47 research outputs found
Orientation and temperature dependence of domain wall properties in FePt
An investigation of the orientation and temperature dependence of domain wall properties in FePt is presented. The authors use a microscopic, atomic model for the magnetic interactions within an effective, classical spin Hamiltonian constructed on the basis of spin-density functional calculations. They find a significant dependence of the domain wall width as well as the domain wall energy on the orientation of the wall with respect to the crystal lattice. Investigating the temperature dependence, they demonstrate the existence of elliptical domain walls in FePt at room temperature. The consequences of their findings for a micromagnetic continuum theory are discussed. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics
Spin-dependent tunneling in magnetic tunnel junctions
The phenomenon of electron tunneling has been known since the advent of quantum mechanics, but continues to enrich our understanding of many fields of physics, as well as creating sub-fields on its own. Spin-dependent tunneling in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) has recently aroused enormous interest and has developed in a vigorous field of research. The large tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) observed in MTJs garnered much attention due to possible applications in non-volatile random access memories and next-generation magnetic field sensors. This led to a number of fundamental questions regarding the phenomenon of spindependent tunneling. In this review article we present an overview of this field of research. We discuss various factors that control the spin polarization and magnetoresistance in magnetic tunnel junctions. Starting from early experiments on spin-dependent tunneling and their interpretation, we consider thereafter recent experiments and models, which highlight the role of the electronic structure of the ferromagnets, the insulating layer and the ferromagnet/insulator interfaces. We also discuss the role of disorder in the barrier and in the ferromagnetic electrodes and their influence on TMR
Spin-dependent tunneling in magnetic tunnel junctions
The phenomenon of electron tunneling has been known since the advent of quantum mechanics, but continues to enrich our understanding of many fields of physics, as well as creating sub-fields on its own. Spin-dependent tunneling in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) has recently aroused enormous interest and has developed in a vigorous field of research. The large tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) observed in MTJs garnered much attention due to possible applications in non-volatile random access memories and next-generation magnetic field sensors. This led to a number of fundamental questions regarding the phenomenon of spindependent tunneling. In this review article we present an overview of this field of research. We discuss various factors that control the spin polarization and magnetoresistance in magnetic tunnel junctions. Starting from early experiments on spin-dependent tunneling and their interpretation, we consider thereafter recent experiments and models, which highlight the role of the electronic structure of the ferromagnets, the insulating layer and the ferromagnet/insulator interfaces. We also discuss the role of disorder in the barrier and in the ferromagnetic electrodes and their influence on TMR
The Origin of Tunneling Anisotropic Magnetoresistance in Break Junctions
First-principles calculations of electron tunneling transport in Ni and Co
break junctions reveal strong dependence of the conductance on the
magnetization direction, an effect known as tunneling anisotropic
magnetoresistance (TAMR). The origin of this phenomenon stems from resonant
states localized in the electrodes near the junction break. The energy and
broadening of these states is strongly affected by the magnetization
orientation due to spin-orbit coupling, causing TAMR to be sensitive to bias
voltage on a scale of a few mV. Our results bear a resemblance to recent
experimental data and suggest that TAMR driven by resonant states is a general
phenomenon typical for magnetic broken contacts and other experimental
geometries where a magnetic tip is used to probe electron transport.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Magnetic Moment Softening and Domain Wall Resistance in Ni Nanowires
Magnetic moments in atomic scale domain walls formed in nanoconstrictions and
nanowires are softened which affects dramatically the domain wall resistance.
We perform ab initio calculations of the electronic structure and conductance
of atomic-size Ni nanowires with domain walls only a few atomic lattice
constants wide. We show that the hybridization between noncollinear spin states
leads to a reduction of the magnetic moments in the domain wall. This magnetic
moment softening strongly enhances the domain wall resistance due to scattering
produced by the local perturbation of the electronic potential.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Strong short-range magnetic order in a frustrated FCC lattice and its possible role in the iron structural transformation
We investigate magnetic properties of a frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnet
with a face-centered cubic (FCC) lattice and exchange interactions between the
nearest- and next-nearest neighbours, J1 and J2. In a collinear phase with the
wave vector Q = (pi,pi,pi) the equations of the self-consistent spin-wave
theory for the sublattice magnetization and the average short range order
parameter are obtained and numerically solved. The dependence of the Neel
temperature T_N on the ratio J2/J1 is obtained. It is shown, that at strong
enough frustration there is a wide temperature region above T_N with strong
short range magnetic order. Application of this result to description of
structural phase transition between alpha and gamma-phase of Fe is considered
Role of the conduction electrons in mediating exchange interactions in Heusler alloys
Because of large spatial separation of the Mn atoms in Heusler alloys the Mn
3d states belonging to different atoms do not overlap considerably. Therefore
an indirect exchange interaction between Mn atoms should play a crucial role in
the ferromagnetism of the systems. To study the nature of the ferromagnetism of
various Mn-based semi- and full-Heusler alloys we perform a systematic
first-principles calculation of the exchange interactions in these materials.
The calculation of the exchange parameters is based on the frozen-magnon
approach. The calculations show that the magnetism of the Mn-based Heusler
alloys depends strongly on the number of conduction electrons, their spin
polarization and the position of the unoccupied Mn 3d states with respect to
the Fermi level. Various magnetic phases are obtained depending on the
combination of these characteristics. The Anderson's s-d model is used to
perform a qualitative analysis of the obtained results. The conditions leading
to diverse magnetic behavior are identified. If the spin polarization of the
conduction electrons at the Fermi energy is large and the unoccupied Mn 3d
states lie well above the Fermi level, an RKKY-type ferromagnetic interaction
is dominating. On the other hand, the contribution of the antiferromagnetic
superexchange becomes important if unoccupied Mn 3d states lie close to the
Fermi energy. The resulting magnetic behavior depends on the competition of
these two exchange mechanisms. The calculational results are in good
correlation with the conclusions made on the basis of the Anderson s-d model
which provides useful framework for the analysis of the results of
first-principles calculations and helps to formulate the conditions for high
Curie temperature.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, 2 table
Effects of uniaxial strain in LaMnO_3
The effects of uniaxial strain on the structural, orbital, optical, and
magnetic properties of LaMnO_3 are calculated using a general elastic energy
expression, along with a tight-binding parameterization of the band theory.
Tensile uniaxial strain of the order of 2 % (i.e., of the order of magnitude of
those induced in thin films by lattice mismatch with substrates) is found to
lead to changes in the magnetic ground state, leading to dramatic changes in
the band structure and optical conductivity spectrum. The magnetostriction
effect associated with the Neel transition of bulk(unstrained) LaMnO_3 is also
determined. Due to the Jahn-Teller coupling, the uniform tetragonal distortion
mode is softer in LaMnO_3 than in doped cubic manganates. Reasons why the
observed (\pi \pi 0) orbital ordering is favored over a (\pi \pi \pi)
periodicity are discussed.Comment: 9 figures, submitted in Phys. Rev.
Magnetisation switching of FePt nanoparticle recording medium by femtosecond laser pulses
Manipulation of magnetisation with ultrashort laser pulses is promising for information storage device applications. The dynamics of the magnetisation response depends on the energy transfer from the photons to the spins during the initial laser excitation. A material of special interest for magnetic storage are FePt nanoparticles, for which switching of the magnetisation with optical angular momentum was demonstrated recently. The mechanism remained unclear. Here we investigate experimentally and theoretically the all-optical switching of FePt nanoparticles. We show that the magnetisation switching is a stochastic process. We develop a complete multiscale model which allows us to optimize the number of laser shots needed to switch the magnetisation of high anisotropy FePt nanoparticles in our experiments. We conclude that only angular momentum induced optically by the inverse Faraday effect will provide switching with one single femtosecond laser pulse.EC under Contract No. 281043, FemtoSpin. The work at Greifswald University
was supported by the German research foundation (DFG), projects MU MU 1780/8-1, MU 1780/10-1. Research
at Göttingen University was supported via SFB 1073, Projects A2 and B1. Research at Uppsala University was
supported by the Swedish Research Council (VR), the Röntgen-Ångström Cluster, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg
Foundation (Contract No. 2015.0060), and Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC). Research at
Kiel University was supported by the DFG, projects MC 9/9-2, MC 9/10-2. P.N. acknowledges support from EU
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020) under Grant Agreement No.
686056, NOVAMAG. The work in Konstanz was supported via the Center for Applied Photonics