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Department of
Materials Science & Engineering seminar series 2015
Presents
Electron tunneling: From magnetic to ferroelectric tunnel junctions
by Prof. Evgeny Y. Tsymbal
Date:
Time:
Venue:
30/01/2015, Friday
12:00 to 1:30 pm
T-Lab-05-03-19 (T-LAB LEVEL 5 MEETING ROOM 1)
Abstract
The phenomenon of electron tunneling has been known since the advent of quantum mechanics, but continues to enrich our understanding of many fields of physics, as well as creating sub-fields
on its own. Spin-dependent tunneling in magnetic tunnel junctions has aroused considerable interest and developed into a vigorous field of research. In parallel with this endeavor, recent advances
in thin-film ferroelectrics have demonstrated the possibility of achieving stable and switchable ferroelectric polarization in nanometer-thick films. This discovery opened the possibility of using thinfilm ferroelectrics as barriers in magnetic tunnel junctions, thus merging the fields of magnetism, ferroelectricity, and spin-polarized transport into an exciting and promising area of novel research.
This course of three lectures will be devoted to physics of spin-polarized tunneling and tunneling across ferroelectrics with implications following from the interplay between ferroelectric and
ferromagnetic properties of the two ferroic constituents in these junctions. One of the lectures will address the physics magnetoelectric effects at interfaces of ferromagnetic metals which can be
employed for the energy-efficient switching of magnetization in magnetic tunnel junctions.
Speaker Prof. Evgeny Y. Tsymbal
Evgeny Tsymbal is a George Holmes University Distinguished Professor at Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), Director of the NSF-funded Materials
Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), and Director of the Center for NanoFerroic Devices (CNFD) sponsored jointly by SRC’s Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI) and NIST. He
joined UNL in 2002 as an Associate Professor, was promoted to a Full Professor with Tenure in 2005 and was named Charles Bessey Professor in 2009 and George Holmes University Distinguished
Professor in 2013. Prior to his appointment at UNL he was a senior research scientist at University of Oxford, UK, a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Research
Center-Jülich, Germany, and a research scientist at the Russian Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” in Moscow. Evgeny Tsymbal is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a fellow of the
Institute of Physics, UK.
ALL ARE WELCOME!
A/P Cheng Jingsheng Host