Enhanced Spin Research from Prof. Kang Wang

Prof. Kang Wang recently began working as a principal investigator for the Center for Spintronic Materials, Interfaces, and Novel Architectures (C-SPIN), which coordinates the research of 36 professors (and over 100 graduate students and postdocs) from 22 universities. The Center also partners with several scientists in the semiconductor industry.

C-SPIN is exclusively focused on using electron spin – rather than electric current – to revolutionize processing, random access memory, and other features of computational devices. In the past four years, C-SPIN has developed and studied hundreds of new spintronic materials and devices, and several new devices are in its research pipeline.

Prof. Wang is collaborating with C-SPIN PIs and IBM scientists to develop new spintronic-based schemes for computer memory. He is also studying physical phenomena related to spin-orbit coupling with a long-term eye toward practical computing applications.

Prof. Wang’s work for C-SPIN is a natural extension of his years of research in spintronics and his experience with industry-academic collaborations. C-SPIN is one of six national Centers funded by the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), a consortium of DARPA and computer industry sponsors, and Prof. Wang directed the Functional Engineered Nano Architectonics (FENA) center for SRC 2003-13.

C-SPIN funding for Wang’s lab will continue at least through 2017. The Center is currently at an early stage of re-competing for SRC support that would fund research through 2022.