83 research outputs found
Electrical control of metallic heavy-metal/ferromagnet interfacial states
Voltage control effects provide an energy-efficient means of tailoring
material properties, especially in highly integrated nanoscale devices.
However, only insulating and semiconducting systems can be controlled so far.
In metallic systems, there is no electric field due to electron screening
effects and thus no such control effect exists. Here we demonstrate that
metallic systems can also be controlled electrically through ionic not
electronic effects. In a Pt/Co structure, the control of the metallic Pt/Co
interface can lead to unprecedented control effects on the magnetic properties
of the entire structure. Consequently, the magnetization and perpendicular
magnetic anisotropy of the Co layer can be independently manipulated to any
desired state, the efficient spin toques can be enhanced about 3.5 times, and
the switching current can be reduced about one order of magnitude. This ability
to control a metallic system may be extended to control other physical
phenomena.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, Accepted by Physical Review Applied (2017
Applications and limitations of electron correlation microscopy to study relaxation dynamics in supercooled liquids
Electron correlation microscopy (ECM) is a way to measure structural relaxation times, τ, of liquids with nanometer-scale spatial resolution using coherent electron scattering equivalent of photon correlation spectroscopy. We have applied ECM with a 3.5 nm diameter probe to Pt57.5Cu14.7Ni5.3P22.5 amorphous nanorods and Pd40Ni40P20 bulk metallic glass (BMG) heated inside the STEM into the supercooled liquid region. These data demonstrate that the ECM technique is limited by the characteristics of the time series, which must be at least 40τ to obtain a well-converged correlation function g2(t), and the time per frame, which must be less than 0.1τ to obtain sufficient sampling. A high-speed direct electron camera enables fast acquisition and affords reliable g2(t) data even with low signal per frame
Effect of Pt vacancies on magnetotransport of Weyl semimetal candidate GdPtSb epitaxial films
We examine the effects of Pt vacancies on the magnetotransport properties of
Weyl semimetal candidate GdPtSb films, grown by molecular beam epitaxy on
c-plane sapphire. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and x-ray
diffraction measurements suggest that phase pure GdPtSb films can
accommodate up to Pt vacancies (), which act as acceptors as
measured by Hall effect. Two classes of electrical transport behavior are
observed. Pt-deficient films display a metallic temperature dependent
resistivity (d/dT0). The longitudinal magnetoresistance (LMR, magnetic
field parallel to electric field ) is more negative
than transverse magnetoresistance (TMR, ),
consistent with the expected chiral anomaly for a Weyl semimetal. The
combination of Pt-vacancy disorder and doping away from the expected Weyl
nodes; however, suggests conductivity fluctuations may explain the negative LMR
rather than chiral anomaly. Samples closer to stoichiometry display the
opposite behavior: semiconductor-like resistivity (d/dT0) and more
negative transverse magnetoresistance than longitudinal magnetoresistance.
Hysteresis and other nonlinearities in the low field Hall effect and
magnetoresistance suggest that spin disorder scattering, and possible
topological Hall effect, may dominate the near stoichiometric samples. Our
findings highlight the complications of transport-based identification of Weyl
nodes, but point to possible topological spin textures in GdPtSb
Domain configurations in Co/Pd and L10-FePt nanowire arrays with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy [Co/Pd]15 and L10-FePt nanowire arrays of
period 63 nm with linewidths 38 nm and 27 nm and film thickness 27 nm and 20 nm
respectively were fabricated using a self-assembled PS-b-PDMS diblock copolymer
film as a lithographic mask. The wires are predicted to support Neel walls in
the Co/Pd and Bloch walls in the FePt. Magnetostatic interactions from nearest
neighbor nanowires promote a ground state configuration consisting of
alternating up and down magnetization in adjacent wires. This was observed over
~75% of the Co/Pd wires after ac-demagnetization but was less prevalent in the
FePt because the ratio of interaction field to switching field was much
smaller. Interactions also led to correlations in the domain wall positions in
adjacent Co/Pd nanowires. The reversal process was characterized by nucleation
of reverse domains, followed at higher fields by propagation of the domains
along the nanowires. These narrow wires provide model system for exploring
domain wall structure and dynamics in perpendicular anisotropy systems
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