The Spin@RT Consortium Partners

The funding for the Spin@RT consortium has been provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to support eight institutions: Leeds are the consortium leaders, whilst the others are Cambridge, City, Durham, Exeter, Glasgow, Imperial College London, and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. These groups possess diverse backgrounds and expertise that can be brought to bear on the common scientific themes. "We have the best the UK can offer across the board, from materials growth and characterisation to nanofabrication, theory and modelling", says consortium leader Prof. Bryan Hickey. The eight research institutions are supported by industrial involvement with four companies: Seagate (in Northern Ireland), Hitachi (both in Silicon Valley and at Cambridge), Toshiba and Plasma Quest. Seagate and Hitachi are the world's two largest manufacturers of hard disks, which make use of basic spintronic devices known as spin-valves to form the read heads. Toshiba are a global consumer electronics manufacturer. Plasma Quest are a British SME which manufacture a novel sputter deposition tool for magnetic materials.

Academic Partners

•  University of Cambridge
• City University London
• Durham University
• University of Exeter
• University of Glasgow
• University of Leeds
• Rutherford Appleton Laboratory