Development of high spin-polarization spintronic devices based on organic molecular semiconductors

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Spintronics, where both spin and charge properties of electrons are applied to information storage and processing, is garnering tremendous attention from academia and industry as a promising alternative to the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-based electronics technology which has impacted immensely on our lives in nearly all aspects for past decades. Especially, recent progress in organic electronics has not only opened the way to the energy-efficient, mechanically flexible, and large-area electronics, but also made molecular semiconductors very attractive for spintronics applications since they can preserve the spin-based information over long time and distance. However, despite intensive research efforts in the field of organic spintronics worldwide, highly efficient spin-injection/transport in transistor-like structures still remains a long-standing challenge in the development of practical spintronic devices including organic spin-valves and spin field-effect transistors (spin-FETs). This is strongly correlated with the interface problems between magnetic materials and organic semiconductors, such as large conduction mismatch, strong spin-surface dipole interaction, and structural defects, which prevent efficient injection of spin carriers into organic semiconductor layer. To overcome these problems and realize practical spintronic devices, it is crucial to devise new architectures, which maximize the efficiency of spin-transfer process, and to investigate their magnetic/electronic properties using the adequate characterization tools. The proposed research aims to shed light on the detailed mechanism of spin-injection and transport in spintronic devices and to develop magnetically robust organic spin-valves and spin-FETs operatable in both magnetic and electric fields. Spintronics has shown to be a front-runner in the race of future information technology and evolved to a very competitive field of research and development. Therefore, the establishment of strong spintronics research program will help Canada remain competitive in world-class research and strengthen their leading position in high-end technology areas.