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

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.

Our paper “Reliable magnetometry for antiferromagnets and thin films: Correcting substrate artifacts in Mn3Sn/MgO systems” by K. Gas and M. Sawicki was published in Physical Review Applied.

A Perspective paper “Challenges and opportunities in orbitronics” by S. Fukami, K.-J. Lee, and M. Kläui was published in Nature Physics.

Our collaborative research with UC Santa Barbara and TSMC “BDAC-Free p-bits: Asynchronous Self-Coloring and On-Chip Annealing” by K. Selcuk, N. A. Aadit, C. Delacour, J. Q. Silva, N. S. Singh, H. Kaneko, S. Kanai, Y.-J. Wu, Y.-H. Chen, Y.-S. Chen, Y. C. Ong, K.-C. Huang, H. Chuang, H. Ohno, S. Fukami and K. Y. Camsari was presented in the 71st Annual IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM 2025) on December 9th in San Francisco.

Press release: “New Fully Digital Design Paves the Way for Scalable Probabilistic Computing”

Mr. Rishi Saddani (Visiting Student (DC)) returned to Imperial College London after three months stay.

Dr. Aakanksha Sud and Mr. Harumi Chiku (M1) won the Best Poster Award for their poster presentations at The International Symposium MSSp2025: Materials Science and Spintronics for Sustainable Futures from Tohoku held in Tohoku University from November 4th to 7th. The titles of their presentations were as follows:

Aakanksha Sud: Chiral Magnon–Phonon coupling in synthetic antiferromagnets for nonreciprocal energy transport
Harumi Chiku: Wireless signal energy harvesting based on field-free ferromagnetic resonance in magnetic tunnel junction

Congratulations!

The International Symposium MSSp2025: Materials Science and Spintronics for Sustainable Futures from Tohoku was held in Tohoku University from November 4th to 7th.
We had 285 participants in total including 223 on-site participants.

During the symposium, an award speech and ceremony for Assoc. Prof. Jiahao Han who received the 2025 Core Research Cluster for Spintronics Award (CRC-Spin Award 2025) were also conducted.

Our members, Assoc. Prof. Shun Kanai, Mr. Yuma Sato (D3), Mr. Kazunari Kino (M2), Mr. Hitoshi Iida (M1), and Mr. Kota Nihei (M1) attended “The 70th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (MMM 2025)” held in Florida, USA on October 27-31, and gave presentations.

On October 11, we exhibited at the RIEC Open House 2025, held as part of the Tohoku University Research Institutes Open House “Katahira Festival 2025”.

In addition to a popular attraction for kids “Gauss Accelerator” and a challenge to create high-quality random numbers by hand, we presented several games including “Quantum Poker” in which principles of quantum mechanics such as uncertainty and entanglement are applied, with three members from the STAGE Center at the University of Chicago, our collaborative research partner. Many visitors enjoyed our exhibits.

The next event is scheduled for October 2027.

Our paper “Temperature dependence of current-induced switching in thin epitaxial films of Mn3Sn: Revealing the dominant role of spin–orbit torque” by K. Nihei, T. Uchimura, J. Han, K. Gas, S. Kanai, H. Ohno, and S. Fukami was published in Appl. Phys. Letters.

Our paper “Observation of a non-reciprocal skyrmion Hall effect of hybrid chiral skyrmion tubes in synthetic antiferromagnetic multilayers ” by T. Dohi, M. Bhukta, F. Kammerbauer, V. K. Bharadwaj, R. Zarzuela, A. Sud, M. -A. Syskaki, D. M. Tran, T. Denneulin, S. Wintz, M. Weigand, S. Finizio, J. Raabe, R. Frömter, R. E. D. -Borkowski, J. Sinova, and M. Kläui was published in Nature Communications.

Press release: “Three-dimensional magnetic vortices in synthetic antiferromagnets move differently than magnetic vortices in two dimensions” (Link to a webpage of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)

Our paper “Electrically Tunable Picosecond-Scale Octupole Fluctuations in Chiral Antiferromagnets” by S. T. Konakanchi, S. Banerjee, M. M. Rahman, Y. Yamane, S. Kanai, S. Fukami, and P. Upadhyaya was published in Physical Review Letters.
The paper was selected as the Editor’s Suggestion.

Professor Shunsuke Fukami is awarded the KDDI Foundation Award 2025 for outstanding studies on “Spintronics for energy-efficient information technologies”. Congratulations! The award ceremony will be held on October 22nd in Tokyo.

Our paper “Size dependence of the properties of synthetic-antiferromagnet-based stochastic magnetic tunnel junctions for probabilistic computing” by T. Kinoshita, J-Y. Yoon, N. Caçoilo, R. Mochizuki, H. Kaneko, S. Kanai, H, Ohno, and S. Fukami was published in Appl. Phys. Lett.
This paper is selected for Editor’s Pick.

Our members, Assoc. Prof. J. Han, Dr. Marui, Uchimura (D3), Sato (D2), Kino (M2), Saijo (M2), Iida (M1), and Nihei (M1) attended the 86th JSAP Autumn Meeting 2025 held in Meijo University in Aichi Prefecture and gave presentations.

Mr. Rishi Saddani of Imperial College London joined us as a Visiting Student (DC).

Our paper “Electrical coherent drivingof chiral antiferromagnet” by Y. Takeuchi, Y. Sato, Y. Yamane, J-Y. Yoon, Y. Kanno, T. Uchimura, K. V. De Zoysa, J. Han, S. Kanai, J. Ieda, H. Ohno, and S. Fukami was published in Science.
(The link above is for a free-access website, in which you can see the entire article and download the pdf file regardless of the subscription.)

Press release: “Antiferromagnets Outperform Ferromagnets in Ultrafast, Energy-Efficient Memory Operations“

Our members, Prof. S. Kanai and Prof. Gas attended “SPIE Optics + Photonics” held in San Diego, CA, USA, on August 3-7 and gave presentations.

Prof. Tomasz Dietl, who served as a Visiting Professor from 2018-2020, is awarded the Tohoku University International Award – Special Award. As part of Tohoku University’s Homecoming Day 2025, scheduled for Saturday, October 11 at the Tohoku University Centennial Hall (Kawauchi Hagi Hall), the university will host an award ceremony.
Congratulations, Prof. Dietl!

Mr. Shunya Chiba (D3) is awarded the Best Poster Award for his poster presentation at the Swedish-Korean Orbitronics Workshop (SKOW 2025) for his presentation titled “Comparative Study of Current-Induced Torque in Cr/CoFeB/MgO and W/CoFeB/MgO”. Congratulations!

Our paper “Ferromagnetic resonance in a magnetically dilute percolating ferromagnet: An experimental and theoretical study” by Y. K. Edathumkandy, K. Das, K. Gas, D. Sztenkiel, D. Hommel, H. Przybylińska, and M. Sawicki was published in Physical Review B.

Our paper “Unraveling effects of competing interactions and frustration in vdW ferromagnetic Fe3GeTe2 nanoflake devices” by R. R. Chowdhury, D. Kurebayashi, J. Lustikova , O. A.Tretiakov, S. Fukami, R. P. Singh, and  S. DuttaGupta was published in Applied Physics Letters.

Ms. Antonia Niklasch of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz joined us as a Research Student.

Our paper “Electrically Controlled Nonlinear Magnon-Magnon Coupling in a Synthetic Antiferromagnet” by A. Sud, K. Yamamoto, S. Iihama, K. Ishibashi, S. Fukami, H. Kurebayashi, and S. Mizukami was published in Physical Review Letters.

Press release: “Observation of Rabi-like Splitting Under Electrical Control in Artificial Magnets”

Our members, Prof. Fukami, Prof. Kanai, Dr. Nuno Cacoilo, Haruna Kaneko (D1), Manato Kawahara (D1), Takuma Kinoshita (M2), Yoshiki Maeda (M1), Prof. Ohno, Prof. Akerman, attended the International Workshop on Ising Machines – 2025 held in Evanston, IL, USA on May 13-15 and Second Workshop on the Chicago-Tohoku Quantum Alliance held in the University of Chicago, IL, USA on May 15-16, and gave presentations.