Spintronics in low dimensional materials

PhD type: 
Doctoral School of Physical Sciences
Year: 
2019/2020
Unit: 
Fizika tanszék
Address of unit: 
1111 Budapest, Budafoki út. 8.
Description: 
Since the miniaturization of commercial electronic devices will soon reach both physical and technical limits new concepts of operations have been suggested for future electronic devices. Spintronics is one of these ideas where the spin degree of freedom is used for device operations. The device architectures proposed span a large field from spin-valves to spin qubits, where the spin degree of freedom can beused to encode single qubits. Low dimensional materials offer also novel materials for spintronics from graphene, which posses long spin relaxation length to InSb flakes with large spin orbit and the possibility of spin manipulation.
 
The goal of the PhD work is to realize and study novel spintronics devices using low dimensional materials. By combining different materials complex device structures can be achieved. For example, graphene could be used as a spin transport channel, and by placing locally WSe2 flakes on top (using van der Waals stacking method) regions with induced spin orbit interaction can be engineered. The spin transport properties will be studied by low temperature magneto transport measurements, like weak localization, spin Hall and high frequency techniques like FMR or capacitance measurements.
 
Left: Spin Hall and inverse spin Hall effect in graphene based heterostructures. Right: Spin injection using spin pumping into graphene (Source: P. Makk, D. Indolese).
 
The application of hydrostatic pressure can also change coupling between these materials or drive phase transitions. Using local gates the electrons can be confined to small islands and quantum dots can be formed. A single spin trapped in a single or double dot can be used as single quantum bit, whose state can be manipulated using high frequency techniques. During the PhD work the candidate will be involved in engineering novel spintronics devices using van der Waals stacking and realize new states of matters. The candidate will use electron-beam lithography to realize the nano-circuits (Hall bars etc.) and will study these circuits at ultra-low temperatures and using high freuqq. The work is done in close collaboration with several European universities.
Requirements: 
Knowledge of solid state physics, motivation for experimental work, English knowledge, basic programming and measurement automation experience.
State: 
Végleges
Témavezető
Name: 
Makk Péter
Email: 
peter.makk@mail.bme.hu
Institute: 
Department of Physics
Assignment: 
Tudományos munkatárs
Scientific degree: 
PhD