McGill Physics: Physical Society Colloquia

Physical Society Colloquium

Interview for Faculty Position

Spintronics: Fundamentals and Applications

Igor Zutic

University of Maryland

Spintronics is an interdisciplinary field in which the central idea is the manipulation of spin degrees of freedom in solid state systems. The motivation to examine spintronics ranges from fundamental studies, where the changes of the spin degrees of freedom can be a sensitive probe for material properties, to device applications, either not feasible or ineffective with conventional electronics.

This talk will focus on two examples: spin-polarized transport in hybrid structures containing superconductors and our proposal for spin-polarized [1] and magnetic p-n junctions [2]. In the first case, the presence of a superconducting region serves as a diagnostic tool which allows us to investigate the carrier spin polarization and interfacial transparency in various non-superconducting materials [3]. In the second instance, of inhomogeneously doped semiconductors, several phenomena with possible spintronic applications are illustrated. In particular, we predict amplification of spin density [1] and the spin-voltaic effect [2,4], where due to injected nonequilibrium spin, a charge current can flow even at no applied bias.

[1] I. Zutic, J. Fabian, S. Das Sarma, Phys. Rev. B 64, 121201 (2001).
[2] I. Zutic, J. Fabian, S. Das Sarma, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 066603 (2002).
[3] I. Zutic and S. Das Sarma, Phys. Rev. B 60, R16322 (1999).
[4] I. Zutic, J. Fabian, S. Das Sarma, Appl. Phys. Lett. 82, 221 (2003).

Monday, February 10th 2003, 16:00
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, R.E. Bell Conference Room (room 103)