Active manipulation of spin waves is essential for the development of magnon-based technologies. Here, we demonstrate programmable spin-wave filtering by resetting the spin structure of a pinned 90$^\circ$ Néel domain wall in a continuous CoFeB film with abrupt rotations of uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. Using phase-resolved micro-focused Brillouin light scattering and micromagnetic simulations, we show that broad 90$^\circ$ head-to-head or tail-to-tail magnetic domain walls are transparent to spin waves over a broad frequency range. In contrast, magnetic switching to a 90$^\circ$ head-to-tail configuration produces much narrower domain walls at the same pinning locations. Spin waves are strongly reflected by a resonance mode in these magnetic domain walls. Based on these results, we propose a magnetic spin-wave valve with two parallel domain walls. Switching the spin-wave valve from an open to a close state changes the transmission of spin waves from nearly 100% to 0% at the resonance frequency. This active control over spin-wave transport could be utilized in magnonic logic devices or non-volatile memory elements.
According to the recent experiment by the Fert group, the velocity of domain wall motion in the spin valve ferromagnetic nanowires was almost doubly enhanced compared to the old value. In this work, we propose an additional torque model, arising from the interlayer exchange interaction, which can enhance or suppress the domain wall velocity depending on the sign of the exchange constant or the wall motion direction relative to the magnetization orientation of the fixed layer.
The propagation of a domain wall in a submicron ferromagnetic spin-valve stripe is investigated using giant magnetoresistance. A notch in the stripe efficiently traps an injected wall stopping the domain propagation. The authors show that the magnetic field at which the wall is depinned displays a stochastic nature. Moreover, the depinning statistics are significantly different for head to head and tail-to-tail domain walls. This is attributed to the dipolar field generated in the vicinity of the notch by the pinned layer of the spin-valve.
We investigate numerically the transverse versus vortex phase diagram of head-to-head domain walls in Co/Cu/Py spin valve nano-stripes (Py: Permalloy), in which the Co layer is mostly single domain while the Py layer hosts the domain wall. The range of stability of the transverse wall is shifted towards larger thickness compared to single Py layers, due to a magnetostatic screening effect between the two layers. An approached analytical scaling law is derived, which reproduces faithfully the phase diagram.
We have studied the current-induced displacement of a domain wall (DW) in the permalloy (Py) layer of a Co/Cu/Py spin valve structure at zero and very small applied field. The displacement is in opposite direction for opposite dc currents, and the current density required to move DW is only of the order of 10^6 A/cm^2. For H = 3 Oe, a back and forth DW motion between two stable positions is observed. We also discuss the effect of an applied field on the DW motion.
Current-induced magnetic domain wall motion at zero magnetic field is observed in the permalloy layer of a spin-valve-based nanostripe using photoemission electron microscopy. The domain wall movement is hampered by pinning sites, but in between them high domain wall velocities (exceeding 150 m/s) are obtained for current densities well below $10^{12} \unit{A/m^2}$, suggesting that these trilayer systems are promising for applications in domain wall devices in case of well controlled pinning positions. Vertical spin currents in these structures provide a potential explanation for the increase …
The magnetostatic interaction between magnetic domain walls (DWs) in adjacent nanotracks has been shown to produce strong inter-DW coupling and mutual pinning. In this paper, we have used electrical measurements of adjacent spin-valve nanotracks to follow the positions of interacting DWs. We show that the magnetostatic interaction between DWs causes not only mutual pinning, as observed till now, but that a travelling DW can also induce the depinning of DWs in near-by tracks. These effects may have great implications for some proposed high density magnetic devices (e.g. racetrack memory, DW log…
We present experimental results on the displacement of a domain wall by injection of a dc current through the wall. The samples are 1 micron wide long stripes of a CoO/Co/Cu/NiFe classical spin valve structure. The stripes have been patterned by electron beam lithography. A neck has been defined at 1/3 of the total length of the stripe and is a pinning center for the domain walls, as shown by the steps of the giant magnetoresistance curves at intermediate levels (1/3 or 2/3) between the resistances corresponding to the parallel and antiparallel configurations. We show by electric transport mea…
A study of transverse tail-to-tail magnetic domain walls (DW) in novel current perpendicular to the plane (CPP) spin valves (SV) of various dimensions is presented. For films with dimensions larger than the DW width, we find that DW motion can give rise to a substantial low frequency noise. For dimensions comparable to the DW width, we show that the DW can be controlled by an external field or by a spin momentum torque as opposed to the case of CPP-SV with uniform magnetization. It is shown that in a single domain biased CPP-SV, the spin torque can give rise to 1/f-type noise. The dipolar fiel…
Magnetic systems based on the manipulation of domain walls (DWs) in nano-tracks have been shown to store data at high density, perform complex logic operations, and mechanically manipulate magnetic beads. The magnetic track has been a model system to study magnetic and magneto-electronic phenomena, such as field induced DW propagation and spin-transfer torque. This thesis focuses on DW manipulation and DW-based devices in spin-valve (SV) tracks. In comparison to monolayer tracks, the SV track enables more sensitive and versatile measurements, as well as an electronic output of DW-based devices…
Magnetic molecules possess a high potential as building blocks for the design of spintronic devices. Moreover, the use of molecular materials opens the way for the controlled use of bottom-up, e.g. supramolecular, processing techniques combining massively parallel self-fabrication with conventional top-down nanostructuring techniques. The development of solid state spintronic devices based on the giant magnetoresistance (GMR), tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR), and spin valve effects has revolutionized the field of magnetic memory applications. Recently, organic semiconductors were inserted into …
Exchange bias is a phenomenon critical to solid-state technologies that require spin valves or non-volatile magnetic memory. The phenomenon is usually studied in the context of magnetic interfaces between antiferromagnets and ferromagnets, where the exchange field of the former acts as a means to pin the polarization of the latter. In the present study, we report an unusual instance of this phenomenon in the topological Weyl semimetal Co3Sn2S2, where the magnetic interfaces associated with domain walls suffice to bias the entire ferromagnetic bulk. Remarkably, our data suggests the presence of…
Power dissipation is one of the most important factors limiting the future miniaturisation of integrated circuits. The capability of controlling magnetic states with a low voltage through magnetoelectric coupling in magnetostrictive/piezoelectric systems may pave the way toward ultra low-power electronics. Although the former effect has been demon-strated in several multiferroic heterostructures, the incorporation of such complex geometries into practical magnetic memory and logic nanodevices has been lacking. Here, we demonstrate the room temperature control of a domain wall gate with an elec…
We consider long and narrow spin valves composed of a first magnetic layer with a single domain wall (DW), a normal metal spacer and a second magnetic layer that is a planar or a perpendicular polarizer. For these structures, we study numerically DW dynamics taking into account the spin torques due to the perpendicular spin currents. We obtain high DW velocities: 50 m/s for planar polarizer and 640 m/s for perpendicular polarizer for J = 5*10^6 A/cm^2. These values are much larger than those predicted and observed for DW motion due to the in-plane spin currents. The ratio of the magnitudes of …
In spite of the absence of a macroscopic magnetic moment, an anti-ferromagnet is spin-polarized on an atomic scale. The electric current passing through a conducting anti-ferromagnet is polarized as well, leading to spin-transfer torques when the order parameter is textured, such as in anti-ferromagnetic non-collinear spin valves and domain walls. We report a first principles study on the electronic transport properties of anti-ferromagnetic systems. The current-induced spin torques acting on the magnetic moments are comparable with those in conventional ferromagnetic materials, leading to mea…
Spin pumping is the emission of a spin current by a magnetization dynamics while spin transfer stands for the excitation of magnetization by spin currents. Using Onsager's reciprocity relations we prove that spin pumping and spin-transfer torques are two fundamentally equivalent dynamic processes in magnetic structures with itinerant electrons. We review the theory of the coupled motion of the magnetization order parameter and electron for textured bulk ferromagnets (e.g. containing domain walls) and heterostructures (such as spin valves). We present first-principles calculations for the mater…
The manipulation of geometrically constrained magnetic domain walls (DWs) in nanoscale magnetic strips has attracted much interest recently, with proposals for prospective memory and logic devices. Here we propose to use the high controllability of the motion of geometrically constrained DWs for the manipulation of individual nanoparticles on a chip with an active control of position at the nanometer scale. The proposed method exploits the fact that magnetic nanoparticles in solution can be captured by a DW, whose position can be manipulated with nanometric accuracy in a specifically designed …
This paper describes a numerical experiment, based on full micromagnetic simulations of current-driven magnetization dynamics in nanoscale spin valves, to identify the origins of spectral linewidth broadening in spin torque oscillators. Our numerical results show two qualitatively different regimes of magnetization dynamics at zero temperature: regular (single-mode precessional dynamics) and chaotic. In the regular regime, the dependence of the oscillator integrated power on frequency is linear, and consequently the dynamics is well described by the analytical theory of current-driven magnetiz…
The review is focused on our recent predictions of nontrivial physical phenomena taking place in the nanostructure single-layer grapheme on ferroelectric substrate, which are related with magnetic field. In particular we predicted that 180-degree domain walls in a strained ferroelectric film can induce p-n junctions in a graphene channel and lead to the unusual temperature and gate voltage dependences of the perpendicular modes ν of the integer quantum Hall effect. The non-integer numbers and their irregular sequence principally differ from the conventional sequence ν= 3/2, 5/3. The unusual v-…
The Technical Committee of the IEEE Magnetics Society has selected 7 research topics to develop their roadmaps, where major developments should be listed alongside expected timelines; (i) hard disk drives, (ii) magnetic random access memories, (iii) domain-wall devices, (iv) permanent magnets, (v) sensors and actuators, (vi) magnetic materials and (vii) organic devices. Among them, magnetic materials for spintronic devices have been surveyed as the first exercise. In this roadmap exercise, we have targeted magnetic tunnel and spin-valve junctions as spintronic devices. These can be used for ex…
