Paul Crowell

Paul Crowell photo

Dr. Crowell is a Professor of Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Crowell received his Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University in 1994. His employment history includes serving as a postdoctoral associate at CNRS Grenoble, France for 1993-1995, and at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1995-1997. Dr. Crowell jointed the University of Minnesota in 1997. Dr. Crowell has been a Fellow of the American Physical Society since 2008. Dr. Crowell is an expert on spin dynamics and transport in metals and semiconductors and has written over 70 refereed publications. He pioneered the development of time-resolved Kerr microscopy as a tool for spin wave spectroscopy [1,2]. His work with Chris Palmstrøm on hybrid ferromagnet-semiconductor heterostructures has included the first demonstration of spin injection into semiconductors from a Heusler alloy [3] and a perpendicular anisotropy material [4]. In extending this work to device physics, they have demonstrated the first completely functional FM/SC/FM lateral spin valve and the first completely electrical measurement of the direct spin Hall effect in n-GaAs [5-7].


1. J. P. Park, P. Eames, D. Engebretson, J. Berezovsky, and P. A. Crowell, “Spatially resolved dynamics of localized spin-wave modes in ferromagnetic wires,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 277201 (2002).
2. J. P. Park, P. Eames, D. M. Engebretson, J. Berezovsky, and P. A. Crowell, “Imaging of spin dynamics in closure domain and vortex structures,” Phys. Rev. B 67, 20403 (2003).
3. X. Y. Dong, C. Adelmann, J. Q. Xie, C. J. Palmstrøm, X. Lou, J. Strand, P. A. Crowell, J. Barnes, and A. K. Petford-Long, “Spin injection from the Heusler alloy Co2MnGe into Al0.1Ga0.9As/GaAs heterostructures,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 102107 (2005).
4. C. Adelmann, J. L. Hilton, B. D. Schultz, S. McKernan, C. J. Palmstrøm, X. Lou, H. -S. Chiang, and P. A. Crowell, “Spin injection from perpendicular magnetized ferromagnetic d-MnGa into (Al,Ga)As heterostructures,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 112511 (2006).
5. S. A. Crooker, M. Furis, X. Lou, C. Adelmann, D. L. Smith, C. J. Palmstrøm, and P. A. Crowell, “Imaging spin transport in lateral ferromagnet/semiconductor structures,” Science 309, 2191 (2005).
6. X. Lou, C. Adelmann, S. A. Crooker, E. S. Garlid, J. Zhang, K. S. M. Reddy, S. D. Flexner, C. J. Palmstrøm, and P. A. Crowell, “Electrical detection of spin transport in lateral ferromagnet-semiconductor devices,” Nat. Phys. 3, 197 (2007).
7. E. S. Garlid, Q. O. Hu, M. K. Chan, C. J. Palmstrøm, and P. A. Crowell, Electrical “Measurement of the direct spin Hall effect in Fe/InxGa1-xAs heterostructures,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 156602 (2010).