Magnetic Materials for Spintronics and Magnetoacoustics

Magnetic materials play a key role in modern spintronic and magnetoacoustic technologies, offering new ways to manipulate electronic and magnetic properties for advanced applications. This CReA builds upon PDI's long-standing expertise in ferromagnet/semiconductor hybrid structures (e.g., Heusler alloys like Co₂FeSi/GaAs and Fe₃Si/GaAs) and large-scale van der Waals materials (e.g., graphene/SiC and h-BN). Over the past several years, PDI's research has expanded to include layered and 2D magnetic materials, such as FeGe₂ in magnetic tunnel junctions and Fe₃GeTe₂-based heterostructures. These efforts provide a broad materials foundation for exploring spin transport, spin-dependent interactions, and magnetoacoustic coupling.

This research aims to:

Advance spintronic materials and devices by studying spin-dependent transport, Hall effects, skyrmions, and spin-orbit/transfer torques.
Develop high-quality magnetic materials through large-scale epitaxial growth, with a focus on 2D ferromagnets exhibiting perpendicular magnetic anisotropy for room-temperature applications.
Engineer hybrid heterostructures that integrate magnetic materials with other 2D materials, such as graphene and WSe₂.
Explore magnetoacoustic effects, including non-reciprocal coupling between surface acoustic waves (SAWs) and magnetization, as well as acoustic manipulation of magnetic textures.

The development of novel magnetic materials and heterostructures will contribute to the next generation of spintronic and quantum technologies, paveing the way for innovative applications in information processing, communications, and sensing technologies.

Highlights

Above Room-Temperature Ferromagnetism in Fe₃GaTe₂ Thin Films Grown by MBE

A new study published in ACS Nano, led by researchers from PDI with collaborators from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and QZabre AG, Switzerland, demonstrates the successful growth of above-room-temperature ferromagnetic Fe₃GaTe₂ thin films using molecular beam epitaxy. The findings provide a deeper understanding of 2D ferromagnetic materials and open new pathways toward scalable spintronic heterostructures. More…

Researchers demonstrate solution for long-term challenge that has benefits for spintronics and data storage

In a paper published recently in Advanced Science, researchers from the Paul Drude Institute in Berlin, Germany, and the Xiamen University, Xiamen, China, demonstrated that ferrimagnetic NiCo2O4 (NCO) constitutes a solution for the long-term challenge of finding materials with a robust out-of-plane magnetization. More…

Third-party Funded Projects

Granted

EU Flagera (2024 – 2027): Enabling large tunnel magnetoresistance at room temperature in scalable epitaxial van der Waals magnet heterostructures (MagicTune). PIs: J. M. J. Lopes, S. Dash (Chalmers, Sweden), and R. Ribeiro-Palau (Paris, France)

Associate Partner (not financially supported)

DFG SPP 2244 (2024 – 2027): Tailoring (opto)spintronic phenomena by van-der-Waals heterostructure design, PIs: H. Lv, and H. Tornatzky

Selected Publications

2024

All-epitaxial Fe_5-xGeTe₂/graphene and Fe_5-xGeTe₂/WSe₂ van der Waals heterostructures with above room temperature ferromagnetism
Authors: H. Lv, J. Herfort, M. Hanke, C. Chen, J. M. Redwing, A. Trampert, R. Engel-Herbert, M. Ramsteiner, and J. M. J. Lopes
Published in: IEEE Trans. Magn. 60, 4100505 (2024)
DOI: 10.1109/TMAG.2024.3426954

2023

Large-area synthesis of ferromagnetic Fe_5-xGeTe₂/graphene van der Waals heterostructures with Curie temperature above room temperature
Authors: H. Lv, A. da Silva, A. I. Figueroa, C. Guillemard, I. Fernández, Aguirre, L. Camosi, L. Aballe, M. Valvidares, S. O. Valenzuela, J. Schubert, M. Schmidbauer, J. Herfort, M. Hanke, A. Trampert, R. Engel-Herbert, M. Ramsteiner, and J. M. J. Lopes
Published in: Small, 2302387 (2023)
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202302387
Underlying mechanisms and tunability of the anomalous Hall effect in NiCo₂O4 films with robust perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
Authors: H. Lv, X. C. Huang, K. H. L. Zhang, O. Bierwagen, and M. Ramsteiner
Published in: Adv. Sci. 10 2302956 (2023)
DOI: 10.1002/advs.202302956
Resonant and Off-Resonant Magnetoacoustic Waves in Epitaxial Fe₃Si/GaAs Hybrid Structures
Authors: M. Rovirola, M. W. Khaliq, B. Casals, M. Foerster, M. A. Niño, L. Aballe, J. Herfort, J. M. Hernàndez, F. Macià, and A. Hernández-Mínguez
Published in: Phys. Rev. Appl. 20, 034052 (2023)
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.20.034052

Staff Publications