arXiv subjects

Romain Lebrun

Publications and source records attributed to Romain Lebrun.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Electrical detection of the spin reorientation transition in antiferromagnetic TmFeO$_3$ thin films by spin Hall magnetoresistance

TmFeO$_3$ (TFO) is a canted antiferromagnet that undergoes a spin reorientation transition (SRT) with temperature between 82 K and 94 K in single crystals. In this temperature region, the Néel vector continuously rotates from the crystallographic $c$-axis (below 82 K) to the $a$-axis (above 94 K). The SRT allows for a temperature control of distinct antiferromagnetic states without the need for a magnetic field, making it apt for applications working at THz frequencies. For device applications, thin films of TFO are required as well as an electrical technique for reading out the magnetic state. Here we demonstrate that orthorhombic TFO thin films can be grown by pulsed laser deposition and the detection of the SRT in TFO thin films can be accessed by making use of the all electrical spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR), in good agreement for the temperature range where the SRT occurs. Our results demonstrate that one can electrically detect the SRT in insulators.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Beyond the gyrotropic motion: dynamic C-state in vortex spin torque oscillators

In the present study, we investigate a dynamical mode beyond the gyrotropic (G) motion of a magnetic vortex core in a confined magnetic disk of a nano-pillar spin torque nano oscillator. It is characterized by the in-plane circular precession associated to a C-shaped magnetization distribution. We show a transition between G and C-state mode which is found to be purely stochastic in a current-controllable range. Supporting our experimental findings with micromagnetic simulations, we believe that the results provide novel opportunities for the dynamic and stochastic control of STOs, which could be interesting to be implemented for example in neuromorphic networks.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Structural sensitivity of the spin Hall magnetoresistance in antiferromagnetic thin films

Reading the magnetic state of antiferromagnetic (AFM) thin films is key for AFM spintronic devices. We investigate the underlying physics behind the spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) of bilayers of platinum and insulating AFM hematite (α-Fe2O3) and find an SMR efficiency of up to 0.1%, comparable to ferromagnetic based structures. To understand the observed complex SMR field dependence, we analyse the effect of misalignments of the magnetic axis that arise during growth of thin films, by electrical measurements and direct magnetic imaging, and find that a small deviation can result in significant signatures in the SMR response. This highlights the care that must be taken when interpreting SMR measurements on AFM spin textures.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Concurrent magneto-optical imaging and magneto-transport readout of electrical switching of insulating antiferromagnetic thin films

We demonstrate stable and reversible current induced switching of large-area ($> 100\;μm^2$) antiferromagnetic domains in NiO/Pt by performing concurrent transport and magneto-optical imaging measurements in an adapted Kerr microscope. By correlating the magnetic images of the antiferromagnetic domain changes and magneto-transport signal response in these current-induced switching experiments, we disentangle magnetic and non-magnetic contributions to the transport signal. Our table-top approach establishes a robust procedure to subtract the non-magnetic contributions in the transport signal and extract the spin-Hall magnetoresistance response associated with the switching of the antiferromagnetic domains enabling one to deduce details of the antiferromagnetic switching from simple transport measurements.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Impact of electromagnetic fields and heat on spin transport signals in Y$_{3}$Fe$_{5}$O$_{12}$

Exploring new strategies to perform magnon logic is a key requirement for the further development of magnon-based spintronics. In this work, we realize a three-terminal magnon transport device to study the possibility of manipulating magnonic spin information transfer in a magnetic insulator via localized magnetic fields and heat generation. The device comprises two parallel Pt wires as well as a Cu center wire that are deposited on the ferrimagnetic insulator Y$_{3}$Fe$_{5}$O$_{12}$. While the Pt wires act as spin current injector and detector, the Cu wire is used to create local magnetostatic fields and additional heat, which impact both the magnetic configuration and the magnons within the Y$_{3}$Fe$_{5}$O$_{12}$ below. We show that these factors can create a non-local signal that shows similar features as compared to an electrically induced magnon flow. Furthermore, a modulation of the spin transport signal between the Pt wires is observed, which can be partly explained by thermally excited spin currents of different polarization. Our results indicate a potential way towards the manipulation of non-local magnon signals, which could be useful for magnon logic.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and chiral magnetic textures in a ferrimagnetic insulator

The interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in multilayers of heavy metal and ferromagnetic metals enables the stabilization of novel chiral spin structures such as skyrmions. Magnetic insulators, on the other hand can exhibit enhanced dynamics and properties such as lower magnetic damping and therefore it is of interest to combine the properties enabled by interfacial DMI with insulating systems. Here, we demonstrate the presence of interfacial DMI in heterostructures that include insulating magnetic layers. We use a bilayer of perpendicularly magnetized insulating thulium iron garnet (TmIG) and the heavy metal platinum, and find a surprisingly strong interfacial DMI that, combined with spin-orbit torque results, in efficient switching. The interfacial origin is confirmed through thickness dependence measurements of the DMI, revealing the characteristic 1/thickness dependence with one order of magnitude longer decay length compared to metallic layers. We combine chiral spin structures and spin-orbit torques for efficient switching and identify skyrmions that allow us to establish the GGG/TmIG interface as the origin of the DMI.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Mechanism of Néel order switching in antiferromagnetic thin films revealed by magnetotransport and direct imaging

We probe the current-induced magnetic switching of insulating antiferromagnet/heavy metals systems, by electrical spin Hall magnetoresistance measurements and direct imaging, identifying a reversal occurring by domain wall (DW) motion. We observe switching of more than one third of the antiferromagnetic domains by the application of current pulses. Our data reveal two different magnetic switching mechanisms leading together to an efficient switching, namely the spin-current induced effective magnetic anisotropy variation and the action of the spin torque on the DWs.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Control of the Coupling Strength and the Linewidth of a Cavity-Magnon Polariton

The full coherent control of hybridized systems such as strongly coupled cavity photon-magnon states is a crucial step to enable future information processing technologies. Thus, it is particularly interesting to engineer deliberate control mechanisms such as the full control of the coupling strength as a measure for coherent information exchange. In this work, we employ cavity resonator spectroscopy to demonstrate the complete control of the coupling strength of hybridized cavity photon-magnon states. For this, we use two driving microwave inputs which can be tuned at will. Here, only the first input couples directly to the cavity resonator photons, whilst the second tone exclusively acts as a direct input for the magnons. For these inputs, both the relative phase $ϕ$ and amplitude $δ_0$ can be independently controlled. We demonstrate that for specific quadratures between both tones, we can increase the coupling strength, close the anticrossing gap, and enter a regime of level merging. At the transition, the total amplitude is enhanced by a factor of 1000 and we observe an additional linewidth decrease of $13\%$ at resonance due to level merging. Such control of the coupling, and hence linewidth, open up an avenue to enable or suppress an exchange of information and bridging the gap between quantum information and spintronics applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Spin-dependent (inverse) spin Hall effect in Co$_{60}$Fe$_{20}$B$_{20}$

In ferromagnetic metals, the interconversion of spin and charge currents via the spin Hall effect and its inverse can depend on the angle between the ferromagnets magnetization and the spin current polarization direction. Here, such a spin-dependent (inverse) spin Hall effect is found in the ferromagnetic alloy Co$_{60}$Fe$_{20}$B$_{20}$. In a nonlocal magnon transport experiment, Co$_{60}$Fe$_{20}$B$_{20}$ is used to both excite and detect magnonic spin currents flowing in the ferrimagnetic insulator Y$_{3}$Fe$_{5}$O$_{12}$. We find that the signal amplitude is significantly modulated by tuning the direction of the Co$_{60}$Fe$_{20}$B$_{20}$ magnetization. We design a sample structure that completely prevents direct magnonic coupling between the ferromagnets. Thus, we can identify unambiguously an intrinsic electronic origin of the observed effect.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Anisotropies and magnetic phase transitions in insulating antiferromagnets determined by a Spin-Hall magnetoresistance probe

We demonstrate that we can determine the antiferromagnetic anisotropies and the bulk Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya fields of the insulating iron oxide hematite, α-Fe2O3, using a surface sensitive spin-Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) technique. We develop an analytical model that in combination with SMR measurements, allow for the identification of the material parameters of this prototypical antiferromagnet over a wide range of temperatures and magnetic field values. Using devices with different orientations, we demonstrate that the SMR response strongly depends on the direction of the charge current with respect to the magneto-crystalline anisotropies axis. We show that we can extract the anisotropies over a wide temperature range including across the Morin phase transition. We observe that the electrical response is dominated by the orientation of the antiferromagnetic Néel order parameter, rather than by the emergent weak magnetic moment. Our results highlight that the surface sensitivity of the SMR allows accessing the magnetic anisotropies of antiferromagnetic crystals and in particular thin films where other methods to determine anisotropies such as bulk-sensitive magnetic susceptibility measurements do not provide sufficient sensitivity.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Improved spectral stability in spin transfer nano-oscillators: single vortex versus coupled vortices dynamics

We perform a comparative study of spin transfer induced excitation of the gyrotropic motion of a vortex core with either uniform or vortex spin polarizers. The microwave output voltage associated with the vortex dynamics, detected in both cases, displays a strong reduction of phase fluctuations in the case of the vortex polarizer, with a decrease of the peak linewidth by one order of magnitude down to 200kHz at zero field. A thorough study of rf emission features for the different accessible vortex configurations shows that this improvement is related to the excitation of coupled vortex dynamics by spin transfer torques.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Nonlinear behavior and mode coupling in spin transfer nano-oscillators

By investigating thoroughly the tunable behavior of coupled modes, we highlight how it provides new means to handle the properties of spin transfer nano-oscillators. We first demonstrate that the main features of the microwave signal associated with coupled vortex dynamics i.e. frequency, spectral coherence, critical current, mode localization, depends drastically on the relative vortex core polarities. Secondly we report a large reduction of the nonlinear linewidth broadening obtained by changing the effective damping through the control of the core configuration. Such a level of control on the nonlinear behavior reinforces our choice to exploit the microwave properties of collective modes for applications of spintronic devices in novel generation of integrated telecommunication devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Perfect and robust phase-locking of a spin transfer vortex nano-oscillator to an external microwave source

We study the synchronization of the auto-oscillation signal generated by the spin transfer driven dynamics of two coupled vortices in a spin-valve nanopillar to an external source. Phase-locking to the microwave field hrf occurs in a range larger than 10% of the oscillator frequency for drive amplitudes of only a few Oersteds. Using synchronization at the double frequency, the generation linewidth is found to decrease by more than five orders of magnitude in the phase-locked regime (down to 1 Hz, limited by the resolution bandwidth of the spectrum analyzer) in comparison to the free running regime (140 kHz). This perfect phase-locking holds for frequency detuning as large as 2 MHz, which proves its robustness. We also analyze how the free running spectral linewidth impacts the main characteristics of the synchronization regime.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Origin of spectral purity and tuning sensitivity in a vortex-based spin transfer nano-oscillator

We investigate the microwave characteristics of a spin transfer nano-oscillator (STNO) based on coupled vortices as a function of the perpendicular magnetic field $H_\perp$. While the generation linewidth displays strong variations on $H_\perp$ (from 40 kHz to 1 MHz), the frequency tunability in current remains almost constant (~7 MHz/mA). We demonstrate that our vortex-based oscillator is quasi-isochronous independently of $H_\perp$, so that the severe nonlinear broadening usually observed in STNOs does not exist. Interestingly, this does not imply a loss of frequency tunability, which is here governed by the current induced Oersted field. Nevertheless this is not sufficient to achieve the highest spectral purity in the full range of $H_\perp$ either: we show that the observed linewidth broadenings are due to the excited mode interacting with a lower energy overdamped mode, which occurs at the successive crossings between harmonics of these two modes. These findings open new possibilities for the design of STNOs and the optimization of their performance.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗