KISS ME · Key Inorganics for Spintronics and MagnetoElectrics
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-09-01 → 2019-08-31
- EU contribution
- €123,784
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Key Inorganics for Spintronics and MagnetoElectrics
The control of electron spin and charge in materials is one major scientific quest with significant impact on society due to increasing needs for data storage densities. For instance, Giant Magneto Resistance (GMR) materials have application in magnetic hard drives that profoundly changed modern electronics. In the last years, multiferroic systems have attracted considerable attention due to the possibility of (cross-) controlling magnetization via the electric field (and respectively) with quite low power dissipation. However while multiferroics are often considered as the next breakthrough in spintronic technologies, it is admitted that all kinds of magneto-electric (ME) couplings are generally weak and exploitable multiferroic compounds are still rarities. The best candidates display to weak magneto-electric (ME) couplings (e.g. BiFeO3) or un-adapted working temperatures (e.g. TbMnO3) for extended multifunctionalities. New materials and processes are then highly reclaimed to couple more efficiently magnetic and electric fields, rather than the improvement of known materials in which limitations are already stated. An enormous development of the theory was furnished in the last years, but so far focused on a very limited number of materials. Due to the weak magnitude of the ME couplings and so rare candidates, it is the time now to think outside the box and imagine new guidelines towards efficient magnetoelectrics/multiferroics materials. Even without the coexistence of ferroic orders, the preliminary identification and quantification of the parameters responsible for strong magneto-electric effects will be an enormous progress with technological issues. For this, we propose original specific materials with strong ME effects and intrinsic multiferroic properties due to their unique crystallographic topologies, namely recent Low-D ferromagnets prepared at the UCCS and novel inspired ones. KISS-ME (Key Inorganic compounds for SpintronicS with exacerbate intrinsic Magneto-Electric potentialities) is focused on the design and characterisation of these promising compounds.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Magneto-electric (ME) materials have been attracting considerable interest for their potential application in e.g. data-storage. Up to now, applications have been hindered by the weakness of the polarization generated by the ME effect. KISS-ME relies on the recent discovery by the host laboratory of inorganic compounds built on Low-Dimensional magnetic units. Dealing with 1D and 2D topologies carrying macrospins with large magnetization, they form the ideal playground for enhanced ME properties. The applicant proposes to quantify the ME performances on such phases and on new specifically-designed ones. This will allow to deduce the ideal chemical/structural/magnetic context for giant ME. It is a prerequisite for the prediction and synthesis of optimal multiferroics, limited so far by weak ME polarization and low temperature. Our multi-step strategy includes Design, Elaboration, Crystal Growth, Structural and Physical Characterization and theoretical modeling of relevant low-D ME.Concerning the host-available samples, source of inspiration, it concerns original inorganic compounds with remarkable magnetic properties, i.e. rare examples of low-D ferromagnetic compounds with incommensurate structures, large magnetic periodicities, inorganic single-chain-magnets, and 2D-Ising FM… Their structural topologies associated with strong and sizeable spin-orbit couplings (SOC) and original spin-flip-like transitions give all pre-requisites for enhanced magneto-electric (ME) couplings and electric polarization of magnetic origin (type II multiferroics). For the conception/Design of further compounds, we have to handle individual magnetic units and well adapted spacers, according to incremental magnetic dimensionalities. In pseudo-3D phases (i.e. isolated blocks), room temperature magnetic orderings are expected, a challenging step of industrial relevance. The KISS-ME research relies on the acquisition by the host PPMS system, that the applicant will dedicate to the project.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisCoordinatorFrance
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union