Dr Daniel Sando, Research Fellow, UNSW
A key challenge in spintronic systems is to obtain carriers with very long spin lifetimes. Impurities and defects scatter electrons thus randomising their spin. One route to obtain long spin lifetimes is to use the spin orbit coupling (SOC) to implement ‘persistent spin texture’ (PST), whereby in the vicinity of certain high symmetry points in the Brillouin zone, the spin state of conduction electrons is maintained.
Here, we describe our efforts in obtaining epitaxial thin films of the candidate PST oxide material BiInO3. Oxides are attractive in this regard as they are air stable and can be tuned widely using strain and chemical effects. Our films grow with a preferred crystallographic texture, which interestingly is dependent on the oxygen pressure and temperature used during growth. The results presented here will focus on the crystal structure, optical characterisation, and surface electronic states (from XPS) of these BiInO3 films.
About the presenter
Dr Daniel Sando is a postdoctoral researcher working with Prof Nagy Valanoor at UNSW to fabricate and characterise topological materials for FLEET’s Research Theme 1 and Enabling technology theme A.
Dr Sando’s research is focused on the growth of 2-dimensional electron systems (2DES) comprising oxide perovskite materials LaAlO3 and SrTiO3, by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). A specific aim involves the gating of such systems using ferroelectrics or multiferroics such as BaTiO3 or BiFeO3. He also works on domain wall nano-electronics and magnonics using BiFeO3.