Opening Remarks



**Speaker:** 
Stuart Parkin, Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics, Germany

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/f712248fc0bf460eb0ab5dd289d20bb7.png)

**Biography:**

Stuart Parkin is a Director of the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics, Halle, Germany, and an Alexander von Humboldt Professor, Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg. His research interests include spintronic materials and devices for advanced sensor, memory, and logic applications, oxide thin-film heterostructures, topological metals, exotic superconductors, and cognitive devices. Parkin’s discoveries in spintronics enabled a more than 10000-fold increase in the storage capacity of magnetic disk drives. For his work that thereby enabled the “big data” world of today, Parkin was awarded the Millennium Technology Award from the Technology Academy Finland in 2014 (worth 1,000,000 Euro) and, most recently the King Faisal Prize for Science 2021 for his research into three distinct classes of spintronic memories. Parkin is a Fellow/ Member of: Royal Society (London), Royal Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, German National Academy of Science - Leopoldina, Royal Society of Edinburgh, Indian Academy of Sciences, and TWAS - academy of sciences for the developing world. Parkin has received numerous awards including the American Physical Society International Prize for New Materials (1994); Europhysics Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Solid State Physics (1997); 2009 IUPAP Magnetism Prize and Neel Medal; 2012 von Hippel Award - Materials Research Society; 2013 Swan Medal - Institute of Physics (London); Alexander von Humboldt Professorship − International Award for Research (2014); ERC Advanced Grant - SORBET (2015).

**Abstract:**

Today we live in a digital world in which vast quantities of digital data are generated and stored in the cloud. These data have allowed for transformations of nearly all aspects of our lives in just a decade or so. Much of this digital data is stored in magnetic hard disk drives, a fifty-year-old technology that relies on the mechanical motion of a recording read-write head across a whirling disk covered with a thin magnetic film. This talk discusses the physics of a novel disruptive technology, Racetrack Memory, derived from the emerging field of chiral spintronics that could replace magnetic disk drives. Racetrack Memory is a dense, high performance, low energy consuming, non-volatile solid-state memory-storage technology, that stores digital data in the form of the presence or absence of chiral domain walls. These magnetic domain walls are moved by spin currents, to and thro, along magnetic racetracks to reading and writing elements, thereby allowing for digital storage densities 100 times greater than is possible in today’s charge-based memory technologies. Racetrack Memory is made possible by remarkable recent discoveries in spin-based phenomena that rely on spin-orbit coupling. These make possible the current induced motion of series of chiral domain walls at high speeds that exceed 1,000 m/s in atomically engineered synthetic antiferromagnetic racetracks. The same type of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya exchange interactions that stabilize chiral Néel domain walls in such racetracks also enable the formation of topological spin textures such as spin helices and skyrmions. Recently we have discovered magnetic antiskyrmions and elliptical Bloch skyrmions in a family of tetragonal Heusler compounds. These magnetic nano-objects have unique properties that make them highly attractive as potential storage elements in racetrack memories. Finally, we discuss our recent discovery of fractional skyrmions and anti-skyrmions.

Chiral materials for spintronic memories


**Speaker:** Regina Dittmann, Jülich Research Centre, Germany

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/885333d7d4e88e11c46686cef94580d9.jpg)

**Biography:**

**Academic education and degrees**

1994  -  PhD in physics, University Gießen „Investigation of the current transport in HTSL Josephson junctions with SrRuO3 barrier“

1990–1994  -  PhD student at Institut für Schicht- und Ionentechnik, Forschungszentrum Jülich
1990 Diploma in physics, University of Cologne „Magnetic moments and diamagnetic fluctuations in Bi-(Pb-)Sr-Ca-Cu-O“

1985–1990  -  Study of physics at University of Cologne

**Professional carreer**

Since 2016  -  Deputy director PGI-7

Since 2012  -  W2 professor and chair of „Technologie of Oxide Electronics“ at the faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, RWTH Aachen University and group leader „Pulsed Laserdepositon of oxide thin films“ at PGI-7

2002-2012  -  Young Investigator group leader at Forschungszentrum Jülich

1994–2002  -  Post-doc and project leader at Forschungszentrum Jülich

**Awards**
September 2011  -  Awarded by the „W2/W3 program“ of the „Impuls- und Vernetzungsfonds“ of the Helmholtz Society

July 2001  -  Awarded by the „Tenure-Track“ excellence program of the Forschungszentrums Jülich

**Abstract:**

Memristive devices have been a hot topic in nanoelectronics for the last two decades in both academia and industry. Originally proposed as digital (binary) non-volatile random access memories, research in this field was predominantly driven by the search for higher performance solid-state drive technologies (e.g., Flash replacement) or higher density memories (storage class memory). However, based on their large dynamic range in resistance with analog tenability along with complex switching dynamics, memristive devices enable revolutionary novel functions and computing paradigms. In this talk, we will present the current knowledge about the switching and failure mechanisms in different variants of redox-based memristive elements. In particular, we will show direct experimental evidence of the redox-processes gained by in-operando spectroscopy and microscopy. Using the quantitative numbers gained from these experiments as input for existing simulations offers a route to less empirical and more predictive models for memristive devices. Based on the microscopic understanding gained from operando spectroscopy and microscopy, we will show approaches for rational design of material stacks with tailored properties for novel computing paradigm. 

Rational design of redoxed-based memristive devices for novel computing paradigm



**Speaker:** 
Manuel Bibes, CNRS Unité Mixte de Physique, France

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/86f9e7cb6c65bafdc2bcff9553878a71.jpg)

**Abstract:**

After 50 years of exponential increase in computing efficiency, the technology of today’s electronics is approaching its physical limits, with feature sizes smaller than 10 nm. New schemes must be devised to contain the ever-increasing power consumption of information and communication systems, which requires the introduction of non-traditional materials and new state variables. As recently highlighted, the remanence associated with collective switching in ferroic systems is appealing to reduce power consumption1. A particularly promising approach is spintronics, which relies on ferromagnets to provide non-volatility and to generate and detect spin currents. However, magnetization reversal by spin transfer torques is a power consuming process. This is driving research on multiferroics to achieve a low-power electric-field control of magnetization, but practical materials are scarce and magnetoelectric switching remains difficult to control. In this talk, we will propose an alternative strategy to achieve low-power spin detection and generation, in non-magnetic systems combining ferroelectricity and Rashba spin-orbit coupling2. We will describe various materials strategies based on single materials, multilayers and two-dimensional electron gases. In particular we will show results on SrTiO3-based electron gases in which a large electric field induces a ferroelectric-like state that enables a non-volatile control of its spin-orbit properties and spin-charge conversion capabilities3. We will also present data on a ferroelectric Rashba semiconductor, GeTe, with which a ferroelectric control of spin-charge conversion is achieved at room temperature4. These observation open the way to the electric-field control of spin currents and to ultralow-power spintronics, in which non-volatility would be provided by ferroelectricity rather than by ferromagnetism.
References 

1.	Manipatruni, S. Beyond CMOS computing with spin and polarization. Nature Phys 14, 6 (2018).

2.	Varignon, J., Vila, L., Barthélémy, A. & Bibes, M. A new spin for oxide interfaces. Nature Phys 14, 322–325 (2018).
	
3.	Noël, P. et al. Non-volatile electric control of spin–charge conversion in a SrTiO3 Rashba system. Nature 580, 483–486 (2020).

4.	Varotto, S. et al. Room-temperature ferroelectric switching of spin-to-charge conversion in GeTe. arXiv:2103.07646 cond-mat (2021).



Ferroelectric control of Rashba states: towards non-volatile spintronics driven by ferroelectricity


**Speaker:** 
Greg Yeric, Cerfe Labs

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/c8d00e097df52ed47faf255c39650d6d.png)

**Biography:**

Greg earned a Ph.D. in microelectronics from The University of Texas at Austin.   He initially worked in process integration for embedded Flash memory at Motorola’s Advanced Products Research and Development Labs (APRDL), then moving to a test chip design startup (TestChip Technologies) which was acquired by a yield improvement company, at which he became Chief Technologist, which was eventually acquired by Synopsys.  After Synopsys, Greg spent 12 years at Arm Research, at which he became an Arm Fellow, focusing on the interactions between new technology and design.  This included sponsoring academic research in a variety of promising device research areas, one of which was a novel materials-to-memory research program.  As this program progressed, it was eventually decided that the best course of action was to create Arm’s first spin out:  Cerfe Labs.   Cerfe Labs is commercializing two promising memory devices:  a ferroelectric memory compatible with modern CMOS process nodes and an entirely new memory based on correlated electron effects (CeRAM).

**Abstract:**

The semiconductor industry has been able to drive the MOS device along an amazing decades-long period of advancement.  Advancing down that road is now extremely difficult, and many think the end of the road is near.  At the same time, these advances have ushered in a digital economy which is consuming non-trivial amounts of the global energy supply, and forecasts are for continued exponential growth.  Therefore, it is a global imperative that we accelerate the development of more efficient computing devices, which will need to be enabled by something other than “shrinking the MOS”.  This moment puts novel materials development at a point of critical importance, and specific to this conference, for computing systems today energy efficiency is increasingly more about the memory than the logic. There is a great deal of promising R&D in improved memory devices based on new materials, as this conference highlights.  But is the development path from R&D labs to manufacturing fabs as efficient as it could be?  Because this question has direct societal impact, are there investments at the national level that could improve the answer to this question?  Greg will offer his opinion.
Update:  Between the time of committing to this talk and the talk itself, Greg changed his career (see bio) so that he is directly involved in the materials to memory field.  So, in addition to providing the general motivation discussion above, he will include an update on Cerfe Labs’ memory technologies and plans. 




Materials to memory: why and how


**Speaker:** 
Philip Wong, TSMC Stanford, USA 

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/b1ccfa0db905ae7647ba0e7fae91c166.jpg)

**Biography:**

H.-S. Philip Wong is the Willard R. and Inez Kerr Bell Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University. He joined Stanford University as Professor of Electrical Engineering in September, 2004. From 1988 to 2004, he was with the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. From 2018 to 2020, he was on leave from Stanford and was the Vice President of Corporate Research at TSMC, the largest semiconductor foundry in the world. Since 2020, he has been the Chief Scientist of TSMC. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and received the IEEE Electron Devices Society J.J. Ebers Award for “pioneering contributions to the scaling of silicon devices and technology.” 

**Abstract:**

I will give an overview of our research on analog memory for neuromorphic computing and analog data storage.

Analog memory: materials, devices, applications


**Speaker:** 
Daniel Worledge, IBM Research, Almaden Research Center

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/10cbdb7f06865bb914db6dca2e2559d3.jpg)

**Bio:**

Dr. Worledge received a BA with a double major in Physics and Applied Mathematics from UC Berkeley in 1995, receiving the Department Scholar Award in physics and the Dorothea Klumpke Roberts Prize in mathematics.  He then received a PhD in Applied Physics from Stanford University in 2000, with a thesis on spin-polarized tunneling in oxide ferromagnets, measuring the largest tunneling spin-polarization in (LaSr)MnO3 and the first negative tunneling spin-polarization in SrRuO3.  After joining the Physical Sciences Department at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center as a Post-doc in 2000, he became a Research Staff Member in 2001, inventing and developing Current-in-Plane Tunneling as a fast turn-around measurement method for magnetic tunnel junctions.  In 2003, Dr. Worledge became the manager of the MRAM Materials and Devices group, and in 2013 he became Senior Manager of MRAM.  In 2014 he was promoted to Principle Research Staff Member and in 2015 to Distinguished Research Staff Member.  He has worked on developing Toggle and then Spin Torque MRAM, including discovering perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Ta|CoFeB|MgO, and leading the IBM team that developed perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions and demonstrated the first integrated perpendicular spin torque MRAM, with ultra-low bit error rate.  His current research interests include magnetic devices and their behavior at small dimensions, magnetic devices for logic applications, and new hardware approaches to machine learning.  Dr. Worledge has received four IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards and the IBM Research Client Award.

**Abstract:**

Spin-Transfer-Torque MRAM was invented at IBM by John Slonczewski in the early 1990s.  By using a spin-polarized current, instead of a magnetic field, to write a magnetic free layer in a magnetic tunnel junction, the required write current naturally decreases with area, providing attractive technology scaling.  The discovery of high magnetoresistance in MgO tunnel barriers at IBM by Stuart Parkin, and later independently by Shinji Yuasa, enabled sufficient read signal to efficiently read magnetic tunnel junctions.  The discovery of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in thin CoFeB/MgO layers at IBM and independently by Tohoku University enabled a dramatic reduction in the switching current, and opened the way to practical perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions for dense Spin-Transfer-Torque MRAM.  

This talk will provide an overview of Spin-Transfer-Torque MRAM, including the three basic building blocks described above.  I’ll give an introduction to the basic physics of spin-transfer torque and applications of Spin-Transfer-Torque MRAM.  Then I will review why perpendicular magnetic anisotropy is advantageous for MRAM compared to in-plane anisotropy, and the materials challenges of perpendicular anisotropy.  I will discuss the research at IBM in 2009 that led to our discovery of perpendicular anisotropy in thin CoFeB/MgO layers, and our use of these layers to make the first practical perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions and the first demonstration of reliable writing in Spin-Transfer-Torque MRAM.  Finally I will review our recent results on methods to lower the switching current of Spin-Transfer-Torque MRAM by using optimized magnetic materials and double magnetic tunnel junctions, and our recent demonstration of the world’s first 14 nm node MRAM.  


Spin-transfer-torque MRAM


**Speaker:** 
Antonio Castro Neto, National University of Singapore, Singapore

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/87cb97fd2230b020a6d544c29ed8e9fe.jpg)

**Biography:**

Prof. Antonio H. Castro Neto got his Ph.D. in Physics at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1994. His thesis studied the fundamentals of the theory of metals. In 1994, he moved to the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara as a postdoctoral fellow where he dedicated his attention to low dimensional materials. In 1995, he became an Assistant Professor at University of California at Riverside where he wrote fundamental work on the theory of disordered materials. In 2000, he moved to Boston University as Professor of Physics. In Boston, Prof. Castro Neto became one of the leading scientists in the study of graphene and other two-dimensional materials. Since 2010, Prof. Castro Neto has been the Director of the Graphene Research Centre and in 2014 he became Director of the Centre for Advanced 2D Materials funded by the National Research Foundation of Singapore. In 2021, Prof. Castro Neto became the co-director (together with Prof. Kostantin Novoselov, Nobel 2010) of the Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials funded by the Ministry of Education, Singapore. 

Prof. Castro Neto is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Material Science Engineering and Physics, he is also Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at the National University of Singapore. In 2003, Prof. Castro Neto was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and in 2011 he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Prof. Castro Neto is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Science of Singapore and of the Brazilian Academy of Science. 

Prof. Castro Neto was awarded the 11th Ross J. Martin Award by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the University of California Regent Fellowship; the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship; the visiting Miller Professorship by the University of California, Berkeley; the visiting Gordon Godfrey Professorship by the University of New South Wales, Australia; the Distinguished Visiting Chair Professor at the SKKU Advanced Institute of Nano-Technology (SAINT), South Korea; the Hsun Lee Lecture Award by the Institute of Metal Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences; and Kramers Professorship at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. 

In 2016, Prof. Castro Neto founded 2D Materials (2DM) Pte Ltd in Singapore for the development of high quality graphene, in 2017 he founded MADE Advanced Materials Pte Ltd for the development of graphene composites with carbon and glass fibres, in 2108 he founded PHASE Events Pte Ltd with the objective of scientific events in order to educate industry and academia on nano-materials and nano-technology, and in 2019 he founded Graphene Watts Pte Ltd for the development and commercialization of graphene-based  Lithium-Sulphur (GLiS) batteries. More recently, Prof. Castro Neto founded Aquastricta Pte Ltd which focus on the use of graphene in civil engineering. 

Prof. Castro Neto has authored more than 400 manuscripts and 50 patents and has published in prestigious journals including Science, Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Physics, and Physical Review Letters, and has over 70,000 citations.  


Smart 2D materials: the new frontier


**Speaker:** 
Cewen Nan, Tsinghua University, China

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/f3d81b11531ab334de2cb157fb8ad99b.jpg)

**Biography:**

Education Background:
Ph.D  Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 1992 (on-the-job)
M.S.  East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 1985
B.S.  East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 1982

Work Resume:
Professor, Tsinghua University, Beijing 1999-now
Professor, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 1992-1999
Associate Professor, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 1988-1992
Assistant Professor, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 1985-1988

**Abstract:**

Magnetoelectric coupling, which can be used to manipulate magnetic ordering by using electric field, provides a route to design next-generation memory. Due to the scarcity of single-phase multiferroic materials, great research efforts have been devoted to studying heterostructures and multilayers in order to combine the merits of different materials. In this talk, we will discuss some of the challenges and our approaches in order to achieve deterministic control in magnetoelectric heterostructures. Three subjects will be covered in this talk. We will first present our results on the self-assembled nano-islands of BiFeO3, which show quad-domains that are highly robust and can be reversibly controlled by electric field. Furthermore, the domain wall conductance shows a large modulation by three orders of magnitudes, demonstrating a new concept of memory configuration. Next, we will show the results on the electric field control mediated by ions, providing an alternative route to realize magnetoelectric coupling. Last, we will present our recent study on electric field control of magnetic skyrmions.

An opportunity for magnetoelectrics in complex oxides:  designing heterostructures at the atomic scale


**Speaker:** 
Tomas Brage, Lund University, Sweden

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/ee69b45a3493136a252dd1aa3974d88c.jpg)

**Biography:**

Prof. Brage obtained his PhD in atomic physics in 1988, after which he was Research Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Vanderbilt University (1989 - 1993), and Research Associate at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, working on the Goddard High Resolution Spectroscopy mission on the Hubble Space Telescope (1994 - 1996). 

For the last twenty years, he has been a Professor of Physics at the Division of Mathematical Physics of the Department of Physics at the Lund University (Sweden). His research mainly focusses on Laboratory Astrophysics and Computational Atomic Physics, on which he has published over hundred articles in refereed journals . 

During the last fifteen years he has been strongly involved in the topic of gender and science . Prof. Brage is active in several European networks: he is a steering group member of the Policy Group for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (PG EDI) of the League of European Research Universities (LERU)  network. Besides this, he is also a member of the GENERA  network for Gender and Physics, of the GenderEX Horizon 2020 project, as well as on the advisory board for the EPSRC Inclusion Matters project at the Queen’s University of Belfast. Prof. Brage is also serving at the Expert Advisory Group for Gender and Equality at the National University of Ireland in Galway and the Southern University of Denmark. He has led several projects in Lund, for example, the Gender Certification project , the Antidiscrimination education , the Core-Value project  and is currently involved in several projects, including training of bias-observers and a Scientific literacy courses project for students and academic teachers. 

**Abstract:**

Physics is often seen, by Physicists not the least, as objective and we believe we are surrounded by a “culture without culture”. At the same time our history, class and board rooms are dominated by men. This is a paradox that should awaken the curiosity of anyone. In this talk I will give some examples on how you can approach the question in the title. There have been several studies of Physicists and other Scientists and I will combine a discussion of these with some general theory and personal experiences, to paint a picture on how gender transgress Physics, like all other fields. By using the levels of change introduced by Schiebinger, I refer to studies of e.g. Anthropologists, Sociologists and Psychologists. The bias against women, since Science is stereotypically male, combined with the “myth of meritocracy” could be key to understand the lack of women in the field. The talk is intended as a translation of results from recent progress in Gender Science to an audience of non-experts in the field, especially people within STEM-fields. The aim is to give some answers to the question in the title, but also to show that this is an extremely interesting and active field of research.

What does gender got to do with science


![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/2e10c515564e9ec3287ee4c664011c20.png)

The energy cost of storing and moving data is enormous, and is growing at such a rapid pace that within a few years the power demand may overwhelm some developed nations. Non-volatile memory (NVM) and neuromorphic computing are enabling critical advances in this area, but there are many scientific and technological challenges. This conference will cover the materials challenges of different memory technologies, from the fundamental processes and mechanisms, to industry perspectives on materials specifications and manufacturing.

Materials Challenges for Memory

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