Title: Spintronics Beyond Magnetoresistance
When: 9th October 2026, 12:00h
Where: Seminar Room – Module 0 of Faculty of Science
Speaker: Prof. Igor Zutic (University at Buffalo, State University of New York, USA)
Abstract: A change of resistance with an applied magnetic field or changing magnetic configuration, known as the magnetoresistance, has a long history dating back to the experiments of Lord Kelvin in 1857 [1]. Various forms of magnetoresistance are central to the field of spintronics focusing on the active control of spin degrees of freedom and magnetically storing information [2]. While 2007 Nobel prize in Physics has recognized the discovery of giant magnetoresistance, with magnetic layers separated by a metal, modern magnetic memories instead predominantly rely of tunneling magnetoresistance, where magnetic layers are separated by an insulator [3]. In this talk we will discuss spintronics beyond magnetoresistance, where the current focus on fast and energy-efficient changes of magnetic configurations can provide entirely different opportunities and convert transfer of spin information from magnets to carriers and circular polarization of the emitted light to realize spin-lasers and spin-light-emitting diodes [4,5]. In our work with researchers at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid [6], we also show the importance of superconductors in spintronics.
[1] W. Thomson, Proc. R. Soc. London 8, 546 (1857)
[2] I. Žutić, J. Fabian, and S. Das Sarma, Rev. Mod. Phys. 76, 323 (2004)
[3] E. Y. Tsymbal and I. Žutić (eds.) Spintronics Handbook, 2nd Ed., (CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2019)
[4] M. Lindemann et al., Nature 568, 212 (2019)
[5] P. A. Dainone et al., Nature 627, 783 (2024)
[6] C. González-Ruano et al., Nat. Commun. 16, 9524 (2025)