News in Press-centre

Maxim Stebliy, the researcher at the Laboratory of Thin Film Technologies, Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) School of Natural Sciences, won a grant of the Russian Federation President for the support of young scientists. The PhD in Physics & Mathematics will receive two years’ funding for the study and improvement of ultrathin materials for the new type of electronics—Spintronics.

According to Maxim Stebliy, the ultra-thin materials, based on combining semiconductors with magnetic materials, will soon find wide application in a new type of electronic devices. They will be used in the elements of non-volatile magnetic memory and logic, high-sensitivity sensors, biomedical sensors, ultrafast systems of information processing, and artificial intelligence.

“The technology of semiconductor-based electronic elements has nearly reached its limit both in terms of the minimum size and power consumption,” explains the young scientist. “One of the promising directions for the development of electronic circuit elements of digital technologies is Spintronics. Its key goal, and still unresolved one, remains the magnetic configuration control of nanoscale objects.”

Within two years the researcher plans to achieve three important scientific objectives. Firstly, to offer an explanation of the current-induced magnetization reversal mechanism in the film structures of Ruthenium-Cobalt-Ruthenium (Ru/Co/Ru). Secondly, to reduce the current density, and thirdly, to find a way to simplify the technology and to remove a magnetic bias field from the system.

“To solve these problems, nobody previously has considered the method of magnetic anisotropy change and easy axis magnetization reversal. That's exactly what we plan to undertake under the President's grant we have won,” pointed out Maxim Stebliy.

The research associates and postgraduate students of the FEFU Thin Film Technology Laboratory will be the contributors to the works to be done. As we have informed, this year they managed to obtain the world's first polycrystalline three-layer Ruthenium-Cobalt-Ruthenium (Ru/Co/Ru) films with the magnetic layer of just four atomic layers thick, i.e. less than one nanometer. Scientists estimate that an ordinary person might feel the emergence of such hybrid structures in a few short years by buying a smartphone that will work for weeks without charging.