Magnetic disks or dots of soft magnetic material of sub-micron dimensions may have as the lowest energy magnetic configuration a single-domain structure, with magnetization either perpendicular of parallel to the plane, or else may form magnetic vortices. The properties of these vortices may be used to encode data bits, in magnetic memory applications. In the present work the OOMMF code was used to compute by micromagnetic simulation the energy and the magnetization of circular and elliptical nanodots of permalloy. For the elliptical magnetic dots the analysis was made for variable thickness and length of major axis, keeping a 2:1 axis ratio. From the simulations, a phase diagram was constructed, where the ground state configurations of the nanodots are represented in a diagram of nanodot height versus length of the major axis $2a$ of the ellipse. The phase diagram obtained includes regions with one and two vortices; it is similar, but more complex than that derived using a numerical scaling approach, since it includes configurations with lateral vortices. These diagrams are useful as guides for the choice of dimensions of elliptical nanodots for practical applications.
Nanodots with magnetic vortices have many potential applications, such as magnetic memories (VRAMs) and spin transfer nano-oscillators (STNOs). Adding a perpendicular anisotropy term to the magnetic energy of the nanodot it becomes possible to tune the vortex core properties. This can be obtained, e.g., in Co nanodots by varying the thickness of the Co layer in a Co/Pt stack. Here we discuss the spin configuration of circular and elliptical nanodots for different perpendicular anisotropies; we show for nanodisks that micromagnetic simulations and analytical results agree. Increasing the perpen…
Understanding the physical properties of magnetic skyrmions is important for fundamental research with the aim to develop new spintronic device paradigms where both logic and memory can be integrated at the same level. Here, we show a universal model based on the micromagnetic formalism that can be used to study skyrmion stability as a function of magnetic field and temperature. We consider ultrathin, circular ferromagnetic magnetic dots. Our results show that magnetic skyrmions with a small radius compared to the dot radius are always metastable, while large radius skyrmions form a stable gro…
Hysteresis loops of 3D ferromagnetic permalloy nano-half-balls (dots) with 100 nm base diameter have been examined by means of LLG micromagnetic simulations and finite element methods. Tests were carried out with two orthogonal directions of the externally applied field at 10 kA/(m.ns) field sweeping speed. The comparison of samples with different 3D modifications at the sub-10nm scale, accessible by nowadays lithographic techniques, enables conclusions about different mechanisms of competition between demagnetizing and exchange fields. Design paradigms provided here can find possible applicat…
Micromagnetic simulations studies on Permalloy (Ni80Fe20) nanodot with different shape and edge-to-edge separation (s) down to 25nm arranged in square lattice are reported. We observe the significant variation of spin-wave (SW) dynamics of nanodots of different shapes (triangular, diamond and hexagon) and of fixed dot diameter 100nm with varying s. Modes for single dot are transformed in an array into multiple quantized, edge and centre modes for different shapes and edge-to-edge separations, with different spin wave frequencies and peak intensities. Specifically, in the triangular dot sample,…
Asymmetric dots as a function of their geometry have been investigated using three-dimensional (3D) object oriented micromagnetic framework (OOMMF) code. The effect of shape asymmetry of the disk on coercivity and remanence is studied. Angular dependence of the remanence and coercivity is also addressed. Asymmetric dots are found to reverse their magnetization by nucleation and propagation of a vortex, when the field is applied parallel to the direction of asymmetry. However, complex reversal modes appear when the angle at which the external field is applied is varied, leading to a non monoton…
An analytical expression for the energy of Néel skyrmions in ultra-thin nanodots considering exchange, uniaxial anisotropy, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya, and dipolar contributions has been obtained. In particular, we have proposed for the Néel skyrmion, a general ansatz for the component of the magnetization perpendicular to the dot, given by $m_z(r) = [1-(r/R_s)^n]/[1 + (r/R_s)^n]$, where $R_s$ is the radius of the skyrmion and $n$ is an integer and even number. As proof of concept, we calculate the energy of a Néel skyrmion in an ultra-thin Co/Pt dot, and we find that the dipolar contribution canno…
Using micromagnetic simulation, we investigate the self-sustained oscillation of magnetic skyrmion in a ferromagnetic circular nanodot, driven by spin-torque which is generated from a reference layer of a circular nanopillar device. We demonstrate, by lowering the value of uniaxial anisotropy constant ($K_u$), the velocity of the skyrmion can be increased and using this property, gyration frequency of the skyrmion oscillator can be enhanced. Annihilation of the skyrmion at higher current densities, limit the gyration frequency of the oscillator, whereas by modifying the $K_u$ value at the edge…
We use vector Hamiltonian formalism (VHF) to study theoretically three-magnon parametric interaction (or three-wave splitting) in a magnetic disk existing in a magnetic vortex ground state. The three-wave splitting in a disk is found to obey two selection rules: (i) conservation of the total azimuthal number of the resultant spin-wave modes, and (ii) inequality for the radial numbers of interacting modes, if the mode directly excited by the driving field is radially symmetric (i.e. if the azimuthal number of the directly excited mode is $m = 0$). The selection rule (ii), however, is relaxed in…
Magnetic skyrmions are nanometric spin textures of outstanding potential for spintronic applications due to unique features governed by their non-trivial topology. It is well known that skyrmions of definite chirality are stabilized by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya exchange interaction (DMI) in bulk non-centrosimmetric materials or ultrathin films with strong spin-orbit coupling in the interface. In this work, we report on the detection of magnetic hedgehog-skyrmions at room temperature in confined systems with neither DMI nor perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. We show that soft magnetic (permallo…
Nanomagnetic logic has emerged as a potential replacement for traditional CMOS-based logic because of superior energy-efficiency. One implementation of nanomagnetic logic employs shape-anisotropic (e.g. elliptical) ferromagnets (with two stable magnetization orientations) as binary switches that rely on dipole-dipole interaction to communicate binary information. Normally, circular nanomagnets are incompatible with this approach since they lack distinct stable in-plane magnetization orientations to encode bits. However, circular magnetoelastic nanomagnets can be made bi-stable with a voltage i…
The spin dynamics are calculated for a model system consisting of magnetically soft, layered nanomagnets, in which two ferromagnetic (F) cylindrical dots, each with a magnetic vortex ground state, are separated by a non-magnetic spacer (N). This permits a study of the effects of interlayer magnetostatic interactions on the vortex dynamics. The system was explored by applying the equations of motion for the vortex core positions. The restoring force was calculated taking into account the magnetostatic interactions assuming a realistic surface charge free spin distribution. For tri-layer F/N/F d…
The magnetic vortex core in a nanodot can be switched by an alternating transversal magnetic field. We propose a simple collective coordinate model which describes comprehensive vortex core dynamics, including resonant behavior, weakly nonlinear regimes, and reversal dynamics. A chaotic dynamics of the vortex polarity is predicted. All analytical results were confirmed by micromagnetic simulations.
The Deformed Image Vortex Ansatz: A Perturbation-Aware Description of Magnetic Vortices in In-Plane Fields
Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences, Université catholique de Louvain（凝聚态物质与纳米科学研究所，天主教鲁汶大学）；Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, Grenoble INP, SPINTEC（格勒诺布尔阿尔卑斯大学，法国原子能和替代能源委员会，法国国家科学研究中心，格勒诺布尔国立理工学院，SPINTEC）
We have employed complete micromagnetic simulations to analyze dc current driven self-oscillations of a vortex core in a spin-valve nanopillar in a perpendicular field by including the coupled effect of the spin-torque and the magnetostatic field computed self-consistently for the entire spin-valve. The vortex in the thicker nanomagnet moves along a quasi-elliptical trajectory that expands with applied current, resulting in blue-shifting of the frequency, while the magnetization of the thinner nanomagnet is non-uniform due to the bias current. The simulations explain the experimental magnetore…
Motivated by the importance of magnetization dynamics in nanomagnets for the development and optimization of magnetic devices and sensors, we measured and modeled spin wave spectra in patterned elliptical nanomagnets. Ferromagnetic resonance spectra for multiple nanomagnets of Ni80Fe20 , fabricated by electron-beam lithography to have nominal short-axes of 200 nm or 100 nm, were measured by use of heterodyne magneto-optical microwave microscopy. Scanning electron microscope images taken of the same nanomagnets were used to define element shapes for micromagnetic simulations. Measured spectra s…
