231 research outputs found
Offset fields in perpendicularly magnetized tunnel junctions
We study the offset fields affecting the free layer of perpendicularly
magnetized tunnel junctions. In extended films, the free layer offset field
results from interlayer exchange coupling with the reference layer through the
MgO tunnel oxide. The free layer offset field is thus accompanied with a shift
of the free layer and reference layer ferromagnetic resonance frequencies. The
shifts depend on the mutual orientation of the two magnetizations. The offset
field decreases with the resistance area product of the tunnel oxide.
Patterning the tunnel junction into an STT-MRAM disk-shaped cell changes
substantially the offset field, as the reduction of the lateral dimension comes
with the generation of stray fields by the reference and the hard layer. The
experimental offset field compares best with the spatial average of the sum of
these stray fields, thereby providing guidelines for the offset field
engineering.Comment: Special issue of J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys (2019) on STT-MRA
Exchange stiffness in ultrathin perpendicularly-magnetized CoFeB layers determined using spin wave spectroscopy
We measure the frequencies of spin waves in nm-thick perpendicularly
magnetized FeCoB systems, and model the frequencies to deduce the exchange
stiffness of this material in the ultrathin limit. For this, we embody the
layers in magnetic tunnel junctions patterned into circular nanopillars of
diameters ranging from 100 to 300 nm and we use magneto-resistance to determine
which rf-current frequencies are efficient in populating the spin wave modes.
Micromagnetic calculations indicate that the ultrathin nature of the layer and
the large wave vectors used ensure that the spin wave frequencies are
predominantly determined by the exchange stiffness, such that the number of
modes in a given frequency window can be used to estimate the exchange. For 1
nm layers the experimental data are consistent with an exchange stiffness A= 20
pJ/m, which is slightly lower that its bulk counterpart. The thickness
dependence of the exchange stiffness has strong implications for the numerous
situations that involve ultrathin films hosting strong magnetization gradients,
and the micromagnetic description thereof.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
Dynamical influence of vortex-antivortex pairs in magnetic vortex oscillators
We study the magnetization dynamics in a nanocontact magnetic vortex
oscillators as function of temperature. Low temperature experiments reveal that
the dynamics at low and high currents differ qualitatively. At low currents, we
excite a temperature independent standard oscillation mode, consisting in the
gyrotropic motion of a free layer vortex about the nanocontact. Above a
critical current, a sudden jump of the frequency is observed, concomitant with
a substantial increase of the frequency versus current slope factor. Using
micromagnetic simulation and analytical modeling, we associate this new regime
to the creation of a vortex-antivortex pair in the pinned layer of the spin
valve. The vortex-antivortex distance depends on the Oersted field which favors
a separation, and on the exchange bias field, which favors pair merging. The
pair in the pinned layer provides an additional spin torque altering the
dynamics of the free layer vortex, which can be quantitatively accounted for by
an analytical model
Frequency shift keying in vortex-based spin torque oscillators
Vortex-based spin-torque oscillators can be made from extended spin valves
connected to an electrical nanocontact. We study the implementation of
frequency shift keying modulation in these oscillators. Upon a square
modulation of the current in the 10 MHz range, the vortex frequency follows the
current command, with easy identification of the two swapping frequencies in
the spectral measurements. The frequency distribution of the output power can
be accounted for by convolution transformations of the dc current vortex
waveform, and the current modulation. Modeling indicates that the frequency
transitions are phase coherent and last less than 25 ns. Complementing the
multi-octave tunability and first-class agility, the capability of frequency
shift keying modulation is an additional milestone for the implementation of
vortex-based oscillators in RF circuit.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Quantized spin wave modes in magnetic tunnel junction nanopillars
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the magnetic field
dependence of the mode frequency of thermally excited spin waves in rectangular
shaped nanopillars of lateral sizes 60x100, 75x150, and 105x190 nm2, patterned
from MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions. The spin wave frequencies were
measured using spectrally resolved electrical noise measurements. In all
spectra, several independent quantized spin wave modes have been observed and
could be identified as eigenexcitations of the free layer and of the synthetic
antiferromagnet of the junction. Using a theoretical approach based on the
diagonalization of the dynamical matrix of a system of three coupled, spatially
confined magnetic layers, we have modeled the spectra for the smallest pillar
and have extracted its material parameters. The magnetization and exchange
stiffness constant of the CoFeB free layer are thereby found to be
substantially reduced compared to the corresponding thin film values. Moreover,
we could infer that the pinning of the magnetization at the lateral boundaries
must be weak. Finally, the interlayer dipolar coupling between the free layer
and the synthetic antiferromagnet causes mode anticrossings with gap openings
up to 2 GHz. At low fields and in the larger pillars, there is clear evidence
for strong non-uniformities of the layer magnetizations. In particular, at zero
field the lowest mode is not the fundamental mode, but a mode most likely
localized near the layer edges.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, (re)submitted to PR
Probing the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in CoFeB ultrathin films using domain wall creep and Brillouin light spectroscopy
We have characterized the strength of the interfacial Dyzaloshinskii-Moriya
interaction (DMI) in ultrathin perpendicularly magnetized CoFeB/MgO films,
grown on different underlayers of W, TaN, and Hf, using two experimental
methods. First, we determined the effective DMI field from measurements of
field-driven domain wall motion in the creep regime, where applied in-plane
magnetic fields induce an anisotropy in the wall propagation that is correlated
with the DMI strength. Second, Brillouin light spectroscopy was employed to
quantify the frequency non-reciprocity of spin waves in the CoFeB layers, which
yielded an independent measurement of the DMI. By combining these results, we
show that DMI estimates from the different techniques only yield qualitative
agreement, which suggests that open questions remain on the underlying models
used to interpret these results.Comment: 8 page
NIPT for adult‐onset conditions: Australian NIPT users' views
Noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) has become widely available in recent years. While initially used to screen for trisomies 21, 18, and 13, the test has expanded to include a range of other conditions and will likely expand further. This paper addresses the ethical issues that arise from one particularly controversial potential use of NIPT: screening for adult‐onset conditions (AOCs). We report data from our quantitative survey of Australian NIPT users' views on the ethical issues raised by NIPT for AOCs. The survey ascertained support for NIPT for several traits and conditions including AOCs. Participants were then asked about their level of concern around implications of screening for AOCs for the future child and parent(s). Descriptive and comparative data analyses were conducted. In total, 109 respondents were included in data analysis. The majority of respondents expressed support for NIPT screening for preventable (70.9%) and nonpreventable AOCs (80.8%). Most respondents indicated concern around potential harmful impacts associated with NIPT for AOCs, including the psychological impact on the future child and on the parent(s). Despite this, the majority of participants thought that continuation of a pregnancy known to be predisposed to an AOC is ethically acceptable. The implications of these data are critically discussed and used to inform the normative claim that prospective parents should be given access to NIPT for AOCs. The study contributes to a body of research debating the ethical acceptability and regulation of various applications of NIPT as screening panels expand
Inducing or suppressing the anisotropy in multilayers based on CoFeB
Controlling the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy is of practical interest to a
wide variety of applications. We study CoFeB single films
grown on various crystalline orientations of LiNbO substrates and on
oxidized silicon. We identify the annealing conditions that are appropriate to
induce or suppress uniaxial anisotropy. Anisotropy fields can be increased by
annealing up to 11 mT when using substrates with anisotropic surfaces. They can
be decreased to below 1 mT when using isotropic surfaces. In the first case,
the observed increase of the anisotropy originates from the biaxial strain in
the film caused by the anisotropic thermal contraction of the substrate when
back at room temperature after strain relaxation during annealing. In the
second case, anisotropy is progressively removed by applying successive
orthogonal fields that are assumed to progressively suppress any chemical
ordering within the magnetic film. The method can be applied to CoFeB/Ru/CoFeB
synthetic antiferromagnets but the tuning of the anisotropy comes with a
decrease of the interlayer exchange coupling and a drastic change of the
exchange stiffness
Fast Primal-Dual Gradient Method for Strongly Convex Minimization Problems with Linear Constraints
In this paper we consider a class of optimization problems with a strongly
convex objective function and the feasible set given by an intersection of a
simple convex set with a set given by a number of linear equality and
inequality constraints. A number of optimization problems in applications can
be stated in this form, examples being the entropy-linear programming, the
ridge regression, the elastic net, the regularized optimal transport, etc. We
extend the Fast Gradient Method applied to the dual problem in order to make it
primal-dual so that it allows not only to solve the dual problem, but also to
construct nearly optimal and nearly feasible solution of the primal problem. We
also prove a theorem about the convergence rate for the proposed algorithm in
terms of the objective function and the linear constraints infeasibility.Comment: Submitted for DOOR 201
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