493 research outputs found
Exchange anisotropy pinning of a standing spin wave mode
Standing spin waves in a thin film are used as sensitive probes of interface
pinning induced by an antiferromagnet through exchange anisotropy. Using
coplanar waveguide ferromagnetic resonance, pinning of the lowest energy spin
wave thickness mode in Ni(80)Fe(20)/Ir(25)Mn(75) exchange biased bilayers was
studied for a range of IrMn thicknesses. We show that pinning of the standing
mode can be used to amplify, relative to the fundamental resonance, frequency
shifts associated with exchange bias. The shifts provide a unique `fingerprint'
of the exchange bias and can be interpreted in terms of an effective
ferromagnetic film thickness and ferromagnet/antiferromagnet interface
anisotropy. Thermal effects are studied for ultra-thin antiferromagnetic
Ir(25)Mn(75) thicknesses, and the onset of bias is correlated with changes in
the pinning fields. The pinning strength magnitude is found to grow with
cooling of the sample, while the effective ferromagnetic film thickness
simultaneously decreases. These results suggest that exchange bias involves
some deformation of magnetic order in the interface region.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure
Focus on artificial frustrated systems
Frustration in physics is the inability of a system to simultaneously satisfy all the competing pairwise interactions within it. The past decade has seen an explosion of activity involving engineering frustration in artificial systems built using nanotechnology. The most common are the artificial spin ices that comprise arrays of nanomagnets with competing magnetostatic interactions. As well as being physical embodiments of idealized statistical mechanical models in which properties can be tuned by design, artificial spin ices can be studied using magnetic microscopy, allowing all the details of the microstates of these systems to be interrogated, both in equilibrium and when perturbed away from it. This 'focus on' collection brings together reports on the latest results from leading groups around the globe in this fascinating and fast-moving field
Anisotropy effects on the magnetic excitations of a ferromagnetic monolayer below and above the Curie temperature
The field-driven reorientation transition of an anisotropic ferromagnetic
monolayer is studied within the context of a finite-temperature Green's
function theory. The equilibrium state and the field dependence of the magnon
energy gap are calculated for static magnetic field applied in plane
along an easy or a hard axis. In the latter case, the in-plane reorientation of
the magnetization is shown to be continuous at T=0, in agreement with free spin
wave theory, and discontinuous at finite temperature , in contrast with
the prediction of mean field theory. The discontinuity in the orientation angle
creates a jump in the magnon energy gap, and it is the reason why, for ,
the energy does not go to zero at the reorientation field. Above the Curie
temperature , the magnon energy gap vanishes for H=0 both in the
easy and in the hard case. As is increased, the gap is found to increase
almost linearly with , but with different slopes depending on the field
orientation. In particular, the slope is smaller when is along the hard
axis. Such a magnetic anisotropy of the spin-wave energies is shown to persist
well above ().Comment: Final version accepted for publication in Physical Review B (with
three figures
Theoretical simulation of the anisotropic phases of antiferromagnetic thin films
We simulate antiferromagnetic thin films. Dipole-dipole and antiferromagnetic
exchange interactions as well as uniaxial and quadrupolar anisotropies are
taken into account. Various phases unfold as the corresponding parameters, J, D
and C, as well as the temperature T and the number n of film layers vary. We
find (1) how the strength Delta_m of the anisotropy arising from dipole-dipole
interactions varies with the number of layers m away from the film's surface,
with J and with n; (2) a unified phase diagram for all n-layer films and bulk
systems; (3) a layer dependent spin reorientation (SR) phase in which spins
rotate continuously as T, D, C and n vary; (4) that the ratio of the SR to the
ordering temperature depends (approximately) on n only through (D+Delta/n)/C,
and hardly on J; (5) a phase transformation between two different magnetic
orderings, in which spin orientations may or may not change, for some values of
J, by varying n.Comment: 10 LaTeX pages, 13 eps figures. Submitted to PRB on 30 June 2006.
Accepted on 10 October 200
Surface Aided Polarization Reversal In Small Ferroelectric Particles.
Polarization reversal in ferroelectric particles driven by a pulsed electric field is examined theoretically using Landau-Devonshire-Khalatnikov theory. A significant reduction in reversal times is shown to be possible if certain surface properties and size criteria are met. The surface properties are also shown to control the magnitude of the applied field needed for irreversible switching. An interesting signature of surface effects is found in the switching current. The theory predicts that the switching current for small ferroelectric particles can exhibit double peaks as a function of time. The size and relative times of the peaks provide specific information on the
magnitude and rate of surface reversal dynamics
Coupled ferro-antiferromagnetic Heisenberg bilayers investigated by many-body Green's function theory
A theory of coupled ferro- and antiferromagnetic Heisenberg layers is
developed within the framework of many-body Green's function theory (GFT) that
allows non-collinear magnetic arrangements by introducing sublattice
structures. As an example, the coupled ferro- antiferromagnetic (FM-AFM)
bilayer is investigated. We compare the results with those of bilayers with
purely ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic couplings. In each case we also show
the corresponding results of mean field theory (MFT), in which magnon
excitations are completely neglected. There are significant differences between
GFT and MFT. A remarkable finding is that for the coupled FM-AFM bilayer the
critical temperature decreases with increasing interlayer coupling strength for
a simple cubic lattice, whereas the opposite is true for an fcc lattice as well
as for MFT for both lattice types.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in J. Phys. Condens.
Matter, missing fig.5 adde
Spin-wave propagation in a microstructured magnonic crystal
Transmission of microwave spin waves through a microstructured magnonic
crystal in the form of a permalloy waveguide of a periodically varying width
was studied experimentally and theoretically. The spin wave characteristics
were measured by spatially-resolved Brillouin light scattering microscopy. A
rejection frequency band was clearly observed. The band gap frequency was
controlled by the applied magnetic field. The measured spin-wave intensity as a
function of frequency and propagation distance is in good agreement with a
model calculation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Probing the interface magnetism in the FeMn/NiFe exchange bias system using magnetic second harmonic generation
Second harmonic generation magneto-optic Kerr effect (SHMOKE) experiments,
sensitive to buried interfaces, were performed on a polycrystalline NiFe/FeMn
bilayer in which areas with different exchange bias fields were prepared using
5 KeV He ion irradiation. Both reversible and irreversible uncompensated spins
are found in the antiferromagnetic layer close to the interface with the
ferromagnetic layer. The SHMOKE hysteresis loop shows the same exchange bias
field as obtained from standard magnetometry. We demonstrate that the exchange
bias effect is controlled by pinned uncompensated spins in the
antiferromagnetic layer.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
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