Fabrication and Characterization of Nanoscale Periodic Ferromagnetic Structures on Superconducting Thin Films

This research investigates the transport properties of ferromagnetic nanostructures made by nickel or cobalt on superconducting thin films. The superconducting thin films were covered by an insulating layer, and the periodic ferromagnetic nanostructures were fabricated on top of the insulating layer. On separate superconducting thin films, periodic ferromagnetic nanostructures were embedded into the thin films. The photolithography method was used to make contact pads for a four-probe measurement. In order to fabricate the magnetic nanostructures, an Electron Beam Lithography (EBL) system was utilized. The nanoscale patterns were filled with ferromagnetic materials by using a thermal evaporating method or an electroplating technique. The superconducting properties were measured at low temperature (2.0 K<T<8.0 K) for low temperature superconductors and at high temperature (85.0 K<T<90.0 K) for high temperature superconductors with a Physical Property Measurement System (PPMS). Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and an Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) were used to characterize the nanoscale structures. Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) was also used to study their magnetic properties. Superconductivity and ferromagnetism seems mutually exclusive states, however the superconducting and the ferromagnetic states show new and exciting properties when the two states affect each other at the nanoscale: hysteresis and enhanced superconductivity. Both the ferromagnetic nanostructures on the superconducting thin films and the embedded ferromagnetic nanosized arrays in the superconducting thin films exhibited an enhanced critical current density and critical magnetic field. Both of the samples also showed hysteresis and a field matching effect by the artificial ferromagnetic nanostructures when an external magnetic field was applied. The superconducting thin films with the ferromagnetic nanostructures system may be useful for power cable and other low magnetic field applications

Direct Detection of Multiple Backward Volume Modes in Yttrium Iron Garnet at Micron Scale Wavelengths

This article belongs to the Proceedings of The 37th International Symposium on Dynamical Properties of Solids

Accurate characterization of winter precipitation using multi-angle snowflake camera, visual hull, advanced scattering methods and polarimetric radar

Includes bibliographical references (pages 28-31).This article proposes and presents a novel approach to the characterization of winter precipitation and modeling of radar observables through a synergistic use of advanced optical disdrometers for microphysical and geometrical measurements of ice and snow particles (in particular, a multi-angle snowflake camera-MASC), image processing methodology, advanced method-of-moments scattering computations, and state-of-the-art polarimetric radars. The article also describes the newly built and established MASCRAD (MASC + Radar) in-situ measurement site, under the umbrella of CSU-CHILL Radar, as well as the MASCRAD project and 2014/2015 winter campaign. We apply a visual hull method to reconstruct 3D shapes of ice particles based on high-resolution MASC images, and perform "particle-by-particle" scattering computations to obtain polarimetric radar observables. The article also presents and discusses selected illustrative observation data, results, and analyses for three cases with widely-differing meteorological settings that involve contrasting hydrometeor forms. Illustrative results of scattering calculations based on MASC images captured during these events, in comparison with radar data, as well as selected comparative studies of snow habits from MASC, 2D video-disdrometer, and CHILL radar data, are presented, along with the analysis of microphysical characteristics of particles. In the longer term, this work has potential to significantly improve the radar-based quantitative winter-precipitation estimation.Published with support from the Colorado State University Libraries Open Access Research and Scholarship Fund

Mutual Influence Between Macrospin Reversal Order and Spin-Wave Dynamics in Isolated Artificial Spin-Ice Vertices

We theoretically and experimentally investigate magnetization reversal and associated spin-wave dynamics of isolated threefold vertices that constitute a Kagome lattice. The three permalloy macrospins making up the vertex have an elliptical cross section and a uniform thickness. We study the dc magnetization curve and the frequency versus field curves (dispersions) of those spin-wave modes that produce the largest response. We also investigate each macrospin reversal from a dynamic perspective, by performing micromagnetic simulations of the reversal processes, and revealing their relationships to the soft-mode profile calculated at the equilibrium state immediately before reversal. The theoretical results are compared with the measured magnetization curves and ferromagnetic resonance spectra. The agreement achieved suggests that a much deeper understanding of magnetization reversal and accompanying hysteresis can be achieved by combining theoretical calculations with static and dynamic magnetization experiments

Coupled Macrospins: Mode Dynamics in Symmetric and Asymmetric Vertices

We report the microwave response of symmetric and asymmetric threefold clusters with nearly contacting segments that can serve as the node in a Kagome artificial spin ice lattice. The structures are patterned on a coplanar waveguide and consist of elongated and nearly-contacting ellipses with uniform thickness. Branches of the ferromagnetic resonance spectra display mode softening that correlates well with the calculations, whereas agreement between the measured and simulated static magnetization is more qualitative

Thickness dependence of spin wave dynamics in three-fold nano-ellipse clusters

We present the results of an experimental and theoretical study of spin wave dynamics in three-fold vertices made of permalloy nano-ellipses, with thicknesses ranging from 7.5 nm to 40 nm. For the most symmetric modes, a non-trivial variation of their frequency and intensity with the ellipse thickness is found. Simulations involving the dynamical matrix approach are in good agreement with the experiments

Quantitative Precipitation Estimates Using Machine Learning Approaches with Operational Dual-Polarization Radar Data

Traditional radar-based rainfall estimation is typically done by known functional relationships between the rainfall intensity (R) and radar measurables, such as R–Zh, R–(Zh, ZDR), etc. One of the biggest advantages of machine learning algorithms is the applicability to a non-linear relationship between a dependent variable and independent variables without any predefined relationships. We explored the potential use of two supervised machine learning methods (regression tree and random forest) in rainfall estimation using dual-polarization radar variables. The regression tree does not require normalization and scaling of data; however, this method is quite unstable since each split depends on the parent split. Since the random forest is an ensemble method of regression trees, it has less variability in prediction compared with regression trees, but consumes more computer resources. We considered several different configurations for machine learning algorithms with different sets of dependent and independent variables. The random forest model was appropriately tuned. In the test of variable importance, the specific differential phase (differential reflectivity) was the most important variable to predict the rainfall rate (residual that is the difference between the true rainfall rate and the one estimated from the R–Z relationship). The models were evaluated by 10-fold cross-validation. The best model was the random forest model using a residual with the non-classified training set. The results indicated that the machine learning algorithms outperformed the traditional R–Z relationship. Then, we applied the best machine learning model to an S-band dual-polarization radar (Mt. Myeonbong) and validated the result with ground rain gauges. The results of the application to radar data showed that the estimates of the residuals had spatial variability. The stratiform and weak rain areas had positive residuals while convective areas had negative residuals, indicating that the spatial error structure driven by the R–Z relationship was well captured by the model. The rainfall rates of all pixels over the study area were adjusted with the estimated residuals. The rainfall rates adjusted by residual showed excellent agreement with the rain gauge, especially at high rainfall rates

Forward volume and surface magnetostatic modes in an yttrium iron garnet film for out-of-plane magnetic fields: Theory and experiment

We present experimental and theoretical results on the propagation of magnetostatic spin waves in a film of yttrium iron garnet (YIG) for out-of-plane magnetic fields for which propagation in opposite directions is nonreciprocal in the presence of a metal layer. The plane studied is defined by the film normal n and n × k where k is the wave vector of the mode. Spin waves in this setting are classified as forward volume waves or surface waves and display non-reciprocity in the presence of an adjacent metal layer except for when H//n. The measurements are carried out in a transmission geometry, and a microwave mixer is used to measure the change of phase, and with it the evolution of wavevector, of the arriving spin wave with external magnetic field

Angular-dependent spin dynamics of a triad of permalloy macrospins

We experimentally and theoretically characterize the angular-dependent microwave response of threemacrospin- vertex structures that can serve as a node in various spin ice lattices. The macrospins consist of patterned permalloy thin films with an elliptical cross section together with an in-plane aspect ratio allowing an Ising-like behavior together with bulk modes as low-frequency excitations in the field range of interest. Various branches of the frequency-magnetic field curves display atypical behaviors and discontinuities, together with softening due to macrospin reversals. The overall behavior observed accurately corresponds to a superposition of the spectra of the individualmacrospins. The measured ferromagnetic resonance spectra are in good agreement with theoretical modeling. In particular, they reveal a close correlation between the field direction (relative to the individual macrospins), and the corresponding frequency-magnetic field curve, i.e., between the geometry and the magnetic response