The wonders of symmetry in spintronics: manipulating spins with electric fields

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• Chiara Ciccarelli (Cambridge)
• Thursday 11 October 2018, 13:45-15:00
• Theory Library.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Mike Gunn.

Until twenty years ago the possibility to manipulate magnetism electrically relied exclusively on the Ørsted field generated by a current-carrying wire, a phenomenon discovered more than two centuries ago but still employed to write magnetic bits in hard disk drives and solid-state magnetic RAMs. The observation in the recent past that an electrical current passed directly into a ferromagnet can induce magnetic switching led to the development of new prototypes of memories with great potential for enhancing the functionalities of electronic logic circuits in terms of speed and power dissipation [1]. In this context the study of spin-orbit torques (SOTs) constitutes a fast moving field of experimental and theoretical physics.

SOTs emerge from the spin-charge locking established by the break of spacial inversion symmetry. This break can occur at the interface in a multilayer heterostructure or within the unit cell of a ferromagnet. In this talk I will discuss my studies on SOTs [2] and on their reciprocal effect, magnonic charge pumping [3], in inversion asymmetric ferromagnets. I will also discuss some new prospects where the break of inversion symmetry acts as a linking element that couples two states of matter traditionally considered incompatible, ferromagnetism and BCS superconductivity [4].

1. A. Brataas et al., Nature Materials 11, 372(2012). 2. C. Ciccarelliet al., Nature Physics12, 855 (2016). 3. C. Ciccarelli et al., Nature Nanotechnology 10, 50 (2015). 4. K.R. Jean, C. Ciccarelli et al., Nature Materials 17, 499 (2018).

This talk is part of the Theoretical Physics Seminars series.

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