Congratulations to Cuneyt Sahin for successfully defending his PhD dissertation on "Spin Dynamics of Complex Oxides, Bismuth-Antimony Alloys, and Bismuth Chalcogenides."

"Cuneyt studied the behavior of spin-polarized electrons in two classes of exotic materials that are of interest for next-generation computation or electronic devices. He predicted very long lifetimes for groups of spin-polarized electrons in the interface region of two oxide materials, where a dense gas of two-dimensional electrons resides. This interface electron gas can be used to make very small, high-performance rewritable transistors, and Cuneyt’s work strongly suggests the spin transport properties of those materials will permit them to be used in spintronic devices as well. In the other class of exotic materials, so-called topological insulators, the bulk of the material is naturally insulating but the surface is conductive. In many materials the application of a voltage across the material will generate a spin current moving perpendicular to the direction of the electric field. Cuneyt showed that the amplitude of this spin current in topological insulator materials, made from bismuth-antimony alloys or bismuth chalcogenides, was not very sensitive to whether the material was a topological insulator or not."
— Michael Flatté, PhD advisor

Dr. Sahin has accepted a postdoctoral position at the University of Utah.

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