Since the late 1980s, several key discoveries, such as Giant and Tunneling Magne- toresistance, and advances in magnetic materials have paved the way for exponentially higher bit-densities in magnetic storage. In particular, the discovery of Spin-Transfer Torque (STT) has allowed information to be written to individual magnets using spin-currents. This has replaced the more traditional Oersted-field control used in field-MRAMs and allowed further scaling of magnetic-memories. A less obvious con- sequence of STT is that it has made possible a logic-technology based on magnets controlled by spin-polarized currents. Charge-coupled Spin Logic (CSL) is one such device proposal that couples a giant spin Hall effect(GSHE) write-unit with a Mag- netic Tunnel Junction read-unit. Several theoretical reports have demonstrated that a CSL-style device can function as a fundamental building block for neuromorphic computing by harnessing the intrinsic properties of magnets. This thesis describes the working of a CSL device. Experimental progress towards building the individual components of CSL and also our efforts to integrate these components into a CSL prototype will be presented. In addition to the integration effort, this work also explores spin-injection from a GSHE metal to a nanoscale magnet through an intermediate non-magnetic metal. Our results indicate that with the right choice of intermediate layers, the spin-angular mo- mentum absorbed by the magnet can be increased without engineering the intrinsic spin Hall angle of the GSHE metal. Finally, this work also proposes a Schottky-barrier model to describe the current flow through low-dimensional semiconductors and uses it to extract the band gap of black-phosphorus thin-films in an attempt to characterize novel 2D-materials.
","abstract_html":"<p>Since the late 1980s, several key discoveries, such as Giant and Tunneling Magne- toresistance, and advances in magnetic materials have paved the way for exponentially higher bit-densities in magnetic storage. In particular, the discovery of Spin-Transfer Torque (STT) has allowed information to be written to individual magnets using spin-currents. This has replaced the more traditional Oersted-field control used in field-MRAMs and allowed further scaling of magnetic-memories. A less obvious con- sequence of STT is that it has made possible a logic-technology based on magnets controlled by spin-polarized currents. Charge-coupled Spin Logic (CSL) is one such device proposal that couples a giant spin Hall effect(GSHE) write-unit with a Mag- netic Tunnel Junction read-unit. Several theoretical reports have demonstrated that a CSL-style device can function as a fundamental building block for neuromorphic computing by harnessing the intrinsic properties of magnets. This thesis describes the working of a CSL device. Experimental progress towards building the individual components of CSL and also our efforts to integrate these components into a CSL prototype will be presented. In addition to the integration effort, this work also explores spin-injection from a GSHE metal to a nanoscale magnet through an intermediate non-magnetic metal. Our results indicate that with the right choice of intermediate layers, the spin-angular mo- mentum absorbed by the magnet can be increased without engineering the intrinsic spin Hall angle of the GSHE metal. Finally, this work also proposes a Schottky-barrier model to describe the current flow through low-dimensional semiconductors and uses it to extract the band gap of black-phosphorus thin-films in an attempt to characterize novel 2D-materials.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Penumatcha, Ashish Verma"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Electrical and Computer Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Joerg Appenzeller","Zhihong Cheng","Supriyo Datta","Dmitri E. Nikonov"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-12-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2016-12-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:54:09Z","subjects":["Applied sciences","Black phosphorus","Giant spin Hall effect","Schottky barriers","Spin logic","Spintronics","Two dimensional materials","Electrical and Computer Engineering","Nanoscience and Nanotechnology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/986","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Joerg Appenzeller","Zhihong Cheng","Supriyo Datta","Dmitri E. 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In particular, the discovery of Spin-Transfer Torque (STT) has allowed information to be written to individual magnets using spin-currents. This has replaced the more traditional Oersted-field control used in field-MRAMs and allowed further scaling of magnetic-memories. A less obvious con- sequence of STT is that it has made possible a logic-technology based on magnets controlled by spin-polarized currents. Charge-coupled Spin Logic (CSL) is one such device proposal that couples a giant spin Hall effect(GSHE) write-unit with a Mag- netic Tunnel Junction read-unit. Several theoretical reports have demonstrated that a CSL-style device can function as a fundamental building block for neuromorphic computing by harnessing the intrinsic properties of magnets. This thesis describes the working of a CSL device. Experimental progress towards building the individual components of CSL and also our efforts to integrate these components into a CSL prototype will be presented. In addition to the integration effort, this work also explores spin-injection from a GSHE metal to a nanoscale magnet through an intermediate non-magnetic metal. Our results indicate that with the right choice of intermediate layers, the spin-angular mo- mentum absorbed by the magnet can be increased without engineering the intrinsic spin Hall angle of the GSHE metal. Finally, this work also proposes a Schottky-barrier model to describe the current flow through low-dimensional semiconductors and uses it to extract the band gap of black-phosphorus thin-films in an attempt to characterize novel 2D-materials.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Towards building a prototype spin-logic device"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Joerg Appenzeller","Zhihong Cheng","Supriyo Datta","Dmitri E. Nikonov"],"dc:creator":["Penumatcha, Ashish Verma"],"dc:description.abstract":["Since the late 1980s, several key discoveries, such as Giant and Tunneling Magne- toresistance, and advances in magnetic materials have paved the way for exponentially higher bit-densities in magnetic storage. In particular, the discovery of Spin-Transfer Torque (STT) has allowed information to be written to individual magnets using spin-currents. This has replaced the more traditional Oersted-field control used in field-MRAMs and allowed further scaling of magnetic-memories. A less obvious con- sequence of STT is that it has made possible a logic-technology based on magnets controlled by spin-polarized currents. Charge-coupled Spin Logic (CSL) is one such device proposal that couples a giant spin Hall effect(GSHE) write-unit with a Mag- netic Tunnel Junction read-unit. Several theoretical reports have demonstrated that a CSL-style device can function as a fundamental building block for neuromorphic computing by harnessing the intrinsic properties of magnets. This thesis describes the working of a CSL device. Experimental progress towards building the individual components of CSL and also our efforts to integrate these components into a CSL prototype will be presented. In addition to the integration effort, this work also explores spin-injection from a GSHE metal to a nanoscale magnet through an intermediate non-magnetic metal. Our results indicate that with the right choice of intermediate layers, the spin-angular mo- mentum absorbed by the magnet can be increased without engineering the intrinsic spin Hall angle of the GSHE metal. Finally, this work also proposes a Schottky-barrier model to describe the current flow through low-dimensional semiconductors and uses it to extract the band gap of black-phosphorus thin-films in an attempt to characterize novel 2D-materials.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/986"],"dc:subject":["Applied sciences","Black phosphorus","Giant spin Hall effect","Schottky barriers","Spin logic","Spintronics","Two dimensional materials","Electrical and Computer Engineering","Nanoscience and Nanotechnology"],"dc:title":["Towards building a prototype spin-logic device"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Electrical and Computer Engineering"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:54:09Z"}