We are pleased to inform you that the seminar will be held as follows.
Please see below for details. We look forward to your participation.

Speaker：Prof. Byong-Guk Park
Affiliation：Materials Science and Engineering, KAIST, Korea
Title：Materials engineering for field-free spin-orbit torque switching
Date and Time： December 23, 2025　3 - 4:30 pm
Place：Faculty of Science Bldg. 4 Rm 1220

Abstract:
Spin-orbit torque (SOT), generated by spin currents arising from spin-orbit coupling, has attracted significant attention owing to its potential for efficient magnetization switching in spintronic devices, particularly magnetic random-access memory (MRAM). However, in homogeneous structures, SOT-induced switching is not purely electrical - an external in-plane magnetic field is required to achieve deterministic switching, which limits its practicability for device integration. Therefore, realizing field-free SOT switching of perpendicular magnetization, while simultaneously reducing the switching current density, is essential for the advancement of SOT-based technologies. In this talk, I will present various material engineering strategies for achieving field-free SOT switching with reduced switching current through the generation of out-of-plane spin currents and the associated torques. These include magnetic and antiferromagnetic trilayers as well as side-gated structures. Furthermore, I will introduce novel SOT-based spintronic applications, such as spin logic devices, physically unclonable functions (PUFs), and probabilistic bits.