Research areas

Spintronics studies the flow and conversion of the spin and charge degrees of freedom, with particular emphasis on technological applications. This area gathers the interest of condensed-matter physicists, engineers, and chemists because the manipulation of the spin using, for example, electric currents, voltages, or heat currents, can allow very efficient memory recording and reading processes, as well as wave emissions in the GHz domain. From the fundamental point of view, the available data of the fruitful experimental research teams of this area motivates the quest for a new conceptual and mathematical understanding of the nanoscale processes involving angular momentum flow.

Rare-earth Spintronics/spin-orbitronics/orbitronics

Spintronics is about the coupling between charge and spin degrees of freedom. Heavy atoms, such as the rare earths, naturally exhibit such interaction via their Spin-Orbit Interaction (SOI). We have focused on understanding how the SOI of rare earths gives rise to new spintronic effects, with particular emphasis on applications.

Magnetization dynamics and instabilities

My interest focuses on magnetic systems modeling, in the continuum and classical approach of the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation and its generalizations. This family of nonlinear models has similarities to other systems (nonlinear oscillator with small injection and dissipation of energy), but also offers unique properties such as chiral coupling, spatiotemporal modulation of anisotropies, among others. The possible technological application of nonlinear magnetization dynamics of one and several devices is an additional motivation in this area of research. 

Previous grants

• (03/2023-03/2026) Fondecyt Iniciacion 2023. Project No. 11230120,  entitled "Magnon spin and heat transport in complex ferrimagnetic insulators." My role: Principal Investigator (PI).

• (04/2021-03/2025) Fondecyt regular 2021. Project No. 1210353, entitled "Transition to Complex Spatiotemporal Dynamics: Theory & Experiments", ANID. My role: Co-Investigator, with Marcel Clerc as the Principal Investigator.

• (03/2021-03/2024) ECOS-ANID. Project ID ECOS200006, entitled "Chimeras in voltage-driven coupled nanomagnets," ECOS (France) and ANID (Chile). My role: Principal Investigator (PI). Principal Investigator in France: Dr. Saliya Coulibaly.

• (03/2019-03/2022) Fondecyt Postdoctorado 2019. Project No. 3190030, entitled "Magnetic textures induced by a variable anisotropy," Conicyt. My role: Principal Investigator (PI).

Brief selection of Participation in organization:

• Chair of the "Spintronics' Day" workshop (Santiago: 2024, 2025, 2026). 

• Chair of the “Rare-earth Spintronics” symposium at the 68th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (MMM). Dallas, United States. Oct. 30th- Nov 3rd, 2023.