The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is advancing the Optical and Microwave Spectroscopy of Microelectronic Systems program to better understand and measure critical parameters of spintronic devices and materials. This research is crucial for developing next-generation non-volatile magnetic memories and logic devices with low energy consumption.
Key aspects of the program include:
1. Using advanced microwave and optical spectroscopy techniques to measure exchange interactions, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, and spin-mixing parameters in ultra-thin films at the nanoscale.
2. Investigating spin transfer and spin-wave propagation in magnetic materials and structures, with potential applications in magnonic devices and heat transport engineering.
3. Discovering ultra-low damping in magnetic metals and half-metals, which is essential for reducing power consumption in magnetic memory devices. This was enabled by developing a highly sensitive ferromagnetic resonance spectrometer.
4. Establishing new measurement approaches using Brillouin light scattering to locally measure exchange interactions in ultra-thin films, potentially for inline wafer inspection in microelectronic fabrication facilities.
Partnerships with industry leaders have led to new insights and tools for magnetic metrology, while collaborations with academic institutions have facilitated groundbreaking discoveries in fundamental magnetization dynamics and band structure analysis.
Source: https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/optical-and-microwave-spectroscopy-microelectronic-systems
Keywords: Spectroscopy, Spintronic devices, Magnetic interactions
