Dr. Lakhan Bainsla is an experimental condensed matter physicist who works on various topics in magnetism and applied spintronics. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay 2016. During his Ph.D., he developed novel highly spin-polarized half-metallic ferromagnetic and spin-gapless semiconductor Heusler alloys for spintronic applications such as magnetic tunnel junctions for non-volatile magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM). As a testament to the novelty and impact of his Ph.D., he was invited to write a review paper and a book chapter and won the best thesis award for "Excellence in Ph.D. thesis work" from IIT Bombay.
After his Ph.D., he moved to the highest-ranked Japanese university – Tohoku University in Sendai, to pursue his first postdoc. During his first post-doc year, he worked on a Japanese national project titled "Electric field controlled MRAM". The following year, he got a very prestigious postdoctoral fellowship from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) for two years to work on “magnetic tunnel junctions based on spin-gapless semiconductors and their electric field effect”. With the ambition to get hands-on experience with spin-orbit torque devices and novel quantum materials, he then moved to the University of Minnesota (UMN) to do his second postdoc. In 2020, he received the prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship (MSCA-IF) grant from the European Union to work with Prof. Johan Åkerman at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, where he worked on the development of spin-Hall nano oscillators (SHNOS) using compensated ferrimagnets and magnetic Weyl semimetals. After his Marie-Curie grant, he joined Prof. Saroj P. Dash's group at the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, where he worked on spintronic devices based on van der Waals materials.
He is an experienced user of cleanroom ISO 5-7 class and developed magnetic tunnel junctions and SHNOs down to 10-nm constriction width using the facilities. He has served as session chair for international conferences such as IEEE Intermag and Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. He is the recipient of several awards and prestigious and highly competitive grants in his career so far. He has active collaborations with multiple internationally known research groups.
Five best publications:
1. L. Bainsla, A. Kumar, A. A. Awad, C. Wang, M. Zahedinejad, N. Behera, H. Fulara, R. Khymyn, A. Houshang, J. Weissenrieder, J. Åkerman; Ultrathin ferrimagnetic GdFeCo films with low damping; Adv. Funct. Mater.; 32; 2111693; 2022.
2. L. Bainsla, B. Zhao, A. M. Hoque, L. Sjöström, N. Behera, A. Martinelli, M. A. Hafiez, J. Åkerman, S. P. Dash; Large out-of-plane spin–orbit torque in topological Weyl semimetal TaIrTe4; Nat. Commun.; 15; 4649; 2024.
3. L. Bainsla, Y. Sakuaraba, A. Kumar, A. K. Chaurasiya, K. Masuda, N. Suwannaharn, A. A. Awad, N. Behera, R. Khymyn, T. Sasaki, S. P. Dash, J. Åkerman; Energy-efficient single-layer spin Hall nano-oscillators driven by Berry curvature; ACS Nano; 19; 18534; 2025.
4. B. Zhao, L. Bainsla, S. Ershadrad, L. Zeng, R. Ngaloy, P. Svedlindh, E. Olsson, B. Sanyal, S. P. Dash; Coexisting non-trivial van der Waals magnetic orders enable field-free spin-orbit torque magnetization dynamics; Adv. Mater.; 37; 2502822; 2025.
5. L. Bainsla, K. Suzuki, M. Tsujikawa, H. Tsuchiura, M. Shirai, S. Mizukami; Magnetic tunnel junctions with an equiatomic quaternary CoFeMnSi Heusler alloy electrode; Appl. Phys. Lett.; 112; 052403; 2018.
Quantum materials thin film and devices, Spintronic oscillators, Magnetic tunnel junctions for MRAM, Heusler alloys, van der Waals materials for spintronic applications
Awards and Fellowships:
At present, we at the Quantum Spintronics Group, Department of Physics, IIT Ropar focusing on the following exciting research areas:
For more details, please see recent publications from our group: Google Scholar Link
Join the Quantum Spintronics Group at IIT Ropar - PhD and Postdoc opportunities available!!
We are seeking talented PhD and postdoc candidates for the following exciting research areas:
How to Apply
If you are eager to contribute to cutting-edge research and advance your academic career, please submit your application through the official IIT Ropar PhD admission portal: Application Link
For further information or to express your interest, feel free to reach out directly to Group Principal Investigator, Dr. Lakhan Bainsla at: lakhan.bainsla@iitrpr.ac.in
Why Join Us
