Advancing ultrafast spintronics for future memory and computing applications
This three-year initiative is set to explore how microelectronics can benefit from the incorporation of antiferromagnetic materials, a promising spin-based technology that offers ultrafast performance.
"The semiconductor microelectronics industry is looking for new materials, new phenomena, and new mechanisms to sustain technological advances," said Jing Shi, a distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at UCR and the award's principal investigator. "With co-principal investigators at UC San Diego, UC Davis, UCLA, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, we aim to cement the University of California's leadership in this area and obtain extramural center and group funding in the near future."
Spintronics, which utilizes the electron's spin - its intrinsic angular momentum - for processing information, is central to this research. Antiferromagnetic spintronics presents a more compact and faster alternative to traditional ferromagnetic spintronic technologies currently found in memory chips and hard drives.
"With UCR leading this project, we are well positioned to compete nationally for new funding provided by the CHIPS Act," Shi said. The CHIPS Act allocates resources through the CHIPS for America Fund to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
Shi elaborated on the difference between material types, noting that while ferromagnetic materials align all electron spins in one direction, creating a net magnetic moment, antiferromagnetic materials have alternating spin orientations, cancelling out the magnetic moment. However, these alternating spins can still represent two distinct states for data storage purposes.
"The advantage of antiferromagnetic memory is higher density, as the lack of a net magnetic moment means neighboring bits don't interfere with each other," Shi said. "Additionally, memory writing in antiferromagnets is faster due to quicker spin dynamics, driven by a quantum interaction called exchange interaction."
In addition to memory applications, antiferromagnetic materials may be transformative in computing, particularly within "magnetic neural networks." Shi noted that specific antiferromagnets, known as easy-plane antiferromagnets, can transmit spin pulses over extended distances with minimal energy loss.
"These pulses can propagate information through multiple neural layers, similar to how signals are processed in biological neural networks," he said. "This is possible because of a quantum state called spin superfluidity, where spin pulses move efficiently through the material without much dissipation."
Under the title "Antiferromagnetic spintronics for advanced memory and computing," the project will analyze these unique materials and their capabilities. Research will take place in UCR's laboratories and at national facilities, including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The effort will engage multiple postdoctoral scholars and graduate students.
Reviewers described the proposal as both high risk and high reward.
"There are many challenges ahead, including innovative approaches for designing and synthesizing materials, but our team has strong expertise in antiferromagnetic material synthesis," he said. "We are confident we can overcome the challenges."
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