Spin-Orbitronics a Novel Trend in Spin Oriented Electronics

Introduction. The advent of spin oriented electronics, or spintronics, in the late 1980ies has not only revolutionised the very idea of contemporary electronics but has also brought about a major technological breakthrough in the field of information storage and processing. Further progress is associated with the rapidly emerging field of spinorbitronics seeking to put to maximum use the SOC (Spin-Orbit Coupling) related phenomena.Aim. The purpose of this review paper is to outline the major trends in the dynamically developing field of spinorbitronics in the context of evolution of the mainstream spintronics. SOC related effects open up the possibility of creation of a new generation of energy saving devices, a key challenge in electronics in general.Materials and methods. A special effort has been undertaken to make the article appealing to the general reader, especially to specialists in the field of radioelectronics and data processing. To this end, in the description of the complex physics underlying magnetic interactions preference is given to simple term "naive" interpretations.Results. Apart from the analysis of the fundamental features peculiar to the interfaces between ultrathin films of ferromagnetic and heavy metals and related to strong SOC, we discuss specific configurations especially promising for application-oriented research. Among others, these include spin torque microwave (1...50 GHz) oscillators, fast domain walls in racetrack memory and especially magnetic skyrmions.Conclusion. Publication of this paper will facilitate creative interaction between the fundamental and applied research, thus contributing to the development of novel high-performance spintronic devices.Introduction. The advent of spin oriented electronics, or spintronics, in the late 1980ies has not only revolutionised the very idea of contemporary electronics but has also brought about a major technological breakthrough in the field of information storage and processing. Further progress is associated with the rapidly emerging field of spinorbitronics seeking to put to maximum use the SOC (Spin-Orbit Coupling) related phenomena.Aim. The purpose of this review paper is to outline the major trends in the dynamically developing field of spinorbitronics in the context of evolution of the mainstream spintronics. SOC related effects open up the possibility of creation of a new generation of energy saving devices, a key challenge in electronics in general.Materials and methods. A special effort has been undertaken to make the article appealing to the general reader, especially to specialists in the field of radioelectronics and data processing. To this end, in the description of the complex physics underlying magnetic interactions preference is given to simple term "naive" interpretations.Results. Apart from the analysis of the fundamental features peculiar to the interfaces between ultrathin films of ferromagnetic and heavy metals and related to strong SOC, we discuss specific configurations especially promising for application-oriented research. Among others, these include spin torque microwave (1...50 GHz) oscillators, fast domain walls in racetrack memory and especially magnetic skyrmions.Conclusion. Publication of this paper will facilitate creative interaction between the fundamental and applied research, thus contributing to the development of novel high-performance spintronic devices

Probing the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in CoFeB ultrathin films using domain wall creep and Brillouin light spectroscopy

We have characterized the strength of the interfacial Dyzaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in ultrathin perpendicularly magnetized CoFeB/MgO films, grown on different underlayers of W, TaN, and Hf, using two experimental methods. First, we determined the effective DMI field from measurements of field-driven domain wall motion in the creep regime, where applied in-plane magnetic fields induce an anisotropy in the wall propagation that is correlated with the DMI strength. Second, Brillouin light spectroscopy was employed to quantify the frequency non-reciprocity of spin waves in the CoFeB layers, which yielded an independent measurement of the DMI. By combining these results, we show that DMI estimates from the different techniques only yield qualitative agreement, which suggests that open questions remain on the underlying models used to interpret these results.Comment: 8 page

Magnetization pinning in conducting films demonstrated using broadband ferromagnetic resonance

The broadband microstrip ferromagnetic resonance technique has been applied for detection and characterization of a magnetic inhomogeneity in a film sample. In the case of a 100nm thick Permalloy film an additional magnetically depleted top sub-layer, practically unidentifiable by the conventional ferromagnetic resonance setup, has been detected and characterized. These results have been confirmed by Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy revealing the fact that the optical properties of the additional sub-layer do not differ much from those of the bulk of the film. Subsequent characterization of a large number of other presumably single-layer films with thicknesses in the range 30-100nm using the same ferromagnetic resonance technique also revealed the same effect

Anomalous polarization conversion in arrays of ultrathin ferromagnetic nanowires

We study optical properties of arrays of ultrathin nanowires by means of the Brillouin scattering of light on magnons. We employ the Stokes/anti-Stokes scattering asymmetry to probe the circular polarization of a local electric field induced inside nanowires by linearly polarized light waves. We observe the anomalous polarization conversion of the opposite sign than that in a bulk medium or thick nanowires with a great enhancement of the degree of circular polarization attributed to an unconventional refraction in the nanowire medium.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Combinations of proinflammatory cytokine genes and their interactions in Russian tuberculosis patients in the Chelyabinsk Region

Tuberculosis is a widespread infectious disease caused by M. tuberculosis, which is one of the leading causes of death  in the world.  According to numerous literature data,  this is a genetically determined disease, and genetical polymorphism is a mechanism that leads to progression from infection to clinical  manifestation. Susceptibility to infection correlates with different genes at several loci, and each individual gene plays a unique role. It is known, that  the analysis of individual polymorphic variants  of genes does not provide  a sufficiently complete picture of the  mechanisms of formation of a predisposition to multifactorial pathologies, such  as tuberculosis, since  their  development is based  on complex intergenic and  gene-environmental interactions, which  must  be taken  into  account when  predicting the  risk of developing active  forms of the  disease  and  its severity. The concept of the functioning of cytokines as biomarkers of tuberculosis suggests that their products and interactions play an important role in the immunopathogenesis of the disease, because they form a cytokine chain  with  unique  functions, where  the  removal  of any  link in the  chain  disrupts  the  entire  mechanism of the  immuno-inflammatory process.  IL-6, together with  TNFα and  IL-1β, initiate early  pro-inflammatory reactions in  tuberculosis, stimulating local  and  systemic  inflammatory reactions under  participation of all common pro-inflammatory mechanisms with further  transition to activation of acquired immunity. Earlier, we carried  out a set of studies to evaluate  the association of alleles and genotypes  of these cytokine genes with a predisposition/resistance to pulmonary tuberculosis in Russians  of the  Chelyabinsk region.  These  studies have resulted  into assessment of certain distribution patterns of IL-1β, TNFα, IL-6  alleles and their genotypes in pulmonary tuberculosis and its various clinical  forms. The following methods were used: isolation of DNA samples  from whole blood,  genotyping of the studied  gene polymorphisms using PCR  and RFLP techniques. In this study, we analyzed  the intergenic interactions of the genes for the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, TNFα, IL-6 using the method of reducing multifactor dimension in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. The program designs optimal models  of combinations for the studied  genes and their  interactions in tuberculosis patients. As a result of this study, a three-locus model  IL-6  (-174)*С – IL-1β (+3953)*Т – IL-1β (+3953)*С was established, which was characterized by 100% reproducibility and prediction accuracy of 72%. Among the analyzed  polymorphisms, the  IL-6  (-174)*C polymorphism possessed  the  highest  predictive potential with 15.27%

Immunogenetic profile of MIC (A, B) HLA loci linked to MHC antigenic complex in Russians of the Chelyabinsk Region

The MIC genes are located on chromosome 6 in the class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region and encode a membrane-bound stress-inducible protein that acts as a ligand to stimulate the NKG2D activating receptor expressed on the surface of the most natural killer cells (NK). Currently, 7 MIC loci are known, of which only MICA and MICB encode proteins and show a significant allelic polymorphism. The MIC gene polymorphism and their location in the HLA region suggests presence of some ethnic and populational differences for the gene frequencies, linkage disequilibrium of distinct loci, and distribution of HLA-MIC haplotypes, thus making it possible to get information on genetic relationship of human populations. The aim of our study was to assess immunogenetic profile of Russian population in Chelyabinsk Region based on the non-classical HLA loci, i.e., MICA and MICB, in the context of worldwide population data. Methods of the study included immunogenetic typing of 100 donors identifying themselves as Russians, taken from the Registry of Stem Cell Donors at the Chelyabinsk Regional Blood Transfusion Station. The 2 loci (MICA and MICB) were typed at basic resolution, using PCR technique with sequence-specific primers (SSP-PCR). Gene frequencies (GF) were calculated using programs for immunogenetic research (Arlequin 3.5).Among Russian population from Chelyabinsk Region, the following characteristics of the MICA gene distributions were found: MICA *008, *002, *010, *009, frequency of > 7%; average frequencies, for MICA *004, *007, *018, *017; whereas MICA *027, *011, *006, *009:02, *049, *012, *016 was registered at a frequency of < 3.5%. MICB gene profile was as follows: MICB *005:02, *004, *002, *008 at a frequency of > 6%; at a frequency of 4% MICB *003, *005:03; MICB *005:01, * 005:04, * 009N, MICB *013, *014 at a frequency of0.5%. As based on calculated genetic distances (according to Ney) for the MICA locus, the dendrogram and scatter plot were designed by means of multidimensional scaling (MDS) method, presenting location of 30 world populations, including data on Russians in Chelyabinsk Region. The smallest genetic distances between the population of Russians from Chelyabinsk Region and other world populations were found between the population of Slovenia, as well as the USA population of European origin. As based on scatterplot obtained by the MDS approach for MICA gene frequencies, using the data of cluster analysis, we have found that the population of Russians from Chelyabinsk Region belongs to a cluster of typical European populations.The obtained patterns could be used for practical purposes to create a registry of stem cell donors in Russia. In addition, the data may be used as a control group for further research in the area of HLA-disease association, and could be also demanded by the specialists in population ethnogenesis