Spintronics, which uses spin as the building block for information process, has become an emerging area in the Post-Moore ear. In order to address current challenges of spintronics, opportunities may exist for a focus research on the understanding and manipulation of fundamental spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in solid-state materials. In this talk, I will present our work on the control of spin/magnetic states in magnetic topological insulators and narrow bandgap semiconductor-based heterostructures. The independent manipulation of the topology of energy band and the magnetic exchange order enables us to construct non-reciprocal devices and novel artificial neural network computing paradigm. In addition, I will also summarize our work on utilizing interfacial Rashba SOC in lattice-matched InSb/CdTe heterostructures for realizing gate-tunable non-reciprocal charge transport and spin-orbit-torque-based magnetization switching with highly spin-to-charge conversion efficiency at room temperature. Our work may help construct a wide range of ultralow-power spin−orbitronics applications.

Biography: Dr. Xufeng Kou received his BS degree (with honor) in Chu Kochen Honors College from Zhejiang University (2009). From 2009 to 2015, he received his MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from UCLA. Since February 2016, he joined the School of Information Science and Technology at Shanghai Tech University. So far, Dr. Kou has published 3 book chapters, and co-authored more than 90 peer-reviewed journal/conference papers including Nature Electronics, Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters, and IEEE IEDM. with more than 7000 citations (h-index of 36). He also holds several awards including the Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship (2012), Chinese Outstanding Student Abroad Scholarship (2013), Distinguished PhD Dissertation Award of UCLA (2015), Shanghai May 4th Youth Medal (2018), Shanghai 35U35 Award (2021), and Shanghai Pudong Elite Researcher Award (2023).