Missions

Spintronics outperforms electronics in many applications and provides novel functions specific to spin physics. Strategies for taking that further include the continued reduction of Joule dissipation associated with spin-current generation and propagation, the enhancement of spin signals, lifetime, and propagation lengths. The combination of superconductivity and spintronics can address many of those challenges simultaneously. In particular, the generation and propagation of spin-polarized quasi-particles or equal spin-triplet Cooper pairs in superconductor-based spintronic devices can beat the existing limitations by quenching Joule heating, and by protecting the spin states with quantum coherence. Recently, it has been shown that spin-polarized Cooper pairs could be generated at the interface between a superconductor and a chiral antiferromagnet without the need of a spin rotator and that the spin coherence length of the Cooper pair was more than 150 nm in a Mn3Ge/Nb lateral Josephson junctions, making this system extremely interesting for superconducting spintronics.
The SPIXY (spintronic & epitaxy) team at CINaM is specialized in the epitaxial growth of novel antiferromagnetic materials such as Mn5Si3 altermagnet or Mn3Sn chiral antiferromagnet by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). With this post-doc offer, we aim to investigate the growth of fully epitaxial Nb/ Mn3X (X= Sn, Ga) heterostructures for lateral and/or vertical Josephson junctions by MBE. Once the adequate growth conditions are found to obtain high-quality heterostructures, we ultimately aim to study the electronic and magnetic properties of these stacks as well as the superconducting transport phenomena with the help of our partners.

Activités

Growth of epitaxial films and heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy on different substrates and buffer layers
Structural characterizations: X-ray and electron diffraction, electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy
Study of electronic and magnetic properties: SQUID magnetometry, X-ray and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, x-ray magnetic circular dichroism.

Compétences

Material science, ultra-high vacuum environment, thin film elaboration, diffraction, spectroscopy.

Contexte de travail

The postdoctoral fellowship will be carried out within the Spintronics and Epitaxy team of the Nanomaterials, Synthesis and Properties department at the CINaM laboratory. This postdoctoral fellowship is also part of the inter-team working group on quantum materials.

Le poste se situe dans un secteur relevant de la protection du potentiel scientifique et technique (PPST), et nécessite donc, conformément à la réglementation, que votre arrivée soit autorisée par l'autorité compétente du MESR.

Contraintes et risques

None