New frontiers in nanoscale physics: creating dynamic spintronics devices for facilitating novel spintronic and microwave technologies

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Spin dynamics in nano-structured devices exhibits remarkable properties, as it links an intriguing triangle formed by the interplay between spin, charge, and the photon in low-dimensional systems. Through the advances in materials science, nanotechnology, and wave physics, the past century has witnessed an amazing path along which research activities on this subject have been transformed from the macroscopic phenomena of electromagnetism to the microscopic and nanoscopic physics of dynamic spintronics. This subject underpins many scientific and engineering disciplines, ranging from semiconductor physics and magnetism, to photonics, spintronics, and microwave technologies. Research in this frontier of condensed matter physics also addresses demanding socio-economic needs, since the utilization of spin current and spin dynamics is considered as one of the most promising approaches for the advancement of information and communication technologies (ICT). The goals of my research program are to build on the systematic work done in my lab during the past funding period, to address the leading questions in the physics of dynamic spintronics, and to use the obtained new knowledge to create novel spintronics devices. My focus is to use the novel spintronic devices to innovate microwave imaging technology, to study the physics of the spin current, and to explore the new field of quantum strong coupling of spin and photons. To achieve these goals, my students and I will do innovative dynamic spintronics experiments by applying advanced experimental tools developed in my lab. Our unique advantage includes: (i) our ability to electrically detect spin dynamics in nanostructures with high sensitivity, (ii) our capability of directly probing both the amplitude and phase of spin resonances, (iii) our experience of fabricating advanced nano-spintronics devices, and (iv) the capacity of the research infrastructure established in my lab with a vast set of advanced tools. We will capitalize on my group's recent success to study ferromagnetic metals, ferromagnetic insulators, heavy metals (with large spin-orbit coupling), as well as hybrid devices with tailored functions made of combinations of these materials. Examples of intriguing topics that we will investigate in this funding period include: (i) dynamic generation of spin current in an insulator (the spin pumping), (ii) heat harnessing and thermal spin torque effect (spin caloritronics), (iii) medical and industrial applications of spintronic microwave imaging (recently invented in my lab). Furthermore, inspired by the 2012 Nobel Prize in physics for the ground-breaking experimental methods that enable studying the fundamental interaction between light and matter in quantum systems, we will create and develop on-chip cavity spintronic devices, to investigate the new physics of quantum strong-coupling between trapped microwave photons and spin dynamics in a ferromagnetic insulator. Our research will have a significant impact in the rapidly advancing field of dynamic spintronics. Existing industrial collaborations with researchers at BlackBerry®, Everspin Technology, and Cancer Care Manitoba will allow rapid translation of achievements in my lab into proof-of-concept and prototype devices for practical and commercial use. Students involved in my research program will be uniquely trained with skills highly desirable in the strategically important electronic and ICT sectors of the Canadian economy.