Spintronics

Spintronics is an emerging technology exploiting the spin degree of freedom and has proved to be very promising for new types of fast electronic devices. Amongst the anticipated advantages of spintronics technologies, researchers have identified the non-volatile storage of data with high density and low energy consumption as particularly relevant.

This monograph examines the concept of half-metallic compounds perspectives to obtain novel solutions and discusses several oxides such as perovskites, double perovskites and CrO₂ as well as Heusler compounds. Such materials can be designed and made with high spin polarization and, especially in the case of Heusler compounds, many material-related problems present in current-day 3d metal systems, can be overcome.

Spintronics: From Materials to Devices provides an insight into the current research on Heusler compounds and offers a general understanding of structure–property relationships, including the influence of disorder and correlations on the electronic structure and interfaces. Spintronics devices such as magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) and giant magnetoresistance (GMR) devices, with current perpendicular to the plane, in which Co2 based Heusler compounds are used as new electrode materials, are also introduced.

From materials design by theoretical methods and the preparation and properties of the materials to the production of thin films and devices, this monograph represents a valuable guide to both novices and experts in the fields of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science.

CLAUDIA FELSER

Claudia Felser studied chemistry and physics at the University of Cologne and completed her doctorate in physical chemistry there in 1994.

After postdoctoral fellowships at the MPI in Stuttgart and the CNRS in Nantes (France), she joined the University of Mainz. She was a visiting scientist at Princeton University (USA) in 1999 and at Stanford University in 2009/2010 and a visiting professor at the University of Caen (France).
She became a full professor at the University of Mainz in 2003.
Dec, 2011 she will become director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids.
She is the chair of the DFG research group “New Materials with High Spin Polarization” and is the director of the Graduate School of Excellence “Materials Science in Mainz” of the German Science Foundation (DFG).

She was honored with the order of merit “Landesverdienstorden” of the state Rhineland-Palatinate for the foundation of a lab for school students at the University of Mainz. The materials under investigation are Heusler compounds and compounds with related structure types. In 2010, she is the distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Magnetic Society, the Nakamura lecture award of the UC Santa Barbara and she received the SUR-grant award of IBM.

Prof. Felser has written more than 200 articles and been granted several patents. Her recent research focuses on the rational design of new materials for spintronics and energy technologies such as solar cells, thermoelectric materials, topological insulators and superconductors.

GERHARD FECHER

Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry
Staudingerweg 9
D- 55128 Mainz
Germany