Center for spinelectronic materials and devices (CSMD)
Scope of CSMD
Research in spinelectronics recently has produced
amazing results on new physical effects such as the
field-free switching of the magnetization by spin currents,
the discovery of new ferromagnetic materials with 100% spin
polarization at the Fermi level, their integration in
Magnetic Tunnel Junctions (MTJs), new spin dependent
thermoelectric effects, memristive behavior of tunnel
junctions and even a new material class for topological
insulators. In particular, new materials such as Heusler
alloys have a substantial share of this progress in science.
Many groups worldwide have an urgent need for high quality
samples in order to further develop the materials and/or
characterization techniques. There are, however, only a
small number of teams scattered around the world capable of
providing such bulk-, thin film- or device-samples.
CSMD has been funded from July 2013 through June 2015 by the
Ministerium für Innovation, Wissenschaft und Forschung of
North Rhine-Westphalia to initiate a highly
competitive and complete plattform of expertise and
technology in this field. External research groups of
academia and industry interested in driving spinelectronics
forward and creating new products can be supplied with
consulting as well as with custom-designed samples of new
materials such as Heusler alloys and devices such as
magnetic tunnel junctions.
Offers of CSMD
Materials and Thin Films
In particular, new ternary and quaternary
materials from the Heusler family can be prepared and
characterized.
For the development of new materials rational design by
computer simulations (DFT) is employed to screen for
anticipated properties such as spin polarisation, magnetisation,
anisotropy or magnetic damping. With state-of-the-art thin film
deposition and analysis tools ranging from sputter- via e-beam- to
MBE-deposition advanced thin film systems can be
prepared, characterised and supplied to interested groups to
experimentally verify the theoretical material screening.
The technological plattform includes an industrially
relevant system for preparation of thin film systems
on large substrates.
Devices
For experiments on devices, the Center provides
the integration of newly developed thin film materials in
magnetic
tunnel junctions (MTJs) which can be patterned down to a
size below 100nm by e-beam lithography.
The Center supplies layout proposals to interested
researchers and subsequently customized samples for
experiments on,
e.g., dynamics or transport. Samples can be
pre-characterized in CSMD by, e.g., structural and static
transport
measurements.
Applications
CSMD is open for contributing to the
development of industrially relevant prototypes for a
variety of
application fields:
* Non volatile Random Access Memories based on Spin Transfer
Torque
* Related and field programmable magnetic logic gates
* Magnetic Sensors with high sensitivity to detect
ultrasmall magnetic fields
* Sensor arrays for magnetic cameras to scan information in,
e.g., security systems for product control
* Sensors for magnetoresistive Biochips capable to detect
small concentrations of, e.g., antibodies, DNA sequences or
proteins.
Contact
CSMD supplies both support in the
development as well as samples to research groups or
companies interested in developing and/or using
state-of-the-art spinelectronic materials and (prototype) devices.
The collaboration can be organized in direct contracts or
within funded projects.
Interested? Use the contact form on this page or send an
e-mail to:
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Markus Meinert (CEO, meinert@physik.uni-bielefeld.de)
or
Prof. Dr. Günter Reiss (reiss@physik.uni-bielefeld.de)