in the memory cells

Magnetic random access memory (MRAM) offers an alternative approach to fast low-power non-volatile VLSI memory MRAM has been pursued for more than 10 years as a robust non-volatile memory for space applications The magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) MRAM is dramatically different and achieves four orders of magnitude better bandwidth to sense power ratio by utilizing a high resistance and high magneto-resistance (MR) MTJ and including a FET switch in each cell Non-volatile storage and 10 ns performance are demonstrated in 1 kb arrays Read and write on-chip power at 25 V and 100 MHz are 5 mW and 40 mW respectively

A 10 ns read and write non-volatile memory array using a magnetic tunnel junction and FET switch in each cell

A nonvolatile memory array includes a substrate, a first plurality of electrically conductive traces formed on the substrate, a second plurality of electrically conductive traces formed on the substrate and overlapping the first plurality of traces at a plurality of intersection regions, and a plurality of memory cells formed on the substrate. Each memory cell is located at an intersection region between one of the first plurality of traces and one of the second plurality of traces and includes a bidirectionally conducting nonlinear resistance selection device and a magneto-resistive element electrically coupled in series with the selection device. The array is biased during a read operation by biasing a selected trace of a first plurality of electrically conductive traces at a first bias potential. All other traces of the first plurality of conductive traces are biased at a second bias potential. A selected trace of a second plurality of conductive traces is biased at a third bias potential. Lastly, all other traces of the second plurality of conductive traces are biased at the first bias potential.

Voltage biasing for magnetic ram with magnetic tunnel memory cells

We have measured and simulated the dynamics of magnetization reversal in 5 nm by 0.8 by 1.6 $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{60}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{40}$ thin films. The films measured form the upper electrode of a spin-polarized tunnel junction so that the magnetization direction of the film can be probed by measuring the tunneling resistance of the junction. When a magnetic field pulse is applied, the time to switch the film magnetization changes from greater than 10 ns to less than 500 ps as the pulse amplitude is increased from the coercive field to 10 mT and beyond. We have simulated these transitions using micromagnetic modeling of the exact experimental conditions. The simulations agree well with the experimental measurements.

Roy Edwin Scheuerlein

Papers

Exchange-biased magnetic tunnel junctions and application to nonvolatile magnetic random access memory (invited)

Magnetic memory array using magnetic tunnel junction devices in the memory cells

A 10 ns read and write non-volatile memory array using a magnetic tunnel junction and FET switch in each cell

Voltage biasing for magnetic ram with magnetic tunnel memory cells

Magnetization Reversal in Micron-Sized Magnetic Thin Films