Recent advances in flexible spintronics

Abstract

Endowing spintronic devices with stretchability will further expand their possibilities for applications, which will be of increasing importance for internet of things (IoT) devices. We have realized a sensing of not only the strain magnitude but also the strain direction using a spin valve formed on an organic flexible substrate. The stretchability of both the substrate and thin metallic ferromagnetic layers enables strain sensing on a wide range of arbitrary-shaped surfaces, which has been not easy when using spintronics devices formed on a rigid semiconductor substrate. These stretchable and miniaturized strain sensors are expected to open an entirely new route of future spintronics from the perspective of the trillion-sensor universe.