Soliton pair dynamics in patterned ferromagnetic ellipses

Confinement alters the energy landscape of nanoscale magnets, leading to the appearance of unusual magnetic states, such as vortices, for example. Many basic questions concerning dynamical and interaction effects remain unanswered, and nanomagnets are convenient model systems for studying these fundamental physical phenomena. A single vortex in restricted geometry, also known as a non-localized soliton, possesses a characteristic translational excitation mode that corresponds to spiral-like motion of the vortex core around its equilibrium position. Here, we investigate, by a microwave reflection technique, the dynamics of magnetic soliton pairs confined in lithographically defined, ferromagnetic Permalloy ellipses. Through a comparison with micromagnetic simulations, the observed strong resonances in the subgigahertz frequency range can be assigned to the translational modes of vortex pairs with parallel or antiparallel core polarizations. Vortex polarizations play a negligible role in the static interaction between two vortices, but their effect dominates the dynamics.Comment: supplemental movies on http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v1/n3/suppinfo/nphys173_S1.htm

Superconducting Vortex‐Antivortex Pairs: Nucleation and Confinement in Magnetically Coupled Superconductor‐Ferromagnet Hybrids

Superconducting vortices are a well known class of vortices, each of them carrying a single magnetic flux quantum. In this chapter the authors present the results of low temperature Magnetic Force Microscopy experiments to investigate the nucleation and dynamics of superconducting vortices in magnetically coupled Superconductor/Ferromagnet (S/F) heterostructures made by Nb/Py. It is here shown that by controlling the thicknesses of both S and F layer, the formation of spontaneous vortex-antivortex pairs (V-AV) can be favored and their confinement and mobility can be tuned. The experimental results are compared with two theoretical models dealing with the spontaneous nucleation of V/AV pairs in the limits of S thickness respectively greater and smaller than the London penetration depth. It is shown that vortex nucleation and confinement is regulated by the intensity of the out-of-plane component of the magnetization with respect to a critical magnetization set by the thickness of both S and F layers. Additionally, external field cooling processes were used to probe in-field vortex nucleation and V-AV unbalancing, whereas the sweeping of an external magnetic field when below the superconducting critical temperature was used to force the vortex into motion, probing the vortex mobility/rigidity and the vortex avalanche events

Electromagnetic properties of aluminum-based bilayers for kinetic inductance detectors

The complex conductivity of a superconducting thin film is related to the quasiparticle density, which depends on the physical temperature and can also be modified by external pair breaking with photons and phonons. This relationship forms the underlying operating principle of Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs), where the detection threshold is governed by the superconducting energy gap. We investigate the electromagnetic properties of thin-film aluminum that is proximitized with either a normal metal layer of copper or a superconducting layer with a lower TC , such as iridium, in order to extend the operating range of KIDs. Using the Usadel equations along with the Nam expressions for complex conductivity, we calculate the density of states and the complex conductivity of the resulting bilayers to understand the dependence of the pair breaking threshold, surface impedance, and intrinsic quality factor of superconducting bilayers on the relative film thicknesses. The calculations and analyses provide theoretical insights in designing aluminum-based bilayer kinetic inductance detectors for detection of microwave photons and athermal phonons at the frequencies well below the pair breaking threshold of a pure aluminum film

Retraction Note: Gold Nanoparticles‑enabled Efficient Dual Delivery of Anticancer Therapeutics to HeLa cells

The editors have retracted their article Gold Nanoparticles-enabled Efficient Dual Delivery of Anticancer Therapeutics to HeLa cells. Concerns were brought to the attention of the Editors with respect to apparent inappropriate manipulation of the data in seven of the nine panels shown in Figure 7. The Editors no longer have confidence in the data reported in this Article

Phase-resolved electrical detection of coherently coupled magnonic devices

We demonstrate the electrical detection of magnon–magnon hybrid dynamics in yttrium iron garnet/Permalloy (YIG/Py) thin film bilayer devices. Direct microwave current injection through the conductive Py layer excites the hybrid dynamics consisting of the uniform mode of Py and the first standing spin wave (n = 1) mode of YIG, which are coupled via interfacial exchange. Both the two hybrid modes, with Py- or YIG-dominated excitations, can be detected via the spin rectification signals from the conductive Py layer, providing phase resolution of the coupled dynamics. The phase characterization is also applied to a nonlocally excited Py device, revealing the additional phase shift due to the perpendicular Oersted field. Our results provide a device platform for exploring hybrid magnonic dynamics and probing their phases, which are crucial for implementing coherent information processing with magnon excitations