A universal platform for magnetostriction measurements in thin films

We present a universal nanomechanical sensing platform for the investigation of magnetostriction in thin films. It is based on a doubly-clamped silicon nitride nanobeam resonator covered with a thin magnetostrictive film. Changing the magnetization direction within the film plane by an applied magnetic field generates a magnetostrictive stress and thus changes the resonance frequency of the nanobeam. A measurement of the resulting resonance frequency shift, e.g. by optical interferometry, allows to quantitatively determine the magnetostriction constants of the thin film. We use this method to determine the magnetostriction constants of a 10nm thick polycrystalline cobalt film, showing very good agreement with literature values. The presented technique can be useful in particular for the precise measurement of magnetostriction in a variety of (conducting and insulating) thin films, which can be deposited by e.g. electron beam deposition, thermal evaporation or sputtering

Low-Loss Nanoscopic Spin-Wave Guiding in Continuous Yttrium Iron Garnet Films

Long-distance transport and control of spin waves through nanochannels is essential for integrated magnonic technology. Current strategies relying on the patterning of single-layer nano-waveguides suffer from a decline of the spin-wave decay length upon downscaling or require large magnetic bias field. Here, we introduce a new waveguiding structure based on low-damping continuous yttrium iron garnet (YIG) films. Rather than patterning the YIG film, we define nanoscopic spin-wave transporting channels within YIG by dipolar coupling to ferromagnetic metal nanostripes. The hybrid material structure offers long-distance transport of spin waves with a decay length of ∼20 μm in 160 nm wide waveguides over a broad frequency range at small bias field. We further evidence that spin waves can be redirected easily by stray-field-induced bends in continuous YIG films. The combination of low-loss spin-wave guiding and straightforward nanofabrication highlights a new approach toward the implementation of magnonic integrated circuits for spin-wave computing.Peer reviewe

Interaction of propagating spin waves with extended skyrmions

Funding Information: This work was supported by the Academy of Finland (Grant Nos. 295269, 306978, 321983, 325480, and 327804). We acknowledge the provision of computational resources provided by the Aalto Science-IT project. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Author(s).Active control of propagating short-wavelength spin waves in perpendicularly magnetized materials is promising for designing nanoscale magnonic devices. One method of manipulating spin waves on the nanoscale is through their interaction with magnetic textures, an example of which is the magnetic skyrmion - a particle-like topological object stabilized in thin film heterostructures by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. In this paper, the interaction between spin waves and skyrmions is studied using micromagnetic simulations. The magnetic parameters chosen are similar to those found experimentally, leading to a skyrmion with an extended core of reversed magnetization. The effect of a propagating spin wave on the skyrmion is to cause the emission of a secondary spin wave by the skyrmion. At low frequencies, where the incoming spin wave wavelength is much larger than the skyrmion, this leads to a nearly circular re-emitted spin wave. The pattern of emission becomes increasingly complex at higher frequencies as the wavelength becomes similar to the skyrmion size due to the complex excitation of the extended core. The emitted spin wave profile can be controlled by altering the size of the skyrmion through the magnitude of the DMI, providing a method of tuning the system.Peer reviewe

Nanoscale magnonic Fabry-Pérot resonator for low-loss spin-wave manipulation

Funding Information: This work was supported by the Academy of Finland (Grant Nos. 317918, 316857, 321983 and 325480) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) via CRC 227 and SPP 2137. Lithography was performed at the Micronova Nanofabrication Centre, supported by Aalto University. Computational resources were provided by the Aalto Science-IT project. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Active control of propagating spin waves on the nanoscale is essential for beyond-CMOS magnonic computing. Here, we experimentally demonstrate reconfigurable spin-wave transport in a hybrid YIG-based material structure that operates as a Fabry-Pérot nanoresonator. The magnonic resonator is formed by a local frequency downshift of the spin-wave dispersion relation in a continuous YIG film caused by dynamic dipolar coupling to a ferromagnetic metal nanostripe. Drastic downscaling of the spin-wave wavelength within the bilayer region enables programmable control of propagating spin waves on a length scale that is only a fraction of their wavelength. Depending on the stripe width, the device structure offers full nonreciprocity, tunable spin-wave filtering, and nearly zero transmission loss at allowed frequencies. Our results provide a practical route for the implementation of low-loss YIG-based magnonic devices with controllable transport properties.Peer reviewe