Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Nd-Co alloy films nanostructured by di-block copolymer templates

et al.Nd-Co amorphous magnetic films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy have been grown on nanostructured templates prepared with self-organized di-block poly(styrene)-block-poly(4-vinylpyridine) copolymer layers with a periodic structure of 60 nm spaced pores. These templates modify both the magnetic film topography and mechanical strain on a local scale. The effect of these structural changes is particularly noticeable in the low thickness range of the magnetic films where the transition from in-plane to out-of plane magnetization takes place. The Nd-Co films grown on the copolymer template present lower perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and, also, stronger stripe domain pinning effects in comparison with reference films grown on flat Si substrates. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.Work supported by Spanish MEC under Grants FIS2008-06249 and Consolider CSD2007-00010 and by CAM under Grant S2009/MAT-1726.Peer Reviewe

Double percolation effects and fractal behavior in magnetic/superconducting hybrids

Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy ferromagnetic/superconducting (FM/SC) bilayers with a labyrinth domain structure are used to study nucleation of superconductivity on a fractal network, tunable through magnetic history. As clusters of reversed domains appear in the FM layer, the SC film shows a percolative behavior that depends on two independent processes: the arrangement of initial reversed domains and the fractal geometry of expanding clusters. For a full labyrinth structure, the behavior of the upper critical field is typical of confined superconductivity on a fractal network

Adenomyosis is an independent risk factor for complications in deep endometriosis laparoscopic surgery

Deep endometriosis (DE) occurs in 15-30% of patients with endometriosis and is associated with concomitant adenomyosis in around 25-49% of cases. There are no data about the effect of the presence of adenomyosis in terms of surgical outcomes and complications. Thus, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of adenomyosis on surgical complications in women with deep endometriosis undergoing laparoscopic surgery. A retrospective cohort study including women referred to the endometriosis unit of a referral teaching hospital. Two expert sonographers preoperatively diagnosed DE and adenomyosis. DE was defined according to the criteria of the International Deep Endometriosis Analysis group. Adenomyosis was considered when 3 or more ultrasound criteria of the Morphological Uterus Sonographic Assessment group were present. Demographical variables, current medical treatment, symptoms, DE location, surgical time, hospital stay and difference in pre and post hemoglobin levels were collected. The Clavien-Dindo classification was used to assess surgical complications, and multivariate analysis was performed to compare patients with and without adenomyosis. 157 DE patients were included into the study; 77 (49.05%) had adenomyosis according to transvaginal ultrasound (TVS) and were classified in the A group, and 80 (50.95%) had no adenomyosis and were classified in the noA group. Adenomyosis was associated with a higher rate of surgical complications: 33.76% (A group) vs. 12.50% (noA group) (p?<?0.001). Multivariate analysis showed a 4.56-fold increased risk of presenting complications in women with adenomyosis (CI 1.90-11.30; p?=?0.001) independently of undergoing hysterectomy. There was a statistically significant association between the number of criteria of adenomyosis present in each patient and the proportion of patients presenting surgical complications (p?<?0.001). Adenomyosis is an independent preoperative risk factor for surgical complications in DE surgery after adjustment for known demographic, clinical and surgical risk factors.© 2022. The Author(s)

2D magnetic domain wall ratchet: The limit of submicrometric holes

The study of ratchet and crossed-ratchet effects in magnetic domain wall motion through 2D arrays of asymmetric holes is extended in this article to the submicrometric limit in hole size (small size regime). Therefore, the gap has been closed between the 2D ratchets in the range of tens-of-micrometers (large size regime) and the small size regime 1D ratchets based on nanowires. The combination of Kerr microscopy, X-ray PhotoEmission Electron Microscopy and micromagnetic simulations has allowed a full magnetic characterisation of both the domain wall (DW) propagation process over the whole array and the local DW morphology and pinning at the holes. It is found that the 2D small size limit is driven by the interplay between DW elasticity and half vortex propagation along hole edges: as hole size becomes comparable to DW width, flat DW propagation modes are favoured over kinked DW propagation due to an enhancement of DW stiffness, and pinned DW segments adopt asymmetric configurations related with Néel DW chirality. Nevertheless, both ratchet and crossed-ratchet effects have been experimentally found, and we propose a new ratchet/inverted-ratchet effect in the submicrometric range driven by magnetic fields and electrical currents respectively

Topologically protected superconducting ratchet effect generated by spin-ice nanomagnets

We have designed, fabricated and tested a robust superconducting ratchet device based on topologically frustrated spin ice nanomagnets. The device is made of a magnetic Co honeycomb array embedded in a superconducting Nb film. This device is based on three simple mechanisms: (i) the topology of the Co honeycomb array frustrates in-plane magnetic configurations in the array yielding a distribution of magnetic charges which can be ordered or disordered with in-plane magnetic fields, following spin ice rules; (ii) the local vertex magnetization, which consists of a magnetic half vortex with two charged magnetic Neel walls; (iii) the interaction between superconducting vortices and the asymmetric potentials provided by the Neel walls. The combination of these elements leads to a superconducting ratchet effect. Thus, superconducting vortices driven by alternating forces and moving on magnetic half vortices generate a unidirectional net vortex flow. This ratchet effect is independent of the distribution of magnetic charges in the array

Reconfigurable spin-wave propagation in magnetic stripe domains in hybrid system

Resumen del trabajo presentado a la INTERMAG Conference - IEEE International Magnetics, celebrada on-line del 26 al 30 de abril de 2021.Very recently magnetic stripe domains, characterized by alternating up and down out-of-plane orientation of the magnetization, have received great interest due to the possibility to use stripe patterns to manipulate spin-wave (SW) propagation as in artificial magnonic crystals. In this work, we demonstrate the control of the SW propagation by using reconfigurable regular stripe-pattern domain structure in the hybrid system. The investigated system consists of 64-nm-thick NdCo layer and 10-nm-thick NiFe layer, coupled through an Al layer of different thicknesses. Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) measurements show that, due to the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of the NdCo film, the system develops stripe domains aligned with the last in-plane saturation direction. The domain pattern is found to have a period of about 140 nm, which is almost independent on the thickness of the Al layer. The magnetization reversal of the trilayer system was investigated by vibrating sample magnetometer, showing that the hysteresis loop is characterized by a two-step process, due to the different coercivity of the NiFe and NdCo films. Detailed analysis of the hysteresis loops along with micromagnetic simulations indicates that the stray magnetic field coming from the NdCo layer induces a regular domain structure also in the NiFe layer, which is tuned by the thickness of Al spacer. In addition, upon reversing the applied magnetic field, an antiparallel state, characterized by an antiparallel alignment of the magnetization component parallel to the domain axis in the NdCo and NiFe stripes, is formed. Then, Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy has been used to measure the spectra of the SWs propagating in the direction perpendicular to stripe domains for the parallel and the antiparallel state. For both configurations, the dispersion relation shows a strongly nonreciprocal mode. However, in the parallel state SWs propagating with positive and negative wavevector are both characterized by a positive dispersion, while in the reversed state SWs propagating with negative wavevector show a negative dispersion. The above experimental results have been satisfactorily reproduced by numerical simulations. The latter show that the detected SW mode is mainly localized in the NiFe layer and its frequency nonreciprocity can be ascribed to the static magnetization configuration as well as to the interaction with the NdCo induced by the SWs via the dynamic stray field.PID2019-104604RBPeer reviewe