Fukami-Kanai Laboratory
Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University

Ms. Sabrina Kerber returned to Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz after two months of stay.

A review paper titled “Applied spintronics: From spin transport to spin-charge interconversion and emerging devices” by M. Bibes, O. Gomonay, T. Kuschel, J. Sinova, M. Weiler, S. Fukami, and M. Kläui was published in Science Advances.

This paper is a part of a Special Issue “SPIN” in Science Advances.
The term “spin” in quantum mechanics originated in 1925, when Uhlenbeck and Goudsmit proposed the hypothesis that “electrons possess intrinsic angular momentum” and termed it “spin.” Now, 100 years later, this special issue was organized to look back on the progress made over the past century and discuss the outlook for the next 100 years.
As one of a total of 10 review articles, this paper focuses on the applications of spin.

Our members, Assoc. Prof. S. Kanai, Assoc. Prof. J. Han, Assist. Prof. Y. Marui, Assist. Prof. M.-G. Kang, Mr. Sato (D3), Mr. Tasaki (D1), Mr. Ohtani (M2), Mr. Chiku (M2), Mr. Maeda (M2), Ms. Ikegami (M1), and Mr. Fushimi (M1) attended the 87th JSAP Autumn Meeting 2026 held in Hokkaido University and gave presentations.

The US-Japan Workshop: Probabilistic computing hardware for tomorrow’s energy efficient AI accelerators was held in Purdue University, USA. The workshop was co-organized by Prof. Shunsuke Fukami, Prof. Joerg Appenzeler (Purdue University), and Prof. Kerem Camsari (UC Santa Barbara). 

From our lab, Prof. Fukami, Assist. Prof. Nuno Cacoilo, Ms. Haruna Kaneko (D2), and Mr. Clark Swartzfager (M1) participated in and gave invited/poster presentations.

Our paper “Superconductivity in epitaxial PtSb(0001) thin films” by C. Müller, S. P. Bommanaboyena, A. Badura, T. Uchimura, F. Husstedt, B. V. Schwarze, S. Banerjee, M. Ledinský, J. Michalicka, M. Míšek, P. Proschek, M. Šindler, C. Timm, T. Helm, S. Fukami, F. Krizek, and D. Kriegner was published in Physical Review Materials.

A Perspective paper titled “Co-designed CMOS and spintronic hardware for probabilistic computing” by Christian Duffee, Jordan Athas, Kerem Y. Camsari, Giovanni Finocchio, Shunsuke Fukami, Hyunsoo Yang, and Pedram Khalili Amiri was published in NEWTON. This paper describes the background, recent progress, perspectives, and open research opportunities of the spintronic probabilistic computers.

Our paper “Time-resolved imaging of antiferromagnetic skyrmion interactions” by M. Bhukta, T. Dohi, K. Leutner, M.-A. Syskaki, F. Kammerbauer, D. M. Tran, S. Wintz, M. Weigand, S. Finizio, J. Raabe, H. Ohldag, T. Denneulin, J. V. Vas, R. E. Dunin-Borkowski, R. Frömter, and M. Kläui was published in Nature Physics.

Press release: Scientists watch antiferromagnetic skyrmions interact in real time

Our paper “Single-shot laser-pulse-induced magnetization reversal in CoFeB/MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions” by J. Igarashi, S. Geiskopf, T. Shinoda, B. Jinnai, Y. L. Guen, J. Hohlfeld, S. Fukami, H. Ohno, J. Gorchon, S. Mangin, M. Hehn, and G. Malinowski was published in APL Materials.

On July 29 and 30, 2026, we held a quantum science outreach event featuring “Quantum Games” at Tohoku University Open Campus as part of the activities of the Chicago-Tohoku Quantum Alliance.

Quantum Games is an educational outreach program developed by the STAGE Center at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. Through card and digital games, participants can explore concepts from quantum mechanics and quantum information science in an interactive and accessible way.

A paper “Altermagnetic spintronics” by Prof. Ohno, Prof. T. Jungwirth et al. was published in Nature Physics.

As part of the Tohoku University STEM Summer Programm (TSSP) 2026, organized by the Global Learning Center of Tohoku University, students from Pennsylvania State University (U.S.), the University of Washington (U.S.), and the University of York (U.K.) visited our laboratory.

Prof. Fukami gave a lecture titled “Introduction to Spintronics”, followed by a lab tour led by Dr. De Zoysa and Dr. Teresi.

Min-Gu Kang (Assistant Professor of the Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences (FRIS)) was awarded the ISAMMA 2026 Young Researcher Award at the International Symposium on Advanced Magnetic Materials and Applications (ISAMMA 2026), held in Busan, South Korea, from June 28 to July 2, 2026. This award is presented to young researchers who have achieved outstanding research accomplishments and are expected to make further significant contributions to the fields of magnetic materials and spintronics. A total of six researchers were selected for the award this year.

Dr. Kang was recognized for his highly acclaimed work titled “Disorder-dependent Orbital Hall Effect and Relaxation in Mn Thin Films.” Congratulations!

The 3rd Workshop on the Chicago-Tohoku Quantum Alliance was held on June 29–30, 2026, at Global Connect Hub — Atelier Q∞, Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. The workshop was co-organized by the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, WPI-AIMR, Tohoku University, and the University of Chicago.

This workshop was part of the activities of the Chicago-Tohoku Quantum Alliance, which was launched in 2023 to promote collaboration in quantum science and engineering between Tohoku University and the University of Chicago. Following the 1st workshop held in Sendai in October 2023 and the 2nd workshop held in Chicago in May 2025, this was the 3rd workshop in the series.

A total of 78 participants from Tohoku University, the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, and related institutions attended the workshop.

The program included presentations by PIs and early-career researchers on ongoing and future collaborative research, short presentations and poster presentations by students, an introduction to outreach activities, and a panel discussion. Based on these presentations and discussions, the participants also held an open discussion on future directions for collaboration.

In addition, the participants joined a lab tour of the newly opened Global Connect Hub at the Research Institute of Electrical Communication.

Mr. Yuki Fushimi (M1) is awarded the Best Poster Award at the Swedish Magnetism Meet 2026 (SMM-2026) organized by the IEEE Magnetics Society Sweden Chapter, for his poster presentation entitled “Switching probability in Mn3Sn driven by chiral spin rotation using sub-ns pulses”.
The award was presented to the top 3 out of 24 poster presentations at the conference. Congratulations!

Organized by Profs. Johan Åkerman, Akash Kumar and Shunsuke Fukami, the Gothenburg-Tohoku Joint Spintronics Workshop (GT-JSW) was held at the Vann Spa Hotell Konferens in Sweden.

Research presentations and exchange events were held with over 30 participants from Tohoku University, University of Gothenburg, and other research institutes. From our group, Prof. Fukami, Assist. Prof. Dohi, Assist. Prof. Sud, Mr. Kinoshita (D1), Mr. Tasaki (D1), Mr. Iida (M2), Ms. Ikegami (M1), Mr. Fushimi (M1), and Ms. Yoshida (M1) participated in the workshop and gave presentations.

Our paper “130-nm CMOS-integrated superparamagnetic tunnel junction-based p-bit” by J.-Y. Yoon, N. Caçoilo, A. Madhavan, J. J. McClelland, S. Kanai, H. Ohno, S. Fukami, and W. A. Borders was published in the Early Access area of IEEE Electron Device Letters.

Press release: Spintronics P-Computer Ready for Scale-up

Our paper “Spin-transfer torque efficiency in ferro- and antiferromagnetically coupled synthetic free layers studied with superparamagnetic magnetic tunnel junctions” by T. Kinoshita, M. Ohtani, N. Cacoilo, H. Kaneko, S. Kanai, H. Ohno, and S. Fukami was published in Appl. Phys. Letters.

Our paper “Stochastic switching time constant and instability in nanomagnets” by S. Kanai, K. Hayakawa, M. Elyasi, K. Kobayashi, J. Igarashi, B. Jinnai, W. A. Borders, G. E. W. Bauer, H. Ohno, and S. Fukami was published in Communications Materials.

Press release: First Actual Measurement of “Attempt Time” in Nanomagnets After 70 Years of Assumptions

Our members, Prof. Shunsuke Fukami, Assoc. Prof. Yuta Yamane, Assoc. Prof. Jiahao Han, Mr. Takuma Kinoshita (D1), and Ms. Yuzu Yoshida (M1) attended “The IEEE International Magnetics Conference (INTERMAG 2026)” held in Manchester, UK on April 13-17, and gave presentations.

Dr. Uchimura was awarded the Graduate School of Engineering Award, Mr. Ahn was awarded the Outstanding Student Award of the Tohoku Chapter of the Institute of Electrical Engineering of Japan (IEEJ), and Ms. Yoshida was awarded the Outstanding Student Award of the Tohoku Chapter of the Institute of Electronics, Informationand Communication Engineers (IEICE). Congratulations!

The Commencement Ceremony was held. Mr. Chiba received the Doctor Degree of Engineering, Mr. Iwai, Mr. Kino, Mr. Saijo, and Mr. Yamamoto received the Master Degree of Engineering, and Mr. Ahn, Mr. Kazami, Mr. Fushimi, and Ms. Yoshida received the Bachelor Degree of Engineering.
Congratulations!

Mr. Iwai, Mr. Kino, Mr. Saijo, and Mr. Yamamoto will take off into the society. We wish you great success in the future!
In addition, Mr. Ahn will be taking a leave of absence from April to fulfill his military service in South Korea. We presented him with a commemorative message sheet.

Dr. Aakanksha Sud (Assistant Professor of the Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences (FRIS)) was awarded the Tokin Foundation Encouragement Award for her research on “Nonlinear spin dynamics and quantum geometry in magnonic systems”.
Congratulations!

The Iwate Spintronics School, 2026 Winter was held in Iwate Prefecture (Organizer: Koichi Oyanagi [Iwate Univ.], Ryuhei Kohno [Tohoku Univ.], Ryo Iguchi [NIMS}, Shunsuke Fukami [Tohoku Univ.], and Gerrit Bauer [Tohoku Univ.]).

We had 94 participants from 13 countries and regions including 16 invited speakers from overseas and 12 domestic invited speakers. 

From our lab, Prof. Ohno, Prof. Fukami, Dr. Cacoilo, Dr. Uchimura, Mr. Kinoshita, Mr. Tasaki, and Ms. del Pino participated in. 

We had a great time with excellent scientific discussion and excursion.

The paper, titled “A unified periodic table of quantum coherence for isotope engineering” by S.Kanai, S. Suzuki, and C.P. Anderson was published in MRS Bulletin.

Mr. Shunya Chiba (D3) is awarded the X-nics Student Presentation Poster Award for his poster presentation in the annual meeting of the Innovative Spintronics X Semiconductor Research Hub of the MEXT Initiative to Establish Next-generation Novel Integrated Circuits Centers (X-NICS).
The award is given to his presentation titled “Comparative Study of Current-Induced Torque in Cr/CoFeB/MgO and W/CoFeB/MgO”. Congratulations!

A Technical Review paper titled “Metrics for spin-based computing” by H. Kurebayashi, G. Finocchio, K. E.-Sitte, J. C. Gartside, T. Taniguchi, A. Litvinenko, A. Kumar, J. Åkerman, E. Vasilaki, K. Selçuk, K. Y. Çamsarı, A. Madhavan, and S. Fukami was published in Nature Reviews Physics.

Our paper “Emergent impedance due to antiferromagnetic domain wall dynamics” by Y. Yamane, J. J. Nakane, Y. Araki, and J. Ieda was published in Physical Review B.