Two-Dimensional Quantum Materials for (Opto)Spintronics

Van der Waals (vdW) materials and heterostructures provide a great platform for the exploration of new physical phenomena, and novel device architectures for future applications. The field known as spintronics, which leverages on the electron’s intrinsic angular momentum, can potentially provide much lower energy consumption through long and resilient data storage using magnetism, as well as new alternatives to data transmission and processing, using for example light, and quantum or topological effects. The intersection between these two fields of research - i.e. spintronics in vdW materials - is now about 15 years old and many breakthroughs have been made, with many more opportunities and lines of research arising. Nonetheless, many challenges still remain, such as the relatively low spin lifetimes, the short distances at which spin information can be transferred, the understanding of quantum and topological effects, and the issues with the scalability of this technology.

The goal of this workshop is to gather experts in the field of (opto)spintronics in vdW and related materials to find open research lines in this field, identify the main challenges in the field and pinpoint how these challenges could be overcome. We aim to focus on the fundamental aspects of the field, but without losing view on the applications in industrial settings (i.e. TRL 0-4). During the workshop we will discuss the fundamental (opto)spintronic properties of vdW materials, the combination of these crystals in heterostructures to enhance their functionalities, and new types of devices, such as spin lasers and spin-orbit torque devices.