Spintronic and Ionitronic Materials and Devices

I will describe our work to create two radically different devices for future computers using innovative materials systems. Nanowires made of magnetic alloys form the basis for ultrafast and dense non-volatile, solid-state spintronic "racetrack" memories with the potential to outperform all of today's data storage and memory devices (disk drives, FLASH, DRAM & SRAM). A class of metal oxides, including vanadium dioxide,is at the heart of a new "ionitronic" logic gate that uses ionic liquids to switch states. These gates can be the basis for ultra-low-power computer systems designed to mimic the human brain.