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
Mr. Julien Dechelette returned to Grenoble Institute of Technology, France, after two and a half months of stay.
Ms. Sabrina Kerber of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz joined us as a Research Student.
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.
Haruna Kaneko (D2) leaves for UC Santa Barbara (USA) for an overseas training.
Dr. Leiviskä Miina Amanda Tuomontytär joined us as an Assistant Professor of CSIS.
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.
Manato Kawahara (D2) leaves for the University of Chicago (USA) for an overseas training.
The 2nd game of the group stage in the 2026 ECEI (Group of Electrical Engineering, Communication Engineering, Electronic Engineering, and Information Engineering) was held, defeating the Y lab with a score of 4-1.
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.
We had a welcome party for Julien (Grenoble Institute of Technology) in a restaurant in Kokubun-Cho.
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.
The futsal tournament of ECEI (Group of Electrical Engineering, Communication Engineering, Electronic Engineering, and Information Engineering) has started again this year. In our first group stage match, we faced A Laboratory and ended in a 0-0 draw.
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!
Haruna Kaneko (D2) returned from UC Santa Barbara (USA) after six and a half months overseas training.
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.
Ms. Carmen del Pino Batlles (Research Student(DC)) returned to Universidad Autónoma de Madrid after four months stay.
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
Mr. Julien Dechelette of Grenoble Institute of Technology, France, joined us as a Research Student.
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.
We had a cherry blossom viewing party (“Hanami” in Japanese), which also served as a welcome party for new members.
Dr. Devapriya Manappetty Shaji joined us as a Postdoctoral Fellow of CSIS.
Yuma Sato (D3) returned from ETH Zurich (Switzerland) after three months overseas training.
Dr. Min-Gu Kang joined us as an Assistant Professor of FRIS.
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.
Hitoshi Iida (M1) returned from the University of Gothenburg after one and a half months overseas training.
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.
Dr. Aurelien Lagarrigue resigned from the Specially-Appointed Research Fellow of RIEC and left for Francce to be assigned to a Researcher at University of Paris-Saclay. We wish you great success!
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.
We held a farewell party for members who are going to graduate this March (Uchimura san, Iwai san, Kino san, Saijo san and Yamamoto san).
We enjoyed skiing and snowboarding at the Zao Onsen Mountain & Snow Resort on February 21 and 22.
Hitoshi Iida (M1) leaves for the University of Gothenburg for overseas training.
Ms. Carmen del Pino Batlles of Universidad Autónoma de Madrid joined us as a Research Student(DC).
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.
Yuma Sato (D3) leaves for ETH Zurich (Switzerland) for an overseas training.
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.
We held the 2025 year-end party together with a welcome party for new Bachelor 3rd grade students, a celebration party for promoted members, and a farewell party for a member leaving soon.
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”
The third-place match of the ECEI (Group of Electrical Engineering, Communication Engineering, Electronic Engineering, and Information Engineering) Futsal Tournament was held.
(We won at the quarterfinal match on July 28 and lost at the semifinal match on September 30.)
We lost the game by 1-4 and finished 4th out of 14 participating labs. Next year, we’ll aim for the top three, just like we did in the Ekiden this year!
(Video during the game.)
