Low Power Logic Operations through Pure Spin Currents

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The concept of spin-based electronics has reached a stage where it is making transformational changes in advanced science and high-efficiency technology, such as magnetoresistance field sensors, hard disk drive and magnetic random access memory. A spin is an innate quantum property of every electron, and it is already flowing within every electronic device but rarely harvested. By incorporating the spin degree of freedom into existing electronic devices such as central processing units (CPUs), they can gain novel functionalities compared to the present charge-based technologies. Furthermore, modern semiconductor electronics have reached a bottleneck in clock frequency, mainly because only limited heat dissipation is achievable. For example, Intel CPUs reached 3GHz speed a decade ago, yet has been stalled at this level ever since (while using multicore solutions) due to the thermal dissipation limits at about 4GHz. This is termed the “power wall” the defining limit to modern CPU processing power. In contrast, spintronic devices are inherently immune to this issue, i.e., they do not create Joule heating from the diffusive nature. Therefore, devices driven with pure spin currents offer far reduced power consumption than conventional electronic devices; however, spintronic devices present other technological challenges. The limited spin transfer efficiency into and across the channels is the most important, and a fundamental understanding of the spin transport processes through various media and interfaces is critical for further developing these devices. ***The proposed research plan will carry out pioneering spin transport studies in a wider range of atomically engineered complex materials and devices, which are expected to show advanced functionality, thereby leading to spin-based electronics that are more versatile and more energy efficient. Because spins already flow inside every electronic device, the technology transfer from classical electronics to spin electronics only requires minimal changes to existing production lines in the world. The technologies developed in this program are thus fully compatible with modern semiconductor technologies and can be readily adopted by major companies. The projected industries to pursue (for potential collaborations as well as HQP positions) include those information giants such as Intel, IBM, Hitachi, Global Foundries, who already have strategic spintronics development initiated. For Canada, this means more employment and more visibility in the world. Ultimately, spin-based processors are not to fully replace modern silicon based processors, but to build on their existing strengths and improve only very critical processing components. This further ensures fast technology transfer. Together, they will make the information processing greener yet more powerful, putting the Moore's law back on its due track.