Envol et acquis de la spintronique / The Rise and Achievements of Spintronics: Belles aventures dans le monde quantique (Paperback or Softback)

How did a quantum property of the electron - spin - lead to the rapid development of a major field of physics known as 'spintronics' and to numerous applications in our digital world?
Albert Fert recounts his career path, the passions of his youth, and his late PhD thesis, which demonstrated the influence of spin on electrical conduction and paved the way for spintronics.
Spintronics took off following the 1988 discovery of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) in nanostructures known as magnetic multilayers, made by Albert Fert's team and that of his Nobel co-laureate Peter Grünberg in Germany. The first applications of GMR were high-capacity hard disk drives - essential to our data centres - and the myriad sensors used in our daily lives and in medical technologies. Next came low-power spintronic components, which are particularly important in the current context of the explosion in energy consumption driven by AI.
The global spintronics sector has since branched out into numerous fields: spinorbitronics, skyrmionics, neuromorphic spintronics, orbitronics and others. Examples of recent advances at the Albert Fert Laboratory - a collaboration between Paris-Saclay University, the CNRS and the Thales Group - include neuromorphic architectures for the AI of the near future and quantum antennas developed in collaboration with colleagues from the Thales Group. But this book is also a personal account. Albert Fert recalls his childhood in a small village in the south of France, his youthful passions for cinema, jazz and rugby, and the drive behind a life devoted to discovery - as well as his enduring attachment to the Mediterranean region of his origins.
Both a journey into the quantum world and a human adventure, this book shows how a fundamental insight can bring about lasting change in science, technology and our everyday lives.