Electric Control of Spin Currents and Spin-Wave Logic

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how electric fields can control spin wave dispersion in insulating magnets via spin-orbit coupling, enabling low-dissipation spin-wave logic devices at room temperature.

Contribution

It provides microscopic calculations showing electric field effects on spin waves and designs a spin-wave interferometric device for logic applications.

Findings

Electric fields significantly alter spin wave dispersion.

The proposed device functions as a logic inverter.

Potential for room-temperature low-dissipation logic circuits.

Abstract

Spin waves in insulating magnets are ideal carriers for spin currents with low energy dissipation. An electric field can modify the dispersion of spin waves, by directly affecting, via spin-orbit coupling, the electrons that mediate the interaction between magnetic ions. Our microscopic calculations based on the super-exchange model indicate that this effect of the electric field is sufficiently large to be used to effectively control spin currents. We apply these findings to the design of a spin-wave interferometric device, which acts as a logic inverter and can be used as a building block for room-temperature, low-dissipation logic circuits.