Thermoelectric Materials for Spintronics: From Physical Principles to Innovative Half Metallic Ferromagnets, Devices, and Future Perspectives

Over the last century, improvements in computational power resulting from the exponential growth of microelectronics have been the driving force of outstanding global economic growth as well as of deep changes in society and ethical values. Manufacturing of silicon-based memory cells has, as a matter of fact, become an industry of strategic importance also from a geopolitical perspective. Despite such advancements, a lot of concern has recently aroused as physical limitations such as tunnel-effect phenomena, current leakage, and high power consumption are increasingly hindering further improvements in dynamic random-access memory. Spintronic technologies are promising alternatives to overcome such issues, being considered no longer merely an academic subject of interest, but increasingly becoming an industrial reality. In this review work, the history and the physical principles of spintronic devices are presented, focussing on new, groundbreaking materials. Concepts are exposed step by step and in an easy-to-understand manner, allowing even researchers who are not specialized in the fields of spintronics, microelectronics, and hardware engineering to understand the fundamentals and gain initial insight into the topic. Special attention is paid to half-metallic ferromagnets and Heusler alloys, which are considered among the most promising materials for the future of spintronics.