arXiv subjects

Dirk Grundler

Publications and source records attributed to Dirk Grundler.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Nonreciprocity reversal of magnetoacoustic attenuation in NiFe alloy thin films

Nonreciprocity, the asymmetry of transport, underlies technologies from the diode to the microwave isolator. In a ferromagnet, a surface acoustic wave generates an elliptical effective field with propagation-locked handedness, breaking the reciprocity of its propagation. Despite decades of study on this phenomenon, a method for controlling the sign of the nonreciprocity has remained elusive. Here we observe a sign reversal in Ni$_x$Fe$_{100-x}$ films. A 0.8 at.% change across Permalloy's zero-magnetostriction composition, where the magnetoelastic coefficient $b$ changes sign, reverses the handedness of the elliptical effective field and thereby the nonreciprocity, from 78.6% to -61.8%. Angle-dependent measurements and spin-wave-ellipticity modelling show that reversing the sign of $b$ reverses the handedness of the elliptically polarized effective field. Aided by cubic frequency scaling, we resolve the sign of $b$ down to -0.05 MPa in a 10-nm film, establishing nonreciprocity as a nanoscale probe of magnetoelastic coupling.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

The 2026 Skyrmionics Roadmap

Magnetic skyrmions and related topological spin textures have emerged as a central topic in condensed-matter physics, combining fundamental significance with potential for transformative applications in spintronics, magnonics, and beyond. Over the past decade, advances in material platforms, imaging techniques, theoretical modeling, and device concepts have established skyrmionics as a rapidly expanding field. At the same time, challenges remain in stabilizing, controlling, and integrating such textures into functional architectures, while novel phenomena such as antiskyrmions, higher-order skyrmions, hopfions, and antiferromagnetic textures arise. The 2026 Skyrmionics Roadmap represents a collective effort of many authors, providing a comprehensive perspective on the current state-of-the-art and the outlook for the coming years. In 33 focused sections, each co-authored by two researchers, we chart progress in theory and modeling, material systems, skyrmion dynamics, and skyrmion technologies. By offering a consolidated vision, this Roadmap aims to guide both fundamental research and application-driven efforts, accelerating the transition of skyrmionics from conceptual breakthroughs toward practical technologies.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Superconducting Diode Effect due to Chiral Meissner Currents in a Hollow Superconducting Helix

The superconducting diode effect (SDE) is a key nonreciprocal phenomenon with broad relevance for superconducting electronics. Using time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau simulations, we predict and quantify a superconducting diode effect arising solely from geometric chirality imposed to a conventional superconductor. The helical geometry and magnetic-field-induced screening currents produce inequivalent critical currents for opposite polarities. The diode efficiency reaches a maximum when one current direction first nucleates vortices, revealing a chirality-controlled crossover between screening- and vortex-dominated nonreciprocity. These results establish mesoscopic geometric chirality as a robust mechanism for supercurrent rectification in an achiral superconductor. They suggest an experimentally accessible route towards 3D superconducting diodes for multi-level integrated quantum circuits.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Chirality Imprinting and Spin-texture Tunability in Conformally Coated 3D Magnetic Nanostructured Metamaterials

Three-dimensional (3D) magnetic nanostructures offer unprecedented opportunities for engineering emergent spin textures, but controlling their configuration remains a central challenge. Here we show that conformally coated Ni Nanotubes arranged in a woodpile geometry with lattice spacings ranging from 800 to 1200 nm, realised by two-photon lithography and atomic layer deposition, exhibit a geometry-tuneable balance between chiral and axial states. Magnetic force microscopy on the top layer of the 3D woodpile reveals that few-layer systems exhibit a chiral contrast whilst increasing the number of stacked layers drives a transition to an axial configuration with the change in state populations depending strongly on lattice spacing. Micromagnetic simulations demonstrate that chirality is not intrinsic to isolated tubes but is imprinted by spin textures formed in the substrate sheet film, which couple into the 3D network. As the sheet-film influence diminishes with increasing layer number, dipolar interactions dominate and stabilise the axial state. This two-stage mechanism of chirality imprinting followed by increasingly dominant dipolar interactions, provides clear control parameters for tailoring spin-texture populations. Our results establish conformally coated woodpiles as a reconfigurable 3D ferromagnetic metamaterial platform that can be exploited for data storage, magnonics, and neuromorphic computing.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Vortex Refraction at Tilted Superconductor-Normal Metal Interfaces

We derive a refraction law for superconducting vortices at superconductor/normal metal interfaces. Simulations of the proximity effect under tilted geometries confirm this law and reveal vortex trapping for low effective mass. Under transport currents, we find core displacements due to differing vortex viscosities in the superconductor and normal metal. These results clarify vortex dynamics in proximity-coupled systems and offer design principles for high-current coated superconducting devices.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Tunable magnon emission from a nano-optomagnet

The growing demand for dense, energy-efficient, and high-frequency signal processing continues to drive device miniaturization. While downscaling remains a central challenge, magnons offer a promising solution as nanoscale signal carriers, supporting broadband operation from GHz to THz without moving charge carriers and generating Joule heating. However, their integration at the nanoscale is limited by conventional electrical excitation based on coplanar waveguides, which require metal pads few to hundreds of micrometres in size. Here, we demonstrate tunable magnon emission into a yttrium iron garnet film by focusing microwave-modulated laser light onto an integrated Au nanodisc. Using inelastic light scattering spectroscopy, we observe magnons whose frequencies match the optical modulation frequencies in the GHz frequency regime. The largest magnon amplitudes are found for circularly polarized laser light and specific nanodisc diameters consistent with a plasmon-enhanced inverse Faraday effect. These results establish plasmonic nanoantennas as reconfigurable nanoscale magnon sources, enabling broadband signal generation governed entirely by optical modulation.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Short-wave magnons with multipole spin precession detected in the topological bands of a skyrmion lattice

Topological magnon bands enable uni-directional edge transport without backscattering, enhancing the robustness of magnonic circuits and providing a novel platform for exploring quantum transport phenomena. Magnetic skyrmion lattices, in particular, host a manifold of topological magnon bands with multipole character and non-reciprocal dispersions. These modes have been explored already in the short and long wavelength limit, but previously employed techniques were unable to access intermediate wavelengths comparable to inter-skyrmion distances. Here, we report the detection of such magnons with wavevectors $|{\bf q}|\simeq 48$ rad $μ$m$^{-1}$ in the metastable skyrmion lattice phase of the bulk chiral magnet Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$ using Brillouin light scattering microscopy. Thanks to its high sensitivity and broad bandwidth various multipole excitation modes could be resolved over a wide magnetic field regime. Besides the known counterclockwise, breathing and clockwise modes with dipole character, quantitative comparison of frequencies and spectral weights to theoretical predictions enabled the additional identification of a quadrupole mode and, possibly, a sextupole mode. Our work highlights the potential of skyrmionic phases for the design of magnonic devices exploiting topological magnon states at GHz frequencies.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Coherent Spin Waves in Curved Ferromagnetic Nanocaps of a 3D-printed Magnonic Crystal

Coherent magnon modes in a truly three-dimensional (3D) magnonic crystal have not yet been investigated. This scientific gap exists despite the numerous theoretical predictions about miniband formation and edge modes with topological protection. Such properties are key to advance nanomagnonics for ultrafast data processing. In this work, we use a scalable nanotechnology and integrate a 3D magnonic crystal to an on-chip microresonator. It was fabricated by two-photon lithography of a 3D woodpile structure and atomic layer deposition of 30-nm-thick nickel. Operated near 14 and 24~GHz, the microresonator output revealed numerous coherent magnons with distinct angular dependencies reflecting the underlying face-centred cubic lattice. Micromagnetic simulations show that the edge modes are localised in curved nanocaps and robust against changes in field orientation. Along an edge, they exhibit an unexpected phase evolution. Our findings advance functional microwave circuits with 3D magnonic crystals and fuel their visionary prospects of edge-dominated magnon modes.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Soft-X-ray momentum microscopy of nonlinear magnon interactions below 100-nm wavelength

Magnons are quantised collective excitations of long-range ordered spins. At nanometre wavelengths, exchange interactions increasingly govern their dynamics, giving rise to a largely unexplored regime of couplings between magnons and other quasiparticles. Yet, detecting such short-wavelength spin waves has remained a key experimental challenge. Here, we introduce Magnon Momentum Microscopy (MMM) -- a quasi-elastic, resonant magnetic soft-X-ray scattering technique that directly images magnon populations across two-dimensional momentum space. Owing to its remarkable sensitivity, MMM can capture nonlinear magnon-magnon interactions over large regions of the dispersion plane. Applying MMM to the prototypical magnonic material yttrium iron garnet (YIG), we uncover a rich variety of previously unobserved nonlinear magnon interactions. With its element specificity, bulk sensitivity, as well as intrinsic access to nanometre-scale wavelengths without frequency limitation, soft-X-ray MMM establishes a powerful and versatile platform for exploring short-wavelength and nonlinear magnonics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Periodic phase slips and frequency comb generation at tunable microwave frequencies in superconducting diabolo structures

Superconductors are characterized by macroscopic phase coherence and have enabled cryogenic electronics and quantum technologies. Recent advances in 3D nanofabrication now offer possibilities for tuning functional properties relevant for on-chip 3D integration of superconductors. However, non-equilibrium phenomena in 3D nanostructures exposed to transport currents remain largeley unexplored. Here, we employ numerical simulations to investigate phase slips -- discrete $2π$ jumps in the phase of the superconducting order parameter -- in a tubular Nb superconductor with a central constriction, which is subjected to both direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) transport currents. We find that under DC drive, the system stabilizes periodic phase slips, resulting in GHz voltage oscillations. Introducing an additional AC frequency modulation generates microwave frequency combs which depend characteristically on the interaction between moving vortices and phase slips. Our findings open avenues for developing on-chip frequency comb generators in 3D cryoelectronics.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Controlling spin currents with magnon interference in a canted antiferromagnet

Controlling spin current lies at the heart of spintronics and its applications. The sign of spin currents is monotonous in ferromagnets once the current direction is determined. Spin currents in antiferromagnets can possess opposite polarization, but requires enormous magnetic fields to lift the degeneracy. Controlling spin currents with different polarization is urgently demanded but remains hitherto elusive. Here, we demonstrate the control of spin currents at room temperature by magnon interference in a canted antiferromagnet, hematite recently also classified as an altermagnet. Magneto-optical characterization by Brillouin light scattering revealed that the spatial periodicity of the beating patterns was tunable via the microwave frequency. The inverse spin-Hall voltage changed sign as the frequency was scanned, i.e., a frequency-controlled switching of polarization in pure spin currents was obtained. Our work marks the use of antiferromagnetic magnon interference to control spin currents, which substantially extends the horizon for the emerging field of coherent antiferromagnetic spintronics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Room temperature realization of artificial chiral magnets with reprogrammable magnon nonreciprocity at zero field

Chiral magnets are materials which possess unique helical arrangements of magnetic moments, which give rise to nonreciprocal transport and fascinating physics phenomena. On the one hand, their exploration is guided by the prospects of unconventional signal processing, computation schemes and magnetic memory. On the other hand, progress in applications is hindered by the challenging materials synthesis, limited scalability and typically low critical temperature. Here, we report the creation and exploration of artificial chiral magnets (ACMs) at room temperature. By employing a mass production compatible deposition technology, we synthesize ACMs, which consist of helical Ni surfaces on central cylinders. Using optical microscopy, we reveal nonreciprocal magnon transport at GHz frequencies. It is controlled by programmable toroidal moments which result from the ACM's geometrical handedness and field-dependent spin chirality. We present materials-by-design rules which optimize the helically curved ferromagnets for 3D nonreciprocal transport at room temperature and zero magnetic field.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Magnon-assisted magnetization reversal of Ni81Fe19 nanostripes on Y3Fe5O12 with different interfaces

Magnetic bit writing by short-wave magnons without conversion to the electrical domain is expected to be a game-changer for in-memory computing architectures. Recently, the reversal of nanomagnets by propagating magnons was demonstrated. However, experiments have not yet explored different wavelengths and the nonlinear excitation regime of magnons required for computational tasks. We report on the magnetization reversal of individual 20-nm-thick Ni81Fe19 (Py) nanostripes integrated onto 113-nm-thick yttrium iron garnet (YIG). We suppress direct interlayer exchange coupling by an intermediate layer such as Cu and SiO2. Exciting magnons in YIG with wavelengths λ down to 148 nm we observe the reversal of the integrated ferromagnets in a small opposing field of 14 mT. Magnons with a small wavelength of λ = 195 nm, i.e., twice the width of the Py nanostripes, induced the reversal at an unprecedentedly small spin precessional power of about 1 nW after propagating over 15 μm in YIG. Considerations based on dynamic dipolar coupling explain the observed wavelength dependence of magnon-induced reversal efficiency. For an increased power the stripes reversed in an opposing field of only about 1 mT. Our findings are important for the practical implementation of nonvolatile storage of broadband magnon signals in YIG by means of bistable nanomagnets without the need of an appreciable global magnetic field.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Magnetization Reversal of 50-nm-wide Ni81Fe19 Nanostripes by Ultrashort Magnons in Yttrium Iron Garnet for Memory-Enhanced Magnonic Circuits

Spin waves (magnons) can enable wave-based neuromorphic computing by which one aims at overcoming limitations inherent to conventional electronics and the von Neumann architecture. In this study, we explore the storage of magnon signals and the magnetization switching of periodic and aperiodic arrays of Ni81Fe19 (Py) nanostripes with widths (w) between 50 nm and 200 nm. Spin waves excited with low microwave power in yttrium iron garnet induce the reversal of the nanostripes of different w in a small opposing field. Exploiting microwave-to-magnon transducers for magnon modes with ultrashort wavelengths, we demonstrate the reversal of 50-nm-wide Py nanostripes by magnons with wavelength ~ 100 nm after they have propagated over 25 micrometer in YIG. The findings are important for designing a magnon-based in-memory computing device.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Nonreciprocal Spin Waves in Nanoscale Domain Walls Detected by Scanning X-ray Microscopy in Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropic Fe/Gd Multilayers

Spin wave nonreciprocity in domain walls (DWs) allows for unidirectional signal processing in reconfigurable magnonic circuits. Using scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (STXM), we examined coherently-excited magnons propagating in Bloch-like DWs in amorphous Fe/Gd multilayers with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). Near 1 GHz we detected magnons with short wavelengths down to $λ= 281$ nm in DWs whose minimum width amounted to $δ_{\rm DW} = 52$ nm. Consistent with micromagnetic simulations, the STXM data reveal their nonreciprocal magnon band structures. We identified Bloch points which disrupted the phase evolution of magnons and induced different $λ$ adjacent to the topological defects. Our observations provide direct evidence of nonreciprocal spin waves within Bloch-like DWs, serving as programmable waveguides in magnonic devices with directed information flow.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Terahertz Slonczewski propagating spin waves and large output voltage in antiferromagnetic spin-Hall nano-oscillators

We study theoretically antiferromagnet (AFM) based spin-Hall nano-oscillators (SHNOs) consisting of a nano-constriction (NC) in a thin-film uniaxial AFM. By solving the derived SW equation we evidence radially propagating spin waves (SWs) at THz frequencies similar to the Slonczewski SWs known at GHz frequencies for a ferromagnet-based SHNO. We predict a minimum threshold current for a specific NC radius accessible by the state-of-the-art nanotechnology. The exchange interaction enhanced spin pumping for AFMs leads to a strong thickness dependent threshold frequency. We show that the uniaxial AFMs generate ac electrical fields via spin pumping that are three orders of magnitude larger than reported for biaxial AFMs. Our work enhances the fundamental understanding of current-driven SWs in AFM-SHNOs and enables optimization of practical devices in terms of material choice, device geometry, and frequency tunability. The propagating SWs offer remote THz signal generation and an efficient means for synchronization of SHNOs when aiming at high power.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

A hybrid polymer/ceramic/semiconductor fabrication platform for high-sensitivity fluid-compatible MEMS devices with sealed integrated electronics

Active microelectromechanical systems can couple the nanomechanical domain with the electronic domain by integrating electronic sensing and actuation mechanisms into the micromechanical device. This enables very fast and sensitive measurements of force, acceleration, or the presence of biological analytes. In particular, strain sensors integrated onto MEMS cantilevers are widely used to transduce an applied force to an electrically measurable signal in applications like atomic force microscopy, mass sensing, or molecular detection. However, the high Young's moduli of traditional cantilever materials (silicon or silicon nitride) limit the thickness of the devices, and therefore the deflection sensitivity that can be obtained for a specific spring constant. Using softer materials such as polymers as the structural material of the MEMS device would overcome this problem. However, these materials are incompatible with high-temperature fabrication processes often required to fabricate high quality electronic strain sensors. We introduce a pioneering solution that seamlessly integrates the benefits of polymer MEMS technology with the remarkable sensitivity of strain sensors, even under high-temperature deposition conditions. Cantilevers made using this technology are inherently fluid compatible and have shown up to 6 times lower force noise than their conventional counterparts. We demonstrate the benefits and versatility of this polymer/ceramic/semiconductor multi-layer fabrication approach with the examples of self-sensing AFM cantilevers, and membrane surface stress sensors for biomolecule detection.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2022

Spin wave dispersion of ultra-low damping hematite ($α\text{-Fe}_2\text{O}_3$) at GHz frequencies

Low magnetic damping and high group velocity of spin waves (SWs) or magnons are two crucial parameters for functional magnonic devices. Magnonics research on signal processing and wave-based computation at GHz frequencies focussed on the artificial ferrimagnetic garnet Y$_3$Fe$_5$O$_{12}$ (YIG) so far. We report on spin-wave spectroscopy studies performed on the natural mineral hematite ($α\text{-Fe}_2\text{O}_3$) which is a canted antiferromagnet. By means of broadband GHz spectroscopy and inelastic light scattering, we determine a damping coefficient of $1.1\times10^{-5}$ and magnon group velocities of a few 10 km/s, respectively, at room temperature. Covering a large regime of wave vectors up to $k\approx 24~{\rm rad}/μ$m, we find the exchange stiffness length to be relatively short and only about 1 Å. In a small magnetic field of 30 mT, the decay length of SWs is estimated to be 1.1 cm similar to the best YIG. Still, inelastic light scattering provides surprisingly broad and partly asymmetric resonance peaks. Their characteristic shape is induced by the large group velocities, low damping and distribution of incident angles inside the laser beam. Our results promote hematite as an alternative and sustainable basis for magnonic devices with fast speeds and low losses based on a stable natural mineral.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗