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Analysis of noise and fluctation induced phenomena in spintronic and semiconductor nanodevices
Objectives
This project is aimed at providing a comprehensive analysis of noise and fluctuations induced phenomena in various spintronic and semiconductor nanodevices with direct relevance to random access memories and hard disk drives.
The first major objective of our proposal is to address the urgent needs of magnetic data storage technology for reliable alternatives to the current paradigm of magnetic data storage which is approaching its fundamental limits for areal storage density due to its thermal instabilities (super-paramagnetic effects). As a result, several magnetic recording alternatives, such as spin polarized current assisted recording, toggle switching, precessional switching, and heat assisted recording will be analyzed in this project with a special emphasis on the thermal stability of novel storage designs and the noise effects on novel recording process. A secondary objective in this research area is to analyze the impact of these alternative techniques for developing Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) into a Universal Memory, and, consequently, spin torque transfer (STT) MRAM, toggle (T) MRAM, precessional (P) MRAM, and heat assisted (HA) MRAM will be subsequently addressed and compared.
The second major objective is the analysis of random doping, geometric fluctuation and noise effects on threshold voltage, frequency response and other characteristics in metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET). These random fluctuations from one device to another or even within the device itself (such as the doping case) lead to significant fluctuations of threshold voltage, as well as of terminal and frequency response of MOSFET devices which limits the advances in the semiconductor devices. We aimed at developing and implementing an accurate statistical technique for the analysis of random doping, geometrical fluctuation, and noise induced effects in ultra-small semiconductor devices, as well as their implications for the design of reliable semiconductor random access memory.
The third major objective of the project is the investigation of potential benefits of noise in spintronic and semiconductor devices. These potential benefits of noise seem contradictory to our intuition and that is why they have been overlooked by the researchers for a long time. However it has been recently realized that the constructive role of noise is pretty common in nonlinear stochastic systems and it has been applied in many areas since then, from signal processing to climate modeling. Our preliminary results prove the existence of such constructive effects of noise in various systems with memory, where some resonant response to the noisy input is activated. In conclusion, we see a tremendous potential in this area of research and we aim at exploring it extensively within this project.
An interesting question addressed by this project is related to the technological use for these constructive effects of noise in nonlinear systems, such as the possibility to use the energy extracted from noise by such systems.
This project is also aimed at consolidating our young research team and expanding its international visibility, as well as at strengthening the collaboration established between our group and five international laboratories during the reintegration project of the proposal director.