Modeling spin-based electronic devices

The breathtaking increase in performance of integrated circuits is supported by the continuous miniaturization of CMOS devices. However, growing technological challenges and soaring costs are gradually bringing scaling to an end, and research on alternative technologies and computational principles becomes important. Spin attracts attention as alternative to the charge degree of freedom for computations and non-volatile memory applications. Recent progress and challenges in simulating spin-based devices are briefly reviewed. Special attention is paid to methods for enhancing the electron spin lifetime in silicon inversion layers and thin films necessary for realizing spin-based field-effect transistors. A new rapidly switching structure for spin-based non-volatile memory cell, MRAM, was optimized by means of micromagnetic simulations. Several memory cells can be assembled in logic gates capable to perform logic operations. We demonstrate that an implication gate is promising for realizing intrinsic non-volatile logic-in-memory architectures.