510 research outputs found
Micromagnetism in (001) magnetite by spin-polarized low-energy electron microscopy
Spin-polarized low-energy electron microscopy was used to image a magnetite
crystal with (100) surface orientation. Sets of spin-dependent images of
magnetic domain patterns observed in this surface were used to map the
direction of the magnetization vector with high spatial and angular resolution.
We find that domains are magnetized along the surface [110] directions, and
domain wall structures include 90{\deg} and 180{\deg} walls. A type of
unusually curved domain walls are interpreted as N\'eel-capped surface
terminations of 180{\deg} Bloch walls.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures. Presented at the LEEM-PEEM 8 conferenc
Stabilization and current-induced motion of antiskyrmion in the presence of anisotropic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction
Topological defects in magnetism have attracted great attention due to
fundamental research interests and potential novel spintronics applications.
Rich examples of topological defects can be found in nanoscale non-uniform spin
textures, such as monopoles, domain walls, vortices, and skyrmions. Recently,
skyrmions stabilized by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction have been studied
extensively. However, the stabilization of antiskyrmions is less
straightforward. Here, using numerical simulations we demonstrate that
antiskyrmions can be a stable spin configuration in the presence of anisotropic
Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. We find current-driven antiskyrmion motion
that has a transverse component, namely antiskyrmion Hall effect. The
antiskyrmion gyroconstant is opposite to that for skyrmion, which allows the
current-driven propagation of coupled skyrmion-antiskyrmion pairs without
apparent skyrmion Hall effect. The antiskyrmion Hall angle strongly depends on
the current direction, and a zero antiskyrmion Hall angle can be achieved at a
critic current direction. These results open up possibilities to tailor the
spin topology in nanoscale magnetism, which may be useful in the emerging field
of skyrmionics.Comment: 31 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Physical Review
Three-Fold Diffraction Symmetry in Epitaxial Graphene and the SiC Substrate
The crystallographic symmetries and spatial distribution of stacking domains
in graphene films on SiC have been studied by low energy electron diffraction
(LEED) and dark field imaging in a low energy electron microscope (LEEM). We
find that the graphene diffraction spots from 2 and 3 atomic layers of graphene
have 3-fold symmetry consistent with AB (Bernal) stacking of the layers. On the
contrary, graphene diffraction spots from the buffer layer and monolayer
graphene have apparent 6-fold symmetry, although the 3-fold nature of the
satellite spots indicates a more complex periodicity in the graphene sheets.Comment: An addendum has been added for the arXiv version only, including one
figure with five panels. Published paper can be found at
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.80.24140
Effect of Sodium Sulfite, Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate, and Urea on the Molecular Interactions and Properties of Whey Protein Isolate-Based Films
Whey protein coatings and cast films are promising for use as food packaging materials. Ongoing research is endeavoring to reduce their permeability. The intention of this study was to evaluate the effect of the reactive additives sodium sulfite, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and urea on the oxygen barrier, water vapor barrier, and protein solubility of whey protein cast films. The concentration of the reactive additives was 1 to 20 wt.-%. Dried whey protein cast films were used as substrate materials. The water vapor transmission rate, the oxygen permeability, and the protein solubility were measured. Effective diffusion coefficients and effective sorption coefficients were calculated from the results of the water vapor sorption experiments. The presence of sodium sulfite resulted in an increased number of hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds and a slightly decreased number of disulfide bonds. The oxygen permeability decreased from 68 to 46 cm3 (STP/standard temperature and pressure) 100 μm (m2 d bar)−1 for 1 wt.-% SDS in the whey protein cast film. The water vapor transmission rate decreased from 165 to 44 g 100 μm (m2 d)−1 measured at 50 to 0% r. h. for 20 wt.-% SDS in the whey protein cast film. The reduction in the water vapor transmission rate correlated with the lower effective diffusion coefficient
Anatomy and giant enhancement of the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of cobalt-graphene heterostructures
We report strongly enhanced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of Co
films by graphene coating from both first-principles and experiments. Our
calculations show that graphene can dramatically boost the surface anisotropy
of Co films up to twice the value of its pristine counterpart and can extend
the out-of-plane effective anisotropy up to unprecedented thickness of 25~\AA.
These findings are supported by our experiments on graphene coating on Co films
grown on Ir substrate. Furthermore, we report layer-resolved and
orbital-hybridization-resolved anisotropy analysis which help understanding the
physical mechanisms of PMA and more practically can help design structures with
giant PMA. As an example, we propose super-exchange stabilized Co-graphene
heterostructures with a robust out-of-plane constant effective PMA and linearly
increasing interfacial anisotropy as a function of film thickness. These
findings point towards possibilities to engineer graphene/ferromagnetic metal
heterostructures with giant magnetic anisotropy more than 20 times larger
compared to conventional multilayers, which constitutes a hallmark for future
graphene and traditional spintronic technologies.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure
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