SPP 1285:  Semiconductor Spintronics

• Subject Area: Physics ; Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering
• Term: from 2007 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 26333632

The functional principle of semiconductor devices will change dramatically in the next 20 years, since quantum effects will become more and more predominant with the progressive decrease of structure size. Semiconductor industry foresees this upcoming revolution, which follows directly from Moore's law. However, until now nobody knows the functional principle of future semiconductor quantum devices. Traditional semiconductor devices utilise the precise control of the electrical charge. But the electrical charge might not be the best entity for quantum devices, since the coherence length of the spatial part of the electron wave function is very short. Besides the charge the electron also possesses a spin. The spin wave function is by orders of magnitude more stable than the spatial wave function and thereby better suited for quantum devices. Additionally, the energy for switching the spin orientation is much smaller than the Coulomb charging energy, which can reduce the heating problem of today semiconductor devices.
The utilisation of the electron spin for semiconductor devices is a rapidly growing field of research called semiconductor spintronics. Spintronics is by far more than magneto-electronics, which rests upon ferromagnetic metal layers, and targets the electrical or optical manipulation of single or an ensemble of spins. Spintronics aims towards the modification of magnetism by charge density, towards the realisation of spin-optoelectronic devices and towards novel quantum devices. Spintronics includes the research fields of traditional semiconductor physics, magnetism, device design and quantum information processing in solids. Scientific goals of the Priority Programme are
(1) the efficient injection of spin polarised electrons by para- and ferromagnetic semiconductors and ferromagnetic metal clusters,
(2) the transport of electrons across interfaces and over large distances,
(3) the controlled manipulation of the spin orientation,
(4) the understanding of spin-spin-interaction,
(5) new concepts for spin electronic and spin-optoelectronic devices,
(6) investigation of fundamentals for spin quantum information processing in semiconductors.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Israel, Russia

Projects

• Birefringent Spin Polarized Electron Optics in Ballistic Nano-Devices (Applicants Buhmann, Hartmut ;  Hankiewicz, Ewelina M. )
• Charge carrier systems with strong spin-orbit interaction (Applicant Wegscheider, Werner )
• Coherent spin dynamics of carriers and magnetic ions in semiconductor heterostructures (Applicant Yakovlev, Ph.D., Dmitri )
• Coherent spin transport in semiconductors (Applicant Beschoten, Bernd )
• Coordination of the priority programm (Applicant Oestreich, Michael )
• Crossover between 0.7-anomaly and Kondo effect - theory, transport measurements and all-optical spin detection (Applicants von Delft, Jan ;  Högele, Alexander )
• Effects of spin-orbit interaction and geometric phases on quantum coherent spin transport and spin manipulations in semiconductor quantum dots and devices (Applicant Schön, Gerd )
• Electrical Transport Involving Evanescent States in III-V Semiconductors: The Role of Spin-Orbit-Coupling (Applicant Wenderoth, Martin )
• Electron-Nuclear Spin Manipulation in Semiconductor Quantum Dots by Electrical Currents (Applicants Bacher, Gerd ;  Henneberger, Fritz )
• Experimental verification of the Spin Gunn Effect (Applicant Denninger, Gert )
• Exploring of Bulk and Structure Inversion Asymmetry in GaAs/AlGaAs Quantum Well Structures Applying Spin Photogalvanics (Applicant Ganichev, Sergey )
• Exploring the role of bound magnetic polaron like formations in tunneling transport (Applicant Gould, Charles )
• Ferromagnetic GaN based structures for room temperature spintronics: spin dynamics and spin interactions (Applicant Hägele, Daniel )
• Ferromagnetic GaN by focussed ion beam implanted rare earths (Applicant Reuter, Dirk )
• Kinetic theory of spin dependent transport with strong spin-orbit scattering (Applicant Schwab, Peter )
• Magnetization of semiconductor nanostructures with spin-orbit interaction (Applicant Grundler, Dirk )
• Majorana fermions and transport in quantum wires with strong spin-orbit coupling (Applicant von Oppen, Felix )
• Microscopic theory of spin-splittings and ballistic spin currents in semiconductor nanostructures (Applicant Vogl, Peter )
• Molecular-beam epitaxy of group III nitride-based dilute magnetic semiconductors (Applicant Trampert, Achim )
• Non-linear optical spectroscopy for studying carrier spins in quantum dots (Applicant Bayer, Manfred )
• Optical control of isolated Mn Spins in GaAs (Applicant Akimov, Ilya )
• Optically induced non-equilibrium spin transport in mesoscopic semiconductor circuits (Applicant Holleitner, Alexander Walter )
• Quantum Dots Spins in High-Q Optical Resonators: Spin Meets Cavity QED (Applicant Bratschitsch, Rudolf )
• Quantum Manipulation of Spins in Semiconductors (Applicant Belzig, Wolfgang )
• Spin-dependent electron transport in GaAs- and InAs-based nanostructures (Applicant Fischer, Saskia F. )
• Spin dynamics in semiconductors (Applicant Oestreich, Michael )
• Spin-Hall effect in 3D- and 2D-hole systems (Applicant Weiss, Dieter )
• Spin injection and detection in Silicon based heterostructures (Applicant Bougeard, Dominique )
• Spin injection, spin transport and controllable ferromagnetism in transition metal doped ZnO (Applicant Gross, Rudolf )
• Spin pumping through quantum dots (Applicant König, Jürgen )
• Spin qubits and entanglement in semiconductor nanostructures, as well as spin decoherence due to the hyperfine interaction and the spin-orbit coupling (Applicant Burkard, Guido )
• Spin transfer torque dynamics in diluted ferromagnetic semiconductor nanostructures (Applicant Schumacher, Hans-Werner )
• Spin transport and manipulation in GaAs quantum wells using surface acoustic waves (Applicant Santos, Paulo V. )
• Spin transport and relaxation (Applicant Nunner, Tamara )
• Spintronics in novel low-dimensional semiconductors (Applicant Mirlin, Alexander )
• The relation between spatial electron and spin propagation in n-type GaAs based semiconductor structures (Applicant Ossau, Wolfgang )
• Theory of spin relaxation and spin dynamics in silicon: from bulk to quantum dots (Applicant Fabian, Jaroslav )
• Transport and magnetization dynamics in semimagnetic quantum dots (Applicant Pfannkuche, Daniela )
• Ultrafast and time-resolved Raman spectroscopy of spin excitations in p-doped semiconductor heterostructures (Applicant Schüller, Christian )
• Ultrafast manipulation and quantum kinetics of spin decoherence in magnetic quantum dots (Applicant Kuhn, Tilmann )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Michael Oestreich