The proposed PhD thesis aims at finding the best-unexplored combinations of transition metals, oxides and 2D materials (transition metal dichalcogenides, 2D magnets, graphene…) to help optimizing and providing scientific underpinnings of next generation energy efficient spintronic storage and memory devices based on emerging fields of spin-orbitronics and orbitronics. The latter is a fascinating new field of research that exploits orbital currents and their interaction with spin currents mediated by spin-orbit coupling.

Namely, using first principles calculations combined with tight-binding approach and linear response theory, we will screen the potential of aforementioned heterostructures not only for spin-orbit phenomena such as Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI), perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and spin-charge interconversion based on Rashba and Rashba-Edelstein effects (REE), but also focus on Orbital Rashba Edelstein Effect (OREE). Furthermore, the mechanisms of control of these phenomena via external stimuli (strain, external electric and magnetic fields) will be investigated as well. These studies will help finding optimal material combination to tune DMI, PMA and spin-charge interconversion efficiency to help optimizing spintronic devices making thereby a significant contribution to the development of sustainable microelectronics.

The PhD will be based on a multiscale approach including ab initio, tight-binding and atomistic approaches thus highly motivated candidate with a good background in solid state physics, condensed matter theory and numerical simulations is required. He/she will perform his/her calculations on Spintec computational cluster nodes using first-principles packages based on density functional theory (DFT) combined with other simulation codes/tools. Results obtained will be carefully analyzed with the possibility of publication in international scientific journals. Strong collaboration with labs in France (CEA/LETI, UMPhy CNRS/Thales, Aix-Marseille Univ…) and abroad (ICN2-Barcelona, PGI Forschungszentrum Jülich, Osaka University) are previewed.