Overview
The « 2D spintronics » team deals with spin dependent phenomena in two important classes of materials: Si and Ge which are the materials of today’s microelectronics and transition metal dichalcogenides which are emerging 2D materials with exceptional optical and spin-orbit properties. We are studying model systems grown by molecular beam epitaxy and their spin properties.
Research topics
Magnetism induced by manganese doping in germanium

(2005-present). Manganese doped germanium films grown by molecular beam epitaxy undergo a nanospinodal decomposition: the system spontaneously decompose into Mn-rich areas like nanocolumns. Our research focuses on the atomic, electronic structure and magnetic properties of these nanosized Mn-rich areas. We also investigate their coupling with charge carriers to induce novel magneto-transport properties.
Spin injection in silicon and germanium

(2011-present). The original goal of this topic is to build the spin field-effect-transistor (FET) made of silicon and germanium. For this purpose, we study the microscopic mechanism of electrical spin injection in Si and Ge using three-terminal devices and lateral spin valves. In particular, we have investigated the influence of interface states in the mechanism of spin injection from a magnetic tunnel junction into Si and Ge. However the missing ingredient to build the spin-FET is a sizeable spin-orbit coupling to manipulate the spin state by electric fields.
Spin-orbit effects in silicon and germanium

(2013-present). Si and Ge exhibit low bulk spin-orbit coupling and we take advantage of metal/Si and metal/Ge interfaces to create a large Rashba spin-orbit coupling to manipulate the electron spin state. Moreover, the same Rashba spin-orbit interaction can be used to generate and detect spin currents in silicon or germanium by spin-to-charge interconversion. Another class of materials we use for spin-to-charge interconversion are topological insulators like the alpha phase of tin. In these materials, spin-to-charge conversion occurs at the surface or interface: by growing these materials onto Si or Ge we aim at transferring the spin-to-charge interconversion into the semiconductor.
Van der Waals epitaxy of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) for spintronics

(2015-present). The goal of this topic is the growth of single crystalline TMDs over large areas (typically cm2) for both the study of spin dependent phenomena like spin valleytronics and for the development of new 2D spintronic devices. For this purpose, we use single crystalline substrates and the van der Waals epitaxy in a molecular beam epitaxy machine. Our efforts then focus on electrical and magnetic doping as well as on the growth of heterostructures.
The team
Former members
Post-docs
- Minh-Tuan DAU (2016-2017)
PhD
- Fabien RORTAIS (2013-2016)
Internships
- Takeo KOIKE (Sept.-Nov. 2017)
Projects
- ANR MAGICVALLEY (2018-2021)
- ANR GEMO (2008-2010)
- RTRA IMAGE (2009-2011)
- ANR SiGeSPIN (2014-2017)
- ANR MoS2ValleyControl (2015-2017)
- ANR TOP-RISE (2017-2020)
- Projet Phare CEA DRF-DRT 2D Factory (2015-2019)
- Projet CARNOT H2D3D (2017-2019)
Partners
- INAC/PHELIQS, MEM, SYMMES, Grenoble, France
- CEA LETI, LITEN, Grenoble, France
- Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS-THALES, Palaiseau, France
- Institut NEEL, Grenoble, France
- Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
- Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany
- INSA, Toulouse, France
- IJL, Nancy, France
- LNCMI, Toulouse, France
Recent news
- [POSITION FILLED] PhD topic – Spintronics with epitaxial 2D materials and topological insulators (April 30th, 2019)
Transition metal dichalcogenides (MoS2, WSe2, etc.) and topological insulators (Bi2Se3, Bi2Te3) are graphene siblings holding great promise for semiconductor spintronics. They possess an intense spin-orbit interaction that couples the electron momentum and spin. This coupling ... - Nanopoly — A FET-OPEN project (February 15th, 2019)
NANOPOLY proposes a ground-breaking yet cost effective method to extend our control over impedance and parasitic phenomena in monolithic circuit components by independently tuning electric permittivity and magnetic permeability of the integrated layers to values ... - TOCHA – A FETPROACTIVE project at SPINTEC (October 30th, 2018)
Tocha for Dissipationless topological channels for information transfer and quantum metrology, is a Research and Innovation Action FETPROACTIVE project funded by the European Commission. The goal of TOCHA, a five years project head by Sergio ... - Masters thesis projects for Spring 2019 (October 10th, 2018)
You find here the list of proposals for Master-2 internships to take place during Spring 2019. In most cases, these internships are intended to be suitable for a longer-term PhD work. Interested Master-1 students are ... - MAGICVALLEY – An ANR project (August 30th, 2018)
MAGICVALLEY stands for MAGnetism InduCed VALLEY polarization in large scale 2D materials (2018-2022). Objectives In the monolayer limit, two dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (2H-MX2, with M=Mo, W and X=S, Se) are semiconductors with a sizeable ...
Publications
[ All | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 ]
For the full list of publications See the personal webpage of Matthieu JAMET, Alain MARTY and Céline VERGNAUD.