Academician of the RAS Ustinov Vladimir Vasilevich

Ustinov Vladimir Vasilevich is a world famous physicist; a director of the largest academic institute in the Urals region. The institute occupies a leading position in Russia and in the world in the field of physics of magnetic phenomena, including nanospintronics, physical materials science and non-destructive control methods. The grant programs “Leading Scientific Schools” of the President of the Russian Federation have been supporting 4 institute’s main scientific investigations for many years. Only for the last 5 years the Institute trained 18 Dr.Sc. and 36 Cand. Sc. degrees in Physics and Mathematics.

V.V. Ustinov began his scientific career at the Institute of Metal Physics, enrolling in 1971 in graduate school after graduating from the Ural State University with honors. In 1975 he defended his candidate’s dissertation on “The influence of surface scattering of conduction electrons on the electromagnetic properties of metals”. In 1986 he defended his doctoral dissertation on the theme “Surface effects in the kinetics and spin dynamics of conduction electrons in metals”, headed the laboratory of electrical phenomena at the Institute of Metal Physics and became the Institute Deputy Director on Scientific Issues. In 1992 he received the title of professor. In 1997, he was elected an Associate Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in 2008 - a Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Department of nanoand information technology. In 1998, he became as a Director of the Institute of Metal Physics.

V.V. Ustinov is currently an acknowledged expert in the field of condensed matter physics, a leader of the national nanospintronics school of thought. Having formulated the theoretical principles of surface and size effects in spin-electronic transport phenomena in metals, he has provided the formation and successful development of a new promising field of physical kinetics in Russia, spintronics of metallic nanostructures. He is an author of over 250 scientific manuscripts and 4 patents, including more than 50 scientific articles and 2 patents for the last 5 years. For the last seven years, V.V. Ustinov is among the most highly cited active Russian scientists whose citation index exceeds 100. The main direction of his scientific activity is the study of surface and size effects in the kinetics and spin dynamics of conduction electrons in metals and metallic magnetic nanostructures. V.V. Ustinov has made a fundamental contribution to the development of fundamentals of quantum kinetics of conduction electrons in the subsurface layers of metals. He has created an original concept underlying the derivation of kinetic equations and their boundary conditions for metals with the real surface. His theory allows studies of surface and size effects in metals to come to quite a different qualitative level. In his works, V.V. Ustinov has solved a challenging problem of describing the multi-channel reflection of charge carriers from the surface of a metal crystal with a complicated dispersion law; derived general boundary conditions for this process; analyzed the behavior of the probability of surface umklapp processes and revealed peculiarities of their manifestation in the high-frequency properties of metals; discovered and investigated a new low-temperature mechanism of penetration of an electromagnetic field in metals; explained a quantum nature of this mechanism associated with the interference of electrons incident on the metal surface and backscattered.

To lay down the theory behind the spin resonance of conduction electrons in metal films, V.V. Ustinov has devoted his research efforts to the study of surface magnetic relaxation of electrons in metals and to the description of the basic mechanisms of the surface spin-flip. The former contains a subsequent quantum-mechanical derivation of boundary conditions for the spin distribution function and electron magnetization densities, the latter involves scattering by a nonequilibrium system of surface magnetic impurities. He has applied this theory to conduct targeted experiments for the purpose of examining the surface magnetic relaxation in single- and doublelayer metal samples.

V.V. Ustinov’s activity reflects the diversity of scientific interests and a close link between theoretical studies and experimental research. He successfully combines an excellent command of mathematical tools of the theory of solid body and intimate knowledge of a low-temperature experiment, the peculiarities of the magnetic resonance methods and modern ultra-high vacuum technologies to produce nanostructures.

At the Institute of Metal Physics, V.V. Ustinov has initiated setting up experiments on molecular beam epitaxy of magnetic metal nanoheterostructures with giant magnetoresistance. These works are recognized as leading in Russia in the field of spintronics. He jointly with his colleagues has conducted a comprehensive theoretical and experimental study of properties of multilayer metallic magnetic nanostructures grown by the molecular beam epitaxy technique. The goal of these investigations has been to reveal the nature and mechanisms of forming giant anomalies of magnetotransport properties of the above nanostructures, and to discover new effects associated with the existence of a specific interlayer magnetic ordering and a strong spin dependence of charge carrier scattering processes. These experiments have made it possible to grow highly perfect superlattices with non-collinear interlayer ordering; to demonstrate the possibility in principle of controlling the magnitude of the angle between layer magnetization vectors. The foregoing may serve as a basis for atomic design of metal multi-layers with preassigned magnetic and magnetotransport properties. Under his effective management, scientists of IMP have developed a unified quasi-classic theory of the effect of giant magnetoresistance in metal superlattices when passing an electrical current both through the plane of layers of the superlattice and perpendicularly to it; established a theory of high-frequency properties of the metal superlattices, including magnetic resonant and magnetic elastic ones; synthesized multilayer metal nanoheterostructures – multi-position spin valves, possessing the giant stepped magnetoresistance. These have turned out to be extremely promising as materials for information-processing logical devices. In 2005-2007, the Institute constructed wide-range magnetic sensors using the giant magnetic resistance effect and a spin-injection maser driven by conduction electrons, capable of working in the terahertz range and frequency tunable by a magnetic field. The high technological instruments, created within the State order of FASI (the Federal Agency of Science and Innovation), were covered by the Russian Federation patent. Later, in Yekaterinburg, the Research and Manufacturing Association “Automatica” began producing the units. In 2008, a summary report of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the Government of the Russian Federation included a project for creating the spininjection maser as one of the most important achievements of the Academy of Sciences.

Under the direction of V.V. Ustinov, the Institute successfully has carried out and is performing works in frame of programs of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Department of Physical Sciences, the Department of Nano- and Information Technologies, as well as of federal target scientific and technical programs. The scientific activity of V.V. Ustinov and his group of the scientific school of thought is being supported by RFBR (the Russian Fund of Fundamental Research), the regional program for the development of nanotechnologies, international research funds, the Presidential program for support of leading scientific schools of Russia. For the last 10 years, the Institute of Metal Physics has successfully accomplished over 800 projects, state contracts, programs, economic contracts. As a result, many of the fundamental problems of condensed matter physics have been solved, new materials have been produced, new technologies and equipment, protected by 24 patents of the Russian Federation, have been created and probed.

V.V. Ustinov has extensive experience in establishing and maintaining enduring international scientific relationships. He has been a member of the American Physical Society since 1996 and the International Materials Research Society since 1995. He not only actively participates in international symposiums, but also organizes them as a member, co-chairperson and chairperson of organization and advisory committees. Over the last 5 years, he has presented dozens of reports for international and Russian scientific conferences and meetings, including 14 invited reports.

V.V. Ustinov has made great strides in combining his vigorous research efforts with his huge organizational and teaching activities. He is a Chairperson of the Scientific Council of the Institute, a member of the United Academic Council of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences on physical and engineering sciences. Since 1998 he has been a member of the Presidium of UB RAS, a member of the Board of Directors of RAS since 2001, a member of the Commission on Magnetism of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) since 1999, a member of the editorial board of the international scientific journal “Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials” since 1999, a member of RAS on nanotechnologies since 2007, the Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal “Physics of Metals and Metallography” since 1999, a Chairperson of the Dissertation Council D 004.003.01 at IMP UB RAS. V.V. Ustinov has been delivering original lecture courses on nanoelectronics in the Ural State Technical University. He has trained 12 Candidates and 2 Doctors of Sciences in Physics and Mathematics. Over the last 15 years, the IMP has been inspected twice by the Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and twice scored top marks. There is no doubt that the Institute headed by V.V. Ustinov has reached a new level of development in recent years. The institute was awarded the Certificate of Merit of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Trade Union of the Russian Academy of Science (1999), the Legislative Assembly of Sverdlovsk region (1999), Diploma of the European Materials Research Society and the Order of Friendship (2002).