The objective of this program is to design and build a novel nonvolatile transpinor device using a diluted magnetic germanium nanowire with an electric field-controlled paramagnetism-to-ferromagnetism phase transition. Compared with conventional silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor devices and other previously proposed spin field-effect transistors, the proposed transpinor device provides many unique advantages, including unique nonvolatility, added functionalities, lower power dissipation and faster switching for information processing. The intellectual merit is that the proposed transpinor device invokes new quantum physics to enable the control of the ferromagnetic phase change (collective spins) in diluted magnetic semiconductor at room temperature. Additionally, the use of electic field to achieve the control of phase transition will enable the reduction of power dissipation. The broader impacts are to create new knowledge and to provide an in-depth understanding of the carrier-mediated ferromagnetism and spin transport in nanostructures, therefore establishing a new platform for room-temperature spintronic devices. The impact will be transformative because it involves the discovery of novel functional magnetic nanomaterials and physics, which may tranform semiconductor technology with the integration of spintronics to form nonvolatile systems by introducing new kinds of high-performance room-temperature spin-based electronic devices beyond the traditional scaled complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor devices. It will establish new low-energy electronics technology, and new market and economy. The program also offers a unique multi-disciplinary research and educational opportunity to incorporate spintronics into curriculum
