Electron-spin precession in an all-solid state device – SpinPress

In the past decades spintronics has been the subject of intense investigations because of both its large fundamental interest (mechanism of spin-transport) and its high potential for applications (read heads in hard drives, MRAM, etc.). Nowadays, the parallel developments of theoretical and experimental approaches allow us to take a step further. We propose to investigate an original way of the manipulation of spin carriers. More precisely, we will study the electronspin precession in a ferromagnetic metal - being due to the exchange interaction - for electron energies close to the Fermi level (EF<E<2 eV). If the electron-spin precession in this energy range has not been explored up to now this is mainly due to the experimental impossibility to inject electrons from vacuum into the ferromagnetic metal with energies below the work function of the metal. To overcome this problem we propose to study the electron-spin precession in all-solid state devices following the concept called 'lab on chip'. The relative complexity of the set of experiments we plan to perform impose us to share the experimental resources of four different laboratories having all a complementary scientific background and complementary set-ups. Basically we plan to test the critical parts of the solid-state device independently injecting electron from vacuum and then to assemble the operating parts. This step-by-step program should allow us to take right decisions concerning the thin films stacks design and thus ensure the project success.