Thermal spin current and spin accumulation at ferromagnetic insulator/nonmagnetic metal interface

Spin current injection and spin accumulation near a ferromagnetic insulator (FI)/nonmagnetic metal (NM) bilayer film under a thermal gradient is investigated theoretically. Using the Fermi golden rule and the Boltzmann equations, we find that FI and NM can exchange spins via interfacial electron-magnon scattering because of the imbalance between magnon emission and absorption caused by either non-equilibrium distribution of magnons or non-equilibrium between magnons and electrons. A temperature gradient in FI and/or a temperature difference across the FI/NM interface generates a spin current which carries angular momenta parallel to the magnetization of FI from the hotter side to the colder one. Interestingly, the spin current induced by a temperature gradient in NM is negligibly small due to the nonmagnetic nature of the non-equilibrium electron distributions. The results agree well with all existing experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

A thermodynamic theory for thermal-gradient-driven domain wall motion

Spin waves (or magnons) interact with magnetic domain walls (DWs) in a complicated way that a DW can propagate either along or against magnon flow. However, thermally activated magnons always drive a DW to the hotter region of a nanowire of magnetic insulators under a temperature gradient. We theoretically illustrate why it is surely so by showing that DW entropy is always larger than that of a domain as long as material parameters do not depend on spin textures. Equivalently, the total free energy of the wire can be lowered when the DW moves to the hotter region. The larger DW entropy is related to the increase of magnon density of states at low energy originated from the gapless magnon bound states

Breaking the current density threshold in spin-orbit-torque magnetic random access memory

Spin-orbit-torque magnetic random access memory (SOT-MRAM) is a promising technology for the next generation of data storage devices. The main bottleneck of this technology is the high reversal current density threshold. This outstanding problem of SOT-MRAM is now solved by using a current density of constant magnitude and varying flow direction that reduces the reversal current density threshold by a factor of more than the Gilbert damping coefficient. The Euler-Lagrange equation for the fastest magnetization reversal path and the optimal current pulse are derived for an arbitrary magnetic cell. The theoretical limit of minimal reversal current density and current density for a GHz switching rate of the new reversal strategy for CoFeB/Ta SOT-MRAMs are respectively of the order of $10^5$ A/cm$^2$ and $10^6$ A/cm$^2$ far below $10^7$ A/cm$^2$ and $10^8$ A/cm$^2$ in the conventional strategy. Furthermore, no external magnetic field is needed for a deterministic reversal in the new strategy

Spin Wave Emission in Field-Driven Domain Wall Motion

A domain wall (DW) in a nanowire can propagate under a longitudinal magnetic field by emitting spin waves (SWs). We numerically investigated the properties of SWs emitted by the DW motion, such as frequency and wavenumber, and their relation with the DW motion. For a wire with a low transverse anisotropy and in a field above a critical value, a DW emits SWs to both sides (bow and stern), while it oscillates and propagates at a low average speed. For a wire with a high transverse anisotropy and in a weak field, the DW emits mostly stern waves, while the DW distorts itself and DW center propagates forward like a drill at a relative high speed.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Subnanosecond magnetization reversal of magnetic nanoparticle driven by chirp microwave field pulse

We investigate the magnetization reversal of single-domain magnetic nanoparticle driven by linear down-chirp microwave magnetic field pulse. Numerical simulations based on the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation reveal that solely down-chirp pulse is capable of inducing subnanosecond magnetization reversal. With a certain range of initial frequency and chirp rate, the required field amplitude is much smaller than that of constant-frequency microwave field. The fast reversal is because the down-chirp microwave field acts as an energy source and sink for the magnetic particle before and after crossing over the energy barrier, respectively. Applying a spin-polarized current additively to the system further reduces the microwave field amplitude. Our findings provide a new way to realize low-cost and fast magnetization reversal

Influences of magnetic coupling process on the spectrum of a disk covered by the corona

Recently, much attention has been paid to the magnetic coupling (MC) process, which is supported by very high emissivity indexes observed in Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG-6-30-15 and GBHC XTE J1650-500. But the rotational energy transferred from a black hole is simply assumed to be radiated away from the surrounding accretion disk in black-body spectrum, which is obviously not consistent with the observed hard power-law X-ray spectra. We intend to introduce corona into the MC model to make it more compatible with the observations. We describe the model and the procedure of a simplified Monte Carlo simulation, compare the output spectra in the cases with and without the MC effects, and discuss the influences of three parameters involved in the MC process on the output spectra. It is shown that the MC process augments radiation fluxes in the UV or X-ray band. The emergent spectrum is affected by the BH spin and magnetic field strength at the BH horizon, while it is almost unaffected by the radial profile of the magnetic field at the disk. Introducing corona into the MC model will improve the fitting of the output spectra from AGNs and GBHCs.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted by A&

Theoretical limit of the minimal magnetization switching field and the optimal field pulse for Stoner particles

The theoretical limit of the minimal magnetization switching field and the optimal field pulse design for uniaxial Stoner particles are investigated. Two results are obtained. One is the existence of a theoretical limit of the smallest magnetic field out of all possible designs. It is shown that the limit is proportional to the damping constant in the weak damping regime and approaches the Stoner-Wohlfarth (SW) limit at large damping. For a realistic damping constant, this limit is more than ten times smaller than that of so-called precessional magnetization reversal under a non-collinear static field. The other is on the optimal field pulse design: If the magnitude of a magnetic field does not change, but its direction can vary during a reversal process, there is an optimal design that gives the shortest switching time. The switching time depends on the field magnitude, damping constant, and magnetic anisotropy. However, the optimal pulse shape depends only on the damping constant.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure