No Arabic abstract
Spin polarized currents are employed to efficiently manipulate the magnetization of ferromagnetic ultrathin films by exerting a torque on it. If the spin currents are generated by means of the spin-orbit interaction between a ferromagnetic and a non-magnetic layer, the effect is known as spin-orbit torque (SOT), and is quantified by measuring the effective fields produced by a charge current injected into the device. In this work, we present a new experimental technique to quantify directly the SOT based on the measurement of non-linearities of the dc current-voltage (IV) characteristics in Hall bar devices employing a simple instrumentation. Through the analysis of the IV curves, the technique provides directly the linearity of the effective fields with current, the detection of the current range in which the thermal effects can be relevant, the appearance of misalignments artefacts when the symmetry relations of SOT are not fulfilled, and the conditions for the validity of the single domain approximations, which are not considered in switching current and second harmonic generation state-of-the-art experiments. We have studied the SOT induced antidamping and field-like torques in Ta/Co/Pt asymmetric stacks with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.
We report measurements of transfer functions and flux shifts of 20 on-chip high T$_C$ DC SQUIDs half of which were made purposely geometrically asymmetric. All of these SQUIDs were fabricated using standard high T$_C$ thin film technology and they were single layer ones, having 140 nm thickness of YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-x}$ film deposited by laser ablation onto MgO bicrystal substrates with 24$^0$ misorientation angle. For every SQUID the parameters of its intrinsic asymmetry, i. e., the density of critical current and resistivity of every junction, were measured directly and independently. We showed that the main reason for the on-chip spreading of SQUIDs voltage-current and voltage-flux characteristics was the intrinsic asymmetry. We found that for SQUIDs with a relative large inductance ($L>120 $ pH) both the voltage modulation and the transfer function were not very sensitive to the junctions asymmetry, whereas SQUIDs with smaller inductance ($Lsimeq 65-75 $ pH) were more sensitive. The results obtained in the paper are important for the implementation in the sensitive instruments based on high T$_C$ SQUID arrays and gratings.
We study the generation of propagating spin waves in Ta/CoFeB waveguides by spin-orbit torque antennas and compare them to conventional inductive antennas. The spin-orbit torque was generated by a transverse microwave current across the magnetic waveguide. The detected spin wave signals for an in-plane magnetization across the waveguide (Damon-Eshbach configuration) exhibited the expected phase rotation and amplitude decay upon propagation when the current spreading was taken into account. Wavevectors up to about 6 rad/$mu$m could be excited by the spin-orbit torque antennas despite the current spreading, presumably due to the non-uniformity of the microwave current. The relative magnitude of generated anti-damping spin-Hall and Oersted fields was calculated within an analytic model and it was found that they contribute approximately equally to the total effective field generated by the spin-orbit torque antenna. Due to the ellipticity of the precession in the ultrathin waveguide and the different orientation of the anti-damping spin-Hall and Oersted fields, the torque was however still dominated by the Oersted field. The prospects for obtaining a pure spin-orbit torque response are discussed, as are the energy efficiency and the scaling properties of spin-orbit torque antennas.
Spin torque from spin current applied to a nanoscale region of a ferromagnet can act as negative magnetic damping and thereby excite self-oscillations of its magnetization. In contrast, spin torque uniformly applied to the magnetization of an extended ferromagnetic film does not generate self-oscillatory magnetic dynamics but leads to reduction of the saturation magnetization. Here we report studies of the effect of spin torque on a system of intermediate dimensionality - a ferromagnetic nanowire. We observe coherent self-oscillations of magnetization in a ferromagnetic nanowire serving as the active region of a spin torque oscillator driven by spin orbit torques. Our work demonstrates that magnetization self-oscillations can be excited in a one-dimensional magnetic system and that dimensions of the active region of spin torque oscillators can be extended beyond the nanometer length scale.
We investigate the dynamics of a magnetic vortex driven by spin-transfer torque due to spin current in the adiabatic case. The vortex core represented by collective coordinate experiences a transverse force proportional to the product of spin current and gyrovector, which can be interpreted as the geometric force determined by topological charges. We show that this force is just a reaction force of Lorentz-type force from the spin current of conduction electrons. Based on our analyses, we propose analytically and numerically a possible experiment to check the vortex displacement by spin current in the case of single magnetic nanodot.
Experimental results of rectification of a constant wave radio frequency (RF) current flowing in a single-layered ferromagnetic wire are presented. We show that a detailed external magnetic field dependence of the RF current induced a direct-current voltage spectrum. The mechanism of the rectification is discussed in a term of the spin transfer torque, and the rectification is closely related to resonant spin wave excitation with the assistant of the spin-polarized RF current. The micromagnetic simulation taking into account the spin transfer torque provides strong evidence which supports the generation of spin wave excitation by the RF current.