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Contemporary (2001) and ‘Little Ice Age’ glacier extents in the Buordakh Massif, Cherskiy Range, north east Siberia
The Buordakh Massif of the Cherskiy Range of sub-arctic north east Siberia, Russia has a cold continental climate and supports over 80 glaciers. Despite previous research in the region, a georeferenced map of the glaciers has only recently been completed and an enhanced version of it is reproduced in colour here. The mountains of this region reach heights in excess of 3,000 m and the glaciers on their slopes range in size from 0.1 to 10.4 km2. The mapping has been compiled through the interpretation of Landsat 7 ETM+ satellite imagery from August 2001 which has been augmented by data from a field campaign undertaken at the same time. The glaciers of the region are of the cold, ‘firn-less’ continental type and their mass balance relies heavily on the formation of superimposed ice. Moraines which lie in front of the glaciers by up to a few kilometres are believed to date from the Little Ice Age (ca. 1550-1850 AD). Over half of the glaciers mapped have shown marked retreat from these moraines
Super-harmonic injection locking of nano-contact spin-torque vortex oscillators
Super-harmonic injection locking of single nano-contact (NC) spin-torque
vortex oscillators (STVOs) subject to a small microwave current has been
explored. Frequency locking was observed up to the fourth harmonic of the STVO
fundamental frequency in microwave magneto-electronic measurements. The
large frequency tunability of the STVO with respect to allowed the
device to be locked to multiple sub-harmonics of the microwave frequency
, or to the same sub-harmonic over a wide range of by tuning
the DC current. In general, analysis of the locking range, linewidth, and
amplitude showed that the locking efficiency decreased as the harmonic number
increased, as expected for harmonic synchronization of a non-linear oscillator.
Time-resolved scanning Kerr microscopy (TRSKM) revealed significant differences
in the spatial character of the magnetization dynamics of states locked to the
fundamental and harmonic frequencies, suggesting significant differences in the
core trajectories within the same device. Super-harmonic injection locking of a
NC-STVO may open up possibilities for devices such as nanoscale frequency
dividers, while differences in the core trajectory may allow mutual
synchronisation to be achieved in multi-oscillator networks by tuning the
spatial character of the dynamics within shared magnetic layers.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure
Dynamic Spin-Polarized Resonant Tunneling in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
Precisely engineered tunnel junctions exhibit a long sought effect that
occurs when the energy of the electron is comparable to the potential energy of
the tunneling barrier. The resistance of metal-insulator-metal tunnel junctions
oscillates with an applied voltage when electrons that tunnel directly into the
barrier's conduction band interfere upon reflection at the classical turning
points: the insulator-metal interface, and the dynamic point where the incident
electron energy equals the potential barrier inside the insulator. A model of
tunneling between free electron bands using the exact solution of the
Schroedinger equation for a trapezoidal tunnel barrier qualitatively agrees
with experiment.Comment: 4pgs, 3 fig
Direct observation of magnetization dynamics generated by nano-contact spin-torque vortex oscillators
Time-resolved scanning Kerr microscopy has been used to directly image the
magnetization dynamics of nano-contact (NC) spin-torque vortex oscillators
(STVOs) when phase-locked to an injected microwave (RF) current. The Kerr
images reveal free layer magnetization dynamics that extend outside the NC
footprint, where they cannot be detected electrically, but which are crucial to
phase-lock STVOs that share common magnetic layers. For a single NC, dynamics
were observed not only when the STVO frequency was fully locked to that of the
RF current, but also for a partially locked state characterized by periodic
changes in the core trajectory at the RF frequency. For a pair of NCs, images
reveal the spatial character of dynamics that electrical measurements show to
have enhanced amplitude and reduced linewidth. Insight gained from these images
may improve understanding of the conditions required for mutual phase-locking
of multiple STVOs, and hence enhanced microwave power emission.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Merging droplets in double nano-contact spin torque oscillators
We demonstrate how magnetic droplet soliton pairs, nucleated by two separated
nano-contact (NC) spin torque oscillators, can merge into a single droplet
soliton. A detailed description of the magnetization dynamics of this merger
process is obtained by micromagnetic simulations: A droplet pair with a
steady-state in-phase spin precession is generated through the spin-transfer
torque effect underneath two separate NCs, followed by a gradual expansion of
the droplets volume and the out phase of magnetization on the inner side of the
two droplets, resulting in the droplets merging into a larger droplet. This
merger occurs only when the NC separation is smaller than a critical value. A
transient breathing mode is observed before the merged droplet stabilizes into
a steady precession state. The precession frequency of the merged droplet is
lower than that of the droplet pair, consistent with its larger size. Merged
droplets can again break up into droplet pairs at high enough magnetic field
with a strong hysteretic response.Comment: accepted by Physical Review
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