August 2, 2019: Dr. Stuart Parkin (Director, Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany) presented a Kavli Distinguished Lecture entitled "Beyond Charge Currents: Spin and ion currents for future data storage and computing technologies."

Abstract: The era of computing technologies based on charge currents is coming to an end after more than  40 years of exponential increases in computing power and data storage that have been largely based on shrinking devices in two dimensions.  A new era of "Beyond charge!" will evolve over the next decade that will likely be based on several new concepts. Firstly, devices whose innate properties are derived not from the electron’s charge but from spin currents and from ion currents.  In some cases new functionality will arise that can extend charge based devices but in other case fundamentally new computing and data storage paradigms will evolve.  Secondly, devices will inevitably become three-dimensional: novel means of constructing devices, both from bottom-up and top-down, will become increasingly important. Thirdly, bio-inspired devices that may mimic the extremely energy efficient computation systems in the biological world are compelling.  In this talk I will discuss possible nascent spintronic and ionitronic materials and devices and how they may lead to novel computing and data storage technologies over the next decade or so.

This event was hosted by the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and by the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science.