Model of quantum depinning of magnetic vortex cores from line defects in a disk geometry and under the application of an in-plane magnetic field has been developed within the framework of the Caldeira-Leggett theory. The corresponding instanton solutions are computed for several values of the magnetic field. Expressions for the crossover temperature Tc and for the depinning rate Gamma(T) are obtained. Fitting of the theory parameters to experimental data is also presented.
We study the behavior of vortex matter in artificial flow channels confined by pinned vortices in the channel edges (CEs). The critical current $J_s$ is governed by the interaction with static vortices in the CEs. We study structural changes associated with (in)commensurability between the channel width $w$ and the natural row spacing $b_0$, and their effect on $J_s$. The behavior depends crucially on the presence of disorder in the CE arrays. For ordered CEs, maxima in $J_s$ occur at matching $w=nb_0$ ($n$ integer), while for $w eq nb_0$ defects along the CEs cause a vanishing $J_s$. For weak CE disorder, the sharp peaks in $J_s$ at $w=nb_0$ become smeared via nucleation and pinning of defects. The corresponding quasi-1D $n$ row configurations can be described by a (disordered)sine-Gordon model. For larger disorder and $wsimeq nb_0$, $J_s$ levels at $sim 30 %$ of the ideal lattice strength $J_s^0$. Around half filling ($w/b_0 simeq npm 1/2$), disorder causes new features, namely {it misaligned} defects and coexistence of $n$ and $n pm 1$ rows in the channel. This causes a {it maximum} in $J_s$ around mismatch, while $J_s$ smoothly decreases towards matching due to annealing of the misaligned regions. We study the evolution of static and dynamic structures on changing $w/b_0$, the relation between modulations of $J_s$ and transverse fluctuations and dynamic ordering of the arrays. The numerical results at strong disorder show good qualitative agreement with recent mode-locking experiments.
We studied the quantum dynamics of ferromagnetic domain walls (topological kink-type solitons) in one dimensional ferromagnetic spin chains. We show that the tunneling probability does not depend on the number of spins in a domain wall; thus, this probability can be large even for a domain wall containing a large number of spins. We also predict that there is a strong interplay between the tunneling of a wall from one lattice site to another (tunneling of the kink coordinate) and the tunneling of the kink topological charge (so-called chirality). Both of these elementary processes are suppressed for kinks in one-dimensional ferromagnets with half-integer spin. The dispersion law (i.e., the domain wall energy versus momentum) is essentially different for chains with either integer or half-integer spins. The predicted quantum effects could be observed for mesoscopic magnetic structures, e.g., chains of magnetic clusters, large-spin molecules, or nanosize magnetic dots.
The discrete shell structure of vortex matter strongly influences the flux dynamics in mesoscopic superconducting Corbino disks. While the dynamical behavior is well understood in large and in very small disks, in the intermediate-size regime it occurs to be much more complex and unusual, due to (in)commensurability between the vortex shells. We demonstrate unconventional vortex dynamics (inversion of shell velocities with respect to the gradient driving force) and angular melting (propagating from the boundary where the shear stress is minimum, towards the center) in mesoscopic Corbino disks.
The influence of a strain-induced uniaxial magnetoelastic anisotropy on the magnetic vortex core dynamics in microstructured magnetostrictive Co$_{40}$Fe$_{40}$B$_{20}$ elements was investigated with time-resolved scanning transmission x-ray microscopy. The measurements revealed a monotonically decreasing eigenfrequency of the vortex core gyration with the increasing magnetoelastic anisotropy, which follows closely the predictions from micromagnetic modeling.
We observe the dynamics of a single magnetic vortex in the presence of a random array of pinning sites. At low excitation amplitudes, the vortex core gyrates about its equilibrium position with a frequency that is characteristic of a single pinning site. At high amplitudes, the frequency of gyration is determined by the magnetostatic energy of the entire vortex, which is confined in a micron-scale disk. We observe a sharp transition between these two amplitude regimes that is due to depinning of the vortex core from a local defect. The distribution of pinning sites is determined by mapping fluctuations in the frequency as the vortex core is displaced by a static in-plane magnetic field.