The Future Belongs To Spintronics

OUTLINE
Why Spintronics? What's Spintronics? Principle Applications and Fabrication Electronics Vs. Spintronics Advantages Challenges Conclusion

Why Spintronics ?
Failure of Moores Law :
Moores Law states that the number of transistors on a silicon chip will roughly double every eighteen months. But now the transistors & other components have reached nanoscale dimensions and further reducing the size would lead to: 1. Scorching heat making making the circuit inoperable. 2. Also Quantum effects come into play at nanoscale dimensions. So the size of transistors & other components cannot be reduced further. Environment friendly

What Is Spintronics ?
In conventional electronics, electron charge is used for manipulation, storage, and transfer of information .

Spintronics uses electron spins in addition to or in place of the electron charge.

Basic Principle
In Spintronics , information is carried by orientation of spin rather than charge. Spin can assume one of the two states relative to the magnetic field, called spin up or spin down. These states, spin up or spin down, can be used to represent 1 and 0 in binary logic. In certain spintronic materials, spin orientation can be used as spintronic memory as these orientation do not change when system is switched off.

Apllications&Fabrication

Gaint Magnetoresistance (GMR)

The basic GMR device consists of a layer of non -magnetic metal between two two magnetic layers. A current consisting of spin-up and spin-down electrons is passed through the layers. Those oriented in the same direction as the electron spins in a magnetic layer pass through quite easily while those oriented in the opposite direction are scattered.

SPIN VALVES
If the orientation of one of the magnetic layers be changed then the device will act as a filter, or spin valve, letting through more electrons when the spin orientations in the two layers are the same and fewer when orientations are oppositely aligned. The electrical resistance of the device can therefore be changed dramatically.

Disk Drive

Tunnel Magnetoresistance
Magnetic tunnel junction has two magnetic layers separated by an insulating metal-oxide layer. Is similar to a GMR spin valve except that a very thin insulator layer is sandwitched between magnetic layers instead of metal layer . The difference in resistance between the spin-aligned and nonaligned cases is much greater than for GMR device infact 1000 times higher than the standard spin valve.

Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM)

MRAM uses magnetic storage elements. The elements are mostly tunnel junctions formed from two ferromagnetic plates, each of which can hold a magnetic field, separated by a thin insulating layer.

SRAM VS DRAM VS MRAM

SRAM
Advantage Fast read & write speed. Low power High density Fast read &write speed. Fast read &write speed. Low power High density Non Volatile Disadvantage Volatile Low density

DRAM

Volatile High power

MRAM

None ??

Datta Das Spin Transistor

The Datta Das Spin Transistor was first spin device proposed for metal-oxide geometry, 1989 Emitter and collector are ferromagnetic with parallel magnetizations The gate provides magnetic field Current is modulated by the degree of precession in electron spin

Spin Transistor
Spin transistors would allow control of the spin current in the same manner that conventional transistors can switch charge currents Using arrays of these spin transistors, MRAM will combine storage, detection, logic and communication capabilities on a single chip This will remove the distinction between working memory and storage, combining functionality of many devices into one

Electronics Vs. Spintronics

ELECTRONIC DEVICES
1. Based on properties of charge of the electron. 2. Classical property.

SPINTRONIC DEVICES
1. Based on intrinsic property spin of the electron. 2. Quantum property.

3. Controlled by an external electric

field in modern electronics. 4. Materials: conductors and Semiconductors. 5. Based on the number of charges and their energy. 6. Speed is limited and power dissipation is high.

3. Controlled by external magnetic

Field. 4.Materials: Ferromagnetic Materials. 5. Two basic spin states; spin-up and spin-down. 6. Based on direction of spin and spin coupling, high speed.

Advantage Spintronics
Low power consumption.

Less heat dissipation.

Spintronic memory is non-volatile. Takes up lesser space on chip, thus more compact. Spin manipulation is faster , so greater read & write speed. Spintronics does not require unique and specialized semiconductors. Common metals such as Fe, Al, Ag , etc. can be used.

Challenges
Controlling spin for long distances Difficult to INJECT and MEASURE spin Interfernce of fields with nearest elements Control of spin in silicon is difficult

Conclusion
Interest in spintronics arises, in part, from the looming problem of exhausting the fundamental physical limits of conventional electronics. However, complete reconstruction of industry is unlikely and spintronics is a variation of current technology The spin of the electron has attracted renewed interest because it promises a wide variety of new devices that combine logic, storage and sensor applications. Moreover, these "spintronic" devices might lead to quantum computers and quantum communication based on electronic solid-state devices, thus changing the perspective of information technology in the 21st century.

Thanks for your attention!!!

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