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Proposal for an all-spin logic device with built-in memory

Abstract

The possible use of spin rather than charge as a state variable in devices for processing and storing information has been widely discussed1,2, because it could allow low-power operation and might also have applications in quantum computing. However, spin-based experiments and proposals for logic applications typically use spin only as an internal variable, the terminal quantities for each individual logic gate still being charge-based3,4,5,6,7,8. This requires repeated spin-to-charge conversion, using extra hardware that offsets any possible advantage. Here we propose a spintronic device that uses spin at every stage of its operation. Input and output information are represented by the magnetization of nanomagnets that communicate through spin-coherent channels. Based on simulations with an experimentally benchmarked model, we argue that the device is both feasible and shows the five essential characteristics9,10 for logic applications: concatenability, nonlinearity, feedback elimination, gain and a complete set of Boolean operations.

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Figure 1: An all-spin logic device (ASLD) with built-in memory.
Figure 2: Modified ASLD and its switching behaviour.
Figure 3: Possible layouts for constructing cascadable gates and clocking them.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to give thanks to M. Lundstrom for input throughout the course of this work. B.B. is grateful to Abu-Naser Zainuddin for joint development of the model for the stochastic LLG equation. B.B. would also like to thank his colleagues K. Camsari, X. Fong, C. Augustine and L. Siddiqui for scientific interactions and discussions. This work also benefited from discussions with D. Nikonov, G. Bourianoff, J. Bokor and A. Seabaugh. This work was supported by the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI).

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Contributions

B.B. wrote the paper and performed the simulations. D.D. performed the necessary calculations to include the experimental data point of Fig. S3a of the Supplementary Information in our model, and helped with the figures. S.S. helped with the design of the structure and commented on the figures. S.D. helped with writing the paper, helped with the design of the structure, analysed the data, and helped with identifying the necessary theoretical approach. All authors helped with the theoretical understanding, discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Behtash Behin-Aein or Supriyo Datta.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Behin-Aein, B., Datta, D., Salahuddin, S. et al. Proposal for an all-spin logic device with built-in memory. Nature Nanotech 5, 266–270 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.31

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