Technology Commercialization and Partnerships | BSA 07-12: Graphene-Magnet Multilayers for Spintronic Devices

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Categories: advanced materials, electronics & instrumentation

BSA 07-12: Graphene-Magnet Multilayers for Spintronic Devices

BNL Reference Number: BSA 07-12

Patent Status: U.S. Patent Number 8,378,329 was issued on February 19, 2013

Summary

(a) Spin-polarized electron's passage through narrow (~ < 10 nm) domain wall is mediated by Klein tunneling of electron-hole pairs. (b) Transport through thick (~ > 100 nm) domain wall allows electron's magnetic moment to follow the magnetic field direction.

New graphene magnet multilayers (GMMs) accelerate the development of cutting-edge spintronic devices. Spintronics, which use the spin of a charge carrier in addition to its electrical charge, allows for unprecedented advantages in compact design and operational efficiency compared to traditional electronics. These custom-structured GMMs have high built-in magnetic fields for precision nanoscale engineering, driving forward spintronic technologies.

Description

Once circuit scale approaches the size of a few atoms or a single atom, further electronics miniaturization reaches a fundamental technological limit. To move beyond this limit, spintronics takes advantage of an electron's quantum spin in addition to its electric charge. By aligning the spins of multiple electrons so they all point the same way "known as polarization"it is possible to create a current of spins in addition to a current of charges. The internally generated high magnetic fields in graphene offer singular opportunities for manipulating spin, and the multilayers' field is much higher than that of the highest external fields available. This invention includes a description of a series of spintronic devices that utilize spin-polarized charge transport in graphene/antiferromagnetic/ferromagnetic multilayers.

Benefits

Using magnetism for spin manipulation in graphene opens exciting possibilities for creating active, re-writable and re-configurable devices whose function changes depending on the magnetization pattern written on the magnetic medium. Large-scale manufacturing of these next-gen technologies will require development of robust techniques for forming and patterning multiple ultrathin layers of materials with varying physical properties, and the GMM system is ideal for industrial implementation.

Applications and Industries

These structures facilitate the manufacture and use of spintronic devices currently in development and already available, including re-writable microchips, electric current polarizers, spin inverters, spintronic tunnel junctions, quantum interference devices, transistors, and logic gates