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1. Advances in tissue engineering approaches for repairing and rehabilitating the myotendinous junction

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobme.2024.100532  

   Shama, Kariman A; Turner, Mariah A; Broadaway, Harrison B; Aikman, Elizabeth L; Stoppel, Whitney L; Taylor, Brittany L (June 2024, Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering)

   The myotendinous junction (MTJ) acts as a bridge between muscle and tendon; yet its high stiffness relative to muscle fibers renders the tissue susceptible to injuries due to eccentric loading disparities. The limited regenerative capacity of MTJ tissue and potential for postsurgical scarring and reinjury necessitates complementary therapeutics that can enhance cellular interactions, restore mechanical properties, and support tissue rehabilitation. This review explores various approaches to engineer the MTJ utilizing biomaterial scaffolds and cellularized materials that mimic structure and function. While biomimetic materials show promise, challenges remain due to the interface’s complexity and differing patient- and location-specific structure–function characteristics, necessitating further research to address these gaps. This review also highlights the importance of studying MTJ injuries in women’s health and craniofacial reconstruction. Furthermore, engineered MTJ models provide versatile platforms for investigating trauma and degeneration, thus offering potential for advancing research across multiple fields, shedding light on interactions at tissue interfaces, and shaping the future of MTJ rehabilitation. 

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2. Magnetic force microscopy revealing long-range room temperature stable molecule bridge-induced magnetic ordering on magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) pillars

   https://doi.org/10.1063/9.0000937  

   Tyagi, Pawan (March 2025, AIP Advances)

   Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) can integrate novel single molecular device elements to overcome long-standing fabrication challenges, thus unlocking their novel potential. This study employs magnetic force microscopy (MFM) to demonstrate that organometallic molecules, when placed between two ferromagnetic electrodes along cross-junction shaped MTJ edges, dramatically altered the magnetic properties of the electrodes, affecting areas several hundred microns in size around the molecular junction vicinity at room temperature. These findings are supported by magnetic resonance and magnetometer studies on ∼7000 MTJ pillars. MFM on the pillar sample showed an almost complete disappearance of the magnetic contrast. The spatial magnetic image suggests that molecular channels significantly impacted the spin density of states in the ferromagnetic electrodes. This advancement in MTJ-based molecular devices paves the way for a new generation of commercially viable logic and memory devices controlled by molecular quantum states at near-room temperatures. 

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3. Magnetic molecules lose identity when connected to different combinations of magnetic metal electrodes in MTJ-based molecular spintronics devices (MTJMSD)

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42731-9  

   Mutunga, Eva; D’Angelo, Christopher; Tyagi, Pawan (September 2023, Scientific Reports)

   Abstract Understanding the magnetic molecules’ interaction with different combinations of metal electrodes is vital to advancing the molecular spintronics field. This paper describes experimental and theoretical understanding showing how paramagnetic single-molecule magnet (SMM) catalyzes long-range effects on metal electrodes and, in that process, loses its basic magnetic properties. For the first time, our Monte Carlo simulations, verified for consistency with regards to experimental studies, discuss the properties of the whole device and a generic paramagnetic molecule analog (GPMA) connected to the combinations of ferromagnet-ferromagnet, ferromagnet-paramagnet, and ferromagnet-antiferromagnet metal electrodes. We studied the magnetic moment vs. magnetic field of GPMA exchange coupled between two metal electrodes along the exposed side edge of cross junction-shaped magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). We also studied GPMA-metal electrode interfaces’ magnetic moment vs. magnetic field response. We have also found that the MTJ dimension impacted the molecule response. This study suggests that SMM spin at the MTJ exposed sides offers a unique and high-yield method of connecting molecules to virtually endless magnetic and nonmagnetic electrodes and observing unprecedented phenomena in the molecular spintronics field. 

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4. Magnetic memory driven by topological insulators

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26478-3  

   Wu, Hao; Chen, Aitian; Zhang, Peng; He, Haoran; Nance, John; Guo, Chenyang; Sasaki, Julian; Shirokura, Takanori; Hai, Pham Nam; Fang, Bin; et al (October 2021, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Giant spin-orbit torque (SOT) from topological insulators (TIs) provides an energy efficient writing method for magnetic memory, which, however, is still premature for practical applications due to the challenge of the integration with magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). Here, we demonstrate a functional TI-MTJ device that could become the core element of the future energy-efficient spintronic devices, such as SOT-based magnetic random-access memory (SOT-MRAM). The state-of-the-art tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio of 102% and the ultralow switching current density of 1.2 × 10⁵ A cm⁻²have been simultaneously achieved in the TI-MTJ device at room temperature, laying down the foundation for TI-driven SOT-MRAM. The charge-spin conversion efficiencyθ_SHin TIs is quantified by both the SOT-induced shift of the magnetic switching field (θ_SH = 1.59) and the SOT-induced ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) (θ_SH = 1.02), which is one order of magnitude larger than that in conventional heavy metals. These results inspire a revolution of SOT-MRAM from classical to quantum materials, with great potential to further reduce the energy consumption. 

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5. Process Variation Model and Analysis for Domain Wall-Magnetic Tunnel Junction Logic

   https://doi.org/10.1109/ISCAS45731.2020.9180675  

   Hu, Xuan; Edwards, Alexander J.; Xiao, T. Patrick; Bennett, Christopher H.; Incorvia, Jean Anne; Marinella, Matthew J.; Friedman, Joseph S. (October 2020, IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems)

   null (Ed.)

   The domain wall-magnetic tunnel junction (DW-MTJ) is a spintronic device that enables efficient logic circuit design because of its low energy consumption, small size, and non-volatility. Furthermore, the DW-MTJ is one of the few spintronic devices for which a direct cascading mechanism is experimentally demonstrated without any extra buffers; this enables potential design and fabrication of a large-scale DW-MTJ logic system. However, DW-MTJ logic relies on the conversion between electrical signals and magnetic states which is sensitive to process imperfection. Therefore, it is important to analyze the robustness of such DW-MTJ devices to anticipate the system reliability before fabrication. Here we propose a new DW-MTJ model that integrates the impacts of process variation to enable the analysis and optimization of DW-MTJ logic. This will allow circuit and device design that enhances the robustness of DW-MTJ logic and advances the development of energy-efficient spintronic computing systems. 

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