From semimagnetic semiconductors to spintronics and topological matter

From semimagnetic semiconductors to spintronics and topological matter Tomasz Dietl (International Center for Interfacing Magnetism and Superconductivity with Topological Matter MagTop, Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw; Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR), Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

The abundance of semiconductors in our telephones, computers, fiber optic junctions results from the possibilities of controlling their properties through doping, lighting, and applying an electric field.

For nearly half a century, Warsaw’s researchers have been growing, experimentally investigating and theoretically describing semiconductors containing magnetic dopants. In the lecture I will present several examples of the role of these materials in the development of spintronics, i.e., the use of spin for processing, storage and transmission of information, including materials containing heavy elements, in which relativistic effects lead to new quantum phenomena described by topological invariants, not by crystal symmetry.

The application of an electric field to GaN: Mn, through a piezoelectric effect, changes the distance between atoms, which leads to a change in the direction of magnetization - this effect can be detected by a magnetic field sensor using quantum interference in a superconducting loop (SQUID) [acc. D. Sztenkiel et al. Nat. Commun. 7, 13232 (2016)]

Tomasz Dietl specializes in the physics of semiconductors, low temperatures, magnetic materials, and topological matter as well as in spintronics and nanotechnology.

He is a professor at the Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, where he heads the MagTop International Research Centre, and at the Advanced Institute for Materials Research at the Tohoku University in Japan. He has gained recognition for pioneering theoretical and experimental research on ferromagnetic semiconductors and for the development of methods of controlling magnetic ordering and quantum localization of carriers.

This paved the way for new fields of science: semiconductor spintronics and topological matter physics.

He is recipient of Maria Skłodowska-Curie Award (1997), Alexander von Humboldt Research Award (2003), Agilent Technologies Europhysics Prize (2005), Foundation for Polish Science Prize (2006), the Marian Smoluchowski Medal (2010), and the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2013).

Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Academia Europaea; Fellow of the Institute of Physics of the United Kingdom, the American Physical Society, and the Japanese Society of Applied Physics.

Principal Investigator of many scientific projects including FunDMS of the European Research Council - ERC (2009-2013), Maestro of National Science Centre (2012-2016), and International Research Agendas of the Foundation for Polish Science (2017-); member of the ERC Scientific Council and Steering Committee (2011-2014).

October 17, 2020 at 12.30pm

Auditorium of the Faculty of Physics, Univeristy of Warsaw

Appreciate

Credits:

Created with an image by Jonas Svidras - "Intel 8008", Tomasz Dietl, Nat. Commun. 7, 13232 (2016)]