Research Projects

In today’s technologically driven society, there is a continuous demand for advancements in energy-efficient technology. This challenge has led researchers to seek principles for newer functionalities with minimal energy consumption. A promising approach is through manipulating electron spins rather than charge, commonly known as spintronics. The field of spintronics was pioneered with the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance by Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg, which showed that resistance in magnetic multilayers can be significantly affected by an external magnetic field. This discovery, later led to the invention of magnetic hard drives. Since then, research has focused on newer spintronic materials with advanced functionalities, aiming to reduce component size, increase operational speed, and enable performance under ambient conditions. Spintronic devices using synthetically produced magnetic nanomaterials is a promising approach in that direction. This project aims to study spin transport through magnetic nanostructures, such as magnetic nanoparticles and quantum dots, for potential applications in spin valves and spin rectifiers. The primary goal is to identify cost-effective, robust nanoscale spintronic components that can operate reliably at room temperature. Examples of such nanostructures include ferromagnetic metal-oxide nanoparticles, semiconductor nanocrystals with magnetic dopants and metals in their reduced-dimension. These nanostructures will be synthesized by high-temperature colloidal techniques, followed by standard characterization methods. Often, these nanostructures exhibit ferromagnetic ordering with Curie temperatures above room temperature, making them highly promising candidates for spintronic applications. However, a major challenge is that, these nanostructures are synthesized with long-chain insulating ligands, causing spin scattering and reducing net spin flow. To address such issue, the project aims to study monolayers to multilayers of such magnetic nanoparticles on suitable substrates via self-assembly, using organic molecules as spin-transport bridges replacing the insulating ligands. For spin valve fabrication, nanoparticles with varying magnetic coercivities will be selected such that magnetization switching between parallel to antiparallel configurations under an external magnetic field could be achieved. Adjusting nanoparticle diameter and composition, will allow precise control on the magnetic response over a wide range. Additionally, the project will also explore anisotropic magnetoresistance in monolayer to multilayers in magnetic nanostructures. And finally, the project will investigate spin diode/spin rectifier using chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) with magnetic nanoparticles bridged by a chiral molecule. This project seeks to deepen understanding of these phenomena and contribute to the development of practical, low-energy spintronic devices that could operate efficiently under ambient conditions.