Kajale, Shivam. Study of vdW Magnetic Materials for Spintronic Applications. 2023. MIT, MS Thesis

Abstract

 Energy consumption of artificial intelligence (AI) systems are projected to grow at an alarming
rate over the next two decades and stand to stress the global energy sector. A way forward is
to replace the traditional von-Neumann computing hardware with technologies like neuromorphic and stochastic computing which are better suited for AI applications. Here, I study van
der Waals magnetic materials for their application in developing spintronic devices to form the
building blocks of neuromorphic and stochastic computing architectures. Use of correlated systems like ferromagnets provides a way towards low energy device switching, while 2D nature
of the materials provides an avenue for building spintronic devices with maximum dimensional
scalability and have strong prospects of enabling highly energy efficient mechanism of switching magnetism. A reliable protocol for fabricating devices with air-sensitive vdW magnetic materials and characterising them has been developed, including the electrochemical exfoliation of
bulk vdW crystals, the design and building of a 2D material transfer setup and nanofabrication
of devices using lithography, and magneto-transport measurements. This work will serve as
a strong foundation for future work which would involve developing spin-valve devices with
vdW materials and exploring energy-efficient modes of switching magnetism in them.