Programmable Spin Logic Based on Spin Hall Effect in a Single Device

Spin logic devices, due to their programmability and nonvolatility, are deemed as an ideal building block for the next generation of electronics. Though several types of spin logic based on domain wall motion, spin-field-effect transistor and automata made of magnetic nanoparticles have been proposed, an architecture with scalability, energy efficiency and compatibility with current complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology is still in urgent demand. Here, it is experimentally demonstrated that the spin Hall effect in magnetic films with perpendicular anisotropy can be utilized to construct such a spin logic device. Five commonly used logic gates with nonvolatility in a single device are realized. This demonstration could pave the way towards application of spintronics in logic circuits as well as the memory industry in the near future and could even give birth to logic-in-memory computing architectures.