“Spintronics with Antiferromagnetic and Quantum Materials”
Andrew Kent
Monday, March 21st at 4:00pm
The magnetization of a magnetic material can be excited and reversed by electric currents that transport spin angular momentum [1]. This was predicted in magnetic tunnel junctions—two metallic ferromagnetic layers separated by a thin insulating barrier—by John Slonczewski in 1989 and demonstrated experimentally about a decade later. This discovery has had an enormous impact on magnetism research and technology [2], as prior to this the primary means to reorient and excite the magnetization of a magnet was by applying magnetic fields (dating to 1819 and Oersted). Remarkable, spin currents are also able to change the magnetic order of antiferromagnetic layers. In this talk I will highlight my group’s experimental x-ray imaging studies of current-induced reorientation of the Néel vector in hematite, Fe2O3, using the spin-Hall effect in Pt as the spin current source [3]. [Read more…]
