Mechanisms of nonlinear spin-wave emission from a microwave driven nanocontact

We present a micromagnetic study of linear and nonlinear spin-wave modes excited in an extended permalloy thin film by a microwave driven nanocontact. We show that the linear mode having the frequency equal to the excitation frequency (f) is driven by the ac Oersted field component perpendicular to the static external field (applied in-plane of the sample). The nonlinear mode with the frequency f /2 is excited as an independent eigenmode within a parametric longitudinal pumping process (due ac Oersted field component parallel to the bias field). Spectral positions of those modes are determined both in the space and phase domain. The results are important for the transfer of information coded into spin-waves between nanocontacts, and for synchronization of spin transfer torque nano-oscillators.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Spintronic logic: from transducers to logic gates and circuits

While magnetic solid-state memory has found commercial applications to date, magnetic logic has rather remained on a conceptual level so far. Here, we discuss open challenges of different spintronic logic approaches, which use magnetic excitations for computation. While different logic gate designs have been proposed and proof of concept experiments have been reported, no nontrivial operational spintronic circuit has been demonstrated due to many open challenges in spintronic circuit and system design. Furthermore, the integration of spintronic circuits in CMOS systems will require the usage of transducers between the electric (CMOS) and magnetic domains. We show that these transducers can limit the performance as well as the energy consumption of hybrid CMOS-spintronic systems. Hence, the optimization of transducer efficiency will be a major step towards competitive spintronic logic system.Comment: This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program within the project CHIRON (grant agreement no. 801055) as well as from the Horizon Europe research and innovation program within the project SPIDER (grant agreement no. 101070417

Spin wave emission by spin-orbit torque antennas

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.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

Excitation and propagation of spin waves in non-uniformly magnetized waveguides

The characteristics of spin waves in ferromagnetic waveguides with nonuniform magnetization have been investigated for situations where the shape anisotropy field of the waveguide is comparable to the external bias field. Spin-wave generation was realized by the magnetoelastic effect by applying normal and shear strain components, as well as by the Oersted field emitted by an inductive antenna. The magnetoelastic excitation field has a nonuniform profile over the width of the waveguide because of the nonuniform magnetization orientation, whereas the Oersted field remains uniform. Using micromagnetic simulations, we indicate that both types of excitation fields generate quantised width modes with both odd and even mode numbers as well as tilted phase fronts. We demonstrate that these effects originate from the average magnetization orientation with respect to the main axes of the magnetic waveguide. Furthermore, it is indicated that the excitation efficiency of the second-order mode generally surpasses that of the first-order mode due to their symmetry. The relative intensity of the excited modes can be controlled by the strain state as well as by tuning the dimensions of the excitation area. Finally, we demonstrate that the nonreciprocity of spin-wave radiation due to the chirality of an Oersted field generated by an inductive antenna is absent for magnetoelastic spin-wave excitation.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure