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The Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Warning Office issued this Defense Intelligence Reference Document, dated 23 March 2010, as one of a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2009 under its Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program. The report reviews metallic spintronics, including giant magnetoresistance, spin-transfer-torque and antiferromagnetic spintronics, along with their applications. It concludes that spintronic devices could offer radiation-resistant, low-power electronics suited to aerospace use and long space trips.
From the source: Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 3/23/10, Las Vegas, Nevada. Released with redactions. This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP’s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD’s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD surveys metallic spintronics, a branch of electronics that seeks to use both the electric charge and the magnetic spin of electrons to store, detect, and manipulate information, and argues that the field could lead to faster, lower-power, and more radiation-resistant devices than conventional semiconductor electronics. The report focuses on two main effects: giant magnetoresistance (GMR), which allows magnetic states to be read through changes in electrical resistance, and spin-transfer torque (STT), which allows electrical currents to change those magnetic states. The DIRD reviews their underlying physics, the experimental work then available, and possible applications in memory, sensors, oscillators, and logic devices. The document treats metallic spintronics as a promising field while emphasizing that many of its more advanced proposed applications still require substantial further development.
UNCLASSIFIED/ /&OA QFFI&IAL l:t!II!! er•t I Spintronics is a broad research field with ( currently) three major subfields: (1) materials research that is attempting to create new materials that are both magnetic and semiconductors, (2) research on novel magnetotransport effects in ferromagnetic metals, and (3) research on techniques that can be used to manipulate individual electron spins. The first subfield is targeting magnetic semiconductors because devices based on such materials would be the easiest to integrate with the present semiconductor device technology and processing capabilities. However, despite extensive research, most semiconductor spintronic devices are still theoretical concepts awaiting experimental demonstrations. This report focuses on spintronics research in metallic systems within the scope of the second and third subfields. The second subfield has experienced an unprecedented period of new discovery over the past 20 years, including the discovery of GMR, and has already spawned major technological change in the information storage industry with the use of GMR sensors and read heads. The third subfield is vital for spintronic devices, as virtually any processing of information in such devices is associated with transport and manipulation of spins. New and efficient methods for manipulating spins that stimulate active research programs in spintronics at a large number of academic institutions and a half-dozen industrial research labs around the world are highly desirable. The prize to be gained is active control and manipulation of spin distributions (magnetic moments) for new and improved functionality in electronic/spintronic devices. The confluence of intense basic science and industry interest in ferromagnetic metal spintronics has not occurred on this scale in physics in a long time. The report is arranged as follows: Section 2 is dedicated to magnetotransport effects in magnetic systems where magnetic configuration can influence the system's transport properties. It discusses GMR in magnetic multilayers and related phenomena, highlights basic physical principles responsible for GMR, and describes technological applications of the effect. Section 3 focuses on the reverse connection between the system's magnetic configuration and its transport properties-the so-called STT effect. The physical origin and potential applications are discussed. Section 4 discusses other new directions in metallic spintronics, with a particular focus on spintronics with antiferromagnetic materials. Section 5 summarizes, with an eye to the future, the development of spintronic technologies and their aerospace applications. UNCLASSIFIED/ /FOR OFFIGIAk Wii SU•k¥ V
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 27 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.