Physics & Astronomy Colloquium – Fall 2018 – Emori

Speaker: Satoru Emori (Virginia Tech)

Title: New Frontiers of Spintronic Materials: Metallic Antiferromagnets and Insulating Ferrites

Abstract: Spintronic devices use the spin degree of freedom in magnetic materials to store and process information. So far, most spintronic media have been metallic ferromagnets, where neighboring magnetic moments are aligned parallel and conduction electrons carry the flow of spin. This talk will present two alternative classes of magnetic materials that have the potential to transform spintronics towards faster and more power-efficient memory and computing devices.
In the first half of the talk, I will discuss key advantages of antiferromagnets, where neighboring magnetic moments are ordered in an alternating pattern, compared to ferromagnets. I will then present preliminary experimental results that provide physical insight into spin flow in polycrystalline metallic antiferromagnets. In the second half of the talk, I will show a new type of insulating magnetic oxide, i.e., pseudomorphic epitaxial spinel ferrite, in which spin flow without electronic charge motion can be excited with low dissipation. Overall, these materials pave the way for emerging frontiers in experimental spintronics, not only for enhancing digital information technologies but also possibly enabling a new avenue in quantum information science.

Speaker Biography:

Satoru Emori is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Virginia Tech. He received his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Irvine in 2008 and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013. His doctoral thesis work investigated the motion of chiral domain walls in ultrathin metallic ferromagnets. Following his postdoctoral work at Northeastern University and Stanford University, where he studied magnetization dynamics in complex oxide materials, he joined the faculty of Virginia Tech in Fall 2017. His new research group [homepage] is focused on spin transport and dynamics in model thin-film materials, ranging from amorphous metals to epitaxial oxides.
Homepage: https://sites.google.com/a/vt.edu/emori/