SPIN-PORICS: Merging nanoporous materials with energy-efficient spintronics
SPIN-PORICS is a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (648454).

This Project aims to integrate engineered nanoporous materials into novel energy-efficient spintronic applications. Magnetic storage and magneto-electronic devices are conventionally controlled by means of magnetic fields (via electromagnetic induction) or using spin-polarized electric currents (spin-transfer torque). Both principles involve significant energy loss by heat dissipation (Joule effect). The replacement of electric current with electric field would drastically reduce the overall power consumption. Strain-mediated magneto-electric coupling in piezoelectric-magnetostrictive bilayers might appear a proper strategy to achieve this goal. However, this approach is not suitable in spintronics because of the clamping effects with the substrate, need of epitaxial interfaces and risk of fatigue-induced mechanical failure. The exciting possibility to control ferromagnetism of metals and semiconductors directly with electric field (without strain) has been recently reported, but most significant effects occur below 300 K and only in ultra-thin films or nanoparticles. This Project tackles the development of a new type of nanocomposite material, comprising an electrically conducting or semiconducting nanoporous layer filled with a suitable dielectric material, where the magnetic properties of the metal/semiconductor will be largely tuned at room temperature (RT) by simply applying a voltage, via electric charge accumulation. The porous layer will consist of specific alloys (Cu-Ni or Fe-Rh) or oxide diluted magnetic semiconductors, where surface magnetic properties have been recently reported to be sensitive to electric field at RT. Based on these new materials, three technological applications are envisaged: electrically-assisted magnetic recording, voltage-driven switching of magnetic random-access memories and spin field-effect transistors. The obtained results are likely to open new paradigms in the field of spintronics and could be of high economic transcendence.

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2023-02-16
14:32
11 p, 2.3 MB Mechanical, magnetic and magnetostrictive properties of porous Fe-Ga films prepared by electrodeposition / Nicolenco, Aliona (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Chen, Yu (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Tsyntsaru, Natalia (Institute of Applied Physics (Republic of Moldova)) ; Cesiulis, Henrikas (Vilnius University. Physics Department) ; Pellicer Vilà, Eva Maria (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Sort Viñas, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física)
Magnetostriction, known as the ability of magnetic materials to expand or contract in response to magnetic field, is a key property of Fe-Ga alloys exploited in various types of transducers. Usually, thin films of Fe-Ga deposited on rigid substrates suffer from a clamping effect that hinders the propagation of strain. [...]
2021 - 10.1016/j.matdes.2021.109915
Materials & Design, Vol. 208 (October 2021) , art. 109915  
2023-02-14
16:14
14 p, 6.1 MB Lightweight macroporous Co-Pt electrodeposited films with semi-hard-magnetic properties / Navarro Senent, Cristina (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Eiler, Konrad (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Pané, Salvador (ETH Zurich. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems) ; Sort Viñas, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Pellicer Vilà, Eva Maria (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física)
Macroporous, partially L10-ordered Co-Pt films with nearly equiatomic composition were successfully synthesized by electrodeposition from an aqueous sulfate-chloride electrolyte on colloidal crystal-templated substrates, followed by annealing in vacuum. [...]
2022 - 10.1016/j.matdes.2021.110369
Materials & Design, Vol. 213 (January 2022) , art. 110369  
2022-10-07
10:23
13 p, 3.7 MB Voltage control of magnetism with magneto-ionic approaches : beyond voltage-driven oxygen ion migration / de Rojas, Julius (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Quintana Puebla, Alberto (Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona) ; Rius, Gemma (Institut de Microelectrònica de Barcelona) ; Stefani, Christina (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia) ; Domingo Marimon, Neus (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia) ; Costa-Krämer, José L. (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Espanya).Instituto de Micro y Nanotecnología) ; Menéndez Dalmau, Enric (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Sort Viñas, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física)
Magneto-ionics is an emerging field in materials science where voltage is used as an energy-efficient means to tune magnetic properties, such as magnetization, coercive field, or exchange bias, by voltage-driven ion transport. [...]
2022 - 10.1063/5.0079762
Applied physics letters, Vol. 120, issue 7 (Feb. 2022) , art. 70501  
2022-01-11
11:26
9 p, 2.6 MB Magneto-ionics in single-layer transition metal nitrides / de Rojas, Julius (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Salguero, Joaquín (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Espanya).Instituto de Micro y Nanotecnología) ; Ibrahim, Fatima (Université de Grenoble Alpes) ; Chshiev, Mairbek (Université de Grenoble Alpes) ; Quintana Puebla, Alberto (Georgetown University. Department of Physics) ; Lopeandía Fernández, Aitor (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia) ; Liedke, Maciej O. (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden−Rossendorf. Institute of Radiation Physics) ; Butterling, Maik (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden−Rossendorf. Institute of Radiation Physics) ; Hirschmann, Eric (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden−Rossendorf. Institute of Radiation Physics) ; Wagner, Andreas (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden−Rossendorf. Institute of Radiation Physics) ; Abad, Llibertat (Institut de Microelectrònica de Barcelona) ; Costa-Krämer, José L. (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Espanya).Instituto de Micro y Nanotecnología) ; Menéndez Dalmau, Enric (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Sort Viñas, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física)
Magneto-ionics allows for tunable control of magnetism by voltage-driven transport of ions, traditionally oxygen or lithium and, more recently, hydrogen, fluorine, or nitrogen. Here, magneto-ionic effects in single-layer iron nitride films are demonstrated, and their performance is evaluated at room temperature and compared with previously studied cobalt nitrides. [...]
2021 - 10.1021/acsami.1c06138
ACS applied materials & interfaces, Vol. 13, issue 26 (July 2021) , p. 30826-30834  
2022-01-11
11:03
21 p, 859.4 KB Dynamic electric-field-induced magnetic effects in cobalt oxide thin films : towards magneto-ionic synapses / Martins, Sofia (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; de Rojas, Julius (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Tan, Zhengwei (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Cialone, Matteo (CNR-SPIN Genova) ; Lopeandía Fernández, Aitor (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia) ; Herrero-Martín, Javier (ALBA Laboratori de Llum de Sincrotró) ; Costa-Krämer, José L. (Instituto de Micro y Nanotecnología) ; Menéndez Dalmau, Enric (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Sort Viñas, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física)
Voltage control of magnetism via electric-field-driven ion migration (magneto-ionics) has generated intense interest due to its potential to greatly reduce heat dissipation in a wide range of information technology devices, such as magnetic memories, spintronic systems or artificial neural networks. [...]
2022 - 10.1039/D1NR06210G
Nanoscale, Vol. 14, Issue 3 (January 2022) , p. 842-852  
2021-06-14
12:07
24 p, 1.1 MB Strain-gradient effects in nanoscale-engineered magnetoelectric materials / Nicolenco, Aliona (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; de h-Óra, Muireann (University of Cambridge. Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy) ; Driscoll, Judith (University of Cambridge. Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy) ; Sort Viñas, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física)
Understanding strain gradient phenomena is of paramount importance in diverse areas of condensed matter physics. This effect is responsible for flexoelectricity in dielectric materials, and it plays a crucial role in the mechanical behavior of nanoscale-sized specimens. [...]
2021 - 10.1063/5.0037421
APL materials, Vol 9 (2021) , art. 020903
2 documents
2020-11-10
10:23
14 p, 542.4 KB Reversible and magnetically unassisted voltage-driven switching of magnetization in FeRh/PMN-PT / Fina, Ignasi (Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona) ; Quintana Puebla, Alberto (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Martí, Xavier (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Institute of Physics) ; Sánchez Barrera, Florencio (Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona) ; Foerster, Michael (ALBA Laboratori de Llum de Sincrotró) ; Aballe, Lucía (ALBA Laboratori de Llum de Sincrotró) ; Sort Viñas, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Fontcuberta, Josep (Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona)
Reversible control of magnetization by electric fields without assistance from a subsidiary magnetic field or electric current could help reduce the power consumption in spintronic devices. When increasing temperature above room temperature, FeRh displays an uncommon antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic phase transition linked to a unit cell volume expansion. [...]
2018 - 10.1063/1.5040184
Applied physics letters, Vol. 113, Issue 15 (October 2018) , art. 152901  
2020-10-28
13:19
15 p, 1.1 MB Structural and magnetic properties of FexCu1-x sputtered thin films electrochemically treated to create nanoporosity for high-surface-area magnetic components / Robbennolt, Shauna (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Fornell Beringues, Jordina (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Quintana Puebla, Alberto (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Zhang, Huiyan (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Menéndez Dalmau, Enric (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Pellicer Vilà, Eva Maria (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Sort Viñas, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física)
Sputter deposition is a facile and widely used technique for fabricating thin-film materials. Electrochemical dealloying, on the other hand, is a promising method for creating nanoporosity, and therefore increasing surface area, in metallic materials. [...]
2018 - 10.1021/acsanm.8b00143
ACS applied nano materials, Vol. 1, Issue 4 (April 2018) , p. 1675-1682  
2020-10-28
12:13
7 p, 2.8 MB Synthesis of α-Fe2O3 and Fe-Mn oxide foams with highly tunable magnetic properties by the replication method from polyurethane templates / Feng, Yuping (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Fornell Beringues, Jordina (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Zhang, Huiyan (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Solsona Mateos, Pau (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Baró, M. D.. (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Suriñach, Santiago (Suriñach Cornet) (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Pellicer Vilà, Eva Maria (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Sort Viñas, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física)
Open cell foams consisting of Fe and Fe-Mn oxides are prepared from metallic Fe and Mn powder precursors by the replication method using porous polyurethane (PU) templates. First, reticulated PU templates are coated by slurry impregnation. [...]
2018 - 10.3390/ma11020280
Materials, Vol. 11, Issue 2 (February 2018) , art. 280  
2020-10-28
11:57
5 p, 936.0 KB Mechanical properties of particles from the surface of asteroid 25143 Itokawa / Tanbakouei, Safoura (Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) ; Trigo Rodríguez, Josep Maria (Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) ; Sort Viñas, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física) ; Michel, Patrick (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (França)) ; Blum, Jürgen (Technische Universität Braunschweig. Institut für Geophysik und extraterrestrische Physik (Germany)) ; Nakamura, Tomoki (Tohoku University. Department of Earth Science (Japan)) ; Williams, Iwan (Queen Mary University of London. School of Physics and Astronomy)
Aims. Asteroids have been exposed to impacts since their formation, and as a consequence their surfaces are covered by small particles, pebbles, and boulders. The Japanese JAXA/ISAS Hayabusa mission collected micron-sized particles from the regolith of asteroid 25143 Itokawa. [...]
2019 - 10.1051/0004-6361/201935380
Astronomy & astrophysics, Vol. 629 (September 2019) , art. A119