Spin orientation and excitation of magnetic nanocluster on metal surface

The spin orientation and excitation of the ferromagnetic nanocluster on the magnetic metal surface are studied numerically. We show that localized magnetic excitation modes are generated by the spin fluctuation of the cluster, when the ferromagnetic interaction J′ between the cluster and the metal surface is small and the spins in the cluster are oriented in the opposite direction with those of the metal surface by the external field. This magnetic structure is similar to the domain wall (DW) structure of a ferromagnetic wire, both sides of which connect with metal surfaces. As the interaction J′ increases, the sign of the thermal average of the spins in the cluster changes, i.e., the spin-flip takes place. In this time, the magnetic fluctuation of the cluster becomes large and the magnetic excitation energies, except for that of one excitation mode, overlap with the excitation spectrum of the spin wave. We also show that, by the overlap, sharp peaks and dips occur in the excitation spectrum of the spin wave.     

Multi-level domain wall memory in constricted magnetic nanowires

We report a new type of multibit per cell (MBPC) magnetic memory wherein the movement and position of domain wall (DW) can be controlled precisely using spin polarized current. Out of two investigated configurations, the one with in-plane magnetization offers faster DW motion, and hence is suitable for high-speed applications, although stability may be an issue. In contrast, stable DWs were observed in the perpendicular configuration. Furthermore, the DW position can be controlled through a sequence of pulses with different magnitudes. Controlling the DW position offers a novel MBPC magnetic memory with high performance compared to other solid state memories.     

Spin excitations of a ferromagnetic wire with a magnetic domain wall

The spin excitation for a ferromagnetic wire with a domain wall (DW) is studied in a framework of the random phase approximation. We show that the excitation energy due to the DW is much smaller than that for the spin wave. In the spin-wave spectrum, there are lots of peaks or shoulders, which is related to the existence of the DW and the dimension of the leads. Using the results, the energy dissipation of conduction electrons is also discussed.     

Small-Angle Neutron Scattering Wave Interference on Ferromagnetic Alloys

The detection conditions and features of direct and scattered neutron wave interference are studied on magnetized Co₆₇Fe₃₁V₂ alloy slabs. The angular intensity distributions of neutrons passed through a sample are measured for the opposite polarization directions of the initial neutron beam. The sought-for effect that is induced by the magnetic scattering on crystal structure irregularities in specimens manifest itself by different areas of peaks “without neutron spin flip.” The ratio of these areas depends on the thermal treatment mode, sample thickness and strength of the magnetic field applied to the sample. The peaks “with neutron spin flip” are due to the mechanism of neutron wave passage through magnetononcollinear boundaries. The methods for experimental data acquisition and processing are reported as well.     

Rashba coupling induced spin accumulation in two-dimensional domain wall

Non-equilibrium spin accumulation in two-dimensional domain wall (DW) in the presence of external electric field and Rashba type spin-orbit coupling within the Boltzmann semi-classical model is investigated. Transport and relaxation of spin polarized current in the DW is governed by spin-flip rates which are determined by the Rashba interaction and magnetic impurities. Numerical results show that at low impurity densities and nonadiabatic transport regimes, the Rashba interaction significantly enhances spin polarization of conduction electrons inside the DW.     

Controlled and reproducible domain wall displacement by current pulses injected into ferromagnetic ring structures

In a combined numerical and experimental study, we demonstrate that current pulses of different polarity can reversibly and controllably displace a magnetic domain wall (DW) in submicrometer permalloy (NiFe) ring structures. The critical current densities for DW displacement are correlated with the specific spin structure of the DWs and are compared to results of micromagnetic simulations including a spin-torque term. Using a notch, an attractive local pinning potential is created for the DW resulting in a highly reproducible spin structure of the DW, critical for reliable current-induced switching.     

Conductance quantization and magnetoresistance in magnetic point contacts

We theoretically study the electron transport through a magnetic point contact (PC) with special attention given to the effect of an atomic scale domain wall (DW). The spin precession of a conduction electron is forbidden in such an atomic scale DW and the sequence of quantized conductances depends on the relative orientation of magnetizations between left and right electrodes. The magnetoresistance is strongly enhanced for the narrow PC and oscillates with the conductance.     

Stability of the one-dimensional precession regime of a domain wall under a dc magnetic field in a uniaxial ferromagnet

The conditions for parametric excitation of flexural vibrations of a domain wall (DW) are determined in the case where the DW moves under the action of a uniform dc magnetic field whose strength exceeds the Walker critical value (in the spin precession regime). Vibrations are excited when uniform precession caused by the magnetic field during DW translational motion breaks down. Using numerical methods, it is shown that steady-state large-amplitude vibrations can occur and that these vibrations significantly affect the average DW velocity     

Discrete versus continuous antiferromagnetic domain wall

Some specific features of the domain-wall (DW) solution for an antiferromagnetic chain of classical spins are discussed. It is shown that the Peierls-Nabarro barrier is absent. However, there is a specific spin barrier (i.e. the total spin of the chain depends on the position of the centre of the wall). The value of this barrier is calculated analytically. Existence of the spin barrier leads to the conclusion that the DW is unmovable for a discrete AFM chain, in contrast to the continuous case. The energy barrier is restored in the presence of an external magnetic field.     

Properties of specific electron helical states leads to spin filtering effect in dsDNA molecules

In a recent paper, Gohler et al. [1] report that a high efficiency electron spin filter can be constructed from an adsorbed monolayer of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). Understanding the mechanisms responsible for spin filtering under these conditions has proven to be a challenge, as classical analysis fails to account for the high degree of polarization observed. In this paper we show that these observations can be understood since conduction electrons in the DNA molecule are characterized by specific helical states having a magnetic moment opposite to the direction of the electron wavevector. These helical states are fundamental to the quantum-mechanical properties of periodic structures with helical symmetry. Free electrons passing through the DNA monolayer interact with these helical states, but the strength of this interaction depends on the relative orientation of the electron spin and the magnetic moment associated with the possible helical states. One of these configurations leads to a negligible interaction resulting in high spin polarization in the transmitted electron beam. The overall effect is that the free electron flux component with a magnetic moment in an opposite direction to the magnetic moment of the helical states can pass through the dsDNA monolayer without absorption, while the other spin component is highly absorbed by dsDNA. This is consistent with the finding that a monolayer of single-stranded DNA does not exhibit similar spin filtering properties.     

Magnetic rogue wave in a perpendicular anisotropic ferromagnetic nanowire with spin-transfer torque

We present the current controlled motion of a dynamic soliton embedded in spin wave background in ferromagnetic nanowire. With the stronger breather character we get the novel magnetic rogue wave and clarify its formation mechanism. The generation of magnetic rogue wave mainly arises from the accumulation of energy and magnons toward to its central part. We also observe that the spin-polarized current can control the exchange rate of magnons between the envelope soliton and the background, and the critical current condition is obtained analytically. Even more interesting is that the spin-transfer torque plays the completely opposite role for the cases below and above the critical value.     

Electronic Transport through a Waveguide in the Presence of a Magnetic Obstacle

By means of the transfer matrix technique, the electronic transport through a quantum waveguide in the presence of a magnetic obstacle is investigated theoretically. By comparing the calculated conductance spectra of the opposite spin electrons, we find that there exists a notable spin filtering window in the low energy region. Dependences of such a spin filtering window on the size, position and potential strength of the magnetic obstacle are studied in detail.     

Maxwell equation for coupled spin-charge wave propagation

We show that the dissipationless spin current in the ground state of the Rashba model gives rise to a reactive coupling between the spin and charge propagation, which is formally identical to the coupling between the electric and the magnetic fields in the (2 + 1)-dimensional Maxwell equation. This analogy leads to a remarkable effect of fractionalization of spin packets (FSP) where a density packet can spontaneously split into two counterpropagation packets, each carrying the opposite spin. In a certain parameter regime, the coupled spin and charge wave propagates like a transverse "photon." We propose both optical and purely electronic experiments to detect the FSP effect.     

Spin-dependent quantum transport through an Aharonov--Bohm structure spin splitter

Using the tight-binding model approximation, this paper investigates theoretically spin-dependent quantum transport through an Aharonov-Bohm （AB） interferometer. An external magnetic field is applied to produce the spinpolarization and spin current. The AB interferometer, acting as a spin splitter, separates the opposite spin polarization current. By adjusting the energy and the direction of the magnetic field, large spin-polarized current can be obtained.     

Nanometer scale observation of high efficiency thermally assisted current-driven domain wall depinning

Nanometer scale observation of the depinning of a narrow domain wall (DW) under a spin current is reported. We studied approximately 12 nm wide 1D Bloch DWs created in thin films exhibiting perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Magnetotransport measurements reveal thermally assisted current-driven DW motion between pinning sites separated by as little as 20 nm. The efficiency of current-driven DW motion assisted by thermal fluctuations is measured to be orders of magnitude higher than has been found for in-plane magnetized films, allowing us to control DW motion on a nanometer scale at low current densities.     

Magnetic field driven domain-wall propagation in magnetic nanowires

The mechanism of magnetic field induced magnetic domain-wall (DW) propagation in a nanowire is revealed: A static DW cannot exist in a homogeneous magnetic nanowire when an external magnetic field is applied. Thus, a DW must vary with time under a static magnetic field. A moving DW must dissipate energy due to the Gilbert damping. As a result, the wire has to release its Zeeman energy through the DW propagation along the field direction. The DW propagation speed is proportional to the energy dissipation rate that is determined by the DW structure. The negative differential mobility in the intermediate field is due to the transition from high energy dissipation at low field to low energy dissipation at high field. For the field larger than the so-called Walker breakdown field, DW plane precesses around the wire, leading to the propagation speed oscillation.     

Current driven magnetization dynamics in helical spin density waves

A mechanism is proposed for manipulating the magnetic state of a helical spin density wave using a current. It is shown that a current through a bulk metal with a helical spin density wave induces a spin transfer torque, which gives rise to a rotation of the order parameter. The use of spin transfer torque to manipulate the magnetization in bulk systems does not suffer from the obstacles seen for magnetization reversal using interface spin transfer torque in multilayered systems. The effect is demonstrated by a quantitative calculation of the current induced magnetization dynamics of a rare earth metal, Er. Finally, we propose a setup for experimental verification.     

Current-induced domain wall motion with adiabatic and nonadiabatic spin torques in magnetic nanowires

We investigate current-driven domain wall (DW) propagation in magnetic nanowires in the framework of the modified Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation with both adiabatic and nonadiabatic spin torque (AST and NAST) terms. By employing a simple analytical model, we can demonstrate the essential physics that any small current density can drive the DW motion along a uniaxial anisotropy nanowire even in absence of NAST, while a critical current density threshold is required due to intrinsic anisotropy pinning in a biaxial nanowire without NAST. The DW motion along the uniaxial wire corresponds to the asymptotical DW oscillation solution under high field/current in the biaxial wire case. The current-driven DW velocity weakly depends on the NAST parameter β in a uniaxial wire and it is similar to the β = α case (α: damping) in the biaxial wire. Apart from that, we discuss the rigid DW motion from both the energy and angular momentum viewpoints and point out some physical relations in between. We also propose an experimental scheme to measure the spin current polarization by combining both field- and current-driven DW motion in a usual flat (biaxial) nanowire.     

Thin-film magnetization dynamics on the surface of a topological insulator

We theoretically study the magnetization dynamics of a thin ferromagnetic film exchange coupled with a surface of a strong three-dimensional topological insulator. We focus on the role of electronic zero modes imprinted by domain walls (DWs) or other topological textures in the magnetic film. Thermodynamically reciprocal hydrodynamic equations of motion are derived for the DW responding to electronic spin torques, on the one hand, and fictitious electromotive forces in the electronic chiral mode fomented by the DW, on the other. An experimental realization illustrating this physics is proposed based on a ferromagnetic strip, which cuts the topological insulator surface into two gapless regions. In the presence of a ferromagnetic DW, a chiral mode transverse to the magnetic strip acts as a dissipative interconnect, which is itself a dynamic object that controls (and, inversely, responds to) the magnetization dynamics.     

Graphene-based electronic spin lenses

We theoretically demonstrate the capability of a ferromagnetic-normal interface in graphene to focus an electron wave with a certain spin direction. The essential feature is the negative refraction Klein tunneling, which is spin resolved when the exchange energy of ferromagnetic graphene exceeds its Fermi energy. Exploiting this property, we propose a graphene normal-ferromagnetic-normal electronic spin lens through which an unpolarized electronic beam can be collimated with a finite spin polarization. Our study reveals that magnetic graphene has the potential to be the electronic counterpart of the recently discovered photonic chiral metamaterials that exhibit a negative refractive index for only one direction of the circular polarization of the photon wave.