About
INTERFAST lays the foundations for a fully innovative adaptable magnetic-based computing&sensing technology, aiming at the construction of a new and competitive pillar in the race for beyond CMOS era. The technology is applied to most relevant spintronic device cases and is based on the voltage gating modulation of chemical bonding at hybridised interfaces between metallic and molecular layers. The modification of the bonding induces sizeable modification of the electronic properties at the surface of the metallic spintronic element. This unavoidably alters the most relevant solid-state parameters, among which the spin-orbit coupling. The modulation of the hybridisation is an electronic process and is accounted by ps-fs characteristic time scales, thus opening yet unexplored routes towards ultrafast information processing.
Objectives
The working scheme of the Project is constructed in forceful device-oriented way, demonstrating the competitive potential of INTERFAST on three main OBJECTIVES:
- highly efficient voltage induced magnetization switching (GHz memories and sensing)
- ultimate reduction of the switching currents in Spin-Orbit torque (SOT) devices (GHz operation)
- GHz-THz-range information processing via the Spin-Orbit Coupling control in three terminal devices
Impact
The underlying idea of INTERFAST if fundamentally and technologically innovative. From the fundamental point of view the possibility to actively modify the hybridisation between layers at the interface with an electric field was explored only in the context of chemical doping, but not in gated devices. Electrical gating will allow tuning material properties in real devices and in a range unavailable before, with an obvious benefit for the selected ICT applications. Additionally, the tuning of the interface represents by itself a powerful tool for the interface investigation – this shall further boost the understanding of the complex interface nature. This knowledge will settle the general foundations for a new physics, chemistry and material science at hybrid organic-inorganic interfaces and well beyond this case, expanding toward inorganic as well as purely organic multi-component materials.
The ability to control the Spin-Orbit Coupling via the modulation of the chemical bonding at a molecule-metal interface through hybridisation gating has the potential for fJ switching energies and GHz frequencies, while still maintaining a device structure similar to a field effect semiconductor device. INTERFAST proposes to demonstrate a suitable platform to build beyond-CMOS spintronic devices within an energy-latency space that is not accessible by conventional semiconductor-based CMOS devices.
