QUANtum Transport for Advanced Spintronics: QUANTAS

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Spintronics is primarily concerned with the study and exploitation of the electron's spin degree of freedom in order to exceed the capabilities of current charge based microelectronics. The ever growing demand on energy hungry technologies has led to the need for next generation devices to be specifically tailored to enable new functionality, whilst minimizing power consumption. In this respect, spintronic devices offer significant benefits over current ICT technologies as the flow of a pure spin current, without the associated charge current, produces no Joule heating and therefore minimizes power consumption. The transport, manipulation and conversion of spin information across interfaces in multilayer systems are key drivers in spintronics research. For example, spin transport across a ferromagnet /normal metal interface is determined by a combination of factors including the materials involved and details of the interface, embodied within the effective spin-mixing conductance. On the other hand, the plethora of interfacial and bulk charge-spin conversion phenomena that are key to the performance of spintronic devices, such as the spin Hall and inverse spin Hall effect, can be modified by tuning the spin-orbit interaction via the application of electric fields or by modifying the disorder landscape; again, highly dependent on material and interfacial properties.In fact, two of the most promising systems to study emergent spin transport phenomena are in metallic heterostructures containing a high spin-orbit coupling material such as Pt and in magnetic insulators where the spin current is generated and propagated by the excitation of spinwaves, and propagation lengths can exceed 10's of microns. However, the challenge of designing new spintronic materials and devices often lies in the understanding of novel and unexpected phenomena that emerge. Examples of such phenomena include; the spin Hall effect, in which spin - orbit coupling enables the conversion of a charge current to a spin current; and the quantum anomalous Hall effect, a quantized Hall effect realized in systems without an external magnetic field and predicted to exhibit dissipationless current transport. Research in this area requires nanoscale control of synthesis followed by the relevant characterization of a materials properties. In a world dominated by all electrical manipulation and readout of information, transport properties are still "King".In this application we request funding for a dedicated quantum transport system to enable electrical transport measurements to be carried out for innovative experiments in the fields of spintronics and nanotechnology. The low temperature, vital for allowing quantum phenomena to be isolated from other effects, and vector field capability of the system is essential for probing quantum magnetotransport effects in nanoscale spintronic devices where often single axis fields are a limiting factor for a full understanding of the rich physics involved. The instrument, when commissioned, will provide new capability and capacity, ease of access for researchers from UK universities and industry and provide a focal point in the North East region.