PhD Defense: Marco Gobbi, on 24.05.2013 at 12:00

CIC nanoGUNE Seminars

Speaker

Marco Gobbi, Nanodevices Group, nanoGUNE

When

2013/05/24
14:00

Place

Auditorium of the Centro de Fisica de Materiales, Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal 5, Donostia-San Sebastián

Add to calendar

iCal

Subscribe to Newsletter

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.