Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/S22455/01
Title:	Magnetic Tunnel Transistor: A Spin Electronic Device to Study Hot Electrons
Principal Investigator:	Henini, Professor M
Other Investigators:	Gallagher, Professor B L Eaves, Professor L Patane, Professor A
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Sch of Physics & Astronomy
Organisation:	University of Nottingham
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 August 2003	Ends:	31 July 2006	Value (£):	49,771
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Materials Characterisation Materials Synthesis & Growth
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Electronics
Related Grants:	GR/S22448/01
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Spin electronics is a promising technology with a huge world wide research effort. In spin electronic devices magnetic materials are used to generate spin polarised currents. Basic, all-metal devices, such as spin-valves, are already in use in disk drives, whilst non-volatile magnetic memories are being developed. These devices are based on conventional magnetic materials such as iron or cobalt. In these materials the current carrrying electrons are spin polarised by about fifty per cent at best. For logic operations, or new devices incorporating semiconductors, polarisations close to one hundred per cent are required. Candidate materials are generally either difficult to fabricate in thin film form, non-magnetic at room temperature, or both.In this proposal we aim to fabricate and study devices made from room temperature magnetic materials but utilise hot electrons - current carriers with an energy above the Fermi level. Spin filtering of the hot electrons should generate polarisations arbitrarily close to one hundred per cent. The proposed device design is a solid state implementation of the technique of ballistic electron emission microscopy and a unique aspect of this proposal is our ability to use the technique to image and characterise the performance of our devices. We shall make direct measurements of spin-dependent scattering rates, optimise the materials in the device and investigate its usefulness as a sensor, magnetic memory element and usefulness for logic. We will also test the feasibilty of injecting a very highly spin polarised current into a semiconductor.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.nottingham.ac.uk