Abstract:
This thesis is focused on the new technology evolved in the electronics field based on the spin property of electron that is Spintronics, at the interface between magnetism and electronics, which is a new field of research in considerable expansion. The basic concept of Spintronics is the manipulation of spin currents, in contrast to mainstream electronics in which the spin of the electron is ignored. Adding the spin degree of freedom provides new effects, new capabilities and new functionalities.
The article describes the development of Spintronics from the first studies of spin dependent transport in ferromagnetic materials to the discovery of the giant magnetoresistance and to the most recent advances. Everybody has already a spintronic device on their desktop, since the read heads of the hard disc drives of today use the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) phenomenon to read the magnetic information on the disc.
The GMR was the first step on the road of the utilization of the spin degree of freedom in magnetic nanostructures and triggered the development of an active field of research which has been called Spintronics. Today this field is extending considerably, with very promising new axes like the phenomena of spin transfer, Spintronics with semiconductors, molecular Spintronics or single-electron Spintronics etc.
In this review article we have tried to give an overall idea about the fundamentals of Spintronics, emergence of Spintronics in the field of data storage, Spintronics in the field of semiconductor and various Spintronic devices, their applications and future of Spintronics.
