Creation of New Spin-Functional Materials and Devices by Renaissance of Ferromagnetic Semiconductors

By active use of not only charge transport of electrons and holes but also their spins, we can create a variety of new phenomena and functional materials. It is highly expected that these new materials and phenomena are applied to the development of next-generation electronics and information technology. This field, called spintronics, is emerging and rapidly making progress in many subfields. In this project, we focus on one of the most important materials, ferromagnetic semiconductors (FMSs), which have the properties of both ferromagnets and semiconductors, and their applications.　By solving the problems of FMSs, we explore their applications to non-volatile memory, spin-based transistors, and quantum and topological devices, which will be used for future information technology.

Shinobu Ohya, Le Duc Anh, Hiroshi Katayama-Yoshida, and Pham Nam Hai

• Kosuke Takiguchi, Le Duc Anh, Takahiro Chiba, Tomohiro Koyama, Daichi Chiba, Masaaki Tanaka "Giant gate-controlled proximity magnetoresistance in semiconductor-based ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic bilayers", Nature Physics 15, 1134-1139 (2019).
• Miao Jiang, Hirokatsu Asahara, Shoichi Sato, Toshiki Kanaki, Hiroki Yamasaki, Shinobu Ohya, and Masaaki Tanaka, "Efficient full spin-orbit torque switching in a single layer of a perpendicularly magnetized single-crystalline ferromagnet", Nature Communications 10, pp.2590/1-6 (2019).
• Shoichi Sato, Mitsuki Ichihara, Masaaki Tanaka, and Ryosho Nakane, "Electron spin and momentum lifetimes in two-dimensional Si accumulation channels: Demonstration of Schottky-barrier spin metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors at room temperature", Physical Review B 99, pp.165301/1-9 (2019).