PhD Defense: Marco Gobbi, on 24.05.2013 at 12:00
CIC nanoGUNE Seminars
- Speaker
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Marco Gobbi, Nanodevices Group, nanoGUNE
- When
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2013/05/24
14:00 - Place
- Auditorium of the Centro de Fisica de Materiales, Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal 5, Donostia-San Sebastián
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Title: "Spintronic devices based on fullerene C60"
Supervisor: Luis Hueso
Abstract:
This thesis describes the fabrication and characterization of spintronic
devices based on the combination between thin films of ferromagnetic metals
and C60 fullerene molecules.
The work begins with an introduction to the field of spintronics, highlighting
the reasons for which molecules are emerging as attractive materials for
spintronic applications. In particular, the spin scattering mechanisms are
very weak in carbon based materials, so that long spin lifetimes are expected.
First, I describe the experimental techniques used in this thesis and present
the characterization of the quality of the thin layers, in terms of transport
properties and surface roughness.
Then, I focus on two spintronic devices based on C60: spin valves and magnetic
tunnel transistors. In spin valves, C60 thin layers are sandwiched between two
ferromagnetic metals. The devices show a resistance change when the
magnetization of the metals point parallel or antiparallel, demonstrating spin
conservation across the C60 layer. The magnetic tunnel transistor has a more
sophisticated structure, described in detail. In this case the variation of
the resistance driven by the magnetic field is much greater than in the case
of spin valve. The thesis concludes with the description of a device for more
advanced study of spin transport in C60.