arXiv subjects

G. Finocchio

Publications and source records attributed to G. Finocchio.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Magnetic radial vortex stabilization and efficient manipulation driven by the Dzyaloshinskii Moriya Interaction and the spin-transfer torque

Solitons are very promising for the design of next generation of ultralow power devices for storage and computation. The key ingredient to achieve this goal is the fundamental understanding of their stabilization and manipulation. Here, we show how the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii Moriya Interaction (i DMI) is able to lift the energy degeneracy of a magnetic vortex state by stabilizing a topological soliton with radial chirality, hereafter called radial vortex. It has a non-integer skyrmion number S (0.5<|S|<1) due to both the vortex core polarity and the magnetization tilting induced by the i DMI boundary conditions. Micromagnetic simulations predict that a magnetoresistive memory based on the radial vortex state in both free and polarizer layers can be efficiently switched by a threshold current density smaller than 106 A/cm2. The switching processes occur via the nucleation of topologically connected vortices and vortex antivortex pairs, followed by spin wave emissions due to vortex antivortex annihilations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Spin-Hall nano-oscillator with oblique magnetization and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction as generator of skyrmions and nonreciprocal spin-waves

Spin-Hall oscillators are promising sources of spin-wave signals for magnonics applications, and can serve as building blocks for magnonic logic in ultralow power computation devices. Here, we analytically and micromagnetically study magnetization dynamics excited in a Spin-Hall oscillator with oblique magnetization when the spin-Hall effect and interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction act simultaneously. Our key results are (i) excitation of nonreciprocal spin-waves propagating perpendicularly to the in-plane projection of the static magnetization, (ii) skyrmions generation by pure spin-current, (iii) excitation of a new spin-wave mode with a spiral spatial profile originating from a gyrotropic rotation of a dynamical skyrmion. These results demonstrate that Spin-Hall oscillators can be used as generators of magnetic skyrmions and different types of propagating spin-waves for magnetic data storage and signal processing applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Skyrmion based microwave detectors and harvesting

Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected states that are very promising for the design of the next generation of ultralow-power electronic devices. In this letter, we propose a magnetic tunnel junction based spin-transfer torque diode with a magnetic skyrmion as ground state and a perpendicular polarizer patterned as nanocontact for a local injection of the current. The key result is the possibility to achieve sensitivities (i.e. detection voltage over input microwave power) larger than 2000V/W for optimized contact diameters. Our results can be very useful for the identification of a new class of spin-torque diodes with a non-uniform ground state.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Micro-focused Brillouin light scattering study of the magnetization dynamics driven by Spin Hall effect in a transversely magnetized NiFe nanowire

We employed micro-focused Brillouin light scattering to study the amplification of the thermal spin wave eigenmodes by means of a pure spin current, generated by the spin-Hall effect, in a transversely magnetized Pt(4nm)/NiFe(4nm)/SiO2(5nm) layered nanowire with lateral dimensions 500x2750 nm2. The frequency and the cross section of both the center (fundamental) and the edge spin wave modes have been measured as a function of the intensity of the injected dc electric current. The frequency of both modes exhibits a clear redshift while their cross section is greatly enhanced on increasing the intensity of the injected dc. A threshold-like behavior is observed for a value of the injected dc of 2.8 mA. Interestingly an additional mode, localized in the central part of the nanowire, appears at higher frequency on increasing the intensity of the injected dc above the threshold value. Micromagnetic simulations were used to quantitatively reproduce the experimental results and to investigate the complex non-linear dynamics induced by the spin-Hall effect, including the modification of the spatial profile of the spin wave modes and the appearance of the extra mode above the threshold.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Chirp spectroscopy applied to the characterization of Ferromagnetic Resonance in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

Magnetic Tunnel Junction devices find use in several applications based on the exploitation of the Spin-Transfer Torque phenomenon. The Ferromagnetic Resonance curve is a key characteristic of any Magnetic Tunnel Junctions. It is usually characterized both experimentally and numerically by performing a lot of measurements of the magnetic response to a sinusoidal field or current. Here we propose the use of a chirp signal as excitation signal to reconstruct the Ferromagnetic resonance curve with a single measurement/simulation. A micromagnetic comparison of the proposed method with the traditional one is shown.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Micromagnetic study of electrical-field-assisted magnetization switching in MTJ devices

Perpendicular MgO-based Magnetic Tunnel Junctions are optimal candidates as building block of Spin Transfer Torque (STT) magnetoresistive memories. However, up to now, the only STT is not enough to achieve switching current density below 106 A/cm2. A recent work [Wang et al., Nature Mater., vol. 11, pp 64-68, Jan. 2012] has experimentally demonstrated the possibility to perform magnetization switching assisted by an electric-field at ultra-low current density. Theoretically, this switching has been studied by using a macrospin approach only. Here, we show a full micromagnetic study. We found that the switching occurs via a complex nucleation process including the nucleation of magnetic vortexes.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

A strategy for the design of skyrmion racetrack memories

Magnetic storage based on racetrack memory is very promising for the design of ultra-dense, low-cost and low-power storage technology. Information can be coded in a magnetic region between two domain walls or, as predicted recently, in topological magnetic objects known as skyrmions. Here, we show the technological advantages and limitations of using Bloch and Neel skyrmions manipulated by spin current generated within the ferromagnet or via the spin-Hall effect arising from a non-magnetic heavy metal underlayer. We found that the Neel skyrmion moved by the spin-Hall effect is a very promising strategy for technological implementation of the next generation of skyrmion racetrack memories (zero field, high thermal stability, and ultra-dense storage). We employed micromagnetics reinforced with an analytical formulation of skyrmion dynamics that we developed from the Thiele equation. We identified that the excitation, at high currents, of a breathing mode of the skyrmion limits the maximal velocity of the memory.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Micromagnetic Study of Spin Transfer driven Vortex Dipole and Vortex Quadrupole Dynamics

Vortices and antivortices are typical non uniform magnetization configurations that can be achieved in spin-torque oscillators with in-plane materials. Dynamics of a vortex-antivortex pair, namely vortex dipole, were predicted and already observed. In this paper, we present a systematic micromagnetic study on that kind of dynamics in different spin-valves where the current is injected through a nano-aperture. Rotation and translation of vortex dipoles and rotation of vortex quadrupoles are shown depending on the shape and the size of the spin-valve. The origin of the different behaviors is explained within a micromagnetic framework.

nlin.PS↗

arXiv2014

Spin-Hall Nano-oscillator: a micromagnetic study

This letter studies the dynamical behavior of spin-Hall nanoscillators from a micromagnetic point of view. The model parameters have been identified by reproducing recent experimental data quantitatively. Our results indicate that a strongly localized mode is observed for in-plane bias fields such as in the experiments, while predict the excitation of an asymmetric propagating mode for large enough out-of plane bias field similarly to what observed in spin-torque nanocontact oscillators. Our findings show that spin-Hall nanoscillators can find application as spin-wave emitters for magnonic applications where spin waves are used for transmission and processing information on nanoscale.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Influence of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction on the spin-torque diode effect

This paper predicts the effect of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) and spin Hall effect in the spin-torque diode response of a Magnetic Tunnel Junction built over a Tantalum strip. Our results indicate that, for a microwave current large enough, the DMI can change qualitatively the resonant response by splitting the ferromagnetic resonance peak. We also find out that the two modes have a non-uniform spatial distribution.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Dynamical properties of three terminal magnetic tunnel junctions: spintronics meets spin-orbitronics

This letter introduces a micromagnetic model able to characterize the magnetization dynamics in three terminal magnetic tunnel junctions, where the effects of spin-transfer torque and spin-orbit torque are taken into account. Our results predict that the possibility to separate electrically those two torque sources is very promising from a technological point of view for both next generation of nanoscale spintronic oscillators and microwave detectors. A scalable synchronization scheme based on the parallel connection of those three terminal devices is also proposed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Switching of a single ferromagnetic layer driven by spin Hall effect

The magnetization switching of a thin ferromagnetic layer placed on top of a heavy metal (such as Pt, Ta or W) driven by an in-plane current has been observed in recent experiments. The magnetization dynamics of these processes is studied in a full micromagnetic framework which takes into account the transfer-torque from spin Hall effect due to the spin-orbit coupling. Simulations indicate that the reversal occurs via nucleation of complex magnetization patterns. In particular, magnetic bubbles appear during the reversal of the magnetization in the perpendicular configuration while for the in-plane configuration, nucleation of vortexes are observed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Non-Adlerian phase slip and non stationary synchronization of spin-torque oscillators to a microwave source

The non-autonomous dynamics of spin-torque oscillators in presence of both microwave current and field at the same frequency can exhibit complex non-isochronous effects. A non-stationary mode hopping between quasi-periodic mode (frequency pulling) and periodic mode (phase locking), and a deterministic phase slip characterized by an oscillatory synchronization transient (non-Adlerian phase slip) after the phase jump of have been predicted. In the latter effect, a wavelet based analysis reveals that in the positive and negative phase jump the synchronization transient occurs at the frequency of the higher and lower sideband frequency respectively. The non-Adlerian phase slip effect, even if discovered in STOs, is a general property of non-autonomous behavior valid to any non-isochronous auto-oscillator in regime of moderate and large force locking.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2011

Micromagnetic understanding of stochastic resonance driven by spin-transfertorque

In this paper, we employ micromagnetic simulations to study non-adiabatic stochastic resonance (NASR) excited by spin-transfer torque in a super-paramagnetic free layer nanomagnet of a nanoscale spin valve. We find that NASR dynamics involves thermally activated transitions among two static states and a single dynamic state of the nanomagnet and can be well understood in the framework of Markov chain rate theory. Our simulations show that a direct voltage generated by the spin valve at the NASR frequency is at least one order of magnitude greater than the dc voltage generated off the NASR frequency. Our computations also reproduce the main experimentally observed features of NASR such as the resonance frequency, the temperature dependence and the current bias dependence of the resonance amplitude. We propose a simple design of a microwave signal detector based on NASR driven by spin transfer torque.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2010

Time domain study of frequency-power correlation in spin-torque oscillators

This paper describes a numerical experiment, based on full micromagnetic simulations of current-driven magnetization dynamics in nanoscale spin valves, to identify the origins of spectral linewidth broadening in spin torque oscillators. Our numerical results show two qualitatively different regimes of magnetization dynamics at zero temperature: regular (single-mode precessional dynamics) and chaotic. In the regular regime, the dependence of the oscillator integrated power on frequency is linear, and consequently the dynamics is well described by the analytical theory of current-driven magnetization dynamics for moderate amplitudes of oscillations. We observe that for higher oscillator amplitudes, the functional dependence of the oscillator integrated power as a function of frequency is not a single-valued function and can be described numerically via introduction of nonlinear oscillator power. For a range of currents in the regular regime, the oscillator spectral linewidth is a linear function of temperature. In the chaotic regime found at large current values, the linewidth is not described by the analytical theory. In this regime we observe the oscillator linewidth broadening, which originates from sudden jumps of frequency of the oscillator arising from random domain wall nucleation and propagation through the sample. This intermittent behavior is revealed through a wavelet analysis that gives superior description of the frequency jumps compared to several other techniques.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Combined frequency-amplitude nonlinear modulation: theory and applications

In this work we formulate a generalized theoretical model to describe the nonlinear dynamics observed in combined frequency-amplitude modulators whose characteristic parameters exhibit a nonlinear dependence on the input modulating signal. The derived analytical solution may give a satisfactory explanation of recent laboratory observations on magnetic spin-transfer oscillators and fully agrees with results of micromagnetic calculations. Since the theory has been developed independently of the mechanism causing the nonlinearities, it may encompass the description of modulation processes of any physical nature, a promising feature for potential applications in the field of communication systems.

math-ph↗

arXiv2010

Domain wall dynamics driven by a localized injection of a spin-polarized current

This paper introduces an oscillator scheme based on the oscillations of magnetic domain walls due to spin-polarized currents, where the current is injected perpendicular to the sample plane in a localized part of a nanowire. Depending on the geometrical and physical characteristic of the system, we identify two different dynamical regimes (auto-oscillations) when an out-of-plane external field is applied. The first regime is characterized by nucleation of domain walls (DWs) below the current injection site and the propagation of those up to the end of the nanowire, we also found an oscillation frequency larger than 5GHz with a linear dependence on the applied current density. This simple system can be used as a tuneable steady-state domain wall oscillator. In the second dynamical regime, we observe the nucleation of two DWs which propagate back and forth in the nanowire with a sub-GHz oscillation frequency. The micromagnetic spectral mapping technique shows the spatial distribution of the output power is localized symmetrically in the nanowire. We suggest that this configuration can be used as micromagnetic transformer to decouple electrically two different circuits.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Spin-torque driven magnetic vortex self-oscillations in perpendicular magnetic fields

We have employed complete micromagnetic simulations to analyze dc current driven self-oscillations of a vortex core in a spin-valve nanopillar in a perpendicular field by including the coupled effect of the spin-torque and the magnetostatic field computed self-consistently for the entire spin-valve. The vortex in the thicker nanomagnet moves along a quasi-elliptical trajectory that expands with applied current, resulting in blue-shifting of the frequency, while the magnetization of the thinner nanomagnet is non-uniform due to the bias current. The simulations explain the experimental magnetoresistance-field hysteresis loop and yield good agreement with the measured frequency vs. current behavior of this spin-torque vortex oscillator.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗