Abstract

Spintronics is a field that seeks to use the spin of the electron as a way to process and store information. Instead of relying only on charge, spintronics adds an entirely new dimension to electronics. Over the past three decades it has already transformed technology, especially in magnetic recording and non-volatile memories. A clear example is the success of hard-disk drives, which became widespread in the 1990s thanks to the discoveries of giant and tunnelling magnetoresistance that enabled fast and reliable magnetic reading.

Today the discipline is entering a new phase. Emerging concepts in so-called post-CMOS technologies, such as the MESO architecture proposed by Intel, aim to combine logic and memory in spin-based devices [1,2]. Central to many of these approaches is spin-to-charge conversion, a mechanism that makes it possible to generate and detect pure spin currents electrically without the need for ferromagnetic materials.

In this talk I will describe how low-symmetry quantum materials provide fresh opportunities for advancing spin-to-charge conversion. Building on our earlier work in single crystalline chiral semiconductors such as tellurium [3], I will show how twisted graphene and metal chalcogenide heterostructures with reduced symmetry display complex spin textures which lead to efficient and novel charge-to-spin conversion mechanisms. Our result offer pathways to outperform the standard metallic layers currently used in spintronic devices and bring advanced research devices closer to real applications [4].

References

[1] S. Manipatruni et al., Nature 565, 35 (2019).

[2] V.T. Pham et al., Nature Electron. 3, 309 (2020); D.C Vaz et al., Nature Commun. 15, 1902 (2024).

[3] F. Calavalle et al., Nature Mater. 21, 526 (2022); M. Suarez-Rodriguez et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 046303 (2024); M. Suarez-Rodriguez et al., Adv. Mater. 36, 2400729 (2024); M. Suarez-Rodriguez et al., Nature Mater. 24, 2005 (2025).

[4] H. Yang et al., Nature Mater. 23, 1502 (2024); Z. Chi et al, Adv. Mater. 36, 231076 (2024); Nature Electron. 8, 15 (2025).

Speaker Bio

Luis E. Hueso is Ikerbasque Research Professor and leader of the Nanodevices Group at CIC nanoGUNE in San Sebastián, Spain. He studied Physics at the University of Santiago de Compostela, where he obtained his PhD in 2002. After his doctorate he held research positions at the University of Cambridge as a Marie Curie Fellow, at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in Bologna, and later at the University of Leeds, before moving to nanoGUNE in 2008.

His research focuses on spintronics and related areas of nanoscience, in particular spin transport, spin–orbit phenomena, and the use of low-symmetry and quantum materials for novel device concepts. He has published more than 200 articles, with over 17,000 citations, and has served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Materials Chemistry C. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2016.