191 research outputs found
Current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magnetoresistance of a spin valve using Co2MnSi Heusler alloy electrodes
We report the current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magnetoresistance of a
spin valve with Co2MnSi (CMS) Heusler alloy ferromagnetic electrodes. A
multilayer stack of Cr/Ag/Cr/CMS/Cu/CMS/Fe25Co75/Ir28Mn72/Ru was deposited on a
MgO (001) single crystal substrate. The bottom CMS layer was epitaxially grown
on the Cr/Ag/Cr buffer layers and was ordered to the L21 structure after
annealing at 673 K. The upper CMS layer was found to grow epitaxially on the Cu
spacer layer despite the large lattice mismatch between Cu and CMS. The highest
MR ratios of 8.6% and 30.7% for CPP-GMR were recorded at room temperature and 6
K, respectively. The high spin polarization of the epitaxial CMS layers is the
most likely origin of the high MR ratio.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, presented at the 53rd Annual Conference on
Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, to be published in J. Appl. Phy
Temperature dependence of interlayer coupling in perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions with GdOx barriers
Perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions with GdOX tunneling barriers have
shown a unique voltage controllable interlayer magnetic coupling effect. Here
we investigate the quality of the GdOX barrier and the coupling mechanism in
these junctions by examining the temperature dependence of the tunneling
magnetoresistance and the interlayer coupling from room temperature down to 11
K. The barrier is shown to be of good quality with the spin independent
conductance only contributing a small portion, 14%, to the total room
temperature conductance, similar to AlOX and MgO barriers. The interlayer
coupling, however, shows an anomalously strong temperature dependence including
sign changes below 80 K. This non-trivial temperature dependence is not
described by previous models of interlayer coupling and may be due to the large
induced magnetic moment of the Gd ions in the barrier.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure
Growth, strain, and spin-orbit torques in epitaxial Ni-Mn-Sb films sputtered on GaAs
We report current-induced spin torques in epitaxial NiMnSb films on a commercially available epiready GaAs substrate. The NiMnSb was grown by cosputtering from three targets using optimized parameters. The films were processed into microscale bars to perform current-induced spin-torque measurements. Magnetic dynamics were excited by microwave currents, and electric voltages along the bars were measured to analyze the symmetry of the current-induced torques. We found that the extracted symmetry of the spin torques matches those expected from spin-orbit interaction in a tetragonally distorted half-Heusler crystal. Both fieldlike and dampinglike torques are observed in all the samples characterized, and the efficiency of the current-induced torques is comparable to that of ferromagnetic metal/heavy-metal bilayers
Crossover from Kondo assisted suppression to co-tunneling enhancement of tunneling magnetoresistance via ferromagnetic nanodots in MgO tunnel barriers
Recently, it has been shown that magnetic tunnel junctions with thin MgO
tunnel barriers exhibit extraordinarily high tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR)
values at room temperature1, 2. However, the physics of spin dependent
tunneling through MgO barriers is only beginning to be unravelled. Using planar
magnetic tunnel junctions in which ultra-thin layers of magnetic metals are
deposited in the middle of a MgO tunnel barrier here we demonstrate that the
TMR is strongly modified when these layers are discontinuous and composed of
small pancake shaped nanodots. At low temperatures, in the Coulomb blockade
regime, for layers less than ~1 nm thick, the conductance of the junction is
increased at low bias consistent with Kondo assisted tunneling. In the same
regime we observe a suppression of the TMR. For slightly thicker layers, and
correspondingly larger nanodots, the TMR is enhanced at low bias, consistent
with co-tunneling.Comment: Nano Letters (in press
Magnetic dichroism in angular-resolved hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy from buried layers
This work reports the measurement of magnetic dichroism in angular-resolved
photoemission from in-plane magnetized buried thin films. The high bulk
sensitivity of hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) in combination
with circularly polarized radiation enables the investigation of the magnetic
properties of buried layers. HAXPES experiments with an excitation energy of 8
keV were performed on exchange-biased magnetic layers covered by thin oxide
films. Two types of structures were investigated with the IrMn exchange-biasing
layer either above or below the ferromagnetic layer: one with a CoFe layer on
top and another with a CoFeAl layer buried beneath the IrMn layer. A
pronounced magnetic dichroism is found in the Co and Fe states of both
materials. The localization of the magnetic moments at the Fe site conditioning
the peculiar characteristics of the CoFeAl Heusler compound, predicted to
be a half-metallic ferromagnet, is revealed from the magnetic dichroism
detected in the Fe states
Measurement and comparison of individual external doses of high-school students living in Japan, France, Poland and Belarus -- the "D-shuttle" project --
Twelve high schools in Japan (of which six are in Fukushima Prefecture), four
in France, eight in Poland and two in Belarus cooperated in the measurement and
comparison of individual external doses in 2014. In total 216 high-school
students and teachers participated in the study. Each participant wore an
electronic personal dosimeter "D-shuttle" for two weeks, and kept a journal of
his/her whereabouts and activities. The distributions of annual external doses
estimated for each region overlap with each other, demonstrating that the
personal external individual doses in locations where residence is currently
allowed in Fukushima Prefecture and in Belarus are well within the range of
estimated annual doses due to the background radiation level of other
regions/countries
Computational modelling of meiotic entry and commitment
In response to developmental and environmental conditions, cells exit the mitotic cell cycle and enter the meiosis program to generate haploid gametes from diploid germ cells. Once cells decide to enter the meiosis program they become irreversibly committed to the completion of meiosis irrespective of the presence of cue signals. How meiotic entry and commitment occur due to the dynamics of the regulatory network is not well understood. Therefore, we constructed a mathematical model of the regulatory network that controls the transition from mitosis to meiosis in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Upon nitrogen starvation, yeast cells exit mitosis and undergo conjugation and meiotic entry. The model includes the regulation of Mei2, an RNA binding protein required for conjugation and meiotic entry, by multiple feedback loops involving Pat1, a kinase that keeps cells in mitosis, and Ste11, a transcription activator required for the sexual differentiation. The model accounts for various experimental observations and demonstrates that the activation of Mei2 is bistable, which ensures the irreversible commitment to meiosis. Further, we show by integrating the meiosis-specific regulation with a cell cycle model, the dynamics of cell cycle exit, G1 arrest and entry into meiosis under nitrogen starvation. © 2017 The Author(s)
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