No Arabic abstract
The understanding of how spins move at pico- and femtosecond time scales is the goal of much of modern research in condensed matter physics, with implications for ultrafast and more energy-efficient data storage. However, the limited comprehension of the physics behind this phenomenon has hampered the possibility of realising a commercial technology based on it. Recently, it has been suggested that inertial effects should be considered in the full description of the spin dynamics at these ultrafast time scales, but a clear observation of such effects in ferromagnets is still lacking. Here, we report the first direct experimental evidence of inertial spin dynamics in ferromagnetic thin films in the form of a nutation of the magnetisation at a frequency of approximately 0.6 THz. This allows us to evince that the angular momentum relaxation time in ferromagnets is on the order of 10 ps.
We study the dynamics of skyrmions in Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya materials with easy-axis anisotropy. An important link between topology and dynamics is established through the construction of unambiguous conservation laws obtained earlier in connection with magnetic bubbles and vortices. In particular, we study the motion of a topological skyrmion with skyrmion number $Q=1$ and a non-topological skyrmionium with $Q=0$ under the influence of an external field gradient. The $Q=1$ skyrmion undergoes Hall motion perpendicular to the direction of the field gradient with a drift velocity proportional to the gradient. In contrast, the non-topological $Q=0$ skyrmionium is accelerated in the direction of the field gradient, thus exhibiting ordinary Newtonian motion. When the external field is switched off the $Q=1$ skyrmion is spontaneously pinned around a fixed guiding center, whereas the $Q=0$ skyrmionium moves with constant velocity $v$. We give a systematic calculation of a skyrmionium traveling with any constant velocity $v$ that is smaller than a critical velocity $v_c$.
We investigate the spin dynamics driven by terahertz magnetic fields in epitaxial thin films of cobalt in its three crystalline phases. The terahertz magnetic field generates a torque on the magnetization which causes it to precess for about 1 ps, with a sub-picosecond temporal lag from the driving force. Then, the magnetization undergoes natural damped THz oscillations at a frequency characteristic of the crystalline phase. We describe the experimental observations solving the inertial Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation. Using the results from the relativistic theory of magnetic inertia, we find that the angular momentum relaxation time $eta$ is the only material parameter needed to describe all the experimental evidence. Our experiments suggest a proportionality between $eta$ and the strength of the magneto-crystalline anisotropy.
We study the dynamics of skyrmions under spin-transfer torque in Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya materials with easy-axis anisotropy. In particular, we study the motion of a topological skyrmion with skyrmion number $Q=1$ and a non-topological skyrmionium with $Q=0$ using their linear momentum, virial relations, and numerical simulations. The non-topological $Q=0$ skyrmionium is accelerated in the direction of the current flow and it either reaches a steady state with constant velocity, or it is elongated to infinity. The steady-state velocity is given by a balance between current and dissipation and has an upper limit. In contrast, the topological $Q=1$ skyrmion converges to a steady-state with constant velocity at an angle to the current flow. When the spin current stops the $Q=1$ skyrmion is spontaneously pinned whereas the $Q=0$ skyrmionium continues propagation. Exact solutions for the propagating skyrmionium are identified as solutions of equations given numerically in a previous work. Further exact results for propagating skyrmions are given in the case of the pure exchange model. The traveling solutions provide arguments that a spin-polarized current will cause rigid motion of a skyrmion or a skyrmionium.
The gyromagnetic relation - i.e. the proportionality between the angular momentum $vec L$ (defined by an inertial tensor) and the magnetization $vec M$ - is evidence of the intimate connections between the magnetic properties and the inertial properties of ferromagnetic bodies. However, inertia is absent from the dynamics of a magnetic dipole (the Landau-Lifshitz equation, the Gilbert equation and the Bloch equation contain only the first derivative of the magnetization with respect to time). In order to investigate this paradoxical situation, the lagrangian approach (proposed originally by T. H. Gilbert) is revisited keeping an arbitrary nonzero inertial tensor. A dynamic equation generalized to the inertial regime is obtained. It is shown how both the usual gyromagnetic relation and the well-known Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation are recovered at the kinetic limit, i.e. for time scales above the relaxation time $tau$ of the angular momentum.
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.