Presents
Spin current: The torque wrench
of spintronics
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
4:00 PM
F.W. Olin Hall Room 105
2190 E. Iliff Avenue
Presented by
Dr. Mark Stiles
Project Leader & NIST Fellow
Electron Physics Group
Center for Nanoscale Science & Technology
Spintronic devices use the spin of the electron as well as its charge. The current in these devices is spin
polarized, due to the inclusion of ferromagnetic materials, so that their conductance depends on the state of
the ferromagnet. This dependence allows these devices to serve as sensitive magnetic field detectors or as
memory elements, in which information is stored in the magnetic state. However, not only does the polarized
current depend on the magnetic configuration, but the spin current can manipulate the magnetic state. This
recent development has led to rapid progress in novel memory devices. In this talk, I mention existing and
proposed spintronic devices and describe the variety of ways in which the spin current can manipulate the
magnetization. I focus on bilayers of ferromagnetic thin films on top of non-magnetic films with strong spin
orbit coupling. Recent measurements on these systems have shown dramatic effects, but the interpretation of
the experiments is still controversial, making it a fast moving exciting field.
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Bio: Mark Stiles is a Project Leader and NIST Fellow in the Electron Physics Group in the CNST. He received a
M.S./B.S. in Physics from Yale University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from Cornell University. Following
postdoctoral research at AT&T Bell Laboratories, he joined the research staff at NIST. He is also an Adjunct Professor
in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University. Mark's research at NIST has focused on
the development of theoretical methods for predicting the properties of magnetic nanostructures. He has over 110
publications and is a frequent invited speaker at international meetings. He has helped organize numerous conferences
and has served the American Physical Society as the Chair of the Topical Group on Magnetism and on its Executive
Committees as well as that of the Division of Condensed Matter Physics. He has also served Physical Review Letters as
a Divisional Associate Editor and is currently on the Editorial Board of Physical Review Applied. Mark is a Fellow of
the American Physical Society, and has been awarded the Silver Medal from the Department of Commerce. He currently
leads multiple projects investigating the fundamental physics of nanostructures.
HOST: Dr. Barry Zink, (303) 871-3025, [email protected]
Join us for refreshments & follow-up discussions in Physics Building Room 116, 5:00-6:00 PM