FOR 1464:  ASPIMATT: Advanced Spintronic Materials and Transport Phenomena

• Subject Area: Chemistry ; Physics
• Term: from 2010 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 164481210

The aim of the Japanese-German Research Unit is to develop the foundations for a future spintronics with the potential to complement and succeed conventional CMOS. The specific approach lies on the development and characterisation of new spintronic materials for applications at room temperature and on the study of new spin transport phenomena, in particular lateral spin current phenomena.
The research subject lies in the field of nanoelectronics, specifically in the research area “Nanospintronics and Related Materials and Structures”. Many problems in the field of spintronics still lack good solutions, although there is very high pressure from the market side. The concept of half-metallic Heusler compounds provides a perspective for novel solutions. Heusler compounds can be designed and made with high spin polarisation and high Curie temperature, as well as, depending on the application, high spin injection efficiency, very low or high damping, tunable magnetic moment (low and high magnetic moment can be realised) and tunable anisotropy.
Thus, there is very high potential, that many material related problems, present in current-day 3d metal systems, can be overcome. A big challenge is still the handling of interfaces with respect to their chemical (atomic diffusion and roughness), electronic (e.g., Schottky barrier design) and spin properties (spin injection and spin pumping). In addition, potential for new phenomena and applications exists using novel materials in the Heusler compound family, to name here novel semi-conducting Heusler compounds to be used as non-ferromagnetic spin conductors.
To achieve this highly ambitious aim, the needed thorough experience and expertise is not localised in a single place and not even in a single country, and thus groups from two German universities, the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, combine their expertise with groups at the Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. We feel we have a working unique expertise in understanding and making Heusler compounds as the only consortium in this field worldwide, which covers the full range from the computer based design to applications in real devices.

• DFG Programme: Research Units

Projects

• Central Project (Applicant Felser, Claudia )
• Central Project (Applicant Felser, Claudia )
• Design and time-resolved magneto-optical advanced characterization of Heusler compounds with large Spin-Orbit Coupling (Applicants Balke, Benjamin ;  Cinchetti, Mirko ;  Felser, Claudia )
• Electronic structure of buried layers and interfaces investigated by high energy photoemission and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (Applicant Fecher, Gerhard H. )
• New Heusler compounds with large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and for spin-torque application (Applicant Felser, Claudia )
• Nonlinear spin-wave dynamics and radiation properties of small Heusler devices (Applicant Serha, Oleksandr )
• Spin and symmetry electronic properties of spintronics interfaces with Heusler compounds (Applicant Cinchetti, Mirko )
• Theory of the electronic and magnetic structure of advanced spintronic materials (Applicant Chadov, Stanislav )
• Thin films of Heusler compounds with high Spin-Orbit Coupling (Applicant Felser, Claudia )

• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Claudia Felser