On the December 03rd and 4th, the SPICE team and Inspire group had an internal group seminar in the picturesque city of Bamberg in Franconia. Under the title “New Directions in the Spin Phenomena," the participants explored innovative approaches to interdisciplinary in Spintronics Research. After a nice train journey through the Bavarian landscape, SPICE-Director Jairo Sinova opened the seminar in the beautiful Barock Hotel close to the Bamberg cathedral. In the afternoon, the group had a guided tour through the old part of town followed by a visit of the famous Bamberg Christmas Market. After some Glühwein the group enjoyed traditional Bavarian food in the nice atmosphere of a quaint old town restaurant. Friday started with two workshops – one for the administrative staff led by SPICE project manager Valerie Rung and one for the scientific staff managed by our visiting postdoc Kei Yamamoto. We thank the participants for two beautiful and successful days in Bamberg.
At the meeting of the DFG senate, the new collaborative research centre (Sonderforschungsbereich - SFB) on spin phenomena (Spin+X) was approved. The Sinova Group takes part in this large scale project which unites the 30 leading groups in spintronics and spin - related research from Physics, Chemistry and Engineering at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the TU Kaiserslautern. The project is initially funded with 12 Mio. Euros for 4 years and can be extended up to 12 years.
We have the pleasure to host Maria Isabel Alomar Bennassar from the University of the Balearic Islands as our guest. Maria Isabel has been studying transport in graphene with spin orbit coupling and is currently working on her doctoral thesis on thermoelectric transport in spintronic systems. She received a mobility scholarship for scientists from "La Caixa" which she is using to visit SPICE for a five weeks scientific stay and collaborate with the INSPIRE group.
On October 23rd and 24th, SPICE hosted the 29th REIMEI and ERATO-SQR workshop. The organisers Junichi Ieda and Jairo Sinova brought together leading theorists and experimentalists to work on effects of the spin-orbit interaction and the coupling of the spin and lattice degrees of freedom in magnetic nanostructures.
Being an efficient spin current detector and generating so-called spin-orbit torques on proximity magnets, the spin Hall effect has moved into the mainstream of magnetism. The electrical and thermal actuation of the magnetization of insulators with extremely high quality factors of the magnetization dynamics has focused attention on the bosonic degrees of freedom in spintronics and the importance of the spin-lattice and spin-rotation couplings.
The scope of the workshop covered the topics:
The magnon-phonon interaction in a magnetic insulator (YIG) to better understand acoustically induced spin pumping and the spin Seebeck effect.
Materials with large spin-orbit interaction examined by combining density functional theory in the local density approximation with the quantum Monte Carlo technique.
The effects of spin-orbit interaction on the magnetization dynamics of ferro-, feri-, and antiferro-magnets and their heterostructures.
From June 29 to July 2, the second official SPICE Workshop took place in Schloß Waldthausen. An international group of 51 participants from different disciplines came together in the scenic castle to share their expertise on a new class of materials known as bad metals and its behavior in Mott Systems. This fundamental emergent physics topic is now being applied in the design and fabrication of new devices such as resistance-switching devices, novel power transistors, as well as “synaptic” devices that mimic the function of the neuron, to name just a few of the possibilities. Yet, The so-called “Bad-metal” behavior phenomenon is often viewed as one of the key unresolved signatures of strong correlation physics. Thirty-two invited speakers from different European countries, Japan, the USA, China, India and Brasil contributed their perspectives on the fundamental issues associated with the new type of phase transition observed in Bad Metals, and its many consequences for material science and technology. Furthermore, 19 poster presentations and four tutorials were given.
From May 22 to 26, the SPICE Workshop on Computational Quantum Magnetism took place. The who is who of researchers in the field met in the scenic setting of Schloß Waldthausen which lies in Lennebergwald, a natural reserve in immediate vicinity to Mainz. 64 participants from 42 affiliations in 19 countries came together to spent five days working on the most advanced computational techniques to study complex magnetic materials to examine the latest developments and challenges. The intensive program covering a wide range of aspects connected to Computational Quantum Magnetism incorporated various scientific talks and tutorials, as well as a poster session with numerous contributions from the students.
Director of SPICE Sinova, JGU President Krausch and State Secretary Deufel – View the JGU press release.
Yesterday, Prof. Dr. Georg Krausch, the president of Johannes Gutenberg-Universität and Prof. Dr. Jairo Sinova, director of SPICE, inaugurated the Spin Phenomena Interdisciplinary Center at the festive opening ceremony in the tradition-steeped hall of Atrium Maximum. After more than a year of getting settled and building up the Center, Sinova and his team now officially start tackling their mission. In his speech, Sinova defined that mission as the advancement of spin related materials science by globally connecting nature, cultures and people. The ambitious goal that Sinova has set for the next five years is to reduce the time span between scientific discoveries that require multiple disciplines. SPICE has set out to accomplish this by initiating and promoting the systematical interdisciplinary integration of complementary fields.
Sinova particularly stressed his appreciation for the support this project receives from JGU, Rheinland-Pflanz and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. These ideal conditions, he said, enabled him to pursue this goal and to make a contribution to establishing Mainz as a magnet for international top scientists and as a globally renowned center of materials science. In his welcome speech, President Krausch pointed out the outstanding job the Ministry has done facilitating Sinova's transfer from Texas A&M to JGU and wished SPICE a good start and success for the realisation of its vision.
It was an honour for Prof. Dr. Sinova and Prof. Dr. Krausch to welcome Dr. Hesse, the general secretary of the Humboldt Foundation and State Secretary Deufel from the Ministry of Science, Education and Culture of Rheinland-Pfalz. Both gave speeches expressing their esteem for Humboldt Professor Sinova and for JGU as a location of scientific excellence and wished the SPICE team all the best on their mission. Last but not least, Prof. Dr. Neubert, director of the MITP and coordinator of the PRISMA Cluster of Excellence announced plans for a synergetic collaboration between the MITP and SPICE. He pointed out the parallels between Sinova and himself. He too is a member of the Humboldt family, he too spent most of his career in the US and he shares the enthusiasm for teamwork and networking, Sinova appealed to when he said:
"It is together that we can globally connect nature, cultures, and people. It is together that we can make Mainz and Germany a magnet for the top dynamic scientists in the world. It is together that we can move minds and cross boundaries."
AvH General Secretary Hesse and Mathias Neubert, Director of the MITP and PRISMA Coordinator
In a matter of minutes, the desktop of the physicist was turned into a chef's countertop.
Today the SPICE organizational team and Matthias Neubert, Director of the Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Heidi Stein, Head of Administration and Tobias Hurth, MITP Scientific Coordinator, met to discuss possibilities of intensifying the collaboration between the two research Centers and exploring potential synergies. All this while taking a nine course culinary tour through Sinova's home country, Spain. Besides research and teaching, making work a fun and entertaining experience is one of Sinova's great passions.
We are very happy to have Professors Ora Entin-Wohlman and Amnon Aharony from Tel Aviv University/Ben Gurion University as our guests. Prof. Entin-Wohlman gave a talk on “Thermoelecticity in nano-junctions” and Prof. Aharony shared his knowledge about "how to write and read quantum information on mobile qubits."
We had the pleasure to welcome Thierry Valet on February 11 and 12. If it was that he was not completely unaware of German Carnival traditions, we do not know. In any case, he was lucky not to wear a tie when he took off for a meeting with Jairo Sinova and Matthias Kläui. Mr Valet is known for the Valet-Fert Theory and Model on giant magnetoresistance in CPP geometry and the application of his research in spin engineering.
