Spin electronics [1] is a quantum technology which aims at adding the spin quantum degree of freedom to conventional CMOS electronics. Since the discovery of the giant magnetoresistance in 1988 [2,3],  considered as the birth of this field, spintronics continues flooding the market with plethora of devices used in everyday life applications such as hard drive read heads or magnetic random-access memories, and so on. From a fundamental research perspective, the field is still blooming bringing post-CMOS perspectives technologically closer to the reality with, for instance, prototypes of all-spin-logic circuits and neuromorphic chips[4]. To sustain this intense research activity, a quest for new platform materials is also taking place not only to enhance existing performances but also to generate novel functionalities. In this vein, carbon nanostructures such as molecules [5], graphene, and carbon nanotubes [6] are among the most sought-after materials.
During this presentation, I will first detail the context of our research and the recent challenges for achieving spin-logic circuits. I will focus on the physics of lateral spintronics devices and then I will detail our approach for reaching giant spin signals in functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes [7]. I will focus on the necessity to consider new hybrid interfaces are highlighted for a better control of the spin injection at the device level [8]. I will for instance describe our most recent work concerning spin transport across graphene/molecule interfaces.
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G. Prenat, G. Finocchio, L. Lopez-Diaz, R. Chantrell, O. Chubykalo-Fesenko and P. Bortolotti, Nat. Electron., 2020, 3, 446–459.
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[7] R. Bonnet, P. Martin, S. Suffit, P. Lafarge, A. Lherbier, J. C. Charlier, M. L. Della Rocca and C. Barraud, Sci. Adv., 2020, 6, eaba5494.
[8] P. Martin, B. Dlubak, P. Seneor, R. Mattana, M. Martin, P. Lafarge, F. Mallet, M. L. Della Rocca, S. M. ‐M. Dubois, J. Charlier
and C. Barraud, Adv. Quantum Technol., 2022, 5, 2100166.
[9] P. Martin et al., submitted (2022)