Staggered Dynamics in Antiferromagnets by Collective Coordinates

Antiferromagnets can be used to store and manipulate spin information, but the coupled dynamics of the staggered field and the magnetization are very complex. We present a theory which is conceptually much simpler and which uses collective coordinates to describe staggered field dynamics in antiferromagnetic textures. The theory includes effects from dissipation, external magnetic fields, as well as reactive and dissipative current-induced torques. We conclude that, at low frequencies and amplitudes, currents induce collective motion by means of dissipative rather than reactive torques. The dynamics of a one-dimensional domain wall, pinned at 90$^{\circ}$ at its ends, are described as a driven harmonic oscillator with a natural frequency inversely proportional to the length of the texture.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Thermoelectric transport of perfectly conducting channels in two- and three-dimensional topological insulators

Topological insulators have gapless edge/surface states with novel transport properties. Among these, there are two classes of perfectly conducting channels which are free from backscattering: the edge states of two-dimensional topological insulators and the one-dimensional states localized on dislocations of certain three-dimensional topological insulators. We show how these novel states affect thermoelectric properties of the systems and discuss possibilities to improve the thermoelectric figure of merit using these materials with perfectly conducting channels.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, proceedings for The 19th International Conference on the Application of High Magnetic Fields in Semiconductor Physics and Nanotechnology (HMF-19

Decay of metastable current states in one-dimensional resonant tunneling devices

Current switching in a double-barrier resonant tunneling structure is studied in the regime where the current-voltage characteristic exhibits intrinsic bistability, so that in a certain range of bias two different steady states of current are possible. Near the upper boundary V_{th} of the bistable region the upper current state is metastable, and because of the shot noise it eventually decays to the stable lower current state. We find the time of this switching process in strip-shaped devices, with the width small compared to the length. As the bias V is tuned away from the boundary value V_{th} of the bistable region, the mean switching time \tau increases exponentially. We show that in long strips \ln\tau \propto (V_{th} -V)^{5/4}, whereas in short strips \ln\tau \propto (V_{th} -V)^{3/2}. The one-dimensional geometry of the problem enables us to obtain analytically exact expressions for both the exponential and the prefactor of \tau. Furthermore, we show that, depending on the parameters of the system, the switching can be initiated either inside the strip, or at its ends.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, update to published versio

Magnetization structure of a Bloch point singularity

Switching of magnetic vortex cores involves a topological transition characterized by the presence of a magnetization singularity, a point where the magnetization vanishes (Bloch point). We analytically derive the shape of the Bloch point that is an extremum of the free energy with exchange, dipole and the Landau terms for the determination of the local value of the magnetization modulus.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure