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1.3120863.pdf | Spin-transfer torque driven magnetic antivortex dynamics by sudden excitation of a
spin-polarized dc
Xiang-Jun Xing and Shu-Wei Li
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 105, 093902 (2009); doi: 10.1063/1.3120863
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3120863
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/105/9?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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140.254.87.149 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 19:03:25Spin-transfer torque driven magnetic antivortex dynamics by sudden
excitation of a spin-polarized dc
Xiang-Jun Xinga/H20850and Shu-Wei Lib/H20850
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, School of Physics and Engineering,
Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
/H20849Received 25 December 2008; accepted 21 March 2009; published online 1 May 2009 /H20850
Spin dynamics of antivortices excited by sudden action of a spin-polarized dc is reported. Two main
excitation modes are found with increased current density, involving a translational /H20849gyrotropic /H20850
mode and a core reversal mode. The former mode can be described by Thiele’s equation, whichaccounts for the orbital distortion in view of the modified restoring force by nontrivial structuresnucleated at sample edges. The final states of the system in the translational mode are obtained,being either a domain wall state or a vortex state, depending on the current density. The frequencyof gyromotion is dependent on dot sizes. Within a threshold radius, the off-centered antivortex canfreely relax back to the dot center. © 2009 American Institute of Physics .
/H20851DOI: 10.1063/1.3120863 /H20852
I. INTRODUCTION
Over past several years, magnetic vortex dynamics1–10
has been the focus of research in magnetism due to its po-
tential applications in data storage, sensing, oscillators, andmagnetologics. Antivortices, almost the same frequently ob-served as vortices, are fundamental magnetic structuresformed on submicron-scale ferromagnetic elements.
11–15De-
spite numerous researches on vortices,1–9few studies have
been made on dynamics of magnetic antivortices,11–15espe-
cially for the case wherein the antivortices are excited by aspin-polarized current,
11although the current-induced mag-
netic vortex dynamics has been well studied.1–5Wang and
Campbell12and Gliga et al.13,14reported spin dynamics of
antivortices triggered by magnetic fields. Depending on ex-citation parameters, they observed three kinds of excitationmodes, i.e., antivortex translational motion, spin-wave exci-tation, and antivortex core /H20849AC/H20850reversal. What is the situa-
tion for spin-polarized current-excited antivortices? The an-swer is unknown. This fact stimulates the study.
In this work, we performed micromagnetic simulation
study on the spin dynamics of single magnetic antivorticesexcited by sudden application of a spin-polarized dc. Weidentify the dynamic excitation spectra of the current-drivenantivortices which, dependent on the magnitude of the cur-rent density, involve two characteristic modes: an AC trans-lational mode and an AC reversal mode. At the initial stageof the translational motion, spin wave, accompanying the ACmotion, is also excited. The translational motion can be de-scribed by Thiele’s equation.
1,6,16The spiral orbital shape
evolution characterized by /H9011jis attributed to the enhanced
tangential acceleration determined by the increased spin-transfer-torque /H20849STT /H20850-induced force.
1The final equilibrium
states for the translational mode are obtained, which are ei-ther a domain wall /H20849DW /H20850state or a centered vortex /H20849V
↑/H20850state/H20851Figs. 1/H20849c/H20850and1/H20849d/H20850/H20852. The gyrotropic frequency is found to
rely on the sample sizes.6There is a threshold radius for the
antivortex relaxation, within which the antivortex can relaxback to the dot center and outside which it is expelled fromthe boundary.
II. MICROMAGNETIC SIMULATIONS
The single antivortices were stabilized on astroid-shaped
Permalloy nanodots12–15with lateral size Lequal to 200 and
300 nm and thickness dranging from 5 to 30 nm. The four
short stretching strips had widths of w=/H208494%/H20850Land /H2084910%/H20850L.
The antivortex configuration /H20851Fig.1/H20849b/H20850/H20852with core polarity of
p=−1 was initially obtained by relaxing the nanodots from a
quasiantivortex state /H20849supplemental Fig. 1 of Ref. 11/H20850.T o
simulate the current-driven spin dynamics, the modifiedLandau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation
1–3with a STT term17,18was
numerically integrated over the nanodot, which was dis-cretized into cells with the size of 2 /H110032/H110032.5 nm
3to per-
a/H20850Electronic mail: xxjun@mail2.sysu.edu.cn.
b/H20850Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:
stslsw@mail.sysu.edu.cn.DW StateCore Translational Motion
(involving Spin-Wave Excitation)
V/CID1StateCore
Reversal
Unknown
jc jscj
jm
(b) (c) (d)(a)
FIG. 1. /H20849Color online /H20850/H20849a/H20850Excitation spectra of the spin-polarized current-
driven antivortex /H20849on the 200-nm-wide and 10-nm-thick dot /H20850. Top: the ex-
citation modes. Bottom: the final states formed on the dot for correspondingmodes. j
m=0.5/H110031011A/m2is the simulated minimum current density, jsc
=1.75/H110031011A/m2is the secondary critical current density, dividing the
types of the final states in the core translational mode, and jc=3.6
/H110031011A/m2is the critical current density, dividing the types of the exci-
tation modes. /H20849b/H20850The initial antivortex /H20849with negative polarity /H20850used in
simulations. /H20851/H20849c/H20850and /H20849d/H20850/H20852Final states of the system in the translation mode:
/H20849c/H20850DW state and /H20849d/H20850vortex state /H20849with positive polarity, opposite to that of
the initial antivortex /H20850.JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 105, 093902 /H208492009 /H20850
0021-8979/2009/105 /H208499/H20850/093902/4/$25.00 © 2009 American Institute of Physics 105 , 093902-1
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140.254.87.149 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 19:03:25form the fully three-dimensional simulations.19Typical Per-
malloy material parameters were used, with saturationmagnetization M
s=8.6/H11003105A/m, exchange stiffness A
=1.3/H1100310−11J/m, and damping parameter /H9251=0.01. The cur-
rent with the spin polarization of /H9257=0.7 /H20849Refs. 4and5/H20850was
injected into the nanodot perpendicular to plane, and it wasalso polarized in the same direction.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The antivortex dynamics were calculated systematically
with the current density ranging from 0.5 /H110031011to 1.5
/H110031012A/m2with the smallest increments down to 0.5
/H110031010A/m2. The excitation spectra of the current-driven
antivortices are shown in Fig. 1/H20849a/H20850. With the increase in the
current density, the antivortices experience successively twoexcitation modes. Below the threshold current density j
c, the
antivortex performs a translational motion, in which the ACcirculates in a spiral orbital around the dot center and thenturns into a curved orbital when it approaches the dot bound-ary. In fact, this mode is accompanied by spin-wave modes atthe initial stage of AC movement. Above j
c, the antivortex
translational mode is suppressed, and instead the AC reversaloccurs on time scales of /H11011200 ps via two Bloch point nucle-
ation, propagation, and annihilation /H20849for details, see Ref. 11/H20850.
The final equilibrium states /H20851Figs. 1/H20849c/H20850and 1/H20849d/H20850/H20852for the
translational mode are existent, which are a DW state for j
lower than the secondary threshold valve j
scand a vortex
state with positive polarity /H20849V↑/H20850centered in the dot for j
higher than jsc. As an example, the vortex with clockwise
chirality is shown in Fig. 1/H20849d/H20850; actually the anticlockwise
chiral direction is also observed in simulations. However,regarding the AC reversal mode, the final states are notreached yet /H20849for details, see Ref. 11/H20850.
Figures 2/H20849a/H20850–2/H20849h/H20850represent AC trajectories in the trans-
lational mode for the antivortex situated in the 200-nm-wideand 10-nm-thick dot under different current densities. All ofthe trajectories include a spiral orbital and a subsequentcurved orbital. To describe the antivortex translational mo-tion, well-known Thiele’s equation
16is introduced. Here,
Thiele’s equation has the form1,6
FS+FG+FR+F/H9251=0 , /H208491/H20850
where FSis the STT-induced force, FGis the gyroforce, FRis
the restoring force, and F/H9251is the dissipative force. For the
antivortex centered in the astroid-shaped dot, because theprofile of magnetization m=M/M
shas not been established
thus far, the precise expressions of these forces cannot bededuced. Nevertheless, an approximation can be made basedon comparison to the vortex case.
1,6,20In this scenario, the
STT-induced force drives the AC to quit the dot center if thecurrent exceeds a critical value /H20849so that F
S/H11022F/H9251/H20850.2,10The dis-
placed AC is then subjected to a gyroforce and a restoringforce, which are perpendicular to the AC velocity and thusresult in the gyrotropic nature of the translationalmotion.
2,5,10With higher excitation current, the spiral orbital
becomes increasingly flat, owing to enhancement of the tan-gential acceleration provided by the STT-induced force. Theflatness of a spiral orbital can be characterized by a quantity/H9011
j=/H208491//H9270/H20850/H20885
0/H9270
/H20849R//H9021/H20850dt, /H208492/H20850
where R=/H20841R/H20849t/H20850/H20841, with Ra vector pointing from the dot center
to the displaced AC position, /H9021=/H9021/H20849t/H20850is the angle swept by
R, and/H9270=min /H20853/H9270j;jm/H11349j/H11021jc/H20854with/H9270jas the time of the AC
gyromotion under the current j. Smaller /H9011jvalues describe
more circulated orbitals, while larger values give flatter ones.As the antivortex moves outward, there exhibit nontrivialstructures at the edges, especially for larger applied currents.The creation of these edge structures /H20849a vortex for higher j/H20850
should be attributed to the metastability of antivortices.
12–14
A similar situation was found by Gliga et al.13,14who ob-
served vortex nucleation at the edges when stronger mag-netic field pulses were employed. The presence of thesestructures modifies the restoring force. This modification fur-05 1 0 1 5-0.40.00.40.8
012345
<mx>
<my><mx>&< my>
Time (ns)(i)
f (GHz)Amplitude0.465 GHz
FFT of <mx>
0 5 10 15-0.10.00.10.20.3
51 0 1 5 2 0<mz>
Time (ns)(j)
20.4
15.7Amplitude
f( G H z )6.8 GHz
12.4FaFGFSFR(a) (b) (c) (d)
(e) (f) (g) (h)
FIG. 2. /H20849Color online /H20850/H20851 /H20849a/H20850–/H20849h/H20850/H20852Orbital trajectories /H20849Ref. 21/H20850of an antivor-
tex /H20849on the 200-nm-wide and 10-nm-thick dot /H20850under different current den-
sities: /H20849a/H20850j=0.5/H110031011,/H20849b/H208500.8/H110031011,/H20849c/H208501.0/H110031011,/H20849d/H208501.75/H110031011,/H20849e/H20850
2.5/H110031011,/H20849f/H208503.25/H110031011,/H20849g/H208503.5/H110031011, and /H20849h/H208503.55/H110031011A/m2. The red
rhombus and wine circle in /H20849a/H20850denote the positions from which the antivor-
tex is relaxed. The arrows in /H20849b/H20850represent the forces exerted on the antivor-
tex core. /H20851/H20849i/H20850and /H20849j/H20850/H20852Temporal evolution of the averaged magnetization for
the in-plane /H20851/H20849i/H20850j=0.5/H110031011A/m2/H20852and out-of-plane /H20851/H20849j/H20850j=1.0
/H110031011A/m2/H20852components. The insets show the corresponding FFT spectra
of the magnetization evolution on the left side of the dotted lines.093902-2 X.-J. Xing and S.-W. Li J. Appl. Phys. 105 , 093902 /H208492009 /H20850
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140.254.87.149 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 19:03:25ther breaks the previous force balance between FS,FG,FR,
and F/H9251and finally results in the AC entering into the curved
orbital. Steady-state AC motions5,6,10around a circular limit
cycle is not excited3throughout the studied current densities.
The temporal evolution of the in-plane magnetization
components /H20849/H20855mx/H20856and /H20855my/H20856/H20850for the antivortex under j=0.5
/H110031011A/m2is shown in Fig. 2/H20849i/H20850. The sinusoidal-like os-
cillations characterize the spiral orbital. The enhanced ampli-tude results from the continually injected energy by thecurrent.
1The frequency /H20849f/H20850of the gyromotion is identified
through fast Fourier transform /H20849FFT /H20850, the /H20855mx/H20856oscillating
curve, being /H110110.465 GHz irrelevant to the current density.
The later sharp jumps of /H20855mx/H20856and /H20855my/H20856correspond to the AC
moving along the curved orbital. Correspondingly, the out-
of-plane magnetization /H20849/H20855mz/H20856/H20850evolution is shown in Fig. 2/H20849j/H20850.
Using FFT technique, several additional modes with flo-
cated around 6.8, 12.4, 15.7, and 20.4 GHz are found, asshown in the inset of Fig. 2/H20849j/H20850, indicating spin-wave excita-
tion. At the end of the movement, the antivortex is sub-merged, and subsequently, the final state of the system isattained. Below j
sc, it is ejected out of the dot, resulting in a
DW configuration. Above jsc, it is annihilated with a vortex
with opposite polarity originating from the dot edge. Afterthe annihilation, another vortex with positive polarity nucle-ates at the edge and then moves toward the dot center, form-ing the final state of the system. The production of a vortexhaving opposite polarity from an original antivortex throughsuch a process is a presently unexplored micromagnetic pro-cess.
In vortex translational mode, the gyrofrequency was ap-
proximately proportional to the dot aspect ratio
/H9252=dv/Lv,6
where dvand Lvare the thickness and radius of a submicron
cylindrical dot, respectively. For our astroid-shaped dot, thegeometric parameters are the lateral size L, the thickness d,
and the strip width w, and so far the dependence of its gy-
rofrequency on these parameters is not fully realized. Toclarify this, we simulated different sized nanodots that aresubjected to the identical current density /H20849j=0.8
/H1100310
11A/m2/H20850. Table Isummarizes the simulated results, ex-
hibiting that the frequency is closely related to the sample
sizes. When the dot thickness /H20849d/H20850is increased or its lateral
sizes /H20849Land w/H20850are decreased, the gyrofrequency rises.12
Thus, the size dependence of the gyrofrequency of antivorti-
ces on astroid-shaped dots is in qualitative agreement withthat for vortices on cylindrical dots.
1,4–6,8,12
Finally, the relaxation properties of the off-centered an-
tivortex were investigated. Various positions /H20851marked by red
rhombus and wine circle in Fig. 2/H20849a/H20850/H20852were examined as the
starting point of the antivortex relaxation. When setting outfrom the circle-denoted position, the antivortex rotates in awell-defined spiral orbital /H20851Fig.3/H20849a/H20850/H20852, returning slowly to thedot center. In this process, the AC motion is governed by the
restoring force F
R, the gyroforce FG, and the dissipative
force F/H9251. The temporal evolution of /H20855mx/H20856and /H20855my/H20856during the
antivortex relaxation is shown in Fig. 3/H20849b/H20850. The slow decay
arises from the weak dissipative force determined by thedamping coefficient /H20849
/H9251=0.01, characteristic of Permalloy
material /H20850. The inset in Fig. 3/H20849b/H20850shows the FFT spectra of
/H20855mx/H20856. Compared to its counterpart in Fig. 2/H20849i/H20850, one finds that
the gyrofrquency of the AC free motion is approximately
equal to that of the AC forced motion by the currents butwith a much narrower linewidth. When leaving from therhombus-denoted position, the antivortex moves outwardalong a curved orbital /H20851Fig. 3/H20849a/H20850/H20852and finally is ejected from
the boundary, leading to a DW state. This is very similar tothe AC late-staged motion under the currents of j/H11021j
sc, at-
testing again that the AC motion in the vicinity of the bound-ary is dominated by the dipolar force, which is now no morea restoring force toward the dot center. Conclusively, there isa threshold radius R
cin the astroid-shaped dot, and only the
AC situated inside the periphery of 2 /H9266Rccan relax back to
the dot center.
IV. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we studied spin dynamics of the magnetic
antivortices triggered by sudden excitation of a perpendicularspin-polarized dc. The excitation spectra of the current-excited antivortices are derived, which involve several char-TABLE I. The frequency of the antivortex gyromotion in various sized dots
under a current with j=0.8/H110031011A/m2.
L,d,w
/H20849nm/H20850 200, 10, /H208494%/H20850L300, 10, /H208494%/H20850L200, 5, /H208494%/H20850L200, 10, /H2084910% /H20850L
f/H20849GHz /H20850 0.465 0.255 0.322 0.456
0 2 04 06 08 0-0.3-0.2-0.10.00.10.20.3
012345<mx>&< my>
Time (ns)<mx>
<my>(b)
Amplitude
f (GHz)FFT of <mx>0.475 GHz(a)
FIG. 3. /H20849Color online /H20850/H20849a/H20850Trajectories /H20849Ref. 21/H20850of an AC /H20849on the 200-nm-
wide and 10-nm-thick dot /H20850relaxing from two different starting points. The
symbols marking the starting positions are the same as in Fig. 2/H20849a/H20850.T h e
green circle defines the periphery with the threshold radius Rc/H1101530 nm
/H20849Ref. 22/H20850./H20849b/H20850Time evolution of /H20855mx/H20856and /H20855my/H20856magnetization components.
The inset is the FFT spectra of /H20855mx/H20856.093902-3 X.-J. Xing and S.-W. Li J. Appl. Phys. 105 , 093902 /H208492009 /H20850
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140.254.87.149 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 19:03:25acteristic excitation modes. Under low current densities, the
antivortex is in a translational mode, in which the AC ini-tially revolves around the dot center in a spiral orbital, laterenters a curved orbital, and finally is quenched near theboundary region, resulting in the equilibrium state of thesystem. Under high current densities, the antivortex is in acore reversal mode, in which the AC polarity is switched at atypical time scale of 200 ps. /H20849This mode was detailedly re-
ported in Ref. 11./H20850The antivortex gyrofrequency, like in the
vortex case, is revealed to be dependent on the dot sizes. Theantivortex situated within a threshold radius can freely relaxback to the dot center.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The National Natural Science Foundation of China
/H20849Grant Nos. 50572124 and U0734004 /H20850funded this work.
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21The position of the AC is determined by the point in which the zcompo-
nent of the magnetization has the smallest value /H20849/H20855mz/H20856/H11011−1/H20850over the dot
area.
22The existence of the threshold radius has been elucidated in the text, and
its value of /H1101130 nm is deduced from simulation results. The intrinsic
relation between the quantitative values of 30 nm and 200 nm/10 nm /H20849dot
sizes /H20850cannot be clarified at present.093902-4 X.-J. Xing and S.-W. Li J. Appl. Phys. 105 , 093902 /H208492009 /H20850
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1.4813763.pdf | Interfacial effect on the ferromagnetic damping of CoFeB thin films with
different under-layers
Shaohai Chen, Minghong Tang, Zongzhi Zhang, B. Ma, S. T. Lou et al.
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 032402 (2013); doi: 10.1063/1.4813763
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4813763
View Table of Contents: http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/APPLAB/v103/i3
Published by the AIP Publishing LLC.
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Downloaded 22 Jul 2013 to 132.174.255.116. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsInterfacial effect on the ferromagnetic damping of CoFeB thin films
with different under-layers
Shaohai Chen,1Minghong Tang,1Zongzhi Zhang,1,a)B. Ma,1S. T. Lou,2and Q. Y . Jin2
1Key Lab of Micro and Nano Photonic Structures (Ministry of Education), Department of Optical Science
and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
2State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy and Department of Physics, East China Normal University,
Shanghai 200062, China
(Received 3 June 2013; accepted 27 June 2013; published online 15 July 2013)
Interfacial effects on magnetic properties are investigated for the as-deposited and annealed
Co64Fe16B20films with different under-layers (Cu, Ru , or Pd). The intrinsic Gilbert damping
factor is inferred to be slightly lower than the obtained value of 0.007. We found that both the in-
plane coercivity Hcand ferromagnetic resonance linewidth DHpprely on the interfacial
morphology. The Cu under-layer provides a rough surface, which offers an extra contribution totheDH
pp. The surface roughness was greatly enhanced by post-annealing for Cu, while little
affected for Ru and Pd. Resultingly, the DHppandHcof Cu/CoFeB increase s ignificantly after
annealing. However, for the annealed Ru/CoFeB sample, the DHppeven decreases implying Ru is
a proper under-layer material for CoFeB-based spintronic devices. VC2013 AIP Publishing LLC .
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4813763 ]
In recent years, soft CoFeB thin films have been exten-
sively studied owing to the extremely large tunneling magne-toresistance (TMR) ratio and the spin transfer torque (STT)
phenomenon in CoFeB-MgO-CoFeB magnetic tunnel junc-
tions (MTJs).
1–5Spin polarized current flowing through a
spin valve or MTJ element will exert a spin torque on the
free layer magnetization, which can drive the magnetization
switching if the current exceeds a threshold value. The spintorque induced magnetization reversal provides a new data
writing method which can be used in magnetic random
access memories (MRAM).
5,6One of the key challenges for
STT-MRAM is to reduce the critical writing current density
while maintaining enough thermal stability for achieving
better performance such as low power consumption, gooddata retention, and high information density.
6–8The magni-
tude of threshold current depends on the free layer magnet-
ization, film thickness, spin polarization, anisotropy field,and especially the effective magnetic damping factor a.
Understanding and manipulation of the dynamic magnetic
properties of the CoFeB films is of vital importance to effec-tively reduce the critical switching current for memory
application.
The magnetic damping makes the magnetization relax
to the local equilibrium state by dissipating the magnetic
energy via the damped magnetization oscillations. It has
been found that there are different contributions to theenergy dissipation processes. In addition to the intrinsic
Gilbert damping resulting from the spin-orbit coupling of the
ferromagnetic materials, the local fluctuation of magnetiza-tion, magnetic anisotropy, as well as the magnetostatic fields
at different sample locations would also give rise to some
extrinsic contributions to the magnetic damping. These ex-trinsic damping caused by the inhomogeneous magnetic
properties is usually termed as two-magnon scattering, whichstrongly relies on the surface/interface roughness and other
film defects.
9–11Moreover, the coupling between a ferro-
magnetic layer and an adjacent normal non-magnetic (NM)
metal layer may also enhance the effective damping for
the precessing magnetization via spin-pumping effect.12,13
For the MTJs containing a CoFeB layer, post annealing
treatment2–4and proper under-layer14,15are required to
achieve perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and high TMRsignal essential for developing high density STT-MRAM.
However, the introduction of non-magnetic surrounding
layer and thermal heating will vary the film microstructure,which would inevitably affect the avalue of the free CoFeB
layer in the spin torque devices. Therefore, understanding of
the interfacial and annealing effects on the damping factor isessential for the successful adaptation of the spin-transfer
writing scheme for advanced MRAM. In this work, we have
performed a comprehensive study on the CoFeB films.
The films were deposited at room temperature (RT) in a
magnetron sputtering system with a base pressure better than
1/C210
/C08Torr.16The sample structure is glass substrate/Ta
(3 nm)/under-layer (5 or 10 nm)/Co 64Fe16B20(5 or 15 nm)/
Ta (3 nm), where Cu, Pd, or Ru was chosen as the under-
layer. The respective Ar working pressure is 3 mTorr for Cuand CoFeB, 5 mTorr for Ru, and 6 mTorr for Pd and Ta.
After deposition, each sample was cut into two pieces, one
was subjected to heat treatment at 350
/C14C for an hour in a
vacuum chamber without applying any magnetic field.
Meanwhile, samples of glass/Ta (3 nm)/under-layer (5 nm)
capped with a 1 nm thin Ta layer were also prepared for sur-face morphology analyses. Magnetic hysteresis loops were
measured by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) with
the external field parallel to the film plane. The ferromag-netic resonance (FMR) measurements were carried out by a
JEOL JESFA-300 electron spin-resonance spectrometer,
with a fixed microwave frequency of 9.0 GHz and swept dcfield. The surface roughness and crystallographic texture
were examined by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:
zzzhang@fudan.edu.cn
0003-6951/2013/103(3)/032402/5/$30.00 VC2013 AIP Publishing LLC 103, 032402-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 103, 032402 (2013)
Downloaded 22 Jul 2013 to 132.174.255.116. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsX-ray diffraction (XRD) with Cu-K aradiation ( k¼1.54 A ˚),
respectively. All the measurements were conducted at RT.
All the CoFeB samples with different under-layers have
very similar XRD results, so only the XRD patterns of Cu/CoFeB are presented in Fig. 1. In the as-deposited state,
there is only one peak corresponding to the Cu (111) texture,
demonstrating that the as-deposited CoFeB layer is in anamorphous state or very fine nanocrystalline state. After 1 h
heating at 350
/C14C, although no additional peak is observable
for the sample with a thin CoFeB (5 nm thick) layer, we
could identify a clear CoFe (110) peak for the 15 nm thick
CoFeB, implying the amorphous CoFeB layer crystallizes af-ter annealing treatment.
The field-swept FMR absorption derivative spectra were
recorded at various field angles h
H(0/C14–90/C14)r e l a t i v et ot h e
film normal direction. The angular dependence of resonance
field Hresis shown in Fig. 2(a), for the as-deposited samples
with a structure of Ta 3 nm/under-layer 5 nm/CoFeB 5 nm/Ta3 nm. A typical in-plane FMR spectrum with the external
magnetic field applied parallel to the film plane (i.e.,
h
H¼90/C14) is given in the inset, from which the resonance Hres
and peak-to-peak linewidth DHppcan be determined. The res-
onance field Hresdecreases monotonically with increasing hH
from 0/C14to 90/C14due to the co-effect of large demagnetization
field and the in-plane magnetic anisotropy of our samples.
The rapid decrease of Hresat low angle reveals the misalign-
ment between the static dc field and the magnetization. Aboveh
H¼30/C14, the curve gradually turns to flat showing the mag-
netization is already in-plane.9Considering the amorphous na-
ture of the CoFeB layer, the in-plane anisotropy field Hkcan
be neglected. Therefore, from the in-plane FMR field and the
well-known Kittel formula17
x¼cffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ðHresþHkÞðHresþHkþ4pMsÞp
; (1)
where x¼2pfis the microwave circular frequency and cis
the gyromagnetic ratio, we get the saturation magnetizationMsfor CoFeB is about 1180 66 emu/cm3, which is in good
agreement with our VSM result (1176 630 emu/cm3).
Figure 2(b) shows the FMR linewidth DHppas a func-
tion of angle hHbetween the external field and the film nor-
mal, for the as-deposited samples in the structure of Ta 3 nm/
Cu, Pd, or Ru 5 nm/CoFeB 5 nm/Ta 3 nm. The DHppshows a
very significant angular variation. It increases very rapidly asthe external FMR field is rotated away from the perpendicu-
lar orientation at h
H¼0/C14, and then decreases after reaching a
maximum at hH¼6/C14. For a homogeneous film with magnet-
ization aligned parallel to the applied field, the intrinsic
damping factor acan be simply determined from the FMR
linewidth according to the relation of DHpp¼2ax=ffiffiffi
3p
c.18
However, for the practical magnetic thin films generally with
magnetic inhomogeneities, the DHppwould be broadened by
two-magnon scattering which can transfer magnetic energy
from the uniform precession to the degenerate spin wave
FIG. 1. Typical XRD patterns for the as-deposited and post-annealed CoFeB
samples with a Cu under-layer.FIG. 2. (a) The FMR resonance field as a function of field angle hHwith
respect to the film normal direction measured in the as-deposited state. The
inset shows a representative FMR absorption derivative spectrum. (b) The
peak-to-peak linewidth DHppversus field angle hH. (c) The in-plane
(hH¼90/C14) and perpendicular ( hH¼0/C14)DHppfor the samples of Ta 3 nm/
under-layer 5 nm/CoFeB 5 nm/Ta 3 nm.032402-2 Chen et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 032402 (2013)
Downloaded 22 Jul 2013 to 132.174.255.116. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsstates. The two-magnon broadening is ineffective when the
magnetization is nearly perpendicular to the film plane,9,19
hence the in-plane linewidth would be greater than the per-
pendicular linewidth at the presence of extrinsic two-magnon scattering. Figure 2(c)shows the in-plane linewidth
ath
H¼90/C14and the perpendicular at hH¼0/C14. Obviously, the
perpendicular linewidth is smaller than the in-plane value,confirming the contribution of two-magnon scattering.
Importantly, when compared to the other films, the DH
pp
reduction is more significant for the sample with a Cu under-
layer, indicating severe magnetic inhomogeneity occurs at
the Cu/CoFeB interface. It is also noticed that, at the perpen-dicular configuration where the two-magnon broadening is
suppressed, the DH
ppis not identical for the CoFeB samples
with different under-layers. The sample with Ru or Pdunder-layer exhibits a higher perpendicular DH
pp, which is
attributed to the spin-pumping effect. It is known that in
order to observe a significant spin pumping contribution tothe magnetic damping, the spin diffusion length k
SDin the
normal metal layer should be smaller than or comparable to
its thickness LNM.20,21The Ru or Pd has a short spin diffu-
sion length, the measured kSDis only 14 nm for Ru (Ref. 22)
and 25 nm for Pd (Ref. 23) at 4.2 K, which is usually longer
than that at RT owing to the weak electron-phonon scatteringat low temperatures. The k
SDcould decrease by at least a
factor of two between 4.2 K and RT. In our work, since the
under-layer thickness LNMis 5 or 10 nm, the criterion of
kSD/C20Lfor spin pumping broadening is basically satisfied.
In contrast, for the sample with a 5 nm Cu under-layer, the
thickness is far smaller than its long spin diffusion length(/C24350 nm) at room temperature,
24thus, the non-local spin
pumping contribution to the linewidth is negligible, leading
to the observed smaller perpendicular DHpp.
Based on the above analyses, the total measured reso-
nance linewidth of our samples is typically composed of three
contributions: the intrinsic Gilbert damping, two-magnon scat-tering, and spin pumping effect. The perpendicular DH
pp
measured for the sample with Cu under-layer is very close to
the intrinsic FMR linewidth since the two-magnon scatteringand spin pumping effect has been excluded. So, according to
the formula of DH
pp¼2ax=ffiffiffi
3p
c, the magnetic damping fac-
torais calculated to be 0.007. We point out that the actual
intrinsic avalue should be slightly smaller than 0.007, as the
thin Ta buffer and capping layers (with a short spin diffusion
length of about 10 nm at RT) may also contribute to theincrease of damping.
13,27The obtained damping factor value
is a little different from the results reported for CoFeB system
by others.13,25,26This difference can be attributed to the differ-
ent elemental compositions. In Refs. 13,25,a n d 26,t h em e a s -
ured damping factors are for the alloys of Co 56Fe24B20,
Co40Fe40B20, and Co 31.5Fe58.5B10, respectively, while in this
work the obtained value of 0.007 is for the Co 64Fe16B20.
The FMR linewidth broadening due to two-magnon
scattering is known to originate from the microstructuralimperfections, which will affect the static magnetic proper-
ties such as magnetic coercivity as well. Figure 3shows the
in-plane magnetic hysteresis loops of the as-deposited andpost-annealed samples. Similar to the DH
pp, the coercivity
Hcvalue measured in as-deposited state is also very small,
only 3–10 Oe, seen from the loops in Figs. 3(a)–3(c). Thelow coercivity and saturation field reveal the CoFeB layer is
magnetically soft and the magnetic easy axis lies in the filmplane. Thermal annealing will change the CoFeB microstruc-
ture and hence the magnetic properties, as shown in Figs.
3(d)–3(f). After post-annealing, the coercivity value H
c
increases for all the samples, especially for the Cu/CoFeB
sample. The increase of Hcprobably arises from the CoFe
crystallization, interface roughness increase, and/or atomicinterdiffusion.
In order to clarify the relationship between the coerciv-
ity and the FMR linewidth, Fig. 4displays the in-plane DH
pp
andHcvalues for the samples with both 5 and 10 nm thick
under-layers. Apparently, the Hcfollows a very similar vari-
ation trend to the DHpp, implying the increase of FMR line-
width and coercivity is more likely related to the same
origin. Moreover, although the post-annealing treatment in
our experiment was performed under the identical condition,the increase of H
candDHppinduced by thermal heating is
distinctly different for the different under-layer samples. For
the as-deposited Cu 5 nm/CoFeB sample, the in-plane Hc
andDHppare only 9.4 and 56 Oe, respectively, which dra-
matically rises up to 322 and 623 Oe after annealing. As a
comparison, the increase of HcandDHppis intermediate for
the case of Pd. Nevertheless, for the Ru 5 nm/CoFeB sample,
thermal annealing did not produce an increase of DHpp.O n
the contrary, it even decreases from the as-deposited 47 Oedown to 35 Oe. We consider that such different varying tend-
ency probably originates from the different interfacial micro-
structure between the CoFeB and the various under-layers.
To explain the experimental results that the two-magnon
broadening of DH
ppis more pronounced for the sample with
a Cu under-layer, and gain further insight on the annealingFIG. 3. Magnetic hysteresis loops for samples of Ta 3 nm/under-layer 5 nm/
CoFeB 5 nm/Ta 3 nm measured in the as-deposited state ((a)–(c)) and post-
annealed state ((d)–(f)).032402-3 Chen et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 032402 (2013)
Downloaded 22 Jul 2013 to 132.174.255.116. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionseffect, AFM scanning was conducted in an atmosphere envi-
ronment on the sample surface with a structure of Ta 3.0 nm/Cu, Pd, or Ru 5 nm/Ta 1 nm. The root-mean-square (RMS)
roughness was determined from the AFM images shown in
Fig.5. In the as-deposited state, the RMS value is low, which
is 0.31, 0.25, and 0.41 for Ru, Pd, and Cu, respectively.
Roughness will bring fluctuations of the static stray field,
which correspond to the local shape of the interface and thusresult in DH
ppbroadening. The relatively rough surface of
the as-deposited Cu film is responsible for the observed
slightly higher in-plane DHpp. For the post-annealed Cu sam-
ple, because of the formation of much more large grains seen
from the island style image, the RMS increases considerably
which introduces great inhomogeneities at the Cu/CoFeBinterface. Consequently, both the DH
ppandHcshow a dra-
matic enhancement. The surface roughness of the Pd or Ru
film is not so sensitive to the annealing treatment as the Cu.The RMS basically does not vary much for the annealed Pd
sample, so there must be other factors related to the increase
ofDH
ppandHc. Considering that thermal heating can cause
the interfacial diffusion and atomic alloying,28we ascribe
the corresponding moderate DHppincrease to the formation
of CoPd or FePd alloy which has strong spin-orbit coupling.For the annealed Ru/CoFeB sample, the observed decrease
ofDH
ppis considered as a result of the slightly reduced sur-
face roughness.
In conclusion, we have studied the magnetic properties
and microstructure for CoFeB thin films with various under-
layers. The in-plane magnetic CoFeB layers, which areamorphous in the as-deposited state, become crystallized af-
ter annealing at 350
/C14C. The intrinsic damping factor ais
determined to be close to 0.007. Before annealing treatment,the extrinsic contribution to magnetic damping mainly
results from the spin-pumping effect for the sample with a
Pd or Ru under-layer due to the short spin diffusion length,whereas for Cu/CoFeB film the two-magnon scattering plays
a dominant role because of the slightly rough Cu surface. In
the post-annealed state, the sample with a Cu under-layershows a pronounced increase of both in-plane DH
ppandHc
due to the greatly increased surface roughness. Although no
obvious change can be detected on the Pd surface, the DHpp
and Hcrise twice for the annealed Pd/CoFeB, which is
ascribed to the formation of CoPd or FePd alloy.
Interestingly, the DHppof the Ru/CoFeB sample drops in the
annealed state as a consequence of the slight reduction of the
interfacial roughness. These results indicate that the Ru is an
appropriate adjacent layer material for CoFeB films for pos-sible applications in the STT-MRAM.
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51222103, 11274113,11074046, 51171047, and 61078030), and the National Basic
Research Program of China (2009CB929201). Z. Zhang
thanks for the support from the Program for New CenturyExcellent Talents in University (NCET-12-0132). B. Ma
thanks for the support from the NSFC (Grant Nos. 51071046
and 11174056).
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1.4867298.pdf | Control of the magnetic in-plane anisotropy in off-stoichiometric NiMnSb
F. Gerhard, C. Schumacher, C. Gould, and L. W. Molenkamp
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 115, 094505 (2014); doi: 10.1063/1.4867298
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4867298
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/115/9?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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F . Gerhard, C. Schumacher, C. Gould, and L. W. Molenkamp
Physikalisches Institut (EP3), Universit €at W €urzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074 W €urzburg, Germany
(Received 30 January 2014; accepted 19 February 2014; published online 4 March 2014)
NiMnSb is a ferromagnetic half-metal which, because of its rich anisotropy and very low Gilbert
damping, is a promising candidate for applications in information technologies. We have
investigated the in-plane anisotropy properties of thin, molecular beam epitaxy-grown NiMnSb
films as a function of their Mn concentration. Using ferromagnetic resonance to determine theuniaxial and four-fold anisotropy fields,
2KU
Msand2K1
Ms, we find that a variation in composition can
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complete 90/C14rotation of the uniaxial anisotropy. This provides valuable flexibility in designing
new device geometries. VC2014 AIP Publishing LLC .[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4867298 ]
INTRODUCTION
NiMnSb is a half-metallic ferromagnetic material offer-
ing 100% spin polarization in its bulk,1and was therefore
long considered a very promising material for spintronicapplications such as spin injection. Experience has shown,
however, that preserving sufficiently high translation symme-
try to maintain this perfect polarization at surfaces and interfa-ces is a major practical challenge, reducing its attractiveness
for spin injection. The material nevertheless continues to be
very promising for use in other spintronic applications; in par-ticular, in spin torque devices such as spin-transfer-torque
(STT) controlled spin valves and spin torque oscillators
(STO). This promise is based on its very low Gilbert damping,of order 10
/C03or lower2which should enhance device effi-
ciency, as well as on its rich and strong magnetic anisotropy
which allows for great flexibility in device engineering.
For example, it has been shown that STO oscillators
formed from two layers of orthogonal anisotropy can yield
significantly higher signal than those with co-linear magneticeasy axis.
3–6Being able to tune the magnetic anisotropy of
individual layers is clearly useful for the production of such
devices.
Previous results have shown a dependence of the anisot-
ropy of NiMnSb on film thickness,7which offers some con-
trol possibilities when device geometries allow forappropriate layer thicknesses, but that is not always possible
due to other design or lithography limitations. Here, we
show how the anisotropy of layers of a given range of thick-ness can effectively be tuned by slight changes in layer com-
position, achieved by adjusting the Mn flux.
EXPERIMENTAL
The NiMnSb layers are grown epitaxial by molecular
beam epitaxy (MBE) on top of a 200 nm thick (In,Ga)As
buffer on InP (001) substrates. All samples have a protectivenon-magnetic metal cap (Ru or Cu) deposited by magnetron
sputtering before the sample is taken out of the UHV envi-
ronment, in order to avoid oxidation and/or relaxation of theNiMnSb.
8The flux ratio Mn/Ni, and thus the composition, is
varied between samples by adjusting the Mn cell temperaturewhile the flux ratio Ni/Sb is kept constant. The thickness of
most of the studied NiMnSb layers is 38 62 nm. Two sam-
ples have a slightly larger film thickness (45 nm, markedwith () in Fig. 3(a)), caused by the change in growth rate due
to the change in Mn flux. We verified that there is no correla-
tion between anisotropy and sample thickness in this range.
High Resolution X-Ray Diffr action (HRXRD) measure-
ments are used to determine the ve rtical lattice constant of each
sample. Fig. 1shows standard x-2h-scans of the (002) Bragg
reflection on layers with the lowest and highest Mn concentra-
tions used in the study, as well as a scan for a sample with me-
dium Mn concentration. The sample with the lowest Mncontent has a vertical lattice constant of 5.939 A ˚(sample A)
and that with the highest Mn content (sample C) has a vertical
lattice constant of 6.092 A ˚. To get an estimate of the vertical
lattice constant of stoichiomet ric NiMnSb in our layer stacks,
we used an XRD measurement of a stoichiometric, relaxed
sample.
9We determine a relaxed lattice constant of are-
l¼(5.92660.007) A ˚. Together with the lattice constant of our
InP/(In,Ga)As substrate, 5.8688 A ˚, and an estimated Poisson ra-
tio of 0.3 60.03, we get the minimal and maximal values for
the vertical lattice constant of stoichiometric NiMnSb:
a?;max¼5:999 ˚A;a?;min¼5:957 ˚A. The vertical lattice con-
stant of the sample with medium Mn concentration (sample B,5.968 A ˚) lies in this range. We conclude that the composition
of sample B is approximately stoichiometric.
In Refs. 10and 11, the effects of off-stoichiometric
defects in NiMnSb are discussed. Among the possible
defects related to Mn, Mn
Ni(Mn substituting Ni) is most
likely (it has lowest formation energy) and the predicteddecrease of the saturation magnetization is consistent with
our observation (see Fig. 3(b)). Furthermore, an increase of
the lattice constant with increasing concentration of this kindof defect is predicted theoretically and observed experimen-
tally. Thus, we can use the (vertical) lattice constant as a
measure for the Mn concentration in our samples.
The crystal quality is also assessed by the HRXRD
measurements. The inset in Fig. 1shows the x-scans of the
same three NiMnSb layers. The x-scans of both the low and
medium Mn concentration sample are extremely narrow
with a full width half-maximum (FWHM) of 15 and
0021-8979/2014/115(9)/094505/4/$30.00 VC2014 AIP Publishing LLC 115, 094505-1JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 115, 094505 (2014)
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209.183.185.254 On: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 19:38:2014 arcsec, respectively. A broadening for the sample with
highest Mn concentration can be seen (FWHM of 35 arcsec).
Reasons for the broadening can be partial relaxation of the
layer due to the increased lattice mismatch with the (In,Ga)As
buffer, and/or defects related to the surplus of Mn.
Using the experimental data of the lattice constant in
Ref. 11, we can estimate a difference in Mn concentration
between sample A and C (extreme samples) of about 40%.
For sample C (extreme high Mn concentration), we deter-mine a saturation magnetization of 3 :4l
Bohr(see Fig. 3(b)).
According to Ref. 11, this corresponds to a crystal where
about 20% of Ni is replaced by Mn. It should be noted thatwe investigated the effect of extreme surplus/deficit of Mn
within the limits of acceptable crystal quality. As can be
seen in Fig. 3(a), already a much smaller change in composi-
tion can change the strength and orientation of the magnetic
anisotropy significantly.
To map out the in-plane anisotropy of our samples, we
use frequency-domain ferromagnetic resonance (FMR)
measurements at a frequency of 12.5 GHz. The resonance
fields are determined as a function of an external magneticfield applied at fixed angles ranging from 0
/C14(defined as the
[100] crystal direction) to 180/C14. Fig. 2shows results of these
measurements for four different samples with four distincttypes of anisotropy: Sample A and D both exhibit large uni-
axial anisotropies with an additional four-fold component,
however of opposite sign. The hard axis of sample A is alongthe [1 /C2210] crystal direction, where for sample D the hard axis
is along the [110] crystal direction. Sample B and C both
show mainly uniaxial anisotropies, again with oppositesigns.
The FMR data can be simulated with a simple phenome-
nological magnetostatic model to extract the anisotropy com-ponents (derivation taken from Ref. 12). The free energy
equation for thin films of cubic materials is given by/C15
c¼/C0Kk
1
2ða4
xþa4
yÞ/C0K?
1
2a4
z/C0Kua2
z; (1)
where ax;ay,a n d azdescribe the magnetization with respect
to the crystal directions [100], [010], and [001]. Kk
1is the four-
fold in-plane anisotropy constant, KuandK?
1represent the
perpendicular uniaxial anisotropy (second and fourth order,respectively). In our in-plane FMR geometry, the fourth order
perpendicular anisotropy term K
?
1can be neglected. Instead,
an additional uniaxial in-plane anisotropy term is added
/C15u¼/C0Kk
uð^n/C1^MÞ2
M2
s
with the unit vector ^nalong the uniaxial anisotropy and the
saturation magnetization Ms;^M. The Zeeman term coupling
to the external field H0and a demagnetization term originat-
ing from the thinness of the sample are defined as
/C15Z¼/C0M/C1H0;/C15 demag ¼/C04pDM2
?
2(2)
and added as well to the free energy. The effective magnetic
field
Hef f¼/C0@/C15total
@M(3)
with
/C15total¼/C15cþ/C15uþ/C15Zþ/C15demag (4)
is used to solve the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert-Equation (LLG)
/C01
c@M
@t¼½M/C2Hef f/C138/C0G
c2M2
s/C20
M/C2@M
@t/C21
(5)FIG. 1. HRXRD x/C02h-scans of 3 NiMnSb samples with various Mn con-
centrations. The curves are vertically offset for clarity. Inset: x-scans show-
ing high crystal quality.FIG. 2. FMR measurements and simulation for four different samples. The
symbols are measurements of the resonance frequency for magnetic fields
along specific crystal directions, where 0/C14lies along [100]. The lines are
simulations (see below) and also serve as a guide to the eye. Samples A, B,and C correspond to the samples with lowest, medium, and highest Mn con-
centration shown in Fig. 1. Sample D completes the various kinds of anisot-
ropy observed in NiMnSb.094505-2 Gerhard et al. J. Appl. Phys. 115, 094505 (2014)
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209.183.185.254 On: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 19:38:20with the gyromagnetic ratio c¼glB
/C22hand the Gilbert damping
constant G. The resonance condition can be found by calcu-
lating the susceptibility,13v¼@M
@H
/C18x
c/C192
¼Bef fH/C3
ef f: (6)
In the following, we neglect the damping contribution since
G
cMsin our samples is of the order of 10/C03or lower. Thus, Beff
andH/C3
ef fin our case can be found to be
H/C3
ef f¼H0cos½/M/C0/H/C138þ2Kk
1
Mscos½4ð/M/C0/FÞ/C138
þ2Kk
U
Mscos½2ð/M/C0/UÞ/C138; (7)
Bef f¼H0cos½/M/C0/H/C138þKk
1
2Msð3þcos½4ð/M/C0/FÞ/C138Þ
þ4pDM s/C02K?
U
MsþKk
U
Msð1þcos½2ð/M/C0/UÞ/C138Þ:(8)
Here, /M;/H,a n d /Udefine the angles of the magnetization,
external magnetic field, and in-plane easy axis of the uniaxial
anisotropy, respectively, with respect to the crystal direction[100]. /
Faccounts for the angle of the four-fold anisotropy.
At the magnetic fields used in these studies, it is safe to
assume /M¼/H.14In Eq. (8),4pDM s/C02K?
U
MScan be defined
as an effective magnetization 4 pMef f, containing the out-of-
plane anisotropy. It is used as a constant in our simulation.
For each sample, we extract2K1
Msand2KU
Ms, the four-fold
and uniaxial in-plane anisotropy field, from the simulationand plot them versus the vertical lattice constant (Fig. 3(a)).
The vertical, dotted lines mark the range where stoichiomet-
ric NiMnSb is expected. For vertical lattice constants in therange from 5.96 to 6.00 A ˚, both anisotropy fields are rela-
tively small. The four-fold contribution increases for samples
with decreasing vertical lattice constant (lower Mn concen-tration) but remains small for larger vertical lattice constant
(increasing Mn concentration). The uniaxial anisotropy gets
more strongly negative with increasing vertical lattice con-stant, whereas in samples with lower vertical lattice con-
stants, the uniaxial field can be either positive or negative
while its absolute value grows significantly with decreasingvertical lattice constant. The change in sign of the uniaxial
anisotropy field at a vertical lattice constant of about 5.99 A ˚
corresponds to a rotation of the easy axis from the [110]
direction (positive anisotropy fields) to the [1 /C2210] direction.
One can see that already a small change of the vertical lattice
constant (small change in composition) is sufficient to rotatethe uniaxial anisotropy as well as to induce a significant
four-fold anisotropy.
The fitting accuracy of the extracted anisotropy fields is
/C245%, giving error bars smaller than the symbols in Fig. 3(a).
It should be noted that in order to exactly extract the anisot-
ropy constants K
1andKUfrom the anisotropy fields, the sat-
uration magnetization Msof each sample is needed. This can
be determined by SQUID measurements. We haveperformed such measurements on a representative fraction of
the samples (Fig. 3(b)). Samples with medium Mn concen-
tration show saturation magnetizations which, to experimen-
tal accuracy of about 8% are consistent with the theoretically
expected 4 :0lBohr per unit formula for stoichiometric
NiMnSb.15The estimated measurement accuracy of 8%
accounts for uncertainty in the sample thickness extracted
from the HRXRD data of about 5%, as well as errors indetermining the exact sample area, SQUID calibration and
SQUID response due to finite sample size. Our samples with
highest and lowest magnetization show a slight decrease insaturation magnetization, of order 12%. This change is suffi-
ciently small to be neglected in the overall assessment of the
anisotropy vs. vertical lattice constant of Fig. 3(a).
In an attempt to understand the effect of higher or lower
Mn concentration on the crystal structure in our samples, we
consider the possible non-stoichiometric defects which canexist in NiMnSb, as discussed in Ref. 10. Formation energies,
magnetic moment change, and effect on the half-metallic
character are presented there for each type of defect. Mn-related defects are (a) Mn substituting Ni or Sb ðMn
Ni;Mn Sb),
(b) Mn on a vacancy position ðMn IÞ, (c) Ni or Sb substituting
MnðNiMn;SbMnÞ, or (d) a vacancy position at the Mn site
ðvac MnÞ. With a surplus of Mn, both Mn substituting Ni or Sb
and Mn incorporated on the vacancy position seem plausible.
However, the formation energy of Mn Sbis more than three
times larger than for the other defects, suggesting it should be
very rare. On the other hand, in the case of a Mn deficiency,
either Ni or Sb could substitute Mn or vacancies can be builtinto the crystal. Those three defects have similar formation
energies, making them equally possible.FIG. 3. (a) Uniaxial anisotropy field2KU
Msand four-fold anisotropy field2K1
Msfor NiMnSb layers with various Mn concentrations. The vertical lattice con-
stant is used as a gauge of the Mn content. Samples with a rotated RHEED
pattern (see last section) are indicated by open symbols. The dotted lines
mark the range where stoichiometric NiMnSb is expected. The samples oflowest, medium, and highest Mn concentration (A, B, and C) together with
sample D are marked. The two samples marked with () exhibit slightly
higher film thickness than the other samples. (b) Saturation magnetization
M
sdepending on the vertical lattice constant.094505-3 Gerhard et al. J. Appl. Phys. 115, 094505 (2014)
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
209.183.185.254 On: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 19:38:20Except for Mn Iand Mn Sb, all of these possible defects
reduce the magnetic moment per formula unit. Our observa-
tions of a lower magnetic moment for samples with eitherhigh or low Mn flux, are thus consistent with the defects
Mn
Ni;NiMn;SbMn, and vac Mn. The positive contribution of
Mn Ito the magnetic moment is, however, some 5 times
smaller than the decrease induced by the other defects, so
some fraction of defects of the Mn Ivariety could also be
present in the samples. A detailed discussion on the transi-tion from stoichiometric NiMnSb towards off-stoichiometric
Ni
1/C0xMn 1þxSb is given in Ref. 11. It is shown that the lattice
constant of off-stoichiometric NiMnSb increases for increas-ing substitution of Ni by Mn. This behavior is clearly seen in
our samples for increasing Mn concentration and we con-
clude that this kind of defect is most prominent in our sam-ples. An explanation for a decreasing lattice constant for
decreasing Mn concentration is yet to be found.
A further observation which may provide insight into
the observed anisotropy behavior comes from Reflective
High Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED), which is used
to monitor the surface of the sample in-situ during the
growth. RHEED provides information about the surface
reconstruction, which turns out to be sensitive to the Mn con-
tent. In all samples, at the beginning of the growth (afterapproximately 1 min), the surface reconstruction exhibits a
clear 2 /C21 pattern, meaning a d/2 reconstruction in the [110]
crystal direction and a d/1 reconstruction along [1 /C2210] direc-
tion (see Fig. 4). How this pattern then evolves during
growth depends on the Mn flux. For ideal Mn flux, the pat-
tern is stable throughout the entire 2 h growth time corre-sponding to a 40 nm layer. A reduced Mn flux results in a
more blurry RHEED pattern, but does not lead to any change
in the surface reconstruction. A higher Mn flux, on the otherhand, causes a change of the reconstruction such that the d/2
pattern also becomes visible along the [1 /C2210] direction and
fades over time in the [110] direction until a 90
/C14rotation of
the original pattern has been completed. The length of time
(and thus the thickness) required for this rotation depends
strongly on the Mn flux. A slightly enhanced Mn flux causesa very slow rotation of the reconstruction that can last the
entire growth time, whereas a significant increase of the Mn
flux (sample with vertical lattice constants above 6.05 A ˚)
will cause a rotation of the reconstruction within a few
minutes of growth start, corresponding to a thickness of only
very few monolayers. Based on these observations, our sam-ples can be split into two categories: samples with a stable
2/C21 reconstruction and those with a 2 /C21 reconstruction
that rotates during growth. In Fig. 3(a), samples with a stable
RHEED pattern are indicated with filled symbols while
empty symbols show samples with a rotated RHEEDreconstruction. It is interesting to note that all samples with a
rotated reconstruction exhibit a very low four-fold anisotropy
field. In addition, the sooner the rotation of the RHEED pat-tern occurs, the stronger the uniaxial anisotropy is.
SUMMARY
We have shown that the anisotropy of NiMnSb strongly
depends on the composition of the material. A variation ofthe Mn flux results in different (vertical) lattice constants
(measured by HRXRD) that can be used for a measure of the
Mn concentration. RHEED observations ( in-situ ) during the
growth already give an indication of high or low Mn concen-
tration. The anisotropy shows a clear trend for increasing Mn
content. Using this together with the RHEED observations,NiMnSb layers with high crystal quality and anisotropies as-
requested can be grown. The microscopic origin of this
behavior remains to be understood, and it is hoped that thispaper will stimulate further efforts in this direction. The phe-
nomenology itself is nevertheless of practical significance in
that it provides interesting design opportunities for devicessuch as spin-valves that could be made of two NiMnSb
layers with mutually parallel or orthogonal magnetic easy
axes as desired.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank T. Naydenova for assistance with the SQUID
measurements. This work was supported by the European
Commission FP7 Contract ICT-257159 “MACALO”.
1R. A. de Groot, F. M. Mueller, P. G. v. Engen, and K. H. J. Buschow,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 50, 2024 (1983).
2A. Riegler, “Ferromagnetic resonance study of the Half-Heusler alloy
NiMnSb: The benefit of using NiMnSb as a ferromagnetic layer in pseudo
spin-valve based spin-torque oscillators,” Ph.D. thesis (Universitaet
Wuerzburg, 2011).
3T. Devolder, A. Meftah, K. Ito, J. A. Katine, P. Crozat, and C. Chappert,J. Appl. Phys. 101, 063916 (2007).
4D. Houssameddine, U. Ebels, B. Dela €et, B. Rodmacq, I. Firastrau, F.
Ponthenier, M. Brunet, C. Thirion, J.-P. Michel, L. Prejbeanu-Buda, M.-C.Cyrille, O. Redon, and B. Dieny, Nature Mater. 6, 447 (2007).
5G. Consolo, L. Lopez-Diaz, L. Torres, G. Finocchio, A. Romeo, and B.
Azzerboni, Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 162506 (2007).
6S. M. Mohseni, S. R. Sani, J. Persson, T. N. Anh Nguyen, S. Chung, Y.
Pogoryelov, and J. A ˚kerman, Phys. Status Solidi RRL 5, 432 (2011).
7A. Koveshnikov, G. Woltersdorf, J. Q. Liu, B. Kardasz, O. Mosendz, B.
Heinrich, K. L. Kavanagh, P. Bach, A. S. Bader, C. Schumacher, C.R€uster, C. Gould, G. Schmidt, L. W. Molenkamp, and C. Kumpf, J. Appl.
Phys. 97, 073906 (2005).
8C. Kumpf, A. Stahl, I. Gierz, C. Schumacher, S. Mahapatra, F. Lochner,
K. Brunner, G. Schmidt, L. W. Molenkamp, and E. Umbach, Phys. Status
Solidi C 4, 3150 (2007).
9W. Van Roy and M. W /C19ojcik, “Half-metallic alloys,” in Lecture Notes in
Physics , edited by I. Galanakis and P. Dederichs (Springer, Berlin,
Heidelberg, 2005), Vol. 676, pp. 153–185.
10B. Alling, S. Shallcross, and I. A. Abrikosov, Phys. Rev. B 73, 064418
(2006).
11M. Ekholm, P. Larsson, B. Alling, U. Helmersson, and I. A. Abrikosov,J. Appl. Phys. 108, 093712 (2010).
12Ultrathin Magnetic Structures II , edited by B. Heinrich and J. A. C. Bland
(Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 1994).
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14We have confirmed from frequency dependent measurements that this
assumption leads to errors smaller than the size of the symbols in Fig. 3(a).
15T. Graf, C. Felser, and S. S. Parkin, Prog. Solid State Chem. 39, 1 (2011).
FIG. 4. Typical RHEED reconstruction of the NiMnSb surface illustrating
the two reconstructions discussed in the text.094505-4 Gerhard et al. J. Appl. Phys. 115, 094505 (2014)
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209.183.185.254 On: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 19:38:20 |
5.0030016.pdf | AIP Advances 11, 015045 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0030016 11, 015045
© 2021 Author(s).Implementation of complete Boolean logic
functions in single spin–orbit torque device
Cite as: AIP Advances 11, 015045 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0030016
Submitted: 18 September 2020 . Accepted: 28 December 2020 . Published Online: 27 January 2021
Yunchi Zhao ,
Guang Yang , Jianxin Shen ,
Shuang Gao ,
Jingyan Zhang , Jie Qi , Haochang Lyu ,
Guoqiang Yu ,
Kui Jin , and Shouguo Wang
COLLECTIONS
Paper published as part of the special topic on Chemical Physics , Energy , Fluids and Plasmas , Materials Science
and Mathematical Physics
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Implementation of complete Boolean logic
functions in single spin–orbit torque device
Cite as: AIP Advances 11, 015045 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0030016
Submitted: 18 September 2020 •Accepted: 28 December 2020 •
Published Online: 27 January 2021
Yunchi Zhao,1,2
Guang Yang,3,a)
Jianxin Shen,4Shuang Gao,5
Jingyan Zhang,4
Jie Qi,4
Haochang Lyu,4Guoqiang Yu,1,2
Kui Jin,1,2
and Shouguo Wang4,a)
AFFILIATIONS
1Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing 100190, China
2School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, 27 Charles Babbage Road,
Cambridge CB3 0FS, United Kingdom
4Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering, School of Materials Science and Engineering,
University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
5CAS Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: gy251@cam.ac.uk and sgwang@ustb.edu.cn
ABSTRACT
All 16 Boolean logic functions in a single Ta/CoFeB/MgO device with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy were experimentally demonstrated
based on the spin–orbit torque (SOT) effect. Furthermore, by combining with the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) effect, a
novel SOT-MTJ (magnetic tunnel junction) prototype device with the assistance of the VCMA effect was further designed to perform mag-
netic field-independent logic operations. The numerical simulations were carried out, demonstrating the feasibility to realize all 16 Boolean
logic functions in a single three-terminal device by applying the bias voltage and current injection as input variables. This approach pro-
vides a potential way toward the application of energy efficient spin-based logic, which is beyond the current von Neumann computing
architecture.
©2021 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0030016
The continued scaling of complementary metal-oxide-
semiconductor (CMOS) technology according to Moore’s law has
brought to us upgraded electronic devices with a smaller volume,
higher speed, and lower price for decades. However, the challenge
to such rapid development still exists.1,2One critical limitation is
the explosive growth of static power dissipation arising from the
leakage current as the CMOS feature size scales down to a few
nanometers.3On the other hand, the operating speed of electronic
devices is seriously limited by the ineluctable data exchange
between separate processor and memory units, encountering the
so-called von Neumann bottleneck that further brings massive
dynamic power dissipation.4To overcome the above-mentioned
obstacles rooted in the existing Si-based electronic devices, new
problem-solving strategies beyond CMOS or even beyond vonNeumann are urgently needed and have aroused extensive research
interests.5,6
One promising strategy is to introduce the emerging non-
volatile memories such as magnetoresistive memory,7–12resistive
memory,13–16and phase-change memory17into logic circuits. For-
tunately, due to their nonvolatile feature, these memories can eradi-
cate the static power dissipation. More importantly, the exploration
of their logic functions will lead to the unity of logic and mem-
ory units, hence thoroughly breaking the von Neumann bottleneck.
In particular, the magnetic tunnel junction based on spin trans-
fer torque (called the STT-MTJ) combines the advantages of non-
volatility, CMOS compatibility, and unlimited endurance,18showing
great potential to construct a “stateful” logic circuit where intrinsic
logic-in-memory cells both perform logic operations and store logic
AIP Advances 11, 015045 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0030016 11, 015045-1
© Author(s) 2021AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
values.6Recently, a reprogrammable logic gate consisting of three
input STT-MTJs and one output STT-MTJ was designed to realize
the basic Boolean logic functions AND, OR, NAND, NOR, and the
Majority operation.9,10,19
However, despite the reprogrammable gates and implication
gates being good examples for the realization of stateful logic, there
are still some shortcomings that need to be addressed. In the aspect
of device performance, the STT-MTJ suffers from serious failure and
reliability issues due to the high writing current densities as well as
erroneous writing by the read current.20Furthermore, both the sin-
gle implication gate and the single reprogrammable gate can only
implement just one or a limited number of logic operations, indi-
cating more steps and complex combinations are needed to com-
plement the other basic Boolean logic functions. Therefore, it is
extremely attractive to explore a better alternative to the STT-MTJ
and to finally realize as many Boolean logic functions as possible in
such a single device.
Spin–orbit torque (SOT) originating from the spin Hall
effect and Rashba–Edelstein effect provides another method to
realize magnetization switching21–23and high-speed domain wall
motion24,25by an in-plane current injection. Moreover, the critical
current of the SOT-induced switching can be modulated with a bias
voltage due to the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA)
effect,26,27exhibiting great potential in the application of MTJ-based
logic devices.
In this work, a design based on the SOT mechanism was
experimentally demonstrated to realize all 16 Boolean logic func-
tions in a simple Ta/CoFeB/MgO trilayer with perpendicular mag-
netic anisotropy (PMA). The key idea is to combine different logic
inputs to tune the magnetization state and to measure the anoma-
lous Hall resistance as the logic output. Furthermore, by utiliz-
ing the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) value as the logic out-
put, this method is applicable to the emerging perpendicular SOT-
MTJ, a novel three-terminal device with high reliability, symmet-
ric switching, and scalable energy consumption compared to the
conventional STT-MTJ. More importantly, we also conceive that
by combing the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA)
effect, the modified method (using current injection and bias volt-
age as logic inputs) can realize all 16 Boolean logic functions in the
SOT-MTJ.
The multilayers with a core structure of Ta (3)/Co 40Fe40B20
(1.1)/MgO (2)/Ta (3) (in nm) were deposited on thermallyoxidized Si (001) substrates by a magnetron sputtering system
at room temperature. The films were patterned into 15- μm-wide
Hall bars for transport measurements using photolithography and
Ar-ion etching. The devices exhibit PMA after an annealing pro-
cess at above 300○C, which can be proved by the anomalous
Hall signal with an out-of-plane magnetic field (Fig. S1, supple-
mentary material). Figure 1(a) shows SOT-induced magnetization
switching, with current injection ( Ix) and magnetic field ( Hx) both
along the x-axis. Opposite switching can be clearly observed when
Hxis reversed, suggesting similar features to the previous stud-
ies on perpendicularly magnetized heavy metal/ferromagnet het-
erostructures.21,28Figure 1(b) presents current-induced switching
loops under different Hx, indicating that the critical switching
current is positively correlated with Hx, which can be explained
by the Marco model.29Moreover, programmable logic devices
based on the SOT mechanism can be designed according to this
relationship.
Figure 2(a) shows two schematic current-induced switching
loops under different external fields in consideration of a single
domain switching paradigm. The critical switching currents can be
distinguished in the high external field ( HH) and low external field
(HL) configurations. Hence, a median value of two critical switching
currents is defined as ∣IM∣. Similar to the schematic curves, distinctly
different switching loops corresponding to different external fields
can be observed in the experimental measurements, as shown in
Fig. 2(b). Here, HHandHLare 200 Oe and 30 Oe, respectively, and
the value of ∣IM∣is 8.5 mA. The external field Hxand injected cur-
rent Ixare used as two input variables to perform logic operations.
For example, Hxis 30 Oe or 200 Oe for input 0 or 1, respectively,
andIxis set to−8.5 mA or+8.5 mA for input 0 or 1, as listed in the
table in Fig. 2(c). The measured Hall resistance functions as the logic
output, which can be identified as the spin-up state (logic “1”) and
the spin-down state (logic “0”), as shown in Fig. 2(c). Figure 2(d)
suggests the logic output transformation corresponding to different
logic inputs (external field/current, HxIx). It can be seen from the
diagram that for the HxIx=“11” configuration ( Hx=200 Oe and
Ix=+8.5 mA), the logic output is 1 (spin-up state), regardless of
the initial magnetization state. Similarly, the HxIx=“10” configura-
tion leads to the logic output 0, and SOT-induced switching will not
take place with the logic input HxIx=“00” or “01” configuration.
Based on these working principles, all 16 Boolean logic operations
can be performed, and the detailed operations are listed in Fig. 2(e).
FIG. 1. (a) Illustration of a Ta/CoFeB/MgO
Hall bar device. Hxand Ixrefer to in-
plane field and current injection along the
x axis, respectively. (b) Current switch-
ing loops under different Hx(the arrows
shown in the figure indicate the switching
polarities of the SOT-induced switching).
AIP Advances 11, 015045 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0030016 11, 015045-2
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FIG. 2. (a) Schematic switching loops
under high external field ( HH) and low
external field ( HL); the median value of
two critical switching currents is defined
as ∣IM∣. (b) Corresponding experimental
switching loops under 200 Oe ( HH) and
30 Oe ( HL), where ∣IM∣is 8.5 mA. (c)
The correspondence between input logic
values and Hxas well as Ix. The illustra-
tion suggests the output logic values cor-
responding to magnetization states. (d)
Transition of the output logic states by
HxIxcombined operations. (e) Detailed
operation methods of all 16 Boolean
logic functions (W1, W2, and W3 stand
for a write sequence).
Therefore, “ p“ and “ q“ are the two input logic variables, “-” means no
operation, and “ ¬” represents the negation operation, i.e., ¬0=1 and
¬1=0.
Figure 3 shows the experimental results of Boolean logic func-
tions based on the SOT-induced switching. Combining with a
truth table of all 16 Boolean logic gates (shown in supplementary
material), the feasibility of complementary logic operation in a sin-
gle device with programmability and non-volatility can be demon-
strated. For example, a TRUE gate can be performed in one step with
the logic operation “11” ( Hx=200 Oe and Ix=+8.5 mA), regard-
less of the value of inputs pandq. For this configuration, the final
magnetization is in the spin-up state, outputting a logic value 1, as
shown in Fig. 3(a1). For an AND gate, if the input p=q=0, a logic
operation HxIx=“10” ( Hx=200 Oe and Ix=−8.5 mA) is needed as
an initialization step. Then, the writing operation “00” is performed
byHx=30 Oe and Ix=−8.5 mA. In this case, the final magneti-
zation state is “spin-down,” outputting a logic value 0, as shown in
Fig. 3(b1). For the configurations with other “ p q” values, “01,” “10,”
and “11,” the logic function can be realized by writing “ p q” after
an initialization step with “10,” outputting the corresponding results
finally, as shown in Figs. 3(b2)–3(b4). For an OR gate, the logic inputIxHx=“11” ( Hx=200 Oe, Ix=+8.5 mA) is initially operated if
the input p=1 and q=0. Then, the write operation “ ¬p q” (“00,”
Hx=30 Oe, and Ix=−8.5 mA) is performed as the second step,
resulting in the spin-up state (output 0), as shown in Fig. 3(b5). For
configurations with other “ p q” values, “11,” “00,” and “01,” the logic
operations can be completed by writing “ ¬p q” after an initializa-
tion step with “11,” and the corresponding experimental results are
shown in Figs. 3(b6)–3(b8).
Moreover, an XOR gate can be realized in a process with three
steps. If the logic input p=0 and q=1, the write operation HxIx
=“10” ( Hx=200 Oe and Ix=−8.5 mA) is performed at first.
The second step is to input “ ¬p q” (“11,” Hx=200 Oe, and Ix
=+8.5 mA). Write operation “ p¬q” (“00,” Hx=30 Oe, and Ix
=−8.5 mA) is performed at last. After the three-step operations,
the final magnetization state is spin-up, outputting a logic value
1, as shown in Fig. 3(c4). As for the other “ p q” values of “10,”
“11,” and “00,” the initial operation is to input “10” and then input
“¬p q” as follows. The third step is to perform a logic operation
“p¬q” and read the corresponding output values finally. The rele-
vant experimental results are shown in Figs. 3(c1)–3(c3). In addi-
tion, the operations of other logic gates not mentioned here are
AIP Advances 11, 015045 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0030016 11, 015045-3
© Author(s) 2021AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
FIG. 3. Experimental results of all 16 Boolean logic functions based on the SOT switching mechanism. (a)–(c) represent the realization of logic functions by using one, two,
and three write cycles, respectively.
summarized in the truth table (Fig. S2, supplementary material). It
clearly indicates that these experimental results demonstrate the fea-
sibility to successfully realize all 16 Boolean logic operations in the
Ta/CoFeB/MgO device. It means that the SOT-based logic opera-
tions can be introduced into the device design, which is expected to
realize the combination of non-volatile memory and computing unit
in an integrated circuit, breaking the von Neumann bottleneck in the
future.
Furthermore, the external field can be replaced by bias volt-
age as a logic input based on the VCMA effect.30,31As shown
in Fig. 4(a), charge accumulation will take place at the ferro-
magnetic metal/oxide interface in the MTJ structure with a bias
voltage (V b) applied. The energy barrier of magnetization switch-
ing is thus modulated due to the change in the relative occu-
pancy of the 3d-orbitals.32Figure 4(b) shows the specific influ-
ence of the bias voltage on the energy barrier of magnetization
switching in the free layer, suggesting a lower barrier correspond-
ing to a positive bias voltage and a higher barrier correspond-
ing to a negative bias voltage. The voltage required to com-
pletely eliminate the barrier is defined as V c. The voltage-driven
switching induced by SOT can be realized by precisely control-
ling the duration of the bias voltage when 0 <Vb<Vc.32,33
Based on this feature, a VCMA-assisted SOT MTJ device was
designed, as shown in Fig. 4(c). A low energy barrier is achieved witha bias voltage applied between terminals T1 and T3, and the SOT
originated from the heavy metal layer is induced by an injected cur-
rent between T2 and T3 that results in a current-induced switching.
This procession can be described by the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert
(LLG) equation,34
d⇀
M
dt=−γ⇀
M×⇀
Heff+α⇀
M×d⇀
M
dt+⇀
Γ, (1)
where⇀
Mis the magnetization vector, γis the gyromagnetic ratio,
andαis the Gilbert damping coefficient. The effective magnetic
field Heff=Hext+Hd+Haniis the sum of the external field ( Hext),
the demagnetizing field ( Hd), and the anisotropy field ( Hani). Tak-
ing into account the VCMA effect, Hanican be expressed in the
form33
⇀
Hani(Vb)=(2Ki(0)tox−2ξVb
Mstftox)⇀
M, (2)
where Ki(0)is the interfacial anisotropy energy without bias volt-
age applied, toxandtfare the thickness of the barrier and the free
layer, respectively, ξis the VCMA coefficient, and Msis the satu-
ration magnetization of the free layer. The additional SOT item in
AIP Advances 11, 015045 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0030016 11, 015045-4
© Author(s) 2021AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
FIG. 4. Illustrations of (a) MTJ structure,
(b) impact of different voltages on the
energy barrier of an MTJ, and (c) the
VCMA-assisted SOT MTJ device.
the LLG equation can be described as
⇀
Γ=−γ̵hθSHEJ
2etfMs⇀
M×(⇀
M×⇀σ), (3)
where θSHEis the spin Hall angle and⇀σis the spin polarization vec-
tor. Hence, the dynamic evolution of the magnetization in the free
layer can be characterized according to Eqs. (1) and (3). Based on
this, Verilog-A language was applied to build electrical models for a
VCMA-assisted SOT MTJ device to perform numerical simulationswith a 40-nm CMOS kit.33The detailed parameters for the model
can be found in Table S3 listed in the supplementary material. The
simulation results suggest that all 16 Boolean logic functions can
be realized based on the VCMA and SOT effects. Figure 5 shows
the transient waveforms of the proposed VCMA-assisted SOT MTJ
device corresponding to AND, OR, and XOR logic gates.
Bias voltage V band injected current Ixare used as two input
variables to perform logic operations. V bis set as 0 mV or 600 mV
for input 0 or 1, respectively, and Ixis set to−65μAor
+65μAfor input 0 or 1, respectively. The application of bias
FIG. 5. Transient waveforms of the proposed VCMA-assisted SOT MTJ device corresponding to (a) AND, (b) OR, and (c) XOR logic gates.
AIP Advances 11, 015045 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0030016 11, 015045-5
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voltage can lead to a lower energy barrier, and the SOT is gener-
ated by the injected current, resulting in a switching of the mag-
netization state of the free layer in the device. The logic output
is defined based on the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) cor-
responding to the anti-parallel state (high resistance, +1 V, logic
1) or parallel state (low resistance, −1 V, logic 0) of the two fer-
romagnetic layers. The transient waveforms of each logic opera-
tion shown in Fig. 5 are divided into four color areas (areas I-
IV), representing the operation process when the initial logic input
“p q”=“00,” “10,” “01,” and “11,” respectively. For an AND gate
shown in Fig. 5(a), if the inputs p=q=0 (area I), the initial-
ization step is to perform a logic operation “10,” setting the bias
voltage to 600 mV (1 ns) with a pulsed injected current of −65μA
(2 ns). Then, the logic operation “00” is performed by Ix=−65μA
without bias voltage applied. The device is in the low-resistance state
finally in this case, outputting a logic value 0. For the configura-
tions with other “ p q” values, “10” (area II), “01” (area III), and
“11” (area IV), the logic operation can be completed by writing “ p
q” after an initialization step with “10” and outputting the corre-
sponding results. For an OR gate shown in Fig. 5(b), if the inputs
p=1 and q=0 (area II), a write operation “11” (V b=600 mV and
Ix=+65μA) is performed at first. Then, the operation is completed
by a write operation “ ¬p q” (“00,” V b=0 mV, and Ix=−65μA)
that results in a high-resistance state (1 V, output 1). For configura-
tions with other “ p q” values, “00” (area I), “01” (area III), and “11”
(Area IV), the logic operation can be completed by writing “ ¬p q”
after an initialization step with “11,” similar to the discussion above.
Figure 5(c) shows the realization of an XOR gate with three steps. If
the logic input p=0 and q=1 (area III), the write operation “10”
(Vb=600 mV and Ix=−65μA) is performed at first, leading to
the low-resistance state. The second step is to input “ ¬p q” (“11,” V b
=600 mV, and Ix=+65μA), and write operation “ p¬q” (“00,” V b=0
mV, and Ix=−65μA) is performed at last. Finally, the device is in the
high-resistance state outputting a logic value 1 after the three-step
operations. As for the other input values of “ p q,” “00” (area I), “10”
(area II), and “11” (Area IV), the logic function can be performed
with three operations of input “10,” “ ¬p q,” and “ p¬q,” reading the
corresponding logic output value finally. Based on this, a VCMA-
SOT assisted MTJ device with three terminals is designed, and the
feasibility of realizing all 16 Boolean logic functions in a single unit
is demonstrated. The simulation results suggest that the operation
with a single step only needs 2.26 ns, featuring an ultra-fast writing
speed.
In summary, all 16 Boolean logic functions in a single
Ta/CoFeB/MgO device with PMA were experimentally demon-
strated based on the SOT effect by applying the external field
and current injection as input variables. Furthermore, the VCMA
effect was introduced to design a three-terminal MTJ device, which
can implement magnetic field-independent logic operations. The
approach can be improved through optimization of structure design
and device fabrication, paving the way for the application of energy
efficient spin-based logic, which is beyond the current von Neumann
computing architecture.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
See the supplementary material for the anomalous Hall signal of
the device, the truth table of all 16 Boolean logic functions, and thedetailed parameters for the electrical model to perform numerical
simulations.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the National Key Research and
Development Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFB2005800), by
the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51625101,
11874082, 51971026, 61704178, and 61974179), by the NSFC-ISF
Joint Research Program (Grant No. 51961145305), by the State Key
Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials (Grant No. 2019Z-
10), and by the Beijing Natural Science Foundation Key Program
(Grant Nos. Z190007 and Z190008).
DATA AVAILABILITY
The data that support the findings of this study are available
from the corresponding author upon request.
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© Author(s) 2021 |
1.4987007.pdf | A switchable spin-wave signal splitter for magnonic networks
F. Heussner , A. A. Serga , T. Brächer , B. Hillebrands , and P. Pirro
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 122401 (2017); doi: 10.1063/1.4987007
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4987007
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apl/111/12
Published by the American Institute of PhysicsA switchable spin-wave signal splitter for magnonic networks
F.Heussner,1A. A. Serga,1T.Br€acher,1,2,3,4B.Hillebrands,1and P . Pirro1
1Fachbereich Physik and Landesforschungszentrum OPTIMAS, Technische Universit €at Kaiserslautern,
D-67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany
2University Grenoble Alpes, INAC-SPINTEC, F-38000 Grenoble, France
3CNRS, SPINTEC, F-38000 Grenoble, France
4CEA, INAC-SPINTEC, F-38000 Grenoble, France
(Received 8 June 2017; accepted 28 July 2017; published online 18 September 2017)
The influence of an inhomogeneous magnetization distribution on the propagation of caustic-like
spin-wave beams in unpatterned magnetic films has been investigated by utilizing micromagnetic
simulations. Our study reveals a locally controllable and reconfigurable tractability of the beamdirections. This feature is used to design a device combining split and switch functionalities for
spin-wave signals on the micrometer scale. A coherent transmission of spin-wave signals through
the device is verified. This attests the applicability in magnonic networks where the information isencoded in the phase of the spin waves. Published by AIP Publishing.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4987007 ]
Currently, spin wave (SW) based logic networks are
widely discussed due to their potential as a CMOS complemen-
tary or even subsequent technology with extended functiona lity
and improved performance.
1–9In the emerging research field of
magnonics, magnons, the quanta of spin waves, are used totransport information and to perform logic operations.
Advantages arise from the possibility to use the SW phase as
an additional degree of freedom, to utilize interference effects,
and to reduce the size of devices.
10In combination with charge-
less information transport and the consequent absence of ohmiclosses, it allows for the realization of innovative and energy
efficient information processing.
11Furthermore, recent works
demonstrate the flexibility and reconfigurability of SW propa-
gation in two-dimensional magnetic textures12–14promising an
additional efficiency boost. The design and realization of differ-ent magnonic devices
15–26show the way of this emerging field
of data processing, and architectures for magnon-based logic
networks are already proposed.27However, their constructions
demand different basic elements for SW excitation, manipula-
tion, and detection, which still have to be developed.
In this Letter, we explore two-dimensional magnonic
devices employing the phenomenon of caustic-like focused
SW beams28–33in microstructures. These specific beams,
which concentrate and direct energy of a large number ofplane spin-wave modes with different wave vectors, can occur
in in-plane magnetized magnetic films due to the anisotropic
nature of the dipole-dipole interaction. Moreover, it has been
shown recently that a strong focusing of large wave-vector
spin waves can occur even without dipolar interactions,
34pav-
ing the way for utilizing these SW beams at dimensions where
the exchange interaction dominates the propagation character-
istics of the spin waves. The excitation of the caustic-like SW
beams by opening of a one-dimensional waveguide into a
two-dimensional medium has been shown in different mag-
netic materials, just as the tuneability of their propagation
characteristics due to the strong dependency on the frequencyand on the direction of a uniform external magnetic field.
29–32
In view of the utilization of these SW beams in magnonic
devices, their local manipulation is investigated in this Letter.In the first part, the tractability of the SW beams by current
controlled inhomogeneities of the external field and conse-
quent inhomogeneous magnetization distributions are studied
by micromagnetic simulations. Subsequently, we exploit the
results to design a switchable SW signal splitter on the micro-
meter scale, a pivotal element for magnon-based networks.
The basic concept of the studied structure to create
focused SW beams and to control them by an inhomoge-
neous external field is depicted in Fig. 1.A1 lm wide and
30 nm thick SW waveguide is connected to an unpatterned
magnetic film of the same thickness. The structure is magne-
tized in the film plane by an external bias field Bext¼50 mT
applied perpendicular to the long axis of the input wave-guide. A 2 lm wide and 150 nm thick current carrying micro-
strip is placed above the film, separated by a 300 nm thick
insulation layer. Passing a DC-current I
DCthought this
microstrip leads to the creation of a localized Oersted mag-
netic field BDC.
Figure 1(b) shows the in-plane component BDC,xin the
unpatterned magnetic film, calculated according to Biot-
Savart’s law for IDC¼–100 mA. As shown in the same graph,
this field component with a maximum absolute strength of
around 24 mT causes a change of the in-plane angle bof
the total local bias field Blocwhich is measured relative to the
x-axis.
In the micromagnetic simulation, only the magnetic
layer as shown in Fig. 1(c) is implemented together with the
homogeneous external field Bext, along with both compo-
nents BDC,xandBDC,zof the DC-Oersted field. The material
parameters of the magnetic layer are chosen as for
Permalloy35since this is a widely used material which is less
complex as it relates to deposition and microstructuring. The
dimensions of the design and the parameters of the applied
fields and currents as described earlier are chosen in such away as to ensure the realizability of the finally presented
device by conventional methods. The micromagnetic simula-
tions were carried out by utilizing the open-source simula-
tion program MuMax3.
36The 19 lm long, 10 lm wide, and
30 nm high magnetic structure was discretized into cells of a
0003-6951/2017/111(12)/122401/5/$30.00 Published by AIP Publishing. 111, 122401-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 111, 122401 (2017)
size of 10 nm /C210 nm /C230 nm. This cell size ensures that
in-plane wave vectors of the spin waves up to approximately
0.1prad/nm can be resolved. To ensure that reflections of
SW energy along the x-axis are suppressed, the SW damping
at the vertical boundaries in Fig. 1(c) is incrementally
increased in 25 steps over a distance of 0.5 lm to a value of
a¼0.5. After calculating the ground state of the magnetiza-
tion distribution inside the structure, a microwave magnetic
field bexc¼ðb0;0;0Þsinð2pftþ/0Þwith an extent of 0.5 lm
in the x-direction in the middle of the input waveguide [seeFig.1(c)] is used to excite spin waves. The amplitude of this
field has been set to b0¼10 mT and the frequency to
f¼7 GHz. The spin waves excited in this way represent the
coherent signal of a magnonic network. To evaluate the simu-
lation, the magnetization distribution is saved every 25 ps for
a duration of 10 ns right after applying the excitation field. For
every cell, this data is independently Fourier transformed in
time to access the time averaged, frequency dependent spatial
distribution of the SW intensity. In the following, the SW
intensity distributions are shown integrated over the frequency
interval from f¼6.75 GHz to f¼7.25 GHz.
Figure 2(a) shows the result of the simulation without
any DC-current applied to the microstrip. It can clearly be
seen that the SW energy splits in two focused SW beams at
the opening of the 1D input waveguide into the 2D magnetic
film area (see Refs. 29and 30). The beam creation is
explained by the broad angular spectrum of SW wave vec-
tors originating from the waveguide opening in combination
with the anisotropic SW dispersion relation. Due to this dipo-
lar induced anisotropy, the SW group velocity features twospecific beam angles h
Bwith respect to the local magnetiza-
tion direction. Since the local field and, accordingly, the
magnetization distribution inside the film are homogeneous,
the beam angles do not change and the beams propagate in
straight lines at angles of hB1¼75/C14andhB2¼105/C14in rela-
tion to the y-axis. To estimate the occurring losses, the SW
intensity shown in Fig. 2(a) is integrated along the y-direc-
tion at the input ( x1¼0lm) and at a reference point
(x2¼5lm). A comparison reveals an attenuation of 11 dB.
However, effects like reflections of the SW signal in the tran-
sition zone have only a minor influence. The main loss is
caused by the intrinsic damping of the spin system which
can be estimated to 9.1 dB for this particular case.37–39
Hence, a significant reduction of the losses could be
achieved by employing low-damping magnetic materials.
The beam propagation completely changes if a DC-current
is applied, as exemplarily shown in Fig. 2(b) for
IDC¼–100 mA. In this case, the additional Oersted field
leads to a tilted local field and a consequent inhomogeneous
distribution of the magnetization direction inside the mag-
netic film. As a result, a curvilinear propagation of the SW
FIG. 1. Sketch of the simulated structure. (a) Magnetic film with adjacent
input waveguide. An insulation layer separates an overlaying DC-microstrip
from the magnetic structure. (b) In-plane component BDC,xof the Oersted
magnetic field at the position of the magnetic layer in case of a DC-current
ofIDC¼–100 mA. This field component leads to a change of the in-plane
angle bof the local bias field Bloc. The upper curve shows the resulting angle
in case of an external field of Bext¼50 mT. (c) Top view of the simulated
magnetic structure with dimensions. The positions of the overlaying
DC-microstrip and the local excitation field are depicted by the orange and
purple areas, respectively.
FIG. 2. Results of the micromagnetic simulations. (a) Focused SW beams are created by opening the 1D input waveguide into the 2D magnetic film. Without a
DC-current applied to the microstrip, the external field is homogeneous and a straight propagation of the SW beams can be observed at angles of hB1¼75/C14
andhB2¼105/C14in relation to the y-axis. (b) Curvilinear beam propagation of the SW beams due to an inhomogeneous magnetization distribution generated by
the applied DC-current of IDC¼–100 mA and the resulting non-homogeneous local field Bloc. This leads to an offset Dy. (c) Offset Dyand maximal intensity
of the SW beams at the position x¼5lm as a function of an applied, negative DC-current IDC.122401-2 Heussner et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 122401 (2017)beams occurs since the anisotropy axes of the SW dispersion
are locally rotated together with the magnetization. Thisrotation of the magnetization occurs mainly in the film planeand is caused by the in-plane component B
DC,xof the addi-
tional Oersted field. The out-of-plane component BDC,zwith
a maximal absolute field strength of around 16.7 mT is quiteweak compared to the magnetic field of l
0MS¼1018 mT
which would be necessary to orient the magnetization out ofplane. Therefore, the B
DC,zcomponent leads only to a
neglectable out-of-plane tilt. This simulation clearly demon-
strates the steering effect on caustic-like SW beams by anexternally controlled inhomogeneity of the bias magneticfield and the consequent inhomogeneous magnetizationdistribution.
The curvilinear propagation results in an offset of the
SW beams from its initial path. The offset Dy, which is
defined as the distance of the intensity maxima with andwithout a DC-current applied, is studied at the positionx¼5lm in dependence on a negative current I
DC. As can be
seen in Fig. 2(c), the increased offset caused by the rising
absolute value of the DC-current IDCis accompanied with a
change in the beam intensities. These changes can be relatedto a contraction or an extension of the propagation distancesof the focused SW beams until the evaluation point isreached.
To demonstrate the relevance of the aforementioned
results for the development of magnonic devices, the intrin-sic splitting of SW energy in the process of caustic-likebeam formation and the studied reconfigurable tractability ofthe beam directions are used to design a switchable SW split-ter. As an alternative to previous realizations of SW split-ters
18and SW switches,19–23the here presented device
combines two important functionalities needed to realize amagnonic network, namely, the splitting of a SW signalenabling parallel data processing and its guidance throughthe network by controlled toggling between different wave-guides. Hereby, the controllability of the device is based oninhomogeneities of the magnetization distribution in the filmcaused by local bias field inhomogeneities. The switchingdemands only the reversal of the direction of the field gener-ating DC-current. Furthermore, the inhomogeneous magneti-zation distribution can also be created by other, more energyefficient methods, e.g., stray fields of a nearby magnetic tun-
nel junction, additionally enabling the creation of interfacesto technologically different networks. To design the switch-able SW splitter, in addition to the input waveguide and theadjacent unpatterned film, output waveguides are added tothe structure at the position x¼4lm (see Fig. 3). The transi-
tion zones between the magnetic film and these output wave-guides are specially tailored to realize an efficientchanneling of the SW energy into the output waveguides at a
DC-current of I
DC¼6100 mA. This value of the DC-current
is chosen in accordance with the previous investigations toreach a sufficient offset of the beams without serious loss inthe SW intensities. All other parameters of the simulationare equivalent to those mentioned earlier.
Figure 3shows the resulting distribution of the SW
intensity for three different values of the DC-current I
DC,
namely –100 mA, þ100 mA, and 0 mA. In Fig. 3 (a), a nega-
tive current leads to the bending of the beams towards thenegative y-direction. This results in a channeling of the SW
intensity into the middle and bottom output waveguide. Ifthe direction of the DC-current is reversed, the SW beamsbend into the opposite direction and a channeling of SWenergy into the middle and the upper output waveguideoccurs, as can be seen in Fig. 3(b). After the splitting and
switching processes, the spin waves are channeled into thespecified output waveguides and subsequent magnonic devi-ces could be selected and provided with SW signals. A fast
switching of the device is ensured by the SW intensity life-
time of around 0.6 ns/rad
37,38in the presented structure.
Spurious SW signals of the switching process are dampedout within this timeframe leading to a switching time of nomore than 4 ns, as has been verified in further simulations(not shown here). To realize short switching times in mag-netic materials with lower damping parameters, damping-like spin-transfer-torque
40,41could be used to suppress the
spurious signals. In addition to the channeling of the spinwaves into selected output waveguides, a further functional-ity arises if no DC-current is applied. This case is shown inFig.3(c) and reveals a blocking of the incoming SW energy
forI
DC¼0 mA.
To utilize the switchable SW signal splitter in magnonic
networks, essential requirements have to be fulfilled. One
FIG. 3. Design of a switchable SW signal splitter based on focused SW beams and its curvilinear propagation in inhomogeneous magnetized films. (a) and ( b)
Channeling of SW energy into different output waveguides depending on the applied DC-current. (c) Suppression of the output signal, if no DC-current is
applied.122401-3 Heussner et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 122401 (2017)approach for SW based logic devices is to carry the information
in the phase of the spin waves and to perform logic opera-
tions by employing interference effects.15,16,27As a conse-
quence, any device inside such a magnonic network has to
preserve the coherence of the transmitted spin wave. It has
been shown for metallic systems such as Permalloy that the
coherence of spin waves is preserved during their whole
propagation time.38In the case of the presented switchable
splitter, the focus is on the spatial coherence in terms of a
well-defined wave vector of the SW signal in the output
waveguides with a defined phase evolution. This is of special
interest since the preceding caustic-like SW beams consist of
a large number of plane spin-wave modes with differentwave vectors. Additionally, it is mandatory that the phase of
the output signal is determined by the phase of the input sig-
nal. To verify that these requirements are fulfilled, the phase
evolution of the output signals for the case of a negative DC-
current of I
DC¼–100 mA applied to the microstrip is studied
in more detail. For this purpose, the dynamic component of
the magnetization in the x-direction is extracted from the
simulation 5 ns after the start of the SW excitation since the
SW propagates through the device within around 3 ns. Figure
4shows the amplitudes of the SW signals integrated over the
width of the output waveguides starting at the point
(x¼6.2lm) where the regular width of 1 lm of the wave-
guides is reached. Oscillations along the waveguide width,
which can appear due to spurious edge modes, are averaged
out by this integration just as it would be the case if inductive
detection methods utilizing microwave antennas would be
used. The nearly vanishing SW amplitude in the upper wave-guide in comparison with the strong signals in the middle
and lower output waveguide demonstrates the efficiency of
the switch functionality of the device. Moreover, the ampli-
tude modulations are shown for three different initial phases
/
0of the excitation field.
In Figs. 4(b) and4(c), damped sinusoidal curves of the
form y¼y0þAexpð/C0x=d0Þsinð2pðx/C0x0Þ=kÞ, fitted the
data in the case of /0¼p/2, are added. These fitting curvesreveal an averaged wavelength of k¼1.9060.08lm and
an averaged decay length of d0¼4.1560.11lm in the out-
put waveguides. The expected wavelength can be calculated
according to the analytical theory of Ref. 39. These calcula-
tions37,42yield a value of kcal,1¼1.8660.13lm for the 1st
transversal waveguide mode and kcal,2¼1.3460.12lm,
kcal,3¼1.0860.11lm for higher modes. The comparison of
the calculated values and the observed wavelength demon-
strates a dominant propagation of the 1st waveguide mode in
the output waveguides. Hence, the developed device design
enables the transformation of multi-mode focused SW beams
back to a SW signal with a well-defined wave vector and a
defined phase evolution in the output waveguides.
The fulfillment of the second requirement can be seen
from Fig. 4by means of the shift of the maxima of curves
corresponding to different initial phases /0within one wave-
guide. This shift demonstrates that the information, which is
encoded in a phase shift in the input waveguide, is preserved
during the splitting and channeling process of the focused
SW beams and leads to an analogous phase shift in the out-
put waveguides. When comparing the data curves of corre-
sponding initial phases /0in the middle and lower
waveguides, a spatial shift of the maxima is visible as well.
This can be understood by the different propagation distan-
ces of the SW beams in the unstructured film area until the
output waveguides are reached and the consequential differ-
ent phase accumulation during the propagation.
In summary, we reveal by micromagnetic simulations
the particular role which caustic-like SW beams propagating
in unstructured magnetic film areas can play in the emerging
field of magnonics. We have demonstrated the ability of the
local manipulation of the SW beam direction by an inhomo-
geneous magnetization distribution and its controllability by
locally applied magnetic fields. Based on these results, such
an essential element for magnonic networks as a switchableSW signal splitter was developed. The presented design of
the device makes it possible to channel spin waves into dif-
ferent output waveguides or to block them depending on the
local field generating DC-current. Furthermore, a coherent
propagation of the output SW signal with a well-defined
wave vector in the output waveguides was demonstrated,
which is an important requirement for devices designed for
magnonic networks.
The authors thank A.V. Chumak for valuable discussions.
Financial support from DFG within project B01 of SFB/TRR
173, Spin þX - Spin in its collective environment, is gratefully
acknowledged.
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42The calculations consider the effective magnetic field Beff¼31.2560.65 mT
and the effective waveguide width weff¼0.860.1lm of the output
waveguides, which are extracted from the simulation. These effective val-ues and their uncertainties take into account demagnetization fields which
lead to strongly decreased internal magnetic fields at the edges of the
waveguides and a variation of the internal field during the transition from
the unstructured film area to the waveguides.122401-5 Heussner et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 122401 (2017) |
1.5129996.pdf | AIP Advances 10, 015013 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129996 10, 015013
© 2020 Author(s).Dynamic magnetic properties of
amorphous Fe80B20 thin films and their
relation to interfaces
Cite as: AIP Advances 10, 015013 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129996
Submitted: 21 October 2019 . Accepted: 05 December 2019 . Published Online: 07 January 2020
U. Urdiroz , B. M. S. Teixeira
, F. J. Palomares
, J. M. Gonzalez
, N. A. Sobolev
, F. Cebollada
,
and A. Mayoral
AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
Dynamic magnetic properties of amorphous
Fe80B20thin films and their relation to interfaces
Cite as: AIP Advances 10, 015013 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5129996
Presented: 6 November 2019 •Submitted: 21 October 2019 •
Accepted: 5 December 2019 •Published Online: 7 January 2020
U. Urdiroz,1,2B. M. S. Teixeira,3
F. J. Palomares,1
J. M. Gonzalez,1
N. A. Sobolev,3,4
F. Cebollada,2,a)
and A. Mayoral5
AFFILIATIONS
1Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (CSIC), Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 3, 28049 Madrid, Spain
2POEMMA-CEMDATIC, ETSI de Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
3Departamento de Física and I3N, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
4National University of Science and Technology “MISiS”, 119049 Moscow, Russia
5Advanced Microscopy Laboratory - Nanoscience Institute of Aragon (LMA-INA), Mariano Esquillor, s/n, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain
Note: This paper was presented at the 64th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials.
a)Corresponding author: Federico cebollada, e-mail: fcebollada@etsit.upm.es
ABSTRACT
We present a ferromagnetic resonance study of the dynamic properties of a set of amorphous Fe-B films deposited on Corning Glass ®and
MgO (001) substrates, either with or without capping. We show that the in plane anisotropy of the MgO grown films contains both uniaxial
and biaxial components whereas it is just uniaxial for those grown on glass. The angular dependence of the linewidth strongly differs in terms
of symmetry and magnitude depending on the substrate and capping. We discuss the role of the interfaces on the magnetization damping
and the generation of the anisotropy. We obtained values of the intrinsic damping parameters comparable to the lowest ones reported for
amorphous films of similar compositions.
©2020 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129996 .,s
INTRODUCTION
Designing magnetic materials for high frequency applications
is crucial for emerging magnetic technologies such as spintron-
ics and magnonics.1,2Relevant to those applications is under-
standing the magnetization relaxation mechanisms of thin films.
The damping parameter αin the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG)
equation is directly related to the ferromagnetic resonance (fmr)
peaks’s linewidth ΔH=ΔHo+ΔHm+ΔHG+ΔHTMS.3The first
two terms, frequency independent, correspond to inhomogeneities
(ΔHo) and mosaicity ( ΔHm); the isotropic, intrinsic Gilbert term
ΔHGresults from the energy transfer from magnetization to lat-
tice; finally, ΔHTMS gives the “two magnon scattering” (TMS), due
to the energy transfer from the fmr uniform mode (wavevector⃗k=0)
to degenerate magnons with⃗k≠0.4–8Many works have analized the
role of the structure on the damping in magnetic films. Studies
of the effects of interfaces, dislocation networks or specific surfacefeatures provide examples of the extrinsic character of the relaxation
mechanisms.9–11Until recently, little attention has been paid to the
damping mechanisms of amorphous transition metal-metalloid thin
films,12–14which are good candidates for low damping materials due
to their homogeneity and to the possibility of tailoring their mag-
netic properties by thermal treatments.15In this paper we study the
dynamic magnetic properties of amorphous Fe 80B20alloys deposited
on Corning Glass ®and MgO (001) substrates, either Au capped or
uncapped.
EXPERIMENTAL
Amorphous F 80B20thin films were grown by means of a Nd-
YAG Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) system ( λ=532 nm, 4 ns pulses
of 180 mJ, 10 Hz rate), under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. Two
films, 20 nm thick, were deposited on square 5x5 mm2Corning
Glass®substrates, one of them uncapped (C0), the other capped
AIP Advances 10, 015013 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5129996 10, 015013-1
© Author(s) 2020AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
FIG. 1 . Easy and hard axis loops of fhe MAu film; angular dependence of its
coercivity (inset).
with a 7 nm Au layer (CAu). Another two films with the same thick-
ness were deposited on MgO (001) substrates with the same dimen-
sions, one uncapped (M0), the other capped with a 7 nm Au layer
(MAu). Their amorphicity was checked by X-ray difraction (XRD)
using an 8 circles Bruker diffractometer and Transmission Electron
Microscopy (TEM), using a FEI TITAN low base and a FEI high res-
olution TITAN. Their magnetic hysteresis was studied by transverse
magnetooptic Kerr effect (MOKE), under maximum applied fields
of 0.5 T. A Bruker E-500 electron paramagnetic resonance spectrom-
eter (X-band, f = 9.87 GHz) was employed to study their magnetiza-
tion dynamics, through the in-plane (IP) angular dependence of the
fmr spectra down from saturation at 1.4 T, obtained measuring thederivative of the imaginary part of the dynamic susceptibility in a
Lock-in arrangement.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 1 presents two hysteresis loops measured in the MAu
film with the applied field parallel to each diagonal of the substrate.
One of the loops is square, with a coercivity close to 5 Oe and a
reduced remanence approximately equal to 1, corresponding to a
magnetic easy axis (e.a). A magnetization rotation loop is observed
along the second diagonal, corresponding to a hard axis (h.a), with
little hysteresis and a saturation field of about 15 Oe. The angular
evolution of the coercivity (Figure 1, inset) and the remanence show
a two-fold, butterfly shape characteristic of uniaxial anisotropy, with
minimum values along the h.a. diagonal. All other films present sim-
ilar features: uniaxial anisotropy with e.a coercivity of a few Oe and
h.a. saturation field between 15 and 35 Oe, with the relevant differ-
ence that whereas the easy and hard axes of the M films are parallel
to the diagonals, those of the C films are parallel to the substrate
sides.
The angular dependence of the resonance field H r(Figures 2(a)
and (b)) exhibits two-fold symmetry in all cases. The main differ-
ences between the C and the M samples are: (i) the spectra of M
films present a single peak along the full angular range and the angu-
lar evolution of H ris not purely symmetric around the maxima
and minima; (ii) the spectra of the C films present two overlap-
ping peaks in the angular range 45○-120○and 225○-300○, approxi-
mately, (Figure 2(a), inset) and the angular dependence of the res-
onance field is highly symmetric around the maxima and minima.
The fits of the resonance field (red lines) to the Smit-Beljers formal-
ism16included an IP unaxial and a cubic anisotropy contribution
given by
FIG. 2 . Angular dependence of the reso-
nance field: C (a) and M (b) films (inset:
split peaks measured in C0 at the indi-
cated angles). Angular dependence of
the linewidth: C (c) and M (d) films. Red
lines: fits indicated in the text.
AIP Advances 10, 015013 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5129996 10, 015013-2
© Author(s) 2020AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
F=1
2μ0M2
Scos2θ−μ0MsHsinθcos(η−ϕ)−kusin2θcos2(ϕ−ξ)
+kc
4[sin22θ+sin4θsin22ϕ] (1)
whereθandϕare the magnetization polar and azimuthal angles,
respectively, K u(Kc) is the uniaxial (cubic) anisotropy constant, M s
is the spontaneous magnetization, and the cubic (100) and (010)
directions are taken as the x and y axes, also respectively. The angles ξ
andη, from the x axis, correspond to the uniaxial e.a. and the applied
field H direction (both IP). Table I summarizes the fitting parameters
and the h.a. saturation field H sat.
As it can be seen, the anisotropy of the C films is purely uniaxial
whereas that of the M films has a non-negligible cubic contribu-
tion, in addition to the different orientations of the e.a. However,
the anisotropy of the M samples is much weaker than that of the C
samples. The good agreement between the uniaxial anisotropy field
HKUcalculated from the anisotropy and the h.a. saturation field is
remarkable. The usual sources of anisotropy in amorphous ferro-
magnets are (i) the magnetoelastic coupling between magnetization
and internal stresses, which gives rise to easy (hard) axes in the
regions with tensile (compressive) stresses if the magnetostriction is
positive, and (ii) the presence of magnetic fields during the fabrica-
tion process or annealings. Both produce just uniaxial anisotropies,
in no case biaxial anisotropy schemes.15The presence of stray fields
in our fabrication setup can be ruled out since the different orien-
tations of the axes are not compatible with the identical orientation
of all substrates on the sample holder. The anisotropy of Fe-B bulk
alloys, about 2 kJm-3, has been calculated from their domain patterns
and wall nucleation and pinning magnetization mechanisms.17The
much lower anisotropy in our films and the well defined orienta-
tions of the easy and hard axes are a clear indication of their weak
internal stresses (compared to bulk) and, more important, of their
spatial homogeneity. The stronger anisotropy of the C films suggests
that the stresses induced by the substrate are much stronger than in
the M films. Their origin is unclear, a plausible mechanism might
be related to the holder-substrate fixation system, which might bend
slightly the glass. If the film accomodates to it during the deposition,
it will become subjected to the inverse effort after the substrate is
relieved from the holder. The weaker anisotropy of the M films indi-
cates that the stresses introduced during the fabrication are lower,
probably due to the higher MgO stiffness.
The relevant point is the source of the biaxial component of
the anisotropy, which is unusual in amorphous alloys. The TEM
studies carried out on an uncapped film deposited on MgO under
similar conditions have revealed the formation of a bcc Fe layer,
TABLE I . Fitting parameters from equation (1) and saturation field obtained from the
h.a. loops.
KU KCμ0MS HKU HKC Hsat
Film (Jm-3) (Jm-3) (T) (Oe) (Oe) (Oe)
C0 1640 - 1.40 29 - 35
CAu 1030 - 1.44 18 - 20
M0 530 260 1.66 8.0 4.0 9
MAu 750 160 1.51 12.4 2.7 13
FIG. 3 . TEM image of a film deposited on MgO. Inset: high resolution image of the
region marked with a yellow square and its Fourier Transform.
about 1 nm thick, at the amorphous-substrate interface and of an
oxide layer on the free surface. Figure 3 shows the Fe layer, with
a high resolution image (inset) corresponding to the yellow square
in the figure. The Fourier transform of this image demonstrates its
crystalline nature, the distances calculated for neighboring (100) and
(110) planes agreeing with those of bcc Fe, which usually grows epi-
taxially, with 4% misfit, on MgO (001) with the (100) and (010) axes
rotated 45○with respect to those of MgO.18The Fe layer can be
related to the cubic anisotropy detected by fmr and to the orienta-
tion of the uniaxial e.a. along one diagonal. A plausible mechanism
for the formation of the e.a. is the orientation of the magnetiza-
tion of the Fe layer along one of its easy axes during the deposition.
The dipolar and/or exchange coupling of the Fe magnetization with
that of the layer growing on top of the crystalline layer could act
as anisotropy inducing agents. The cubic anisotropy contribution
probably results from the interfacial exchange coupling between the
Fe layer and film, similar to that ocurring in exchange biased sys-
tems. The interfacial exchange is likely to extend its influence to the
full amorphous layer since its exchange length is of a few tens of
nanometers.19
Up to now, the effect of the Au capping or the free surface oxide
has not been discussed. It is evident that it plays no major role in
the orientation of the anisotropy axes or the intensity of the inter-
nal stresses. In fact, the uncapped C0 film has roughly 50% higher
anisotropy than its capped counterpart whereas the anisotropy of
the uncapped M0 film is weaker than that of MAu. However, its
influence is quite noticeable in the peak linewidth (Figures 2(c) and
(d)). Both C0 and CAu films have similar linewidth angular evolu-
tion, two-fold with the maxima shifted ca. 45○with respect to the
resonance field, where the resonance peak splits. This indicates the
presence of a common underlying broadening mechanism. Yet, the
magnitude of the linewidth increases in the uncapped sample. The
eventual presence of an oxide layer in the uncapped film could be
the reason for the large damping increase, likely related to increased
inhomogeneities at the amorphous/oxide interface. TMS has been
proposed as a source of increased damping in films with linear
AIP Advances 10, 015013 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5129996 10, 015013-3
© Author(s) 2020AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
structural features.6,9,10Spin waves with wave vector⃗k≠0,⃗kperpen-
dicular to the linear structures, appear when the angle between mag-
netization and⃗kis below a critical angle ϕC=arcsin[(μ0H0/B0)1/2],
where H 0includes the applied and anisotropy fields and B0=μ0(H0
+MS). When the degenerate states can no longer be treated as a per-
turbation, a resonance peak splitting occurs. We propose the pres-
ence of linear tensile stresses parallel to the e.a. as the sole source of
anisotropy in the C films. The tensile stresses, taken as linear per-
turbations with defined orientations, could eventually increase the
TMS, leading even to a peak splitting.9However, the critical angle
around the perpendicular to the stresses calculated for the C films
is roughly ±14○, much narrower than the measured value. Another
plausible explanation might be related to inhomogeneous tensile
stresses (variation in their orientation) confined in small regions
but large enough to provide separate resonances. The oxide layer of
M0 does not increase the linewidth as dramatically as in C0. The
complex two-fold structure of the M0 linewidth angular evolution
breaks the symmetry of both the uniaxial and biaxial structural fea-
tures responsible for its anisotropy. In contrast, the MAu linewidth
is dominated by a four-fold component, likely related to the Fe layer.
The IP angular evolution of the linewidth TMS contribution repro-
duces the symmetry of the scattering centers, if they centers are
linked to the crystal structure, and it can be expressed as a func-
tion of the orientation of the crystal axes:8,11The linewidth is then
proportional to
αTMS=∑XiΓ(Xi)f(ϕH−ϕ(Xi)) (2)
Γ(Xi)is the scattering factor along the main crystal directions and
f(ϕH−ϕ(Xi)) depends on the applied field direction with respect to
them. The linewidth of the capped films can be fitted to an isotropic
valueΔHisoplus a function corresponding to equation (2). In the
case of amorphous films, those directions could be associated with
the internal stress lines and, in MAu, the crystal directions of the Fe
interfacial layer. The fits of the CAu and MAu linewidths to ΔHiso
plus a function ΔH=A sin2(ϕH−ϕ1)+B sin2(2(ϕH−ϕ2)) (continu-
ous red lines in Figure 2) yield close ΔHisovalues (23.5 and 27.5 Oe,
respectively) and the following parameters for MAu (CAu): A=3.5
(10.1) Oe;φ1=7.4○(8.2○); B=10.8 Oe; φ2=7.4○(no four-fold compo-
nent in CAu). ΔHisorepresents an upper limit of the intrinsic Gilbert
Damping, which can be written as8,11
μ0ΔHiso=ΔH0+α4πf
γ(3)
whereγis the gyromagnetic factor (the mosaicity term can be
excluded due to the amorphous nature of our films, at least for the
C films). The upper limits for the intrinsic damping coefficient αare
3.3⋅10-3and 4.0 ⋅10-3for CAu and MAu, respectively, comparable
to the lowest values reported for amorphous films of Fe and Fe-Co
base.12,13,20
CONCLUSIONS
We studied the role of the film-substrate and film-capping
interfaces on the dynamic properties of amorphous Fe-B films.
We showed that the films deposited on glass present stronger IPanisotropy than those deposited on MgO (001), probably due to
higher residual stresses, and that the formation of a thin Fe layer on
MgO induces a four-fold anisotropy, not usual in amorphous alloys.
The damping of the uncapped films is increased due to the oxide
layer on top. The damping of the capped samples can be interpreted
as a combination of an isotropic and an angle dependent contribu-
tion, probably related to TMS. The role of the linear stresses in the
amorphous phase and of the exchange Fe-FeB in the MgO/FeB/Au
film was discussed.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank the financial support by Spanish MINECO,
Grant Nos. MAT2013-47878-C2-R and MAT2016-80394-R. U.U.
acknowledges FPI grant BES-2014-070387. B.M.S.T. and N.A.S.
acknowledge financial support of the FCT of Portugal through the
Project No. I3N/FSCOSD (Ref. FCT UID/CTM/50025/2019) and
through the bursary PD/BD/113944/2015. N.A.S. was supported by
the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in
the framework of the Increase Competitiveness Program of NUST
“MISiS” (no. K2-2019-015).
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AIP Advances 10, 015013 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5129996 10, 015013-4
© Author(s) 2020 |
1.2734118.pdf | Parametric instability of the helical dynamo
Marine Peyrota/H20850and Franck Plunianb/H20850
Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique, CNRS, Université Joseph Fourier,
Maison des Géosciences, B.P . 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, Franceand Laboratoire des Ecoulements Géophysiques et Industriels, CNRS, Université Joseph Fourier, INPG,B.P . 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
Christiane Normandc/H20850
Service de Physique Théorique, CEA/DSM/SPhT, CNRS/URA 2306, CEA/Saclay,
91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
/H20849Received 4 December 2006; accepted 3 April 2007; published online 30 May 2007 /H20850
We study the dynamo threshold of a helical flow made of a mean plus a fluctuating part. Two flow
geometries are studied: /H20849i/H20850solid body and /H20849ii/H20850smooth. Two well-known resonant dynamo conditions,
elaborated for stationary helical flows in the limit of large magnetic Reynolds numbers, are testedagainst lower magnetic Reynolds numbers and for fluctuating flows with zero mean. For a flowmade of a mean plus a fluctuating part, the dynamo threshold depends on the frequency and thestrength of the fluctuation. The resonant dynamo conditions applied on the fluctuating /H20849respectively,
mean /H20850part seems to be a good diagnostic to predict the existence of a dynamo threshold when the
fluctuation level is high /H20849respectively, low /H20850.©2007 American Institute of Physics .
/H20851DOI: 10.1063/1.2734118 /H20852
I. INTRODUCTION
In the context of recent dynamo experiments,1–3an im-
portant question is to identify the relevant physical param-eters that control the dynamo threshold and eventually mini-mize it. In addition to the parameters usually considered,such as the geometry of the mean flow
4,5or the magnetic
boundary conditions,6,7the turbulent fluctuations of the flow
seem to have an important influence on the dynamothreshold.
8–11Some recent experimental results12,13suggest
that the large spatial scales of these fluctuations could play adecisive role.
In this paper we consider a flow of large spatial scale,
fluctuating periodically in time, such that its geometry atsome given time is helical. Such helical flows have beenidentified to produce dynamo action.
14,15Their efficiency has
been studied in the context of fast dynamo theory16–21and
they have led to the realization of several dynamoexperiments.
3,22–24
The dynamo mechanism of a helical dynamo is of
stretch-diffuse type. The radial component Brof the mag-
netic field is stretched to produce a helical field /H208490,B/H9258,Bz/H20850,
where /H20849r,/H9258,z/H20850are the cylindrical coordinates. The magnetic
diffusion of the azimuthal component B/H9258produces some ra-
dial component Brdue to the cylindrical geometry of the
problem.17In this paper we shall consider two cases, depend-
ing on the type of flow shear necessary for the Brstretching.
In case /H20849i/H20850, the helical flow is solid body for r/H110211 and at
rest for r/H110221/H20849the same conductivity is assumed in both do-
mains /H20850. The flow shear is then infinite and localized at the
discontinuity surface r=1. Gilbert17has shown that this dy-namo is fast /H20849positive growth rate in the limit of large mag-
netic Reynolds number /H20850and is thus very efficient to generate
a helical magnetic field of same pitch as the flow. In case /H20849ii/H20850,
the helical flow is continuous, and equal to zero for r/H113501.
The flow shear is then finite at any point. Gilbert17has shown
that such a smooth helical flow is a slow dynamo and that thedynamo action is localized at a resonant layer r=r
0such that
0/H11021r0/H110211. Contrary to case /H20849i/H20850, having a conducting external
medium is not necessary here.
In both cases some resonant conditions leading to dy-
namo action have been derived.16–18,20,21Such resonant
conditions can be achieved by choosing an appropriate ge-
ometry of the helical flow, such as changing its geometricalpitch. They have been derived for a stationary flow U/H20849r,
/H9258,z/H20850
and can be generalized to a time-dependent flow of the form
U/tildewidest/H20849r,/H9258,z/H20850·f/H20849t/H20850, where f/H20849t/H20850is a periodic function of time. Now
taking a flow composed of a mean part Uplus a fluctuating
part U/tildewidest·f/H20849t/H20850, we expect the dynamo threshold to depend on
the geometry of each part of the flow accordingly to the
resonant condition of each of them and to the ratio of the
intensities /H20841U/tildewidest/H20841//H20841U/H20841. However, we shall see that in some cases
even a small intensity of the fluctuating part may have adrastic influence. The results also depend on the frequencyoff/H20849t/H20850.
The Ponomarenko dynamo /H20851case /H20849i/H20850/H20852fluctuating periodi-
cally in time and with a fluctuation of infinitesimal magni-tude had already been the object of a perturbativeapproach.
25Here we consider a fluctuation of arbitrary mag-
nitude. Comparing our results for a small fluctuation magni-tude with those obtained with the perturbative approach, wefound significant differences. We then realized that there wasan error in the computation of the results published in Ref.25/H20849though the perturbative development in itself is correct /H20850.
In Appendix E, we give an erratum of these results.
a/H20850Electronic mail: Marine.Peyrot@ujf-grenoble.fr
b/H20850Electronic mail: Franck.Plunian@ujf-grenoble.fr
c/H20850Electronic mail: Christiane.Normand@cea.frPHYSICS OF FLUIDS 19, 054109 /H208492007 /H20850
1070-6631/2007/19 /H208495/H20850/054109/14/$23.00 © 2007 American Institute of Physics 19, 054109-1II. MODEL
We consider a dimensionless flow defined in cylindrical
coordinates /H20849r,/H9258,z/H20850by
U=/H208510,r/H9024/H20849r,t/H20850,V/H20849r,t/H20850/H20852·h/H20849r/H20850
with h/H20849r/H20850=/H208771, r/H110211,
0, r/H110221,/H208491/H20850
corresponding to a helical flow in a cylindrical cavity which
is infinite in the zdirection, the external medium being at
rest. Each component, azimuthal and vertical, of the dimen-sionless velocity is defined as the sum of a stationary partand of a fluctuating part:
/H9024/H20849r,t/H20850=/H20851R
¯m+R/tildewidestmf/H20849t/H20850/H20852/H9264/H20849r/H20850,
/H208492/H20850
V/H20849r,t/H20850=/H20851R¯m/H9003¯+R/tildewidestm/H9003/tildewidestf/H20849t/H20850/H20852/H9256/H20849r/H20850,
where R ¯mand/H9003¯/H20849R/tildewidestmand/H9003/tildewidest/H20850are the magnetic Reynolds num-
ber and a characteristic pitch of the stationary /H20849fluctuating /H20850
part of the flow, respectively. In what follows we consider afluctuation periodic in time, of the form f/H20849t/H20850=cos /H20849
/H9275ft/H20850. De-
pending on the radial profiles of the functions /H9264and/H9256,w e
determine two cases, /H20849i/H20850solid body and /H20849ii/H20850smooth flow, as
/H20849i/H20850:/H9264=/H9256=1 , /H208493/H20850
/H20849ii/H20850:/H9264=1− r,/H9256=1− r2. /H208494/H20850
We note here that the magnetic Reynolds numbers are de-
fined with the maximum angular velocity /H20849either mean or
fluctuating part /H20850and the radius of the moving cylinder.
Thinking of an experiment, it would not be sufficient tominimize the magnitude of the azimuthal flow. In particular,
if/H9003¯is large /H20849considering a steady flow for simplicity /H20850, one
would have to spend too many megawatts in forcing the z
velocity. Therefore, the reader interested in linking our re-sults to experiments should bear in mind that our magneticReynolds number is not totally adequate for it. A better defi-nition of the magnetic Reynolds number might be, for ex-
ample, Rˆ
m=R¯m/H208811+/H9003¯2. For a stationary flow of type /H20849i/H20850, the
minimum dynamo threshold Rˆmis obtained for /H9003¯=1.3.
Both cases /H20849i/H20850and /H20849ii/H20850differ in the conductivity of the
external medium r/H110221. In case /H20849i/H20850, in which the magnetic
generation occurs in a cylindrical layer in the neighborhoodofr=1, a conducting external medium is necessary for dy-
namo action. For simplicity, we choose the same conductiv-ity as the inner fluid. In the other hand, in case /H20849ii/H20850, in which
the magnetic generation is within the fluid, a conducting ex-ternal medium is not necessary for dynamo action; thus, wechoose an insulating external medium. Though the choice ofthe conductivity of the external medium is far from beinginsignificant for a dynamo experiment,
3,4,6,7we expect that it
does not change the overall meaning of the results givenbelow.
We define the magnitude ratio of the fluctuation to the
mean flow by
/H9267=R/tildewidestm/R¯m. For /H9267=0, there is no fluctuation
and the dynamo threshold is given by R ¯m. On the other hand,for/H9267/greatermuch1, the fluctuation dominates and the relevant quantity
to determine the threshold is R/tildewidestm=/H9267R¯m. The perturbative ap-
proach of Normand25corresponds to /H9267/lessmuch1.
The magnetic field must satisfy the induction equation
/H11509B
/H11509t=/H11633/H11003/H20849U/H11003B/H20850+/H116122B, /H208495/H20850
where the dimensionless time tis given in units of the mag-
netic diffusion time, implying that the flow frequency /H9275fis
also a dimensionless quantity. As the velocity does not de-pend on
/H9258or on z, each magnetic mode in /H9258andzis inde-
pendent from the others. Therefore, we can look for a solu-tion of the form
B/H20849r,t/H20850= exp i/H20849m
/H9258+kz/H20850b/H20849r,t/H20850, /H208496/H20850
where mandkare the azimuthal and vertical wave numbers
of the field, respectively. The solenoidality of the field /H11633·B
=0 then leads to
br
r+br/H11032+im
rb/H9258+ikbz=0 . /H208497/H20850
With the new variables b±=br±ib/H9258, the induction equa-
tion can be written in the form
/H11509b±
/H11509t+/H20851k2+i/H20849m/H9024+kV/H20850h/H20849r/H20850/H20852b±
=±i
2r/H9024/H11032h/H20849r/H20850/H20849b++b−/H20850+L±b±, /H208498/H20850
with
L±=/H115092
/H11509r2+1
r/H11509
/H11509r−/H20849m±1/H208502
r2, /H208499/H20850
except in case /H20849ii/H20850, where in the insulating external domain
/H20849r/H110221/H20850, the induction equation takes the form
/H20849L±−k2/H20850b±=0 . /H2084910/H20850
At the interface r=1, both Band the zcomponent of the
electric field E=/H11633/H11003B−U/H11003Bare continuous. The continu-
ity of BrandB/H9258imply that of b±. The continuity of Band /H208497/H20850
imply the continuity of br/H11032, which, combined with the conti-
nuity of Ezimplies
/H20851Db±/H208521+1−±i/H9024r=1−
2/H20849b++b−/H20850r=1=0 /H2084911/H20850
with D=/H11509//H11509rand /H20851h/H208521+1−=h/H20849r=1− /H20850−h/H20849r=1+ /H20850. We note that in case
/H20849ii/H20850,a s/H9024r=1−=0, /H2084911/H20850implies the continuity of Db±atr=1.
In summary, we calculate for both cases /H20849i/H20850and /H20849ii/H20850the
growth rate
/H9253=/H9253/H20849m,k,/H9003¯,/H9003/tildewidest,R¯m,R/tildewidestm,/H9275f/H20850/H20849 12/H20850
of the kinematic dynamo problem and look for the dynamo054109-2 Peyrot, Plunian, and Normand Phys. Fluids 19, 054109 /H208492007 /H20850threshold /H20849either R ¯mor R/tildewidestm/H20850such that the real part /H20849Re/H9253/H20850of/H9253
is zero. In our numerical simulations we shall take m=1 for
it leads to the lowest dynamo threshold.
A. Case „i…: Solid body flow
In case /H20849i/H20850,w es e t
m/H9024+kV=R¯m/H9262¯+R/tildewidestm/H9262/tildewidestf/H20849t/H20850,
with /H9262¯=m+k/H9003¯and /H9262/tildewidest=m+k/H9003/tildewidest, /H2084913/H20850
and /H208498/H20850changes into
/H11509b±
/H11509t+/H20853k2+i/H20851R¯m/H9262¯+R/tildewidestm/H9262/tildewidestf/H20849t/H20850/H20852h/H20849r/H20850/H20854b±=L±b±. /H2084914/H20850
For mathematical convenience, we take /H9262/tildewidest=0. Thus, the non-
stationary part of the velocity no longer occurs in /H2084914/H20850.I t
occurs only in the expression of the boundary conditions /H2084911/H20850
that can be written in the form
/H20851Db±/H208521+1−±i
2/H20851R¯m+R/tildewidestmf/H20849t/H20850/H20852/H20849b++b−/H20850r=1=0 . /H2084915/H20850
Taking /H9262/tildewidest=0 corresponds to a pitch of the magnetic field
equal to the pitch of the fluctuating part of the flow − m/k
=/H9003/tildewidest. On the other hand, it is not necessarily equal to the pitch
of the mean flow /H20849except if /H9003¯=/H9003/tildewidest/H20850. In addition, we shall con-
sider two situations depending on whether the mean flow is
zero /H20849R¯m=0/H20850or not. The method used to solve Eqs. /H2084914/H20850and
/H2084915/H20850is given in Appendix A.
At this stage we can make two remarks. First, according
to boundary layer theory results16,17and for a stationary flow,
in the limit of large R ¯m, the magnetic field that has the high-
est growth rate satisfies /H9262¯/H110150. This resonant condition means
that the pitch of the magnetic field is roughly equal to thepitch of the flow. We shall see in Sec. III A that this staystrue even at the dynamo threshold. Though the case of a
fluctuating flow of type U
/tildewidest·f/H20849t/H20850may be more complex with
possibly a skin effect, the resonant condition is presumably
analogous; i.e., /H9262/tildewidest/H110150. This means that setting /H9262/tildewidest=0 implies
that if the fluctuations are sufficiently large /H20849/H9267/greatermuch1/H20850, dynamo
action is always possible. This is indeed what will be found
in our results. In other words, setting /H9262/tildewidest=0, we cannot tackle
the situation of a stationary dynamo flow to which a fluctua-tion acting against the dynamo would be added. This aspectwill be studied with the smooth flow /H20849ii/H20850.
Our second remark is about the effect of a phase lag
between the azimuthal and vertical components of the flowfluctuation. Though we did not study the effect of an arbi-trary phase lag, we can predict the effect of an out-of-phase
lag. This would correspond to take a negative value of /H9003
/tildewidest.
Solving numerically Eqs. /H2084914/H20850and /H2084915/H20850for the stationary
flow and m=1, we find that dynamo action is possible only if
k/H9003¯/H110210. For the fluctuating flow with zero mean, m=1 and
/H9262/tildewidest=0 necessarily imply that k/H9003/tildewidest=−1. Let us now consider a
flow containing both a stationary and a fluctuating part. Set-
ting/H9003/tildewidest/H110210 necessarily implies that k/H110220. For /H9003¯/H110220, the sta-
tionary flow, then, is not a dynamo. Therefore, in that casewe expect the dynamo threshold to decrease for increasing /H9267.
For/H9003¯/H110210, together with /H9003/tildewidest/H110210 and k/H110220, it is equivalent to
take/H9003/tildewidest/H110220 and /H9003¯/H110220 for k/H110210, and it is then covered by our
subsequent results.
B. Case „ii…: Smooth flow
For case /H20849ii/H20850, we can directly apply the resonant condi-
tion made up for a stationary flow,17,18to the case of a fluc-
tuating flow. For given mandk, the magnetic field is gener-
ated in a resonant layer r=r0, where the magnetic field lines
are aligned with the shear and thus minimize the magneticfield diffusion. This surface is determined by the followingrelation:
17,18
m/H9024/H11032/H20849r0/H20850+kV/H11032/H20849r0/H20850=0 . /H2084916/H20850
The resonant condition is satisfied if the resonant surface is
embedded within the fluid:
0/H11021r0/H110211. /H2084917/H20850
As/H9024and Vdepend on time, this condition may only be
satisfied at discrete times. This implies successive periods ofgrowth and damping, the dynamo threshold corresponding toa zero mean growth rate. We can also define two distinctresonant surfaces r
¯0andr/tildewidest0corresponding to the mean and
fluctuating part of the flow:
m/H9024¯/H11032/H20849r¯0/H20850+kV¯/H11032/H20849r¯0/H20850=0 , m/H9024/tildewidest/H11032/H20851r/tildewidest0/H20849t/H20850,t/H20852+kV/tildewidest/H11032/H20851r/tildewidest0/H20849t/H20850,t/H20852=0 ,
/H2084918/H20850
with appropriate definitions of /H9024¯,V¯,/H9024/tildewidestandV/tildewidest. In addition, if
/H9024/tildewidestandV/tildewidesthave the same time dependency, as in /H208492/H20850, then r/tildewidest0
becomes time independent. We can then predict two different
behaviors of the dynamo threshold versus the fluctuation rate
/H9267=R/tildewidestm/R¯m.I f0/H11021r¯0/H110211 and r/tildewidest0/H110221, then the dynamo thresh-
old will increase with /H9267. In this case, the fluctuation is harm-
ful to dynamo action. On the other hand, if 0 /H11021r/tildewidest0/H110211, then
the dynamo threshold will decrease with /H9267.
From the definitions /H2084918/H20850and for a flow defined by /H208491/H20850,
/H208492/H20850, and /H208494/H20850, we have
r¯0=− /H20849m/k/H20850//H208492/H9003¯/H20850and r/tildewidest0=− /H20849m/k/H20850//H208492/H9003/tildewidest/H20850. /H2084919/H20850
Form=1 and k/H110210, taking /H9003/tildewidest/H110210 implies r/tildewidest0/H110210 and then the
impossibility of dynamo action for the fluctuating part of theflow. Therefore, we expect that the addition of a fluctuatingflow with an out-of-phase lag between its vertical and azi-muthal components will necessarily be harmful to dynamoaction. This will be confirmed numerically in Sec. III C.
To solve /H208498/H20850,/H2084910/H20850, and /H2084911/H20850, we used a Galerkin approxi-
mation method in which the trial and weighting functions arechosen in such a way that the resolution of the inductionequation is reduced to the conducting domain r/H113491.
5The
method of resolution is given in Appendix D. For the timeresolution we used a Runge-Kutta scheme of order 4.054109-3 Parametric instability of the helical dynamo Phys. Fluids 19, 054109 /H208492007 /H20850III. RESULTS
A. Stationary flow „R/tildewidestm=0 …
We solve
Re/H9253/H20849m=1 , k,/H9003¯,0 ,R¯m,0 ,0 /H20850=0 /H2084920/H20850
with k=/H20849/H9262¯−1/H20850//H9003¯for case /H20849i/H20850andk=−1/ /H208492r¯0/H9003¯/H20850for case /H20849ii/H20850.
In case /H20849i/H20850, the dispersion relation /H20849A6/H20850in Appendix A be-
comes F0=0. In Fig. 1, the threshold R ¯mand the field fre-
quency Im /H20849/H9253/H20850are plotted versus /H9262¯/H20849r¯0/H20850for case /H20849i/H20850/H20851 /H20849ii/H20850/H20852, and
for different values of /H9003¯. Though we do not know how these
curves asymptote, and though the range of /H9262¯/H20849r¯0/H20850for which
dynamo action occurs changes with /H9003¯, it is likely that the
resonant condition /H20841/H9262¯/H20841/H110211/H208490/H11021r¯0/H110211/H20850is fulfilled for the
range of /H9003¯corresponding to a dynamo experiment /H20849/H9003¯/H110151/H20850.B. Periodic flow with zero mean „R¯m=0 …
We solve
Re/H9253/H20849m=1 , k,0 ,/H9003/tildewidest,0 ,R/tildewidestm,/H9275f/H20850=0 . /H2084921/H20850
In Fig. 2, the threshold R/tildewidestmis plotted versus /H9275ffor both cases
/H20849i/H20850and /H20849ii/H20850. In both cases we take /H9262/tildewidest=0 corresponding to k
=−1//H9003/tildewidest. For case /H20849ii/H20850, it implies from /H2084919/H20850that r/tildewidest0=1/2,
meaning that the resonant surface is embedded in the fluid
and thus favorable to dynamo action. In each case /H20849i/H20850/H9003/tildewidest
=1,1.78 and /H20849ii/H20850/H9003/tildewidest=1,2, we observe two regimes: one at low
frequencies for which the threshold does not depend on /H9275f
and the other at high frequencies for which the threshold
behaves like R/tildewidestm/H11008/H9275f3/4.
To understand the existence of these two regimes, we
pay attention to the time evolution of the magnetic field for
FIG. 1. The dynamo threshold R ¯m/H20849left column /H20850and Im /H20849/H9253/H20850/H20849right column /H20850versus /H20849i/H20850/H9262¯,/H20849ii/H20850r¯0, for the stationary case, m=1 and /H9003¯=0.5, 0.8, 1, 1.3, 2, 4, 10.054109-4 Peyrot, Plunian, and Normand Phys. Fluids 19, 054109 /H208492007 /H20850different frequencies /H9275f. In Fig. 3, the time evolution of b−
/H20849real and imaginary parts /H20850for case /H20849ii/H20850/H9003/tildewidest=1 /H20851case /H20849d/H20850in Fig.
2/H20852is plotted for several frequencies /H9275f.
1. Low frequency regime
For low frequencies /H20849/H9275f=1/H20850, we observe two time
scales: periodic phases of growth and decrease of the field,
with a time scale equal to the period of the flow as expectedby Floquet’s theory. In addition, the field has an eigenfre-quency much higher than
/H9275f. In fact, the slow phases of
growth and decrease seem to occur every half-period of theflow. This can be understood from the following remarks.
First of all, the growth /H20849or decrease /H20850of the field does not
depend on the sign of the flow. Indeed, from /H208498/H20850, we show
that if b
±/H20849m,k/H20850is a solution for /H20849/H9024,V/H20850, then its complex
conjugate b±*/H20849m,k/H20850is a solution for /H20849−/H9024,−V/H20850. Therefore, we
have b±/H20849t+T/2/H20850=b±*/H20849t/H20850, where T=2/H9266//H9275fis the period of the
flow. Now from Floquet’s theory /H20849see Appendix A /H20850,w em a y
write b/H20849r,t/H20850of the form b/H20849r,/H9270/H20850exp/H20849/H9253t/H20850, with b/H20849r,/H9270/H20850
2/H9266-periodic in /H9270=/H9275ft. This implies that changing /H20849/H9024,V/H20850in
/H20849−/H9024,−V/H20850changes the sign of Im /H20849/H9253/H20850. This is consistent with
the fact that for given mandk, the direction of propagation
ofBchanges with the direction of the flow. Therefore chang-
ing the sign of the flow changes the sign of propagation ofthe field but does not change the magnetic energy, neither the
dynamo threshold R
/tildewidestm, which are then identical from one
half-period of the flow to another. This means that the dy-namo threshold does not change if we consider f/H20849t/H20850
=/H20841cos/H20849
/H9275ft/H20850/H20841instead of cos /H20849/H9275ft/H20850. It is then sufficient to con-
centrate on one half-period of the flow, such as, for example
/H20851/H9266/2/H9275f,3/H9266/2/H9275f/H20852/H20849modulo /H9266/H20850.
The second remark uses the fact that the flow geometry
that we consider does not change in time /H20849only the flow
magnitude changes /H20850. For such a geometry we can calculate
the dynamo threshold R ¯mcorresponding to the stationarycase. Coming back to the fluctuating flow, we then under-
stand that R/tildewidestm/H20841f/H20849t/H20850/H20841/H11022R¯m/H20851R/tildewidestm/H20841f/H20849t/H20850/H20841/H11021R¯m/H20852corresponds to a
growing /H20849decreasing /H20850phase of the field. Assuming that the
dynamo threshold R/tildewidestmis given by the time average /H20855·/H20856of the
flow magnitude leads to the following estimation for R/tildewidestm:
R/tildewidestm/H11015/H9266
2R¯m /H2084922/H20850
as/H20855/H20841cos/H20849/H9275ft/H20850/H20841/H20856=2//H9266. For the four cases /H20849a/H20850,/H20849b/H20850,/H20849c/H20850, and /H20849d/H20850
in Fig. 2, we give in Table Ithe ratio 2R/tildewidestm//H9266R¯m, which is
found to be always close to unity. In this interpretation of theresults, the frequency
/H9275fdoes not appear, provided that it is
sufficiently weak in order that the successive phases ofgrowth and decrease have sufficient time to occur. This canexplain why for low frequencies in Fig. 2, the dynamo
threshold R
/tildewidestmdoes not depend on /H9275f.
Finally the frequencies /H9275¯of the stationary case for /H9003¯
=/H9003/tildewidestare also reported in Table I. For a geometry identical to
case /H20849d/H20850, we find, in the stationary case, /H9275¯=33, which indeed
corresponds to the eigenfrequency of the field occurring inFig.3for
/H9275f=1. The previous remarks assume that the flow
frequency is sufficiently small compared to the eigenfre-quency of the field, in order to have successive phases ofgrowth and decrease of the field. We can check that the val-ues of
/H9275¯given in Table Iare indeed reasonable estimations
of the transition frequencies between the low and high fre-quency regimes in Fig. 2.
2. High frequency regime
In case /H20849ii/H20850and for high frequencies /H20849Fig. 3,/H9275f=100 /H20850,
the signal is made of harmonics without growing or decreas-ing phases. We note that the eigenfrequencies of the real andimaginary parts of b
−are different, the one being twice the
other.
In case /H20849i/H20850, relying on the resolution of Eqs. /H2084914/H20850and
/H2084915/H20850given in Appendix A, we can show that R/tildewidestm/H11008/H9275f3/4.W e
also find that some double frequency as found in Fig. 3for
case /H20849ii/H20850can emerge from an approximate 3 /H110033 matrix sys-
tem. As these developments necessitate the notations intro-duced in Appendix A, they are postponed until Appendix B.
3. Further comments about the ability for fluctuating
flows to sustain dynamo action
We found and explained how a fluctuating flow /H20849zero
mean /H20850can act as a dynamo. We also understood why the
dynamo threshold for a fluctuating flow is higher than thatfor a stationary flow with the same geometry. It is becausethe time-average of the velocity norm of the fluctuating flowis on the mean lower than that of the stationary flow. Thiscan be compensated with other definitions of the magneticReynolds number. Our definition is based on max
t/H20841/H9024/H20849r,t/H20850/H20841.
Another definition based on /H20855/H20841/H9024/H20849r,t/H20850/H20841/H20856twould exactly com-
pensate the difference.
FIG. 2. Dynamo threshold R/tildewidestmversus /H9275ffor case /H20849i/H20850with/H9262/tildewidest=0 and /H20849a/H20850/H9003/tildewidest
=1.78, and /H20849b/H20850/H9003/tildewidest=1; for case /H20849ii/H20850with r/tildewidest0=0.5, /H20849c/H20850/H9003/tildewidest=2, and /H20849d/H20850/H9003/tildewidest=1.054109-5 Parametric instability of the helical dynamo Phys. Fluids 19, 054109 /H208492007 /H20850Recently, a controversy appeared about the difficulty for
a fluctuating flow /H20849zero mean /H20850to sustain dynamo action at
low P m,26whereas a mean flow /H20849nonzero time average /H20850ex-
hibits a finite threshold at low P m10,27/H20849the magnetic Prandtl
number P mbeing defined as the ratio of the viscosity to the
diffusivity of the fluid /H20850. This issue is important not only fordynamo experiments but also for natural objects such as the
Earth’s inner core or the solar convective zone in which theelectroconducting fluid is characterized by a low P
m. Though
we did not study this problem, our results suggest that thedynamo threshold should not be much different betweenfluctuating and mean flows, provided an appropriate defini-
FIG. 3. Time evolution of Re /H20849b−/H20850/H20849solid lines /H20850and Im /H20849b−/H20850/H20849dotted lines /H20850for several values of /H9275f/H20849from top to bottom /H9275f=1; 2, 5, 10, 100 /H20850, for case /H20849ii/H20850with
/H9003/tildewidest=1. Time unity corresponds here to 2 /H9266//H9275f.054109-6 Peyrot, Plunian, and Normand Phys. Fluids 19, 054109 /H208492007 /H20850tion of the magnetic Reynolds number is taken. In that case,
why does it seem so difficult to sustain dynamo action at lowP
mfor a fluctuating flow,26whereas it seems much easier for
a mean flow?10,27
In the simulations with a mean flow,10,27two dynamo
regimes have been found, one with a threshold much lowerthan the other. In the lowest threshold regime, the magneticfield is generated at some infinite scale in two directions.
27
There is then an infinite scale separation between the mag-netic and the velocity field, and the dynamo action is prob-ably of mean-field type and might be understood in terms of
/H9251-effect, /H9252-effect, etc. In that case, removing the periodic
boundary conditions would cancel the scale separation andimply the loss of the dynamo action. In the highest thresholdregime, the magnetic field is generated at a scale similar tothe flow scale, the periodic boundary conditions are forgottenand the dynamo action can no longer be understood in termsof an
/H9251-effect. In order to compare the mean flow results27
with those for a fluctuating flow,26we have to consider only
the highest threshold regime in Ref. 27, the lowest one rely-
ing on mean-field dynamo processes due to the periodicboundary conditions and which are absent in the fluctuatingflow calculations.
26
Now when comparing the threshold of the highest
threshold regime for a mean flow with the threshold obtainedfor a fluctuating flow and with appropriate definitions of R m,
a strong difference remains at low P m. A speculation made by
Schekochihin et al.28is that the highest threshold regime
obtained for the mean flow at low P mwould correspond in
fact to the large P mresults for the fluctuating flow. Their
arguments rely on the fact that the mean flow in Ref. 27is
peaked at large scale and is thus spatially smooth for thegenerated magnetic field. It would then belong to the sameclass as the large-P
mfluctuation dynamo. Both dynamo
thresholds are found to be similar indeed, and thus the dis-crepancy vanishes.
Though the helical flow that we consider here is notice-
ably different /H20849no chaotic trajectories /H20850it may have some con-
sistency with the simulations at large P
mmentioned above
and at least supports the speculation by Schekochihin et al.28
C. Periodic flow with nonzero mean
We are now interested in the case in which both R/tildewidestm
/HS110050 and R ¯m/HS110050. The flow is then the sum of a nonzero mean
part and a fluctuating part. We have considered two ap-proaches depending on which part of the flow geometry isfixed, either the mean or the fluctuating part.
1./H9003¯=1
Here we fix /H9003¯=1,m=1, and k=−1, and vary /H9003/tildewidest,/H9267, and
/H9275ffor case /H20849ii/H20850. We then solve the equation
Re/H9253/H20849m=1 , k=−1 , /H9003¯=1 ,/H9003/tildewidest= 1/2 r/tildewidest0,R¯m,R/tildewidestm=/H9267R¯m,/H9275f/H20850=0
/H2084923/H20850
to plot R ¯mas a function of /H9267in Fig. 4for values of r/tildewidest0and/H9275f.
From /H2084919/H20850, we have r¯0=1/2, which corresponds to a mean
flow geometry with a dynamo threshold about 100. The
curves are plotted for several values of /H9003/tildewidestleading to values of
r/tildewidest0not necessarily between 0 and 1. We consider two fluctua-TABLE I. Dynamo thresholds R/tildewidestmfor a fluctuating flow at low frequency,
R¯m/H20849and/H9275¯/H20850for a stationary flow with the same geometry. The labels /H20849a/H20850–/H20849d/H20850
have the same meaning as in Fig. 2.
R/tildewidestm R¯m 2R/tildewidestm//H9266R¯m /H9275¯
/H20849a/H20850 21 13 1.03 4.4
/H20849b/H20850 33 21 1 3.1
/H20849c/H20850 143 84 1.08 28.8
/H20849d/H20850 170 100 1.08 33
FIG. 4. Dynamo threshold R ¯mversus /H9267for case /H20849ii/H20850, for two frequencies /H9275f=50 and /H9275f=1 and r¯0=1/2 /H20849/H9003¯=1,m=1,k=−1 /H20850. The different curves correspond
tor/tildewidest0=/H20849a/H208501/2; /H20849b/H208502/3; /H20849c/H208501;/H20849d/H20850/H11009;/H20849e/H208501/4; /H20849f/H20850−1; /H20849g/H20850−1/2 /H20851/H9003/tildewidest=/H20849a/H208501;/H20849b/H208500.75; /H20849c/H208500.5; /H20849d/H208500;/H20849e/H208502;/H20849f/H20850−0.5; /H20849g/H20850−1/H20852.054109-7 Parametric instability of the helical dynamo Phys. Fluids 19, 054109 /H208492007 /H20850tion frequencies /H9275f=1 and /H9275f=50. We find that the dynamo
threshold R ¯mincreases asymptotically with /H9267unless the reso-
nant condition 0 /H11021r/tildewidest0/H110211 is satisfied; see curves /H20849a/H20850,/H20849b/H20850, and
/H20849e/H20850. For these three curves we checked that in the limit of
large/H9267,R¯m=O/H20849/H9267−1/H20850. For r/tildewidest0=1/4 /H20851curve /H20849e/H20850/H20852and for /H9267/H110151w e
do not know if a dynamo threshold exists.
2./H9003/tildewidest=1
Here we fix /H9003/tildewidest=1,m=1, and k=−1 and vary /H9003¯,/H9267, and
/H9275f. We then solve the equation
Re/H9253/H20849m=1 , k=−1 , /H9003¯,/H9003/tildewidest,R¯m,R/tildewidestm=/H9267R¯m,/H9275f/H20850=0 /H2084924/H20850
with/H9003¯=1−/H9262¯in case /H20849i/H20850and/H9003¯=1/2 r¯0in case /H20849ii/H20850. In Fig. 5,
R¯mis plotted versus /H9267for values of /H9262¯/H20849r¯0/H20850in case /H20849i/H20850/H20851 /H20849ii/H20850/H20852
and/H9275f. Taking /H9003/tildewidest=1,m=1, and k=−1 implies /H9262/tildewidest=0 in case
/H20849i/H20850and r/tildewidest0=0.5 in case /H20849ii/H20850. In both cases /H20849i/H20850and /H20849ii/H20850the
fluctuating part of the flow satisfies the resonant conditionfor which dynamo action is possible. This implies that R ¯m
should scale as O/H20849/H9267−1/H20850provided that /H9267is sufficiently large. In
each case we consider two flow frequencies /H9275f=1 and /H9275f
=10 for case /H20849i/H20850;/H9275f=1 and /H9275f=50 for case /H20849ii/H20850. The curves
are plotted for different values of /H9003¯corresponding to /H20841/H9262¯/H20841
/H110211 for case /H20849i/H20850and 0/H11021r¯0/H110211 for case /H20849ii/H20850. For large /H9267,w e
checked that R ¯m=O/H20849/H9267−1/H20850. The main difference between the
curves is that R ¯mversus /H9267may decrease monotonically or
not. In particular, in case /H20849i/H20850for/H9262¯=0.4, R ¯mdecreases by 40%
when /H9267goes from 0 to 1 showing that even a small fluctua-
tion can strongly decrease the dynamo threshold. In most ofthe curves there is a bump for
/H9267around unity showing a
strong increase of the threshold before the final decrease atlarger
/H9267.
3./H9003¯=/H9003/tildewidest=1
Here we fix /H9003¯=/H9003/tildewidest=1,m=1, and k=−1 for the case /H20849ii/H20850
and vary /H9275fand/H9267. We then solve the equation
FIG. 5. The dynamo threshold R ¯mversus /H9267fork=−1, m=1, and /H9003/tildewidest=1 /H20851/H9262/tildewidest=0 in case /H20849i/H20850andr/tildewidest0=0.5 in case /H20849ii/H20850/H20852and/H9275f=1, 10, or 50. The labels correspond
to/H9262¯in case /H20849i/H20850andr¯0in case /H20849ii/H20850.054109-8 Peyrot, Plunian, and Normand Phys. Fluids 19, 054109 /H208492007 /H20850Re/H9253/H20849m=1 , k=−1 , /H9003¯=1 ,/H9003/tildewidest=1 , R¯m,R/tildewidestm=/H9267R¯m,/H9275f/H20850=0
/H2084925/H20850
to plot R ¯mversus /H9267in Fig. 6for various frequencies /H9275f.
Taking /H9003¯=/H9003/tildewidest=1,m=1, and k=−1 implies r¯0=r/tildewidest0=0.5. For /H9267
larger than 1, R ¯mdecreases as O/H20849/H9267−1/H20850as mentioned earlier.
For/H9267smaller than unity, R ¯mdecreases versus /H9267monotoni-
cally only if /H9275fis large enough. In fact the transition value of
/H9275f, above which R ¯mdecreases monotonically is exactly the
field frequency /H9275¯/H20849here,/H9275¯=33 /H20850corresponding to /H9267=0. This
shows that a fluctuation of small intensity /H20849/H9267/H113491/H20850helps the
dynamo action only if its frequency is sufficiently high. This
is shown in Appendix C for case /H20849i/H20850. However, the frequency
above which a small fluctuation intensity helps the dynamomay be much larger than
/H9275¯. For example, in case /H20849i/H20850for/H9262¯
=0.4 and /H9262/tildewidest=0 represented in Fig. 5, we have /H9275¯=0.51. For
/H9275f=1 small fluctuation helps, for /H9275f=10 they do not help,
and for higher frequencies they help again.
IV. DISCUSSION
In this paper we studied the modification of the dynamo
threshold of a stationary helical flow by the addition of alarge scale helical fluctuation. We extended a previousasymptotic study
25to the case of a fluctuation of arbitrary
intensity /H20849controlled by the parameter /H9267/H20850. We knew from pre-
vious studies17,18that the dynamo efficiency of a helical flow
is characterized by some resonant condition at large R m. First
we verified numerically that such resonant condition holds atlower R
mcorresponding to the dynamo threshold, for both a
stationary and a fluctuating /H20849no mean /H20850helical flow. For a
helical flow made of a mean part plus a fluctuating part weshowed that, in the asymptotic cases
/H9267/lessmuch1/H20849dominating
mean /H20850and/H9267/greatermuch1/H20849dominating fluctuation /H20850, it is naturally the
resonant condition of the mean /H20849for the first case /H20850or the
fluctuating /H20849for the second case /H20850part of the flow that governs
the dynamo efficiency and then the dynamo threshold. Inbetween, for /H9267of order unity and if the resonant condition of
each flow part /H20849mean and fluctuating /H20850is satisfied, the thresh-
old first increases with /H9267before reaching an asymptotic be-
havior in O/H20849/H9267−1/H20850. However, there is no systematic behavior
as depicted in Fig. 5, case /H20849i/H20850, for/H9275f=1 and /H9262¯=0.4, in which
a threshold decrease of 40% is obtained between /H9267=0 and
/H9267=1. If the fluctuation part of the flow does not satisfy the
resonant condition, then the dynamo threshold increasesdrastically with
/H9267.
Contrary to the case of a cellular flow,11there is no sys-
tematic effect of the phase lag between the different compo-nents of the helical flow. For the helical flow geometry itmay imply an increase or a decrease of the dynamo thresh-old, depending how it changes the resonant condition men-tioned above.
There is some similarity between our results and those
obtained for a noisy /H20849instead of periodic /H20850fluctuation.
8In par-
ticular, in Ref. 8it was found that increasing the noise level
the threshold first increases due to geometrical effects of themagnetic field lines and then decreases at larger noise. Thiscould explain why at
/H9267/H110151 we generally obtain a maximum
of the dynamo threshold.
Finally, these results show that the optimization of a dy-
namo experiment depends not only on the mean part of theflow but also on its nonstationary large scale part. If thefluctuation is not optimized then the threshold may increasedrastically with /H20849even small /H20850
/H9267, ruling out any hope of pro-
ducing dynamo action. In addition, even if the fluctuation isoptimized /H20849resonant condition satisfied by the fluctuation /H20850,
our results suggest that there is generally some increase ofthe dynamo threshold with
/H9267when /H9267/H113491. If the geometry of
the fluctuation is identical to that of the mean part of theflow, there can be some slight decrease of the threshold athigh frequencies but this decrease is rather small. When
/H9267
/H110221, the dynamo threshold decreases as O/H20849/H9267−1/H20850, which at first
sight seems interesting. However, we have to keep in mind
that as soon as /H9267/H110221, the driving power spent to maintain the
fluctuation is larger than that to maintain the mean flow. The
relevant dynamo threshold is, then, no longer R ¯m, but R/tildewidestm
=/H9267R¯minstead. In addition monitoring large scale fluctuations
in an experiment may not always be possible, especially ifthey occur from flow destabilization. In that case it is betterto try cancelling them as was done in the von Karman so-dium experiment in which an azimuthal belt has beenadded.
29
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We acknowledge B. Dubrulle, F. Pétrélis, R. Stepanov,
and A. Gilbert for fruitful discussions.
APPENDIX A: RESOLUTION OF EQS. „14…AND „15…
FOR CASE „I…: SOLID BODY FLOW
Asf/H20849t/H20850is time-periodic of period 2 /H9266//H9275f, we look for
b/H20849r,t/H20850in the form b/H20849r,/H9270/H20850exp/H20849/H9253t/H20850with b/H20849r,/H9270/H20850being
2/H9266-periodic in /H9270=/H9275ft. Thus, we look for the functions
b±/H20849r,/H9270/H20850in the form
FIG. 6. Dynamo threshold R ¯mversus /H9267forr¯0=r/tildewidest0=0.5 /H20849/H9003¯=/H9003/tildewidest=1/H20850. The labels
correspond to different values of /H9275f. The eigenfrequency for /H9267=0 is /H9275¯=33.054109-9 Parametric instability of the helical dynamo Phys. Fluids 19, 054109 /H208492007 /H20850b±/H20849r,/H9270/H20850=/H20858bn±/H20849r/H20850exp/H20849in/H9270/H20850/H20849 A1/H20850
where, from /H2084914/H20850and for /H9262/tildewidest=0, the Fourier coefficients bn±/H20849r/H20850
must satisfy
/H20853/H9253+k2+i/H20851R¯m/H9262¯h/H20849r/H20850+n/H9275f/H20852/H20854bn±=L±bn±. /H20849A2/H20850
In addition, the boundary condition /H2084915/H20850with f/H20849t/H20850=cos /H20849/H9270/H20850
implies
/H20851Dbn±/H208521+1−±i
2R¯m/H20849bn++bn−/H20850r=1
±i
4R/tildewidestm/H20849bn−1++bn−1−+bn+1++bn+1−/H20850r=1=0 . /H20849A3/H20850
The solutions of /H20849A2/H20850, which are continuous at r=1, can
be written in the form
bn±=Cn±/H9274n±, with /H9274n±=/H20877I±/H20849qnr/H20850/I±/H20849qn/H20850, r/H110211,
K±/H20849snr/H20850/K±/H20849sn/H20850, r/H110221,
/H20849A4/H20850
with
qn2=k2+/H9253+i/H20849R¯m/H9262¯+n/H9275f/H20850,sn2=k2+/H9253+in/H9275f. /H20849A5/H20850
Substituting /H20849A4/H20850in/H20849A3/H20850, we obtain the following
system:
Cn±Rn±±iR¯m
2/H20849Cn++Cn−/H20850±iR/tildewidestm
4/H20849Cn−1++Cn−1−+Cn+1++Cn+1−/H20850=0
/H20849A6/H20850
withRn±=qnIn±/H11032/In±−snKn/H11032±/Kn±and where In±=Im±1/H20849qn/H20850and
Kn±=Km±1/H20849sn/H20850are modified Bessel functions of first and sec-
ond kind.
The system /H20849A6/H20850implies the following matrix dispersion
relation:
FnCn−iR/tildewidestm
4/H20849Rn+−Rn−/H20850/H20849Cn−1+Cn+1/H20850=0 /H20849A7/H20850
with Cj=Cj++Cj−and
Fn=Rn+Rn−−i/H20849R¯m/2/H20850/H20849Rn+−Rn−/H20850. /H20849A8/H20850
Solving the system /H20849A7/H20850is equivalent to setting to zero the
determinant of the matrix Adefined by
Ann=Fn,Ann−1=Ann+1=−iR/tildewidestm
4/H20849Rn+−Rn−/H20850/H20849 A9/H20850
and with all other coefficients being set to zero.
APPENDIX B: HIGH FREQUENCY REGIME
FOR THE PERIODIC FLOW „I…WITH ZERO MEAN
Following the notation of Appendix A, and considering a
periodic flow /H20849i/H20850with zero mean, we have /H9262¯=0. From /H20849A5/H20850
this implies that qn=sn. Using the identityIn±/H11032Kn±−Kn/H11032±In±=1
sn, /H20849B1/H20850
we obtain Rn±=/H20849In±Kn±/H20850−1.A sR¯m=0, Eq. /H20849A8/H20850becomes Fn
=Rn+Rn−. We can then rewrite the system /H20849A7/H20850in the form
Cn+iR/tildewidestm
4/H20849In+Kn+−In−Kn−/H20850/H20849Cn−1+Cn+1/H20850=0 . /H20849B2/H20850
From the asymptotic behavior of the Bessel functions for
high arguments, we have
/H9251n/H11013In−Kn−−In+Kn+/H110151/sn3. /H20849B3/H20850
For the high values of n, these terms are negligible and in
first approximation we keep in the system /H20849B2/H20850only the
terms corresponding to n=0, ±1. This leads to a 3 /H110033 matrix
system whose determinant is
1+/H20849R/tildewidestm/H208502
16/H92510/H20849/H9251−1+/H92511/H20850=0 . /H20849B4/H20850
At high forcing frequencies /H9275f, we have s±1/H11015/H20881/H9275f. Together
with /H20849B4/H20850, it implies
R/tildewidestm/H11015/H9275f3/4. /H20849B5/H20850
In addition, from the approximate 3 /H110033 matrix system, the
double-frequency 2 /H9275fdepicted in Fig. 3emerges for n=±1 .
APPENDIX C: HIGH FREQUENCY REGIME
AND SMALL MODULATION AMPLITUDEFOR THE PERIODIC FLOW „I…WITH NONZERO MEAN
For small amplitude modulation /H9267/lessmuch1, the system /H20849A6/H20850
is truncated so as to keep the first Fourier modes n=0 and
n= ±1. The dispersion relation
F0+/H92672/H20873R¯m
4/H208742
/H20849R0+−R0−/H20850/H20873R−1+−R−1−
F−1+R+1+−R+1−
F+1/H20874=0
/H20849C1/H20850
is then solved perturbatively setting R ¯m=R0+/H9254R and /H9275¯
=/H92750+/H9254/H9275and expanding F0/H20849R¯m,/H9275¯/H20850to first order in /H9254R and
/H9254/H9275given that F0/H20849R0,/H92750/H20850=0 and with the constants C0/H11007
=±R0±. The dispersion relation /H20849C1/H20850becomes
/H9254R/H11509F0
/H11509R¯m+/H9254/H9275/H11509F0
/H11509/H9275¯=−/H92672/H20873R0
4/H208742
C0/H20873/H9252−1
F−1+/H9252+1
F+1/H20874 /H20849C2/H20850
with/H9252n=Rn+−Rn−. The threshold and frequency shifts that
behave like /H92672are written /H9254R=/H92672R2and/H9254/H9275=/H92672/H92752.I nt h e
left-hand side of /H20849C2/H20850the partial derivatives are given by
/H11509F0
/H11509/H9275¯=−1
C0/H20875/H20849C0+/H208502/H11509R0+
/H11509/H9275¯−/H20849C0−/H208502/H11509R0−
/H11509/H9275¯/H20876, /H20849C3/H20850
/H11509F0
/H11509R¯m=−1
C0/H20875/H20849C0+/H208502/H11509R0+
/H11509R¯m−/H20849C0−/H208502/H11509R0−
/H11509R¯m/H20876−i
2C0. /H20849C4/H20850
One can show that the partial derivatives of R0±are related to
integrals calculated in Ref. 25through the relations054109-10 Peyrot, Plunian, and Normand Phys. Fluids 19, 054109 /H208492007 /H20850/H11509R0±
/H11509/H9275/H11013i/H20885
0/H11009
/H20849/H90230±/H208502rdr,/H11509R0±
/H11509Rm/H11013i/H9262¯/H20885
01
/H20849/H90230±/H208502rdr. /H20849C5/H20850
In the following, we shall focus on the case /H9262¯=0 and we
introduce the notations
/H11509F0
/H11509R¯m=−iC0/H20849f1+if2/H20850,/H11509F0
/H11509/H9275¯=−iC0/H20849g1+ig2/H20850,
/H20849C6/H20850
/H9252−1
F−1+/H9252+1
F+1=X+iY.
Solutions of /H20849C2/H20850are
R2=/H20873R0
4/H208742Xg1+Yg2
f1g2−f2g1,/H92752=/H20873R0
4/H208742Xf1+Yf2
f1g2−f2g1/H20849C7/H20850
recovering results similar to those obtained in Ref. 25using
a different approach.
We have in mind that for some values of /H9275f, resonance
can occur. An oscillating system forced at a resonant fre-quency is prone to instability and a large negative thresholdshift is expected. However, inspection of /H20849C7/H20850reveals no
clear relation between the sign of R
2and the forcing fre-
quency, which appears in the quantities XandY. We only
know that f1g2−f2g1/H110210, since near the critical point /H20849/H9254R
=R¯m−R0/H20850the denominator in /H20849C7/H20850is proportional to the
growth rate of the dynamo driven by a steady flow. When
/H9267=0, we shall consider Eq. /H20849C2/H20850for an imposed /H9254R and
complex values of /H9254/H9275=/H92751+i/H92681, where /H92751is the frequency
shift and Re /H20849/H9253/H20850=−/H92681is the growth rate, given by
/H92681=/H9254Rf1g2−f2g1
g12+g22. /H20849C8/H20850
Above the dynamo threshold /H20849/H9254R/H110220/H20850the field is amplified
/H20851Re/H20849/H9253/H20850/H110220/H20852; thus, /H92681/H110210 and f1g2−f2g1/H110210.
In the high frequency limit /H20849/H9275f/greatermuch/H92750/H20850, expressions for X
andYcan be derived explicitly using the asymptotic behav-
ior of the Bessel functions for large arguments. For /H9262¯=0
with q±1=s±1/H11015/H20849/H9275f±/H92750/H208501/2/H208491±i/H20850//H208812 and using the
asymptotic behavior, i.e., /H9252±1/F±1→/H20849s±1/H20850−3, one gets
X+iY=−/H208812/H9275f−3/2/H208731−i3/H92750
2/H9275f/H20874. /H20849C9/H20850
When /H9262¯=0, we have also f1=1/2 and f2=0, leading to the
expression for R 2:
R2/H11015−R02
4/H208812/H9275f−3/2/H20873g1
g2−3/H92750
2/H9275f/H20874. /H20849C10 /H20850
For the wave numbers m=−k=1, numerical calculations of
g1andg2, which depend only on the critical parameters R 0
and/H92750, give g1/g2=1.626, and thus R 2/H110210 when /H9275f→/H11009.
When /H9262¯=0, there are several reasons to consider the
particular value of the forcing; i.e., /H9275f=2/H92750. One of them is
that for Hill or Mathieu equations it is a resonant frequency.Moreover, in the present problem it leads to simplified cal-culations. In particular the asymptotic behavior of
/H9252n/Fncan
still be used for n= +1 since /H9275f+/H92750is large, while the ap-proximation is no longer valid for n=−1. Nevertheless, the
mode n=−1 is remarkable since it corresponds to s−1=s0/H11569,
from which it follows that /H9252−1=/H92520*andF−1=−iR0/H92520*. Finally,
one gets the exact result: /H9252−1/F−1=i/R0, which leads to
X+iY/H11015i
R0+1
s13with s13/H11015−2/H208733/H92750
2/H208743/2
/H208491−i/H20850.
/H20849C11 /H20850
For the values R 0=20.82 and /H92750=4.35 corresponding to Fig.
8/H20849f/H20850, one gets X=−1.5 /H1100310−2andY=3.3/H1100310−2. The thresh-
old shift is
R2/H11015R02
8/H208491.62X+Y/H20850= 0.48, /H20849C12 /H20850
showing that the sign of R 2changes when /H9275fdecreases from
infinity to 2 /H92750. This result is in qualitative agreement with
the exact results reported in Fig. 8/H20849f/H20850, where R 2=0 for /H9275f
=8.3 /H112292/H92750. When the forcing frequency is exactly twice the
eigenfrequency /H92750, we had rather expected a large negative
value of R 2on the basis that it is a resonant condition for
ordinary differential system under temporal modulation. InFig. 8/H20849f/H20850, the maximum negative value of R
2occurs for /H9275f
/H112294/H92750, which cannot be explained by simple arguments.
For/H9262¯/HS110050, we have not been able to find resonant con-
ditions such as: n/H9275f+m/H92750=0/H20849n,mintegers /H20850between /H9275fand
/H92750such that /H9275fwould be associated with a special behavior
of the threshold shift. Contrary to the Hill equation, the in-duction equation is a partial differential equation with theconsequence that the spatial and temporal properties of thedynamo are not independent. The wave numbers kandmare
linked to the frequencies
/H92750and/H9275fthrough q±nand s±n,
which appears as arguments of Bessel functions having rulesof composition less trivial than trigonometric functions. Ex-hibiting resonant conditions implies to find relationship be-tween q
±n,s±n, and q0,s0for specific values of /H9275f. We have
shown above for /H9262¯=0 that a relation of complex conjugation
exists for n=−1 when /H9275f=2/H92750, but we have not yet found
how to generalize to other values of /H9262¯, and have left this part
for a future work.
APPENDIX D: RESOLUTION OF CASE „II…:
SMOOTH FLOW
We define the trial functions /H9274j±
=Km±1/H20849k/H20850Jm±1/H20849/H9251jr/H20850/Jm±1/H20849/H9251j/H20850, where the /H9251jare the roots of
the equation
/H9251j/H20875Km+1/H20849k/H20850
Jm+1/H20849/H9251j/H20850−Km−1/H20849k/H20850
Jm−1/H20849/H9251j/H20850/H20876+2kKm/H20849k/H20850
Jm/H20849/H9251j/H20850=0 , /H20849D1/H20850
and where JandKare, respectively, the Bessel functions of
first kind and the modified Bessel functions of second kind.Forr/H113491, we look for solutions in the form
b
±=/H20858
j=1N
bj/H20849t/H20850/H9274j±/H20849/H9251jr/H20850, /H20849D2/H20850
where Ndefines the degree of truncature. For r/H113501, the so-
lutions of /H2084910/H20850are thus of the form054109-11 Parametric instability of the helical dynamo Phys. Fluids 19, 054109 /H208492007 /H20850b±=Km±1/H20849kr/H20850/H20858
j=1N
bj/H20849t/H20850/H20849 D3/H20850
and, from /H20849D1/H20850, these solutions satisfy the conditions /H2084911/H20850at
the interface r=1. To determine the functions bj/H20849t/H20850, it is suf-
ficient to solve the induction equation /H208498/H20850forr/H113491. For that,
we replace the expression of b±given by /H20849D2/H20850into the in-
duction equation /H208498/H20850, in order to determine the residual
R±=/H20858
j=1N
/H20853b˙j+/H20851k2+/H9251j2+i/H20849m/H9024+kV/H20850/H20852bj/H20854/H9274j±
/H11007i
2r/H9024/H11032/H20858
j=1N
bj/H20849/H9274j++/H9274j−/H20850. /H20849D4/H20850
We then solve the following system:
/H20885
01
R+/H9278i+rdr+/H20885
01
R−/H9278i−rdr=0 , i=1, ..., N, /H20849D5/H20850
where the weighting functions are defined by /H9278j±
=Jm±1/H20849/H9251jr/H20850/Jm±1/H20849/H9251j/H20850. Using the orthogonality relation
/H20885
01
/H9278i+/H9274j+rdr+/H20885
01
/H9278i−/H9274j−rdr=/H9254ijGij /H20849D6/H20850
with
Gii=Km+1/H20849k/H20850
Jm+12/H20849/H9251i/H20850/H20885
01
Jm+12/H20849/H9251ir/H20850rdr
+Km−1/H20849k/H20850
Jm−12/H20849/H9251i/H20850/H20885
01
Jm−12/H20849/H9251ir/H20850rdr, /H20849D7/H20850
we write the system /H20849D5/H20850in the following matrix form:
X˙=MXwith X=/H20849b1, ..., bN/H20850/H20849 D8/H20850
withMij=/H9254ij/H20849k2+/H9251j2/H20850+i
Gii/H20885
01
/H20849/H9278i+/H9274j++/H9278i−/H9274j−/H20850/H20849m/H9024+kV/H20850rdr
−i
2Gii/H20885
01
/H20849/H9278i+−/H9278i−/H20850/H20849/H9274j++/H9274j−/H20850/H9024/H11032r2dr. /H20849D9/H20850
The numerical resolution of this system is done with a
fourth-order Runge-Kutta time-step scheme. We took a whitenoise as an initial condition for the b
j.
APPENDIX E: ERRATUM OF NORMAND „2003 …
RESULTS „REF. 25…
For very small values of the fluctuation rate /H9267and for an
infinite shear /H20851case /H20849i/H20850/H20852, a comparison can be made between
the results obtained for /H9262/tildewidest=0 by the method based on Floquet
theory /H20849see Appendix A /H20850and those obtained by a perturba-
tive approach,25which consists in expanding R ¯mand the fre-
quency Im /H20849p/H20850in powers of /H9267according to
Im/H20849p/H20850=/H92750+/H9267/H92751+/H92672/H92752+¯, /H20849E1/H20850
R¯m=R 0+/H9267R1+/H92672R2+¯, /H20849E2/H20850
where R 0and/H92750are, respectively, the critical values of the
Reynolds number and the frequency in the case of a station-ary flow. At the leading order, it appears that
/H92751=R1=0. At
the next order, the expressions of R 2and/H92752are given in Ref.
25; however, their numerical values are not correct due to an
error in their computation.
After correction, the new values of R 2and/H92752are given
in Fig. 7for the set of parameters considered in Ref. 25:m
=1,k=−0.56, and /H9003¯=1 /H20849/H9262¯=0.44 /H20850. The different curves cor-
respond to values of /H9003/tildewidest, which are not necessarily the same as
those taken in Ref. 25. For /H20841/H9262/tildewidest/H20841sufficiently small /H20849curves e
and f /H20850,R 2changes its sign twice versus the forcing fre-
quency. We find that R 2is negative for low and high frequen-
FIG. 7. Results obtained by the perturbative approach for m=1,k=−0.56, and /H9262¯=0.44 /H20849/H9003¯=1/H20850. The dynamo threshold R2is plotted versus /H9275ffor several values
of/H9262/tildewidest=/H20849a/H208501.56; /H20849b/H208501.28; /H20849c/H208501;/H20849d/H208500.72; /H20849e/H208500.44; /H20849f/H208500.16; and /H20849g/H208500.054109-12 Peyrot, Plunian, and Normand Phys. Fluids 19, 054109 /H208492007 /H20850cies, implying a dynamo threshold smaller than the one for
the stationary flow. At intermediate frequencies, R 2is posi-
tive with a maximum value, implying a dynamo thresholdlarger than the one for the stationary flow. For larger valuesof/H20841
/H9262/tildewidest/H20841/H20849curves a, b, c, and d /H20850R2is positive for all forcing
frequencies with a maximum value at a low frequency, whichincreases with /H20841
/H9262/tildewidest/H20841. This implies that for /H20841/H9262/tildewidest/H20841sufficiently large,
the dynamo threshold is larger than the one obtained for thestationary flow, as was already mentioned in Sec. III A. For
/H9003
/tildewidest=1.78, we have /H9262/tildewidest=0. In this case, we have checked that
the values of R 2and/H92752are in good agreement with the
values of R mand/H9275obtained by the method of Appendix A,
provided /H9267/H113490.1.
For completeness, we have also calculated the values of
R2and/H92752form=1,k=−1, and /H9003¯=1, /H20849/H9262¯=0/H20850, as considered
in the body of the paper. The results are plotted in Fig. 8.
Qualitatively, the results are in good agreement with those ofFig.7. For
/H9262/tildewidest=0 again, we have checked that the values of R 2
and/H92752are in good agreement with the values of R mand/H9275¯
obtained by the method of Appendix A, provided /H9267/H113490.1.
For higher values of the modulation amplitude /H9267, the relative
difference between the results obtained by the two methodscan reach 10% on R
2for/H9267=0.4.
Finally, it must be noticed that our parameters /H9003/tildewidestand/H9275f
are strictly equivalent to, respectively, /H92551and/H9268in Ref. 25.
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10J-P. Laval, P. Blaineau, N. Leprovost, B. Dubrulle, and F. Daviaud, “In-
fluence of turbulence on the dynamo threshold,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 96,
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namiques dans un écoulement de von Kármán turbulent,” Ph.D. thesis,Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France, 2005.
13R. Volk, Ph. Odier, and J.-F. Pinton, “Fluctuation of magnetic induction invon Kármán swirling flows,” Phys. Fluids 18, 085105 /H208492006 /H20850.
14D. Lortz, “Exact solutions of the hydromagnetic dynamo problem,”
Plasma Phys. 10, 967 /H208491968 /H20850.
15Yu. Ponomarenko, “Theory of the hydromagnetic generator,” J. Appl.
Mech. Tech. Phys. 14, 775 /H208491973 /H20850.
16P. H. Roberts, “Dynamo theory,” in Irreversible Phenomena and Dynami-
cal Systems Analysis in Geosciences , edited by C. Nicolis and G. Nicolis
/H20849D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1987 /H20850, pp. 73–133.
17A. D. Gilbert, “Fast dynamo action in the Ponomarenko dynamo,” Geo-
phys. Fluid Dyn. 44, 241 /H208491988 /H20850.
18A. A. Ruzmaikin, D. D. Sokoloff, and A. M. Shukurov, “Hydromagnetic
screw dynamo,” J. Fluid Mech. 197,3 9 /H208491988 /H20850.
19A. Basu, “Screw dynamo and the generation of nonaxisymmetric magnetic
fields,” Phys. Rev. E 56, 2869 /H208491997 /H20850.
20A. D. Gilbert and Y. Ponty, “Slow Ponomarenko dynamos on stream sur-
faces,” Geophys. Fluid Dyn. 93,5 5 /H208492000 /H20850.
21A. D. Gilbert, “Dynamo theory,” in Handbook of MathematicalFluid Dy-
namics , edited by S. Friedlander and D. Serre /H20849Elsevier, New York, 2003 /H20850,
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23A. Gailitis, O. Lielausis, S. Dementiev, E. Platacis, A. Cifersons, G. Ger-
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FIG. 8. Same as Fig. 7, but for m=1,k=−1, and /H9262¯=0 /H20849/H9003¯=1/H20850. The labels correspond to /H9262/tildewidest/H11005/H20849a/H208501.5; /H20849b/H208501.25; /H20849c/H208501;/H20849d/H208500.5; /H20849e/H20850−0.5; and /H20849f/H208500.054109-13 Parametric instability of the helical dynamo Phys. Fluids 19, 054109 /H208492007 /H2085024A. Gailitis, O. Lielausis, E. Platacis, S. Dementiev, A. Cifersons, G. Ger-
beth, Th. Gundrum, F. Stefani, M. Christen, and G. Will, “Magnetic fieldsaturation in the Riga dynamo experiment,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3024
/H208492001 /H20850.
25C. Normand, “Ponomarenko dynamo with time-periodic flow,” Phys.
Fluids 15, 1606 /H208492003 /H20850.
26A. A. Schekochihin, S. C. Cowley, J. L. Maron, and J. C. McWilliams,
“Critical magnetic Prandtl number for small-scale dynamo,” Phys. Rev.Lett. 92, 054502 /H208492004 /H20850.
27Y. Ponty, P. D. Mininni, H. Politano, J.-F. Pinton, and A. Pouquet, “Dy-
namo action at low magnetic Prandtl numbers: mean flow vs. fully turbu-lent motion,” New J. Phys. /H20849in press /H20850.28A. A. Schekochihin, A. B. Iskakov, S. C. Cowley, J. McWilliams, M. R.
E. Proctor, and T. A. Jousef, “Fluctuation dynamo and turbulent inductionat low magnetic Prandtl numbers,” New J. Phys. /H20849in press /H20850; see also Fig. 2
of A. B. Iskakov, A. A. Schekochihin, S. C. Cowley, J. McWilliams, andM. R. E. Proctor, “Numerical demonstration of fluctuation dynamo at lowmagnetic Prandtl numbers,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 208501 /H208492007 /H20850.
29R. Monchaux, M. Berhanu, M. Bourgoin, P. Odier, M. Moulin, J.-F. Pin-
ton, R. Volk, S. Fauve, N. Mordant, F. Pétrélis, A. Chiffaudel, F. Daviaud,B. Dubrulle, C. Gasquet, L. Marié, and F. Ravelet, “Generation of mag-netic field by a turbulent flow of liquid sodium,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 98,
044502 /H208492007 /H20850.054109-14 Peyrot, Plunian, and Normand Phys. Fluids 19, 054109 /H208492007 /H20850 |
1.3583599.pdf | Effects of film thickness and mismatch strains on magnetoelectric coupling in vertical
heteroepitaxial nanocomposite thin films
H. T. Chen, L. Hong, and A. K. Soh
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 109, 094102 (2011); doi: 10.1063/1.3583599
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3583599
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/109/9?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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141.35.40.137 On: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 19:39:50Effects of film thickness and mismatch strains on magnetoelectric coupling
in vertical heteroepitaxial nanocomposite thin films
H. T. Chen, L. Hong, and A. K. Soha)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong,
People’s Republic of China
(Received 18 February 2011; accepted 26 March 2011; published online 3 May 2011)
The phase field model is adopted to study the magnetoelectric coupling effects in vertical
heteroepitaxial nanocomposite thin films. Both the lateral epitaxial strains between the film and the
substrate and the vertical epitaxial strains between the ferroelectric and ferromagnetic phases areaccounted for in the model devised. The effects of the film thickness on the magnetic-field-induced
electric polarization (MIEP) are investigated. The results obtained show that the MIEP is strongly
dependent on the film thickness, as well as on the vertical and lateral epitaxial strains.
VC2011
American Institute of Physics . [doi: 10.1063/1.3583599 ]
I. INTRODUCTION
Multiferroic materials1–3that combine two or more of
the ferroic properties ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism, andferroelasticity have attracted considerable interest for their
potential applications as multifunctional devices.
4–6Magne-
toelectric (ME) coupling effects, i.e., the variation of thepolarization induced by an applied magnetic field or of the
magnetization induced by an applied electric field, can be
realized in multiferroics with the coexistence of ferroelec-tricity and ferromagnetism. Weak ME effects at low temper-
atures have been observed in some single-phase materials,
7,8
and this limits their practical applications considerably.
Comparatively, composite multiferroics9,10can produce
much larger ME coupling effects due to the incorporation of
magnetostrictive and electrostrictive effects. Although largeME coupling effects have been observed in bulk bilayer mul-
tiferroics, the ME coupling effects that exist in artificially
assembled bilayer epitaxial nanocomposite thin films areweak due to the clamping effects from the substrate.
11How-
ever, the reported enhancement of elastic coupling resulting
from the larger interfacial area between the two phases in avertical heteroepitaxial nanocomposite thin film with ferro-
magnetic (FM) nanopillars embedded in a ferroelectric (FE)
matrix,
12in which the clamping effect from the substrate is
reduced, has triggered great enthusiasm for the study of ME
effects in such nanocomposite thin films. Compared with
bulk composite multiferroics, nanocomposite thin films pos-sess more degrees of freedom in tuning the ME coupling
effects due to their three-dimensional epitaxial properties.
Some theoretical works have been carried out in order tostudy the ME coupling effects in such multiferroics; for
example, the magnetic-field-induced electric polarization
(MIEP) was studied
13using the Green’s function technique,
and the influence of the elastic stresses induced by the FE–
FM and film–substrate interfaces on the ME coupling was
investigated using the time-dependent Ginzburg–Landauequation.
14Because the stress states were only approxi-
mately determined in those works, they are unable to providea good understanding of the behavior of complex nanostruc-
tures. The phase field approach is a promising method forthe study of ME coupling effects, as not only the ferroelec-
tric and ferromagnetic domain states can be determined dur-
ing the evolution process but also the long-range elasticinteractions in a multiferroic. However, in the phase field
study carried out by Zhang et al. ,
15only the lateral epitaxial
misfit strains were accounted for, not the corresponding ver-tical strains, which have been observed experimentally as the
domineering strains in films of relatively large thicknesses
(say, more than 20 nm).
16As the large lattice mismatch
between the FE and FM phases cannot be fully relaxed by
the embedded pillars with small diameters in the nanocom-
posite film, significant vertical epitaxial strains would existand would affect the ME coupling in the film. Therefore,
both the lateral and vertical epitaxial misfit strains should be
taken into account in phase field modeling.
In the present study, a three-dimensional (3D) phase
field model is devised in which both the lateral and vertical
epitaxial misfit strains are included in the strain state. Theeffects of the thickness on the magnetic-field-induced elec-
tric polarization will be investigated.
II. PHASE FIELD MODELING
In the present study, BaTiO 3–CoFe 2O4vertical heteroepi-
taxial nanostructure multiferroic thin films are investigated; aschematic diagram of these films is depicted in Fig. 1(a).N o t e
FIG. 1. (a) 3D schematic illustration of a vertical heteroepitaxial nanocom-
posite film in which CoFe 2O4nanopillars are embedded in a BaTiO 3matrix.
(b) Cross-section of the simulation system along the x1/C0x3plane.a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:
aksoh@hkucc.hku.hk. FAX: þ852-58585415.
0021-8979/2011/109(9)/094102/5/$30.00 VC2011 American Institute of Physics 109, 094102-1JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 109, 094102 (2011)
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141.35.40.137 On: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 19:39:50that a circular nanopillar was selected for the investigation in
view of the experimental work carried out by Zheng et al. ,12
in which the multiferroic composite fabricated was composed
of nearly circular CoFe 2O4nanopillars embedded in a BaTiO 3
matrix. Three field parameters are introduced to characterizethe total free energy of the nanocomposite system: a localpolarization field P¼(P
1,P2,P3); a local magnetization field
M¼Msm¼Ms(m1,m2,m3), where Msandmdenote the sat-
uration magnetization and the unit magnetization vector,respectively; and an order parameter g, which describes the
spatial distribution of the FE and FM phases in the nanocom-posite film, where g¼1 and 0 represent the FM and FE
phases, respectively. The total free energy of the system is
given by
F¼ð
V1/C0g ðÞ fpþgfmþfelas/C2/C3
dV; (1)
where fprepresents the free energy in the FE phase, includ-
ing the ferroelectric bulk free energy, ferroelectric domain
wall energy, and electrostatic energy, which can be
expressed as
fp¼a1P2
1þP2
2þP2
3/C0/C1
þa11P4
1þP4
2þP4
3/C0/C1
þa12P2
1P22þP2
2P23þP2
3P21/C0/C1
þa111P6
1þP6
2þP6
3/C0/C1
þa112P4
1P22þP2
3/C0/C1
þP4
2P21þP2
3/C0/C1
þP4
3P21þP2
2/C0/C1 /C2/C3
þa123P2
1þP2
2þP2
3/C0/C1
þa1111P8
1þP8
2þP8
3/C0/C1
þa1122P4
1P42þP4
2P43þP4
3P41/C0/C1
þa1112P6
1P22þP2
3/C0/C1
þP6
2P21þP2
3/C0/C1
þP6
3P21þP2
2/C0/C1 /C2/C3
þa1123P4
1P22P23þP4
2P23P21þP4
3P21P22/C0/C1
þ1
2G11P2
1;1þP2
2;2þP2
3;3/C16/C17
þG12P1;1P2;2þP2;2P3;3þP3;3P1;1/C0/C1
þ1
2G44P1;2þP2;1/C0/C12þP2;3þP3;2/C0/C12þP1;3þP3;1/C0/C12hi
þ1
2G0
44P1;2/C0P2;1/C0/C12þP2;3/C0P3;2/C0/C12þP1;3/C0P3;1/C0/C12hi
/C0Edip/C1P;(2)
where a1,a11,a12,a111,a112,a123,a1111,a1122,a1112,a n d a1123
are the phenomenological Landau expansion coefficients; G11,
G12,G44,a n d G440are the gradient energy coefficients; and Edip
is the electric field generated by the long-range dipole–dipole
interaction that can be estab lished in Fourier space. The com-
mas in the subscripts denote spatial differentiation.
The ferromagnetic energy term fm, which includes the
magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy, magnetic exchange
energy, magnetostatic energy, and external magnetic field
energy, can be expressed as
fm¼K1m2
1m22þm2
1m23þm2
2m23/C0/C1
þK2m2
1m22m23
þAm2
1;1þm2
1;2þm2
1;3þm2
2;1þm2
2;2þm2
2;3þm2
3;1/C16
þm2
3;2þm2
3;3/C17
/C01
2l0MsHd/C1m/C0l0MsHex/C1m;
(3)
where K1andK2are the anisotropy constants, and A,l0,Ms,
Hd, and Hexdenote the exchange stiffness constant, perme-
ability of vacuum, saturation magnetization, demagnetiza-
tion field, and exterior magnetic field, respectively.
The elastic energy felascan be expressed as
felas¼1
2cijkleifekl¼1
2cijkl/C0
eij/C0e0
ijÞekl/C0e0
kl/C0/C1
; (4)
where cijkl,eij,eij,a n d eij0represent the elastic stiffness tensor, elas-
tic strain, total strain, and stress-free strain, respectively. With ref-
erence to Fig. 1(b), the elastic energy in the heterogeneous film/
substrate bilayer system is calculated by reducing the system to anelastic homogeneous system with an appropriately chosen effec-tive stress-free strain e
ij0.17Thus, the effective stress-free strain in
this nanocomposite film is the sum of the strain eij*related to the
electrostrictive/magnetostrictiv e effect, the epitaxial misfit strain
eijepitax, and the virtual stress-free strain eijvirtual,t h a ti s ,
e0
ij¼e/C3
ijþeepitax
ijþevirtual
ij : (5)
The electrostrictive/magnetostrictive related stress-free strain
is given by
e/C3
ij¼g3
2k100mimj/C01
3/C18/C19 /C20/C21
þ1/C0g ðÞ QijklPkPl/C0/C1
i¼jðÞ
g3
2k111mimj/C18/C19
þ1/C0g ðÞ QijklPkPl i6¼j ðÞ ;8
>><
>>:
(6)
where Qijklis the electrostrictive coefficient; i,j,k,l¼1, 2,
3; and k100andk111are the magnetostrictive constants.
The epitaxial misfit strain eijepitax, which arises from the
lateral lattice mismatch between the film and the substrate
and the vertical lattice mismatch between the FE and FM
phases, can be expressed as
eepitax
ijet
11 00
0et
22 0
00 et
332
43
5; (7)
in which the in-plane epitaxial misfit strains e11t
¼e22t¼(1/C0g)e11pþge11mare described as a function of the
film thickness18as follows:
ep
11¼ep
22¼1/C01/C0ep0
11/C16/C17
1/C0ep0
111/C0hp
c=h ðÞ; (8a)094102-2 Chen, Hong, and Soh J. Appl. Phys. 109, 094102 (2011)
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
141.35.40.137 On: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 19:39:50em
11¼em
22¼1/C01/C0em0
11/C0/C1
1/C0em0
111/C0hm
c=h/C0/C1 ; (8b)
where his the film thickness; hcpandhcmare the critical thick-
ness for the formation of dislocation in the FE and FM phases,
respectively;19ande11p0ande11m0are the corresponding pseudo-
morphic in-plane misfit strains, defined as follows:
ep0
11¼ep0
22¼ap/C0as/C0/C1
=ap; (9a)
em0
11¼em0
22¼am/C0as ðÞ =am; (9b)
where apand amare the in-plane parameters of the FE
and FM phases, respectively, and asis the lattice parameter
of the cubic substrate. The vertical epitaxial misfit strainis expressed as e
33t¼(1/C0g)e33pþge33m, where e33p¼/C0e33m
¼/C00.8% is adopted.12,13The virtual stress-free strain eijvirtual
should be distributed only inside the vacuum region, and the
equilibrium strain produces vanishing stress in the vacuum
region, which automatically satisfies the free surface bound-
ary conditions.
The dynamic evolution of the virtual stress-free strain
and the polarization are described by the time-dependent
Ginzburg–Landau equations
@evirtual
ij r;tðÞ
@t¼/C0KdF
devirtual
ij r;tðÞ; (10)
@Pir;tðÞ
@t¼/C0LdF
dPir;tðÞ; (11)
where KandLare kinetic coefficients.
The dynamic evolution of the magnetization is obtained
by solving the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation using the
Gauss–Seidel projection method:20,21
1þa2/C0/C1 @M
@t¼/C0 c0M/C2Heff/C0c0a
MsM/C2M/C2Heff ðÞ ;
(12)
where c0is the gyromagnetic ratio, ais the damping con-
stant, and Heff¼/C0 ð 1=l0Þð@F=@MÞis the effective mag-
netic field.
III. SIMULATION PARAMETERS AND MATERIAL
PROPERTIES
The three-dimensional simulation system is composed
of 64 /C264/C2Nzdiscrete grids, where Nzgrids encompass the
vacuum layer, multiferroic nanocomposite thin film, andsubstrate. With reference to Fig. 1(b), the top 6 layers are
assumed to be the vacuum region, the bottom 40 layers are
assumed to be the substrate, and the layers in between simu-late the multiferroic nanocomposite thin film. The periodic
boundary conditions are applied along the x
1andx2axes.
The cell size in real space is chosen to be l0¼1 nm. The
coefficients used in the simulation are listed below.15
For BaTiO 3,
a1¼4:124T/C0115 ðÞ /C2 105C/C02m2N;a11
¼/C02:097/C2188C/C04m6N;a12¼7:974/C2188C/C04m6N;a111¼1:294/C2109C/C06m10N;
a112¼/C01:950/C2109C/C06m10N;a123
¼/C02:500/C2109C/C06m10N;
a1111¼3:863/C21010C/C08m14N;a1112
¼2:529/C21010C/C08m14N;
a1122¼1:637/C21010C/C08m14N;a1123
¼1:367/C21010C/C08m14N;
Q11¼0:10C/C02m4;Q12¼/C00:034C/C02m4;Q44
¼0:029C/C02m4;T¼25/C14C;
c11¼1:78/C21011Nm/C02;c12¼0:96/C21011Nm/C02;
c44¼1:22/C21011Nm/C02:
For CoFe 2O4,
Ms¼4/C2105A=m;k100¼/C0590/C210/C06;k111
¼120/C210/C06;K1¼3/C2105J=m3;K2¼0J=m3;
A¼7/C210/C012J=m:
The in-plane lattice parameters for BaTiO 3and CoFe 2O4are
ap¼0.399 nm and am¼0.419 nm, and the cubic parameters
for the substrates SrTiO 3and DyScO 3areas(SrTiO 3)
¼0.3905 nm and as(DyScO 3)¼0.3943 nm.12,22The critical
thickness for the formation of dislocation is on the order ofseveral nanometers. The values h
cp¼hcm¼4 nm are adopted
in the present study. The volume fraction of CoFe 2O4is set
as 35%. For simplicity, elastic homogeneity is assumed inthe material whose elastic constants are taken as those of
BaTiO
3. Considering the case where there is an in-plane
compressive stress field in the ferroelectric phase, the initialpolarization is set to be along the x
3direction. Upon switch-
ing the direction of the applied magnetic field from the x1to
thex3axis, the MIEP is given by D/C22P3¼/C22P3(H//x1)/C0/C22P3(H//x3),
where /C22P3is the average polarization of the nanocomposite film.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 2presents the variation of the MIEP with respect
to the thickness of a nanocomposite film. In a multiferroiccomposite, the ME coupling is essentially due to the stress-
mediated interaction between the ferromagnetic and ferro-
electric phases. In the present study, the magnetostrictiveproperties of the nanocomposite significantly affect the
MIEP. By rotating the applied magnetic field from the x
1to
thex3direction, the CoFe 2O4nanopillars with a negative
magnetostrictive constant k100tend to contract in the x3
direction and extend along the x1axis. Consequently, the
neighboring BaTiO 3phase is subject to both lateral and ver-
tical contraction. Through the electrostrictive effects, the
out-of-plane contraction reduces the polarization P3while
the in-plane contraction enhances P3. Thus, the MIEP is
attributed to the result of the competition between the lateral
and vertical elastic interactions. In the present case, the verti-
cal elastic interaction is more significant, which leads to thedecrease of the out-of-plane polarization of the film. With
increasing film thickness, the influences from the vertical094102-3 Chen, Hong, and Soh J. Appl. Phys. 109, 094102 (2011)
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141.35.40.137 On: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 19:39:50elastic interaction would become more and more dominant.
As a result, the magnitude of the MIEP increases with
increasing film thickness. Moreover, in order to study the
influence of the lateral interfacial strains, two substrates (i.e.,SiTiO
3and DyScO 3) are considered. With reference to Fig. 2,
the MIEP is enhanced in the case of DyScO 3due to the
smaller lattice mismatch between the nanocomposite thinfilm and the substrate. Thus, one could infer that comparable
lattice parameters of the substrate and the film are desirable
in order to produce large magnetoelectric coupling effects.
Figure 3presents the contours of the vertical stress r
33
with respect to the thickness of the film deposited on the
SrTiO 3substrate. It can be seen clearly from Fig. 3(a) that
when the film thickness is small, the vertical stress is greatly
influenced by the substrate and the free surface, which causes
rapid variation of vertical stresses in the direction of thethickness. With reference to Figs. 3(b)–3(d), the influence of
the vertical epitaxial strains on the vertical stress state is
increased with increasing film thickness, which leads to amore homogeneously distributed vertical stress state along
the direction of the thickness. Thus, it can be inferred that
when the film is sufficiently thick, the influence of the sub-strate becomes negligible, and the vertical strains play an im-
portant role in manipulating the ME coupling effects.
Consequently, the influence of the vertical strains on MEcoupling effects cannot be neglected in the nanocomposite
films in which large vertical strains would exist.
Recently, some experimental results
23have illustrated
that the vertical strain state could be controlled by tuning ei-
ther the deposition frequency or the film composition.
Thus, a coherent coefficient fis defined to describe the
tunable vertical epitaxial strain, which is expressed as
e33t¼f[(1/C0g)e33pþge33m]. Note that f¼1 stands for full co-
herence between the FE and FM phases, and f¼0 denotes
full relaxation of the lattice mismatch between the two
phases. Figure 4presents the relation between the MIEP and
the coherent coefficient, which clearly shows that the MIEPcan be enhanced by relaxing the vertical lattice mismatch.
However, the small diameter of the nanopillars in the vertical
heteroepitaxial nanocomposite thin film leads to little relaxa-tion of the vertical strains in the film, which would greatly
suppress the ME coupling effects. This may provide some
clue as to why only weak ME coupling was observed innanocomposite multiferroic films. It is worth noting that for
thin films, the top and bottom electrodes should have some
effect on the distribution of strains. However, for relativelythicker films, the influences from the electrodes as well as
the substrate are not dominant, as demonstrated above.
In summary, the ME coupling effects in vertical heteroe-
pitaxial nanocomposite thin films have been studied using
the phase field method. It has been found that a better under-
standing of the ME coupling effects in such thin films can beachieved by incorporating the epitaxial strains in all three
directions and the free surface and substrate effects. The
MIEP is found to be strongly dependent on film thickness, aswell as on vertical and lateral epitaxial strains.
FIG. 3. (Color online) Variations of the vertical stress r33with the thickness
of a film deposited on a SrTiO 3substrate: (a) 16 nm, (b) 32 nm, (c) 48 nm,
and (d) 64 nm.
FIG. 4. Plot of the magnetic-field-induced electric polarization vs the coher-ent coefficient for the case of a film deposited on a SrTiO
3substrate.
FIG. 2. The dependence of the magnetic-field-induced electric polarization
on the film thickness.094102-4 Chen, Hong, and Soh J. Appl. Phys. 109, 094102 (2011)
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141.35.40.137 On: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 19:39:50ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Support from the Research Grants Council of the Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project Nos.
HKU716508E and HKU716007E) is acknowledged.
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1.333693.pdf | Effects of critical fluctuations on Gilbert damping in iron near T C
B. Heinrich and A. S. Arrott
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 55, 2455 (1984); doi: 10.1063/1.333693
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.333693
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/55/6?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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130.113.86.233 On: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 17:53:45Effects of critical fluctuations on Gilbert damping in iron near Tc
B. Heinrich and A. S. Arrott
Department of Physics. Simon Fraser University. Burnaby. British Columbia. Canada V5A IS6
Low field ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) is measured near Tc. The whisker is magnetized along
its long axis (00 1), but not uniformly so because of demagnetizing effects and the nonlinear
response of the magnetization to the internal field. A current at fm frequencies is passed along the
axis creating a fm magnetic field which is transverse to and circulating about the axis in a skin
depth of 0.01 mm. The condition ofFMR is reflected in the measured impedance. The frequency
and temperature dependence of the Gilbert damping is extracted using a five parameter
parametric equation of state taking into account the FMR equation of motion and the
magnetostatics. The Gilbert damping is greater than that measured in high field microwave FMR
and it peaks near Tc. The results are consistent with extrapolation of neutron measurements to
extract the wave vector zero loss.
PACS numbers: 76.50. + g
I. INTRINSIC DAMPING
Though the dynamic response of a ferromagnetic metal
is dominated by eddy currents, once Maxwell's equations
and Ohm's law are taken into account, measurements of the
ac susceptibility yield an intrinsic damping parameter, for
which Kamberskyl has given a theoretical interpretation us
ing the interaction of the spins of the itinerant electrons with
lattice vibrations mediated by the spin-orbit interaction. We
have carried out several types of susceptibility experiments
to obtain the intrinsic damping parameter for iron whiskers
near the critical temperature in order to determine the ef
fects of magnetic fluctuations and to see if the spin-orbit
interactions are changed significantly as the spontaneous
magnetization vanishes.
II. EQUATIONS OF MOTION
Gilbert has described the dissipation of energy for the
precession of the magnetization in the local field by
dM/dt = -yoMX[H -f3(dM/dt)), (1)
where Yo is the gyromagnetic ratio and P is the damping
coefficient, usually expressed as
P= (I/AGHAG/yoMf, (2)
where AG is the Gilbert damping parameter. The bracketed
expression is dimensionless. Though f3 is proportional to A G ,
it has the dimensions of time while AG is a relaxation rate.
Landau and Lifshitz have described the relaxation process
using
dM/dt= -y'(MXH)-A£dMIXl -H),
where (3)
(4)
Presumably y' should be less than or equal to Yo, for it does
not make sense for the precession rate to increase with damp
ing. As often discussed2 the Gilbert and Landau-Lifshitz
equations are formally equivalent for a magnetization of
fixed magnitude. Both can be expressed as
dMldt= -yMX[H-P(dMldt))' (5)
For Gilbert's isotropic frictional model, y is not a parameter. For Landau-Lifshitz both y and P are parameters, given by
y = y'[1 + (ALL/y'Mn (6)
P = (I/ALL )(ALL/y'M)2/[1 + (ALL ly'M n (7)
The Landau-Lifshitz form can describe any motion permit
ted by a choice ofthe single Gilbert parameter AG by setting
ALL =AG/[l + (AG/yoMf] , (8)
y' = Yol[l + (AG/yoMf]· (9)
As one goes through the Curie temperature, the Landau
Lifshitz formulation makes a natural contact with paramag
netic relaxation.
To the extent that we can account for the low field reso
nance experiments reported here, it is sufficient to use the
single Gilbert coefficient. This is because the dimensionless
parameter AG/YoM is sufficiently less than unity. On the
other hand, our previous experiments on the susceptibility in
zero field3 gave indications that AG/YoM reached values
greater than unity.
III. LOW FIELD RESONANCE
The experimental arrangement by which we achieve
ferromagnetic resonance in low fields is described in a recent
report.4 An ac current at 100 MHz is used to create an ac
field which curls about the central axis of an iron whisker
magnetized by a longitudinal field sufficient for saturation of
its central portion. The peak of Im(K) appears in fields of
about 10 Oe. We determine the contribution of the whisker
to the impedance of the circuit by measuring the standing
wave ratio (Z -Zo)/(Z + Zo), where Zo is the impedance of
both the coaxial cable and the Lecher wires that carry the
current to the whisker. This is
f+l,
LiZ = -I, Pedz/21TR{)(z), (10)
where Pe is the electrical resistivity, 2/) is the spacing
between the Lecher wires contacting the whisker on its side
surfaces, and {) (z) is the skin depth calculated from the per
meability Jt(z) using
(11 )
2455 J. Appl. Phys. 55 (6).15 March 1984 0021-8979/84/062455-03$02.40 @ 1984 American Institute of Physics 2455
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130.113.86.233 On: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 17:53:45The permeability is calculated from the equation of motion
Eq. (5). It depends on z because the demagnetizing field var
ies along the length of the whisker. To solve the equation of
motion we assume that the whisker is circular. (We etch the
whisker to make this assumption more realistic.) The field is
H = (h,p¢ -41Tmpp)Jo(Kp)lJ o(KR )exp(iwt) + Hiz.(12)
There is a large demagnetizing factor 41T for the radial com
ponent mp' but none for the azimuthal component m,p' The
internal field Hi = Ho + H D' The calculation of the demag
netizing field H D for this nonlinear problem needs to be dis
cussed further. The response is of the form
M = (m,p¢ + mpp)Jo(Kp)IJo(KR )exp(iwt) + Mzz. (13)
The frequency dependent inverse transverse susceptibility is
= 1 + iwf3-Z
-_w_ 1 + iwfJ-z , (14) Xl M 2 ( M) ··1
Xl(W) Hi "lHiBi Bi
where Xl = Mzl Hi and Bi = Hi + 41TMz· The precession is
very elliptical, Im,p I/lmp I = BJHi at resonance.
The magnetization in iron near Te is described using a
Schofield type equation of state5:
HJM = cos (J rY; M 1M, = sin (J,t3;
( 15) (T -Te)IT, = (cos (J -sin2(J )r,
with T, = 1.45, M, = 254 Oe, y = 1.33, and fJ = 0.368.
The demagnetizing field is estimated by taking the total
magnetic charge on one half of the cylinder, given by
QT = 1TR 2M (0), and assuming it to be distributed linearly
along the side of the cylinder starting at a position z, from the
center. This charge gives a demagnetizing field at the center
which, together with Ho, determine M (0) from the Schofield
equation of state. This must be done self-consistently be
cause M (0) determines QT' One finds, also self-consistently,
the value of z, from the requirement that it be the position
along the whisker where the internal field goes to zero. As
the approximate nature of this estimate of Ho is a possible
source of our difficulties in fitting our results on the low field
side of resonance, we are continuing to work on this prob
lem.n
The results presented here differ from those given re
cently.4 The sample is now an etched whisker. Instead of
measuring the impedance directly as a function of applied
field, we have added a single turn coil wrapped closely about
the center of the whisker in order to locally modulate the
applied field as it is swept through the resonance fields. This
removes some of the effects of the uncertainty of how to
model the demagnetizing field as one passes from the region
near the center of the whisker where the differential suscepti
bility is low to the region near Zl and beyond where the sus
ceptibility becomes very large. The greater the ratio of z, to
the diameter of the modulation coil, the less the uncertainty
of the effect of the demagnetizing field on the modulated
signal.
IV. RESULTS
Figure 1 shows results for the derivative of the predo
minantly outphase component of the fm impedance. There
are difficulties with respect to the accuracy of the phase set-
2456 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 55, No.6, 15 March 1984 o 20 40 60 H[Oe]
FIG. I. Field dependence of the derivative with respect to field of imaginary
part of an averaged reciprocal skin depth at 100 MHz. Zero represents the
peak in the imaginary part. The upper curve is for Te -T = 1.34 K and the
lower one is for T, -T = 0.23 K calculated for AG = 4 X 10K sec -I and
AG = 6x 108 sec-I with appropriate magnetic parameters for each tem
perature and field.
ting in these experiments. These are not sufficient to effect
our conclusions, but we do plan to eliminate them in future
experiments. The fits using the analysis outlined above are
shown in Fig. 1. The results of the analysis are summarized
in the first part of Table I. Note that as long as one stays at a
fixed frequency, the closer one gets to Te , the higher the field
at resonance. Even though the measurements are quite close
to Te, the magnetization is still greater than 1/ 12 the value at
absolute zero. The dc differential susceptibility is just into
the dipolar region and orders of magnitude smaller than in
the zero field measurements.3 Nevertheless there is a sub
stantial increase in AG as X increases near Te. The second
group of entries in Table I are from the previous report,
where the comparison of theory and experiment are illus
trated. In all the fittings we have chosen Yo as 1.836x 107
sec - " corresponding to the g value 2.088 found by ferro
magnetic resonance below Tc. 7
The experiments from which we first obtained evidence
for large values of AG near Tc were carried out in zero dc bias
field. The magnetization pattern appears to take a configura
tion in which the magnetization curls about the long axis of
the whisker. Theory and experiment for this case are shown
TABLE I. Temperature dependence ofrelevant physical parameters.
Temperature AG Mz Resonant H,
(Te -T) sec-I dMz/dH, (Oe) (Oe)
1.34 4X 108 0.25 248 7
0.38 5.5X 108 0.83 143 14
0.23 6X 10" 1.02 155 17
0.084 6X 10K 1.21 140 20
1.58 4.5X 108 0.2 265 11
0.06 7X lOS 1.1 144 25
0.06 3X 109 3x IOJ 80
B. Heinrich and A. S. Arrott 2456
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130.113.86.233 On: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 17:53:45• 1
wB a_1 4nD; 4nD
o 10 20 f [kHz]
FIG. 2. Frequency dependence of inverse susceptibility 1/
417DXext = a(w) + iwfJ (w). Tc -T = 0.06 K. X's are [a(w) -I]. + 's are
wfJ (w). The solid curves are calculated for AG = 3 X 109 sec -I.
in Fig. 2. The.8 deduced is converted to AG = 3 X 109 sec -I
using Eq. (2); see last entry in Table I. This may be taken as
an upper limit for it presumes that all of the response comes
from magnetization pointing in the ifJ direction, whereas the
effect of applying a de bias field along the whisker shows that
the loss increases as the magnetization rotates toward the
axis, as expected from the model with constant .8. As the
magnetization rotates, the internal field remains very close
to zero until saturation is reached. In the resonance experi
ment saturation occurs and Hi increases with Ho. In this
sense the resonance experiments are further from the critical
2457 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 55, No.6, 15 March 1984 point, as measured by the differential susceptibility. Thus it
is consistent that A G should be larger in the zero field experi
ments .
One can also find such large damping parameters in the
neutron diffraction results of Mezei.8 He measures the dy
namic response
(16)
where rq is the line width parameter, which seems to have a
q independent contribution that goes as ro = r vY -112. At
T= T + 1.4 K, where X is unity, ro = rl = 2X 109 sec-I.
The neutron diffraction line width for the diffusive mode can
be related to the relaxation rate in the Landau-Lifshitz for
mulation of the problem by ALL = Xro. The connection to
the Gilbert description in terms of magnetic viscosity is not
so clear, but the agreement in magnitude is worth noting.
These relaxation rates are substantially greater than found at
lower temperature from ferromagnetic resonance. Heinrich
and Frait9 found AG = 4 X 107 sec -I at 300 K and 2 X 108
sec-I at 800 K. Bhagae reports AG = 1.3 X 108 sec-I from
800 to 1000 K. These values in the noncritical region have
been reasonbly accounted for by Kambersky. I
'v. Kambersky, Can. 1. Phys. 48, 2906 (1970); Czech. 1. Phys. B 26, 1366
(1976).
's. Iida, 1. Phys. Chern. Solids 24,631 (1963).
·'A. S. Arrott and B. Heinrich, 1. App!. Phys. 49, 2028 (1978).
4B. Heinrich and A. S. Arrott, 1. Magn. Magn. Mater. 31-34, 669 (1983).
sA. Arrott and 1. E. Noakes, 1. App!. Phys. 42, 1288 (1971).
"T. L. Templeton, A. S. Arrott and A. Aharoni (these Proceedings).
7S. M. Bhagat and M. S. Rothstein, Solid State Commun. 11, 1535 (1972).
"F. Mezei, Phys. Rev. Lett. 49.1096,1537 (1982).
9B. Heinrich and Z. Frait, Phys. Status Solidi 16, Kll (1966).
B. Heinrich and A. S. Arrott 2457
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130.113.86.233 On: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 17:53:45 |
1.4811331.pdf | A simplified Tamm-Dancoff density functional approach for the electronic excitation
spectra of very large molecules
Stefan Grimme
Citation: The Journal of Chemical Physics 138, 244104 (2013); doi: 10.1063/1.4811331
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4811331
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jcp/138/24?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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152.11.242.100 On: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 16:36:12THE JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS 138, 244104 (2013)
A simplified Tamm-Dancoff density functional approach for the electronic
excitation spectra of very large molecules
Stefan Grimmea)
Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie der Universität
Bonn, Beringstr. 4, D-53115 Bonn, Germany
(Received 22 April 2013; accepted 3 June 2013; published online 25 June 2013)
Two approximations in the Tamm-Dancoff density functional theory approach (TDA-DFT) to elec-
tronically excited states are proposed which allow routine computations for electronic ultraviolet
(UV)- or circular dichroism (CD) spectra of molecules with 500–1000 atoms. Speed-ups comparedto conventional time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) treatments of about two to three orders of magni-
tude in the excited state part at only minor loss of accuracy are obtained. The method termed sTDA
(“s” for simplified) employs atom-centered Löwdin-monopole based two-electron repulsion inte-
grals with the asymptotically correct 1/ Rbehavior and perturbative single excitation configuration
selection. It is formulated generally for any standard global hybrid density functional with givenFock-exchange mixing parameter a
x. The method performs well for two standard benchmark sets
of vertical singlet-singlet excitations for values of axin the range 0.2–0.6. The mean absolute de-
viations from reference data are only 0.2–0.3 eV and similar to those from standard TD-DFT. Inthree cases (two dyes and one polypeptide), good mutual agreement between the electronic spectra
(up to 10–11 eV excitation energy) from the sTDA method and those from TD(A)-DFT is obtained.
The computed UV- and CD-spectra of a few typical systems (e.g., C
60, two transition metal com-
plexes, [7]helicene, polyalanine, a supramolecular aggregate with 483 atoms and about 7000 basis
functions) compare well with corresponding experimental data. The method is proposed together
with medium-sized double- or triple-zeta type atomic-orbital basis sets as a quantum chemical toolto investigate the spectra of huge molecular systems at a reliable DFT level. © 2013 AIP Publishing
LLC.[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4811331 ]
I. INTRODUCTION
Kohn-Sham density functional theory (KS-DFT) is now
the most widely used method for electronic structure calcu-lations of larger molecules and this holds not only for elec-
tronic ground states. In recent years, time-dependent den-
sity functional theory (TD-DFT)
1–4has also emerged as
the “work-horse” of quantum chemistry for the calculation
of excited state properties and electronic spectra (see, e.g.,
Refs. 5–9for reviews, for TD-DFT calculations of ground
state properties such as dispersion coefficients, see, e.g.,
Refs. 10and11). Because of the moderate computational cost
and complexity, TD-DFT is applicable to fairly large sys-
tems (about 100 atoms) for which traditional wave function
based methods are not routinely feasible (for alternative “low-cost” single-reference wave function based methods, see, e.g.,
Refs. 12and13, for TD-DFT treatments of a few excited
states in very large systems with special hard- and software,see Ref. 14).
However, as already simple computational con-
siderations show, the theoretical treatment of an entireultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) electronic spectrum (e.g., in a
typical excitation energy range from 2 to 7 eV) for systems
with several hundreds of atoms or a small protein with about
a)grimme@thch.uni-bonn.de1000 atoms still remains a challenge. This problem is the
topic of the present work.
Normally, the standard TD-DFT approach yields roughly
the same good accuracy for excited states as for ground states.
With the usually employed adiabatic approximation,1,2TD-
DFT is expected to work well for many of the low-lying va-lence states considered here,
3and one remaining problem is
the choice of the time-independent density functional. Cur-
rently, it is common practice to employ standard functionals inTD-DFT like those of the generalized gradient approximation
(GGA) or global hybrid GGAs, e.g., B3LYP
15,16that origi-
nally have been developed for ground states. One basic rea-son for the success is the use of the “correlated” KS orbitals
that seem more reliable in an excited state treatment than, e.g.,
those from Hartree-Fock or semi-empirical alternatives.
The inherent problems of TD-DFT are also apparent
since excited state methods must include orbital relaxation ef-
fects as well as static and dynamical electron correlation ef-
fects for states of often very different character in a balanced
manner. Moreover, some excited states have at least partialdouble excitation character and pose challenging multiplet
problems for all single-reference approaches. Typically, stan-
dard TD-DFT provides larger errors in situations where thereis substantial ionic, charge-transfer (CT), double excitation,
Rydberg or multiplet character in the excited states which
somewhat limits its applicability in electronic spectroscopy.
17
Partial solutions to this list of problems have been suggested.
0021-9606/2013/138(24)/244104/14/$30.00 © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC 138, 244104-1
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We consider here mainly the CT-state problem (see, e.g.,
Refs. 18–21) which is very important in large systems as it
leads to many artificial (“ghost”) states. The failure is relatedto the wrong asymptotic form for the exchange-correlation
(XC) potential, the related self-interaction-error (SIE
22–25),
and the integer-discontinuity problem20,25(see below for fur-
ther discussion). This leads to the too small KS-orbital energy
gap, too high single-particle ionization potentials (IP), and too
low electron affinity (EA). Although these states often havevanishing transition moments, they can “cover” the states of
interest and must be avoided because of an otherwise extreme
increase of the number of roots that have to be computed in
order to uncover the physical ones. For a recently developed
theoretical tool to identify such states, see Ref. 26.
One way to alleviate the CT- and Rydberg-state problem
is to increase the admixture of non-local Fock-exchange in
hybrid functionals from typically 10% to 25%, which is bestfor ground states, to values up to 50% as, e.g., in the BHLYP
functional.
27The dependency of TD-DFT excitation energies
on the Fock-exchange admixture has been investigated sys-tematically for large organic molecules.
28This study showed
that the optimum value on average is around 40% which is
consistent with the finding, that PBE38 (3/8 =37.5% of Fock-
exchange) performs best for frequency-dependent molecular
dipole polarizabilities (which are related to UV-spectra).29
Both problems are mostly solved by an exact treatment of the
DFT exchange30or by hybrid functionals containing 100%
Fock-exchange.31Special treatments32,33as well as asymp-
totically correct functionals34for such cases have also been
developed. Nowadays, a common technique in TD-DFT cal-
culations is to employ long-range corrected (LC, also calledrange-separated, RS) functionals which asymptotically em-
ploy 100% non-local Fock-exchange.
35–38Recently, a kind
of reformulation of TD-DFT called constricted variationaldensity functional theory (CV-DFT) has been proposed by
Ziegler et al.
39and in this approach the CT/SIE-problem is
cured by inclusion of exact two-electron integrals which al-ready appear in a second-order expansion of the theory. For
a recent thorough discussion of the gap problem and a non-
empirical (partial) solution in the LC/RS-framework, see thevery good publication of Kronik et al.
40
In summary, it seems clear that at present one cannot
avoid inclusion of “exact” (Fock) exchange (and the result-ing response terms) in a DFT excited state treatment even for
relatively simple valence excited states of electronically well-
behaved systems (which are the topics of this work). This doesnot pose a major problem for the always required solution of
the ground state KS self-consistent field (SCF) type equations
which is nowadays possible even for 500–1000 atoms using
reasonable (double- or triple-zeta, e.g., SV(P) or TZVP
41,42)
atomic orbital (AO) basis sets. However, what is really pro-hibitive in terms of computational cost is the solution of the
special TD-DFT eigenvalue problem for the full UV-Vis spec-
trum of a 500 atom system. Typically, the expansion space ofthe single excitation amplitudes is then of dimension 10
6–107
and importantly, about 102–103“true” (physical) eigenval-
ues are required (one valence excited state per “light” atomis a good rule of thumb). It is currently not possible to per-
form such calculations routinely when the necessary Fock-exchange is involved and hence, the electronic spectra at
medium to higher energies of many interesting supramolec-
ular, nanoscopic, or bio-molecular systems (e.g., small pro-teins) are not accessible theoretically at a DFT level. In this
context, it is noted that a special TD-DFT treatment has been
proposed for spectral applications with high density of statesin which the computation of individual roots is avoided but
replaced by many calculations of frequency-dependent imag-
inary polarizabilities.
43–45For a related direct time-dependent
approach to an UV-spectrum coupled with semi-empirical
methods see Ref. 46, for alternative fragment (subsystem)
based TD-DFT methods for extended systems see, e.g.,
Ref. 47.
The goal of the present work is to develop a simplified
variant of TD-DFT that is based on the Tamm-Dancoff ap-
proximation (TDA).48,49It will be dubbed sTDA (or sTDA-
DFT) from now on. The approach makes use of drastic sim-plifications to the treatment of molecular two-electron inte-
grals and massively truncates the single excitation expansion
space. This leads to computational savings compared to stan-dard TD-DFT by at least two orders of magnitude at only mi-
nor loss of accuracy in typical applications. In the proposed
scheme, the solution of the ground state SCF equations is rate-determining and the ensuing computation of the full UV-Vis
spectrum of a 500 atom system requires less than 1 h on a nor-
mal laptop computer (single Intel-i7 2.7 GHz CPU throughoutthis work).
Besides the principle limitations of the current TD-DFT
treatment of excited states as mentioned above, high accuracy
and including the subtle details of the many individual states
is often not necessary in spectra calculations. Instead, a simplebut physically still reasonable description involving the most
important (coupled) single excitations should be sufficient to
describe the typical situation of a very high density of elec-tronic states. In essence, it seems to be often sufficient if in a
broad electronic band composed of dozens of states only the
majority is computed adequately.
After a brief outline of the basic theory, the two fun-
damental approximations involved in the sTDA approach
are described. Their accuracy is then tested on two dif-ferent benchmark sets for common valence excitations of
(mainly organic) molecules. The scope and limitations of the
method are demonstrated for a few examples ranging fromthe CT state in a model system to Rydberg states and fi-
nally to electronic excitation (UV-Vis and circular dichroism,
CD) spectra of medium-sized and large (up to 483 atoms)molecules.
II. THEORY
A. General
In the following, the term Tamm-Dancoff approximation
is used which is in the DFT community well established49
and denotes a simplification to the full TD-DFT response
problem.1,7In wave function theory, the TDA corresponds to
a configuration interaction (CI) problem in which only sin-
gle excitations from a Hartree-Fock (or Kohn-Sham) determi-
nant are included (usually termed CIS). In the following, the
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abbreviation TD(A)-DFT (or TD(A)) is used whenever both,
the full TD-DFT and its Tamm-Dancoff approximation is
meant while TDA or TD is used specifically for the corre-sponding methods.
The resulting TDA/CIS standard eigenvalue problem
reads
At=ωt, (1)
where t
a
iare the unknown CIS amplitudes corresponding to
an excitation from occupied molecular orbital (MO) ito vir-
tual orbital a(ij. . . is used for occupied, ab. . . for virtual, and
pqrs. . . for orbitals from any set), and ωrepresents an excita-
tion energy vector of length mformdesired excited electronic
states (roots). We consider in the following a closed-shell (re-
stricted) reference ground state and only spin-adapted singletfunctions. The extension to triplet states, an unrestricted or
restricted open-shell reference is straightforward (see, e.g.,
Refs. 50–52). Hirata and Head-Gordon
49have first explored
the TDA in the framework of DFT and have shown that it per-
forms as well as the parent linear response approach. With
large amounts of Fock-exchange mixing in hybrids or for
LC/RS-functionals, TDA seems to be more robust regarding
so-called triplet instabilities.53For a very recent comparison
of TDA and TD treatments for valence states, see Ref. 54,f o r
a very early precursor to TDA-DFT (dubbed DFT/SCI), see
Ref. 55.
In a general notation including CIS as well as TDA-DFT,
the elements of the matrix Aread1,3,49
ATDA
iajb=δijδab(/epsilon1a−/epsilon1i)+2(ia|jb)−ax(ij|ab)
+(1−ax)(ia|f|jb), (2)
where axis the amount of non-local Fock exchange which
is included in a hybrid density functional (i.e., ax=1
for CIS), /epsilon1are the single-particle energies, and ( ia|jb)
is a two-electron integral in charge-cloud notation (i.e.,(ia|jb)=/integraltext/integraltext
i(r
1)a(r1)1
r12j(r2)b(r2)dr1dr2) with the corre-
sponding MOs. They are obtained by solving the KS-SCF
equations including the XC-energy from a standard hybrid
ansatz15
Ehybrid
XC=(1−ax)EGGA
X+axEFock
X+EGGA
C, (3)
where EGGA
X andEFock
X denote semi-local GGA and non-
local Fock terms, respectively, and EGGA
C is the GGA correla-
tion energy. We will employ here mostly the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhoff (PBE
56) functional as GGA component and note
that excitation spectra are generally very insensitive to the
choice of the GGA (but more strongly dependent on ax,s e e
below). Because various non-standard values for axare tested,
we will employ in addition to common abbreviations (e.g.,PBE0
57for a PBE hybrid with ax=0.25 or PBE3829for one
with ax=0.375) the notation PBE( ax) to denote a hybrid with
any amount of Fock-exchange.
The last term in Eq. (2), which is of DFT origin, is defined
as
(ia|f|jb)=/integraldisplay/integraldisplay
i(r1)a(r1)fXC(r1,r2)j(r2)b(r2)dr1dr2.
(4)In the adiabatic approximation, the time-dependent exchange-
correlation kernel fXCis derived from the time-independent
GGA portion of the ground state functional. This term is ne-glected here (or rather replaced) so that computationally ex-
pensive numerical quadrature is completely avoided in the
excited state part.
As already mentioned, a TDA-DFT treatment for a larger
system becomes computationally prohibitive for two basic
reasons: First, the number of matrix elements grows as N
4
with system size (as measured by N) and an increasing num-
ber of roots (on the order of hundreds to thousands) has to
be computed in a given energy range. Hence, one step should
be concerned with a reduction of the excitation space by se-
lection techniques without too much sacrificing the accuracy.Second, the matrix elements in Eq. (2)require manipulation
of four-index two-electron integrals in the MO basis (or in the
AO basis with transformed excitation vectors) which becomesextremely demanding when 10
3–104AO basis functions are
involved. Simplification of these two issues is in the focus of
this work.
B. Integrals
The most intriguing finding of the present work is that a
simple monopole (atomic charge) type approximation for the
four-index two-electron repulsion integrals in the MO basiscan be used in the framework of TDA even with extended AO
basis sets. In general, it reads
(pq|rs)≈N/summationdisplay
AN/summationdisplay
BqA
pqqB
rsγ(A,B )( 5 )
with the here generalized Mataga-Nishimoto-Ohno-
Klopman58–60damped Coulomb law given by
γ(A,B )J=/parenleftbigg1
(RAB)β+(axη)−β/parenrightbigg1/β
. (6)
The superscript Jindicates a Coulomb-type integral, RABis
the interatomic distance, βis a parameter, and ηis the arith-
metic average of the chemical hardness of the two atoms A
andB,η(A)=∂2E(A)
∂n2, where nis the number of electrons and
Eis the total atomic electronic energy. We take tabulated η(A)
values consistent for all elements of the periodic table fromRef. 61. In semi-empirical theories, ηis normally identified
with an average of atomic Coulomb and exchange integrals
(or orbital based IP −EA values
62) and the exponent βis fixed
to integer values of one or two.58–60
TheqA
ipare atom-centered point charges for a transition
density ip(or charge density for p=i). Asymptotically for
large distances, the integrals computed using the formula (6)
have the correct 1/ Rbehavior. For RAB→0, the integral be-
comes axηwhich is the desired result consistent with the orig-
inal TDA-DFT matrix elements (cf. the third term in Eq. (2)).
For exchange integrals ( ia|jb) (superscript K), we employ
a similar formula
γ(A,B )K=/parenleftbigg1
(RAB)α+η−α/parenrightbigg1/α
(7)
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but with the important difference that the corresponding in-
tegrals remain finite (opposed to those derived from γJ)a l s o
for vanishing axas required. The so computed exchange inte-
grals have a different distance dependence than the Coulomb
integrals which in the context of DFT represent the GGA
response.7These physically different origins are reflected
here in different decay properties with RAB.
One further new element of the present method is that the
(transition) density charges qA
ipare obtained from a Löwdin
population analysis63
qA
ip=/summationdisplay
μ∈AC/prime
μiC/prime
μp, (8)
where the sum is over AO functions (index μ) centered on
atom A. The matrix C/primedenotes orthogonalized MO coeffi-
cients obtained from
C/prime=S1/2C,
where Care the coefficients in the original basis. Note that/summationtextNbf
μ|C/prime
μp|2=1 for all p(Nbfbeing the number of AOs).
If the qare pre-computed and stored in memory and the
intermediate products qB
pqγ(A,B )i nE q . (5)are also kept in
memory, the evaluation of any MO repulsion integral requiresonly N
at(the number of atoms in the system) operations. Be-
cause the pre-factor is also small and optimized linear algebra
routines can be used, the matrix Ain Eq. (1)can be built in a
short time for several hundreds of atoms. From another point
of view, the integral approximation corresponds to a kind of
resolution-of-the-identity (RI64,65) approach with one “func-
tion” per atom, i.e., one saves about a factor of 30–50 in com-
putation time for typical AO basis sets compared to conven-
tional RI.
A monopole expansion of molecular (transition) densities
is certainly a drastic approximation that has to be validated asdemonstrated below. Simple considerations show that local-
ized exchange-type distributions are described badly, e.g., q
ia
is (incorrectly) vanishing for a single atom. It is thus expected,
that localized atom-like excitations (e.g., nπ*) for which the
corresponding integrals are small but still on the order of
about 0.2 eV are treated less accurately than, e.g., more de-localized ππ* states (which are more in our focus). The ef-
fect of these drastic (but necessary) approximations can be
alleviated by introducing global but a
x-dependent empirical
parameters. However, because the orbitals and states of larger
systems are generally more delocalized, the integral approxi-
mation will improve for our actual targets.
The simplest way to account for some systematic un-
derestimation of exchange type integrals ( ia|jb) and for the
amount of Fock-admixture in the functional (i.e., the degree
of correlation effects included) is to modify the distance de-
pendence of the γfunctions by the values of βandαin
Eqs. (6)and(7)separately. It is proposed to use linear re-
lations of the form
β=β(1)+β(2)ax (9)
and analogously for the exchange part
α=α(1)+α(2)ax, (10)where β(1–2)andα(1–2)are the only empirical parameters of
the method.
In summary, the sTDA matrix elements are computed
from KS-DFT ground state quantities as
AsTDA
iajb=δijδab(/epsilon1a−/epsilon1i)+2(ia|jb)/prime−(ij|ab)/prime, (11)
where the prime indicates the monopole based two-electron
integrals. Note that the ( ij|ab)/primevanish as required for ax=0
and that there is no analogue of the TD(A)-DFT ( ia|f|jb)
response term. Its effect is small and absorbed here into(ia|jb)
/primeintegrals. The so computed matrix elements without
further (configuration selection) approximation as discussed
below preserve invariance under unitary orbital transforma-tions and provide exactly degenerate states for non-Abelian
symmetries. Overall the method requires as input only the
Fock-exchange mixing parameter from the chosen density
functional. The four global parameters β
(1),β(2),α(1),α(2)
are determined once by a least-squares fit to reference exci-
tation energies for a few values of ax. Due to this approach,
the method can be applied without further adjustment to any
existing density functional. It has been tested for global hy-brids with a
xup to 0.8 but only values in the range 0.2 <ax
≤0.6 are recommended. The application of the sTDA method
to LC/RS-functionals will be investigated in a forthcomingpaper.
As noted already, the proposed approach for the TDA
Hamiltonian matrix elements uses ideas from older semi-empirical MO theories. More specifically, a monopole
approximation for integrals appearing in linear response type
equations has already been employed by Niehaus et al.
66
in the context of the semi-empirical density functional
tight-binding (DFTB) method. Because in this case the
linear-response problem of a semi-local density functional
was approximated, the Coulomb term (which arises from
the response of ground state “exact” exchange) in Eq. (2)
is not present ( ax=0) and the monopole (called “gamma”)
approximation is only applied to ( ia|jb)+(ia|f|jb). A
monopole-type treatment for all integrals is first proposedhere. The second difference concerns the computation of the
charges q. In DFTB, the Mulliken population analysis
67is
used which provides reasonable results if small (minimal)basis sets are applied. In general, however, for large and
possibly extended (diffuse) basis functions the Mulliken ap-
proach leads to artificial charges and too inaccurate integrals.This problem has been solved by the Löwdin partitioning
which yields robust and consistent Coulomb and exchange
integrals even for extended AO basis sets as tested below (forfurther improvements of the Löwdin scheme for conventional
charges, see Ref. 68).
III. TRUNCATION OF THE SINGLE EXCITATION SPACE
In order to make the above integral approximation sen-
sible, the other computational bottleneck in TDA must alsobe considered. Intelligent truncation of CI spaces has been
successfully applied since decades to reduce the computa-
tional effort at only minor loss of accuracy.
69–72These ap-
proaches are physically based on the fact that the states of in-
terest (composed here of so-called primary CIS configuration
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state functions, P-CSF) are strongly interacting only with a
relatively small number of secondary configurations (S-CSF).
A huge number of remaining ones can either be discardedor their effect is estimated by perturbation theory. The three
spaces are termed P-CSF, S-CSF, and N-CSF (N stands for
neglected).
In the presently proposed approach, the P-CSF are de-
fined by an ordered set (according to their diagonal Hamilto-
nian matrix element) of single excitations ψwhich are lower
in energy than the maximum energy E
maxof the spectral
range of interest. For example, if one is interested in an UV-
spectrum up to 7.5 eV , the P-CSF space initially consists of
all CSF with a diagonal element ≤7.5 eV above the ground
state. The ground state is represented by the non-interactingKS-determinant which is always set to the zero of energy
by implicitly assuming Brillouins’ theorem. In a typical case
with a few hundred atoms, the P-space includes about 10
3
CSF while the total dimension is about 106–107. In TD(A)-
DFT and related methods (e.g., DFT/MRCI71), inclusion of
the huge number of S-CSF/N-CSF is not necessary becausemajor electron correlation effects are already included at the
KS-SCF level. The technique applied here could also partially
speed up standard TD(A)-DFT. However, selection by diago-nal element only is not fully satisfactory because CSF which
are slightly higher in energy than E
maxmay contribute sig-
nificantly due to a large coupling element. Therefore, otherimportant CSF are selected by second-order-perturbation the-
ory. A CSF ψ
kis included in the S-CSF space if its cumulative
perturbative energy contribution
E(2)
u=P−CSF/summationdisplay
v|Auv|2
Eu−Ev(12)
to all of the P-CSF is larger than a user-defined threshold
tp, where Erefers to the diagonal elements of the Amatrix
(Eq. (11)) andAuvis their respective coupling element. If the
sum in Eq. (12) is smaller than the threshold, it belongs to the
N-CSF space and the second-order energy is summed up for
all CSF v. This contribution which is usually small ( <0.2 eV)
is added to the diagonal elements in the P-space configura-
tions. The selected S-CSF are merged with those in the P-
space and the resulting matrix Ais diagonalized. All roots up
to the requested upper energy Emaxare computed. For a typical
large molecule using an Emaxvalue of 9 eV , the diagonalized
(S+P)-space is about 2 ×104–3×104fortpvalues of 10−4–
10−5(tpis given always in Hartree units in the following).
The convergence properties of this approach have been care-
fully checked for a few molecules and it is suggested to uset
p=10−4as a reasonable default (see below for examples).
Taking a few thousand roots from matrices of dimension 2
×104is a routine task on modern computers and takes only
CPU minutes. Note further that the simple form of perturba-
tion theory used here works in the CSF but not in a symmetry-
adapted state basis and hence breaks level degeneracies. Theeffect, however, is found to be very small for the default se-
lection threshold and is <0.05 eV for EandTstates in, e.g.,
benzene and C
60, respectively.
In order to save computation time and in particular core
memory, the active space of MOs which are considered insTDA is truncated at a very early stage of the calculation by
estimating conservatively (based on a scaled orbital energy
gap criterion similar to the treatment in Ref. 71) which MOs
altogether can be used to generate significantly contributing
CSF.
IV. TECHNICAL DETAILS OF THE CALCULATIONS
The DFT calculations were done with TURBOMOLE73,74
orORCA75,76while for sTDA an in-house written code was
used. We employ standard integration grids (m4/m5 in TUR-
BOMOLE or grid5 in ORCA ) and SCF convergence criteria. In
the SCF step, the RI integral approximation77–79was used.
If not stated otherwise, structures were fully optimized at
the TPSS-D3(BJ)/def2-TZVP level.29,80–82In the excited state
treatments, mostly SV(P)41or TZVP42AO basis sets are used
which provide results close enough to the basis set limit con-
sidering the inherent accuracy of the method.
Because (except in one example) Rydberg states are not
of interest here, the basis sets were not augmented with spa-
tially diffuse functions. In the large molecules considered in
this work, Rydberg states are “quenched” by Pauli-exchange
repulsion with the valence electrons.83The TZVP basis con-
tains semi-diffuse functions with Gaussian exponents in be-
tween those of typical valence and Rydberg orbitals (e.g., for
carbon about 0.15–0.2 (valence), 0.05 (Rydberg), and 0.095(smallest in TZVP)) which is sufficient to account for the of-
ten spatially extended character of excited states compared to
the ground state. Note, that typical augmented basis sets (e.g.,aug-cc-pVTZ
84) already for medium-sized systems like C 60
are inapplicable due to near linear dependencies in the ba-sis resulting in a non-convergent SCF. In larger systems, thisproblem is more acute and similar to the case of solids where
even TZVP can be problematic.
85
As standard, density functionals B3LYP,15,16PBE0,57
TPSS0,86PBE38,29and BHLYP27have been employed. All
excitation energies refer to vertical singlet states for the op-
timized ground state geometry. As default CSF selection
threshold, a value of tp=10−4Ehand an Emaxvalue of
8 eV were used. The active occupied and virtual MOs are au-tomatically selected according to the chosen E
maxvalue and
their number is typically only about 20%–30% of the full
MO space. Un-truncated TD(A)-DFT calculations with con-ventional integrals but with the same basis set and density
functional for comparison were carried out using the escf
module
87from TURBOMOLE .
The one-electron transition moments are calculated with-
out any further approximation from the sTDA wave func-
tion and the exact moment integrals in the AO basis. ForCD-spectra, we recommend the mixed form for the rotatory
strength R
Mcomputed as
RM=RVfL
fV, (13)
where RVis the gauge-origin independent velocity form for
the rotatory strength and fLandfVare the dipole-length
and dipole-velocity oscillator strengths, respectively. For the
UV-spectra, the dipole-lengths form is used which generallyconverges faster towards the basis set limit than the dipole-
velocity form.
6
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The vibrationally broadened experimental UV or CD
bands are simulated by summing oscillator- or rotatory
strengths weighted Gaussian curves with a full width at 1/ e-
height of σ=0.4 eV for each calculated electronic transition.
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Fit set and cross-validation
The sTDA method has been first tested on a stan-
dard set of 26 valence singlet-singlet excitation energies of
(mainly) organic molecules that originates from the data inRefs. 71,88–90(dubbed EXC26 set). It has also been used
to determine the four empirical parameters αandβof the
method. Moreover, for cross-validation 12 typical organicdyes are investigated (dubbed DYE12 set from Ref. 91).
Table Ipresents computed excitation energies in com-
parison to TD(A)-DFT and experimental data for EXC26.
Figure 1shows the mean absolute deviation (MAD) as a func-
TABLE I. Comparison of calculatedaand experimentalbsinglet-singlet ex-
citation energies (in eV) for the EXC26 benchmark set. The states are orderedaccording to energy in two groups (more local states in entries 1–9 and delo-calized ππ* states in entries 10–26).
Entry Molecule State sTDA TDA TD Exptl.
1O 3 11B2 1.89 2.02 1.93 2.0
2C H 2S11A2 2.09 2.26 2.23 2.24
3 Tetrazine 11B1u 2.09 2.36 2.27 2.29
4C 5 11/Pi1u 3.02 3.58 3.47 2.8
5C H 2O11A2 3.20 3.19 3.16 3.88
6 Uracil 21A/prime/prime4.70 4.78 4.76 4.8
7P 4 11T1 5.31 5.29 5.29 5.6
8 Adenine 11A/prime/prime5.02 5.11 5.10 5.12
9 Acetamide 11A/prime/prime5.73 5.67 5.65 5.69
10 Porphyrine 11B2u 2.10 2.35 2.30 2.0
11 Porphyrine 11B3u 2.30 2.54 2.46 2.4
12 Azulene 11B1 2.73 2.79 2.71 2.19
13 Perylene 21B2u 2.89 3.08 2.85 3.44
14 Coumarin153 21A 3.17 3.58 3.28 3.51
15 Anthracene 11B3u 3.37 3.52 3.29 3.7
16 t-azobenzene 11Bu 3.85 3.97 3.75 3.9
17 Naphthalene 11B2u 4.56 4.55 4.53 4.24
18 Naphthalene 11B3u 4.62 4.67 4.47 4.77
19 DMABN 11B1 4.48 4.59 4.50 4.3
20 DMABN 21A1 4.87 4.97 4.73 4.6
21 Octatetraene 11Bu 4.42 4.49 4.05 4.66
22 Hexatriene 11Bu 5.25 5.22 4.75 5.10
23 Adenine 21A/prime5.14 5.24 5.09 5.25
24 Norbornadiene 11A2 5.24 5.19 5.03 5.34
25 Benzene 11B1u 5.52 5.53 5.50 5.08
26 Benzene 11B2u 6.72 6.44 6.21 6.54
MDc−0.04 0.06 −0.08 . . .
Max-mind1.22 1.47 1.39 . . .
MADe0.23 0.22 0.28 . . .
aPBE0 functional using TPSS-D3/def2-TZVP82optimized geometries and TZVP basis
set.
bFor experimental or best estimate values from high-level wave function calculations,
see Refs. 71,88,89,a n d 90.
cMean deviation. A negative value corresponds to a systematic underestimation of the
excitation energy.
dDifference between largest and smallest deviation.
eMean absolute deviation.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0. 8ax0.150.20.250.30.350.40.450.5MAD / eVfit set (EXC26)
DYE12 set, tp=10-4
DYE12 set, tp=10-5
FIG. 1. Dependence of mean absolute deviation (MAD) from reference val-
ues on the Fock exchange mixing parameter axfor the two test sets and for
the DYE12 set also for two different selection thresholds (with tp=10−4
being the default).
tion of the Fock-exchange mixing parameter with the PBE hy-
brids for EXC26. This figure also includes MAD data for the
DYE12 benchmark which has been used in Ref. 91for test-
ing various DFT and wave function based excited state meth-
ods. For the dye molecules, always the lowest-lying optically
bright transition has been considered, for further details seeRef. 91. For related TD-DFT work on organic dyes see, e.g.,
Refs. 92and93.
From the statistical data, it is clear that the sTDA method
with the PBE0 standard functional performs already very
well and in fact better than one might have anticipated. For
EXC26, the MAD is only 0.23 eV which is almost the sameas for standard TDA and even slightly better than the full TD-
DFT treatment which yields a MAD of 0.28 eV . A similar
MAD for TD-DFT/PBE0 in excitation energy benchmarkshas been reported recently.
94Compared to TD(A)-DFT also
the error range (max-min value) is notably reduced in the
simplified treatment. Moreover, in particular the performance
for the larger systems is exceptional with most deviations be-
low 0.2 eV and only a few “outliers” with errors on the or-der of 0.5 eV (e.g., azulene or perylene which are similar in
TD(A)-DFT). The mean deviation (MD) is only significant
for the first nine transitions ( −0.18 eV) which are more local
(e.g., of nπ* type) than for the remaining ones for which a
MD close to zero is obtained. In contrast, the TD-DFT treat-
ment provides almost the same MD ( −0.08 eV) for all transi-
tions. Compared to TDA the MD for sTDA is lower by about
0.1 eV mainly due to the results for the nπ* states. This is ex-
pected because, as outlined above, the integral approximationis worse for locally excited states than for the ππ* transi-
tions in the second group (entries 10–26 in Table I). In this
respect, the sTDA performs nicely as theoretically expected.For the ππ* states, one notes in general no significant errors
from the monopole integrals which for some larger systems
(e.g., porphyrine) even seem to correct (probably by their bet-
ter distance dependence) the TD(A)-DFT excitation energies.
In general, we find better results for the ππ* states with TDA
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1234567 8 91 0 1 11 2
energy / eV020000400006000080000ε / cm-1 M-1TD-DFT (150 roots)
TDA-DFT (150 roots)
sTDA (Emax=11.5 eV)
FIG. 2. Comparison of computed (PBE0/TZVP) UV-spectra for indigo at sTDA- (black) and TD(A)-DFT levels (gray).
and sTDA compared to TD-DFT. Remarkably, for naphtha-
lene the well-known wrong ordering of the two lowest Lb
andLastates88,95by TD-DFT is corrected by TDA and this
good property is conserved by sTDA. Another striking exam-
ple in which sTDA is much better than TD(A)-DFT is the1/Pi1u
state of C 5for which the error is reduced from about 0.7 to
only 0.2 eV .
This excellent performance of sTDA is not limited to the
PBE0 functional with a relatively small value of ax=0.25
but also holds for a wide range of global hybrid function-
als as can be seen in Fig. 1. For the EXC26 set, we find the
MAD minimum around ax=0.3–0.4 with a very respectable
value of 0.2 eV . In the range of ax=0.1–0.6, also reasonable
MAD values <0.3 eV are obtained and only functionals with
ax>0.6 or ax=0 (semi-local GGA) cannot be recommended.
These findings are similar for the set of 12 organic dyes
which are investigated as a cross-validation. In Ref. 91,T D -
DFT together with various density functionals were evaluated
on this set and we cite here only MAD values for B3LYP
(0.31 eV) and the best method (0.19 eV) represented bythe B2GP-PLYP double hybrid functional. In the recommend
range of a
xvalues rather accurate excitation energies are ob-
tained by sTDA with MAD values always below 0.3 eV anda low minimum value of 0.21 eV for a
x=0.5. The sTDA
method with a medium-sized TZVP AO basis sets can com-
pete in accuracy with much more sophisticated (and compu-tationally expensive) CC2 based methods.
91The DYE12 set
was also used to investigate the dependence of the results on
the perturbation selection threshold tp(for a test on a com-
puted spectrum see below). As can be seen in Fig. 1, the effect
is small (always <0.1 eV for individual energies) and negli-
gible in practice. For larger axvalues, the excitation energies
are typically overestimated (similar to standard TD(A)-DFT)
and a smaller value of tpleads to bigger expansion spaces and
hence smaller excitation energies, so that the slight reduction
of the MAD seen in Fig. 1is understandable.As last examples in this section demonstrating the good
accuracy of sTDA-DFT compared to standard TD(A)-DFT,
two UV-spectra (indigo in Fig. 2and 9-(N-carbazolyl)-
anthracene in Fig. 3) are considered. The number of roots
in TD(A)-DFT was 150 and Emax=10/11.5 eV was used in
sTDA. For indigo, the spectra overall exhibit a remarkablemutual agreement even for high energies in the vacuum-UV
region and we only note a significant deviation for an intense
band at about 8 eV which is missing in TD-DFT but presentin both TDA spectra. In fact, over the entire energy range, the
deviations between sTDA and TDA or TD-DFT are similarly
small as between TDA and TD-DFT. The TD-DFT excited
state calculation took about 28 000 CPU seconds while the
sTDA treatment was finished in about 4 s! In the same way,a second example (9-(N-carbazolyl)-anthracene
96) with less
symmetry and with another density functional (BHLYP) was
investigated (Fig. 3) and likewise a reasonable mutual agree-
ment between sTDA, TDA and TD-DFT is found. Here, we
note very similar intensities of sTDA and TDA reflecting that
they are based on the same wave function but that the sTDAexcitation energies are lower and more similar to those from
TD-DFT.
Besides these direct comparisons of sTDA/TDA spectra,
we also present an analysis of the single excitation config-
uration contributions in both methods for one example. The
rather complicated case of indole with the four lowest dipole-allowed ππ* transitions (often termed L
a/bandBa/b) is con-
sidered (see Table II). The TDA single excitation expansion
coefficients as well as the oscillator strengths are sensitive to
the off-diagonal elements of the TDA matrix (configuration
mixing) and can reflect errors of the sTDA integral approxi-mation for these highly multi-configurational states.
As can be see from Table II, there is good mutual
agreement not only for the excitation energies and oscillatorstrengths but also between the corresponding single excitation
expansion coefficients. This holds for the mixing between the
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234567 8 91 0
energy / eV050000100000150000200000250000 ε / cm-1 M-1TD-DFT (150 roots)
TDA-DFT (150 roots)
sTDA (Emax=10 eV)
FIG. 3. Comparison of computed (BHLYP/TZVP) UV-spectra for 9-(N-carbazolyl)-anthracene at sTDA- (black) and TD(A)-DFT levels (gray).
two lowest La/bstates but also for the relatively high-lying Ba/b
states which for indole is not symmetry determined as in simi-
lar aromatic systems (e.g., naphthalene). These results are en-
couraging for an accurate description of transition moments
in complicated cases as discussed below, e.g., for electroniccircular dichroism spectra.
Before the discussion of larger molecules for which the
present approach is really designed for, two small and poten-
TABLE II. Analysis of TDA wave functions in terms of single excitation
configuration state function (CSF) coefficients for the four lowest dipole-
allowed transitions of indole with sTDA and TDA (PBE0/TZVP). Given
are the three largest contributions as well as the excitation energies /Delta1E(in
eV) and oscillator strengths f. The letters “H” and “L” denote highest occu-
pied and lowest unoccupied orbitals, respectively, and indicate the orbitalsinvolved in the excitation (“from” →“to”).
Coefficient for
/Delta1Ef CSF 1 CSF 2 CSF 3
State 1
H−1→LH →LH →L+1
TDA 4.99 0.051 0.60 −0.64 0.35
sTDA 4.95 0.028 0.69 −0.52 0.43
State 2
H→LH →L+1H −1→L
TDA 5.05 0.077 0.64 0.51 0.50
sTDA 5.01 0.067 0.75 0.45 0.38
State 4
H−2→LH →L+1H →L+3
TDA 6.39 0.235 0.51 0.49 0.42sTDA 6.33 0.181 0.54 0.47 0.44
State 6
H→L+1H →L+3H −1→L
TDA 6.71 0.647 0.54 0.39 0.39
sTDA 6.63 0.435 0.54 0.47 0.41tially problematic cases are considered in order to clearly out-
line its limitations.
B. Rydberg states of acetone
The Rydberg states in small and medium-sized molecules
are often atom-like in character and their electronic spatial
extent varies considerably, particularly compared to valencestates. This property is not reflected in the monopole integrals
and hence such states represent a very difficult test for the
present approach. In Table III,t h el o w e s t n→3spdRydberg
states of acetone are given as an example including a compar-
ison to experimental excitation energies, computed high-level(reference) oscillator strengths f, and values from a standard
TD-DFT treatment. In comparison to the TD-DFT excita-
tion energies, the corresponding sTDA values are lower by
TABLE III. C alculated (aug-cc-pVTZ,84AO basis for DFT, B3LYP func-
tional) and experimental excitation energies /Delta1E(in eV) for vertical singlet
excited states of acetone. The oscillator strengths ( f) for sTDA-DFT are given
in parentheses.
/Delta1E
State TD-DFT sTDA-DFT Exptl.afb
1B2(n→3s) 5.76 5.38 (0.017) 6.35 0.037
2A2(n→3px) 6 . 7 4 6 . 2 3... 7 . 3 6 ...
2A1(n→3py) 6.61 6.36 (0.009) 7.41 0.006
2B2(n→3pz) 6.89 6.06 (0.002) 7.45 0.002
3A1(n→3dyz) 7.40 6.73 (0.015) 7.8 0.047
3B2(n→3dx2−y2) 7.90 6.82 (0.034) 8.09 0.048
3A2(n→3dxz) 8 . 0 9 7 . 3 5... ... ...
4B2(n→3dz2) 7.22 6.95 (0.011) . . . 0.004
1B1(n→3dxy) 7.52 7.16 (0.002) 8.17 0.002
aReference 97.
bMRDCI values from Ref. 6.
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0.2–0.8 eV mainly due to the neglect of the atom-type
valence-Rydberg orbital exchange integrals. Compared to the
experimental excitation energies, the values are too low by 1–1.5 eV which is a large but not an extensive error and about
half of it is attributed to the incorrect asymptotic behavior of
the density functional used (i.e., the TD-DFT values are alsotoo low by about 0.2–0.6 eV). The ordering of the states as
well as all oscillator strengths are, however, described well by
the simplified method. Although sTDA-DFT is not the recom-mended treatment for such states and small systems in gen-
eral (for which numerous very reliable alternatives are avail-
able), this example shows that the integral approximations
(the Coulomb integrals are non-vanishing here) work reason-
ably well even for extended AO basis sets and spatially diffusestates.
C. Charge transfer states
As mentioned already in the Introduction, too low-lying
CT states plague many TD-DFT computations and it is shown
here by a numerical example how sTDA performs for a sim-ple model system. We would also like to clarify the CT
problem in sTDA following the discussion in Refs. 7and
21. The lowest lying CT transition in the F
2–Be complex
(2s2(Be)→σ∗(F2) excitation) is studied which was already
used as an example.89Potential curves (excitation energies)
for F 2−Be (T-shaped structure, rF−F=1.415 Å) as a func-
tion of the Be–F 2center-of-mass distance Rare shown in Fig.
4. As reference curve, we use ωCT=IP/prime−EA/prime−R−1where
IP/primeand EA/primecorrespond to the KS-DFT HOMO and LUMO
energies of the Be atom and the F 2molecule, respectively.
Note, that this well-known98asymptotic expression is shifted
compared to the true limiting value because of the SIE andthe gap (integer discontinuity) problem.
20,25,40The functional
used (PBE0) severely overestimates the HOMO energy and
underestimates the LUMO energy (the true IP −EA difference
is about 6 eV89instead of 2.4 eV as in PBE0). Hence, the ma-
jor part of what is termed in the literature as the “TD-DFT CT
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
R(F2-Be) / Bohr0.811.21.41.61.822.22.4excitation energy / eVsTD-DFT
TD-DFT
IP’-EA’-1/R
FIG. 4. Comparison of computed (PBE0/TZVP) charge-transfer excitation
energies for the F 2−Be complex as a function of the intermolecular distance
R. The solid gray line refers to an analytical single-particle reference.problem” is introduced already at the KS-SCF level. Because
sTDA as TD(A)-DFT is based on the same single-particle en-
ergies, CT transitions will similarly be underestimated whenglobal hybrids with small a
xare used. This part of the problem
can be solved by, e.g., the LC/RS technique.
However, apart from this gap problem there is a second
failure in standard TD(A)-DFT which is remedied by sTDA.
In the CT state, the formed charges (here, Be⊕and F/circleminus
2) attract
each other as 1/ Rat large distance and this is described by
the−(ii|aa) Coulomb term where iandacorrespond to the
Be(2 s) andσ*(F 2) MOs, respectively. In TD(A)-DFT, this in-
tegral is scaled by axand if this reduction is not compensated
for by the GGA response term in Eq. (2)(which is normally
the case), the CT excitation energy is overestimated compared
to the limiting value and not underestimated as due to the
gap problem. This is clearly seen in Fig. 4where the TD-
DFT curve (shown with asterisks) is always above the refer-ence (in gray). Because in sTDA the ( ii|aa) term is not scaled
but asymptotically approaches 1/ Ra better behavior for all
distances is obtained. Hence, the sTDA is not just a simpli-fication that introduces additional errors but a new element
in the theory that solves (a small) part of the CT state prob-
lem. With “high Fock-exchange” or LC/RS functionals, thesTDA method should provide reasonable results for typical
CT states.
D. UV-spectrum of C 60
The C 60fullerene represents a nice first example for a
large delocalized system. It has been used already in Ref. 66
as a test case for TD-DFTB and the importance of includ-ing the correct coupling elements in the Amatrix has been
noted. Because these are also subject to approximations in
sTDA, we employ the calculation of its UV-spectrum as a
test here. The comparison to the experimental spectrum (in
n-hexane
99)i nF i g . 5shows that sTDA reproduces all major
features of the measurement regarding relative intensity and
band position fairly well (absolute intensities were not given
in Ref. 99so that the experimental absorbance was scaled to
roughly match the theoretical data). In the high energy re-
gion (bands D and E), there is considerable influence of the
amount of Fock-exchange on the excitation energy which iswell documented already for ππ* states of smaller unsatu-
rated hydrocarbons.
100
E. UV-spectrum of transition metal complexes
The electronic spectra of transition metal complexes rep-
resent a special challenge for theoretical methods because lo-
calized d−d,d−π* (metal to ligand CT, MLCT) and lig-
andππ* states can be present in the same molecule and due
to their different electronic nature involve varying amounts of
electron correlation effects. For the sTDA method such sys-tems and in particular the d−dtype transitions might be a
worst case scenario and are therefore investigated for the two
examples ferrocene and [Ru(bipy)
3]2+(Fig. 6and Fig. 7).
The computed UV-spectra for [Ru(bipy) 3]2+show an ex-
cellent agreement with experiment101for the five bands A–E
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200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700
wavelength / nm101001000100001e+05 ε / cm-1 M-1exptl.
sTDA/PBE0
sTDA/PBE(0.5)
ABCDE
FIG. 5. Comparison of computed and experimental UV-spectra for C 60at
the sTDA-DFT/TZVP level for two flavors of the PBE hybrid functional.Oscillator strengths for forbidden transitions have been set to f=10
−4in
order to simulate vibronic couplings.
in position and intensity. The change of the GGA compo-
nent from PBE to the meta-GGA TPSS80with the same ax
(termed TPSS0 in Ref. 86) has only a very minor effect ex-
cept for a slight blueshift of about 0.1 eV compared to PBE0.
A less good agreement is obtained for ferrocene as shown in
Fig.7. In the high-energy region, one notes a blueshift of the
computed bands C–D compared to the experiment. However,
this occurs for sTDA as well as TDA and both methods yield
similar spectra between 150 and 220 nm. The reason maybe the neglect of solvent effects and/or inherent DFT errors
(i.e., the computed spectra are rather sensitive to the value
ofa
x). For the dipole-forbidden, metal-centred d−dtransi-
tions (bands A/B and A/prime/B/prime) sTDA yields a large error (about
1.5 eV blueshift) compared to experiment and TDA which is
probably related to a bad description of Coulomb integrals in-volving the iron orbitals. Nevertheless, even in this worst-case
scenario, the relative ordering of the bands as well as their in-
tensity is described at least qualitatively correct.
200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550
wavelength / nm0200004000060000800001e+05 ε / cm-1 M-1exptl.
sTDA/PBE0
sTDA/TPSS0
ABC
DE
FIG. 6. Comparison of computed and experimental UV-spectra for
[Ru(bipy) 3]2+at sTDA-PBE0/TZVP and sTDA-TPSS0/TZVP levels. The
calculated spectra have been shifted by −0.23 and −0.35 eV , respectively, to
obtain agreement with the experimental position of band A.150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550
wavelength / nm101001000100001e+05 ε / cm-1 M-1exptl.
TDA/PBE0
sTDA/PBE0
ABCDE
A’ B’
FIG. 7. Comparison of computed and experimental102UV-spectra for fer-
rocene at the sTDA and TDA levels (PBE0/def2-TZVP). The computed spec-tra are not shifted. Oscillator strengths for forbidden transitions have been set
tof=5×10
−4in order to simulate vibronic couplings.
F. CD-spectrum of [7]helicene
Chiral molecules are important in nucleic acid, peptide,
and sugar chemistry and the determination of the absolute
configuration of, e.g., natural products is an important taskfor quantum chemistry. The different interaction of the left-
and right-handed enantiomers with circularly polarized light,
respectively, is a very fundamental process that can be stud-ied by electronic CD measurements (for overviews see, e.g.,
Refs. 103,104, and 105).
The CD-spectra of helicenes with four to 12 rings have
been studied using semi-local TD-DFT with some success
in Ref. 106. We study here the CD-spectrum of the [7]he-
licene which was already a test case for the TD(A)-B2PLYP
89
method. The computation of CD-spectra is challenging be-
cause the relative orientation of two (electric and mag-
netic) dipole transition moments has to be calculated ac-curately and canceling effects (because the moments are
signed quantities) can be present. This and another CD exam-
ple presented below were chosen because this spectroscopy
presents a sensitive test for the quality of the sTDA wave
function.
The experimental CD-spectrum of (P)-[7]helicene
107
shown in Fig. 8shows four distinct bands (A–D). As can
be clearly seen from the comparison of the theoretical andexperimental spectra, the sTDA approach provides good
accuracy over the entire wavelength range and only the inten-
sity of band B is not correct. Even in the high-energy region,the computed excitation energies are accurate to ±0.2 eV
and overall, without an energy shift the computed spectrum
for this non-polar system matches the experiment fairly well.The accuracy is overall similar to that of a full TD-B2PLYP
treatment and better (mainly because of the larger a
xused
here) than for TD-B3LYP.89Figure 8also shows that the
choice of the CSF perturbation selection threshold has only
a minor impact on the CD-spectrum and almost complete
convergence is reached for tp=10−5. The intensity for band
B, however, seems to be sensitive to details of the treatment as
can be seen from the wrong sign in the tp=10−4calculation.
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200 250 300 350 400 450
wavelength / nm-500-400-300-200-1000100200300Δε / cm-1 M-1
sTDA, tp=10-4
sTDA, tp=10-5
sTDA, tp=10-6
exptl.A
B
CD
FIG. 8. Comparison of computed and experimental CD-spectra for (P)-
[7]helicene at the sTDA-PBE38/TZVP level for three configuration selectionthresholds.
G. CD-spectra of (Ala) npolypeptides
Electronic CD is an important tool for the characteriza-
tion of the secondary structure of proteins. For an overview
of recent theoretical work which usually refers to a semi-
empirical exciton-coupling model, see Refs. 108and109.
In these calculations, the conductor-like screening con-
tinuum solvation model (COSMO110) with a dielectric con-
stant of 78 for water has been applied in the SCF step whichprovides a more realistic electronic structure of these highly
polar molecules (e.g., the ground state permanent electric
dipole moment of (Ala)
10is 42 Debye). All the polypeptide
model structures were optimized using the MMX force field
as implemented in the PCM software.111
We first investigate the sTDA in comparison to TD(A)-
DFT for exactly the same system and SCF input. Because of
the high computational cost of TD(A)-DFT, a small polyala-
nine peptide with 10 residues (103 atoms) and only the low-est 40 roots were considered. The three simulated CD-spectra
are shown in Fig. 9(a). The mutual agreement of the theo-
retical spectra in Fig. 9(a) is very satisfactory regarding the
position of the bands and we only note a significant differ-
ence in absolute intensity (mainly for the two bands between160 and 170 nm) with sTDA/TDA compared to TD-DFT. As
noted above, the sTDA excitation energies are closer to those
from TD-DFT while the intensities resemble more the TDA-DFT ones. In any case, the very good performance of sTDA
also for relatively high-lying states of inherently small pep-
tide chromophores seems very promising and hence largerpolyalanines with perfect α-helix secondary structure were
investigated.
Convergence studies show that already around 30–40
residues the shape of the computed spectra does not change
significantly anymore and may be compared to experimen-
tal data. However, these are normally obtained for muchlarger proteins which are only predominantly composed of
α-helical structures but also can contain loops and varying
amino acids. Although the spectra of poly- γ-methyl gluta-
mate in hexafluoro-propanol
112which is used here for com-
parison and, e.g., myoglobin113(in water) look rather simi-150 160 170 1 80 190 200 210 220 230
wavelength / nm-400-300-200-1000100200300400500Δε / cm-1 M-1
TD-DFT
TDA-DFT
sTDA-DFT
140 150 160 170 1 80 190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260 270
wavelength / nm-100102030Δε per resid ue / cm-1 M-1exptl.
sTDA/SV(P)
sTDA/TZVP
A BC
DE
(a)
(b)
FIG. 9. (a) Comparison of computed CD-spectra for (Ala) 10at TD(A)-DFT
and sTDA-DFT levels using the BHLYP functional and the SV(P) AO basis
set. (b) Comparison of experimental and computed CD-spectra (same level
as above and in addition with the TZVP basis set) for a realistic α-helix (the
(Ala) 40structure is shown in the inset, for details see text). The intensities
are normalized to the number of residues as usual and the sTDA excitation
energies have been shifted by −1e V .
lar, one should keep these additional (structural) problems in
mind. We can thus expect a qualitative agreement between
theory and experiment at best and note, that a full treatment
of myoglobin with about 2400 atoms (excluding water) seems
possible with sTDA and such complete proteins will be in-vestigated in future work in our laboratory. All spectra were
simulated with a doubled width of the electronic transitions
in order to account for solvent effects as well as broadeningdue to conformational flexibility. In the sTDA calculation for
(Ala)
40with the TZVP basis set, an Emaxvalue of 10 eV and
tp=3×10−3were chosen leading to about 2 ×104selected
CSF.
Nevertheless, the agreement between theory (computed
for (Ala) 40with 403 atoms) and experiment as documented in
Fig.9(b) can be considered as rather good. Note that no em-
pirical adjustments (except for an energy shift) were made,
that spectra up to very high energies ( Emax=10 eV) are com-
pared, and finally that also the computed absolute intensities
match the experiment nicely. The bands A–C are very well
described by sTDA with both AO basis sets. Not unexpect-
edly, at higher energies (bands D and E) significant differ-
ences in the two calculations are observed which indicates an
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152.11.242.100 On: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 16:36:12244104-12 Stefan Grimme J. Chem. Phys. 138, 244104 (2013)
200 250 300 350 400 450 500
wavelength / nm050000100000150000200000250000 ε / cm-1 M-1exptl.
sTDA
AB
CD
FIG. 10. Comparison of computed and experimental UV-spectra for
Zn2+
3(LLL) at the sTDA-DFT level (BHLYP/TZVP for TPSS-D3(BJ)-
COSMO(CH 2Cl2)/SV(P) optimized geometries). The COSMO model with
a dielectric constant of 20, an energy shift of 0.3 eV , and a bandwidth of σ
=0.6 eV was applied. The theoretical intensity is scaled by a factor of 0.5
and in addition individual transitions are shown as sticks. The experimen-
tal intensity below about 230 nm is unreliable because of absorption of the
solvent (1:1 mixture of CH 2Cl2/CH 3CN).
increasing diffuse character of the states even in solution. Ten-
tatively, part of the discrepancies in this region of the spec-trum are assigned to a remaining SIE in the BHLYP func-
tional and it is expected that LC/RS functionals will improve
the description.
H. UV-spectrum of a supramolecular system
Finally, another realistic problem will be investigated
where UV-spectra are used for identification of reaction prod-ucts in self-assembly reactions. The trinuclear triple-stranded
zinc(II) helicate of a binaphthol-based tris(bipyridine) ligand
shown as inset in Fig. 10is used as example
114(for similar
systems, see Ref. 115). Approaching this structure consist-
ing of unsaturated linkers/ligands (L) and Zn2+ions (dubbed
Zn2+
3(LLL) in the following) by molecular fragmentation
techniques seems hopeless due to a small but non-negligible
electronic communication between the units. The system con-sists of 483 atoms (2130 electrons, 6879 basis functions) and
the reported calculation (including the SCF step) could be per-
formed in about one day on a conventional laptop computer(taking about 1 h for the sTDA calculation).
The experimental spectrum showing four bands A–D
is overall nicely reproduced by the sTDA method. We notesome larger error only for the high-energy band D and that
the deviations for the other resolved bands and shoulders are
reasonably small ( <0.5 eV). Relative intensities match the
experimental ones well enough to allow identification of the
complex. Note that the total charge of +6 of the complex is
rather large and that solvation effects beyond the COSMOcontinuum model used in the SCF also might play a role for
the remaining discrepancies between theory and experiment.
In passing, it is noted that the low-energy region is dominated
by a few intense transitions (e.g., with a f-value of up to 3.6
for the third state) as normally observed for medium-sizeddye molecules while the high-energy part of the spectrum
shows hundreds of excitations which add up to bands of
similar intensity. In the range up to 6 eV , we find in total 1170excited states in the sTDA treatment. Because of a residual
SIE in the BHLYP functional, many of these are still artificial
and we tried to estimate their number by an analogous sTDAcalculation based on HF input data as suggested by an anony-
mous reviewer. According to this test, a still sizeable number
of about 210 states is found in the considered energy range af-ter applying a redshift of 1.4 eV (which brings the sTDA/HF
lowest excitation energy in agreement to the sTDA/BHLYP
value in order to make the calculations comparable). If one
takes the tendency of HF to overestimate higher excitation
energies into account (i.e., the computed intensity of bandD is too small for sTDA/HF), the “true” number of physical
states in this case is probably about 300–400.
116The SIE
issue and the related question on the right density of statesin such systems will be approached by coupling sTDA with
LC/RC-functionals and discussed in a forthcoming paper.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
Molecules or supramolecular aggregates with 500–1000
atoms are often difficult to characterize chemically and spec-
troscopic techniques are of utmost importance for an un-derstanding of their structure and eventually their function.
Although electronic spectroscopy certainly cannot provide
high-resolution data for such systems, the information fromUV and in particular CD-spectra can be useful for struc-
tural assignments. It is clear that these experimental tech-
niques should be supplied by adequate quantum chemical“first-principles” models for understanding the data and elu-
cidating structure-property relationships. As outlined in the
Introduction, the application of standard TD-DFT in this areais strongly limited by the necessary computation times when
an entire spectrum in the commonly accessible energy range
is of interest. The extremely high density of electronic statesalready at common energies (e.g., 5 eV or 250 nm) has
rarely been considered in the literature. This problem be-
comes catastrophic when “cheap” GGA density functionals
are applied in TD-DFT which produce a vast amount of ar-
tificial states due to their SIE/gap and concomitant CT stateproblem.
The present approach solves the above mentioned com-
putational problems by introducing two basic approximationsto the standard TDA-DFT treatment. It seems clear that in-
clusion of non-local Fock exchange is essential and therefore
the approach is built on that basic consideration (although it isapplicable in principle also with a GGA). The method termed
sTDA employs atom-centered Löwdin-monopole based two-
electron repulsion integrals with the asymptotically correct1/Rbehavior. Together with well-established perturbative
configuration selection approaches, speed-ups by two to three
orders of magnitude in the excited state part at only minor lossof accuracy are obtained. In fact, on average for two stan-
dard sets of benchmark excitation energies, sTDA performs
even slightly better than TD-DFT with the same two common
density functionals (B3LYP and PBE0). The obtained mean
absolute deviation of 0.2–0.3 eV is relatively low and a few
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“outliers” with about 0.5–1 eV error are acceptable in typical
applications (and similar to standard TD-DFT). The method
is formulated generally for any conventional global hybriddensity functional with given Fock-exchange mixing param-
etera
xbut future work will also consider it in the framework
of long-range corrected/range-separated functionals. This willmore or less solve the SIE/gap problem in excited state DFT
calculations for large systems as sTDA employs asymptoti-
cally correct response integrals. The calculation of accurateCT state energies for large charge separations is of utmost
importance for applications in technologically important ar-
eas such as organic photo-voltaics or semi-conductors.
The few spectra shown here as obtained with various
conventional hybrid functionals and a range of differentFock-exchange mixings already demonstrate the generality,
accuracy, and feasibility of the method. For example, the
computation of a polypeptide CD-spectrum for 400 atomsruns for less than 1 h on a standard laptop computer. With the
proposed simplifications, DFT calculations can be performed
in a size regime where currently semi-empirical orbital andexciton-coupling models are used. The improvement accessi-
ble by using DFT as starting point opens up new and bright
possibilities for the computation and interpretation of elec-tronic spectra for large supra- and bio-molecular structures.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the Fonds der Chemischen
Industrie and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) inthe framework of the SFB 813 (“Chemistry at Spin-Centers”).
The author thanks A. Hansen for helpful comments and the
ORCA implementation of the sTDA code which was origi-
nally developed as a standalone module for the TURBOMOLE
software.
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152.11.242.100 On: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 16:36:12 |
1.5131689.pdf | Appl. Phys. Lett. 116, 062401 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5131689 116, 062401
© 2020 Author(s).Sub-micrometer near-field focusing of spin
waves in ultrathin YIG films
Cite as: Appl. Phys. Lett. 116, 062401 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5131689
Submitted: 15 October 2019 . Accepted: 23 December 2019 . Published Online: 10 February 2020
B. Divinskiy
, N. Thiery , L. Vila , O. Klein
, N. Beaulieu , J. Ben Youssef
, S. O. Demokritov
, and V. E.
Demidov
COLLECTIONS
This paper was selected as Featured
Sub-micrometer near-field focusing of spin waves
in ultrathin YIG films
Cite as: Appl. Phys. Lett. 116, 062401 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5131689
Submitted: 15 October 2019 .Accepted: 23 December 2019 .
Published Online: 10 February 2020
B.Divinskiy,1,a)
N.Thiery,2L.Vila,2O.Klein,2
N.Beaulieu,3J.Ben Youssef,3
S. O. Demokritov,1
and V. E. Demidov1
AFFILIATIONS
1Institute for Applied Physics and Center for NanoTechnology, University of Muenster, 48149 Muenster, Germany
2CNRS, CEA, Grenoble INP, University Grenoble Alpes, IRIG-SPINTEC, F-38000 Grenoble, France
3LabSTICC, CNRS, Universit /C19e de Bretagne Occidentale, 29238 Brest, France
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed :b_divi01@uni-muenster.de
ABSTRACT
We experimentally demonstrate tight focusing of a spin wave beam excited in extended nanometer-thick films of yttrium iron garnet by a
simple microscopic antenna functioning as a single-slit near-field lens. We show that the focal distance and the minimum transverse width
of the focal spot can be controlled in a broad range by varying the frequency/wavelength of spin waves and the antenna geometry. The exper-
imental data are in good agreement with the results of numerical simulations. Our findings provide a simple solution for the implementationof magnonic nanodevices requiring a local concentration of the spin-wave energy.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5131689
The advent of high-quality nanometer-thick films of magnetic
insulator yttrium iron garnet (YIG)
1–3essentially expanded horizons
for the field of magnonics4–6utilizing spin waves for the transmission
and processing of information on the nanoscale. Thanks to the small
thickness and ultra-low magnetic damping, these films enable the
implementation of magnonic devices with nanometer dimensions,7,8
where the spin-wave losses are by several orders of magnitude smallercompared to those in devices based on metallic ferromagnetic films.
9
The large propagation length of spin waves in YIG is particularly bene-ficial for the implementation of spatial manipulation of spin-wavebeams in the real space.
It is now well established that the propagation of spin waves can
be controlled by using approaches similar to those used in optics.
10–16
However, in contrast to light waves, the wavelength of spin waves canbe as small as few tens of nanometers,
17,18which allows one to imple-
ment efficient wave manipulation on the nanoscale. In recent years,particular attention was given to the possibility to controllably focus
propagating spin waves.
10–14,19,20Such focusing allows one to concen-
trate the spin-wave energy in a small spatial area, which is important,
for example, for the implementation of the efficient local detection of
spin-wave signals. Provided that the position of the focal point is con-trollable by the spin-wave frequency, the focusing can also be utilized
for the implementation of the frequency multiplexing.
21Additionally,
the strong local concentration of the spin-wave energy can be used tostimulate nonlinear phenomena, for example, the second-harmonic
generation.22
Efficient spin-wave focusing can be achieved relatively easily in
confined geometries, such as stripe waveguides,23where it is governed
by the interference of multiple co-propagating quantized spin-wavemodes.
24In the case of extended magnetic films, the implementation
of focusing appears to be less straightforward. In recent years, several
approaches have been suggested utilizing a spatial variation of theeffective spin-wave refraction index,
14,16refraction of spin waves at the
modulation of the film thickness11or the temperature,12diffraction
from a Fresnel zone plate,13and excitation of spin-wave beams by
curved transducers.19,20All these approaches are rather complex in
terms of practical implementation, particularly on the nanoscale. A
much simpler approach known in optics25–27relies on the utilization
of Fresnel diffraction patterns appearing in the near-field region of asingle slit, where the Fresnel number F¼a
2/(kd)i so ft h eo r d e ro r
larger than 1 (Ref. 28). Here, ais the length of the slit, kis the wave-
length, and dis the distance from the slit to the observation point. As
was experimentally shown for light waves26and surface plasmon
polaritons,27such a slit functions as an efficient near-field lens
enabling tight focusing of the incident wave.
In this work, we demonstrate experimentally that the principles
of near-field diffractive focusing are also applicable for spin waves inin-plane magnetized magnetic films, which, in contrast to light, exhibit
Appl. Phys. Lett. 116, 062401 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5131689 116, 062401-1
Published under license by AIP PublishingApplied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/aplanisotropic dispersion. By using a 2 lm long spin-wave antenna, which
is equivalent to a single one-dimensional slit,29we achieve focusing of
the excited spin waves into an area with the transverse width below
700 nm. We show that, in agreement with the theory developed forlight waves, the focal distance increases with the decrease in the wave-length of the spin wave, which allows electronic control of the spin-
wave focusing by the frequency and/or the static magnetic field. We
also perform micromagnetic simulations, which show excellent agree-ment with the experimental data and allow us to analyze the effects ofthe antenna geometry on the focusing characteristics.
Figure 1(a) shows the schematic of the experiment. The test devi-
ces are based on a 56 nm thick YIG film grown by liquid phase epitaxy
on a gadolinium gallium substrate. The independently determined sat-uration magnetization of the film is 4 pM¼1.78 kG, and the Gilbert
damping parameter is a¼1.4/C210
/C04.T h eY I Gfi l mi sm a g n e t i z e dt o
saturation by the static magnetic field Happlied in the film plane. The
excitation of spin waves is performed by using a lithographically
defined 2 lm long, 300 nm wide, and 7 nm thick spin-wave antenna
contacted by 2 lm wide and 30 nm thick Au microstrip lines.30The
microwave-frequency electrical current IMW flowing through the
antenna creates a dynamic magnetic field h, which couples to the mag-
netization in the YIG film and excites spin waves propagating away
from the antenna. Figure 1(b) shows the normalized spatial distribu-
tion of the amplitude of the dynamic field created by the antenna inthe YIG film calculated by using COMSOL Multiphysics simulationsoftware ( https://www.comsol.com/comsol-multiphysics ). As seen
from these data, due to the large difference in the width of the antenna
and the microstrip lines, the amplitude of the dynamic field under-neath the antenna is by an order of magnitude larger compared to thatunderneath the lines. Therefore, the efficient spin wave excitation isonly possible in the 2 lm long antenna region. This disbalance is fur-
ther enhanced for spin waves with wavelengths comparable or smaller
than the width of the microstrip lines due to the reduced coupling effi-
ciency of the inductive mechanism.
9
Spatially resolved detection of excited spin waves is performed by
micro-focus Brillouin light scattering (BLS) spectroscopy.9The prob-
ing light with a wavelength of 473 nm and a power of 0.1 mW pro-
duced by a single-frequency laser is focused into a diffraction-limited
spot on the surface of the YIG film. By analyzing the spectrum of light
inelastically scattered from magnetic excitations, we obtain a signal—
the BLS intensity—proportional to the intensity of spin waves at the
location of the probing spot. By scanning the spot over the sample sur-face, we obtain spatial maps of the spin-wave intensity. Additionally,
by using the interference of the scattered light with the reference light
modulated at the excitation frequency,
9we record spatial maps of the
spin-wave phase.
Figures 2(a) and2(b)show the representative intensity and phase
maps recorded at H¼500 Oe by applying excitation current with the
frequency f¼3.8 GHz. The power of the applied signal is 10 lW,
which is proven to provide a linear regime of excitation and propaga-
tion of spin waves. In agreement with the above discussion, spin waves
are only radiated from the region of the narrow antenna. More impor-
tantly, the radiated beam exhibits significant narrowing and an
increase in the intensity at the distance d¼3.6lm from the center of
the antenna, clearly indicating the focusing of the excited spin waves.
Qualitatively similar behaviors were also observed for different excita-
tion frequencies in the range f¼3.2–4 GHz, although the distance d
was found to change strongly with the variation of f.
From the phase-resolved measurements [ Fig. 2(b) ], we obtain the
wavelength k¼0.6lm of spin waves at f¼3.8 GHz. By repeating
these measurements for different excitation frequencies, we obtain the
spin-wave dispersion curve [ Fig. 2(c) ], which allows us to relate the
excitation frequency to the spin-wave wavelength. Note that the exper-imental data [symbols in Fig. 2(c) ] are in perfect agreement with the
results of calculations [curve in Fig. 2(c) ] based on the analytical
theory (Ref. 31).
On one side, the observed focusing is counterintuitive. Indeed,
the excitation of waves by a finite-length straight antenna, as used in
our experiment, is equivalent to a diffraction of a wave with an infiniteplane front from a slit,
29which is known to result in a formation of a
divergent beam. On the other side, it is also known25–27that, before the
beam starts to diverge, a complex focusing-like diffraction pattern is
formed in the near field just behind a slit. In recent years, it was shown
theoretically25and proven experimentally26,27that these near-field
effects can be used for efficient focusing of waves of different nature.
Due to the insufficient spatial resolution, the fine details of the
near-field spin-wave pattern cannot be seen in the experimental maps[Fig. 2(b) ]. Therefore, we perform micromagnetic simulations using
the software package MuMax3 (Ref. 32). We consider a magnetic
film with dimensions of 20 lm/C210lm/C20.05lm discretized into
10 nm /C210 nm /C250 nm cells. The standard for YIG exchange con-
stant of 3.66 pJ/m is used. The spin waves are excited by applying a
sinusoidal dynamic magnetic field with an amplitude of 1 Oe, which
is close to the estimated experimental value of 3 Oe. The spatial distri-
bution of the excitation field is taken from COMSOL simulations
[Fig. 1(b) ]. The angle of the excited magnetization precession is of the
order of 0.1
/C14.
FIG. 1. (a) Schematic of the experiment. (b) Normalized calculated spatial distribu-
tion of the amplitude of the dynamic magnetic field created by the antenna in theYIG film.Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl
Appl. Phys. Lett. 116, 062401 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5131689 116, 062401-2
Published under license by AIP PublishingThe results of simulations for the excitation frequency
f¼3.8 GHz and H¼500 Oe are shown in Fig. 3(a) . The simulated
map of the normalized spin-wave intensity hMx2i/hMx2maxiexhibits a
narrowing of the excited beam and concentration of the spin-waveenergy in exactly the same way, as it is observed in the experiment
[compare with Fig. 2(a) ]. Simultaneously, it shows a fine structure,
which is reminiscent of that obtained for light diffracted on a slit.
26To
further confirm the analogy, we perform simulations for the case ofplane spin waves diffracting from a slit formed by two 300 nm wide
rectangular regions with increased magnetic damping ( a¼1) with a
2lm long gap between them [ Fig. 3(b) ]. The close similarity between
the obtained patterns shows that the experimental results obtained forspin-wave excitation by the antenna are equally applicable for spin-
wave focusing by a slit lens. We emphasize that such a lens can be eas-
ily implemented in practice, for example, by using ion implantationinto nanometer-thick YIG films.
To additionally address the effects of the anisotropy of the spin-
wave dispersion, we show in Fig. 3(c) an intensity map calculated forspin waves in an out-of-plane magnetized film characterized by an iso-
tropic dispersion.
33Comparison of Fig. 3(c) with Fig. 3(a) shows that
the anisotropy makes the near-field focusing even better pronounced
due to the existence of the preferential direction of the energy flowcharacterized by the angle h¼17
/C14[seeFig. 3(a) ] calculated according
to Ref. 34.
Figure 4 shows the quantitative comparison of the experimental
results with those obtained from simulations. In Fig. 4(a) , we plot one-
dimensional sections of the experimental [ Fig. 2(a) ]a n dc a l c u l a t e d
[Fig. 3(a) ] intensity maps along the axis of the spin-wave beam at
FIG. 2. Representative spatial maps of the intensity (a) and phase (b) of radiated spin
waves recorded by BLS at H¼500 Oe and f¼3.8 GHz. (c) Measured (symbols) and
calculated (solid curve) dispersion curve of spin waves.
FIG. 3. (a) Calculated intensity map of spin waves radiated by the antenna. The
schematic of the antenna and the connecting microwave lines is superimposed on
the map. (b) Calculated intensity map of spin-wave diffraction from a one-dimensional slit. Superimposed rectangles mark the regions with an increaseddamping. (c) Similar to (a) calculated for the case of isotropic spin-wave dispersion.
Calculations were performed for H¼500 Oe and f¼3.8 GHz.Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl
Appl. Phys. Lett. 116, 062401 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5131689 116, 062401-3
Published under license by AIP Publishingz¼0. Both datasets show perfect agreement. In both cases, the inten-
sity increases during the first 3 lm of propagation and reaches a maxi-
mum at the distance y/C253.6lm, which can be treated as a focal
distance. Transverse sections of the intensity maps at this distance[Fig. 4(b) ] also exhibit very similar narrowing of the beam to
670620 nm. As seen from Figs. 4(c) and 4(d), a good agreement
between the experimental data and the result of simulations isobserved in a broad range of spin-wave wavelengths.
We note that, in contrast to the far-field focusing, in our case, the
focal distance depends strongly on the wavelength [ Fig. 4(c) ]. This
dependence is in agreement with the theory of the near-field diffractive
focusing of light,
25which predicts that the focal distance should
increase with the decrease in the wavelength. This dependence can beparticularly important for magnonic applications since it allows one tofocus spin waves with different frequencies at different spatial loca-
tions. Alternatively, the focal position can be controlled by the varia-
tion of the static magnetic field at the fixed spin-wave frequency.
As seen from Fig. 4(d) , the transverse width wof the spin-wave
beam at the focal position exhibits a monotonous decrease with thedecrease in the wavelength k. Therefore, similar to the far-field focus-
ing, one can obtain a stronger concentration of the energy for spin
waves with smaller wavelengths. Note, however, that the ratio w/k
increases at smaller k, making the focusing of short-wavelength spin
w a v e sl e s se f fi c i e n t .
To study the effects of the antenna geometry on the focusing effi-
ciency, we perform micromagnetic simulations for different lengths of
the spin-wave antenna aat the fixed value of the wavelengthk¼0.6lm .T h er e s u l t so ft h e s es i m u l a t i o n ss h o w( Fig. 5 ) that the
focal-point width wgenerally reduces with decreasing a.T h e r e f o r e ,
more tight focusing can be achieved by using smaller antennae or slit
lenses. Additionally, as can be seen from Fig. 5 , the reduction of the
antenna length aresults in a decrease in the focal distance, which allows
one to achieve stronger focusing in devices with smaller dimensions.
In conclusion, we have experimentally demonstrated a simple and
efficient approach to the focusing of spin waves on the sub-micrometer
scale. The obtained results are not only applicable to the excitation-
stage focusing but can also be used for the implementation of near-field
lenses for plane spin waves. Our findings significantly simplify theFIG. 4. (a) One-dimensional sections of the experimental (symbols) and calculated (solid curve) intensity maps along the axis of the spin-wave beam at z¼0. (b) Transverse
sections of the experimental (symbols) and calculated (solid curve) intensity maps at the y-position corresponding to the maximum intensity. (c) Dependence of the focal dis-
tance on the wavelength. (d) Dependence of the width of the spin-wave beam at the focal position on the wavelength. Curves in (c) and (d) are guides to the eye.
FIG. 5. Dependences of the beam width at the focal position (squares) and of the
focal distance (diamonds) on the length of the antenna calculated for spin waveswith the wavelength of 0.6 lm. Dashed curves are guides to the eye.Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl
Appl. Phys. Lett. 116, 062401 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5131689 116, 062401-4
Published under license by AIP Publishingimplementation of nano-magnonic devices utilizing spin-wave focus-
ing, which is critically important for their real-world applications.
We acknowledge the support from Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (Project No. 423113162) and the French
ANR Maestro (No.18-CE24-0021).
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29The similarity between a narrow (narrower than half of the wavelength) strip
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30We note that the utilization of excitation structures based on coplanar lineswith smoothly changing geometrical parameters can help to improve the over-all microwave-to-spin wave conversion efficiency. Such structures have beenconsidered in P. Gruszecki, M. Kasprzak, A. E. Serebryannikov, M. Krawczyk,
and W. /C19Smigaj, Sci. Rep. 6, 22367 (2016); H. S. K €orner, J. Stigloher, and C. H.
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33The calculations were performed at f ¼3.8 GHz. The static magnetic field was
increased to H ¼2900 Oe to obtain the same spin-wave wavelength of 0.6 lm,
as in the case of the in-plane magnetized film.
34V. E. Demidov, S. O. Demokritov, D. Birt, B. O’Gorman, M. Tsoi, and X. Li,
Phys. Rev. B 80, 014429 (2009).Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl
Appl. Phys. Lett. 116, 062401 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5131689 116, 062401-5
Published under license by AIP Publishing |
4.0000070.pdf | Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/4.0000070 8, 024101
© 2021 Author(s).An assessment of different electronic
structure approaches for modeling time-
resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy
Cite as: Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/4.0000070
Submitted: 14 December 2020 . Accepted: 11 February 2021 . Published Online: 12 March 2021
Shota Tsuru ,
Marta L. Vidal ,
Mátyás Pápai ,
Anna I. Krylov ,
Klaus B. Møller , and
Sonia Coriani
COLLECTIONS
Paper published as part of the special topic on Theory of Ultrafast X-ray and Electron Phenomena
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approaches for modeling time-resolved x-ray
absorption spectroscopy
Cite as: Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); doi: 10.1063/4.0000070
Submitted: 14 December 2020 .Accepted: 11 February 2021 .
Published Online: 12 March 2021
Shota Tsuru,1,a)
Marta L. Vidal,1
M/C19aty/C19asP/C19apai,1,b)
Anna I. Krylov,2
Klaus B. Møller,1
and Sonia Coriani1,c)
AFFILIATIONS
1DTU Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark, Kemitorvet Building 207, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
2Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA
Note: This paper is part of the special issue on Theory of Ultrafast X-ray and Electron Phenomena.
a)Present address: Arbeitsgruppe Quantenchemie, Ruhr-Universit €at Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, Germany. Electronic mail:
Shota.Tsuru@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
b)Present address: Wigner Research Center for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 49, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary.
c)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: soco@kemi.dtu.dk
ABSTRACT
We assess the performance of different protocols for simulating excited-state x-ray absorption spectra. We consider three different protocols
based on equation-of-motion coupled-cluster singles and doubles, two of them combined with the maximum overlap method. The three pro-
tocols differ in the choice of a reference configuration used to compute target states. Maximum-overlap-method time-dependent density
functional theory is also considered. The performance of the different approaches is illustrated using uracil, thymine, and acetylacetone asbenchmark systems. The results provide guidance for selecting an electronic structure method for modeling time-resolved x-ray absorptionspectroscopy.
VC2021 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ( http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).https://doi.org/10.1063/4.0000070
I. INTRODUCTION
Since the pioneering study by Zewail’s group in the mid-1980s,1
ultrafast dynamics has been an active area of experimental research.
Advances in light sources provide new means for probing dynamicsby utilizing core-level transitions. X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs)and instruments based on high-harmonic generation (HHG) enablespectroscopic measurements on the femtosecond
2–4and attosecond5–8
time scales. Methods for investigating femtosecond dynamics can beclassified into two categories: ( i) methods that track the electronic
structure as parametrically dependent on the nuclear dynamics, suchas time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (TR-PES)
9–12and ( ii)
methods that directly visualize nuclear dynamics, such as ultrafast
x-ray scattering13–16and ultrafast electron diffraction.12,17Time-
resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy (TR-XAS) belongs to the for-mer category. Similar to x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), XASis also element and chemical-state specific
18but is able to resolve the
underlying electronic states better than TR-XPS. On the other hand,TR-XPS affords photoelectron detection from all the involved elec-
tronic states with higher yield. XAS has been used to probe the localstructure of bulk-solvated systems, such as in most chemical reactionsystems in the lab and in cytoplasm. TR-XAS has been employed totrack photo-induced dynamics in organic molecules
19–22and transi-
tion metal complexes.3,23–25With the aid of simulations,26nuclear
dynamics can be extracted from experimental TR-XAS spectra.
Similar to other time-resolved experimental methods from cate-
gory ( i), interpretation of TR-XAS relies on computational methods
for simulating electronic structure and nuclear wave-packet dynamics.
In this context, electronic structure calculations should be able to pro-
vide the following: (1) XAS of the ground states; (2) a description of
the valence-excited states involved in the dynamics; and (3) XAS of
the valence-excited states.
Quantum chemistry has made major progress in simulations of
XAS spectra of ground states.27,28Among currently available methods,
the transition-potential density functional theory (TP-DFT) with the
Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); doi: 10.1063/4.0000070 8, 024101-1
VCAuthor(s) 2021Structural Dynamics ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/sdyhalf core-hole approximation29,30is widely used to interpret the XAS
spectra of ground states.31,32Ehlert et al. extended the TP-DFT
method to core excitations from valence-excited states33and imple-
mented it in PSIXAS,34a plugin to the Psi4 code. TP-DFT is capable
of simulating (TR-)XAS spectra of large molecules with reasonable
accuracy, as long as the core-excited states can be described by a single
electronic configuration. Other extensions of Kohn–Sham DFT, suit-
able for calculating the XAS spectra of molecules in their ground
states, also exist.35Linear-response (LR) time-dependent (TD) DFT, a
widely used method for excited states,36–39has been extended to the
calculation of core-excited states40,41by means of the core-valence sep-
aration (CVS) scheme,42a variant of truncated single excitation space
(TRNSS) approach.43In the CVS scheme, configurations that do not
involve core orbitals are excluded from the excitation space; this is jus-
tified because the respective matrix elements are small, owing to the
localized nature of the core orbitals and the large energetic gap
between the core and the valence orbitals.
Core-excitation energies calculated using TDDFT show errors up
to/C2520 eV when standard exchange-correlation (xc) functionals such as
B3LYP44are used. The errors can be reduced by using specially designed
xc-functionals, such as those reviewed in Sec. 3.4.4. of Ref. 27.H a i ta n d
Head-Gordon recently developed a square gradient minimum (SGM)
algorithm for excited-state orbital optimization to obtain spin-pure
restricted open-shell Kohn–Sham (ROKS) energies of core-excited states;
they reported sub-eV errors in XAS transition energies.45
T h em a x i m u mo v e r l a pm e t h o d( M O M )46provides access to
excited-state self-consistent field (SCF) solutions and, therefore, can be
used to directly compute core-level states. More importantly, MOM
can be also combined with TDDFT to compute core excitations from
a valence-excited state.20,22,47MOM-TDDFT is an attractive method
for simulating TR-XAS spectra because it is computationally cheap
and may provide excitation energies consistent with the TDDFT
potential energy surfaces, which are often used in the nuclear dynam-
ics simulations. However, in MOM calculations the initial valence-
excited states are independently optimized and thus not orthogonal to
each other. This non-orthogonality may lead to changes in the ener-getic order of the states. Moreover, open-shell Slater determinants pro-
vide a spin-incomplete description of excited states (the initial state in
an excited-state XAS calculation), which results in severe spin contam-
ination of all states and may affect the quality of the computed spectra.
Hait and Head-Gordon have presented SGM as an alternative general
excited-state orbital-optimization method
48and applied it to compute
XAS spectra of radicals.49
Applications of methods containing some empirical component,
such as TDDFT, require benchmarking against the spectra computed
with a reliable wave-function method, whose accuracy can be system-
atically assessed. Among various post-HF methods, coupled-cluster
(CC) theory yields a hierarchy of size-consistent ansatz for the ground
state, with the CC singles and doubles (CCSD) method being the most
practical.50CC theory has been extended to excited states via linear
response51–53and equation-of-motion for excited states (EOM-
EE)54–57formalisms. Both approaches have been adapted to treat
core-excited states by using the CVS scheme,58including calculations
of transition dipole moments and other properties.59–65The bench-
marks illustrate that the CVS-enabled EOM-CC methods describe
well the relaxation effects caused by the core hole as well as differential
correlation effects. Given their robustness and reliability, the CC-basedmethods provide high-quality XAS spectra, which can be used to
benchmark other methods. Aside from several CCSD investiga-
tions,21,58–60,65–74core excitation and ionization energies have also
been reported at the CC2 (coupled cluster singles and approximate dou-
bles),66–68,73,75CC3 (coupled cluster singles, doubles and approximate tri-
ples),21,76–78CCSDT (coupled cluster singles, doubles and triples),68,76,79
CCSDR(3),66,73,79and EOM-CCSD/C379levels of theory. XAS spectra have
also been simulated with a linear-response (LR-)density cumulant theory
(DCT),80which is closely related to the LR-CC methods.
The algebraic diagrammatic construction (ADC) approach81,82
has also been used to model inner-shell spectroscopy. The second-
order variant ADC(2)83yields valence-excitation energies with an
accuracy and a computational cost [ OðN5Þ]s i m i l a rt oC C 2 ,84but
within the Hermitian formalism. ADC(2) was extended to core excita-
tions by the CVS scheme.85,86Because ADC(2) is inexpensive and is
capable of accounting for dynamic correlation when calculating poten-tial energy surfaces,
87it promises to deliver reasonably accurate time-
resolved XAS spectra at a low cost at each step of nuclear dynamic
simulations. Neville et al. simulated TR-XAS spectra with
ADC(2)88–90using multireference first-order configuration interaction
(MR-FOCI) in their nuclear dynamics simulations. Neville and
Schuurman also reported an approach to simulate XAS spectra using
electronic wave packet autocorrelation functions based on TD-
ADC(2).91Anad hoc extension of ADC(2), ADC(2)-x,92is known to
give ground-state XAS spectra with relatively high accuracy [better
than ADC(2)] employing small basis sets such as 6–31 þG,93but the
improvement comes with a higher computational cost ½OðN6Þ/C138.L i s t
et al. have recently used ADC(2)-x, along with restricted active-space
second-order perturbation theory (RASPT2), to study competingrelaxation pathways in malonaldehyde by TR-XAS simulations.
94
An important limitation of the single-reference methods (at least
those only including singles and double excitations) is that they can
reliably treat only singly excited states. While transitions to the singly
occupied molecular orbitals (SOMO) result in target states that are for-
mally singly excited from the ground-state reference state, other final
states accessible by core excitation from valence-excited states can bedominated by configurations of double or higher excitation character
relative to the ground-state reference. Consequently, these states are
not well described by conventional response methods such as TDDFT,
LR/EOM-CCSD, or ADC(2) (see Fig. 2 in II A).
60,94This is the main
rational for using MOM within TDDFT. To overcome this problem
while retaining a low computational cost, Seidu et al.95suggested to
combine DFT and multireference configuration interaction (MRCI)
with the CVS scheme, which led to the CVS-DFT/MRCI method. The
authors demonstrated that the semi-empirical Hamiltonian adjusted
to describe the Coulomb and exchange interactions of the valence-
excited states96works well for the core-excited states too.
In the context of excited-state nuclear dynamics simulations
based on complete active-space SCF (CASSCF) or CAS second-order
perturbation theory (CASPT2), popular choices for computing core
excitations from a given valence-excited state are restricted active-
space SCF (RASSCF)97,98or RASPT2.99Delcey et al. have clearly sum-
marized how to apply RASSCF for core excitations.100XAS spectra of
valence-excited states computed by RASSCF/RASPT2 have been pre-
sented by various authors.47,101,102RASSCF/RASPT2 schemes are suf-
ficiently flexible and even work in the vicinity of conical intersections;
they also can tackle different types of excitations, including, forStructural Dynamics ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/sdy
Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); doi: 10.1063/4.0000070 8, 024101-2
VCAuthor(s) 2021example, those with multiply excited character.103However, the accu-
racy of these methods depends strongly on an appropriate selection ofthe active space, which makes their application system specific. In
addition, RASSCF simulations might suffer from insufficient descrip-
tion of dynamic correlation, whereas the applicability of RASPT2 maybe limited by its computational cost.
Many of the methods mentioned above are available in standard
quantum chemistry packages. Hence, the assessment of their perfor-
mance would help for computational chemists who want to use thesemethods to analyze the experimental TR-XAS spectra. Since experimen-
tal TR-XAS spectra are still relatively scarce, we set out assessing the per-
formance of four selected single-reference methods from the perspectiveof the three requirements stated above. That is, they should be able to
accurately describe the core and valence excitations from the ground
state (GS), to give the transition strengths between the core-excited andvalence-excited states, and yield the XAS spectra of the valence-excited
states over the entire pre-edge region, i.e., describe the spectral features
due to the transitions of higher excitation character. More specifically, weextend the use of the MOM approach to the CCSD framework and eval-
uate its accuracy relative to standard fc-CVS-EOM-EE-CCSD and to
MOM-TDDFT. We note that MOM has been used in combination withCCSD to calculate double core excitations.
104For selected ground-state
XAS simulations, we also consider ADC(2) results.
We use the following systems to benchmark the methodology:
uracil, thymine, and acetylacetone ( Fig. 1 ). Experimental TR-XAS
spectra have not been recorded for uracil yet, but its planar symmetryat the Franck–Condon (FC) geometry and its similarities with thymine
make it a computationally attractive model system. Experimental TR-
XAS data are available at the O K-edge of thymine and at the C K-edge of acetylacetone.
The paper is organized as follows: First, we describe the method-
ology and computational details. We then compare the results
obtained with the CVS-ADC(2), CVS-EOM-CCSD, and TDDFTmethods against the experimental ground-state XAS spectra.
20–22,105
We also compare the computed valence-excitation energies with UVabsorption and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS, often calledelectron impact spectroscopy when it is applied to gas-phase mole-
cules).
106We then present the XAS spectra of the valence-excited
states obtained with different CCSD-based protocols and comparethem with experimental TR-XAS spectra when available.
20–22Finally,
we evaluate the performance of MOM-TDDFT.
II. METHODOLOGY
A. Protocols for computing XAS
We calculated the energies and oscillator strengths for core and
valence excitations from the ground states by standard LR/EOM
methods: ADC(2),81,82,92EOM-EE-CCSD,50,54–57,107,108and TDDFT.In the ADC(2) and CCSD calculations of the valence-excited states,
we employ the frozen core (fc) approximation. CVS58,59,86was applied
to obtain the core-excited states within all methods. Within the
fc-CVS-EOM-EE-CCSD framework,59we explored three different
strategies to obtain the excitation energies and oscillator strengths forselected core-valence transitions, as summarized in Fig. 2 . In the first
one, referred to as standard CVS-EOM-CCSD, we assume that thefinal core-excited states belong to the set of excited states that can bereached by core excitation from the ground states (see Fig. 2 ,t o p
panel). Accordingly, we use the HF Slater determinant, representing
the ground state ( jU
0i) as the reference ( jUrefi) for the CCSD calcula-
tion; the (initial) valence-excited and (final) core-excited states arethen computed with EOM-EE-CCSD and fc-CVS-EOM-EE-CCSD,respectively. The transition energies for core-valence excitations aresubsequently computed as the energy differences between the final
core states and the initial valence state. The oscillator strengths for the
transitions between the two excited states are obtained from the transi-tion moments between the EOM states according to the EOM-CC the-ory.
50,54,59In this approach, both the initial and the final states are
spin-pure states. However, the final core-hole states that have multipleexcitation character with respect to the ground state are either not
FIG. 1. Structures of (a) uracil, (b) thymine, and (c) acetylacetone.FIG. 2. Schematics of the standard CVS-EOM-CCSD, LSOR-CCSD, and HSOR-
CCSD protocols. The crossed configurations are formally doubly excited withrespect to the ground-state reference.Structural Dynamics ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/sdy
Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); doi: 10.1063/4.0000070 8, 024101-3
VCAuthor(s) 2021accessed or described poorly by this approach (the respective configu-
rations are crossed in Fig. 2 ).
In the second approach, named high-spin open-shell reference
(HSOR) CCSD, we use as a reference for the CCSD calculations ahigh-spin open-shell HF Slater determinant that has the same elec-tronic configuration as the initial singlet valence-excited state to beprobed in the XAS step.
60,64,109This approach is based on the assump-
tion that the exchange interactions, which are responsible for theenergy gap between singlets and triplets, cancel out in calculations of
the transition energies and oscillator strengths. An attractive feature of
this approach is that the reference is spin complete (as opposed to alow-spin open-shell determinant of the same occupation) and that theconvergence of the SCF procedure is usually robust. A drawback ofthis approach is the inability to distinguish between the singlet andtriplet states with the same electronic configurations.
In the third approach, we use low-spin (M
s¼0) MOM
references for singlet excited states and high-spin (M s¼1) MOM
references for triplet excited states. We refer to this approach as low-spin open-shell reference (LSOR) CCSD.
In both HSOR-CCSD and LSOR-CCSD, the calculation begins
with an SCF optimization targeting the dominant configuration of theinitial valence-excited state by means of the MOM algorithm, and theresulting Slater determinant is then used as the reference in the subse-
quent CCSD calculation. Core-excitation energies and oscillator
strengths from the high-spin and the low-spin references are com-puted with standard CVS-EOM-EE-CCSD. Such MOM-based CCSDcalculations can describe all target core-hole states, provided that theyhave singly excited character with respect to the chosen reference.Furthermore, in principle, initial valence-excited states of differentspin symmetries can be selected. However, in calculations using low-spin open-shell references (LSOR-CCSD states), variational collapse
might occur. Moreover, the LSOR-CCSD treatment of singlet excited
states suffers from spin contamination as the underlying open-shellreference is not spin complete (the well known issue of spin-completeness in calculations using open-shell references is discussedin detail in recent review articles.
110,111).
We note that the HSOR-CCSD ansatz for a spin-singlet excited
state is identical to the LSOR-CCSD ansatz of a (M s¼1) spin-triplet
state having the same electronic configuration as the spin-singletexcited state (see Fig. 2 ).
In addition to the three CCSD-based protocols described above,
we also considered MOM-TDDFT, which is often used for simulationof the time-resolved near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure (TR-NEXAFS) spectra.
20,22,47We employed the B3LYP xc-functional,44as
in Refs. 20,22,a n d 47.
B. Computational details
The equilibrium geometry of uracil was optimized at the MP2/
cc-pVTZ level. The equilibrium geometries of thymine and acetylace-tone were taken from the literature;
21,61they were optimized at the
CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVDZ and CCSD/aug-cc-pVDZ level, respectively.These structures represent the molecules at the FC points. The struc-tures of the T
1(pp/C3) and S 1(np/C3) states of acetylacetone, and of the
S1(np/C3) state of thymine were optimized at the EOM-EE-CCSD/aug-
cc-pVDZ level.61
We calculated near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure
(NEXAFS) of the ground state of all three molecules using CVS-ADC(2), CVS-EOM-CCSD, and TDDFT/B3LYP. The excitation ener-
gies of the valence-excited states were calculated with ADC(2),
EOM-EE-CCSD, and TDDFT/B3LYP. The XAS spectra of theT
1(pp/C3), T 2(np/C3), S1(np/C3), and S 2(pp/C3) states of uracil were calculated
at the FC geometry. We used the FC geometry for all states in order to
make a coherent comparison of the MOM-based CCSD methods withthe standard CCSD method and to ensure that the final core-excited
states are the same in the ground state XAS and transient state XAS
calculations using standard CCSD. The spectra of thymine in theS
1(np/C3) state were calculated at the potential energy minimum of the
S1(np/C3) state. The spectra of acetylacetone in the T 1(pp/C3) and S 2(pp/C3)
states were calculated at the potential energy minima of the T 1(pp/C3)
and S 1(np/C3) states, respectively. Our choice of geometries for acetyla-
cetone is based on the fact that the S 2(pp/C3)-state spectra were mea-
sured during wave packet propagation from the S 2(pp/C3) minimum
(planar) toward the S 1(np/C3) minimum (distorted), and the ensemble
was in equilibrium when the T 1(pp/C3)-state spectra were measured.22
The XAS spectra of the valence-excited states were computed
with CVS-EOM-CCSD, HSOR-CCSD, and LSOR-CCSD. Pople’s6–311 þþG
/C3/C3basis set was used throughout. In each spectrum, the
oscillator strengths were convoluted with a Lorentzian function
(empirically chosen FWHM ¼0.4 eV,60unless otherwise specified).
We used the natural transition orbitals (NTOs)37,112–119to determine
the character of the excited states.
All calculations were carried out with the Q-Chem 5.3 electronic
structure package.120The initial guesses [HOMO( b)]1[LUMO( a)]1
and [HOMO( a)]1[LUMO( a)]1were used in MOM-SCF for the spin-
singlet and triplet states dominated by (HOMO)1(LUMO)1configura-
tion, respectively. The SOMOs of the initial guess in a MOM-SCF pro-
cedure are the canonical orbitals (or the Kohn–Sham orbitals) which
resemble the hole and particle NTO of the transition from the groundstate to the valence-excited state. One should pay attention to the order
of the orbitals obtained in the ground-state SCF, especially when the
basis set has diffuse functions. In LSOR-CCSD calculations, the SCFconvergence threshold had to be set to 10
/C09Hartree. To ensure con-
vergence to the dominant electronic configuration of the desired elec-
tronic state, we used the initial MOM (IMOM) algorithm121instead of
regular MOM; this is important for cases when the desired state
belongs to the same irreducible representation as the ground state.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Ground-state NEXAFS
Figure 3 shows the O K-edge NEXAFS spectra of uracil in the
ground state computed by CVS-EOM-CCSD, CVS-ADC(2), andTDDFT/B3LYP. Table I shows NTOs of the core-excited states calcu-
lated at the CVS-EOM-CCSD/6–311 þþG
/C3/C3level, where rKare the
singular values for a given NTO pair (their renormalized squares givethe weights of the respective configurations in the transition).
37,112–119
The NTOs for the other two methods are collected in the supplemen-
tary material . Panel (d) of Fig. 3 shows the experimental spectrum
(digitized from Ref. 105). The experimental spectrum has two main
peaks at 531.3 and 532.2 eV, assigned to core excitations to the p/C3
orbitals from O4 and O2, respectively. Beyond these peaks, the inten-
sity remains low up to 534.4 eV. The next notable spectral feature,
attributed to Rydberg excitations, emerges at around 535.7 eV, just
before the first core-ionization onset (indicated as IE). The separationof/C240.9 eV between the two main peaks is reproduced at all threeStructural Dynamics ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/sdy
Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); doi: 10.1063/4.0000070 8, 024101-4
VCAuthor(s) 2021levels of theory. The NTO analysis at the CCSD level (cf. Table I )c o n -
firms that the excitation to the 6A00state has Rydberg character and,
after the uniform shift, the peak assigned to this excitation falls in the
Rydberg region of the experimental spectrum. ADC(2) also yields a6A
00transition of Rydberg character, but it is significantly red-shifted
relative to the experiment. No Rydberg transitions are found at theTDDFT level. Only CVS-EOM-CCSD reproduces the separation
between the 1A
00and the 6A00peaks with reasonable accuracy, 4.91 eV
vs 4.4 eV in the experimental spectrum. The shoulder structure of theexperimental spectrum in the region between 532.2 and 534.4 eV isattributed to vibrational excitations or shakeup transitions.
18,122Figure 4 shows the ground-state NEXAFS spectra of thymine at
the O K-edge. For construction of the theoretical absorption spectra,
we used FWHM of 0.6 eV for the Lorentzian convolution function.
Panel (d) shows the experimental spectrum (digitized from Ref. 21).
Both the experimental and calculated spectra exhibit fine structures,
similar to those of uracil. Indeed, the first and second peaks at 531.4
and 532.2 eV of the experimental spectrum were assigned to O 1s-hole
states having the same electronic configuration characters as the two
lowest-lying O 1s-hole states of uracil. The NTOs of thymine can be
found in the supplementary material .A g a i n ,o n l yC V S - E O M - C C S D
reproduces reasonably well the Rydberg region after 534 eV. The sepa-
ration of the two main peaks is well reproduced at all three levels oftheory.
Figure 5 shows the C K-edge ground-state NEXAFS spectra of
acetylacetone; the NTOs of the core excitations obtained at the CVS-
EOM-CCSD/6–311 þþG
/C3/C3level are collected in Table II . The experi-
mental spectrum, plotted in panel (d) of Fig. 5 , was digitized from Ref.
22.Table II shows that the first three core excitations are dominated
by the transitions to the LUMO from the 1 sorbitals of the carbon
atoms C2, C3, and C4. Transition from the central carbon atom, C3,
appears as the first relatively weak peak at 284.4 eV. We note that ace-tylacetone may exhibit keto–enol tautomerism. In the keto form,
atoms C2 and C4 are equivalent. Therefore, transitions from these car-
bon atoms appear as quasi-degenerate main peaks at /C25286.6 eV. The
region around 288.2 eV is attributed to Rydberg transitions. The
/C242 eV separation between the first peak and the main peak due to the
two quasi-degenerate transitions is well reproduced by ADC(2) and
TDDFT/B3LYP, and slightly underestimated by CVS-EOM-CCSD
(1.6 eV). On the other hand, the separation of /C241.6 eV between the
main peak and the Rydberg resonance region is well reproduced only
by CVS-EOM-CCSD.
The results for the three considered molecules illustrate that
CVS-EOM-CCSD describes well the entire pre-edge region of theFIG. 3. Uracil. Ground-state NEXAFS at the oxygen K-edge calculated with (a)
ADC(2); (b) CVS-EOM-CCSD; (c) TDDFT/B3LYP. The calculated IEs are 539.68and 539.86 eV (fc-CVS-EOM-IP-CCSD/6-311 þþG/C3/C3). In panel (d), the computed
spectrum of (b) is shifted by /C01.8 eV and superposed with the experimental spec-
trum105(black curve). Basis set: 6-311 þþG/C3/C3.
TABLE I. Uracil. CVS-EOM-CCSD/6-311 þþG/C3/C3energies, strengths, and NTOs of
the O 1score excitations from the ground state at the FC geometry (NTO isosurface
is 0.04 for the Rydberg transition and 0.05 for the rest).
Final state Eex(eV) Osc. strength Hole r2
K Particle
1A00533.17 0.036 7
0.78
2A00534.13 0.034 3
0.79
3A00537.55 0.000 3
0.76
4A00537.66 0.000 4
0.78
6A00538.08 0.002 2
0.82
FIG. 4. Thymine. Ground-state oxygen K-edge NEXAFS calculated with (a)
ADC(2), (b) CVS-EOM-CCSD, (c) TDDFT/B3LYP. The computed ionization ener-
gies (IEs) are 539.67 and 539.73 eV (fc-CVS-EOM-IP-CCSD). In panel (d), the
CVS-EOM-CCSD spectrum of (b) is shifted by /C01.7 eV and superposed with
the experimental one21(black curve). Basis set: 6-311 þþG/C3/C3. FWHM of the
Lorentzian convolution function is 0.6 eV.Structural Dynamics ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/sdy
Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); doi: 10.1063/4.0000070 8, 024101-5
VCAuthor(s) 2021NEXAFS spectrum. CVS-ADC(2) and TDDFT/B3LYP describe well
the core excitations to the LUMO and LUMO þ1 (apart from a sys-
tematic shift), but generally fail to describe the transitions at higherexcitation energies.B. Valence-excited states
Table III shows the excitation energies of the two lowest triplet
states, the three lowest singlet states, plus the S
5(pp/C3) state of uracil,
calculated at the FC geometry, along with the values derived from the
EELS123and UV absorption experiments.124The EOM-EE-CCSD/
6–311 þþG/C3/C3NTOs are collected in Table IV , and the NTOs for other
methods are given in the supplementary material . We refer to Ref. 125
for an extensive benchmark study of the one-photon absorption and
excited-state absorption of uracil.
In EELS, the excited states are probed by measuring the kinetic
energy change of a beam of electrons after inelastic collision with theprobed molecular sample.
106In the limit of high incident energy or
small scattering angle, the transition amplitude takes a dipole form
and the selection rules are same as those of UV-Vis absorption.
Otherwise, the selection rules are different and optically dark statescan be detected. Furthermore, spin–orbit coupling enables excitationinto triplet states. Assignment of the EELS spectral signatures is based
on theoretical calculations. Note that excitation energies obtained withFIG. 5. Acetylacetone. Ground-state NEXAFS at carbon K-edge calculated with (a)
ADC(2); (b) CVS-EOM-CCSD; (c) TDDFT/B3LYP . The ionization energies (IEs) are291.12, 291.88, 292.11, 294.10, and 294.56 eV (fc-CVS-EOM-IP-CCSD). In panel(d), the computational result of (b) is shifted by /C00.9 eV and superposed with the
experimental spectrum
22(black curve). Basis set: 6-311 þþG/C3/C3.
TABLE II. Acetylacetone. CVS-EOM-CCSD/6-311 þþG/C3/C3NTOs of the C 1score
excitations from the ground state at the FC geometry (NTO isosurface is 0.03 for the
Rydberg transition and 0.05 for the rest).
Final state Eex(eV) Osc. strength Hole r2
K Particle
1A 285.88 0.013 3
0.76
2A 287.36 0.067 1
0.82
3A 287.53 0.067 3
0.81
9A 288.63 0.021 3
0.79
11A 289.13 0.020 2
0.82
13A 289.27 0.020 5
0.83
14A 289.28 0.017 5
0.82
15A 289.30 0.017 4
0.81
TABLE III. Uracil. Excitation energies (eV) at the FC geometry and comparison with
experimental values from EELS123and UV absorption spectroscopy.124
ADC(2) ADC(2)-x EOM-CCSD TDDFT EELS UV
T1(pp/C3) 3.91 3.36 3.84 3.43 3.75
T2(np/C3) 4.47 3.79 4.88 4.27 4.76
S1(np/C3) 4.68 3.93 5.15 4.65 5.2
S2(pp/C3) 5.40 4.70 5.68 5.19 5.5 5.08
S3(pRyd) 5.97 5.39 6.07 5.70 …
S5(pp/C3) 6.26 5.32 6.74 5.90 6.54 6.02
TABLE IV. Uracil. EOM-EE-CCSD/6-311 þþG/C3/C3NTOs for the transitions from the
ground state to the lowest valence-excited states at the FC geometry (NTO isosur-face is 0.05).
Final state Eex(eV) Osc. strength Hole r2
K Particle
T1(A0;pp/C3) 3.84 …
0.82
T2(A00,np/C3) 4.88 …
0.82
S1(A00,np/C3) 5.15 0.000 0
0.81
S2(A0,pp/C3) 5.68 0.238 6
0.75
S3(A00;pRyd) 6.07 0.0027
0.85
S5(A0,pp/C3) 6.74 0.0573
0.73
Structural Dynamics ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/sdy
Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); doi: 10.1063/4.0000070 8, 024101-6
VCAuthor(s) 2021EELS may be blue-shifted compared to those from UV-Vis absorption
due to momentum transfer between the probing electrons and theprobed molecule.
EOM-EE-CCSD excitation energies for all valence states of uracil
agree well with the experimental values from EELS. Both the EOM-EE-CCSD and EELS values slightly overestimate the UV-Vis results.For the two triplet states and the S
1(A00,np/C3) and S 2(A0;pp/C3)s t a t e s ,
ADC(2) also gives fairly accurate excitation energies. ADC(2)-x, onthe other hand, seems unbalanced for the valence excitations (regard-less of the basis set). The TDDFT/B3LYP excitation energies are red-shifted with respect to the EELS values, but the energy differencesbetween the T
1(A0;pp/C3), T 2(A00,np/C3), S 1(A00,np/C3), and S 2(A0;pp/C3)
states are in reasonable agreement with the corresponding experimen-tally derived values.
Table V shows the excitation energies of the five lowest triplet
and singlet states of thymine, along with the experimental valuesobtained by EELS.
126We did not find literature data for the UV
absorption of thymine in the gas phase. The energetic order is basedon EOM-EE-CCSD. Here, we reassign the peaks of the EELS spec-tra
126on the basis of the following considerations: ( i) optically bright
transitions also exhibit strong peaks in the EELS spectra; ( ii) the excita-
tion energy of a triplet state is lower than the excitation energy of thesinglet state with the same electronic configuration; ( iii) the strengths
of the transitions to triplet states are smaller than the strengths ofthe transitions to singlet states; ( iv) among the excitations enabled by
spin–orbit coupling, p!p
/C3transitions have relatively large transition
moments.
Except for T 1(pp/C3), the ADC(2) excitation energies are red-
shifted relative to EOM-CCSD. Hence, the ADC(2) excitation energiesof the states considered here are closest, in absolute values, to theexperimental values from Table V . However, the energy differences
between the singlet states (S
1,S2,S4,a n dS 5) are much better repro-
duced by EOM-CCSD. TDDFT/B3LYP accurately reproduces theexcitation energies of the T
2(np/C3), S1(np/C3), and S 2(pp/C3)s t a t e s .
Table VI shows the excitation energies of the two lowest triplet
and singlet states, and the lowest Rydberg states of acetylacetone, alongwith the experimental values obtained from EELS
127and UV
absorption128(the exact state ordering of states in the singlet Rydberg
manifold is unknown). Table VII shows the NTOs obtained at theEOM-EE-CCSD/6–311 þþG/C3/C3level. Remarkably, for this molecule
the excitation energies from EELS agree well with those from UV
absorption. Note that the EELS spectra of acetylacetone were recordedwith incident electron energies of 25 and 100 eV,
127whereas those for
uracil123were obtained with 0–8.0 eV. The higher incident electron
energies reduce the effective acceptance angle of the electrons, whichmay hinder the detection of electrons that have undergone momen-tum transfer. The transitions to the T
1(pp/C3)a n dT 2(np/C3) states
appeared only with the 25 eV incident electron energy and a scatteringangle of 90
/C14(see Fig. 3 of Ref. 127). The peaks were broad and, fur-
thermore, an order of magnitude less intense than the S 0!S2(pp/C3)
transition. Consequently, it is difficult to resolve the excitation energiesof T
1(pp/C3) and T 2(np/C3). ADC(2) yields the best match with the exper-
imental results for acetylacetone.
These results indicate that the excitation energies of the valence-
excited states computed by EOM-EE-CCSD, ADC(2), and TDDFT/
TABLE V. Thymine. Excitation energies (eV) at the FC geometry compared with the
experimental values from EELS.126The oscillator strengths are from EOM-EE-CCSD
and used for the re-assignment.
ADC(2) EOM-CCSD TDDFT EELS Osc. strength
T1(pp/C3) 3.70 3.63 3.19 3.66 …
T2(np/C3) 4.39 4.81 4.25 4.20 …
S1(np/C3) 4.60 5.08 4.64 4.61 0.000 0
S2(pp/C3) 5.18 5.48 4.90 4.96 0.228 9
T3(pp/C3) 5.27 5.32 4.61 5.41 ….
T4(pRyd) 5.66 5.76 5.39 … …
S3(pRyd) 5.71 5.82 5.46 … 0.000 5
T5(pp/C3) 5.87 5.91 5.10 5.75 …
S4(np/C3) 5.95 6.45 5.72 5.96 0.000 0
S5(pp/C3) 6.15 6.63 5.87 6.17 0.067 9TABLE VI. Acetylacetone. Excitation energies (eV) at the FC geometry compared
with the values obtained in EELS127and UV absorption spectroscopy.128
ADC(2) ADC(2)-x EOM-CCSD TDDFT EELS UV
T1(pp/C3) 3.76 3.16 3.69 3.23 3.57? …
T2(np/C3) 3.79 3.13 4.11 3.75 ? …
S1(np/C3) 4.03 3.29 4.39 4.18 4.04 4.2
S2(pp/C3) 4.96 4.28 5.24 5.08 4.70 4.72
T3ðpRydÞ 5.91 5.45 6.02 5.66 5.52 …
S3?ðpRydÞ5.98 5.53 6.13 5.72 5.84 5.85
S5?ðpRydÞ6.87 6.30 7.06 6.64 6.52 6.61
TABLE VII. Acetylacetone. EOM-EE-CCSD/6-311 þþG/C3/C3NTOs of the excitations
from the ground state to the lowest-lying valence-excited states at the FC geometry(NTO isosurface is 0.03 for the Rydberg transitions and 0.05 for the rest).
Final state Eex(eV) Osc. strength Hole r2
K Particle
T1(A0,pp/C3) 3.69 …
0.82
T2(A00,np/C3) 4.11 …
0.82
S1(A00,np/C3) 4.39 0.000 6
0.81
S2(A0,pp/C3) 5.24 0.329 9
0.77
T3½pRydðsÞ/C138 6.02 …
0.86
S3?½pRydðsÞ/C138 6.13 0.007 2
0.86
S5?½pRydðpÞ/C138 7.06 0.057 1
0.85
Structural Dynamics ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/sdy
Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); doi: 10.1063/4.0000070 8, 024101-7
VCAuthor(s) 2021B3LYP are equally (in)accurate. Which method yields the best match
with experiment depends on the molecule.
C. Core excitations from the valence-excited states
In Secs. III A andIII B, we analyzed two of our three desiderata
for a good electronic structure method for TR-XAS—that is, the abilityto yield accurate results for ground-state XAS as well as for thevalence-excited states involved in the dynamics. In this subsection, wefocus on the remaining item, i.e., the ability to yield accurate XAS of
valence-excited states.
For uracil, we confirmed that EOM-CCSD and CVS-EOM-
CCSD yield fairly accurate results for the valence-excited T
1(pp/C3),
T2(np/C3), S 1(np/C3), and S 2(pp/C3) states and for the (final) singlet (O 1s)
core-excited states at the FC geometry, respectively. It is thus reason-able to consider the oxygen K-edge XAS spectra of the S
1(np/C3)a n d
S2(pp/C3) states of uracil obtained from CVS-EOM-CCSD as our refer-
ence, even though CVS-EOM-CCSD only yields the peaks of the core-to-SOMO transitions.
Figure 6 shows the oxygen K-edge XAS of uracil in the (a)
S
1(np/C3), (b) S 2(pp/C3), (c) T 2(np/C3), and (d) T 1(pp/C3) states, calculated
using CVS-EOM-CCSD (blue curve) and LSOR-CCSD (red curve) atthe FC geometry. Note that the HSOR-CCSD spectra of S
1(np/C3)a n d
S2(pp/C3) are identical to the LSOR-CCSD spectra for the T 2(np/C3)a n d
T1(pp/C3) states, respectively, because their orbital electronic configura-
tion are the same, see Table IV . The ground-state spectrum (green
curve) is included in all panels for comparison. The LSOR-CCSDNTOs of the transitions underlying the peaks in the S
1(np/C3), S2(pp/C3)
and T 1(pp/C3) spectra are given in Tables VIII–X ,r e s p e c t i v e l y .
The CVS-EOM-CCSD spectrum of S 1(np/C3) exhibits a relatively
intense peak at 528.02 eV, and tiny peaks at 532.40 and 532.52 eV. Theintense peak is due to transition from the 1 sorbital of O4 to SOMO,
which is a lone-pair-type orbital localized on O4. The tiny peak at532.40 eV is assigned to the transition to SOMO from the 1 sorbital of
O2, whereas the peak at 532.52 eV is assigned to a transition with mul-tiply excited character. The LSOR-CCSD spectrum exhibits the strongcore-to-SOMO transition peak at 526.39 eV, which is red-shifted from
the corresponding CVS-EOM-CCSD one by 1.63 eV. As Table VIII
shows that the peak at 534.26 eV is due to transition from the 1 s
orbital of O2 to a p
/C3orbital, and it corresponds to the second peak in
the ground-state spectrum. In the S 1(np/C3) XAS spectrum, there is no
peak corresponding to the first band in the ground-state spectrum,there assigned to the O4 1 s!p
/C3transition. This suggests that thisTABLE VIII. Uracil. LSOR-CCSD/6-311 þþG/C3/C3NTOs of the O 1score excitations
from the S 1(np/C3) state at the FC geometry (NTO isosurface value is 0.05).
Eex(eV) Osc. strength Spin Hole r2
K Particle
526.39 0.045 1 a
0.86
534.26 0.032 3 a
0.56
b
0.23
TABLE IX. Uracil. LSOR-CCSD/6-311 þþG/C3/C3NTOs of the O 1score excitations
from the S 2(pp/C3) state at the FC geometry (NTO isosurface value is 0.05).
Eex(eV) Osc. strength Spin Hole r2
K Particle
530.16 0.010 2 a
0.68
530.54 0.013 1 a
0.67
532.96 0.018 6 b
0.74
534.74 0.015 5 b
0.80
535.70 0.007 6 a
0.77
535.88 0.008 5 a
0.76
FIG. 6. Uracil. Oxygen K-edge NEXAFS of the four lowest-lying valence states: (a)
S1(np/C3); (b) S 2(pp/C3); (c) T 2(np/C3); and (d) T 1(pp/C3)]. The blue and red curves corre-
spond to the CVS-EOM-CCSD and LSOR-CCSD results, respectively. Note that
the HSOR spectra for S 1and S 2are identical to the LSOR-CCSD spectra for T 2
and T 1. Basis set: 6-311 þþG/C3/C3. FC geometry. The ground state XAS (green
curve) is included for comparison.Structural Dynamics ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/sdy
Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); doi: 10.1063/4.0000070 8, 024101-8
VCAuthor(s) 2021transition is suppressed by the positive charge localized on O4 in the
S1(np/C3) state.
The S 1(np/C3) state from LSOR-CCSD is spin-contaminated, with
hS2i¼1:033. The spectra of S 1(np/C3) yielded by LSOR-CCSD [panel
(a)] and by HSOR-CCSD [panel (c)] are almost identical. This is not
too surprising, as the spectra of S 1(np/C3) and T 2(np/C3) from CVS-EOM-
CCSD are also almost identical. This is probably a consequence ofsmall exchange interactions in the two states (the singlet and the trip-
let) due to negligible spatial overlap between the lone pair (n) and p
/C3
orbitals.
In the CVS-EOM-CCSD spectrum of S 2(pp/C3), see panel (b), the
peaks due to the core-to-SOMO ( p) transitions from O4 and O2 occur
at 527.50 and 531.87 eV, respectively. The additional peak at 531.99 eV
is assigned to a transition with multiple electronic excitation. In theLSOR-CCSD spectrum, the core-to-SOMO peaks appear at 530.16and 530.54 eV, respectively.
As shown in Table IX ,w ea s s i g nt h ep e a k sa t5 3 2 . 9 6a n d
534.74 eV in the LSOR-CCSD spectrum to transitions from the 1 s
orbitals of the two oxygens to the p
/C3orbital, which is half occupied in
S2(pp/C3). The NTO analysis reveals that they correspond to the first
and second peak of the ground-state spectrum. Note that hS2i¼1.326
for the S 2(pp/C3) state obtained from LSOR-CCSD.
In the HSOR-CCSD spectrum of the S 2(pp/C3)s t a t e[ w h i c hi s
equal to the LSOR-CCSD spectrum of the T 1(pp/C3) state in panel (d)],
t h ep e a k so ft h ec o r e - t o - S O M O( p) transitions from O4 and O2
appear at 529.81 and 532.39 eV, respectively (see Table X ). They arefollowed by transitions to the half-occupied p/C3orbital at 534.15 and
535.09 eV, respectively. In contrast to what we observed in the S 1(np/C3)
spectra, the LSOR-CCSD and HSOR-CCSD spectra of the S 2(pp/C3)
state are qualitatively different. This can be explained, again, in terms
of importance of the exchange interactions in the initial and final
states. On one hand, there is a stabilization of the T 1(pp/C3) (initial) state
over the S 2(pp/C3) state by exchange interaction as the overlap between
thepandp/C3orbitals is not negligible. The exchange interaction
between the strongly localized core-hole orbital and the half-occupiedvalence/virtual orbital in the final core-excited state, on the other
hand, is expected to be small.
To evaluate the accuracy of the excited-state XAS spectra from
CVS-EOM-CCSD and LSOR-CCSD, we also calculated the XAS spec-tra of the S
1(np/C3) state of thymine at the potential energy minimum of
S1(np/C3), see panel (a) of Fig. 7 . For construction of the surface cut of
the theoretical absorption spectra, we chose FWHM of 0.6 eV for theLorentzian convolution function. Panel (b) shows the spectra of
S
1(np/C3) multiplied by 0.2 and added to the ground-state spectrum
multiplied by 0.8. These factors 0.2 and 0.8 were chosen for the best fitwith the experimental spectrum. A surface cut of the experimental
TR-NEXAFS spectrum at the delay time of 2 ps (Ref. 21)i sa l s os h o w n
in panel (b) of Fig. 7 . The reconstructed computational spectra are
shifted by /C01.7 eV. In the experimental spectrum, the core-to-SOMO
transition peak occurs at 526.4 eV. In the reconstructed theoretical
spectrum, the core-to-SOMO transition peaks appear at 526.62 and524.70 eV, for CVS-EOM-CCSD and LSOR-CCSD, respectively. Thus,
the CVS-EOM-CCSD superposed spectrum agrees slightly better with
experiment than the LSOR-CCSD spectrum. Nonetheless, the accu-racy of the LSOR-CCSD spectrum is quite reasonable, as compared
with the experimental spectrum.
Due to the lack of experimental data, not much can be said about
the accuracy of CVS-EOM-CCSD and LSOR-CCSD/HSOR-CCSD for
core excitations from a triplet excited state in uracil and thymine.
Furthermore, we are unable to unambiguously clarify, using uracil andthymine as model system, which of the two methods, LSOR-CCSD or
HSOR-CCSD, should be considered more reliable when they give
qualitatively different spectra for the singlet excited states.
Therefore, we turn our attention to the carbon K-edge spectra of
acetylacetone and show, in Fig. 8 , the spectra obtained using CVS-
EOM-CCSD (blue), LSOR-CCSD (red), and HSOR-CCSD (magenta)
FIG. 7. Thymine. (a) Oxygen K-edge NEXAFS in the S 1(np/C3) state at its potential
energy minimum. Blue: CVS-EOM-CCSD. Red: LSOR-CCSD. Thin green line:ground-state spectrum at the FC geometry. (b) Thick black: Experimental spectrumat the delay time of 2 ps.
21Blue: computational spectrum made from the blue and
green curves of (a), shifted by /C01.7 eV. Red: computational spectrum made from
the red and green curves of (a), shifted by /C01.7 eV. The blue and red curves from
(a) were scaled by 0.2 in (b). The ground-state spectrum from (a) was scaled by0.8 in (b). FWHM of the Lorentzian convolution function is 0.6 eV.TABLE X. Uracil. LSOR-CCSD/6-311 þþG/C3/C3NTOs of the O 1score excitations from
the T 1(pp/C3) state at the FC geometry (NTO isosurface is 0.05).
Eex(eV) Osc. strength Spin Hole r2
K Particle
529.81 0.021 2 b
0.79
532.39 0.011 5 b
0.78
534.15 0.018 7 a
0.76
535.09 0.010 0 a
0.73
535.58 0.006 2 b
0.77
535.61 0.008 1 b
0.72
Structural Dynamics ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/sdy
Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); doi: 10.1063/4.0000070 8, 024101-9
VCAuthor(s) 2021for the T 1(pp/C3)[ p a n e l( a ) ]a n dS 2(pp/C3) [panel (b)] states. The T 1(pp/C3)
spectra were obtained at the potential energy minimum of T 1(pp/C3).
The spectra of S 2(pp/C3) were calculated at the potential energy mini-
mum of the S 1(np/C3) state. In doing so, we assume that the nuclear
wave packet propagates on the S 2(pp/C3) surface toward the potential
energy minimum of the S 1(np/C3) surface. Note that CVS-EOM-CCSD
does not describe all the core excitations from a valence-excited state(seeFig. 2 ). In panels (c) and (d), the LSOR-CCSD spectra were multi-
plied by 0.75 and subtracted from the ground-state spectrum, scaled
by 0.25, and superposed to the surface cuts of the experimentaltransient-absorption NEXAFS at delay times 7–10 ps and 120–200 fs,respectively. The calculated transient-absorption spectra were shifted
by/C00.9 eV, i.e., by the same amount as the spectrum of the ground
s t a t e[ s e ep a n e l( b )o f Fig. 5 ]. For construction of the surface cut of the
theoretical transient-absorption spectra, we used FWHM of 0.6 eV for
the Lorentzian convolution function. The scaling factors values 0.75
and 0.25 were chosen to yield the best fit with the experimental spec-tra. The NTOs of the core excitations from T
1(pp/C3)a n dS 2(pp/C3)a r e
shown in Tables XI andXII, respectively. In the experimental study,22
it was concluded that S 2(pp/C3) is populated at the shorter timescale,
whereas at the longer timescale it is T 1(pp/C3) that becomes populated.
The surface cut of the experimental transient-absorption spectra
at longer times (7–10 ps) features two peaks at 281.4 and 283.8 eV. In
panel (a) of Fig. 8 , the CVS-EOM-CCSD spectrum of T 1(pp/C3)s h o w s
the core-to-SOMO transition peaks at 282.69 and 284.04 eV, whereas
the LSOR-CCSD ones appear at 281.76 and 283.94 eV. The LSOR-
CCSD spectrum also shows a peak corresponding to a transition fromC4 to the half-occupied p
/C3orbital at 286.96 eV (see Table XI ). The
separation of 2.4 eV between the two core-to-SOMO peaks in theexperiment is well reproduced by LSOR-CCSD. Spin contamination is
small, hS2i¼2.004 for the T 1(pp/C3) state obtained using LSOR-CCSD.
Therefore, it is safe to say, that LSOR-CCSD accurately describes coreexcitations from the low-lying triplet states.FIG. 8. Acetylacetone. Carbon K-edge NEXAFS from the T 1(pp/C3) (a) and S 2(pp/C3)
(b) states. The spectra of T 1(pp/C3) were computed at the potential energy minimum
of T 1(pp/C3). The spectra of S 2(pp/C3) were computed at the potential energy mini-
mum of S 1(np/C3). Blue: CVS-EOM-CCSD. Red: LSOR-CCSD. Magenta: HSOR-
CCSD. Green: Ground-state spectrum at the FC geometry. (c), (d) Black:Experimental transient absorption spectra at the delay times of 7–10 ps and
120–200 fs,22respectively. Red: computational transient absorption spectra made
from the red and the green curves of (a) and (b), respectively, shifted by /C00.9 eV
as the spectrum of the ground state [see panel (b) of Fig. 5 ]. The red curves of pan-
els (a) and (b) were scaled by 0.75 and from these, the green ground-state spec-
trum, scaled by 0.25, was subtracted. FWHM of the Lorentzian convolution function
is 0.4 eV for panels (a) and (b), 0.6 eV for panels (c) and (d), respectively. Basisset: 6-311 þþG/C3/C3.TABLE XI. Acetylacetone. LSOR-CCSD/6-311 þþG/C3/C3NTOs of the C 1score excita-
tions from the T 1state at the potential energy minimum (NTO isosurface is 0.05).
Eex(eV) Osc. strength Spin Hole r2
K Particle
281.76 0.034 7 b
0.86
283.94 0.031 8 b
0.84
285.69 0.003 6 b
0.72
286.96 0.033 4 a
0.65
b
0.14
TABLE XII. Acetylacetone. LSOR-CCSD/6-311 þþG/C3/C3NTOs of the C 1score excita-
tions from the S 2state at the potential energy minimum of S 1(NTO isosurface is
0.05).
Eex(eV) Osc. strength Spin Hole r2
K Particle
281.30 0.022 8 a
0.77
283.69 0.008 5 a
0.71
285.43 0.026 9 b
0.76
286.07 0.038 1 b
0.76
287.39 0.005 7 b
0.64
Structural Dynamics ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/sdy
Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); doi: 10.1063/4.0000070 8, 024101-10
VCAuthor(s) 2021The surface cut of the transient-absorption spectra at shorter
times, 120–240 fs, features relatively strong peaks at 284.7, 285.9 and a
ground-state bleach at 286.6 eV. The CVS-EOM-CCSD spectrum of
the S 2(pp/C3) state shows the core-to-SOMO peak at 280.77. The LSOR-
CCSD spectrum (red) has core-to-SOMO transition peaks at 281.30
and 283.69 eV, plus the peaks due to the transitions from the core of
C2, C4, and C3 to the half-occupied p/C3orbital at 285.43, 286.07 and
287.39 eV, respectively (see Table XII ). Note that the peaks at 285.43
and 286.07 eV correspond to the main degenerate peaks of the
ground-state spectrum, as revealed by inspection of the NTOs. The
HSOR-CCSD spectrum (magenta) exhibits the core-to-SOMO transi-
tion peaks at 281.99 and 283.17 eV, followed by only one of the quasi-
degenerate peaks corresponding to transitions to the half-occupied p/C3
orbital, at 287.95 eV. Since the experimental surface-cut spectrum does
not clearly show the core-to-SOMO transition peaks, it is difficult to
assess the accuracy of these peaks as obtained in the calculations.
When it comes to the experimental peaks at 284.7 and 285.9 eV, only
LSOR-CCSD reproduces them with reasonable accuracy. The experi-
mental peak at 288.4 eV is not reproduced. In the case of acetylace-
tone, the HSOR-CCSD approximation fails to correctly mimic the
spectrum of S 2(pp/C3), since it does not give the peaks at 284.7 and
285.9 eV. The differences between LSOR-CCSD and HSOR-CCSD
spectra for S 2(pp/C3) can be rationalized as done for uracil.
We emphasize that the assignment of the transient absorption
signal at shorter time to S 2(pp/C3) is based on peaks assigned to transi-
tions to the p/C3orbitals (almost degenerate in the ground state), which
cannot be described by CVS-EOM-CCSD (see Fig. 2 in Sec. II A).
On the basis of the above analysis, we conclude that, despite spin
contamination, LSOR-CCSD describes the XAS of singlet valence-
excited states with reasonable accuracy. LSOR-CCSD could even be
used as benchmark for other levels of theory, especially when experi-
mental TR-XAS spectra are not available.
We conclude this section by analyzing the MOM-TDDFT results
for the transient absorption. As seen in Secs. III A andIII B, ADC(2)
and TDDFT/B3LYP yield reasonable results for the lowest-lying core-
excited states and for the valence-excited states of interest in the
n u c l e a rd y n a m i c s .T h en e x tq u e s t i o ni st h u sw h e t h e rM O M - T D D F T /
B3LYP can reproduce the main peaks of the time-resolved spectra
with reasonable accuracy. We attempt to answer this question by com-
paring the MOM-TDDFT/B3LYP spectra of thymine and acetylace-
tone with the surface cuts of the experimental spectra.
The MOM-TDDFT/B3LYP O K-edge NEXAFS spectrum of thy-
mine in the S 1(np/C3) state is shown in Fig. 9 , panel (a). For construction
of the surface cut of the theoretical absorption spectra, we used
FWHM of 0.6 eV for the Lorentzian convolution function. A theoreti-
cal surface cut spectrum was constructed as sum of the MOM-TDDFT spectrum and the standard TDDFT spectrum of the ground
state, scaled by 0.2 and 0.8, respectively. This is shown in panel (b),
together with the experimental surface cut spectrum at 2 ps delay.
21
The MOM-TDDFT/B3LYP peaks due to the core transitions from O4and O2 to SOMO (n) are found at 511.82 and 513.50 eV, respectively.
The peak corresponding to the first main peak of the ground-state
spectrum is missing, and the one corresponding to the second main
peak in the ground state appears at 517.71 eV. These features are
equivalent to what we observed in the LSOR-CCSD case (see Fig. 7 ).
Thus, the separation between the core-to-SOMO peak and the
ground-state main peaks is accurately reproduced.Next, we consider the carbon K-edge spectra of acetylacetone in
the T
1(pp/C3) [at the minimum of T 1(pp/C3)] and S 2(pp/C3)[ a tt h em i n i -
mum of S 1(np/C3)] states, as obtained from MOM-TDDFT. They are
plotted in panels (a) and (b) of Fig. 10 , respectively. Surface cuts of the
transient-absorption NEXAFS spectra were constructed by subtracting
the TDDFT spectrum, scaled by 0.25, with the MOM-TDDFT spectra
scaled by 0.75. For this construction, we convoluted the oscillator
strengths with a Lorentzian function (FWHM ¼0.6 eV) and chose the
factors 0.75 and 0.25 for the best fit with the experimental spectra.
They are superposed with those from experiment at delay times of
7–10 ps and 120–200 fs in Fig. 10 ,p a n e l s( c )a n d( d ) .T h eM O M -
TDDFT spectrum of T 1(pp/C3) exhibits the core-to-SOMO transition
peaks at 270.88 and 272.41 eV. A peak due to the transition to the
half-occupied p/C3orbital occurs at 274.16 eV. All peaks observed in the
LSOR-CCSD spectrum were also obtained by MOM-TDDFT. TheFIG. 9. (a) Red: Oxygen K-edge NEXAFS for thymine in the S 1(np/C3) state calcu-
lated at the MOM-TDDFT/B3LYP/6-311 þþG/C3/C3level at the potential energy mini-
mum. Green: Ground-state spectrum. (b) Black: Experimental spectrum at the
delay time of 2 ps,21Red: computational spectrum made from the red and the
green curves of (a), shifted by þ14.8 eV. The red curve of (a) was scaled by 0.2.
The green curve of (a) was scaled by 0.8. FWHM of the Lorentzian convolution
function is 0.6 eV.
FIG. 10. (a) and (b) Carbon K-edge NEXAFS for acetylacetone in the T 1(pp/C3) and
S2(pp/C3) states calculated at the MOM-TDDFT/B3LYP/6-311 þþG/C3/C3level at the
potential energy minima of T 1(pp/C3) and S 1(np/C3), respectively. The green curve is
the ground-state spectrum. In panels (c) and (d), the experimental transient absorp-tion spectra at delay times of 7–10 ps and 120–200 fs are reported with blacklines.
22In red are the computational transient absorption spectra reconstructed
from the red and green curves of panels (a) and (b), respectively, shifted by
þ10.9 eV. The red curves of (a) and (b) were scaled by 0.75, and subtracted from
the green curves, which were scaled by 0.25. FWHM of the Lorentzian convolutionfunction is 0.4 eV for panels (a) and (b), 0.6 eV for panels (c) and (d), respectively.Structural Dynamics ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/sdy
Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); doi: 10.1063/4.0000070 8, 024101-11
VCAuthor(s) 2021fine structure of the surface-cut transient absorption spectrum is quali-
tatively reproduced.
The MOM-TDDFT spectrum of S 2(pp/C3) exhibits the core-to-
SOMO( p/C3) transition peaks at 269.94 and 271.73 eV. The peaks due to
the transitions to the half-occupied p/C3orbital appear at 274.17 and
274.98 eV. The reconstructed transient-absorption spectrum agrees
well with the experimental surface-cut spectrum.
IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
We have analyzed the performance of different single-reference
electronic structure methods for excited-state XAS calculations. Theanalysis was carried out in three steps. First, we compared the results
for the ground-state XAS spectra of uracil, thymine, and acetylacetone
computed using CVS-ADC(2), CVS-EOM-CCSD, and TDDFT/B3LYP, and with the experimental spectra. Second, we computed the
excitation energies of the valence-excited states presumably involved
in the dynamics at ADC(2), EOM-EE-CCSD, and TDDFT/B3LYP lev-els, and compared them with the experimental data from EELS and
UV absorption. Third, we analyzed different protocols for the XAS
spectra of the lowest-lying valence-excited states based on the CCSDansatz, namely, regular CVS-EOM-CCSD for transitions betweenexcited states, and EOM-CCSD applied on the excited-state reference
state optimized imposing the MOM constraint. The results for thy-
mine and acetylacetone were evaluated by comparison with the experi-mental time-resolved spectra. Finally, the performance of MOM-
TDDFT/B3LYP for TR-XAS was evaluated, again on thymine and ace-
tylacetone, by comparison with the LSOR-CCSD and the experimentalspectra.
In the first step, we found that CVS-EOM-CCSD reproduces well
the entire pre-edge region of the ground-state XAS spectra. On theother hand, CVS-ADC(2) and TDDFT/B3LYP only describe thelowest-lying core excitations with reasonable accuracy, while the
Rydberg region is not captured. In the second step, we observed that
EOM-EE-CCSD, ADC(2), and TDDFT/B3LYP treat the valence-excited states with a comparable accuracy.
Among the methods analyzed in the third step, only LSOR-
CCSD and MOM-TDDFT can reproduce the entire pre-bleachingregion of the excited-state XAS spectra for thymine and acetylacetone,
despite spin contamination of the singlet excited states. LSOR-CCSD
could be used as the reference when evaluating the performance ofother electronic structure methods for excited-state XAS, especially ifno experimental spectra are available. For the spectra of the spin-
singlet states, CVS-EOM-CCSD yields slightly better core !SOMO
positions.
We note that the same procedure can be used to assess the
performance of other xc-functional or post-HF methods for TR-
XAS calculations. We also note that description of an initial statewith the MOM algorithm is reasonably accurate only when the
initial state has a single configurational wave-function character.
The low computational scaling and reasonable accuracy ofMOM-TDDFT makes it rather attractive for the on-the-fly calcu-lation of TR-XAS spectra in the excited-state nuclear dynamics
simulations.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
See the supplementary material for the NTOs of all core and
valence excitations.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The research leading to the presented results has received
funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and
innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant
Agreement Nos. 713683 (COFUNDfellowsDTU) and 765739
(COSINE, COmputational Spectroscopy In Natural sciences and
Engineering), from DTU Chemistry, from the Danish Council for
Independent Research (now Independent Research Fund
Denmark), Grant Nos. 7014-00258B, 4002-00272, 014-00258B, and
8021-00347B, and from the Hungarian National Research,Development and Innovation Fund, Grant No. NKFIH PD 134976.
A.I.K. was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (No.
CHE-1856342).
A.I.K. is president and part-owner of Q-Chem, Inc.
DATA AVAILABILITY
The data that support the findings of this study are available
within the article and its supplementary material .
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Struct. Dyn. 8, 024101 (2021); doi: 10.1063/4.0000070 8, 024101-15
VCAuthor(s) 2021 |
1.4941417.pdf | A magnetoplasmonic electrical-to-optical clock multiplier
C. J. Firby and A. Y. Elezzabi
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 108, 051111 (2016); doi: 10.1063/1.4941417
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4941417
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apl/108/5
Published by the American Institute of Physics
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Applied Physics Letters 109, 011101 (2016); 10.1063/1.4955455A magnetoplasmonic electrical-to-optical clock multiplier
C. J. Firbya)and A. Y . Elezzabi
Ultrafast Optics and Nanophotonics Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 1H9, Canada
(Received 1 December 2015; accepted 25 January 2016; published online 5 February 2016)
We propose and investigate an electrical-to-optical clock multiplier, based on a bismuth-substituted
yttrium iron garnet (Bi:YIG) magnetoplasmonic Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). Transient
magnetic fields induce a precession of the magnetization vector of the Bi:YIG, which in turnmodulates the nonreciprocal phase shift in the MZI arms, and hence the intensity at the output
port. We show that the device is capable of modulation depth of 16.26 dB and has a tunable output
frequency between 279.9 MHz and 5.6 GHz. Correspondingly, the input electrical modulationfrequency can be multiplied by factors of up to 2 :1/C210
3in the optical signal. Such a device is
envisioned as a critical component in the development of hybrid electrical-optical circuitry. VC2016
AIP Publishing LLC .[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4941417 ]
Nanoplasmonics provides a convenient platform for hybrid-
izing complimentary-metal- oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) and
optical technology on a single chip. Significant researchefforts have been devoted to developing optical analogues of
various electronic components. Coherent, integrable optical
sources, in the form of nanoscale plasmonic lasers, can pro-vide on-chip optical signal generation.
1For encoding data
onto the lightwave, optical switches and modulators can beimplemented with either electrical stimulus, utilizing elec-tro-optic
2or thermo-optic3effects, or optical stimulus,
employing free-carrier-generation4or the Kerr nonlinearity.5
Additionally, nanoplasmonic logic gates, whose electricalanalogues form the foundation of CMOS logical circuits,
have been demonstrated.
6These components mirror complex
CMOS logic designs in use today.
One key device that has yet to manifest in the optical re-
gime is the clock multiplier (CM). The role of a CM is to scaleup the clock signal frequency at different locations within asystem. A nanoplasmonic CM would transfer an electrical sig-
nal to the optical domain, upconvert the modulation fre-
quency, and synchronize the electrical and optical logicsystems operating at different speeds. Thus, one requires anoptical material that facilitates a mechanism of generating reg-ular optical modulation between stimulating electrical pulses,in the absence of excitation. Previously explored materialproperties such as electro-optic, thermo-optic, and nonlineareffects are unable to display this characteristic, as they do not
exhibit long-lasting, resonantly driven oscillations that can be
mapped into the phase of the optical wave.
A prime material candidate is a resonant magnetic sys-
tem, such as bismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet(Bi:YIG). In the optical regime, Bi:YIG possesses a largemagneto-optical figure of merit, exhibits a transparency win-dow around the communications wavelength of
k¼1550 nm,
7and is well established for its high-speed mod-
ulation capabilities via magnetization switching.8
When light propagates through a Bi:YIG waveguide in a
transverse magnetic field, the magnetization breaks the timereversal symmetry and imparts a nonreciprocal phase shift
(NRPS) onto the optical mode. As such, the phase gained by
forward and backward propagating modes will differ. A per-
pendicular transient magnetic field can exert a torque on the
magnetization vector, changing the magnetization state.9
Upon conclusion of the transient pulse, the magnetization will
precess around the static field vector as it relaxes back to its
initial state. This precession manifests as an oscillatory
response of the perpendicular magnetization components, ini-
tiating dynamic actuation of the NRPS. Integrating this wave-
guide into a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) converts thedynamic NRPS into a sequence of optical clock pulses.
In this letter, we present the design of an electrical-to-
optical CM utilizing the NRPS in magnetoplasmonic wave-
guides. Employing the transient magnetic field from a nearby
pulsed current clock signal, precession of the magnetization
vector in a Bi:YIG magnetoplasmonic MZI can be excited,
and consequently, the intensity at the output of the MZI ismodulated at a higher frequency. Our results show a tunable
output frequency between 279.9MHz and 5.6 GHz and corre-
sponding frequency multiplication factors between 1 :1/C2
10
3and 2 :1/C2103.
The MZI under consideration is illustrated in Fig. 1(a).
This device is composed of long-range dielectric-loaded mag-
netoplasmonic waveguide (LRDLMPW) arms and photonicY-junctions for the input and output. The centers of the arms
are 10 lm apart, while the Y-junctions connect the arms to
input/output guides over 55 lm. One branch of each Y-junction
is slightly longer, introducing a static phase bias of p=2r e l a -
tive to the other arm. As such, the arms are then designed tothe length required to generate a p=2N R P S ,o r L
p=2.
The waveguides are built on top of a SiO 2substrate
(nSiO 2¼1:444),10capped with a dAl2O3¼175 nm thick layer
of Al 2O3(nAl2O3¼1:746)10and a dSi3N4¼175 nm thick
layer of Si 3N4(nSi3N4¼1:977).11The gyrotropic waveguide
cores are constructed from Bi:YIG and have dimensions of
wYIG¼320 nm and dYIG¼400 nm. This material exhibits a
refractive index of nYIG¼2.3, a saturation magnetization of
l0MS¼9 mT, a specific Faraday rotation of hF¼0:25/C14/lm
atk¼1550 nm,12and a Gilbert damping parameter ofa)Electronic mail: firby@ualberta.ca
0003-6951/2016/108(5)/051111/4/$30.00 VC2016 AIP Publishing LLC 108, 051111-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 108, 051111 (2016)
a¼10/C04.13By incorporating an Ag layer ( nAg¼0:145
þ11:438i)14having dimensions wAg¼160 nm and
dAg¼15 nm at the bottom of the Bi:YIG ridge, the structure
becomes a LRDLMPW, having a characteristic propagation
length of Lprop¼3.0 mm. The jEzj2profiles of the photonic
and plasmonic modes are shown in Figs. 1(b) and1(c). The
underlying layers can be fabricated with standard depositionand lithographic processes, while the Bi:YIG can be depos-ited through pulsed laser deposition, and etched to form the
waveguide cores with a focussed ion beam.
The static biasing field is generated along the y-axis by an
external magnet over the magnetoplasmonic arms, i.e.,H
static¼h0;þHy;0i. Transient magnetic fields are applied to
the arms as a result of current pulses passing through two Ag
microwires (having a 2 lm/C22lm cross sectional area, length
ofLp=2, and a separation of 16 lm), as shown in Fig. 1(a).T h e
current pulses comprising the clock signal, I(t), resemble practi-
cal square wave pulses with finite rise and fall times and a
super-Gaussian form. As suc h, fields of opposite polarity,
hðtÞ¼h 0;0;6hzðtÞi, are generated over the MZI arms.
The NRPS is calculated through finite-difference-time-
domain simulations. The gyrotropic effects of the Bi:YIG
are modeled with an asymmetric permittivity tensor7
erMðÞ ¼n2
YIG iknYIG
pMz
MShF/C0iknYIG
pMy
MShF
/C0iknYIG
pMz
MShF n2
YIG iknYIG
pMx
MShF
iknYIG
pMy
MShF/C0iknYIG
pMx
MShF n2
YIG2
66666643
7777775:
(1)
Since the primary electric field component of the
plasmonic mode is E
z, a NRPS will only occur when the
magnetization vector, M,is oriented along the 6x-axis.As such, in calculating the NRPS of the waveguide, we
consider M¼h þ MS;0;0i. The NRPS is found to be
Db¼/C01:77 rad/mm.
The NRPS is dependent on Mx, and thus, introducing a
temporal variation in this component modulates Dband the
interference condition accordingly. The temporal evolutionofMcan be modeled through the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert
equation, which is given by
15
dM
dt¼/C0l0c0
1þa2M/C2HstaticþhtðÞ ðÞ ½/C138
/C0l0c0a
MS1þa2 ðÞM/C2M/C2HstaticþhtðÞ ðÞ ½/C138 ; (2)
where c0is the gyromagnetic ratio.
For the operation of a tunable CM, the magnitude of the
static magnetic field is crucial in the device operation as it
defines initial/final states of M, dictates the ferromagnetic
resonance (FMR) frequency, and determines the precessionaxis of M. In this case, H
static ¼h0;þHy;0iinitially satu-
rates Malong the y-axis, M¼h0;þMS;0i. Short, transient
magnetic field pulses, h(t), tip Maway from this axis, and it
precesses around the y-axis as it relaxes. This precession
manifests as a decaying oscillatory response in MxandMz
with a characteristic FMR at the Larmor frequency,
/C23¼c0l0Hy=ð2pÞ.15
Figure 2depicts the Mx=MSamplitude of the preces-
sional oscillations that can be excited as functions of thestatic magnetic field, H
y, and peak transient magnetic field,
hz;pk, for pulse widths, sp¼100 ps (Fig. 2(a)) and
sp¼500 ps (Fig. 2(b)). When hðtÞ6¼0,Mis subject to an
effective magnetic field due to the superposition of h(t) and
Hstatic. As such, Mbegins to precess around this resultant
vector. When the transient field is turned off (i.e., hðtÞ¼0),
FIG. 1. (a) Illustration of the electrical-to-optical CM. (b) jEzj2profile and
geometry of the photonic waveguide. (c) jEzj2profile and geometry of the
plasmonic waveguide.
FIG. 2. Plots of the excited Mx=MSprecession oscillation amplitude as func-
tions of Hyand hz;pkfor (a) sp¼100 ps and (b) sp¼500 ps. The black
dashed lines depict the contour where the Mx=MSoscillation amplitude is 1
(maximum), while the red dashed line marks the hz;pk¼Hyboundary.
(c)–(e) The plane of precession around the effective magnetic field when (c)
hz;pk¼Hy, (d) hz;pk<Hy, and (e) hz;pk>Hy.051111-2 C. J. Firby and A. Y . Elezzabi Appl. Phys. Lett. 108, 051111 (2016)Mis subject only to Hstatic, and it precesses around the y-axis
with a frequency, /C23. The magnitude of Mxdepends on the
orientation of Mash(t) turns off. For maximum amplitude
oscillations of Mx, the precession must begin when My¼0.
This condition can be satisfied, as shown in Figs. 2(a) and
2(b), with an appropriate choice of hz;pk,Hy, and sp.
Since the magnitude of Mis a constant value ( MS), the
tip of the Mvector moves on the surface of a sphere of radius
MS(denoted as the magnetization sphere). The initial deflec-
tion of Mis set by its orientation and the direction of the
effective magnetic field vector. As such, the tip of Mtraverses
around the magnetization sphere within the plane whose nor-mal is the effective field vector, and which passes through the
initial state (denoted as the plane of precession, or POP). For
the condition M
y¼0t ob es a t i s fi e d , Mmust lie within the x-z
plane. When hz;pk¼Hy, the effective field vector makes an
angle of 45/C14with both the y-a n d z-axes, and thus, the POP
intersects the z-axis at one point (point Cin Fig. 2(c))o nt h e
magnetization sphere. When hz;pk<Hy,t h ee f f e c t i v efi e l d
vector lies closer to the y-axis, and thus, the POP does not
intersect the x-zplane at any point on the sphere (Fig. 2(d)).
Interestingly, for hz;pk>Hy, the effective field vector lies
closer to the z-axis, and the POP intersects the x-zplane on the
magnetization sphere, as shown in Fig. 2(e). Therefore, maxi-
mum amplitude oscillations in Mxcan be excited.
The arch patterns within Figs. 2(a)and2(b) reflect such
dynamics. When hz;pk<Hy, the amplitude of the Mxoscilla-
tions is <1, since the My¼0 condition can never be satisfied.
However, when hz;pk>Hy, the trajectory of Msatisfies the
My¼0 condition at two points (within the x-zplane) per revo-
lution (points AandBin Fig. 2(e)). If the fields are chosen
such that Mends at one of these states, Mxcan be made to
oscillate between 61. At a fixed magnitude of Hy, the corre-
sponding hz;pkcan be applied such that Mis deflected from its
initial state to point A. Increasing hz;pkfurther increases the
effective precession frequency, allowing Mto overshoot point
Aand reach point Bby the time h(t) concludes. These two
points manifest as the two branches of the arch patterns in
Figs. 2(a)and2(b). At high values of Hy, the effective field
vector shifts more towards the y-axis, and thus, the points A
and Bcoalesce into a single point (point C)a n dt h et w o
branches of the arch merge into one. Notably, points AandB
should merge into point Cwhen hz;pk¼Hy. However, devia-
tion from this is observed, especially in Fig. 2(b) for
sp¼500 ps pulses. This deviation is the result of the nonzero
rise and fall time of h(t), where Mis subject to a time varying
effective field vector. Here, Mis deflected as the effective
field vector moves, and when it reaches its peak, Mno longer
resides at the initial state. Thus, the POP shifts and the condi-
tion required to maximize the Mxamplitude changes.
A ss h o w ni nF i g . 2(b), a long spallows Mto complete
several revolutions around the effective field vector, which is
characterized by multiple arch es and coalescing points in the
Hyvshz;pkplot, resulting in multiple frequencies in the output
optical train. Clearly, such behaviour is undesirable for single
frequency CM operation. Since the CM frequency is propor-
tional to Hy, higher precession frequencies are more readily
attainable when utilizing electri cal pulses of shorter durations.
To map the long-lasting Mxoscillations into optical in-
tensity modulation, the MZI arm length must be Lp=2. With aNRPS of Db¼/C01:77 rad/mm, Lp=2¼886:1lm. Such an
interaction length provides the maximum NRPS and inten-sity modulation. To limit the current pulses ( I(t)) to a practi-
cal range, we consider peak currents of no more than 1 A,which in the described transmission lines, generate peakmagnetic fields of 636 mT at the waveguides. Applying
higher static fields, and accessing higher FMR frequencies,
requires compensation for the reduction in M
xoscillation
amplitude by increasing Lp=2.
An exemplary parameter set for which maximum optical
modulation can be attained includes sp¼500 ps, l0hz;pk
¼19 mT (i.e., a peak current of 0.53 A), and l0Hy¼10 mT
(corresponding to a CM output frequency of /C23CM¼279:9
MHz). Since higher /C23CMrequires shorter sp, we consider the
scenario where sp¼100 ps. As shown in Fig. 2(a),f o ra
maximum attainable field of l0hz;pk¼36 mT, the CM fre-
quencies between /C23CM¼279:9 MHz and /C23CM¼5:6 GHz are
attainable for static field biases of l0Hy¼10 mT and
l0Hy¼200 mT, respectively. These field configurations cor-
respond to reduced Mx=MSoscillation amplitudes of 0.59
and 0.34 (or NRPS of Db¼/C01:04 rad/mm and Db¼/C00:60
rad/mm), respectively. Therefore, the MZI arm length mustbe increased to L
p=2¼1510 :7lm and Lp=2¼2607 :4lm.
Note that in each case, Lpropis longer than Lp=2, and thus, a
complete p=2 NRPS can always be obtained.
Figures 3(a)–3(c) display the MZI transmission as a func-
tion of time. For sp¼500 ps (Fig. 3(a)),l0hz;pk¼19 mT and
l0Hy¼10 mT produce an optical pulse train at
/C23CM¼279:9 MHz, having transmission between /C01.85 dB
and/C018.11 dB. Thus, a total modulation depth of 16.26 dB is
attainable when the NRPS is oscillating maximally. Figure3(b) depicts the transmission for L
p=2¼886:1lma n d
Lp=2¼1510 :7lmi nr e s p o n s et oa sp¼100 ps pulse at
l0hz;pk¼36 mT and l0Hy¼10 mT. At Lp=2¼886:1lm, the
279.9 MHz output oscillates between /C02.30 dB and
/C010.96 dB, resulting in a modulation depth of 8.65 dB.
Optimizing Lp=2to 1510.7 lm improves the modulation depth
to 16.26 dB. Similarly, Fig. 3(c)shows the transmission for a
FIG. 3. MZI transmission versus time for (a) sp¼500 ps, l0hz;pk¼19 mT,
and l0Hy¼10 mT; (b) sp¼100 ps, l0hz;pk¼36 mT, and l0Hy¼10 mT;
and (c) sp¼100 ps, l0hz;pk¼36 mT, and l0Hy¼200 mT. Note that the red
curve represents the triggering pulse (not shown to scale).051111-3 C. J. Firby and A. Y . Elezzabi Appl. Phys. Lett. 108, 051111 (2016)sp¼100 ps pulse with l0hz;pk¼36 mT and l0Hy¼200 mT.
These parameters produce a /C23CM¼5:6 GHz signal, modu-
lated between /C03.04 dB and /C07.65 dB (a modulation depth
of 4.61 dB) for Lp=2¼886:1lm. At the optimized Lp=2
¼2607 :4lm, the modulation depth is improved to 16.26 dB.
Similar to electronic CMs, the MZI must be able to
respond to a continuous train of electrical pulses comprising
the triggering clock signal. As the Mxresponse decays over
the relaxation time of the Bi:YIG, one must set a minimum
threshold for the magnetization (and NRPS) decay to initiate
the next triggering cycle. As a design figure of merit, weassign such a threshold to the time when the M
xamplitude
drops to 50% of its initial value. The clock repetition fre-
quency, frep, can then be adjusted over a wide range. For syn-
chronous clock operation, one must account for a slight
difference between the transit time for the initial tipping of M
at the onset of the pulse train, and the tipping required to re-establish the original oscillation after decaying to 50%. As
such, the perturbation between the first two triggering pulses
and the remaining train is on the order of 0.001% of the trig-gering clock frequency in the examples presented here.
The three optimized exemplary cases discussed above are
depicted under stimulus from a regular clock signal in Fig. 4.
The s
p¼500 ps electrical pulse train with l0hz;pk¼19 mTcan be applied at frep¼132.0 kHz (Fig. 4(a)). At
/C23CM¼279:9 MHz, the CM exhibits a multiplication factor of
2:1/C2103. Similarly, Fig. 4(b) depicts the output due to an
electrical pulse train of sp¼100 ps ( l0hz;pk¼36 mT) pulses
with frep¼228.0 kHz, where the input frequency is multiplied
b yaf a c t o ro f1 :2/C2103to/C23CM¼279:9M H z . N o t e t h a t d e -
spite the same FMR frequency, th is case has a lower multiplier
due to the threshold condition and the nonlinear relaxation of
the precession. Since the decay p rocess is nonlinear, it takes
less time for these oscillations to decay to 50% of their initial
value compared to the case in Fig. 4(a), and as such, frepis
greater and the multiplication factor is reduced. Figure 4(c)
shows the output for the higher FMR, /C23CM¼5:6G H z .At r a i n
ofsp¼100 ps pulses can be applied at frep¼4.9 MHz, result-
i n gi na1 :1/C2103multiplication factor. Clearly, the MZI is ca-
pable of large multiplication factors, in excess of 103,a n di s
tunable over a wide range of frequencies. The repetition rate
can be tailored at the cycle level, and hence, relaxing the setthreshold condition and employing detectors with higher sensi-
tivity can lead to much larger multiplication factors. Notably,
due to the low duty cycle of the electrical clock, the averagepower dissipation is less than 5 mW.
In summary, we have presented the design for a magne-
toplasmonic electrical-to-optical CM. Exploiting magneticprecession and the NRPS in an active Bi:YIG magnetoplas-
monic MZI, we proposed a device capable of providing
16.26 dB modulation at frequencies ranging from 279.9 MHzto 5.6 GHz, and correspondingly upconverting the input sig-
nal repetition rate by factors up to 2 :1/C210
3. Such a device
is envisioned to satisfy crucial applications in the develop-ment of hybrid electrical-optical circuitry.
This work was funded by the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
1R.-M. Ma, R. F. Oulton, V. J. Sorger, and X. Zhang, Laser Photonics Rev.
7, 1 (2013).
2C. Haffner, W. Heni, Y. Fedoryshyn, J. Niegemann, A. Melikyan, D. L.
Elder, B. Baeuerle, Y. Salamin, A. Josten, U. Koch, C. Hoessbacher, F.
Ducry, L. Juchli, A. Emboras, D. Hillerkuss, M. Kohl, L. R. Dalton, C.Hafner, and J. Leuthold, Nat. Photonics 9, 525 (2015).
3J. Gosciniak, S. I. Bozhevolnyi, T. B. Andersen, V. S. Volkov, J. Kjelstrup-
Hansen, L. Markey, and A. Dereux, Opt. Express 18, 1207 (2010).
4S. Sederberg, D. Driedger, M. Nielsen, and A. Y. Elezzabi, Opt. Express
19, 23494 (2011).
5H. Lu, X. Liu, L. Wang, Y. Gong, and D. Mao, Opt. Express 19, 2910
(2011).
6Y. Fu, X. Hu, C. Lu, S. Yue, H. Yang, and Q. Gong, Nano Lett. 12, 5784
(2012).
7A. K. Zvezdin and V. A. Kotov, Modern Magnetooptics and
Magnetooptical Materials (IOP Publishing, Bristol, 1997).
8A. Y. Elezzabi and M. R. Freeman, Appl. Phys. Lett. 68, 3546 (1996).
9C. J. Firby and A. Y. Elezzabi, Optica 2, 598 (2015).
10E. D. Palik, Handbook of Optical Constants of Solids (Academic Press,
San Diego, 1998).
11A. Arbabi and L. L. Goddard, Opt. Lett. 38, 3878 (2013).
12S. E. Irvine and A. Y. Elezzabi, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 38, 1428
(2002).
13H. Kurebayashi, O. Dzyapko, V. E. Demidov, D. Fang, A. J. Ferguson,and S. O. Demokritov, Nat. Mater. 10, 660 (2011).
14P. B. Johnson and R. W. Christy, Phys. Rev. B 6, 4370 (1972).
15R. F. Soohoo, Microwave Magnetics (Harper & Row, New York, 1985).FIG. 4. Transmission response to a train of pulses with the following proper-
ties: (a) sp¼500 ps, l0hz;pk¼19 mT, l0Hy¼10 mT, and frep¼132.0 kHz;
(b)sp¼100 ps, l0hz;pk¼36 mT, l0Hy¼10 mT, and frep¼228.0 kHz; and
(c) sp¼100 ps, l0hz;pk¼36 mT, l0Hy¼200 mT, and frep¼4.9 MHz.
These plots depict the overall envelope of the transmission, and on this time
scale, the individual optical pulses are indistinguishable. The optical pulsetrain occurs in the blue band, as shown in the insets. Note that the red curve
represents the triggering pulses (not shown to scale).051111-4 C. J. Firby and A. Y . Elezzabi Appl. Phys. Lett. 108, 051111 (2016) |
5.0006002.pdf | J. Chem. Phys. 152, 184108 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0006002 152, 184108
© 2020 Author(s).Psi4 1.4: Open-source software for high-
throughput quantum chemistry
Cite as: J. Chem. Phys. 152, 184108 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0006002
Submitted: 26 February 2020 . Accepted: 12 April 2020 . Published Online: 13 May 2020
Daniel G. A. Smith
, Lori A. Burns
, Andrew C. Simmonett
, Robert M. Parrish
, Matthew
C. Schieber , Raimondas Galvelis
, Peter Kraus
, Holger Kruse
, Roberto Di Remigio
, Asem
Alenaizan
, Andrew M. James
, Susi Lehtola
, Jonathon P. Misiewicz
, Maximilian Scheurer
,
Robert A. Shaw
, Jeffrey B. Schriber
, Yi Xie
, Zachary L. Glick
, Dominic A. Sirianni
, Joseph
Senan O’Brien
, Jonathan M. Waldrop
, Ashutosh Kumar
, Edward G. Hohenstein
, Benjamin
P. Pritchard
, Bernard R. Brooks , Henry F. Schaefer
, Alexander Yu. Sokolov
, Konrad Patkowski
, A. Eugene DePrince
, Uğur Bozkaya
, Rollin A. King
, Francesco A. Evangelista
, Justin M.
Turney
, T. Daniel Crawford
, and C. David Sherrill
COLLECTIONS
Paper published as part of the special topic on Electronic Structure Software
Note: This article is part of the JCP Special Topic on Electronic Structure Software.
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PSI41.4: Open-source software
for high-throughput quantum chemistry
Cite as: J. Chem. Phys. 152, 184108 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0006002
Submitted: 26 February 2020 •Accepted: 12 April 2020 •
Published Online: 13 May 2020
Daniel G. A. Smith,1
Lori A. Burns,2
Andrew C. Simmonett,3
Robert M. Parrish,2
Matthew C. Schieber,2
Raimondas Galvelis,4
Peter Kraus,5
Holger Kruse,6
Roberto Di Remigio,7
Asem Alenaizan,2
Andrew M. James,8
Susi Lehtola,9
Jonathon P. Misiewicz,10
Maximilian Scheurer,11
Robert A. Shaw,12
Jeffrey B. Schriber,2
Yi Xie,2
Zachary L. Glick,2
Dominic A. Sirianni,2
Joseph Senan O’Brien,2
Jonathan M. Waldrop,13
Ashutosh Kumar,8
Edward G. Hohenstein,14
Benjamin P. Pritchard,1
Bernard R. Brooks,3Henry F. Schaefer III,10
Alexander Yu. Sokolov,15
Konrad Patkowski,13
A. Eugene DePrince III,16
U˘gur Bozkaya,17
Rollin A. King,18
Francesco A. Evangelista,19
Justin M. Turney,10
T. Daniel Crawford,1,8
and C. David Sherrill2,a)
AFFILIATIONS
1Molecular Sciences Software Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
2Center for Computational Molecular Science and Technology, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, School of Computational
Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0400, USA
3National Institutes of Health – National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Laboratory of Computational Biology, Bethesda,
Maryland 20892, USA
4Acellera Labs, C/Doctor Trueta 183, 08005 Barcelona, Spain
5School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Kent St., Bentley, Perth, Western Australia 6102, Australia
6Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Královopolská 135, 612 65 Brno, Czech Republic
7Department of Chemistry, Centre for Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, UiT, The Arctic University of Norway,
N-9037 Tromsø, Norway
8Department of Chemistry, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
9Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 55 (A. I. Virtasen aukio 1), FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland
10Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA
11Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing, Heidelberg University, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
12ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia
13Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849, USA
14SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford PULSE Institute, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
15Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
16Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-4390, USA
17Department of Chemistry, Hacettepe University, Ankara 06800, Turkey
18Department of Chemistry, Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota 55112, USA
19Department of Chemistry, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA
Note: This article is part of the JCP Special Topic on Electronic Structure Software.
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: sherrill@gatech.edu
ABSTRACT
PSI4is a free and open-source ab initio electronic structure program providing implementations of Hartree–Fock, density functional theory,
many-body perturbation theory, configuration interaction, density cumulant theory, symmetry-adapted perturbation theory, and coupled-
cluster theory. Most of the methods are quite efficient, thanks to density fitting and multi-core parallelism. The program is a hybrid of C++ and
J. Chem. Phys. 152, 184108 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0006002 152, 184108-1
Published under license by AIP PublishingThe Journal
of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcp
Python, and calculations may be run with very simple text files or using the Python API, facilitating post-processing and complex workflows;
method developers also have access to most of PSI4’s core functionalities via Python. Job specification may be passed using The Molecular
Sciences Software Institute (MolSSI) QCSCHEMA data format, facilitating interoperability. A rewrite of our top-level computation driver, and
concomitant adoption of the MolSSI QCARCHIVE INFRASTRUCTURE project, makes the latest version of PSI4well suited to distributed computation
of large numbers of independent tasks. The project has fostered the development of independent software components that may be reused in
other quantum chemistry programs.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0006002 .,s
I. INTRODUCTION
The PSIseries of programs for quantum chemistry (QC) has
undergone several major rewrites throughout its history. This is
also true of the present version, PSI4,1which bears little resemblance
to its predecessor, PSI3. While PSI3is a research code aimed at pro-
viding a handful of high-accuracy methods for small molecules,
PSI4aims to be a user-friendly, general-purpose code suitable for
fast, automated computations on molecules with up to hundreds
of atoms. In particular, PSI4has seen the introduction of efficient
multi-core, density-fitted (DF) algorithms for Hartree–Fock (HF),
density functional theory (DFT), symmetry-adapted perturbation
theory (SAPT),2,3second- and third-order many-body perturba-
tion theory (MP2, MP3), and coupled-cluster (CC) theory through
perturbative triples [CCSD(T)].4While PSI3is a stand-alone pro-
gram that carries the assumption that QC computations were the
final desired results and so offered few capabilities to interface
with other program packages, PSI4is designed to be part of a soft-
ware ecosystem in which quantum results may only be interme-
diates in a more complex workflow. In PSI4, independent compo-
nents accomplishing well-defined tasks are easily connected, and
accessibility of key results through a Python interface has been
emphasized.
Although the PSIproject was first known as the BERKELEY pack-
age in the late 1970s, it was later renamed to reflect its geographi-
cal recentering alongside Henry F. Schaefer III to the University of
Georgia. The code was ported to hardware-independent program-
ming languages (Fortran and C) and UNIX in 1987 for PSI2; rewritten
in an object-oriented language (C++), converted to free-format user
input and flexible formatting of scratch files, and released under an
open-source GPL-2.0 license in 1999 for PSI3;5reorganized around a
programmer-friendly library for easy access to molecular integrals
and related quantities and then unified into a single executable com-
bining C++ for efficient QC kernels with Python for input parsing
and for the driver code in 2009 for PSI4;6and, most recently, con-
verted into a true Python module calling core C++ libraries, reor-
ganized into an ecosystem with narrow data connections to external
projects, opened to public development and open-source best prac-
tices, and relicensed as LGPL-3.0 to facilitate use with a greater vari-
ety of computational molecular sciences (CMS) software in 2017 for
PSI4v1.1.1
These rewrites have addressed challenges particular to quan-
tum chemistry programs, including the following: (i) users want
a fully featured program that can perform computations with the
latest techniques; however, (ii) QC methods are generally complex
and difficult to implement; even more challenging is that (iii) QC
methods have a steep computational cost and therefore must beimplemented as efficiently as possible; yet this is a moving target as
(iv) hardware is widely varied (e.g., from laptops to supercomputers)
and frequently changing. We also note an emerging challenge: (v)
thermochemical,7machine learning,8force-field fitting,9etc. appli-
cations can demand large numbers (105–108) of QC computations
that may form part of complex workflows.
PSI4has been designed with these challenges in mind. For (i)–
(iii), we have created a core set of libraries that are easy to program
with and that provide some of the key functionalities required for
modern QC techniques. These include the LIBMINTS library that pro-
vides simple interfaces to compute one- and two-electron integrals,
the DFHELPER library to facilitate the computation and transforma-
tion of three-index integrals for DF methods, and a library to build
Coulomb and exchange (J and K) matrices in both the conventional
and generalized forms that are needed in HF, DFT, SAPT, and other
methods (see Refs. 1 and 6 and Sec. V B for more details). These
libraries are also intended to address challenge (iv) above, as they
have been written in a modular fashion so that alternative algo-
rithms may be swapped in and out. For example, the LIBMINTS library
actually wraps lower-level integrals codes, and alternative integrals
engines may be used as described in more detail in Sec. V G. Sim-
ilarly, the object-oriented JK library is written to allow algorithms
adapted for graphics processing units (GPUs) or distributed-parallel
computing. Challenge (v) is tackled by allowing computations via a
direct application programming interface (API) and by encouraging
machine-readable input and output.
The PSI4NUMPY project10further simplifies challenge (ii), the
implementation of new QC methods in PSI4. By making the core
PSI4libraries accessible through Python, it is now considerably eas-
ier to create pilot or reference implementations of new methods,
since Python as a high-level language is easier to write, understand,
and maintain than the C++ code. Indeed, because the libraries them-
selves are written in an efficient C++ code, a Python implementation
of a new method is often sufficient as the final implementation as
well, except in the cases that require manipulations of three- or four-
index quantities that are not already handled by the efficient core PSI4
libraries. For reasons of readability, maintainability, and flexibility,
the entire codebase is migrated toward more top-level functions in
Python.
Although the library design makes it easier for developers
to add new methods into PSI4, we believe an even more powerful
approach is to create a software ecosystem that facilitates the use
of external software components. Our build system, driver, and dis-
tribution system have been rewritten specifically with this goal in
mind, as discussed in Ref. 1 and Sec. VIII. The Python interface to
PSI4and the recently introduced ability to communicate via QCSCHEMA
further enhance this interoperability. Our recent moves to the more
J. Chem. Phys. 152, 184108 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0006002 152, 184108-2
Published under license by AIP PublishingThe Journal
of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcp
permissive LGPL-3.0 license and to fully open development on a
public GitHub site (https://github.com/psi4/psi4) are also meant to
foster this ecosystem.
Our recent infrastructure work since Ref. 1 is mainly focused
on challenge (v), so that QC calculations can be routinely under-
taken in bulk for use in various data analysis pipelines. As discussed
in Sec. IV, PSI4has reworked its driver layout to simplify nested
post-processing calls and greatly promote parallelism and archiving.
Python within PSI4’s driver sets keywords according to the molec-
ular system and method requested, allowing straightforward input
files. Additionally, PSI4as a Python module (since v1.1, one can
import psi4 ) means that codes may easily call PSI4from Python
to perform computations and receive the desired quantities directly
via Python, either through the application programming interface
(PSIAPI ) or through JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) structured
data.
Below, we present an overview of the capabilities of PSI4(Sec. II).
We then discuss the performance improvements in PSI4’s core QC
libraries (Sec. V), the expanding ecosystem of software components
that can use or be used by PSI4(Secs. VI and VII), and how the
software driver has been rewritten to collect key quantities into
a standard data format and to allow for parallel computation of
independent tasks (Sec. IV).
II. CAPABILITIES
PSI4provides a wide variety of electronic structure methods,
either directly or through interfaces to external community libraries
and plugins. Most of the code is threaded using OPENMP to run effi-
ciently on multiple cores within a node. The developers regularly
use nodes with about six to eight cores, so performance is good up
to that number; diminishing returns may be seen for larger numbers
of cores.
Hartree–Fock and Kohn–Sham DFT . Conventional, integral-
direct, Cholesky, and DF algorithms are implemented for self-
consistent field (SCF) theory. Thanks to the interface with the LIBXC
library (see Sec. V A), nearly all popular functionals are available.
The DF algorithms are particularly efficient, and computations on
hundreds of atoms are routine. Energies and gradients are avail-
able for restricted and unrestricted Hartree–Fock and Kohn–Sham
(RHF, RKS, UHF, UKS), and restricted open-shell Hartree–Fock
(ROHF). RHF and UHF Hessians are available for both conventional
and DF algorithms.
Perturbation theory .PSI4features Møller–Plesset perturbation
theory up to the fourth order. Both conventional and DF imple-
mentations are available for MP2, MP3, and MP2.5,11including gra-
dients.1,12,13For very small molecules, the full configuration inter-
action (CI) code can be used14,15to generate arbitrary-order MP n
and Z-averaged perturbation theory (ZAPT n)16results. Electron
affinities and ionization potentials can now be computed through
second-order electron-propagator theory (EP2)17and the extended
Koopmans’s theorem (EKT).18–20
Coupled-cluster theory .PSI4 supports conventional CC ener-
gies up to singles and doubles (CCSD) plus perturbative triples
[i.e., CCSD(T)]4for any single determinant reference (including
RHF, UHF, and ROHF) and analytic gradients for RHF and UHF
references.5For the DF, energies and analytic gradients up toCCSD(T) are available for RHF references.21–23Cholesky decom-
position CCSD and CCSD(T) energies21and conventional CC224
and CC325energies are also available. To lower the computational
cost of CC computations, PSI4supports26approximations based on
frozen natural orbitals (FNOs)27–30that may be used to truncate
the virtual space. Excited-state properties in PSI4are supported with
equation-of-motion CCSD31,32and the CC2 and CC3 approxima-
tions.33Linear-response properties, such as optical rotation,34are
also available. PSI4also supports additional CC methods through
interfaces to the CCT3 (see Sec. VI C 6) and MRCC programs.35
Orbital-optimized correlation methods . CC and Møller–Plesset
perturbation methods are generally derived and implemented using
the (pseudo)canonical Hartree–Fock orbitals. Choosing to instead
use orbitals that minimize the energy of the targeted post-HF
wavefunction has numerous advantages, including simpler analytic
gradient expressions and improved accuracy in some cases. PSI4
supports a range of orbital-optimized methods, including MP2,36
MP3,37MP2.5,38and linearized coupled-cluster doubles (LCCD).39
DF energies and analytic gradients are available for all of these
methods.40–43
Symmetry-adapted perturbation theory . PSI4 features
wavefunction-based SAPT through the third-order to compute
intermolecular interaction energies (IEs) and leverages efficient,
modern DF algorithms.44–48PSI4also offers the ability to compute the
zeroth-order SAPT (SAPT0) IEs between open-shell molecules with
either UHF or ROHF reference wavefunctions.49–51In addition to
conventional SAPT truncations, PSI4also features the atomic52and
functional-group53partitions of SAPT0 (ASAPT0 and F-SAPT0,
respectively), which partition SAPT0 IEs and components into con-
tributions from pairwise atomic or functional group contacts. Fur-
thermore, PSI4also offers the intramolecular formulation of SAPT0
(ISAPT0),54which can quantify the interaction between fragments
of the same molecule as opposed to only separate molecules.
The extensive use of core library functions for DF Coulomb and
exchange matrix builds and integral transformations (see Sec. V B)
has greatly accelerated the entire SAPT module in PSI4, with all
SAPT0-level methods routinely deployable to systems of nearly 300
atoms (∼3500 basis functions); see also Secs. V C–V F for a new
SAPT functionality.
Configuration interaction .PSI4provides configuration interac-
tion singles and doubles (CISD), quadratic CISD (QCISD),55and
QCISD with perturbative triples [QCISD(T)]55for RHF references.
It also provides an implementation56of full configuration interac-
tion (FCI) and the restricted active space configuration interaction
(RASCI) approach.57
Multi-reference methods .PSI4 provides conventional and DF
implementations of the complete-active-space SCF (CASSCF)58,59
and restricted-active-space SCF (RASSCF).60Through the CHEMPS2
code, the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG)61,62based
CASSCF63and CASSCF plus second-order perturbation theory
(CASPT2)64are available. The state-specific multireference CC
method of Mukherjee and co-workers (Mk-MRCC) is implemented
in PSI4with singles, doubles, and perturbative triples.65A comple-
mentary second-order perturbation theory based on the same for-
malism (Mk-MRPT2) also exists.66PSI4can perform multireference
CC calculations through an interface to the MRCC program of
Kállay and co-workers,35,67where high-order excitations (up to sex-
tuples) as well as perturbative methods are supported. Additional
J. Chem. Phys. 152, 184108 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0006002 152, 184108-3
Published under license by AIP PublishingThe Journal
of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcp
methods for strong correlation are available through the FORTE68–70
and V2RDM_CASSCF71(see Sec. VI C 5) plugins.
Density cumulant theory .PSI4offers the reference implemen-
tation of Density Cumulant Theory (DCT), which describes elec-
tron correlation using the cumulant of the two-electron reduced
density matrix (RDM) instead of a many-electron wavefunction.72
PSI4includes an implementation73of the original DCT formula-
tion,72a version with an improved description of the one-particle
density matrix (DC-12),74its orbital-optimized variants (ODC-
06 and ODC-12),75and more sophisticated versions that include
N-representability conditions and three-particle correlation effects
[ODC-13 and ODC-13( λ3)].76In particular, ODC-12 maintains
CCSD scaling but is much more tolerant of open-shell character
and mild static correlation.77,78Analytic gradients are available for
DC-06, ODC-06, ODC-12, and ODC-13 methods.75,76,79
Relativistic corrections .PSI4can perform electronic structure
computations with scalar relativistic corrections either by calling
the external DKH library for up to fourth-order Douglas–Kroll–
Hess (DKH)80,81or by utilizing the exact-two-component (X2C)82–92
approach to supplement the one-electron Hamiltonian of a non-
relativistic theory for relativistic effects. At present, only the point
nuclear model is supported.
Composite and many-body computations .PSI4provides a sim-
ple and powerful user interface to automate multi-component
computations, including focal-point93–95approximations, complete-
basis-set (CBS) extrapolation, basis-set superposition corrections
[counterpoise (CP), no-counterpoise (noCP), and Valiron–Mayer
functional counterpoise (VMFC)],96–98and many-body expansion
(MBE) treatments of molecular clusters. These capabilities can all
be combined to obtain energies, gradients, or Hessians, as discussed
below in Sec. IV. For example, one can perform an optimization of a
molecular cluster using focal-point gradients combining MP2/CBS
estimates with CCSD(T) corrections computed in a smaller basis
set, with counterpoise corrections. The MBE code allows for differ-
ent levels of theory for different terms in the expansion (monomers,
dimers, trimers, etc.) and also supports electrostatic embedding with
point charges.III. PSIAPI
Introduced in v1.1,1the PSI4API ( PSIAPI ) enables deployment
within custom Python workflows for a variety of applications,
including quantum computing and machine learning, by making PSI4
a Python module (i.e., import psi4 ). Using PSI4in this manner is
no more difficult than writing a standard PSI4input file, as shown in
the middle and left panels of Fig. 1, respectively. The true power of
the PSIAPI lies in the user’s access to PSI4’s core C++ libraries and data
structures directly within the Python layer. The PSIAPI thereby can be
used to, e.g., combine highly optimized computational kernels for
constructing Coulomb and exchange matrices from HF theory with
syntactically intuitive and verbose Python array manipulation and
linear algebra libraries such as NUMPY .99An example of the PSIAPI for
rapid prototyping is given in Sec. V I 1.
A. Psi4NumPy
Among the most well-developed examples of the advantages
afforded by the direct Python-based PSIAPI is the PSI4NUMPY project,10
whose goal is to provide three services to the CMS community at
large: (i) to furnish reference implementations of computational
chemistry methods for the purpose of validation and reproducibil-
ity, (ii) to lower the barrier between theory and implementation by
offering a framework for rapid prototyping where new methods could
be easily developed, and (iii) to provide educational materials that
introduce new practitioners to the myriad of practical considera-
tions relevant to the implementation of quantum chemical methods.
PSI4NUMPY accomplishes these goals through its publicly available and
open-source GitHub repository,100containing both reference imple-
mentations and interactive tutorials for many of the most common
quantum chemical methods, such as HF, Møller–Plesset perturba-
tion theory, CC, CI, and SAPT. Furthermore, since its publication
in 2018, 17 separate projects to date have leveraged the PSI4NUMPY
framework to facilitate their development of novel quantum chem-
ical methods.101–117Finally, PSI4NUMPY is a thoroughly community-
driven project; interested readers are highly encouraged to visit the
repository100for the latest version of PSI4NUMPY and to participate in
FIG. 1 . Input modes for PSI4. A coupled-cluster calculation is run equivalently through its preprocessed text input language (PSIthon; left), through the Python API ( PSIAPI ;
middle), and through structured JSON input ( QCSCHEMA ; right).
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the “pull request” code review, issue tracking, or contributing the
code to the project itself.
B. Jupyter notebooks
Inspired by notebook interfaces to proprietary computer alge-
bra systems (e.g., Mathematica and Maple), a JUPYTER notebook is an
open-source web application that allows users to create and share
documents containing an executable code, equations, visualizations,
and text.118JUPYTER notebooks are designed to support all stages
of scientific computing, from the exploration of data to the cre-
ation of a detailed record for publishing. Leveraging PSI4within this
interface, therefore, provides interactive access to PSI4’s data struc-
tures and functionalities. Visualization and analysis of properties
such as geometry and orbitals can be facilitated with tools avail-
able within The Molecular Sciences Software Institute’s119(MolSSI)
QCARCHIVE120,121project. Additionally, the ability to combine exe-
cutable code cells, equations, and text makes JUPYTER notebooks
the perfect environment for the development and deployment of
interactive educational materials, as illustrated by the PSI4NUMPY and
PSI4EDUCATION122projects, or for living supplementary material that
allows readers to reproduce the data analysis.123,124
IV. TASK-BASED DISTRIBUTED DRIVER
The recursive driver introduced in 2016 for PSI4v1.0 to reor-
ganize the outermost user-facing functions into a declarative inter-
face has been refactored for PSI4v1.4 into the distributed driver
that emphasizes high-throughput readiness and discretized com-
munication through schema. In the earlier approach, the user
employed one of a few driver functions [ energy() ,gradient() ,
optimize() ,hessian() ,frequency() ], and everything else was
handled either by the driver behind the scenes [e.g., selecting ana-
lytic or finite-difference (FD) derivatives] or through keywords (e.g.,
“mp2/cc-pv[t,q]z ,” “bsse_type=cp ,”dertype= “energy ”).
When a user requested a composite computation that requires many
individual computations (for example, a gradient calculation of a
basis-set extrapolated method on a dimer with counterpoise cor-
rection), internal logic directed this into a handler function (one
each for many-body expansion, finite-difference derivatives, and
composite methods such as basis-set extrapolations and focal-point
approximations) which broke the calculation into parts; then, each
part re-entered the original function, where it could be directed to
the next applicable handler (hence a “recursive driver”). At last, the
handlers called the function on an analytic task on a single chemi-
cal system, at which point the actual QC code would be launched.
However, the code to implement this functionality was complex and
not easily extendable to the nested parallelism (among many-body,
finite-difference, and composite) to which these computations are
naturally suited. Because of these limitations, the internal structure
of the driver has been reorganized so that all necessary QC input
representations are formed before any calculations are run.
The motivation for the driver refactorization has been the shift
toward task-based computing and particularly integration with the
MolSSI QCARCHIVE120,121project to run, store, and analyze QC compu-
tations at scale. The QCARCHIVE software stack, collectively QCARCHIVE
INFRASTRUCTURE , consists of several building blocks: QCSCHEMA125for
JSON representations of QC objects, job input, and job output;QCELEMENTAL126for Python models (constructors and helper
functions) for QCSCHEMA as well as fundamental physical constants
and periodic table data; QCENGINE127for compute configuration (e.g.,
memory, nodes) and QCSCHEMA adaptors for QC programs; and
QCFRACTAL128for batch compute setup, compute management, stor-
age, and query.
PSI4 v1.1 introduced a psi4 --json input mode that took
in a data structure of molecular coordinates, drivers, methods,
and keyword strings and returned a JSON structure with the
requested driver quantity (energy, gradient, or Hessian), a success
boolean, QCVariables (a map of tightly defined strings such as CCSD
CORRELATION ENERGY orHF DIPOLE to float or array quantities),
and string output. Since then, QC community input under MolSSI
guidance has reshaped that early JSON into the current QCSCHEMA
AtomicInput model capable of representing most non-composite
computations. (“Atomic” here refers not to an atom vs a molecule
but to a single energy/derivative on a single molecule vs multistage
computations.) PSI4v1.4 is fully capable of being directed by and
emitting MolSSI QCSCHEMA v1 (see Fig. 1, right) via psi4 --schema
input orpsi4.run_qcschema(input) , where input is a Python
dictionary, JSON text, or binary MESSAGEPACK ed structure of NUMPY
arrays and other fields. Since PSI4speaks QCSCHEMA natively, its adap-
tor in QCENGINE is light, consisting mostly of adaptations for older
versions of PSI4and of schema hotfixes. Several other QC packages
without QCSCHEMA input/ouput (I/O) have more extensive QCENGINE
adaptors that construct input files from AtomicInput and parse
output files into AtomicResult (discussed below). The distributed
driver is designed to communicate through QCSCHEMA and QCENGINE
so that the driver is independent of the community adoption of
QCSCHEMA .
TheAtomicInput data structure includes a molecule, driver
function name, method and basis set (together “model”), and key-
word dictionary, while the output data structure AtomicResult
additionally includes the primary return scalar or array, any appli-
cable of a fixed set of QCSCHEMA properties, as well as PSI4 spe-
cialties such as QCVariables. Importantly, the customary output
file is included in the returned schema from a PSI4 computa-
tion. The driver has been revamped to use the AtomicInput and
AtomicResult structures as the communication unit. In order
for the above-mentioned handler procedures (now “Computer”
objects) of the PSI4driver to communicate, specialized schemas that
are supersets of AtomicResult have been developed. New fields
have been introduced, including bsse_type andmax_nbody for
ManyBodyComputer; stencil_size (the number of points in
the finite-difference approximation) and displacement_space for
FiniteDifferenceComputer ;scheme andstage forComposite
Computer ; anddegeneracy andtheta_vib for the vibrational
procedure. These contents are being optimized for practical use in
PSI4and have been or will be submitted to MolSSI QCSCHEMA and QCELE-
MENTAL for community input and review. A recently official schema
already implemented in PSI4is for wavefunction data and encodes
orbital coefficients, occupations, and other information in the stan-
dard common component architecture (CCA) format.129This new
schema is supported by the native PSI4infrastructure to permit seri-
alization and deserialization of PSI4’s internal Wavefunction class
that contains more fields than the schema stores. Although not yet
used for communication, PSI4can also emit the BasisSet schema.
The layered procedures of the distributed driver involve sums of
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potentially up to thousands of schema-encoded results and are thus
susceptible to numerical noise that a pure-binary data exchange
would avoid. Nominally, JSON does not serialize NUMPY arrays or
binary floats. However, the QCELEMENTAL /QCSCHEMA models support
extended serialization through MESSAGEPACK130so that NUMPY arrays99
can be transparently and losslessly moved through the distributed
driver.
The task-oriented strategy for the distributed driver is illus-
trated in Fig. 2. The user interface with the customary driver func-
tions, Fig. 2(a), remains unchanged. If a single analytic computation
is requested, it proceeds directly into the core QC code of PSI4(left-
most arrow), but if any of the handlers are requested, the driver
diverts into successively running the “planning” function of each
prescribed procedure [Fig. 2(b) with details in Fig. 2(z)] until a
pool of analytic single-method, single-molecule jobs in the QCSCHEMA
AtomicInput format is accumulated. Although these could be
run internally through the API counterpart of psi4 --schema
[Fig. 2(c.i)], PSI4executes through QCENGINE so that other programs
can be executed in place of PSI4if desired [Fig. 2(c–ii)]. An additional
strategic benefit of running through QCENGINE is that the job pool
can be run through QCFRACTAL [Fig. 2(c–iv)], allowing for simultane-
ous execution of all jobs on a cluster or taking advantage of milder
parallelism on a laptop, just by turning on the interface ( ∼5 addi-
tional Python lines). The database storage and QCSCHEMA indexing
inherent to QCFRACTAL means that individual jobs are accessible after
completion; if execution is interrupted and restarted, completedtasks are recognized, resulting in effectively free coarse-grained
checkpointing. Alternatively, for the mild boost of single-node par-
allelism without the need to launch a QCFRACTAL database, one can
run in the “snowflake” mode [Fig. 2(c.iii)], which employs all of
QCFRACTAL ’s task orchestration, indexing, and querying technology,
except the internal database vanishes in the end. The use of these
modes in input is shown in Fig. 3. When all jobs in the pool are
complete (all QCSCHEMAAtomicResult are present), the “assemble”
functions of each procedure are run in a reverse order of invocation
[Fig. 2(d) with details in Fig. 2(z)]. That is, model chemistry ener-
gies are combined into composite energies by the CompositeCom-
puter class, then composite energies at different displacements
are combined into a gradient by the FiniteDifferenceComputer
class, then gradients for different molecular subsystems and basis
sets are combined into a counterpoise-corrected gradient by the
ManyBodyComputer class, and finally, the desired energy, gra-
dient, or Hessian is returned, Fig. 2(e). The schema returned
by driver execution has the same apparent (outermost) struc-
ture as a simple AtomicResult with a molecule, return result,
properties, and provenance, so it is ready to use by other soft-
ware expecting a gradient (like a geometry optimizer). However,
each procedure layer returns its own metadata and the con-
tributing QC jobs in a specialized schema, which is presently
informal, so that the final returned JSON document is self-
contained. Ensuring maintainability by merging code routes was
given high priority in the distributed driver redesign: parallel and
FIG. 2 . Structure of the distributed driver: see the final paragraph in Sec. IV for details. In brief, a user request (a) for a multi-molecule, multi-model-chemistry, or non-analytic
derivative passes into planning functions (b) defined in procedure tiles (z) that generate a pool of QCSCHEMA for single-molecule, single-model-chemistry, analytic derivative
inputs. These can run in several modes (c), depending on desired parallelism and recoverability. Completed QCSCHEMA passes through assembly functions (d) defined in
procedure tiles (z) and denoted “ASM” that reconstitute (e) into the requested energy (“E”), gradient (“G”), or Hessian (“H”).
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FIG. 3 . Input file illustrating a CBS and many-body gradient run through the
distributed driver in the continuous mode [white-background lines; Fig. 2(c.ii)],
distributed mode with FractalSnowflake [Fig. 2(c.iii); additional blue-background
lines], and distributed mode with the full storage and queuing power of QCFRAC-
TAL[Fig. 2(c.iv); additional red-background lines]. The lower example is “free”
when using QCFRACTAL since the components required for BSSE corrections
have already been computed during the upper VMFC. While this example
exposes the returned QCSCHEMAAtomicResult , the traditional syntax of grad
= psi4.gradient(“HF/cc-pV[DT]Z,” bsse_type=“vmfc”) runs in
the mode as in Fig. 2(c.ii) and is identical to the upper example.
serial executions take the same routes, intra-project (API) and inter-
project communications use the same QCSCHEMA medium, and (in a
future revision) a generic QC driver calling PSI4can proceed through
QCSCHEMA .
V. NEW FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE
IMPROVEMENTS
A. DFT
The DFT module now uses LIBXC131to evaluate the exchange-
correlation terms. PSI4thus has access to 400+ functionals, of which
∼100 are routinely tested against other implementations. Modern
functionals, such as ωB97M-V132and the SCAN family,133are nowavailable. Support for hybrid LDA functionals such as LDA0, pend-
ing their release in a stable version of LIBXC , is also implemented.
The new functional interface is Python-dictionary-based and uses
LIBXC -provided parameters where possible. Additional capabilities
for dispersion-inclusive, tuned range-separated, and double-hybrid
functionals are defined atop LIBXC fundamentals. The interface also
allows users to easily specify custom functionals, with tests and
examples provided in the documentation.
The DFT module in PSI4v1.4 is significantly faster than the one
in PSI4v1.1, in both single-threaded and multi-threaded use cases.
Recent versions are compared in Fig. 4, showing the speed improve-
ments for the adenine ⋅thymine (A ⋅T) stacked dimer from the S22
database.135WithωB97X-D/def2-SVPD (Fig. 4, upper), this test case
corresponds to 234 and 240 basis functions for each monomer and
474 for the dimer, while the problem size is approximately doubled
in B3LYP-D3(BJ)/def2-TZVPD (Fig. 4, lower).
Much of the speed improvement is due to improved handling
of the DFT grids. Collocation matrices between basis functions and
the DFT grid are now formed by an optimized library ( GAU2GRID ;
Sec. VI B 3) and are automatically cached if sufficient memory is
available, thus removing the need for their re-computation in every
iteration. The whole module, including the generation of quadra-
ture grids and collocation matrices, is now efficiently parallelized.
The overall speedup between v1.1 and v1.4 is 1.9 ×on a single
core. Notable speedups are obtained for range-separated functionals
(e.g., theωB97X-D functional, see Fig. 4, upper), as the MemDFJK
FIG. 4 . Wall-time comparison for the interaction energy of the adenine ⋅thymine
stacked dimer from the S22 database with various versions of PSI4using 1 (darker
green) to 16 (brown) threads, in multiples of two.134PSI4v1.4 data are obtained
with the robust grid pruning algorithm.
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algorithm is now implemented for this class of methods (see
Sec. V B).
As of PSI4v1.4, grid screening based on exchange-correlation
weights is applied with a conservative default cutoff of 10−15. Grid
pruning schemes are also implemented, the default robust scheme
removing ∼30% of the grid points. Grid pruning on its own is
responsible for a 1.3 ×single-core speedup in the case of the A ⋅T
dimer with B3LYP-D3(BJ)/def2-TZVPD. However, a loss of accu-
racy can be expected in the pruning of smaller grids ( <0.1 kcal mol−1
for IEs in the A24 database136).
B. MemDFJK algorithm
The SCF Coulomb (J) and exchange (K) builds are the corner-
stone of all SCF-level operations in PSI4, such as SCF iterations, MP2
gradients, SAPT induction terms, SCF response, time-dependent
DFT (TDDFT), and more. Over the past decade, the ability to per-
form raw floating point operations per second (FLOPS) of modern
central processing units (CPUs) has grown much faster than the
speed of memory I/O, which can lead to memory I/O rather than
raw FLOPS limiting operations. A large data copy quickly became
the bottleneck of the PSI4v1.1 JK algorithm, especially when running
on many concurrent cores.
Examining the canonical K equations with the DF shows the
following (using the Einstein summation convention):
Dλσ=CiσCiλ, (1)
ζPνi=(P∣νλ)Ciλ, (2)
K[Dλσ]μν=ζPμiζPνi, (3)
where iis an occupied index, Pis the index of the auxiliary basis
function, and μ,ν,λ, andσare atomic orbital (AO) indices. The
C,D,K, and ( P|νλ) tensors are the SCF orbitals matrix, density
matrix, exchange matrix, and three-index integral tensor (includ-
ing auxiliary basis Coulomb metric term), respectively. Holding the
(P|νλ) quantity in a tensor TPνλoffers the benefit of a straightfor-
ward optimized matrix–matrix operation in Eq. (2). However, this
neglects the symmetricity and sparsity of the three-index integrals
(P|νλ). Accounting for both of these properties leads to the previ-
ously stored form of TPνλνwhere theλindex was represented sparsely
for each Pνpair by removing all duplicate or zero values; the spar-
sity of the index λdepends on the value of νand hence the nota-
tionλν. This form provides a highly compact representation of the
(P|νλ) tensor; however, the matrix–matrix operation to form ζPνiin
Eq. (2) requires unpacking to a dense form, causing the previously
mentioned data bottleneck.
To overcome this issue, the new J and K builds in PSI4hold the
(P|νλ) quantity in a TνPλνrepresentation, where there is a unique
mapping for the Pλindices for each νindex. While full sparsity can
also be represented in this form, the symmetry of the AOs is lost,
leading to this quantity being twice as large in the memory or disk.
This form requires the Ciλνmatrix to be packed for every νindex for
optimal matrix–matrix operations in Eq. (2). While both the TPνλν
and TνPλνforms require packing or unpacking of tensors, the former
requires QN2operations, while the latter requires N2ooperations,
where Qis the size of the auxiliary index, Nis the number of basis
functions, and ois the size of the occupied index. In practice, o≪Q,often resulting in 15 ×less data movement, and generally all but
removing the bottleneck.
This small data organization change combined with vector-
ization and parallelization improvements has led to performance
increases, especially for a high number of cores and when the system
is very sparse, with the drawback of doubling the memory footprint.
For a system of two stacked benzene molecules in the cc-pVDZ basis
set (228 basis functions), the new JK algorithm is 2.6, 3.6, 3.7, and
4.3×faster than the old algorithm for 1, 8, 16, and 32 threads, respec-
tively. For a more extensive system of 20 stacked benzene molecules
with cc-pVDZ (2280 basis functions), the respective speedups are
1.5, 1.7, 2.1, and 2.2 ×.PSI4automatically detects which algorithm to
use based on the amount of available memory.
C. Additive dispersion models
PSI4 specializes in providing convenient access to methods
with additive dispersion corrections. Several have long been avail-
able, such as Grimme’s three-component corrections to mean-
field methods, HF-3c137and PBE-3c138(external via DFTD3139and
GCP140executables), and the simpler pairwise additive schemes -
D2141(internal code) and -D3142,143(external via a DFTD3 executable).
Now also available are a similar correction to perturbation the-
ory, MP2-D144(external via an MP2D145executable), and a non-
local correction to DFT through the VV10 functional, DFT-NL146
(internal code). These are simply called gradient(“mp2-d”) or
energy(“b3lyp-nl”) . See Table I for details of external software.
PSI4v1.4 uses the -D3 correction in a new method, SAPT0-D.
While SAPT0 has long been applicable to systems with upward of
300 non-hydrogen atoms by leveraging optimized DF routines for
both JK builds and MP2-like E(20)
dispandE(20)
exch-dispterms, it is limited by
theO(N5)scaling of the second-order dispersion ( Nproportional to
the system size). By refitting the -D3 damping parameters against a
large training set of CCSD(T)/CBS IEs and using the result in place
of the analytic SAPT0 dispersion component, SAPT0-D at O(N4)
scaling achieves a 2.5 ×speedup for systems with about 300 atoms
(increasing for larger systems).147
The SAPT0-D approach is also applicable to the func-
tional group partition of SAPT.53The resulting F-SAPT0-D has
been applied to understand the differential binding of the β1-
adrenoreceptor ( β1AR) (Fig. 5) in its active (G-protein coupled) vs
inactive (uncoupled) forms to the partial agonist salbutamol. While
experimentally determined ΔΔGbind was previously justified with
respect to changes in the binding site geometry upon β1AR activa-
tion,148F-SAPT0-D quantifies the contribution of each functional
group contact, revealing that differential binding is due in large part
to cooperativity of distant amino acid residues and peptide bonds,
rather than only local contacts.
D. SAPT(DFT)
PSI4now provides SAPT(DFT),149also called DFT-SAPT,150
which approximately accounts for the intramolecular electron corre-
lation effects that are missed in SAPT0 by including correlation-like
effects found in DFT. The Hartree–Fock orbitals are replaced with
Kohn–Sham orbitals,151and induction terms are solved using the
coupled-perturbed Kohn–Sham equations. The long-range behav-
ior that is important for dispersion interactions is known to be
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TABLE I . Quantum chemistry software that PSI4can use (upstream interaction).
SoftwareaGroup Added License Language Comm.bCitecCapability
Upstream required C-link
LIBINT1 Valeev v1.0dLGPL-3.0 C C API 163 ... Two-electron and properties integrals
LIBINT2 Valeev v1.4 LGPL-3.0 C++C++API 164 ... Two-electron and properties integrals
LIBXC Marques v1.2 MPL-2.0 C C API 179 131 Definitions, compositions of
density functionals
GAU2GRID Smith v1.2 BSD-3-Cl C/Py C API 180 ... Gaussian collocation grids for DFT
Upstream required Py-link
QCELEMENTAL MolSSI v1.3 BSD-3-Cl Py Py API 126 121 Physical constants and molecule parsing
QCENGINE MolSSI v1.4 BSD-3-Cl Py Py API 127 121 QC schema runner with dispersion
and opt engines
Upstream optional C-link
DKH Reiher v1.0 LGPL-3.0 Fortran C API 181 80 and 81 Relativistic corrections
LIBEFP Slipchenko v1.0eBSD-2-Cl C C API 182 183 Fragment potentials
GDMA Stone v1.0 GPL-2.0 Fortran C API 184 185 Multipole analysis
CHEMPS2 Wouters v1.0 GPL-2.0 C++C++API 186 187 and 188 DMRG and multiref. PT2 methods
PCMSOLVER Frediani v1.0 LGPL-3.0 C++/Fortran C++API 189 190 Polarizable continuum/implicit
solvent modeling
ERD QTP v1.0dGPL-2.0 Fortran C API 191 192 Two-electron integrals
SIMINT Chow v1.1 BSD-3-Cl C C API 193 165 Vectorized two-electron integrals
AMBIT Schaefer v1.2 LGPL-3.0 C++/Py C++API 194 ... Tensor manipulations
Upstream optional Py-link or exe
DFTD3 Grimme v1.0 GPL-1.0 Fortran QCSCHEMA 139 142 and 143 Empirical dispersion for HF and DFT
MRCC Kallay v1.0 pty C++/Fortran Text file ... 35 Arbitrary order CC and CI
GCP Grimme v1.1 GPL-1.0 Fortran Py intf./CLI 140 137 and 138 Small-basis corrections
PYLIBEFP Sherrill v1.3 BSD-3-Cl C++/Py Py API 195 ... Python API for libefp
MP2D Beran v1.4 MIT C++QCSCHEMA 145 144 Empirical dispersion for MP2
CPPE Dreuw v1.4 LGPL-3.0 C++/Py Py API 196 197 Polarizable embedding/explicit
solvent modeling
ADCC Dreuw v1.4 GPL-3.0+pty C++/Py Py API 198 113 Algebraic-diagrammatic
construction methods
aBinary distributions available from Anaconda Cloud for all projects except for MRCC . For the channel in conda install <project >-c<channel >, usepsi4 except for ADCC
fromadcc and GAU2GRID ,QCELEMENTAL , and QCENGINE fromconda-forge , the community packaging channel.
bMeans by which PSI4 communicates with the project.
cThe first reference is a software repository. The second is theory or software in the literature.
dNo longer used. LIBINT1 last supported before v1.4. ERD last supported before v1.2.
eSince v1.3, LIBEFP called through PYLIBEFP .
problematic for generalized gradient approximation (GGA) func-
tionals, and in DFT-SAPT, this is corrected by gradient-regulated
asymptotic correction (GRAC)152in obtaining the Kohn–Sham
orbitals. Dispersion energies are obtained by solving for the TDDFT
propagator of each monomer and integrating the product of the
propagators over the frequency domain.153,154In PSI41.4, we have
improved the TDDFT dispersion capabilities to allow hybrid ker-
nels in the TDDFT equations,155which can significantly improve
accuracy when hybrid functionals are used to determine the
orbitals.150,156E. SAPT0 without the single-exchange approximation
The SAPT module in PSI4now has an option to compute the
second-order SAPT0 exchange corrections E(20)
exch-ind, respand E(20)
exch-disp
without the use of the common S2approximation, that is, using
the complete antisymmetrizer in the expressions instead of its
approximation by intermolecular exchanges of a single electron pair.
The working equations for the non-approximate second-order cor-
rections were derived and implemented for the first time in Refs. 157
and 158 in the molecular-orbital (MO) form prevalent in the classic
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FIG. 5 . F-SAPT0-DD3M(0)/jun-cc-pVDZ analysis of 459 atoms (5163 orbitals and 22 961 auxiliary basis functions) from the β1AR–salbutamol co-crystal (PDB: 6H7M). (Left)
Geometry of ligands (wide sticks) and residues (thin sticks) within 7 Å. (Right) Order-2 F-SAPT difference analysis of an active vs an inactive complex, with functional groups
colored by contribution to ΔΔEint(red: more attractive in the activated state; blue: more attractive in the inactive state; color saturation at ±10 kcal mol−1).
SAPT developments. We have recast the nonapproximate formu-
las for E(20)
exch-ind, respand E(20)
exch-dispin Refs. 157 and 158 into the AO
form and implemented them efficiently in PSI4with DF. As these AO-
based expressions have not been published before, we present them
together with an outline of their derivation in the supplementary
material. Thanks to this new development, the entire SAPT0 level
of theory (but not higher levels such as the second-order, SAPT2)
is now available in PSI4without the single-exchange approxima-
tion. Preliminary numerical tests show157–159that the replacement
ofE(20)
exch-disp(S2)with its nonapproximated counterpart introduces
inconsequential changes to the SAPT0 interaction potentials at short
intermolecular separations. In contrast, the full E(20)
exch-ind, respvalues
often deviate significantly from E(20)
exch-ind, resp(S2)at short ranges,
especially for interactions involving ions.160At the usual SAPT0 level
(as defined, e.g., in Ref. 161), this difference between E(20)
exch-ind, resp
and E(20)
exch-ind, resp(S2)cancels out when the δE(2)
HFterm that approx-
imates the higher-order induction and exchange induction effects
from a supermolecular HF calculation is taken into account. How-
ever, the removal of the S2approximation from second-order SAPT0
will significantly affect SAPT results computed without the δE(2)
HF
correction.
F. SF-SAPT
An open-shell SAPT feature that is currently unique to PSI4is
the ability to compute the leading exchange term, E(10)
exch(S2), for an
arbitrary spin state of the interacting complex, not just its highest
spin state. This spin-flip SAPT (SF-SAPT ) method was introduced
in Ref. 162 and so far applies to the interaction between two open-
shell systems described by their ROHF determinants. Such an inter-
action leads to a bundle of asymptotically degenerate states of the
interacting complex, characterized by different values of the spin
quantum number S. These states share the same values of all electro-
static, induction, and dispersion energies, and the splitting between
them arises entirely out of electron exchange. In such a case, the
SF-SAPT approach implemented in PSI4can provide an inexpensive
[cost is similar to the standard E(10)
exch(S2)] and qualitatively correct
first-order estimate of the splittings between different spin states
of the complex. In addition, all terms can be computed usingstandard SCF JK quantities and have been implemented within PSI4
in a PSI4NUMPY formalism, as the best performance can be achieved
without any additional compiled code.
G. Libint2 and Simint
The LIBINT package163has been the default engine for two-
electron integrals since the development of PSI3two decades ago.
Allowing arbitrary levels of angular momentum and numerous inte-
gral kernels, LIBINT has proven to be a reliable tool for generating the
integrals that are central to QC. However, modern CPUs increas-
ingly derive their power from a combination of multi-core and single
instruction, multiple data (SIMD) technologies, rather than the reg-
ular strides in clock speed that were realized around the time of PSI3’s
development. While PSI4has exploited multi-core technologies for
some time via OPENMP , its SIMD capabilities were previously limited
to the linear algebra libraries used to power SCF and post-HF meth-
ods. In PSI4v1.4, the LIBINT package has been superseded by LIBINT2 ,164
which partially exploits SIMD capabilities by vectorizing the work
needed for a given shell quartet, making it better suited for mod-
ern computer architectures. LIBINT2 permits additional integral ker-
nels, including the Yukawa- and Slater-type geminal factors, which
expand the range of DFT and explicitly correlated methods that may
be implemented. LIBINT2 is also preferable from a software sustain-
ability perspective as it is actively maintained and developed, unlike
the original LIBINT .
Although LIBINT2 is now the default integrals engine, PSI4is writ-
ten to allow the use of alternative integrals packages, and an interface
toSIMINT165,166is also provided. SIMINT was designed from the begin-
ning with SIMD parallelism in mind. By reordering shell pairs to be
grouped by common angular momentum classes, SIMINT achieves a
compelling level of vectorization on the latest AVX512 chipsets. The
PSI4integrals interface has been generalized to allow the shell pairs to
be given in an arbitrary order and to account for the possibility of
batching among them, thus allowing SIMINT to take full advantage of
its approach to vectorization.
H. SCF guesses
The reliability of the atomic solver used for the superposi-
tion of atomic densities167,168(SAD) initial guess has been greatly
improved in PSI4, and the SAD guess has been made the default
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also for open-shell and restricted open-shell calculations, result-
ing in significantly faster convergence, especially for systems con-
taining heavy atoms such as transition metal complexes. Although
powerful in many cases, the SAD guess does not yield molecu-
lar orbitals, and it may thereby be harder to build a guess with
the wanted symmetry. The traditional alternatives to SAD that do
yield molecular orbitals, the core orbital guess or the generalized
Wolfsberg–Helmholz169modification thereof, fail to account for
electronic screening effects whose importance increases rapidly with
the increasing nuclear charge, resulting in horrible performance.170
However, guesses that both account for electronic screening and
yield guess orbitals have recently been described in Ref. 170 and are
now implemented in PSI4: an extended Hückel guess employing the
atomic orbitals and orbital energies from the SAD solver, the SAD
natural orbitals (SADNO) guess, and the superposition of atomic
potentials (SAP) guess that constructs a guess Fock matrix from a
sum of atomic effective potentials computed at the complete-basis-
set limit.171,172With the improvements to SAD and the introduction
of the three novel guesses, PSI4can be applied even to more challeng-
ing open-shell and transition metal systems. Calculations are now
possible even in overcomplete basis sets, as redundant basis func-
tions are removed automatically by default in PSI4via the pivoted
Cholesky decomposition procedure.173,174
I. TDDFT
We have recently added time-dependent DFT capabilities using
either the full TDDFT equations [also known as the random-
phase approximation (RPA)] or the Tamm–Dancoff approximation
(TDA).175The former yields a generalized eigenvalue problem, and
our solver leverages the Hamiltonian structure of the equations to
ensure robust convergence.176The latter corresponds to a Hermi-
tian eigenvalue problem, and we employ a Davidson solver.177Theexcitation energies and vectors are obtained from the following gen-
eralized eigenvalue problem, also known as the response eigenvalue
problem :
(A B
B∗A∗)(Xn
Yn)=ωn(1 0
0−1)(Xn
Yn). (4)
The excitation eigenvectors, (Xn,Yn)T, provide information on the
nature of the transitions and can be used to form spectroscopic
observables, such as oscillator and rotatory strengths. The AandB
matrices appearing on the left-hand side are the blocks of the molec-
ular electronic Hessian178whose dimensionality is ( ov)2, with oand
vbeing the number of occupied and virtual MOs, respectively. Due
to this large dimensionality, rather than forming AandBexplicitly,
one instead uses subspace iteration methods to extract the first few
roots. In such methods, the solutions are expanded in a subspace of
trial vectors bi, and the most compute- and memory-intensive oper-
ations are the formation and storage of the matrix–vector products
(A+B)biand ( A−B)bi. These matrix–vector products are equiv-
alent to building generalized Fock matrices; the efficient JK-build
infrastructure of PSI4(Sec. V B) can thus be immediately put to use
also for the calculation of TDDFT excitation energies. In fact, con-
struction of these product vectors is the only part written in C++. All
other components, including the subspace iteration techniques, are
written in Python for easy readability and maintainability. Follow-
ing our design philosophy, we have written the required subspace
solvers for the response eigenvalue problems in a generic way, so
that they may be reused for future features.
1. Example of rapid prototyping
To illustrate the use of PSI4and PSI4NUMPY to rapidly implement
new features, Fig. 6 shows an easy oscillator strength implemen-
tation at the Python layer. Excitations are obtained by calling the
FIG. 6 . Example Python implementation
of TDDFT oscillator strengths.
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Published under license by AIP PublishingThe Journal
of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcp
FIG. 7 . UV-Vis spectrum of rhodamine 6G at the PBE0/aug-pcseg-2 level of
theory. The spectra computed using full TDDFT (RPA) and the Tamm–Dancoff
approximation (TDA) are reported in blue and orange, respectively.
tdscf_excitations() function, and dipole moment integrals are
calculated trivially in four lines of code by accessing the occu-
pied and virtual parts of the SCF coefficient matrix and the dipole
moment integrals from LIBMINTS . The oscillator strengths are then
computed from the MO basis electric dipole moment integrals
⟨ϕa∣ˆμ∣ϕi⟩and the right excitation vectors Xn+Ynas follows:
f=2
3ωn∑
u=x,y,zocc
∑
ivir
∑
a∣(Xn+Yn)ia⟨ϕa∣ˆμu∣ϕi⟩∣2. (5)
Figure 7 shows an example UV-Vis spectrum using these oscillator
strengths, as fitted by applying a Gaussian-shaped broadening to the
computed excitation energies. We are also working on the imple-
mentation of gauge-including atomic orbitals (London orbitals) to
enable magnetic response evaluations needed to calculate properties
such as optical rotation and electronic circular dichroism.
VI. SOFTWARE ECOSYSTEM
Like all QC packages, PSI4strives to continuously expand its
capabilities to advance research in both method development and
applications. New methods are introduced frequently in electronic
structure theory, and it would be a challenge to implement all the
latest advances. The PSI4team prefers to encourage the development
of reusable libraries, so that new methods need to be implemented
only once (by the experts) and can then be adopted by any QC
code with merely a short, custom interface. This ecosystem-building
approach has the advantages of (i) not binding a community library’s
use to a single software package, (ii) encouraging smaller software
projects that are more modular in function and ownership and more
localized in (funding) credit, and (iii) facilitating the propagation of
new features and bug fixes by using a generic interface rather than
embedding a code snapshot. Since v1.1, PSI4has added new projects
to its ecosystem, contributed back to existing projects, and disgorged
some of its own code into projects that are more tightly defined. Dis-
cussed below is a selection of illustrative or newly interfaced projects.
The full ecosystem of external, connected software is collected intoTable I, code used by PSI4(upstream packages), and Table II, code
that uses PSI4(downstream packages).
A. Sustainability through community libraries
The introduction of LIBINT2 and LIBXC not only provides new fea-
tures (see Secs. V G and V A, respectively) but also results in substan-
tial simplifications to the codebase. The previous version of LIBINT
only provided the recursion routines, relying on the calling pro-
gram to provide the fundamental s-type integrals used as the start-
ing point. There were also restrictions on the angular momentum
ordering among the four centers, requiring bookkeeping to apply
permutations to the resulting integrals in the case where reorder-
ings were necessary to satisfy these requirements. Furthermore,
LIBINT1 provided only the minimal number of integral derivatives
required by translational invariance,239,240requiring the calling code
to compute the missing terms by application of the relationships.
The combination of applying permutations and translational invari-
ance amounted to over 3000 lines of code in previous PSI4versions,
primarily due to the complexity introduced by second derivative
integrals. In LIBINT2 , the fundamental integrals are provided and the
translational invariance is applied automatically for derivatives, and
the shells can be fed in any order of the angular momenta. With these
tasks outsourced to LIBINT2 , the latest PSI4codebase is significantly
cleaner and more maintainable.
With the transition to the LIBXC131library for DFT calculations,
in accordance with the modular development model, PSI4gains con-
tinuous fixes and new features, which is especially important as none
of the primary PSI4development groups specialize in DFT. Thanks to
LIBXC ,PSI4now supports over 400 functionals of various rungs. Final
DFT compositions suitable for energy() are now defined by LIBXC
and are directly subsumed into PSI4’s functional list, making for a
more maintainable code. In cooperation with the LIBXC upstream, the
PSI4authors have contributed an alternate CMAKE build system and a
Python API, PYLIBXC , to LIBXC , and also provided help in porting to
Windows.
B. Launching community libraries
1. QCElemental
When the needs of ongoing research projects outgrew LIB-
MINTS ’s C++ parsing of molecule specification strings, a redesign was
implemented in Python and transferred to QCELEMENTAL to serve as
the backend to QCSCHEMA Molecule validation. The resulting code
is easily extensible, mirrors the schema (though with additional
fields to accomodate PSI4’s Z-matrix and deferred geometry finaliza-
tion features), and accepts and returns dictionary-, schema-, array-
, or string-based representations. Additionally, it performs strong
physics-based validation and defaulting for masses, mass numbers,
total and fragment charges and multiplicities, and basis function
ghosting, saving considerable validation code in PSI4as a QCELEMENTAL
client.
QCELEMENTAL additionally provides a light Python interface over
NIST CODATA and periodic table data and other “look-up” quanti-
ties such as van der Waals and covalent radii. By switching to QCELE-
MENTAL API calls in PSI4’s Python code and using its header-writing
utilities for the C++ code, readability has improved, and datasets are
easier to update.
J. Chem. Phys. 152, 184108 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0006002 152, 184108-12
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of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcpTABLE II . Chemistry software that can use PSI4(downstream interaction).
SoftwareaGroup V.bLicense Language Comm.cCitedPSI4provides
Downstream optional C-link, plugins
V2RDM_CASSCF DePrince v1.0 GPL-2.0 C++/Fortran C++API 71 199 Backend for variational 2-RDM-driven CASSCF
FORTE Evangelista v1.0 LGPL-3.0 C++/Py C++API 70 68 and 69 Backend for multiref. many-body mtds and sel. CI
CCT3 Piecuch v1.1 LGPL-3.0 Fortran C++API 200 201 and 202 Backend for actv-sp CCSDt, CC(t;3), CR-CC(2,3)
GPU_DFCC DePrince v1.2 GPL-2.0 C++/Cuda C++API 203 204 Backend for GPU-accelerated DF-CCSD and (T)
Downstream optional Py-link or exe
WEBMO Polik v1.0 pty Java/Perl PSIthon ... 205 QC engine for GUI/web server
MOLDEN Schaftenaar v1.0 pty Fortran Molden file 206 207 Orbitals for orbital/density visualization
JANPA Bulavin v1.0 BSD-4-Cl Java Molden file 208 209 Orbitals for natural population analysis (NPA)
PSI4NUMPY Smith v1.1 BSD-3-Cl Py PsiAPI 100 10 QC essentials for rapid prototyping and QC edu.
PSI4EDUCATION McDonald v1.1 BSD-3-Cl Py PsiAPI 210 122 QC engine for instructional labs
PSIOMM Sherrill v1.1 BSD-3-Cl Py PsiAPI 211 ... Self for interface between PSI4and OPENMM
HTMD/PARAMETERIZE Acellera v1.1 pty Py PSIthon 212 213 and 214 QC engine for force-field parametrization for MD
GPUGRID De Fabritiis v1.1 pty Py PSIthon 215 216 QC torsion scans for MD-at-home
PYREX Derricotte v1.1 BSD-3-Cl Py PsiAPI 217 ... Engine for reaction coordinate analysis
SNS-MP2 D. E. Shaw v1.2 BSD-2-Cl Py PsiAPI 218 219 Backend for spin-network-scaled MP2 method
RESP Sherrill v1.2 BSD-3-Cl Py PsiAPI 220 115 ESP for restrained ESP (RESP) fitting
QCENGINE MolSSI v1.2 BSD-3-Cl Py QCSCHEMA 127 121 QC engine for QC schema runner
QISKIT-AQUA IBM v1.2 Apache-2.0 Py PSIthon 221 ... Engine for quantum computing algorithms
MS QUANTUM Microsoft v1.2 MIT C#/Q# PsiAPI 222 ... Engine for quantum computing algorithms
ORION OpenEye v1.2 pty Go/Py PsiAPI ... ... QC engine for drug-design workflow
CRYSTALATTE Sherrill v1.2 LGPL-3.0 Py PSIthon 223 224 QC and MBE engine for crystal lattice energies
OPENFERMION Google v1.3 Apache-2.0 Py PSIthon 225 226 Engine for quantum computing algorithms
OPENFERMION-PSI4 Google v1.3 LGPL-3.0 Py PSIthon 227 226 Self for interface between PSI4and OpenFermion
QCDB Sherrill v1.3 BSD-3-Cl Py QCSCHEMA 228 ... Engine for QC common driver
OPTKING King v1.3 BSD-3-Cl Py QCSCHEMA 229 ... Gradients for geometry optimizer
PSIXAS Gryn’ova v1.3 GPL-3.0 Py PsiAPI 230 ... Backend for x-ray absorption spectra
FOCKCI Mayhall v1.3 BSD-3-Cl Py PsiAPI 231 116 CAS engine for Fock-space CI
ASE ASE v1.4 LGPL-2.1 Py PsiAPI 232 233 QC engine for CMS code runner
I-PI Ceriotti v1.4 GPL-3.0 Fortran/Py PsiAPI 234 235 QC gradients for MD runner
MDI MolSSI v1.4 BSD-3-Cl C PsiAPI 236 ... QC engine for standardized CMS API
GEOMETRIC Wang v1.4eBSD-3-Cl Py QCSCHEMA 237 238 QC gradients for geometry optimizer
QCFRACTAL MolSSI v1.4 BSD-3-Cl Py QCSCHEMA 128 121 QC engine for database and compute manager
aBinary distributions available from Anaconda Cloud for some projects. For the channel in conda install <PROJECT >-C<CHANNEL >, use psi4 for V2RDM_CASSCF ,GPU_DFCC ,SNS-MP2 ,RESP ,OPENFERMION , and
OPENFERMION -PSI4; ACELLERA forHTMD/PARAMETERIZE ; andconda-forge , the community packaging channel, for QCENGINE ,ASE,MDI,GEOMETRIC , and QCFRACTAL .
bEarliest version of PSI4 with which software works.
cApart from compiled plugins that interact directly with PSI4’s C++ layer, downstream projects use established file formats such as Molden or one of the three input modes of Fig. 1.
dThe first reference is a software repository. The second is theory or software in the literature.
eGeomeTRIC has called PSI4 through PSIthon since v1.0. QCENGINE has driven geomeTRIC to drive PSI4 through QCSCHEMA since v1.3. PSI4 can itself call geomeTRIC through QCSCHEMA since v1.4.
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2. QCEngine
PSI4has long supplemented its internal empirical dispersion
capabilities (Sec. V C) with external projects, namely, DFTD3 and MP2D
executables. These were run via a Python interface that addition-
ally stores fitting and damping parameters at the functional level,
so that the programs are used solely for compute and not for inter-
nal parameters. Since operation is independent of PSI4, the Python
interfaces have been adapted to QCSCHEMA and moved to the QCENGINE
repository where they can be of broader use.
3. Gau2Grid
Improvements to the PSI4DFT code highlighted a bottleneck at
the computation of the collocation matrix between basis functions
and the DFT grid. It was found that the simple loops existing in PSI4
did not vectorize well and exhibited poor cache performance. Much
in the same way that modern two-electron libraries work, GAU2GRID180
begins with a template engine to assist in writing unrolled C loops
for arbitrary angular momentum and up to third-order derivatives.
This template engine also allows multiple performance strategies to
be employed and adjusted during code generation, depending on the
angular momentum, the derivative level of the requested matrix, and
the hardware targeted. GAU2GRID also has a Python interface to allow
usage in Python programs that need fast collocation matrices.
4. PylibEFP
In the course of shifting control of SCF iterations from C++
to Python, it became clear that the effective fragment potential241,242
(EFP) capabilities through Kaliman and Slipchenko’s LIBEFP library183
would be convenient in Python. Since LIBEFP provides a C interface,
a separate project of essentially two files, PYLIBEFP ,195wraps it into an
importable Python module. PYLIBEFP includes a full test suite, conve-
nient EFP input parsing, and an interface amenable to schema com-
munication (a QCENGINE adaptor is in progress). PSI4employs PYLIBEFP
for EFP/EFP energies and gradients and EFP/SCF energies.
C. Selected new features from community libraries
1. adcc
ADC-connect ( ADCC ),113a hybrid Python/C++ toolkit for
excited-state calculations based on the algebraic-diagrammatic con-
struction scheme for the polarization propagator (ADC),243–245
equips PSI4with ADC methods (in-memory only) up to the third
order in perturbation theory. Expensive tensor operations use an
efficient C++ code, while the entire workflow is controlled by
Python. PSI4and ADCC can connect in two ways. First, PSI4can be
the main driver; here, method keywords are given through the PSI4
input file and ADCC is called in the background. Second, the PSI4
Wavefunction object from a SCF calculation can be passed to ADCC
directly in the user code; here, there is more flexibility for complex
workflows or for usage in a JUPYTER notebook.
2. SNS-MP2
McGibbon and co-workers219applied a neural network trained
on HF and MP2 IEs and SAPT0 terms to predict system-specific
scaling factors for MP2 same- and opposite-spin correlation ener-
gies to define the spin-network-scaled, SNS-MP2, method. This hasbeen made available in a PSI4pure-Python plugin218so that users
can callenergy(“sns-mp2”) , which manages several QC calcula-
tions and the model prediction in the background and then returns
an IE likely significantly more accurate than conventional MP2.219
By using PSI4’s export of wavefunction-level arrays to Python, the
developers were able to speed up calculations through custom den-
sity matrix manipulations of basis projection, fragment stacking, and
fragment ghosting.
3. CPPE
PSI4now supports the polarizable embedding (PE) model246,247
through the CPPE library.197In the PE model, interactions with the
environment are represented by a multi-center multipole expansion
for electrostatics, and polarization is modeled through dipole polar-
izabilities usually located at the expansion points. The interface to
the CPPE library is entirely written in Python and supports a fully self-
consistent description of polarization for all SCF methods inside PSI4.
In the future, PE will also be integrated in a fully self-consistent man-
ner for molecular property calculations and TDDFT. Integration of
CPPE motivated efficiency improvements to the electric field integrals
and multipole potential integrals, which also benefit the related EFP
method.
4. GeomeTRIC
Wang and Song237,238developed a robust geometry optimiza-
tion procedure to explicitly handle multiple noncovalently bound
fragments using a translation-rotation-internal coordinate (TRIC)
system. Their standalone geometry optimizer, GEOMETRIC , supports
multiple QC packages including PSI4through a command-line inter-
face. QCENGINE offers a GEOMETRIC procedure, allowing PSI4and oth-
ers to use the new optimizer with a Python interface. The latest
PSI4release adds native GEOMETRIC support, allowing users to spec-
ify the geometry optimizer within an input, e.g., optimize (...,
engine= “geometric ”).
5. v2rdm_casscf
PSI4can perform large-scale approximate CASSCF computa-
tions through the v2rdm_casscf plugin,71which describes the elec-
tronic structure of the active space using the variational two-electron
RDM approach.199,248,249Version 0.9 of v2rdm_casscf can per-
form approximate CASSCF calculations involving active spaces as
large as 50 electrons in 50 orbitals199and is compatible with both
conventional four-center electron repulsion integrals (ERIs) and
DF/Cholesky decomposition approximations. Active-space specifi-
cation inv2rdm_casscf is consistent with other active-space meth-
ods in PSI4, and users can write RDMs to the disk in standard formats
(e.g., FCIDUMP) for post-processing or for post-CASSCF meth-
ods. Geometry optimizations using analytic energy gradients can
also be performed (with four-center ERIs).250While most use cases
ofv2rdm_casscf involve calls to PSI4’senergy() orgradient()
functions, key components of the plugin such as RDMs are also
accessible directly through Python.
6. CCT3
The CCT3 plugin200to PSI4is capable of executing a number
of closed- and open-shell CC calculations with up to triply excited
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(T3) clusters. Among them are the active-space CC approach abbre-
viated as CCSDt,251–254which approximates full CCSDT by select-
ing the dominant T3amplitudes via active orbitals, and the CC(t;3)
method, which corrects the CCSDt energies for the remaining, pre-
dominantly dynamical, triple excitations that have not been cap-
tured by CCSDt.201,202The CC(t;3) approach belongs to a larger
family of methods that rely on the generalized form of biorthogonal
moment expansions defining the CC( P;Q) formalism.201,202
The CCSDt method alone is already advantageous, since it can
reproduce electronic energies of near-CCSDT quality at a small frac-
tion of the computational cost while accurately describing select
multireference situations, such as single bond breaking. CC(t;3)
improves on the CCSDt energetics even further, being practically as
accurate as full CCSDT for both relative and total electronic energies
at essentially the same cost as CCSDt. CCSDt and CC(t;3) converge
systematically toward CCSDT as the active space is increased.
The CCT3 plugin can also be used to run CCSD and com-
pletely renormalized (CR) CR-CC(2,3) calculations. This can be
done by making the active orbital set (defined by the user in
the input) empty, since in this case CCSDt = CCSD and CC(t;3)
= CR-CC(2,3). We recall that CR-CC(2,3) is a completely renormal-
ized triples correction to CCSD, which improves the results obtained
with the conventional CCSD(T) approach without resorting to any
multireference concepts and being at most twice as expensive as
CCSD(T).255–257
VII. DOWNSTREAM ECOSYSTEM
A. Computational molecular science drivers
In addition to the closely associated ecosystem in Sec. VI, PSI4is
robust and simple enough that projects can develop interfaces that
use it as a “black box,” and such programs are considered part of
the downstream ecosystem. Of these, the one exposing the most PSI4
capabilities is the QCARCHIVE INFRASTRUCTURE project QCENGINE , which
can drive almost any single-command computation (e.g., gradient or
complete-basis-set extrapolation, in contrast to a structure optimiza-
tion followed by a frequency calculation) through the QCSCHEMA spec-
ification. By launching PSI4through QCFRACTAL , the QCARCHIVE database
has stored 18M computations over the past year and is growing
rapidly. A recent addition is the interface to the Atomic Simulation
Environment232,233(ASE) through which energies and gradients are
accessible as a Calculator . All PSI4capabilities are available in the
ASEby using the in-built psi4 module in the PSIAPI . Another MolSSI
project, the MolSSI Driver Interface236(MDI), devised as a light
communication layer to facilitate complex QM/MM and machine
learning workflows, has a PSI4interface covering energies and gra-
dients of HF and DFT methods. Finally, the I-PIuniversal force
engine driver234,235has a PSI4interface covering gradients of most
methods.
B. Quantum computing
PSI4is also used in several quantum computing packages to pro-
vide orbitals, correlated densities, and molecular integrals. Its flexi-
ble open-source license (LGPL) and Python API are factors that have
favored its adoption in this area. For example, PSI4is interfaced to
the open-source quantum computing electronic structure packageOPENFERMION225,226via the OPENFERMION-PSI4 plugin.227The QISKIT AQUA
suite of algorithms for quantum computing developed by IBM221
is also interfaced to PSI4via an input file. The Microsoft Quantum
Development Kit222is another open-source project that takes advan-
tage of PSI4’s Python interface to generate molecular integrals and
then transform them into the Broombridge format, a YAML-based
quantum chemistry schema.
C. Aiding force-field development for pharmaceutical
infrastructure
Many classical simulation methods have been developed with
the aid of PSI4. As an illustrative example, torsion scans have been
performed9using the OpenEye’s ORION platform to provide a first
principles evaluation of conformational preferences in crystals, and
the related methodology is used by the Open Force Field consor-
tium258to parameterize force fields within the QCARCHIVE frame-
work. PSI4has also found use in the development of nascent polariz-
able, anisotropic force fields by providing the distributed multipoles
and MP2 electrostatic potentials (ESPs) needed to parameterize the
AMOEBA force field.259Moreover, the efficient SAPT code has
been used in many recent developments in advanced force fields,260
including the emerging successors to AMOEBA.261,262In collabora-
tion with Bristol Myers Squibb, we performed nearly 10 000 SAPT0
computations with PSI4to train a pilot machine-learning model of
hydrogen-bonding interactions,8and a much larger number is being
computed for a follow-up study.
The restrained electostatic potential (RESP) model263is a pop-
ular scheme for computing atomic charges for use in force field
computations. A Python implementation was initially contributed
to the PSI4NUMPY project, and later, an independent open-source pack-
age was developed,115,220both of which employ PSI4for the quantum
electrostatic potential. The package supports the standard two-stage
fitting procedure and multi-conformational fitting and also allows
easy specification of complex charge constraints.
VIII. DEVELOPMENT AND DISTRIBUTION
A choose-your-own-adventure guide to obtaining PSI4is avail-
able at http://psicode.org/downloads. Here, users and developers
can select their operating system (Linux, Windows, Mac) and
Python version and then choose between downloading standalone
installers for production-quality binaries, using the CONDA264package
manager, and building the software from the source. While stan-
dalone installers are only provided for stable releases, the source
and CONDA installations also support the development branch. A new
and substantial access improvement has been the porting of PSI4
to native Windows by one of the authors (R.G.) for the Acellera
company (previously it was only available via Windows Subsys-
tem for Linux, WSL) for GPUGRID , a distributed computing infras-
tructure for biomedical research.215This involved separate ports
of the required dependency projects and introduction of Windows
continuous integration to conserve compatibility during the course
of largely Linux-based development. The resulting uniform access
to PSI4in a classroom setting has been especially valuable for the
PSI4EDUCATION project.
The cultivation of an ecosystem around PSI4led to changes in
the build system (Sec. 3 of Ref. 1), notably the maintain-in-pieces
J. Chem. Phys. 152, 184108 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0006002 152, 184108-15
Published under license by AIP PublishingThe Journal
of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcp
build-as-a-whole scheme where upstream and downstream depen-
dencies remain in their own development repositories and are
connected to PSI4through a single-file footprint in the CMAKE build
system. Through a “superbuild” setup, PSI4and ecosystem projects
can be flexibly built together upon a single command and use either
pre-built packages or build dependencies from the source. For dis-
tribution, we rely upon Anaconda Python (and its associated pack-
age manager, CONDA ), which specializes in cross-platform building
and management of Python/C++/Fortran software for the scien-
tific community. Conda packages for Linux and Mac of PSI4and its
dependencies (such that conda install psi4 -c psi4 yields a
working installation) were in place by v1.1, when 11 packages were
built for the psi4 channel.
Since the v1.1 era, PSI4developers have focused on modern-
ization and compatibility. With the release of CONDA-BUILD265v3 in
late 2017 supporting enhanced build recipe language and built-in
sysroots, PSI4has upgraded to use the same compilers as the foun-
dational Anaconda defaults and community conda-forge channels.
A substantial improvement is that, with the widespread availabil-
ity of the Intel Math Kernel Library (MKL) through CONDA ,PSI4
now uses the same libraries ( mkl_rt ) as those in packages such
as NUMPY , rather than statically linking LAPACK, thereby elimi-
nating a subtle source of import errors and numerical discrepan-
cies. After these improvements, PSI4today may be installed with-
out fuss or incompatibility with other complex packages such as
JUPYTER ,OPENMM , and RDKIT . While maintaining compatibility with
defaults and conda-forge channels, PSI4packages additionally build
with Intel compilers and use flags that simultaneously generate an
optimized code for several architectures so that the same binary can
run on old instruction sets such as SSE2 but also run in an opti-
mal fashion on AVX2 and AVX512. In keeping with our ecosys-
tem philosophy, PSI4will help a project with CONDA distribution on
their own channel or ours or the community channel, or leave
them alone, whichever level of involvement the developers pre-
fer. We presently manage 23 packages. Since distributing through
CONDA ,PSI4has accumulated 68k package manager and 93k installer
downloads.
With a reliable distribution system for production-quality bina-
ries to users, PSI4can allow fairly modern code standards for develop-
ers, including C++14 syntax, Python 3.6+, and OPENMP 3+. By stream-
lining the build, PSI4can be compiled and tested within time limits
on Linux and Windows with multiple compilers. By performing this
continuous integration testing on cloud services, developers receive
quality control feedback on their proposed code changes. These
include the following: through testing, rough assurance that changes
do not break the existing functionality; through coverage analysis,
confidence that changes are being tested and a notice of testing gaps;
and through static analysis, alerts that changes have incorrect syntax,
type mismatches, and more. The last reflects the advantages of using
standard CMAKE build tools: the static analysis tool correctly guesses
how to build the PSI4source purely by examining build-language files
in the repository.
IX. LIMITATIONS
PSI4’s current focus on high-throughput quantum chemistry
on conventional hardware has limited development of distributedparallel multi-node computing capabilities except for independent
tasks managed by QCFRACTAL, as described in Sec. IV. GPU support
is also limited beyond the GPU_DFCC module;203,204however, due to
the plugin structure of PSI4, interfacing a GPU-based Coulomb (J)
and exchange (K) code would enhance the majority of PSI4’s capa-
bilities, and PSI4is in discussions to integrate such a plugin. Several
other features have been requested by users such as advanced algo-
rithms for transition state searching, implicit solvent gradients, and
additional implicit solvent methods. Beyond the above capability
weaknesses, a primary downside of the open-source code is that
there is no dedicated user support. While help can be found through
a user forum at http://forum.psicode.org , a Slack workspace,
and GitHub Issues, this support always comes from volunteers, and
while questions are answered in the majority of cases, this is not
guaranteed. On the other hand, the open-source software model
empowers do-it-yourself fixes and extensions for power users and
developers.
X. CONCLUSIONS
PSI4is a freely available, open-source quantum chemistry (QC)
project with a broad feature set and support for multi-core paral-
lelism. The density-fitted MP2 and frozen natural orbital CCSD(T)
codes are particularly efficient, even in comparison with commer-
cial QC programs. PSI4provides a number of uncommon features,
including orbital-optimized electron correlation methods, density
cumulant theory, and numerous intermolecular interaction meth-
ods in the symmetry-adapted perturbation theory family. With sev-
eral input modes—text file, powerful Python application program-
ming interface, and structured data—we can serve QC to traditional
users, power users, developers, and database backends. The rewrite
of our driver to work with task lists and integration with the MolSSI
QCARCHIVE INFRASTRUCTURE project make PSI4uniquely positioned for
high-throughput QC.
Our development efforts and capabilities have been tremen-
dously boosted by the “inversion” of PSI4into a Python module in
v1.1. We are able to rely more heavily on Python for driver logic,
simplifying export of structured data and transition to the new
distributed driver. The hybrid C++/Python programming strategy
has also greatly aided development in the multiconfigurational SCF
(MCSCF) and SAPT modules. We are able to transparently con-
vert between NUMPY and PSI4linear algebra structures and fully access
performance-critical C++ classes, facilitating rapid prototyping of
novel SAPT and orbital-optimized MP nmethods. We are able to
load into Python scripts and connect easily with other CMS software
such as OPENMM and ASE.
Finally, we have fostered a QC software ecosystem meant to
benefit the electronic structure software community beyond PSI4.
Our adoption of the MolSSI QCSCHEMA should facilitate interoper-
ability efforts, and our switch to a more permissive LGPL-3.0 license
should aid developers and users who wish to deploy PSI4as part of
a larger toolchain or in cloud computing environments. We sin-
cerely hope that the uptick in reusable software elements will con-
tinue in the future, so that new methods may be adopted quickly by
many QC packages simply by interfacing a common implementa-
tion that is continuously updated, rather than developing redundant
implementations in every code.
J. Chem. Phys. 152, 184108 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0006002 152, 184108-16
Published under license by AIP PublishingThe Journal
of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcp
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
See the supplementary material for working equations for
second-order SAPT0 without the single-exchange ( S2) approxima-
tion using an atomic orbital formulation with density fitting.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors are grateful to the contributors of all earlier ver-
sions of the PSIprogram, as well as to all the developers of external
libraries, plugins, and interfacing projects. The authors thank Pro-
fessor Piotr Piecuch for providing the text describing the CCT3
plugin. Several of the co-authors were supported in their devel-
opment of PSI4 and affiliated projects by the U.S. National Sci-
ence Foundation through Grant Nos. CHE-1351978, ACI-1449723,
CHE-1566192, ACI-1609842, CHE-1661604, CHE-1554354, CHE-
1504217 ACI-1547580, and CHE-1900420; by the U.S. Department
of Energy through Grant Nos. DE-SC0018412 and DE-SC0016004;
by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences Computational Chemical
Sciences (CCS) Research Program through Grant No. AL-18-380-
057; and by the Exascale Computing Project through Grant No. 17-
SC-20-SC, a collaborative effort of the U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administra-
tion. U.B. acknowledges support from the Scientific and Technolog-
ical Research Council of Turkey (Grant Nos. TUBITAK-114Z786,
TUBITAK-116Z506, and TUBITAK-118Z916) and the European
Cooperation in Science and Technology (Grant No. CM1405).
The work at the National Institutes of Health was supported by
the intramural research program of the National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute. T.D.C. and The Molecular Sciences Software
Institute acknowledge the Advanced Research Computing at Vir-
ginia Tech for providing computational resources and technical
support. H.K. was supported by the SYMBIT project (Reg. No.
CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000477) financed by the ERDF. S.L.
was supported by the Academy of Finland (Suomen Akatemia)
through Project No. 311149. R.D.R. acknowledges partial support
by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excel-
lence scheme, Project No. 262695, and through its Mobility Grant
scheme, Project No. 261873. P.K. acknowledges support of the For-
rest Research Foundation and the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre
with funding from the Australian Government and the Government
of Western Australia. D.G.A.S. also acknowledges the Open Force
Field Consortium and Initiative for financial and scientific support.
DATA AVAILABILITY
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were
created or analyzed in this study.
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Published under license by AIP Publishing |
1.3035911.pdf | Oscillating Ponomarenko dynamo in the highly conducting limit
Marine Peyrot, Andrew Gilbert, and Franck Plunian
Citation: Physics of Plasmas (1994-present) 15, 122104 (2008); doi: 10.1063/1.3035911
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3035911
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128.248.155.225 On: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 08:14:18Oscillating Ponomarenko dynamo in the highly conducting limit
Marine Peyrot,1,a/H20850Andrew Gilbert,2,b/H20850and Franck Plunian1,c/H20850
1Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique, Université Joseph Fourier, CNRS,
Maison des Géosciences, B.P . 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
2Mathematics Research Institute, School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics, University of Exeter,
Exeter, EX4 4QF , United Kingdom
/H20849Received 15 July 2008; accepted 5 November 2008; published online 8 December 2008 /H20850
This paper considers dynamo action in smooth helical flows in cylindrical geometry, otherwise
known as Ponomarenko dynamos, with periodic time dependence. An asymptotic framework isdeveloped that gives growth rates and frequencies in the highly conducting limit of large magneticReynolds number, when modes tend to be localized on resonant stream surfaces. This theory isvalidated by means of numerical simulations. © 2008 American Institute of Physics .
/H20851DOI: 10.1063/1.3035911 /H20852
I. INTRODUCTION
A well-known kinematic dynamo model goes back to the
work of Ponomarenko,1who found that magnetic modes
could be amplified in a flow field in cylindrical geometry/H20849depending only on distance from the axis /H20850, which generally
possesses helical streamlines. In recent studies this Ponomar-enko dynamo has been investigated when the helical flow ismodulated in time,
2,3with a focus on the dynamo threshold.
The aim here is to quantify the effect of simple time-periodicfluctuations on the mean flow, and the effect of these on thethreshold for magnetic growth. The main conclusion is thatthe dynamo threshold is larger than the one obtained withoutfluctuations, suggesting that large scale fluctuations are notdesirable when optimizing a dynamo experiment. In dynamoexperiments, such large scale fluctuations have been avoidedsimply by adding inner walls
4,5or a flow-stabilizing ring.6A
further experiment in preparation7is based on a single helical
flow, again avoiding large scale fluctuations.
The above simulations2,3were purely numerical and in
order to give some theoretical backing to the results it isnecessary to use an asymptotic limit where approximate re-sults can be obtained. The steady Ponomarenko dynamo
1has
been studied for Rm /H112711 in the kinematic case8–10and equili-
brated solutions have been found taking into account thenonlinear feedback on the flow.
11In both cases the underly-
ing flow is steady, and our aim here is to extend the kine-matic results to the case of oscillatory flow fields.
We therefore adopt the limit of large magnetic Reynolds
number /H20849Rm/H112711/H20850, generally much above the threshold. Al-
though our aim is to derive asymptotic results which are
valid for this general class of flows, with an eye to experi-mental dynamos and numerical simulations, we note thatPonomarenko dynamos may also occur in bipolar jetlike out-flows commonly observed in protostellar systems, in whichmagnetic field probably plays an important role. Though it isargued that such magnetic fields are produced inside the pro-tostellar disk
12we cannot exclude the existence of aPonomarenko-type dynamo in such a helical jet in which
strong time fluctuations may also occur.
Here we assume a time-periodic flow depending only on
radius, limit our investigation to the kinematic approxima-tion, and study the asymptotic limit of large Rm /H20849Sec. II /H20850.
Our analysis will be compared to direct numerical simula-tions for three cases /H20849Sec. III /H20850: stationary flow and oscillatory
flow with zero mean flow /H20849ZM/H20850, or nonzero mean flow
/H20849NZM /H20850. Finally, in Sec. IV we generalize our analysis to the
case of time-varying resonant radius.
II. MODEL AND ASYMPTOTIC APPROXIMATION
The time evolution of the magnetic field is given by the
dimensionless induction equation
/H9255/H11509B
/H11509t=/H11612/H11003/H20849U/H11003B/H20850+/H9255/H116122B, /H208491/H20850
with/H9255=Rm−1and where we have adopted a diffusion time
scale for our time variable /H20849in contrast to Ref. 8, but in ac-
cord with Ref. 3/H20850. We consider a time-dependent helical flow
expressed in cylindrical coordinates /H20849r,/H9258,z/H20850by
U/H20849r,t/H20850=/H208510,r/H9024/H20849r/H20850,V/H20849r/H20850/H20852F/H20849t/H20850for r/H333551,
/H208492/H20850
U= 0 for r/H110221,
where /H9024andVare smooth functions of randFis a given
function of time. In the stationary case F=1, and for the
nonstationary case we will consider two functional forms forthe time-dependence,
F/H20849t/H20850= cos
/H9275t/H20849ZM/H20850,F/H20849t/H20850=1+/H9267cos/H9275t/H20849NZM /H20850,
/H208493/H20850
the “zero-mean” and “nonzero mean” flows, respectively.
For the linear, kinematic dynamo problem we may con-
sider a magnetic field of the form
B/H20849r,t/H20850=ei/H20851m/H9258+kz+/H9278/H20849t/H20850/H20852b/H20849r,t/H20850, /H208494/H20850
where mandkare the azimuthal and vertical wave numbers
of the field and /H9278/H20849t/H20850is a phase, put in for convenience, thata/H20850Electronic mail: Marine.Peyrot@ujf-grenoble.fr.
b/H20850Electronic mail: A.D.Gilbert@ex.ac.uk.
c/H20850Electronic mail: Franck.Plunian@ujf-grenoble.fr.PHYSICS OF PLASMAS 15, 122104 /H208492008 /H20850
1070-664X/2008/15 /H2084912/H20850/122104/8/$23.00 © 2008 American Institute of Physics 15, 122104-1
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128.248.155.225 On: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 08:14:18we will choose shortly. The solenoidality of the field, /H11612·B
=0, expressed in cylindrical coordinates,
/H11509rbr+r−1br+imr−1b/H9258+ikbz=0 , /H208495/H20850
shows that it is enough to solve the induction equation for br
andb/H9258only.
It has been shown8,9that for a stationary flow the mag-
netic field is generated in a resonant layer located at r=r0,
where the magnetic field lines are aligned with the shear andthus minimize their diffusion. In Eq. /H208492/H20850we see that since
there is the same time-dependent factor F/H20849t/H20850multiplying an-
gular and axial velocities, this radius is independent of time,
and so this surface is fixed and given by
m/H9024
/H11032/H20849r0/H20850+kV/H11032/H20849r0/H20850=0 . /H208496/H20850
For more complex time-dependence r0may vary with time,
leading to a succession of growing and damping magneticfield states.
3In Sec. III we will consider the velocity field in
Eq. /H208492/H20850with r0fixed, and we assume that r0lies in the fluid,
with 0 /H11021r0/H110211/H20849otherwise modes are strongly damped /H20850. For
the more general case of distinct time-dependence for angu-lar and axial flows, where r
0does vary with time, the equa-
tions are set out and discussed in Sec. IV.
With a given resonant surface r=r0the leading action of
the flow on the field is simply advection of the mode by theangular and axial velocities, on the fast advective time scalet=O/H20849/H9255/H20850. We take this out of consideration by defining the
phase
/H9278/H20849t/H20850as
/H9278/H20849t/H20850=−/H9255−1/H20851m/H9024/H20849r0/H20850+kV/H20849r0/H20850/H20852/H20885
0t
F/H20849t/H11032/H20850dt/H11032 /H208497/H20850
to leave behind only evolution through dynamo action, dif-
fusion and reconnection, on slower time scales.
Introducing Eqs. /H208492/H20850,/H208494/H20850, and /H208497/H20850in Eq. /H208491/H20850,w efi n d
/H20853/H9255/H11509t+/H20851im/H9024/H20849r/H20850+ikV/H20849r/H20850−im/H9024/H20849r0/H20850−ikV/H20849r0/H20850/H20852F/H20849t/H20850/H20854br
=/H9255/H20851/H20849L−r−2/H20850br−2imr−2b/H9258/H20852, /H208498/H20850
/H20853/H9255/H11509t+/H20851im/H9024/H20849r/H20850+ikV/H20849r/H20850−im/H9024/H20849r0/H20850−ikV/H20849r0/H20850/H20852F/H20849t/H20850/H20854b/H9258
=r/H9024/H11032/H20849r/H20850F/H20849t/H20850br+/H9255/H20851/H20849L−r−2/H20850b/H9258+2imr−2br/H20852, /H208499/H20850
where the Laplacian operator Lis defined by
L=/H11509r2+r−1/H11509r−r−2m2−k2. /H2084910/H20850
In the highly conducting limit /H9255/H112701 we adopt the smooth
Ponomarenko dynamo scaling,8
m=/H9255−1 /3M,k=/H9255−1 /3K,r=r0+/H92551/3s,t=/H92552/3/H9270,
/H2084911/H20850
where /H9270is a time scale on which the dynamo mode grows,
intermediate between the O/H208491/H20850diffusive time scale and the
O/H20849/H9255/H20850advective time scale. This scaling gives a magnetic
mode localized at the radius r=r0and it is known that the
final formulas obtained with this choice of scaling give the“richest” asymptotic picture including both the case m,k
=O/H208491/H20850and the peak growth rates, achieved at m,k
=O/H20849/H9255
−1 /3/H20850. Settingbr/H20849r,t/H20850=/H92551/3bˆr0/H20849s,/H9270/H20850+¯,
b/H9258/H20849r,t/H20850=bˆ/H92580/H20849s,/H9270/H20850+¯, /H2084912/H20850
F/H20849t/H20850=Fˆ/H20849/H9270/H20850,
together with the /H9024/H20849r/H20850andV/H20849r/H20850expansion at r=r0,
/H9024/H20849r/H20850=/H9024/H20849r0/H20850+/H92551/3s/H9024/H11032/H20849r0/H20850+1
2/H92552/3s2/H9024/H11033/H20849r0/H20850+¯, /H2084913/H20850
V/H20849r/H20850=V/H20849r0/H20850+/H92551/3sV/H11032/H20849r0/H20850+1
2/H92552/3s2V/H11033/H20849r0/H20850+¯, /H2084914/H20850
we obtain from Eqs. /H208498/H20850and /H208499/H20850at leading order in /H9255
/H20851/H11509/H9270+c0+ic2s2Fˆ/H20849/H9270/H20850−/H11509s2/H20852bˆr0=−2 iMr0−2bˆ/H92580, /H2084915/H20850
/H20851/H11509/H9270+c0+ic2s2Fˆ/H20849/H9270/H20850−/H11509s2/H20852bˆ/H92580=r0/H9024/H11032/H20849r0/H20850Fˆ/H20849/H9270/H20850bˆr0, /H2084916/H20850
with
c0=r0−2M2+K2,c2=1
2/H20851M/H9024/H11033/H20849r0/H20850+KV/H11033/H20849r0/H20850/H20852. /H2084917/H20850
From Eqs. /H2084915/H20850and /H2084916/H20850we immediately see how the dy-
namo works: The differential rotation /H9024/H11032/H20849r0/H20850stretches the
radial field bˆr0to generate bˆ/H92580, and the diffusion of bˆ/H92580in
cylindrical geometry then regenerates bˆr0. For the flows con-
sidered below c2/H110220, and for simplicity, we will take this to
be the case in what follows: There are insignificant changesif this quantity is negative.
These equations are solved by an exact ansatz involving
time-dependent, complex Gaussian functions. We put thesein, at the same time rescaling using constants a
r,a/H9258,a/H9270, and
ah, to eliminate as many parameters as possible, with
/H20875bˆr0/H20849/H9270,s/H20850
bˆ/H92580/H20849/H9270,s/H20850/H20876exp/H20849c0/H9270/H20850=/H20875arf¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850
a/H9258g¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850/H20876exp/H20851−ahh¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850s2/H20852,/H2084918/H20850
where /H9270¯=a/H9270/H9270is a new time scale. We now fix the constants
with
ar=2M,a/H9258=r02c21/2,a/H9270=ah=c21/2, /H2084919/H20850
and we are left with the following system of ODEs in /H9270¯to
solve
/H11509/H9270¯h¯+4h¯2=iF¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850,
/H11509/H9270¯f¯+2h¯f¯=−ig¯, /H2084920/H20850
/H11509/H9270¯g¯+2h¯g¯=−DF¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850f¯,
where the constant D=−2M/H9024/H11032/H20849r0/H20850/r0c2and the time-
dependent factor is F¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850=Fˆ/H20849/H9270/H20850./H20851Note that modes with more
radial structure can be studied, taking the form of two time-
dependent polynomials times a Gaussian in Eq. /H2084918/H20850, but
these will be subdominant. /H20852
The equation for h¯is nonlinear, while those for f¯andg¯
are linear. The exponential growth rate /H9253¯of the magnetic
field components f¯andg¯depends only on the parameter D,122104-2 Peyrot, Gilbert, and Plunian Phys. Plasmas 15, 122104 /H208492008 /H20850
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128.248.155.225 On: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 08:14:18which captures the local geometry of the helical streamlines,8
and the form of the time-dependence F¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850. From Eqs. /H208496/H20850and
/H2084917/H20850we have
D=−4
r0/H20875/H9024/H11033/H20849r0/H20850
/H9024/H11032/H20849r0/H20850−V/H11033/H20849r0/H20850
V/H11032/H20849r0/H20850/H20876−1
, /H2084921/H20850
showing that Ddepends only on the geometry of the velocity
field. The function h¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850gives the Gaussian envelope, with
Reh¯/H110220 required for exponential localization of the mode.
So far the system /H2084920/H20850applies to any time-dependence
F¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850. Under the rescaling, the two given in Eq. /H208493/H20850corre-
spond to
F¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850= cos/H9275¯/H9270¯/H20849ZM/H20850,F¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850=1+/H9267cos/H9275¯/H9270¯/H20849NZM /H20850,
/H2084922/H20850
where the frequencies are linked by
/H9275=/H9255−2 /3c21/2/H9275¯/H11013/H208531
2/H9255−1/H20851m/H9024/H11033/H20849r0/H20850+kV/H11033/H20849r0/H20850/H20852/H208541/2/H9275¯. /H2084923/H20850
For the rescaled system /H2084920/H20850, after a transient, h¯will
become periodic with the same frequency /H9275¯as the forcing F¯
and the linear equations for the magnetic field components
/H20849f¯,g¯/H20850will take a Floquet form: The solution will have expo-
nential growth superposed on periodic behavior. The overall
growth rate may be measured as /H9253¯/H20849D,/H9275¯/H20850/H20849suppressing /H9267in
the nonzero mean case /H20850. This is linked to the growth rate /H9253of
the magnetic field in the original systems /H208498/H20850and /H208499/H20850/H20851or Eq.
/H208491/H20850/H20852with
/H9253=/H9255−2 /3/H20851c21/2/H9253¯/H20849D,/H9275¯/H20850−c0/H20852
/H11013/H208531
2/H9255−1/H20851m/H9024/H11033/H20849r0/H20850+kV/H11033/H20849r0/H20850/H20852/H208541/2/H9253¯/H20849D,/H9275¯/H20850−r0−2m2−k2,
/H2084924/H20850
or, using the definition of Din Eq. /H2084921/H20850,
/H9253=/H20851−2m/H9024/H11032/H20849r0/H20850//H9255r0D/H208521/2/H9253¯/H20849D,/H9275¯/H20850−r0−2m2−k2. /H2084925/H20850
In the stationary case F/H20849t/H20850=1, from Eq. /H2084920/H20850we find h¯
=/H11006i1/2/2 and/H9253¯=−2h¯/H11006/H20849iD/H208501/2. Then from Eq. /H2084924/H20850and tak-
ingh¯with Re h¯/H333560, we obtain the real part of the growth rate
as
Re/H9253=/H9255−1 /2/H20851r0−1/H20841m/H9024/H11032/H20849r0/H20850/H20841/H208521/2
−1
2/H9255−1 /2/H20851/H20841m/H9024/H11033/H20849r0/H20850+kV/H11033/H20849r0/H20850/H20841/H208521/2−r0−2m2−k2,
/H2084926/H20850
as previously found.8–10Together with this goes the purely
geometrical criterion for Ponomarenko dynamo action inhighly conducting stationary flow, that /H20841D/H20849r
0/H20850/H20841/H110221 at the
resonant radius r0. Note that formulas /H2084923/H20850–/H2084926/H20850, although
derived using the scaling equation /H2084911/H20850, are in fact valid for
allmandklinked by the resonance condition /H208496/H20850. The ex-
pansions would give equivalent results had we taken m,k
=O/H208491/H20850, and/H9255→0, though this would not immediately cap-
ture the fastest growing modes which are of the scale m,k
=O/H20849/H9255−1 /3/H20850as/H9255→0. The key assumption in the expansion is
that at small /H9255the magnetic field localizes in a thin layer.
From Eqs. /H2084911/H20850and /H2084918/H20850the width of the layer isr−r0=O/H20849/H92551/3c2−1 /4h¯−1 /2/H20850
=O/H20851/H92551/4/H208491
2/H20851m/H9024/H11033/H20849r0/H20850+kV/H11033/H20849r0/H20850/H20852/H20850−1 /4h¯−1 /2/H20852, /H2084927/H20850
and this goes to zero as /H9255→0; however we should note that
this is assuming that /H9275¯is fixed as we take the limit, so that
the magnitude of h¯is of order unity in the limit. If instead we
allow /H9275¯/H20849or other parameters or wavenumbers /H20850to vary as
well, then we need to be careful to check the condition thatthe width given by Eq. /H2084927/H20850is small, to validate the
asymptotic theory. For example, if we fix
/H9275as/H9255→0 we have
/H9275¯=O/H20849/H92551/2/H9275/H20850→0 from Eq. /H2084923/H20850and as h¯turns out to be
bounded in this limit /H20849of low frequencies, so similar to the
stationary case /H20850this condition is verified.
III. RESULTS
To test the above asymptotic results, we use the flow
equation /H208492/H20850with radial profile /H9024/H20849r/H20850=1− rand V/H20849r/H20850
=/H9003/H208491−r2/H20850, where /H9003is a helicity factor, for which r0=
−m/2k/H9003andD=4, independent of radius. We begin by
checking the stationary case, followed by the examples ofzero-mean and nonzero mean flows in Eq. /H208493/H20850.
The growth rate of magnetic field for the asymptotic
theory is obtained by simulating Eq. /H2084920/H20850using a fourth order
Runge–Kutta scheme, with frequencies and growth rateslinked by Eqs. /H2084923/H20850and /H2084924/H20850. For our given flow we have
/H9275=/H20849−k/H9003/H9255−1/H208501/2/H9275¯,/H9253=/H20849−k/H9003/H9255−1/H208501/2/H9253¯−/H208491+4/H90032/H20850k2.
/H2084928/H20850
Typically for /H9003=2 and k=−0.5, we have /H9275=/H9255−1 /2/H9275¯and/H9253
=/H9255−1 /2/H9253¯−4.25. This growth rate will be compared to the one
obtained with direct numerical simulation, solving the induc-tion equation /H208491/H20850without asymptotic approximation, using a
Galerkin method for the radial discretization and again aRunge–Kutta scheme for the time evolution.
3Note that for
the full problem the field settles into a Floquet form withB/H20849t+T/H20850=exp /H20849
/H9253BT/H20850B/H20849t/H20850, where Tdenotes the period of F/H20849t/H20850.
From Eqs. /H208494/H20850and /H208497/H20850it is given by
/H9253B=/H9253−i/H20851m/H9024/H20849r0/H20850+kV/H20849r0/H20850/H20852T−1/H20885
0T
F/H20849t/H11032/H20850dt/H11032, /H2084929/H20850
where the phase factor has been reintroduced for a good
comparison of frequency measurements.
A. Stationary flow
ForF/H20849t/H20850=1 and our given flow, we have /H9253¯=/H208491+i/H20850//H208812.
From Eq. /H2084928/H20850we obtain /H9253B=/H9253−i/H20851m/H9024/H20849r0/H20850+kV/H20849r0/H20850/H20852with
/H9253=/H9255−1 /2/H208811
2/H20841k/H20841/H9003/H208491+i/H20850−/H208491+4/H90032/H20850k2. /H2084930/H20850
In Fig. 1, the growth rate /H9253Bis plotted against /H9255−1for two
different values of r0. The curves show a good agreement
between both asymptotic and simulation growth rates andfrequencies provided the magnetic Reynolds number Rm=/H9255
−1is sufficiently large. For /H9255−1/H33356103the difference is less
than 5% for the growth rate and 0.6% for the frequency. InFig. 2, the modulus of each magnetic field component is
plotted for several values of /H9255
−1. Clearly, increasing /H9255−1con-122104-3 Oscillating Ponomarenko dynamo … Phys. Plasmas 15, 122104 /H208492008 /H20850
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128.248.155.225 On: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 08:14:18centrates the magnetic field in a thinner layer at r0, and the
asymptotic formulation becomes increasingly accurate. De-fining the layer thickness
/H9254as the width over which the mag-
netic energy falls to half of its peak value, we find that /H9254
/H11229O/H20849/H92550.27/H110060.03/H20850from the simulation. An estimate from the
asymptotic expressions /H2084918/H20850, and using Eqs. /H2084911/H20850and /H2084917/H20850,
leads to /H9254=O/H20849/H92551/4/H20850form=1 which is in good agreement.
However this quantity goes to zero quite slowly with /H9255and
so convergence is slow.
B. Periodic flow with zero mean
We now consider the second case, with zero mean in the
original time-dependence equation /H208493/H20850or in the rescaled ver-
sion Eq. /H2084922/H20850. We first work with the asymptotic system and
solve Eq. /H2084920/H20850to obtain the growth rate /H9253¯/H20849D,/H9275¯/H20850as a function
of/H9275¯for different values of D, as plotted in Fig. 3/H20849left/H20850. For
D/H110211 we obtain pure decay Re /H9253¯/H110210; for D=1.5 the sign of
Re/H9253¯depends on /H9275¯/H20849positive at small /H9275¯/H20850, whereas for D/H333562
we find that Re /H9253¯/H333560 for all /H9275¯. Recall that in the stationary
case /H20841D/H20841/H110221 is necessary and sufficient for dynamo action in
the highly conducting limit.
We can investigate this result further by taking an addi-
tional limit of solving Eq. /H2084920/H20850for/H9275¯/H112711. For that we use a
new time coordinate u=/H9275¯/H9270¯and set a small parameter /H9256
=/H9275¯−1/H112701. Then we have, without approximation, from Eq.
/H2084920/H20850and dropping the bars to ease notation,/H9256−1/H11509uh+4h2=icosu, /H2084931/H20850
/H9256−1/H11509uf+2hf=−ig, /H2084932/H20850
/H9256−1/H11509ug+2hg=−Dfcosu, /H2084933/H20850
where f,g, and hare now functions of u. We set
/H20851f/H20849u/H20850,g/H20849u/H20850/H20852=exp /H20849/H9262u/H20850/H20851f*/H20849u/H20850,g*/H20849u/H20850/H20852with/H9262a constant Flo-
quet exponent and require f*andg*to be strictly periodic
functions of u. We have
/H9256−1/H11509uh+4h2=icosu,
/H9256−1/H9262f*+/H9256−1/H11509uf*+2hf*=−ig*, /H2084934/H20850
/H9256−1/H9262g*+/H9256−1/H11509ug*+2hg*=−Df*cosu.
Expanding /H9262,f*,g*, and hin powers of /H9256,
/H20849/H9262,f*,g*,h/H20850=/H20849/H9262,f*,g*,h/H208500+/H9256/H20849/H9262,f*,g*,h/H208501
+/H92562/H20849/H9262,f*,g*,h/H208502+¯, /H2084935/H20850
we solve the system /H2084934/H20850order by order, using the terms /H92620,
/H92621,... to enforce periodicity. This leads to
f*=A0+/H9256A1+/H92562/H20851iA0/H208492−D/H20850cosu+A2/H20852+¯, /H2084936/H20850
FIG. 2. Modulus of each magnetic field component plotted against rfor/H20849a/H20850/H9255−1=500, /H20849b/H208501000, /H20849c/H208502000, /H20849d/H208504000, /H20849e/H208506000, /H20849f/H2085010000, for m=1,/H9003=2,k
=−0.5, and r0=0.5.
FIG. 1. The magnetic growth rate Re /H9253B/H20849left/H20850and frequency Im /H9253B/H20849right /H20850plotted against /H9255−1in the stationary case F/H20849t/H20850=1, for m=1,/H9003=2, and k=−0.7,
r0=0.35 /H20849black /H20850, and k=−0.5, r0=0.5 /H20849gray /H20850. The asymptotic solution and the simulation correspond to dashed and full curves, respectively.122104-4 Peyrot, Gilbert, and Plunian Phys. Plasmas 15, 122104 /H208492008 /H20850
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128.248.155.225 On: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 08:14:18g*=/H9256DA0/H20849− sin u/H110062−1 /2i/H20850+/H92562/H20849−DA1sinu+B2/H20850
+¯, /H2084937/H20850
h=/H9256/H208492−1 /2+isinu/H20850+/H92562C2
+/H92563/H20849C3− sin 2 u+4/H208812icosu/H20850+¯, /H2084938/H20850
/H9262=/H92562/H20849−21/2/H110062−1 /2D/H20850+¯, /H2084939/H20850
where the Ai,Bi, and Ciare integration constants and we
have imposed Re h/H110220./H20849The Aiare arbitrary; the BiandCi
can be determined in terms of the Aiat higher orders of the
expansion. /H20850Then the growth rate of f¯andg¯is given by /H9253¯
=/H9262/H9275¯with
/H9253¯/H11229/H9275¯−12−1 /2/H20849−2/H11006D/H20850. /H2084940/H20850
This confirms that /H9253¯/H333560 only if D/H333562, in the high frequency
limit, as seen in Fig. 3/H20849left/H20850. In addition to the results of
system /H2084920/H20850,/H9253¯is plotted versus /H9275¯using the asymptotic ex-
pansion /H2084940/H20850. We find a good agreement between both, even
for moderate values of /H9275¯. In Fig. 3/H20849right /H20850, we plot the
growth rate /H9253Bfor different values of /H9275, from both the
asymptotic ODEs /H2084920/H20850and from simulations of the primitive
equations /H208498/H20850and /H208499/H20850, showing good agreement provided /H9255−1
is sufficiently large.
Note that formula /H2084940/H20850indicates a growth rate /H9253¯that
increases as the frequency /H9275¯→0, and this perhaps suggests
fast dynamo action. The dynamo here would be fast if thegrowth rate on the short, advective time scale, here given by/H9255
/H9253, remains bounded above zero as /H9255→0, holding the flow
fixed. In our flow D=4 which, from Eq. /H2084940/H20850, leads to /H9253¯
/H11011/H208812//H9275¯and from Eq. /H2084928/H20850to
/H9253/H11229−/H208812k/H9003/H9255−1/H9275−1−/H208491+4/H90032/H20850k2. /H2084941/H20850
In the limit of small /H9255, given that − k/H9003/H110220, this at first sight
appears to be a fast dynamo. This formula was derived on theassumption that
/H9275¯−1/H112701, but as /H9255→0 for a fixed flow, which
includes a fixed /H9275, the assumption becomes violated. As /H9255
→0,/H9275¯→0 from Eq. /H2084928/H20850and so we move towards the left in
Fig.3/H20849left panel /H20850: If the asymptotic curves /H20849dashed /H20850contin-ued to grow to the left, the dynamo would be fast. However
the computed values /H20849solid /H20850saturate for small /H9275¯and the
dynamo is in the slow camp, as expected. /H20849As line elements
are only stretched linearly the flow fails to have Lagrangianchaos, technically positive topological entropy, a requirementfor fast dynamo action in a smooth flow.
13/H20850
C. Critical values for Rm in flows with zero mean
The asymptotic theory gives an estimate for the critical
value of Rm or /H9255for the onset of dynamo instabilities,
namely from Eq. /H2084924/H20850,
/H9255c1/2=R e/H20849/H208531
2/H20851m/H9024/H11033/H20849r0/H20850+kV/H11033/H20849r0/H20850/H20852/H208541/2/H9253¯/H20849D,/H9275¯/H20850/H20850/H20849r0−2m2+k2/H20850−1,
/H2084942/H20850
or from Eq. /H2084925/H20850,
/H9255c1/2=R e /H20853/H20851−2m/H9024/H11032/H20849r0/H20850/r0D/H208521/2/H9253¯/H20849D,/H9275¯/H20850/H20854/H20849r0−2m2+k2/H20850−1.
/H2084943/H20850
For the mode m=1, the agreement with numerics at on-
set is poor in Fig. 1because the critical magnetic Reynolds
number is not large enough /H20849contrast the situation in Ref.
10/H20850. In the zero-mean case the agreement seems to be better
as seen in Fig. 3/H20849right /H20850. In fact, we generally expect agree-
ment for critical values to improve if there is some otherasymptotic parameter to push the critical Rm into thesmall-/H9255, large-Rm regime, provided the condition of thin
layer width, Eq. /H2084927/H20850, is satisfied. One possibility could be to
take the limit when the axial flow V/H20849r/H20850is weak or strong
compared with the angular velocity /H9024/H20849r/H20850/H20849as measured by the
helicity factor /H9003/H20850. Unfortunately direct simulations for /H9003
/H112701o r/H9003/H112711 are difficult to achieve. Instead we consider the
limit of increasing frequency
/H9275. We have already seen that
the asymptotic analysis leads to Eq. /H2084941/H20850provided /H9275¯is large
enough. In this case, the threshold should scale as /H9255c−1/H11008/H9275
and/H9275¯tends to infinity from Eq. /H2084923/H20850, which is necessary for
consistency. Carrying out simulations in order to determine/H9255
cfor values of /H9275in the range 100 /H33355/H9275/H333551000, we found that
/H9275/H9255c=0.209 /H110060.004. This is the correct scaling as predicted
FIG. 3. Zero mean case: growth rate /H9253¯vs/H9275¯/H20849left/H20850for/H20849from bottom to top /H20850D=1,2,3,4. The full curves give growth rates from integration of Eq. /H2084920/H20850; dashed
curves and symbols give growth rates from Eq. /H2084940/H20850. Growth rate Re /H9253Bvs/H9255−1/H20849right /H20850form=1,/H9003=2,k=−0.5, r0=0.5, and /H9275=200 /H20849black /H20850/H9275=500 /H20849gray /H20850.T h e
asymptotic results are shown by dashed curves, simulations by full curves.122104-5 Oscillating Ponomarenko dynamo … Phys. Plasmas 15, 122104 /H208492008 /H20850
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128.248.155.225 On: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 08:14:18by Eq. /H2084941/H20850but the constant is not that predicted, 0.3328. The
resolution of this paradox is that in this limit with /H9275
=O/H20849/H9255−1/H20850, we have /H9275¯=O/H20849/H9255−1 /2/H20850→/H11009from Eq. /H2084923/H20850. This
means that from Eq. /H2084938/H20850,h¯=O/H20849/H9275¯−1/H20850=O/H20849/H92551/2/H20850and so the
layer width, Eq. /H2084927/H20850, is of order unity and does not go to
zero. The increasing frequency /H9275¯is tending to increase the
width at the same time as the decreasing /H9255is tending to
localize the mode, and the two effects cancel out completely.The theory gives the correct scaling law but is not asymp-totically correct as the magnetic field is not localized. Thisindicates the care that has to be taken with double limits andthe usefulness of the condition that Eq. /H2084927/H20850is small. /H20851There
may be an asymptotic theory appropriate to the limit /H9255→0
with/H9255
/H9275=O/H208491/H20850, based on a reduced, finite number of modes
in time /H9270¯similar to those in Eqs. /H2084936/H20850–/H2084938/H20850, but retaining full
radial dependence; we leave this for further investigation. /H20852
D. Periodic flow with nonzero mean
Here we consider the case with nonzero mean flow,
NZM, in Eqs. /H208493/H20850and /H2084922/H20850. The growth rate /H9253¯from the
asymptotic ODEs /H2084920/H20850is plotted against /H9267in Fig. 4/H20849left/H20850for
/H9275¯=10 and different values of D. Taking /H9267=0 corresponds to
the stationary case. Then increasing the fluctuation level /H9267
may increase the growth rate depending on whether Dis
sufficiently large, the transition being for Dbetween 2 and 3.
This shows that fluctuations may increase the dynamo effi-ciency /H20849at least in the scalings we are using /H20850. A different
conclusion has been obtained at the dynamo threshold whichgenerally increases with the fluctuation rate.
3When /H9267is in-
creased to large values, the mean part of the flow becomessmall compared to the fluctuations. We confirmed that thislimit recovers the results of the previous zero-mean case withappropriate rescaling for
/H9253¯and/H9275¯.
In Fig. 4/H20849right /H20850the growth rate Re /H9253Bis plotted against
/H9255−1for different values of /H9275. The curves show a good agree-
ment between the growth rates from the asymptotic ODEsand from simulation of the full system provided /H9255
−1is suffi-
ciently large. The difference is less than 4% for /H9255−1/H33356400.IV. ANALYSIS FOR TIME-VARYING RESONANT
RADIUS
We now briefly indicate how theory is extended to the
more general time dependence,
U/H20849r,t/H20850=/H208530,r/H9024/H20849r/H20850/H20851F/H20849t/H20850+qG/H20849t/H20850/H20852,V/H20849r/H20850/H20851F/H20849t/H20850−qG/H20849t/H20850/H20852/H20854.
/H2084944/H20850
Here qis a parameter that controls the difference in time-
dependence between the axial and azimuthal componentsandF/H20849t/H20850,G/H20849t/H20850are functions of time, of order unity. For ex-
ample we could take a general, single frequency, zero-mean
case,
F/H20849t/H20850= cos
/H9275t,G/H20849t/H20850= cos /H20849/H9275t−/H9021/H20850. /H2084945/H20850
Now generally the resonant radius becomes a function of
time, r0/H20849t/H20850, with
m/H9024/H11032/H20849r0/H20850/H20851F/H20849t/H20850+qG/H20849t/H20850/H20852+kV/H11032/H20849r0/H20850/H20851F/H20849t/H20850−qG/H20849t/H20850/H20852=0 , /H2084946/H20850
but such variation is found to have a strong damping effect
on the field.3At the resonant radius the shear in the flow is
aligned with the helical field lines in the magnetic mode; inthe stationary case, as one departs from this radius, the shearchanges direction, tending to introduce fine radial scales andenhanced diffusion. Moving the resonant radius with a time-dependent flow then leads to a damping effect on modes,which are strongly suppressed when the field concentrationis distant from r
0/H20849t/H20850/H20851noting that the field cannot readily dif-
fuse in radius to follow r0/H20849t/H20850/H20852.
For these reasons, in our asymptotic framework we will
take qto tend to zero in magnitude as /H9255→0. This makes r0
fixed at leading order and we define r0by Eq. /H208496/H20850as we did
originally. Going through the previous calculations we ob-tain, in place of Eqs. /H2084915/H20850and /H2084916/H20850, the equations
/H20851
/H11509/H9270+c0+ic1sGˆ/H20849/H9270/H20850+ic2s2Fˆ/H20849/H9270/H20850−/H11509s2/H20852bˆr0=−2 iMr0−2bˆ/H92580,
/H2084947/H20850
FIG. 4. Nonzero mean case: growth rate /H9253¯vs/H9267/H20849left/H20850,f o r/H9275¯=10. The curves /H20849a/H20850,/H20849b/H20850,/H20849c/H20850,/H20849d/H20850correspond to D=1,2,3,4, respectively. Growth rate Re /H9253Bvs
/H9255−1/H20849right /H20850form=1,/H9003=2,k=−0.5, r0=0.5,/H9275=100 and from bottom to top /H9267=1,4,8,10. The asymptotic results correspond to dashed curves and simulations
to full curves.122104-6 Peyrot, Gilbert, and Plunian Phys. Plasmas 15, 122104 /H208492008 /H20850
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128.248.155.225 On: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 08:14:18/H20851/H11509/H9270+c0+ic1sGˆ/H20849/H9270/H20850+ic2s2Fˆ/H20849/H9270/H20850−/H11509s2/H20852bˆ/H92580
=Fˆ/H20849/H9270/H20850r0/H9024/H11032/H20849r0/H20850bˆr0, /H2084948/H20850
with the new linear term defined by
G/H20849t/H20850=Gˆ/H20849/H9270/H20850,q=/H92551/3Q,c1=Q/H20851M/H9024/H11032/H20849r0/H20850−KV/H11032/H20849r0/H20850/H20852.
/H2084949/H20850
Substituting
/H20875bˆr0/H20849/H9270,s/H20850
bˆ/H92580/H20849/H9270,s/H20850/H20876exp/H20849c0/H9270/H20850=/H20875arf¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850
a/H9258g¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850/H20876exp/H20851−ajj¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850s−ahh¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850s2/H20852
/H2084950/H20850
and setting Gˆ/H20849/H9270/H20850=G¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850andaj=c21/4gives the system
/H11509/H9270¯h¯+4h¯2=iF¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850,
/H11509/H9270¯j¯+4h¯j¯=iQG¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850,
/H2084951/H20850
/H11509/H9270¯f¯−j¯2f¯+2h¯f¯=−ig¯,
/H11509/H9270¯g¯−j¯2g¯+2h¯g¯=−DF¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850f¯.
We now have a new parameter that quantifies the difference
in the time-dependence of azimuthal and axial flows, and sothe variation in resonant radius, given by
Q=c
1c2−3 /4/H11013q/H9255−1 /4m/H9024/H11032/H20849r0/H20850−kV/H11032/H20849r0/H20850
/H208531
2/H20851m/H9024/H11033/H20849r0/H20850+kV/H11033/H20849r0/H20850/H20852/H208543/4. /H2084952/H20850
As for system /H2084920/H20850, system /H2084951/H20850applies to any time-
dependence F¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850andG¯/H20849/H9270¯/H20850. Again this system can be solved
numerically to obtain a growth rate. With the specific time-
dependence equation /H2084945/H20850, the growth rate will be a function
/H9253¯/H20849D,/H9275¯,Q,/H9021/H20850: The phase angle /H9021quantifies the polarization
of the axial and azimuthal components of the flow, in a loose
sense.
In the system /H2084951/H20850, we see that changing Qto −Qonly
changes j¯to −j¯without affecting the other variables. There-
fore it is sufficient to consider positive values of Q. Our
numerical investigations, which we summarize rather thanpresenting graphically, indicate that compared to the curvesgiven in Fig. 3forQ=0, changing Qand/H9021systematically
leads to lower values of
/H9253¯, without changing much the shape
of the /H9275¯andDdependencies. We can show that /H9253¯is
/H9266-periodic in /H9021. We find that /H9253¯is a maximum for /H9021=0, a
minimum for /H9021=/H9266/2 and that /H9253¯/H20849/H9021=/H9266/4/H20850=/H9253¯/H20849/H9021=3/H9266/4/H20850. Fi-
nally/H9253¯is found to be monotonically decreasing with Qand
it would be interesting to obtain a proof confirming thisobservation.
We can investigate these results further by taking the
additional limit of large
/H9275¯as in Sec. III B. We find that Eq.
/H2084940/H20850holds even for Qnonzero. In other words the leadingorder growth rate /H20849proportional to /H9275¯−1/H20850is independent of Q
and/H9021in the limit /H9275¯→/H11009and is given in Eq. /H2084940/H20850. This is
very clear in the expansion /H2084951/H20850: The j¯2f¯andj¯2g¯terms come
in at one order below what is needed to obtain Eq. /H2084940/H20850. They
are asymptotically smaller than h¯f¯andh¯g¯in the same equa-
tions, as h¯andj¯are both of size /H9256at leading order.
V. CONCLUSIONS
We extended the theory of the Ponomarenko dynamo in
the asymptotic limit of large Rm, to the case of a nonstation-ary flow. We considered only a very simple model for fluc-tuating flow, but one that is nevertheless revealing. Withinthis class of flows it highlights the basic mechanisms fordynamo action, the effect of the motion of the resonant ra-dius in suppressing field generation, and the parameter com-binations that are relevant at large Rm. Our results includecriteria for dynamo action at large Rm involving the purelygeometrical quantity D, linked to the rate of change of pitch
of the velocity shear. For example, we find from Fig. 3that
the geometrical condition /H20841D/H20841/H110222 at a given radius is needed
for dynamo action with a mode localized there, at high fre-quencies in the zero-mean case for large Rm.
Note that for stationary flow the corresponding criterion
is/H20841D/H20841/H110221 for magnetic field amplification. To see the rel-
evance of these results, consider the spiral Couette flow,which is simply the general solution for differentially rotat-ing flow forced by rotating, translating cylindrical bound-aries
/H9024/H20849r/H20850=A
1+A2r−2,V/H20849r/H20850=A3+A4logr. /H2084953/H20850
This corresponds to /H20841D/H20841=2, and so satisfies the condition in
the stationary case; dynamo action was observed in Ref. 15.
If the motion of the boundaries is now periodic with zeromean, and sufficiently slow that the above functions are justmultiplied by F/H20849t/H20850=cos
/H9275t, then Fig. 2shows that dynamo
action becomes marginal provided /H9275¯is large. Of course the
full picture for any boundary forcing is complicated by thedevelopment of Stokes’ layers unless it is slow comparedwith viscous time scales. Nonetheless the key point is thatflows with larger values of /H20841D/H20841over a range of radii are likely
to be more efficient as dynamos in nonstationary as well asstationary flows, and this consideration could be important inoptimizing experiments and understanding experimental ornumerical results. We also considered flow fluctuations inwhich components are out of phase, leading to a time-dependent resonant radius. The results show that this inhibitsthe dynamo action, confirming previous results obtained fora cellular type of flow.
14
The fluctuations considered in this paper have a very
simple structure, and it would be a natural extension to con-sider fluctuating flows that carried the field across stream-lines, in other words depending also on
/H9258andz. This would
lose the separation of variables employed here and make thestudy more numerical, unless averaging is done analytically,122104-7 Oscillating Ponomarenko dynamo … Phys. Plasmas 15, 122104 /H208492008 /H20850
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128.248.155.225 On: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 08:14:18which would generally give an alpha effect.16Other possible
interesting developments would be to consider random timedependence, which increases the complexity of the system,especially close to the threshold,
17and to include some of the
effects of nonlinear feedback on the flow field.11
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are grateful to the European Network on Electro-
magnetic Processing of Materials /H20849COST Action P17 /H20850which
supported a visit of M.P. to Exeter in 2007, where this re-search project commenced. A.G. is grateful for a LeverhulmeTrust Research Fellowship held during the completion of thispaper. F.P. is grateful to the Dynamo Program at KITP /H20849sup-
ported in part by the National Science Foundation underGrant No. PHY05-51164 /H20850for completion of the paper. We
thank Professor Andrew Soward and Dr. Matthew Turner forhelpful comments during this research.1Yu. B. Ponomarenko, J. Appl. Mech. Tech. Phys. 6, 755 /H208491973 /H20850.
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beth, Th. Gundrum, F. Stefani, M. Christen, and G. Will, Phys. Rev. Lett.
86, 3024 /H208492001 /H20850.
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11W. Dobler, A. Shukurov, and A. Brandenburg, Phys. Rev. E 65, 036311
/H208492002 /H20850.
12E. G. Blackman and J. C. Tan, Astrophys. Space Sci. 292,3 9 5 /H208492004 /H20850.
13I. Klapper and L. S. Young, Commun. Math. Phys. 173,6 2 3 /H208491995 /H20850.
14F. Pétrélis and S. Fauve, Europhys. Lett. 76, 602 /H208492006 /H20850.
15A. A. Solovyev, Izv. Akad. Nauk. SSSR, Fiz. Zemli 12,4 0 /H208491985 /H20850.
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17N. Leprovost and B. Dubrulle, Eur. Phys. J. B 44, 395 /H208492005 /H20850.122104-8 Peyrot, Gilbert, and Plunian Phys. Plasmas 15, 122104 /H208492008 /H20850
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1.2400058.pdf | Large cone angle magnetization precession of an individual nanopatterned
ferromagnet with dc electrical detection
M. V. Costache, S. M. Watts, M. Sladkov, C. H. van der Wal, and B. J. van Wees
Citation: Applied Physics Letters 89, 232115 (2006); doi: 10.1063/1.2400058
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2400058
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/89/23?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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134.139.173.111 On: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 01:58:01Large cone angle magnetization precession of an individual nanopatterned
ferromagnet with dc electrical detection
M. V. Costache,a/H20850S. M. Watts, M. Sladkov, C. H. van der Wal, and B. J. van Wees
Physics of Nanodevices, Materials Science Center, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4,
9747 AG Groningen, the Netherlands
/H20849Received 5 September 2006; accepted 24 October 2006; published online 8 December 2006 /H20850
The on-chip resonant driving of large cone-angle magnetization precession of an individual
nanoscale Permalloy element is demonstrated. Strong driving is realized by locating the element inclose proximity to the shorted end of a coplanar strip waveguide, which generates a microwavemagnetic field. A frequency modulation method is used to accurately measure resonant changes ofthe dc anisotropic magnetoresistance. Precession cone angles up to 9° are determined with betterthan 1° of resolution. The resonance peak shape is well described by the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbertequation. © 2006 American Institute of Physics ./H20851DOI: 10.1063/1.2400058 /H20852
The microwave-frequency magnetization dynamics of
nanoscale ferromagnetic elements is of critical importance toapplications in spintronics. Precessional switching usingferromagnetic resonance /H20849FMR /H20850of magnetic memory
elements,
1and the interaction between spin currents and
magnetization dynamics are examples.2For device applica-
tions, methods are needed to reliably drive large angle mag-netization precession and to electrically probe the precessionangle in a straightforward way.
We present here strong on-chip resonant driving of the
uniform magnetization precession mode of an individualnanoscale Permalloy /H20849Py/H20850strip. The precession cone angle is
extracted via dc measurement of the anisotropic magnetore-sistance /H20849AMR /H20850, with angular resolution as precise as 1°. An
important conclusion from these results is that large preces-sion cone angles /H20849up to 9° in this study
3/H20850can be achieved and
detected. Moreover, measurements with an offset angle be-tween the dc current and the equilibrium direction of themagnetization show dc voltage signals even in the absence ofapplied dc current, due to the rectification between inducedac currents in the strip and the time-dependent AMR.
Recently we have demonstrated the detection of FMR in
an individual, nanoscale Py strip, located in close proximityto the shorted end of a coplanar strip waveguide /H20849CSW /H20850,b y
measuring the induced microwave voltage across the strip inresponse to microwave power applied to the CSW.
4How-
ever, detailed knowledge of the inductive coupling betweenthe strip and the CSW is required for a full analysis of theFMR peak shape, and the precession cone angle could not bequantified. In other recent experiments, dc voltages havebeen measured in nanoscale, multilayer pillar structures thatare related to the resonant precessional motion of one of themagnetic layers in the pillar.
5,6In one case the dc voltage is
generated by rectification between the microwave current ap-plied through the structure and its time-dependent giant mag-netoresistance effect.
6Similar voltages have been observed
for a long Py strip that intersects the shorted end of a CSW,which was related in part to rectification between microwavecurrents flowing into the Py strip and the time-dependentAMR.
7Figure 1/H20849a/H20850shows the schematic diagram of the device
used in the present work. A Py strip is located adjacent to theshorted end of a CSW and contacted with four in-line Ptleads. The CSW, Py strip, and Pt leads were fabricated on aSi/SiO
2substrate in separate steps by conventional e-beam
lithography, e-beam deposition, and lift-off techniques. TheCSW consisted of 150 nm Au on 5 nm Ti adhesion layer.Figure 1/H20849b/H20850shows a scanning electron microscopy image of
the 35 nm thick Py /H20849Ni
80Fe20/H20850strip, with dimensions 3
/H110030.3/H9262m2and the 50 nm thick Pt contacts /H20849the Py surface
was cleaned by Ar ion milling prior to Pt deposition to insuregood metallic contacts /H20850. Pt was chosen so as to avoid picking
up voltages due to the spin pumping effect.8,9An AMR re-
sponse of /H110111.7% was determined for the strip by four-probe
measurement of the difference /H9004Rbetween the resistances
when an external magnetic field is applied parallel to thecurrent and when it is applied perpendicular. This calibrationof the AMR response will allow accurate determination ofthe precessional cone angle, as described below.
Microwave power of 9 dBm was applied from a genera-
tor and coupled to the CSW /H20849designed to have a nominal
50/H9024impedance /H20850via electrical contact with a microwave
probe. This drives a microwave frequency current of the or-der of 10 mA through the CSW, achieving the highest cur-rent density in the terminating short and thereby generating amicrowave magnetic field h
1of the order of 1 mT normal to
the surface at the location of the strip. A dc magnetic field h0
is applied along the axis of the strip, perpendicular to h1.I n
a/H20850Electronic mail: m.v.costache@rug.nl
FIG. 1. /H20849a/H20850Schematic diagram of the device. /H20849b/H20850Scanning electron micro-
scope image of device with four contacts. /H20849c/H20850The AMR of a typical device.APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 89, 232115 /H208492006 /H20850
0003-6951/2006/89 /H2084923/H20850/232115/3/$23.00 © 2006 American Institute of Physics 89, 232115-1
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134.139.173.111 On: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 01:58:01this geometry we have previously shown that we can drive
the uniform FMR precessional mode of the Py strip.4All
measurements were performed at room temperature.
In the AMR effect /H20851see Fig. 1/H20849c/H20850/H20852, the resistance depends
on the angle /H9258between the current and the direction of the
magnetization as R/H20849/H9258/H20850=R0−/H9004Rsin2/H9258, where R0is the resis-
tance of the strip at h0=0. When the dc current and the
equilibrium magnetization direction are parallel and the mag-netization of the Py undergoes circular, resonant precessionabout the equilibrium direction, the dc resistance will de-crease by /H9004Rsin
2/H9258c, where /H9258cis the cone angle of the pre-
cession. Since the shape anisotropy of our Py strip causesdeviation from circular precession,
/H9258cis an average angle of
precession.
We have used a frequency modulation method in order
to better isolate signals due to the resonance state, removing
the background resistance signal due to R0and dc voltage
offsets in the amplifier. In this method, the frequency of themicrowave field is alternated between two different values5 GHz apart, while a dc current is applied through the outercontacts to the strip. A lock-in amplifier is referenced to thefrequency of this alternation /H20849at 17 Hz /H20850, and thus measures
the difference in dc voltage across the inner contacts betweenthe two frequencies, V=V/H20849f
high/H20850−V/H20849flow/H20850. Only the additional
voltage given by the FMR-enhanced AMR effect will be
measured when one of the microwave frequencies is inresonance.
Figure 2/H20849a/H20850shows a series of voltage vs field curves in
which both f
lowandfhighare incremented in 1 GHz intervals
at a dc current of 400 /H9262A. The curves feature dips and peaks
at magnetic field magnitudes corresponding to the magneticresonant condition with either fhighorflow, respectively. In
Fig.2/H20849b/H20850we focus on the peak for f=10.5 GHz, and show
curves for different currents ranging from −300 to+300
/H9262A. The peak height scales linearly with the current as
expected for a resistive effect /H20851Fig.2/H20849c/H20850/H20852. From the slope of
1.325 m /H9024we obtain an average cone angle /H9258c=4.35° for this
frequency.3Interestingly, in Fig. 2/H20849b/H20850a small, somewhat off-
center dip is observed even for zero applied current, givingan intercept of −30 nV in Fig. 2/H20849c/H20850. We will discuss this in
detail later in this letter.
To extract information about the magnetization dynam-
ics from the peak shape, we use the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert/H20849LLG /H20850equation, dm/dt=−
/H9253m/H11003/H92620H+/H20849/H9251/ms/H20850m/H11003dm/dt,
where H=/H20849h0−Nxmx,−Nymy,h1−Nzmz/H20850includes the demag-
netization factors Nx,Ny, and Nz/H20849where Nx+Ny+Nz=1/H20850,
/H9253=2//H926628 GHz/T is the gyromagnetic ratio, /H9251is the dimen-
sionless Gilbert damping parameter, and msis the saturation
magnetization of the strip. Due to the large aspect ratio of thestrip, N
xcan be neglected. In the small angle limit /H20849dmx/dt
=0, such that mx/H11229ms/H20850the LLG equation can be linearized.
In response to a driving field h1cos/H9275twith angular fre-
quency /H9275, we express the solutions as a sum of in-phase and
out-of-phase susceptibility components, so my
=/H9273y/H11032/H20849/H9275/H20850h1cos/H9275t+/H9273y/H11033/H20849/H9275/H20850h1sin/H9275tand mz=/H9273z/H11032/H20849/H9275/H20850h1cos/H9275t
+/H9273z/H11033/H20849/H9275/H20850h1sin/H9275t. The components for myare as follows:
/H9273y/H11032/H20849/H9275/H20850=−ms
2hc+ms/H9251
/H20849/H9253/H92620//H9275/H208502/H20849h0−hc/H208502+/H92512,
/H9273y/H11033/H20849/H9275/H20850=ms
2hc+ms/H20849/H9253/H92620//H9275/H20850/H20849h0−hc/H20850
/H20849/H9253/H92620//H9275/H208502/H20849h0−hc/H208502+/H92512. /H208491/H20850
The components of mzare related to those of myby/H9273z/H11032
=/H9251/H9273y/H11032−/H20849/H9253/H92620//H9275/H20850/H20849hc+Nyms/H20850/H9273y/H11033and/H9273z/H11033=/H9251/H9273y/H11033+/H20849/H9253/H92620//H9275ht/H20850/H20849hc
+Nyms/H20850/H9273y/H11032. The resonance field hcfor the uniform preces-
sional mode is related to /H9275by Kittel’s equation,
/H92752=/H92532/H926202/H20849hc+/H208491−Ny/H20850ms/H20850/H20849hc+Nyms/H20850. /H208492/H20850
The precession angle /H9258c/H20849t/H20850is determined from the relation
sin2/H9258c/H20849t/H20850/H11229/H9258c2/H20849t/H20850=/H208491/ms2/H20850/H20849my2+mz2/H20850. We find that /H9258c2can be
written as the sum of a time-independent term and terms
with time dependence at twice the driving frequency, /H9258c2
=/H9258dc2+/H9258c2/H208492/H9275t/H20850, where /H9258dc2=/H208491/2/H20850/H20849h1/ms/H208502/H20849/H9273y/H110322+/H9273y/H110332+/H9273z/H110322
+/H9273z/H110332/H20850. The dc voltage is calculated to be
V=A1
/H20849/H9253/H92620//H9275/H208502/H20849h0−hc/H208502+/H92512, /H208493/H20850
where A=/H208491/2/H20850Idc/H9004R/H20849h1/2hc+ms/H208502/H208491+/H20849/H9253/H92620//H9275/H208502/H20849hc
+Nyms/H208502/H20850. Each peak from the data shown in Fig. 2/H20849b/H20850has
been averaged with peaks at the same frequency, and replot-
ted in Fig. 3/H20849a/H20850as a function of /H9253/H92620h0//H9275. The solid lines are
fits of Eq. /H208493/H20850to the data, in which Aand hcare free fit
parameters for each curve, and we have required /H9251to be
the same for all of the peaks, resulting in a best-fit value
/H9251=0.0104. A plot of the frequency versus the center position
of each peak hcis shown in Fig. 3/H20849b/H20850. The excellent fit of Eq.
/H208492/H20850to the data verifies that this is the uniform precessional
mode, and yields values of /H92620ms=1.06 T and Ny=0.097 as
fit parameters. With these values we can extract the drivingfield h
1from the peak fit parameter A/H20851Fig.3/H20849c/H20850/H20852. In agree-
ment with our initial estimates, the field is of the order of1 mT, but drops off by roughly a factor of 2 between 10 and
FIG. 2. /H20849a/H20850dc voltage measured at Idc=400 /H9262A as a function of h0
using the frequency modulation technique, where each curve represents
V=V/H20849fhigh/H20850−V/H20849flow/H20850, with flow,high increasing in 1 GHz increments, and
fhigh−flowalways 5 GHz. The curves are offset by 700 nV for clarity. /H20849b/H20850
The peak at flow=10.5 GHz for a number of currents between −300 and
300/H9262A./H20849c/H20850The peak height from the data in /H20849b/H20850plotted vs the current. The
line is a linear fit to the data.232115-2 Costache et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 232115 /H208492006 /H20850
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134.139.173.111 On: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 01:58:0120 GHz, consistent with frequency dependent attenuation of
our microwave cables and probes.
We now discuss the observation of dc voltages in the
absence of any applied dc current. In our device, there aremicrowave currents induced in the strip and detection circuitdue to capacitive and inductive couplings to the CSW struc-ture, and thus there is the possibility for rectification betweenthe time-dependent AMR and induced microwave currents.We express the induced current as a sum of in-phase andout-of-phase components, I
in=I1cos/H9275t+I2sin/H9275t.
For rectification to occur, the resistance must also have
first harmonic components. As mentioned earlier, the ellipti-cal precession of the magnetization gives a time dependent
term for the cone angle
/H9258c2/H208492/H9275t/H20850, but this is only at the second
harmonic and cannot produce rectification. However, if there
is an offset angle /H9278between the applied field and the long
axis of the strip, then the AMR term is approximately−/H9004R/H20849sin
2/H9278+/H20849my/H20849t/H20850/ms/H20850sin 2/H9278/H20850, obtained by taking a small
angle expansion of /H9258y/H20849t/H20850=my/H20849t/H20850/msabout /H9278. Multiplying
with the current yields a dc voltage term
V=−1
2h1
ms/H9004R/H20849I1/H9273y/H11032+I2/H9273y/H11033/H20850sin 2/H9278. /H208494/H20850
Figure 4shows resonance peaks at f=17.5 GHz and at
f=12.5 GHz for five different angles between the applied
field and the long axis of the strip. The zero angle /H20849/H9278=0/H20850is
with respect to the geometry of our setup; however, it is
possible that there is some offset angle /H92780at this position.
For the 17.5 GHz data, rotating the field by −5° causes thepeak to practically disappear. At −10° the peak reverses sign.This is in agreement with Eq. /H208494/H20850, with an offset angle
/H92780=
−5°. However, the data at f=12.5 GHz show almost no peak
signal already at /H9278=0 even though there has been no change
in the setup. Moreover, in this data we more clearly seecontribution from a dispersive line shape, corresponding to
theI
2/H9273y/H11033term in Eq. /H208494/H20850. For each frequency, we fit Eq. /H208494/H20850to
all the curves simultaneously, where we have used the pa-rameters for the magnetization extracted earlier and allowedonly I
1,I2, and an offset angle /H92780to be free parameters. For
the 17.5 GHz data, we obtain /H92780=−6.1°, I1=−28 /H9262A, and
I2=8/H9262A. For the 12.5 GHz data, we obtain /H92780=−1.5°, I1=23/H9262A, and I2=11/H9262A. The large difference in /H92780between
12.5 and 17.5 GHz is likely due to a frequency dependenceof the induced currents and how they flow through the Ptcontacts to the Py.
The method and analysis presented here are valid for any
ferromagnet under the conditions that it exhibits AMR and auniform FMR precession mode. Additional anisotropy fieldsin hard ferromagnets will modify the Kittel equation /H20851Eq.
/H208492/H20850/H20852. Situations in which a uniform precession mode cannot
be obtained, such as when there are multiple domains and/orresonant modes,
10could also be detected by AMR but will
require a more sophisticated analysis. For the purposes ofthis experiment we have used a relatively long strip geom-etry with four in-line contacts. However, two contacts aresufficient and there is no particular limit to how small theferromagnetic element can be, as long as it can be electri-cally contacted and dc current applied along the equilibriummagnetization direction. In terms of resolution, we estimatethat precessional cone angles as precise as 1° can beresolved.
This work was financially supported by the Dutch Orga-
nization for Fundamental Research on Matter /H20849FOM /H20850. The
authors acknowledge J. Jungmann for her assistance in thisproject.
1S. Kaka and S. E. Russek, Appl. Phys. Lett. 80,2 9 5 8 /H208492002 /H20850.
2M. Tsoi, A. G. M. Jansen, J. Bass, W.-C. Chiang, V. Tsoi, and P. Wyder,
Nature /H20849London /H20850406,4 6 /H208492000 /H20850.
3At 13 dBm of applied power, we have measured an angle of /H9258c=9.0° at
f=10.5 GHz. We focus here on the 9 dBm data, however, since we can
apply this power over the entire 10 to 25 GHz bandwidth.
4M. V. Costache, M. Sladkov, C. H. van der Wal, and B. J. van Wees, Appl.Phys. Lett. 89, 192506 /H208492006 /H20850.
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FIG. 3. /H20849a/H20850Resonant peaks at various frequencies ranging from
10.5 to 21.5 GHz in 1 GHz steps as a function of the field h0normalized to
the frequency. Solid lines are the fits of Eq. /H208493/H20850to the data. /H20849b/H20850The fre-
quency of the peak vs its center position hc. The line is a fit of Eq. /H208492/H20850to the
data. /H20849c/H20850The field h1calculated from the fit coefficients to the data in /H20849a/H20850and
/H20849b/H20850as a function of frequency.
FIG. 4. Voltage peaks at f=17.5 GHz /H20849left/H20850and at f=12.5 GHz /H20849right /H20850with-
out any applied dc current for different angles /H9278between the h0and the long
axis of the strip. Solid lines are fits of Eq. /H208494/H20850to the data.232115-3 Costache et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 232115 /H208492006 /H20850
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1.373000.pdf | Interlayer coupling within individual submicron magnetic elements
David J. Smith, R. E. Dunin-Borkowski, M. R. McCartney, B. Kardynal, and M. R. Scheinfein
Citation: J. Appl. Phys. 87, 7400 (2000); doi: 10.1063/1.373000
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.373000
View Table of Contents: http://jap.aip.org/resource/1/JAPIAU/v87/i10
Published by the American Institute of Physics.
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Downloaded 04 May 2013 to 142.150.190.39. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsInterlayer coupling within individual submicron magnetic elements
David J. Smith,a),b),f)R. E. Dunin-Borkowski,b),c)M. R. McCartney,b)B. Kardynal,d),e)
and M. R. Scheinfeina)
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287
~Received 22 November 1999; accepted for publication 10 February 2000 !
The interlayer coupling and magnetization reversal of patterned, submicron Co/Au/Ni
nanostructures, shaped as diamonds, ellipses, and rectangles, have been investigated using off-axiselectron holography and micromagnetic simulations. Antiferromagnetic coupling between theferromagnetic layers, attributed to the strong Co demagnetization field, was visualized directly.Simulated hysteresis loops overall showed reasonable agreement with the experimental results.Local structural imperfections may be responsible for small discrepancies between the observedmagnetization states of the patterned elements and the simulations. © 2000 American Institute of
Physics. @S0021-8979 ~00!04010-X #
I. INTRODUCTION
Quantitative characterization of magnetization reversal
mechanisms in submicron-sized magnetic elements is essen-
tial for the future development of high-density, magnetic in-formation storage systems. The behavior of thin continuousfilms, which can be studied by bulk characterization meth-ods, is rarely a reliable guide for predicting the properties ofsmall magnetic elements of well-defined size and shape.
1
The formation of edge domains in patterned submicron ele-ments strongly influences their switching fields,
2while the
shape anisotropy of magnetic tunnel junctions ~MTJs !domi-
nates their hysteretic response.3The magnetic interactions
between two thin, closely separated, ferromagnetic ~FM!lay-
ers within individual lithographically defined structures, suchas MTJs or spin valves, can also influence their switchingmode and coercive field. Changes in the separation of theFM materials and their parallel or antiparallel magneticalignment can cause substantial changes in electrical resis-tance when the magnitude and direction of an externally ap-plied magnetic field is varied. This effect is commonlytermed giant magnetoresistance ~GMR !.
4
We have previously shown that off-axis electron holog-
raphy is a powerful experimental tool for the characterizationof magnetic interactions associated with patterned Conanostructures.
5,6Here, we apply this technique to investi-
gate magnetization reversal in magnetically asymmetric, Co/Au/Ni patterned trilayer structures with approximate lateraldimensions of between 100 and 300 nm. We also compareour experimental measurements with simulated domain dis-tributions determined from solutions to the Landau–
Lifshitz–Gilbert ~LLG!equations.
7
II. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
The elements examined here consisted of Co/Au/Ni
trilayers patterned into diamonds, ellipses and rectangularbars. They were prepared directly onto self-supporting 55-nm-thick silicon nitride membranes using electron-beam li-thography and lift-off processes. Individual trilayer elementswere well separated laterally in order to reduce inter-elementmagnetic interactions.
6Electron holograms were recorded at
200 kV using a Philips CM200 transmission electron micro-scope equipped with a field-emission electron gun. In addi-tion to an electrostatic biprism for generating electron holo-grams, the instrument was equipped with an additional~Lorentz !minilens which allowed holograms to be recorded
at magnifications of up to ;70kxand resolutions of ;2n m
with the objective lens switched off and the sample locatedin nearly field-free conditions.
8The objective lens could also
be excited slightly so that magnetization processes and hys-teresis loops could be followed in situby tilting the specimen
in a known, previously calibrated, magnetic field.
5Figure
1~a!shows a low magnification bright-field image of one
array of patterned shapes, while the schematic diagram inFig. 1 ~b!shows the nominal cross-sectional structure of each
element. The representative electron hologram in Fig. 1 ~c!
illustrates the typical lateral dimensions of the nanostruc-tures, which are thin rectangular bars in this example. Thecorresponding smaller and larger diamonds and ellipses hadsimilar heights as the bars, and widths of 120 or 160 nm. Inall of the experimental results reported below, the contribu-tion of the mean inner potential to the holographic phase wassubtracted from the holograms in order to obtain the mag-netic contribution of primary interest.
9
Micromagnetic simulations incorporated room tempera-
ture simulation parameters for Co ~and Ni !, including the
exchange stiffness, A51.55 ~and 0.80 for Ni !merg/cm and
the saturation magnetization, Ms51414 ~and 440 for Ni !
emu/cm3. The magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant, K,i n
our polycrystalline layers ~below 10 nm grain size !was seta!Department of Physics and Astronomy, Arizona State University, Tempe,
AZ85287-1504.
b!Center for Solid State Science, Arizona State University, Tempe,
AZ85287-1704.
c!Present Address: Department of Materials, Parks Road, OxfordOX13PH,
UK.
d!Center for Solid State Electronics Research, Arizona State University,
Tempe, AZ85287.
e!Present Address: Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, OxfordOX13PU,
UK.
f!Electronic mail: david.smith@asu.eduJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS VOLUME 87, NUMBER 10 15 MAY 2000
7400 0021-8979/2000/87(10)/7400/5/$17.00 © 2000 American Institute of Physics
Downloaded 04 May 2013 to 142.150.190.39. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsto zero. A value for Kof 0 is consistent with the observation
that the coercivity in our elements ~ascribed to shape anisot-
ropy!is much larger than that typical of bulk films of the
same thickness, implying that magnetocrystalline anisotropyplays a minor role in the energetics of switching. A gyro-magnetic frequency,
g517.6MHz/Oe, and a damping con-stant, a51, were used in the LLG calculations, and the ef-
fects of temperature fluctuations were not included. In-plane,discrete moments ~representing a continuous magnetization
distribution !were 5.0 nm on each side, and a single layer of
moments was used for each magnetically active layer. Thedemagnetization field was computed to all orders, couplingthe moments in all cells with each other. Magnetization re-versal processes were followed by assigning an initial do-main structure and then integrating the LLG equations in afixed external field until equilibrium was reached. The exitcriteria corresponded to the largest change in the residualdirection cosine of all discretized moments in the grid chang-ing by less than 2 310
25.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Representative results for a selection of the elements are
tabulated in three sets of four columns in Fig. 2. The leftcolumn of each set shows a selection of the experimentalresults in the form of the magnetic contributions to the ex-perimental holographic phases during a complete hysteresiscycle. In these observations, the in-plane field ~shown at left !
was varied along the vertical direction of the figure between61930 Oe ~corresponding to 630° sample tilt !in an out-
of-plane field of 3600 Oe. The different directions of themeasured in-plane magnetization are represented by a con-tinuous color wheel, in which the directions in the plane ofthe film are blue ~up!, red ~right!, yellow ~down !, and green
~left!. The intensity of the colors reflects the magnitude of
the in-plane magnetization. The holographic phase contours,which have a spacing of 0.064
pradians, follow lines of con-
stant magnetic induction ~B-field strength !: Their separation
is proportional to the in-plane component of the magneticinduction integrated in the incident beam direction. Althoughthe data are noisy due to the underlying silicon nitride mem-brane, the contours can still be followed both inside the ele-ments and in the surrounding magnetic leakage fields. Theemergence of phase contours from the sides of the diamondsand ellipses over substantial portions of the hysteresis cycleindicates that interactions between neighboring elementswould occur if they were placed in close proximity.
The experimental results in Fig. 2 show that the switch-
ing fields needed for complete magnetization reversal of thediamond- and elliptical-shaped elements are smaller than forthe rectangular bar. A solenoidal vortex state is visible forthe elliptical shape during both forward and reverse cycles~at2168 and 1336 Oe !. Simulations were unable to repli-
cate this vortex structure despite extensive trial-and-error at-tempts, suggesting that structural imperfections may havebeen a contributing factor.
10Vortex states were also seen in
the smaller diamond-shaped elements but they were neverobserved in the rectangular bars, presumably because of thenarrow dimensions and the dominant influence of shape an-isotropy on the magnetic response.
3Significantly, the bars
are also too thin and narrow to form end-domains, whichgovern the reversal of larger rectangular elements.
11–13In-
stead, the phase contours typically curve at their ends by amaximum angle of ;45° just before magnetization reversal
FIG. 1. Experimental configuration. ~a!Low magnification image showing
array of small patterned elements in the form of diamonds, rectangles, andellipses; ~b!schematic cross section showing nominal vertical dimensions of
Co/Au/Ni trilayer structure. The thin Al overlayer was intended to provideprotection against oxidation and to prevent charging of the sample duringobservation in the electron microscope. ~c!Electron hologram of two rect-
angular bars showing typical lateral dimensions.7401 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 87, No. 10, 15 May 2000 Smith
et al.
Downloaded 04 May 2013 to 142.150.190.39. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions~see, for example, the 1336 Oe image of the rectangular bar
at the bottom of Fig. 2 !.
The experimental phase contours have two distinct spac-
ings in each element ~narrower at higher applied fields and
wider close to remanence !. These different spacings are as-
sociated with the presence of ferromagnetic and antiferro-magnetic coupling between the Ni and Co layers, as dis-cussed below. Measurement of the phase-contour separationsfor both of these two coupled states implies that the thick-nesses of each of the magnetically active layers was close to3 nm, rather than the nominal 10 nm expected from calibra-tion of the electron-beam evaporator used for film deposi-tion. Processing the holograms to extract the mean inner po-tential contribution to the holographic phase confirmed thatthe thicknesses of the individual layers were approximatelycorrect, so that over half of each magnetic layer was mag-netically dead. Oxidation during lithographic processing is
the most likely origin of this discrepancy.
The closest match with the experimental results was
achieved for FM layer thicknesses of 3.5 nm, in close agree-ment with the thickness estimates based on the experimentalphase contours. The corresponding simulations for each setof element shapes for 3.5-nm-thick magnetic films are shownin the remaining columns of Fig. 2. The columns labeled‘‘Co’’ and ‘‘Ni’’ track the magnetization states of the indi-
vidual FM layers within each element during the hysteresiscycle, while those labeled ‘‘total’’ show the computed holo-graphic phase shifts, which can be compared directly withthe experimental data. Changes in the total contour spacingsare apparent between fields at which the Ni layer has re-versed but the Co layer is still unchanged; similar behavior is
FIG. 2. ~Color !Comparison of experimental and simulated magnetization states during complete hysteresis cycles for patterned Co/Au/Ni spin-valve elements
in the form of diamonds, ellipses, and rectangular bars. Applied in-plane fields ~in vertical direction on page !are shown at left. Experimental phase contours
are separated by 0.064 pradians. Columns labeled ‘‘Co’’ and ‘‘Ni’’ are simulations for the individual FM layers, and those labeled ‘‘total’’ are simulations
for the composite Co/Au/Ni structure.7402 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 87, No. 10, 15 May 2000 Smithet al.
Downloaded 04 May 2013 to 142.150.190.39. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsalso visible in each experimental hysteresis cycle ~see dis-
cussion below !.
Careful examination of the simulations for the individual
FM elements as well as for the composite structures providesfurther insight into the magnetization reversal process. Themost important result is that the Ni layer in each elementreverses its magnetization well before the external fieldreaches 0 Oe, confirming that an antiferromagneticallycoupled state is the normal remanent state that would beobtained after saturation of the element followed by removalof the external field. This antiferromagnetic ~AFM !coupling
must be due to the flux closure associated with the strongdemagnetization field of the closely adjacent and magneti-cally more massive Co layer ~higherM
stproduct, where tis
the layer thickness !. The darker yellow color of the Ni layer
relative to that of the Co indicates that its magnetization isbeing pulled out-of-plane both by the externally applied fieldand by the strong Co demagnetization field.
The domain structures observed here in these extremely
small, coupled magnetic structures clearly differ markedlyfrom those seen in larger elements and single film structures.For example, the switching fields of the Ni and Co elementsare sensitive to their thickness and shape, as well as thesaturation magnetization of each layer. The occurrence offlux closure associated with an antiferromagnetic remanent
state contributes to a lack of end domains. This contrastswith the behavior observed in thicker single layer films inwhich end domains help to eliminate the external stray fieldsthat would lead to significantly higher free energies. Wehave previously reported that larger Co nanostructures of 30nm thickness have solenoidal domain structures over a widerange of applied fields,
6and similar magnetization vortices
have been reported to cause anomalous switching behaviorin 20-nm-thick NiFeCo submicron arrays.
14Configurations
resembling the remanent ‘‘ S’’ and ‘‘C’’ states simulated in
Ref. 2 for a single Co layer can be recognized for the bar-shaped element, for example, at 2336 and 1168 Oe, respec-
tively, but these configurations are not the remanent statesfor this coupled system.
The switching behavior of several of the trilayer ele-
ments is compared in the form of hysteresis loops in Figs. 3and 4. The experimental loops in Fig. 3 were obtained byplotting the magnetic contribution to the total phase differ-ence across the mid-point of each element, as measured di-rectly from the holographic phase contours. For both thediamond- and elliptical-shaped elements, there is a small butnoticeable decrease in the phase soon after the external mag-netic field is reduced in strength. This phase decrease is con-
FIG. 3. Experimental phase differences measured across patterned Co/Au/Ni trilayer structures during complete hysteresis cycle: ~a!diamonds, ~b!ellipses, ~c!
rectangular bars. Solid/dashed lines correspond to larger/smaller elements, respectively.
FIG. 4. Hysteresis loops derived from micromagnetic simulations for patterned elements: ~a!diamonds, ~b!ellipses, ~c!rectangular bars. Solid/dashed lines
correspond to larger/smaller elements, respectively.7403 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 87, No. 10, 15 May 2000 Smithet al.
Downloaded 04 May 2013 to 142.150.190.39. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionssistent with the magnetization of the Ni layer being gradually
pulled out of the plane before field reversal occurs. Note alsothat the major Co switching field for the bar-shaped elementsis considerably larger than for the other element shapes,which is presumably due to the difficulty of nucleating re-versal in a thin narrow element in the absence of end-domainstructures.
11
The simulated loops in Fig. 4 show the fractional mag-
netization M/Ms~whereMsis the saturation magnetization
in the direction of the applied field !, as computed for both
smaller and larger elements of each shape. The drop in mag-nitude that occurs in these simulations before 0 Oe corre-sponds to the reversal of the Ni layers but the drop is laterand more abrupt than observed experimentally, perhaps re-flecting some variability in grain size and orientation in theexperimental Ni film that helps to facilitate earlier reversal.The square shape for the Co switching in both the experi-mental and simulated loops provides further evidence for theabsence of end domains which are reported to affect the be-havior of large rectangular elements.
13It is also interesting
that the smaller of the two diamond-shaped elements has asubstantially larger switching field, similar to that of the bar-shaped element. Similar increases in switching field with de-creasing element width have been reported previously forthin Co nanoelements,
11and have been attributed to the in-
creased difficulty of nucleating magnetization reversal.
A significant outcome of this study is the agreement be-
tween the computed and measured phase contour maps, par-ticularly in the ferromagnetically and antiferromagneticallycoupled regimes. The Co element reverses its magnetizationexperimentally at the correct coercive field, although the Niswitches earlier and more gradually than expected from thesimulations. A slight left-right asymmetry is also observedexperimentally, possibly due to slight irregularities in theelement shapes or thicknesses. The importance of acquiringhigh quality experimental data is highlighted by the sensitiv-ity of the simulations to a large number of variables. Thediamond- and elliptical-shaped elements examined werelarge enough to support vortices experimentally but we wereunable to form them in the computations without artificialmeans ~roughness, large magnetization fluctuations, etc. !
during evolution from the saturated state. Experimental fac-tors such as crystal grain size and orientation are likely tohave an increasing influence on domain configurations infuture generations of even smaller elements. The reproduc-ibility of the domain structure in successive hysteresis cycleswill also become an important consideration, and may pos-sibly be overcome by careful attention to element shape andaspect ratio. The remanent AFM coupling of closely spacedFM layers will also be of particular relevance in practicaldevice applications.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was partly supported by an IBM subcontract
on the DARPA Advanced MRAM Project under ContractNo. MDA-972-96-C-0014. The authors thank James Speidellat IBM for providing Si
3N4membranes, and they acknowl-
edge use of facilities in the Center for High Resolution Elec-tron Microscopy at Arizona State University.
1J. N. Chapman, P. R. Aitchison, K. J. Kirk, S. McVitie, J. C. S. Kools, and
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McVitie, and C. D. Wilkinson, IEEE Trans. Magn. 32, 4452 ~1996!.
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1.4985662.pdf | Magnetic domain wall engineering in a nanoscale permalloy junction
Junlin Wang , , Xichao Zhang , , Xianyang Lu , , Jason Zhang , , Yu Yan , , Hua Ling , , Jing Wu , , Yan Zhou , and ,
and Yongbing Xu
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 072401 (2017); doi: 10.1063/1.4985662
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4985662
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apl/111/7
Published by the American Institute of Physics
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Applied Physics Letters 110, 092410 (2017); 10.1063/1.4977838Magnetic domain wall engineering in a nanoscale permalloy junction
Junlin Wang,1,2Xichao Zhang,3Xianyang Lu,4Jason Zhang,4YuY an,2Hua Ling,2
Jing Wu,4Ya nZhou,3and Y ongbing Xu1,2,a)
1York-Nanjing International Center of Spintronics (YNICS), Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced
Microstructures, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
2Spintronics and Nanodevice laboratory, Department of Electronics, The University of York, York YO10 5DD,
United Kingdom
3School of Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518067, China
4Department of Physics, The University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom
(Received 31 May 2017; accepted 4 August 2017; published online 14 August 2017)
Nanoscale magnetic junctions provide a useful approach to act as building blocks for
magnetoresistive random access memories (MRAM), where one of the key issues is to control themagnetic domain configuration. Here, we study the domain structure and the magnetic switching in
the Permalloy (Fe
20Ni80) nanoscale magnetic junctions with different thicknesses by using
micromagnetic simulations. It is found that both the 90-/C14and 45-/C14domain walls can be formed
between the junctions and the wire arms depending on the thickness of the device. The magnetic
switching fields show distinct thickness dependencies with a broad peak varying from 7 nm to
22 nm depending on the junction sizes, and the large magnetic switching fields favor the stability ofthe MRAM operation.
VC2017 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ( http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/ ).[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4985662 ]
The magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM)1–6
based on the tunneling magnetic resistance (TMR) effect
has the potential to replace all existing memory devices in a
computer or other hard disk d rives as it could provide a
high read/write operation speed and is also nonvolatile.7–9
On the other hand, the magnetic domain wall gives a flexi-
ble approach in the data storage and the logic circuit.10–13
Compared with the TMR-based MRAM devices, a domain
wall motion-based magnetic junction could have a single
layer structure, which might have great advantages in termsof fabrication and application.
14,15The magnetic junction
shows several types of the magnetoresistance effect by
applying the magnetic field.16,17
The magnetic switching in the junction structure can be
controlled by either the external magnetic field or the
applied electrical current.18,19Recently, it has been reported
that the magnetic switching induced by the spin-transfer tor-
que (STT) can enable the junction to work as a STT-MRAM
device.20,21There are also reports about the spin-polarized
current that can induce the junction to generate spin
waves.22–24It is found that the Permalloy junction has sev-
eral metastable magnetization states, which can be used tostore the information.
18Thus, the reliable control of the
magnetic domain configuration in the magnetic junction is
an important task. In this letter, we present a micromagneticstudy of the domain structures and the magnetic switching
in the nanoscale Permalloy junctions within magnetic cross
structures with different thic knesses. The numerical simulations
are carried out by using the Object Oriented MicroMagnetic
Framework (OOMMF) software.
25It is found that the junc-
tion thickness has distinct effects on the domain wall config-uration, the initial magnetic switching, and the coercivity. Inthe initial states, both 45
/C14and 90/C14domain walls are found to
be formed in the studied model. Both the initial magneticswitching and the coercivity show the nonlinear dependences
on the thickness, indicating the importance of controlling the
thickness for the writing process when the nanoscalePermalloy junction works as a building block for informationstorage devices.
The micromagnetic simulations are performed using the
standard micromagnetic simulator OOMMF software,
25which
stands on the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation26,27
dM
dt¼/C0 j cjM/C2Heffþa
MSM/C2dM
dt/C18/C19
; (1)
whereMis the magnetization of the magnetic layer, MSis
the saturation magnetization, cis the Gilbert gyromagnetic
ratio, and ais the damping constant. Heffis the effective
field, which is derived from the magnetic energy density
Heff¼/C0 l/C01
0de
dM; (2)
where econtains the Heisenberg exch ange, anisotropy, applied
magnetic field, and demagnetization energy terms.
The magnetic material used for the micromagnetic simu-
lation is Permalloy, i.e., Fe 20Ni80alloy, which has a low coer-
civity and a high permeability. The size of the cross structure
of the nanoscale junction is defined as 10 nm /C210 nm with a
varying thickness from 2.5 nm to 25 nm, and the length of allthe wire arms is fixed at 200 nm. The saturation magnetiza-tion is equal to 8.6 /C210
5A/m. The exchange stiffness and the
crystalline anisotropy constant are set at 13 /C210–12J/m and
0 J/m3, respectively. The simulation cell size is set as 2.5 nm
/C22.5 nm /C22.5 nm, which is compared with the exchange
length (5.3 nm) of Permalloy.a)Electronic mail: yongbing.xu@york.ac.uk
0003-6951/2017/111(7)/072401/4 VCAuthor(s) 2017.
111, 072401-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 111, 072401 (2017)
The initially relaxed magnetization distributions around
the junctions of the cross structures with different thick-
nesses are shown in Fig. 1(a), which are obtained by relaxing
the cross structures with random magnetization distributions.The spins in the wire arms are all aligned in parallel along
the wire directions due to the strong shape anisotropy. There
are three types of domain configurations around the junc-
tions. For the junctions with the thicknesses of 2.5 nm,
7.5 nm, and 12.5 nm, the spins in the junction are aligned inparallel with the spins in one of the wires, and the 90
/C14
domain walls form between another wires. For the caseswith the thicknesses of 5 nm and 15 nm, the spins in the junc-
tions are aligned largely in parallel, which can be described
as a single magnetic domain or a coherent spin block (CSB),
and the spin direction of these CSBs is in 45
/C14with those in
both wires. For the cases with thickness of 10 nm, the spinsin the junction are form a 90
/C14domain wall within the junc-
tion. Indeed, the initial magnetization distribution in the
cross structure can also be controlled by the applying an
external magnetic field. As shown in Fig. 1(b), the initial
magnetization distribution in the cross structure can be modi-fied to be 45
/C14domain by applying a magnetic field pointing
at an angle of 45/C14to the þx-direction. The required ampli-
tude of the magnetic field corresponding to different thick-
ness is given in Fig. 1(c). The applied magnetic field changes
the domain structure to the coherence switching mode fromthe initially relaxed states, where the required magnetic field
is different for samples with different initially relaxed mag-
netization distribution and thickness. Note that the magneti-
zation distribution configuration in the thickness direction is
uniform (see supplementary material , Fig. S1).In the following, we study the magnetization switching
process driven by an external magnetic field for the junctions
with different thicknesses. The simulated hysteresis loops arethe same in different layers of the device. Figure 2shows the
result for the 2.5-nm-thick junction. The magnetic field is first
applied along the þx-direction, of which the amplitude first
increases from 0 Oe to 2000 Oe and reduces to 0 Oe. Then,
the magnetic field changes in the same manner but along the
–x-direction. The simulated hysteresis loop is given in Fig. 2,
and the magnetization configurations illustrated in Fig. 3are
corresponding to the marked states in the hysteresis loop
given in Fig. 2, which represent the magnetic switching pro-
cess in the nanoscale junction. The initial magnetization con-
figuration in the nanoscale junction is given in Fig. 3. The
magnetic field of the first magnetic switching from the ini-
tially relaxed state to the state with a 45
/C14domain wall is
defined as the initial magnetization switching field ( Hi),
which is indicated in Fig. 2(a). As the applied magnetic field
increases from 0 Oe to 2000 Oe, the direction of the magneti-
zation in the junction is switched where the amplitude of the
critical switching field, i.e., the coercivity ( Hc) of the junction
as indicated in Fig. 2(b), is equal to 1050 Oe.
The snapshots of the switching process given in Fig. 3
further show that the switching of the magnetization in thejunction is coherent. The angle between the x-axis and the
spins at the junction is defined as h. Before applying the
magnetic field, the spins in the junction are in parallel with
they-axis, and the his equal to –90
/C14. By increasing the
applied magnetic field above 2000 Oe, hincreases and then
reaches 0/C14. When the applied magnetic field is reduced
to 0 Oe, hdecreases to –45/C14. That means in the remanence
FIG. 1. (a) The magnetic domain con-
figurations in the cross structure relaxed
from random magnetization distribu-
tions for different thicknesses. (b)
The magnetic domain configurations
obtained by applying a magnetic field.
(c) The amplitude of the magnetic field
which changes the domain configura-tions shown in (a) to those shown in (b).072401-2 Wang et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 072401 (2017)state, the spins in the junction are aligned 45/C14away from
the wire direction, and 45/C14domain walls are formed
between the junction and the wires. When the applied mag-
netic field decreases from 0 Oe to –2000 Oe in the x-direc-
tion, the spins change to be paralleled with the x-direction,
and the hincreases from –45/C14to 0/C14. It is found that the
whole magnetization switching process in the junction iscoherent and reversible.
The typical spin configurations during the magnetic
switching process of the junctions with different thicknessesare shown in Fig. 4. From Fig. 4(a), we found that the junc-
tion with a different thickness usually has a different relaxed
state. Before using the magnetic field to achieve reversible
magnetic switching in the cross structure, the spins in the
cross structure have to be tuned to the coherent switchingmode. The coherent switching mode is defined as the states
in Fig. 3(b) which shows 45
/C14domain walls. The processes to
enable the coherence switching modes are shown in Fig. 4.
Unlike the magnetic switching processes shown in Fig. 3, the
relaxed magnetization configuration at 0 Oe is different fromthe junctions with the thicknesses of 5 nm, 7.5 nm, 10 nm,
12.5 nm, and 15 nm. The spin configurations of the junctions
with the thicknesses of 5 nm and 15 nm are similar to the
spin configurations in Fig. 3(d) which are in the coherent
switching mode. The junction with a thickness of 7.5 nm hasthe parallel spins in the cross structure with a has –90
/C14
between the x-direction. As the magnetic field increases
to 3000 Oe, hdecreases to 0/C14in the junction. When themagnetic field reduces back to 0 Oe, hincreases to 45/C14, and
the CSB is formed. From the junction with a thickness of10 nm, the initial 90
/C14DW within the junction can be elimi-
nated, and the CSB can be formed by controlling the magne-
tization process. When the thickness of the junction is12.5 nm, the spins in the cross structure requires a large mag-
netic field up to 3825 Oe to reverse the magnetization direc-
tion. For the whole cross structures with the thicknesses of5 nm, 7.5 nm, and 10 nm, the spin configurations in the
y-arms have not been changed, and the spin configuration in
thex-arms can be switched. However, for the cross structures
with thicknesses of 12.5 nm and 15 nm, the spin directions
rotate along the y-axis as well.
The magnetic switching field of the junction can be
affected by the thickness of the junction. Figure 5shows H
c
as a function of the thickness for the junctions with differentFIG. 2. The hysteresis loop for the
cross structure with the thickness of
2.5 nm. The initial switching magnetic
field ( Hi) and the coherence switching
magnetic field ( Hc) are indicated in (a)
and (b), respectively.
FIG. 3. The magnetic domain configurations of the 2.5-nm-thick junction at
different applied magnetic fields. The magnetic field is applied along the
x-direction. The labels correspond to the states indicated in Fig. 2, i.e., (a)
H¼0 Oe, (b) H¼600 Oe (before switching), (c) H¼2000 Oe (after switch-
ing), (d) H¼0 Oe, (e) H¼– 1025 Oe (before switching), (f) H¼– 1050 Oe
(after switching), and (g) H¼– 2000 Oe.
FIG. 4. The magnetic domain configurations of the junctions at different
applied magnetic fields for different thicknesses. The magnetic field is applied
along the x-direction.072401-3 Wang et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 072401 (2017)lateral sizes. The size of the device is varying from 100 nm
/C2100 nm to 400 nm /C2400 nm, i.e., the length of the cross
structure is varying from 5 nm to 20 nm. Hcincreases first
with increasing thickness and then decreases, showing abroad peak from 7 nm to 22 nm depending on the junction
sizes. The reason is that for the junction with a certain cross
section size, the magnetization switching is coherent. Thus,H
cis proportional to the total magnetization, which also
means Hcincreases with the thickness as the total magnetiza-
tion is proportional to the thickness. However, when thethickness is larger than a certain critical value, multiple
domains can be formed during the magnetization switching,
leading to incoherent magnetization switching. In such acase, H
cdecreases with the thickness, as thicker junction is
more likely to form multiple domains, due to the demagneti-
zation effect. Besides, the critical value of the thicknessincreases with increasing lateral dimensions of the junction.
The reason is that the amplitude of the demagnetization
effect resulting in the incoherent switching is proportional tothickness and is inversely proportional to the lateral dimen-
sions of the junction (see supplementary material , Figs.
S2–S4). We note that there are large magnetic switchingfields of around 2500 Oe, which favor the stability of the
MRAM operation. The large magnetic switching fields, how-
ever, may lead to large current needed for the switching ofthe junction. One may need to explore the spin torque trans-
fer or thermal assistant switching for future applications.
In conclusion, we have carried out a full micromagnetic
study on the magnetization configuration and the magnetic
switching process in a nanoscale Permalloy junction. The
relationship between the magnetic switching fields and thethickness of the nanoscale junction has been investigated.
While different types of domain walls can be formed in the
initially relaxed states depending on the specific thicknesses,the junction acts as a single CSB where the spins are aligned
in parallel during the magnetization process. The magnetiza-
tion direction can be controlled and switched coherentlyby applying an external magnetic field. Both the initial mag-
netization field and the coercivity are found to depend on
the thickness, and the large coercivity could enhance thestability of the device operation. Our work shows that the
nanoscale magnetic junction has the potential to be used as abuilding block for future spin-based data storage or logiccomputing technologies.
Seesupplementary material for magnetization distribu-
tion in device at different layers and side views of the mag-netization distribution in device.
This work was supported by State Key Program for
Basic Research of China (Grant Nos. 2014CB921101 and2016YFA0300803), NSFC (Grants Nos. 61427812 and11574137), Jiangsu NSF (No. BK20140054), JiangsuShuangchuang Team Program, Shenzhen FundamentalResearch Fund under Grant Nos. JCYJ20160331164412545and the UK EPSRC (EP/G010064/1).
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1.881375.pdf | Modeling Oceanic and Atmospheric Vortices
David G. Dritschel Bernard Legras
Citation: Physics Today 46, 3, 44 (1993); doi: 10.1063/1.881375
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.881375
View Table of Contents: http://physicstoday.scitation.org/toc/pto/46/3
Published by the American Institute of PhysicsMODELING OCEANIC AND
ATMOSPHERIC VORTICES
Violent storms in the English Channel, the growth
of the ozone hole and the Grea t Red Spot of Jupiter
are all problems in planetary fluid dynamics
that challenge our most powerful computers .
David G. Dritschel and Bernard Legras
Many of the physical systems in the universe are fluids.
Our understanding of the Earth, the planets, stars and
even galaxie s depends crucially on fluid dynamics. This
mathematical discipline has been instrumental in the
development of meteorology, oceanography and, to a lesser
extent, astrophysics. From the beginning, observations
and calculations have made apparent the rich dynamical
structure of astronomical fluids: Satellite observations
told us that the Great Red Spot of Jupiter was simply the
most prominent object within the turbulent Jovian
atmosphere, which exhibits hundreds of observable vorti-
ces embedded in a complex structure of bands or jets
extending from one pole to the other. Similar structures
have been observed, though in less detail, on the other
Jovian planets. Complex dynamical structures are also
believed to characterize condensing nebulae, evolving
galaxies, stellar convective layers and the accretion disks
of neutron stars and black holes.
The most easily observable of all astrophysical fluid
systems is the liquid and gaseous envelope of the Earth,
which offers a fascinating variety of coherent structures
superimposed on the mean general circulation of winds
and oceanic currents. By "coherent structure" we mean
here any observable pattern occurring repetitively with a
lifetime greatly exceeding its own internal circulation
time scale. This pattern makes it very unlikely that
coherent structures are just turbulent fluctuations; they
deman d a more specific explanation. A coherent structure
is associated with the collective motion of part of a fluid; it
necessaril y involves long-range interaction. Understand-
ing the cause of such collective motion and exploiting it for
David Dritschel is an Advanced Research Fellow of the UK
Natural Environmental Research Council and a fellow of St.
Catherine's College, Cambridge. Bernard Legras is a
Research Director at the CNRS Laboratory for Dynamic
Meteorology at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris.the computer modeling of fluid behavior remains a
challenging research goal.
In spite of our rapid progress in understanding weakly
turbulent systems, it is the existence of these coherent
structures in fluids that has made the theory of turbulence
so difficult and elusive. The problem is that the coherent
structures largely determine the statistical behavior of the
fluid and thus of turbulence. This is particularly true in
geophysical systems, where the interaction between differ-
ent parts of the fluid is generally stronger than in
isotropic, three-dimensional fluids, for which the theory of
turbulence has been more successful (though they still
exhibit coherent structures).
In geophysical fluid systems, many of the coherent
structures are vortices—local masses of rapidl y rotating
fluid. We find vortices on all scales, from little dust devils
on a hot summer day to ocean eddies a few tens of
kilometers wide to low-pressure systems a thousand
kilometers across. The polar vortex, thousands of kilo-
meters in diameter, is the largest of these geophysical
vortices.
Numerical modeling and prediction
The existence of such structures on all scales makes
prediction difficult. And reliable prediction is, after all,
the most sought-after goal of geophysical fluid dynamics.
The practical need to know what to expect of the rapidly
changing atmosphere has guided the development of the
subject, and the complexity of this physical system has
always called for the most powerful computers of the day.
From the start, geophysical fluid dynamics has had to lean
heavily on numerical computation. There are two reasons
for this dependency: First of all, the conceptual math-
ematical models that have been developed to account for
geophysical flows are difficult to compare with observa-
tions. Second, nonlinearities are everywhere, drastically
limiting our ability to understand the kind of dynamical
behavior they generate. The gigantic atmospheric vortex
flowing around the North Pole, shown in figure la, is an
44 PHYSICS TODAY MARCH 1993 © 1993 American Insrirure of PhysicsPolar vortex over Arctic and north temperate zones on 27 January 1992. a: Observed mid-stratosphere
distribution of potential vorticity q, which is essentially the scalar product of the thermal gradient and the curl of
the wind field. Regions of highest q are shown in red; regions of lowest q in blue, b: Predicted q distribution
for the same day obtained by "contour surgery" applied to the distribution observed 12 days earlier. (See box
on page 49.) Movement of contours of constant q is calculated from winds initialized to the 1 2-day-old
observations . This lets one see fine structure like filament s and the vortex's sharp edge, and it facilitates the
study of ozone depletion. (See D. Waugh, R. Plumb, submitted to/. Atmos. Sci., 1993.) Figure 1
example of such nonlinear behavior. Figure lb shows a
novel computer prediction and enhancement of the same
polar vortex. In geophysical fluid dynamics, numerical
simulations have always been regarded as a source of
experimental data, and these "data" have in fact been
used to develop much of the field's phenomenology.
A lot of research on geophysical fluids is done with
comprehensive computer models that try to include all the
significant physical objects and processes, such as moun-
tains, precipitation, solar heating, cloud formation, mois-
ture and boundary-layer interaction s of the atmosphere
with land and sea. Moisture and surface interactions , for
example, are truly microscale processes whose macroscale
effects are not well understood; comprehensive models
treat them very approximately, and in some cases
questionably. Even the basic fluid dynamical equations
themselves are treated only within a mathematical and—
more importantly—a numerical approximation.
Ther e appears to be no alternative to this approach if
one is to understand systems as complex as the atmo-
sphere and the oceans well enough to make useful
predictions. But this strategy is still drastically limited by
computer resources and by our ability to model phenome-
na occurring on scales smaller than the grid size of a
particular model. The most advanced models used for
numerical weather forecasting have a horizontal resolu-
tion of the order of 100 km, which does not resolve, for in-
stance, convective cells, fronts, small-scale turbulenc e or
even drag by mountain ranges. Consequently the model-
ing of these crucial processes is based not on a directrepresentation but rather on a parameterization of their
effects on large-scale motion. Such parameterizations are
valid only to the extent that the large-scale flow entirely
determines behavior on a scale finer than the grid. This
implies the existence of mathematical procedures that
allow one to compute the feedback from small to large
scales, thus shortcutting the explicit representation of sub-
grid-scale phenomena. Moreover, such procedures would
have to be computationally efficient. In general, however,
no such mathematical procedures exist, and therefore the
parameterizations must rely on empirical or ad hoc
assumptions.
For instance, sub-grid-scale turbulence is generally
modeled as a purely diffusive process acting on the large-
scale flow, even though this contradicts what we actually
know from high-resolution experiments. Ther e are also
problems with the way the atmospher e is divided for
numerical calculation into a series of horizontal layers.
These problems are most acute in atmospheric models
used for climate studies, where one integrates over much
longer durations than are interesting foi weather forecast-
ing. At present such studies have a horizontal resolution
of 500 km at best. The situation is no better for the ocean,
despite its greater physical simplicity. Ther e are, for
example, no clouds in the ocean, but one needs very fine
horizontal resolution—down to a few kilometers—if one is
to catch the most energetic marine processes and deal with
coastal boundary effects and atmospheric stress. With all
these limitations, general circulation models are nonethe -
less very costly to run. This necessitates sacrifices: One
PHYSICS TODAY MARCH 1993 45Potential vorticity map from the North Pole
to the tropic of Cancer averaged over five
days in February 1986. Highest positive q is
shown in blue. Near the tropics q approache s
zero (red). On this map a strong penetration
of subtropical air to Scandinavia blocks
perturbations coming from the Atlantic. This
low-<7 blocking cente r is stabilized by a high-<7
center over eastern Europe. (Courtesy of
Gilbert Brunet, Ecole Normal
Superieure.) Figure 2
can't explore parameter space or verify statistical signifi-
cance as thoroughly as one would like. Often one cannot
even identify the basic cause of an observed effect because
there are so many competing processes.
That's where simplified, idealized mathematical mod-
els can play a role. Such models are stripped-down
versions of comprehensive models. Sometimes they con-
centrate exclusively on the underlying fluid dynamical
processes and sometimes they are restricted to a small
number of physical processes in simplified form. Simula-
tions done with these simplified models are generally
much less expensive than the more comprehensive simula-
tions. They let one concentrate on specific physical
processes and explore the effect of numerical resolution on
accuracy and predictability. They can be used to test and
thus improve the parameterization of sub-grid-scale turbu-
lence used in the comprehensive models. Other models,
concentrating on small-scale processes while neglecting
large-scale horizonta l processes, are used to investigate
heat transfer effects or local three-dimensional turbulence
of the kind one finds in the atmospheric boundary layer.
Our understanding of atmospheric and oceanic dy-
namics is in fact based on a dual approach. On one side we
have the comprehensive strategy of global general circula-
tion models, and on the other side we have a hierarchy of
simplified models that can study individual processes in
isolation. As usual in science, reduction is often a
prerequisite to understanding. It is fortunate that many
of the self-organization properties of geophysical fluids are
exhibited by simple models.
Simplified models also permit a radical new approach
to numerical simulation, visualization and diagnosis. (Seethe article by Norman Zabusky, Deborah Silver, Richard
Pelz and colleagues on page 24). It is, for instance,
sometimes possible to use alternative mathematical for-
mulations of the fluid dynamical equations to achieve
extremely fine spatial resolution. The results from such
models have led to reduced-degree-of-freedom models of
fundamental fluid processes that have helped us interpret
the results from the comprehensive models.1
Idealized systems
Let us examine several idealized systems that show real
promise as guides to understanding certain fundamental
aspects of fluid flow in the atmosphere, in the oceans and
even on other planets. For the most part these flows are
rapidly rotating and strongly stratified by density. These
two propertie s force the fluid to move predominantly
within horizontal strata, particularly at large scales. In
general the fluid motion in one stratum differs from that
in other strata, but the motion depends on interactions
between strata.
The simplest idealized model of this layerwise two-
dimensional system is the "quasigeostrophic " model, in
which the horizontal pressure gradient is nearly balanced
by the Coriolis force. This model simplifies the full fluid
dynamical equations by considering the weak vertical
motion only in leading order. Perturbative departures of
pressure, density and temperature from standard vertical
profiles are deduced from the weak displacement of
density surfaces caused by the vertical motion.
An important atmospheric field variable in the
quasigeostrophic model as well as in the full fluid
dynamical equations is q, the so-called potential vorticity.
It depends on the vorticity <o, which is just the curl of the
velocity field, the density/? and the entropy. The potential
vorticity is so important because in real geophysical flows,
the global distribution of q on surfaces of constant entropy
in the atmosphere (or constant density in the oceans)
largely determines the entire fluid motion. Furthermore,
the redistribution of q by the velocity field leaves it largely
undiluted. That is to say, every parcel of fluid retains its
potential vorticity. In the quasigeostrophic model poten-
tial vorticity is precisely conserved by parcels of fluid, and
it determines all the fluid motion.
In defining potential vorticity it is convenient to
replace the entrop y by the closely related "potential
temperature" 6, which is the temperature that a fluid
parcel would acquire if it were adiabatically compressed
from its actual pressure p to a standard atmospheric
pressurep0. [The ideal gas law gives 0 = T{p o/p)2'7.] Then
q = a-Wd/p
For a dissipationless fluid in the absence of external
heating, both q and 8 remain constant in a small moving
parcel of fluid. (In the ocean, potential temperature is
replaced by "potential density," the density a fluid parcel
would acquire if moved adiabatically to p0.) Fluid
elements move along surfaces of constant potential
temperature while preservin g their potential vorticity. If
one smooths out variations on scales of less than 2 km (the
maximum size of individual convective clouds), one finds
that potential temperature increases monotonically with
height and that it forms quasihorizonta l surfaces. One
46 PHYSICS TODAY MARCH 1993can think of potential temperature as denning a new
vertical coordinate; then the fluid motion is entirely
horizontal or layerwise two-dimensional.
There are notable exceptions to the conservation of
potential vorticity, particularly in the atmosphere, where
heat transfer processes such as solar heating, condensa-
tion or radiative cooling dilute or concentrat e the q
distribution. Nonetheless, "potential vorticity thinking,"
as it has been called,2 is remarkably helpful in reinterpret-
ing and clarifying dynamical processes in the atmosphere
and the oceans.3
When it can be regarded as nearly conserved,
potential vorticity provides a clear image of the three-
dimensional structure and motion of air masses. From
mid-latitudes to the poles, the stratification of the
troposphere above 2000 m (where the vertical wind shear
is large) is such that the main contribution to q arises from
the vertical component of vorticity, which is dominated by
the Earth's rotation . Because stratification gets stronger
toward the poles, the absolute value of q increases, on
average, with latitude. High-latitude regions of the
Northern and Southern Hemispheres are thus, respective-
ly, reservoirs of strongly positive and negative potential
vorticity, corresponding to the opposite senses of their
Coriolis vortices. Vorticity is generally weak in the
tropics, except when you're actually in a cyclone. The
tropical atmosphere is characterized by a planetary
convective cell that carries angular momentum and heat
away from the equator.
Stormy weather
The boundary between the tropical and mid-latitude
circulations (about 30° on either side of the equator) is
marked by the tropospheric westerly jet stream at apressure of 0.2 atmospheres. This jet stream is present
throughout the year, but it is much more intense in the
winter hemisphere. The jet stream is associated with a
strong positive gradient of potential vorticity toward the
pole at 0.2 atmospheres and a negative surface tempera-
ture gradient. Together these gradients create the condi-
tions for the development of atmospheric disturbances
such as mid-latitude cyclones or "lows." The usual scale of
a mid-latitude cyclone is about 2000 km. In its mature
stage it develops cold and warm frontal regions near the
ground. Sometimes smaller cyclones on the order of a few
hundred kilometers can develop in less than one day and
reach very large amplitudes. These "explosive cyclones"
typically develop when a concentration of positive q moves
over a region of high temperature contrast at ground
level.4 Such a high temperature contrast exists, for
instance, near the Gulf Stream or between inland water-
ways and the open ocean. Explosive moist convection
occurs on the warm side. The great storm of October 1987
that devastated Brittany and the south of England was
such an event, apparently initiated by a remnant of a
tropical cyclone transported across the Atlantic. The Gulf
Stream and the analogous Kuroshio Current off Japan are
regions of intense potential-vorticity gradients in the
ocean. Such currents are the most dynamically active of
all oceanic regions.5
The spatia l scale of the dominant instabilities in the
ocean is about 50 km, much smalle r than the correspond-
ing 2000-km scale of the atmosphere. That's why vortices
in the ocean are smaller and far more numerous.
Furthermore, dissipation is weaker in the ocean than in
the atmosphere, and the smalle r size of oceanic eddies
makes them less sensitive to dispersion by large-scale q
gradients. Therefore they can usually be followed for a
Evolution of a simulated polar vortex subjected to strong forcing by simulated mountains.6 The horizontal
potential-vorticity distribution shown here is integrated over height, which is indicated by color: Lowest-
altitude parts of the vortex (12 km) are shown in orange; highest parts (up to 60 km) are blue and violet. The
vortex, which was perfectly circular to start with, is shown here after 4 days (a), 7.5 days (b) and
8.5 days (c). Figure 3
PHYSICS TODAY MARCH 1993 47Simulated Jovian atmosphere calculated by
contour surgery for a single-layer planetary
atmosphere startin g with the observed zonal
winds of Jupiter.10 The overall strong
potential-vorticity gradient from pole to pole
(from positive to negative q) is characteristic
of rapid, almost rigid rotation of the
atmosphere. Superposed on this global
gradient are numerous latitudinal striations
indicating zonal gradient reversals, some of
which give rise here to nonlinear
instabilities. Figure 4Self-organization into a coherent system of
interacting vortices and filaments is evident in
this computer simulation of turbulence excited
in a two-dimensional fluid in a box. Pairings
of clockwise and counterclockwise vortices
(shown lighter and darker, respectively) are
evident. Just above the cente r there is even a
tripole of vortices, and above its right side is
one clockwise vortex being torn apart by
another. Figure 5
month or more, wherea s the time scale of a typical
atmospheric perturbation is less than a week.
In the troposphere, potential vorticity can also
manifest itself by anomalously cold or warm weather.
That happens when low q from the subtropics penetrates
to high latitudes and stays put for a week or so. This
phenomenon, known as "atmospheric blocking" can be
seen in figure 2, which is a map of potential vorticity in the
north temperate and polar zones as recorded in February
1986. Atmospheric blocking occurs preferentiall y over the
eastern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and north of the
Urals. The anticyclonic circulation associated with low q
diverts humid westerly air toward the north on its west
side and pulls in dry continental air southward and
westward over western Europe or the North American
Great Plains. As a result, very cold weather in winter and
very hot weather in summer can install itself over large
continental areas. This anticyclonic circulation is most
often associated with a cyclonic center of high potential
vorticity on its south flank. On weather maps the whole
structure looks like a gigantic vortex dipole. It is
generally believed that the coupling between the two
centers explains the exceptional stability of the structure.
It has been known to last a full month. The preferred
locations for Pacific blocks in the American West seems to
depend on both the interaction of the mean atmospheric
flow with the Rocky Mountains and the feedback from
atmospheric perturbations traveling across the Pacific.
Perturbations develop on vorticity and temperature gradi-
ents, and they tend to reduce the gradients. When a
perturbation has traveled eastward from its generatingarea toward a region of lower gradients, the mature
perturbation can reverse the gradients, thereby initiating
a blocking event. For this very interesting phenomenon,
the effect of perturbations on the mean flow is quite the op-
posite of that which can be represented by simple
diffusion.
Another important vortex structure in the atmo-
sphere dominates the stratosphere in winter. Observa-
tions have revealed the existence of a giant cylindrical
vortex straddling the winter pole, lying predominantly
poleward of 60° latitude and riding on top of the
tropopause (the transition from the lower atmospher e to
the much more strongly stratified middle atmosphere). A
remarkable propert y of this polar vortex is its sharp
definition, which one can see particularly well in figure lb.
The vortex boundary is characterized by extremely sharp
q gradients associated with the eastward stratospheric jet
stream.
Tropospheric blocking events are often associated
with a rapid warming of the lower stratosphere. This
warming causes giant deformations in the shape of the
polar vortex and weakens it. With the coming of spring,
solar heating and the upward propagation of large-scale
tropospheric disturbances lead to the destruction of the
vortex. Summer brings a revers e westward circulation
because the stratosphere is actually warmer at the
summer pole than at the equator.
There is an asymmetr y between the stratospheric
winter polar vortices of the two hemispheres. The
Antarctic vortex is much less disturbed by tropospheric
waves, essentially because less land and fewer mountains
48 PHYSICS TODAY MARCH 1993border the Antarctic zone. The Antarctic vortex is
therefore much more stable, intense and cold than its
Arctic counterpart. This is a key factor in the much more
effective springtime destruction of the ozone layer over
the Antarctic.
Contour dynamics
We will now illustrate the effect of tropospherically
generated disturbances on the polar vortex with the
quasigeostrophic model and an unconventional but prom-
ising numerical method called "contour dynamics." (See
the box at right.) In mid-winter, the polar vortex is most
intense and least affected by heat transfer processes. Its
sharp edge is actually ideal for contour dynamics, which
starts from the premise that the q field is piecewise-
uniform, like a terraced hill, with discontinuities at its
contour lines. Therefore in this approximation gradients
of q are never dissipated. Spatial resolution is governed by
the number of discrete points used to represent a contour
and by the number of contours used to represent the global
distribution of q.
The simplest conceivable model represents the polar
vortex by a single jump in q for each of a discrete number
of horizontal layers.6 A major issue is the stability, or
robustness, of the polar vortex in the face of disturbances
propagating up from the troposphere, for example, pertur-
bations caused by topographic features.7 The polar vortex
proves to be remarkably stable when it is subject to
moderate topographic forcing in this simple model,
retaining a high degree of vertical coherence. But at
larger levels of forcing, the vortex is severely disrupted.
Figure 3 shows the evolution of a simulated polar vortex
subjected to strong forcing by mountains.6 The cente r of
the vortex, which sits at the lowest altitudes (down to 12
km), is split by the topography into two pieces, and the
weaker piece gets sheared away. The higher-altitud e
outer edges of the vortex eject long arms of potential
vorticity to great distances. These higher-altitude parts,
which go as high as 60 km, are completely at the mercy of
the much denser core of the vortex. Therefore they
behave rather like passive tracers during the evolution of
the flow.
A remarkable feature of this and other simulations is
that the vortex retains significant vertical coherence.6
Such vertica l coherence had previously been observed in
the absence of forcing.8 It motivates an even simpler
idealized "two-dimensional" model in which all the fluid
strata move together. In fact, the effect of forcing on the
polar vortex was first studied with a two-dimensional
model.79 The observation of strong vertical coherence in
the three-dimensional model lends credibility to such a
simplified approach.
Figure 4 illustrates the state of the art of two-
dimensional modeling. It is a snapshot from a simulation
of a Jupiter-like atmospher e by contour dynamics on a
sphere. This simulation , recently carried out by Dritschel
and Lorenzo Polvani (Columbia University), was done
without significant dissipation or forcing.10 The level of
detail evident in figure 4 is well beyond the reach of
conventional, grid-based models. The figure is the result
of 110 Jupiter days of simulate d evolution from a slightly
and randomly disturbed initial state constructed fromThe Equotions of Contour Dynamics
Contour dynamics, originally developed for strictly two-
dimensional fluid motion,15 can be formulated for any
fluid that possesses a generalized vorticity invariant (call it
q and think of potential vorticity) that remains constant
within infinitesimal local volumes of fluid as they move
around, and for which the instantaneous distribution
of q alone determines the velocity field.10 So q simply
rearranges itself without dilution.
This rearrangement depends on the distribution of q
throughout the fluid. The motion at a particular point x in
the fluid is determined by a weighted sum of q at all
points x', the weight being the Green's function C(x',x),
which depends only on the boundary conditions and on
the operator relationship between q and the velocity
field. For a two-dimensional fluid (or for one layer of a
quasigeostrophic fluid), the velocity field (u,v) is given by
the skewed gradi ent of a scalar field if>(x),
dy' dx
with the stream function i/i given by the Green's function
integral
4>=[\ dx' dy' C7(x',x) q(x')
In many fluid systems, C depends only on the distance
r= |x' — x|. For a two-dimensional fluid C = (log r)/2v;
for a quasigeostrophic fluid C = — K0(yr)/2ir, where Ko
is a modified Bessel function and y is a parameter called
the inverse radius of deformation.
One arrives at contour dynamics by taking the
distribution of q to be piecewise-uniform and using the
Lagrangian form of the fluid dynamical equations: The
plane is divided up like a terraced hill into annular regions
Slk of uniform qk, bounded by closed contour lines ¥>k,
where the index k = 1,2,3, .... In the Lagrangian
formalism one has simply
dx
dt= u(x)
This is really just a definition of the motion of a fluid
element. For piecewise-uniform q, the area integrals
over x' and y' can be reduced to contour integrals around
each contour 1>k by Stokes's theorem:
u(x) = - C(r k) dxk
where kqk is the jump in q across ^k, \k is a point on the
/rth contour and rk = \xk — x|. For x on one of the
contours, these two equations constitute a closed, one-
dimensional dynamical system. That's an enormous
saving, even though the one-dimensional system does
have an infinite number of degrees of freedom.
The most advanced numerical algorithm implement-
ing contour dynamics is called "contour surgery." It
involves the selective removal of essentially passive
filamentary structures at a spatial scale much finer than
one can reach with even the most advanced convention-
al (grid-based) nimerical models. (For details see refer-
ence 10.)
PHYSICS TODAY MARCH 1990 49Comparison of numerical techniques for
simulating evolution of neighboring vortices of
unequal size.11 The sequence at left is
calculated by a conventional pseudospectral
method; the one at right by contour surgery.
The obvious difference is due mostly to the
rapid erosion of the smaller vortex in the
conventional model. (Courtesy of Hongbing
Yao, Rutgers University.) Figure 6zonal averages of the two-dimensional winds observed by
the Voyager missions. We simulate d the Jovian atmo-
sphere by using the simplest fluid model of two-dimension-
al (barotropic) flow. What is novel here is the absence of
significant dissipation. That's essential for preserving the
multitude of jets observed in the real data. Some of our
simulate d features are strikingly similar to the real
observations. Other real features, most notably the Great
Red Spot, are conspicuously absent from the simulation.
It may be that the fluid model is too idealized to capture
this and other large vortices, or else it may just require
much more computer time for such great features to
emerge.
Geophysical turbulence
For many years, two-dimensional turbulence has been a
paradigm for geophysical fluid dynamics. It is a striking
fact that for any type of random initial state or external
forcing, a two-dimensional fluid will rapidly organize itself
into a system of coherent, interacting vortices swimming
through a sea of passive filamentary structures produced
from earlier vortex interactions. (See, for example,
figure 5.)
A given vortex basically sees a distant vortex as if its
total vorticity were concentrated at a single point. The
resulting velocity field can, however, vary across the
vortex. The field's average value simply translates the
vortex without deforming it. The vortex is also rotated
and deformed by the first moments of the velocity field
over its surface. This evolution can be made irreversible
by pulling out filaments of vorticity, similar to what was
seen in figure 3. If one gives the vortex a distributed
profile, as distinguished from the single vorticity layer at
each level assumed for the simulation in figure 3, the
deformation leaves the core of the vortex intact and
generates a new edge with very high vorticity gradients.
In the denouement of this more complex computer model
the emitted filaments behave essentially as passive
structures; they are stretched and folded by the velocity
field induced by the dominant vortices.
Within conventional numerical models, finite resolu-
tion necessitates the numerical dissipation of small-scale
structures if one is to achieve numerical stability. This
numerical dissipation is equivalent to a parameterization
of unresolved scales that has the effect of reducing
vorticity gradients. (Real fluid dissipation by molecular
diffusion is negligible.) When a vortex is resolved with
high accuracy, the true dynamics can be preserved in this
way. But in most cases, and in particular for atmospheric
and oceanic models, each vortex is spanned by only a few
tens of grid points. That's not enough for high local
gradients. The result is an artificial damping of the vortex
that can lead to its premature destruction.
When two vortices rotating with the same sense get to
within about three radii of one another, they begin to
rotate around each other and then undergo a partial or
total merger." Little vortices generated during such
events and embedded in the velocity field of the dominant
vortex are likely to disappear rapidly in conventional
numerical simulations as a result of numerical dissipa-
tion. (See figure 6.) Sometimes two vortices rotating in
opposite senses bind into a stable propagating dipole, or
even into a more complicated tripolar structure that
exhibits high stability and provides at least a qualitative
50 PHYSICS TODAY MARCH 1993explanation of the persistence of some observed structures
such as atmospheric blocking.12
Although two-dimensional turbulence has been stud-
ied for many years, it is remarkable that most of the basic
statistical issues are still controversial. Ther e is, for
instance, a famous prediction that the energy spectrum
should scale with wavenumber k as k~3. We are still far
from knowing whether this assertion is true. The very
existence of some universa l asymptotic laws for small-
scale motion in two-dimensional turbulenc e is often
questioned. In three dimensions, by the way, such laws
are well established. Why coherent vortices are so
common is itself a puzzle. One could argue that nonlinear
interactions and dissipation simply select stable struc-
tures, but there is also growing evidence that in many
circumstances nonlinear instabilities occur that can
generat e large-scale vortical motion in turbulent flows,
provided certain symmetries are broken.13
Outlook
It is becoming imperative to exploit the eye's great skill at
distinguishing structure in a complicated medium like a
fluid. Therefore we need to make computer output
visualizable, and we need to quantify what we see so that
we are not mere passive onlookers but active collaborators
with the computer. (See the articl e by Zabusky and his
coauthors on page 24.) At a more advanced level, we need
to teach the computer some of the skills we already have.
In this way, the fluid continuum might be reduced to its
most important structures, each of them distinguished by
a small number of descriptors. In the same way, we may
also come to understan d collisions or close interactions
between structures like vortices in turbulent flow.
We need to develop models that use these descriptors
as their basic elements. Not only will this minimize the
output of unnecessary information; it will also aid in the
practical prediction of weather and climate. For such
practical applications, simpler models ought to be built
within conventional ones. A simple model alone cannot
replace a conventional one, but it can greatly augment the
full model's predictive power by enhancing accuracy in
crucial places. For example, the "contour advection"
scheme used to create the computer simulation shown in
figure lb brings out features that one could not have seen
in the conventional data analysis.
It has become a truism that reliable metereological
prediction much beyond a week is impossible because
minuscule chaotic perturbations (like the proverbial
butterfly in China) left out of an otherwise supremely
accurate numerical model can initiate global distur-
bances. The issue is rather academic, because we are very
far from having a supremely accurate numerical model.
Nor do we really understand the physics of clouds or the
chemical processes that bear on the heatin g and cooling of
the atmosphere. In any case there is no hope of gettin g the
supremely accurate observational network that would
have to provide the initial data. The butterfly in China is
hardly likely to be a limiting factor on our ability to
predict the weather.
Nonetheless, rapid progress is being made. Forecast-
ing models are already using elaborate initialization
methods to incorporat e the imperfect observational data.14
We contend that further advances may come from a more
accurate representation of coherent structures by numeri-cal models, and from explicit use of their bulk properties
as input parameters.
To solve the difficult problems in geophysical fluid
dynamics, we must entertain the possibility of alternative
modeling techniques—even of alternative ways of think-
ing. For example, meteorologists for many years have
forecast the weathe r by looking at pressure and winds.
Only recently has there been a shift toward thinking in
terms of potential vorticity. Unlike pressure , potential
vorticity is often an approximately conserved quantity.
That lets one make a reasonable forecast simply by letting
q move with the wind. In this way one can directly infer
the subsequent positions of frontal systems and the
stratospheric jet stream at the edge of the polar vortex.
This new attention to potential vorticity has greatly
increased our knowledge of the polar atmosphere , and
specifically of the factors that affect ozone depletion.
The conjunction of different approaches—such as
comprehensive and idealized modeling, and conventional
and novel numerical techniques—offers our best hope for
solving practical problems. The importance of these
problems to global environmental issues makes such
conjunctions imperative.
We thank Alan Plumb for his comments and access to his most re-
cent work, Lorenzo Polvani for processing and providing several of
the color images shown here, R. Saravanan for developing and
permitting use of the software for visualizing contour dynamics
calculations, Darryn Waugh for sharing his recent work and
providing figures, Hongbing Yao also for providing a figure, and
Norman Zabusky for his suggestions and encouragement. Many
of Dritschel's results were generated at the Rutherford-Appleton
Laboratory on the Cray X-MP/48 and the Cray Y-MP/8. Legras
thanks Gilbert Brunet for preparing figure 2, and the Centre de
Calcul Vectoriel pour la Recherche, which provided computa-
tional resources on its Cray 2.
References
1. B. Legras, D. Dritschel, Phys. Fluids A 3, 845 (1991); Fluid
Dyn. Res. (1993), in press.
2. B. Hoskins, M. Mclntyre, A. Robertson, Q. J. Meteorol. Ill,
877; 113, 402 (1985).
3. M. Mclntyre, in Atmospheric Dynamics, Proc. Int. Sch. Phys.
"Enrico Fermi," CXV Course, J. C. Gille, G. Visconti, eds.
North Holland, New York (1991).
4. F. Sanders, J. Gyakum, Mon. Weather Rev. 108, 1589 (1980).
5. J. Nycander, D. Dritschel, G. Sutyrin, to be published in Phys.
Fluids A (1993).
6. D. Dritschel, R. Saravanan, submitted to Q. J. R. Meteorol.
Soc. (1993).
7. L. Polvani, R. Plumb, to be published in J. Atmos. Sci. (1993).
8. L. Polvani, G. Flierl, N. Zabusky, J. Fluid Mech. 205, 215
(1989). J. McWilliams, J. Fluid Mech. 198, 199 (1989).
9. D. Waugh, "Single-Layer Geophysical Vortex Dynamics,"
PhD thesis, U. of Cambridge (1992), p. 207.
10. D. Dritschel, Comput. Phys. Rep. 10, 77 (1989).
11. D. Dritschel, D. Waugh, Phys. Fluids A 4, 1737 (1992).
12. B. Legras, P. Santangelo, R. Benzi, Europhys. Lett 5 37
(1988).
13. M. Vergassola, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. (1993).
14. J. Tribbia, D. Baumhefner, J. Atmos. Sci. 45, 2306 (1988).
15. N. Zabusky, M. Hughes, K. Roberts, J. Comput. Phys 30 96
(1979). ' m
PHYSICS TODAY MARCH 1993 51 |
1.3520144.pdf | Spin-transfer torque efficiency measured using a Permalloy nanobridge
M. C. Hickey, D.-T. Ngo, S. Lepadatu, D. Atkinson, D. McGrouther, S. McVitie, and C. H. Marrows
Citation: Applied Physics Letters 97, 202505 (2010); doi: 10.1063/1.3520144
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3520144
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/97/20?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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128.235.251.160 On: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 00:31:09Spin-transfer torque efficiency measured using a Permalloy nanobridge
M. C. Hickey,1,a/H20850D.-T . Ngo,2,b/H20850S. Lepadatu,1D. Atkinson,3D. McGrouther,2S. McVitie,2
and C. H. Marrows1,c/H20850
1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
2School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom
3Department of Physics, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
/H20849Received 16 August 2010; accepted 4 November 2010; published online 19 November 2010 /H20850
We report magnetoresistance, focused Kerr effect, and Lorentz microscopy experiments performed
on a nanoscale Permalloy bridge connecting microscale pads. These pads can be switched from aparallel to antiparallel state through the application of small fields, causing a detectablemagnetoresistance. We show that this switching field H
swis modified by the application of a high
current density /H20849Jdc/H20850through spin-transfer torque effects, caused by the spin-current interacting with
the magnetization gradients generated by the device geometry, yielding an estimate for the
spin-transfer torque efficiency /H9264=dHsw/dJdc=0.027 /H110060.001 Oe /MA cm−2.© 2010 American
Institute of Physics ./H20851doi:10.1063/1.3520144 /H20852
It has become a commonplace that spin-polarized cur-
rents, flowing through ferromagnets containing magnetiza-tion gradients, give rise to spin-transfer torques that act lo-cally on the magnetization.
1,2The experimentally observed
consequences include domain wall /H20849DW/H20850motion,3–8
depinning,9–12resonance,13–16and transformation.17This ef-
fect has applications in solid state storage class memories18
and is the basis for a magnetic logic gate design.19
Here we report on the effects of a spin-polarized current
on well-characterized and controlled magnetization gradients
that are generated through selection of device geometry. Weused a structure based on one originally designed by Jubertet al. ,
20where a magnetization gradient is generated in a
nanoconstriction that forms a bridge between two microscalepads, which have their shapes chosen to give differing coer-cive fields. The application of small fields can hence switchthe pads into lateral parallel /H20849P/H20850or antiparallel /H20849AP/H20850magnetic
states. We subsequently refined that design to give a largerdifference in coercivity between the two pads,
21and mea-
sured the magnetoresistance /H20849MR/H20850associated with switching.
Here we show that the current density flowing through thebridge affects the switching field as detected by MR, andextract the spin-transfer torque efficiency
/H9264, defined as the
effective magnetic field per unit current density.
The samples were fabricated by either electron beam li-
thography, sputter deposition o fa7n m thick Permalloy /H20849Py/H20850
layer capped with 2 nm Au, and liftoff, either on thermallyoxidized Si substrates, for MR and magneto-optical measure-ments, or on an electron transparent Si
3N4membrane for
domain imaging measurements. The bridge connecting thetwo pads was 300 nm wide and 900 nm long. Ti/Au contactsfor transport were added by a further optical lithography lift-off step, and MR measurements were carried out using astandard lock-in detection method. The ac excitation currentwasI
ac=50/H9262A at 1333 Hz, with a dc bias current Idcadded
for certain measurements. The geometry is such that highcurrent densities are localized at the bridge. Local magne-
tometry was carried out using focused magneto-optic Kerreffect /H20849MOKE /H20850measurements, with an elliptical spot size of
/H110117/H110035
/H9262m2, using a diode laser. Imaging was carried out
using Lorentz scanning transmission electron microscopy,with vector maps of the magnetic induction in the regionsurrounding the bridge obtained by differential phase con-trast /H20849DPC /H20850imaging.
In Fig. 1/H20849a/H20850we show our device geometry. The extended
shape of the two pads defines a magnetic easy axis. The
a/H20850Present address: Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts Low-
ell, One University Avenue, Lowell, MA 01854, USA.
b/H20850Present address: Information Storage Materials Laboratory, Toyota Tech-
nological Institute, Nagoya 468-8511, Japan.
c/H20850Electronic address: c.h.marrows@leeds.ac.uk.
2.5 µmLIA
ac + dcH (a)
(b)PyTi/Au
pointed pad
switchingelliptical pad
switchingJ
-2 .5-2 .0-1 .5-1 .0-0 .500. 51. 0
-50 -4 0 -3 0 -2 0 -1 0 0 10 20 30 40 5000.0 50.1 00.1 5
H(Oe)Normalized
Ke rr Int en sity
ΔR/R (%)
FIG. 1. /H20849Color online /H20850Device geometry and switching. /H20849a/H20850A scanning elec-
tron micrograph of a completed device with surrounding schematic showingthe full device outline and measurement circuit, with field axis marked. /H20849b/H20850
Focused MOKE /H20849circles /H20850and MR /H20849squares /H20850hysteresis loops, with solid
symbols for the positive-going field sweep, open symbols for the negative-going sweep. The larger area of the elliptical pad means it yields a largersignal in MOKE. The black solid points /H20849/L50098/H20850are scaled values of cos
2/H9258from
the DPC imaging.APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 97, 202505 /H208492010 /H20850
0003-6951/2010/97 /H2084920/H20850/202505/3/$30.00 © 2010 American Institute of Physics 97, 202505-1
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
128.235.251.160 On: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 00:31:09elliptical pad is designed to have a lower switching field than
the narrower element,21which has pointed ends to increase
its coercivity.22Conventional current flowing across the
bridge from the pointed to the elliptical pad is defined aspositive, with electrons flowing in the other direction. Themeasured device resistance R/H11011180/H9024.
A focused MOKE hysteresis loop is displayed in Fig.
1/H20849b/H20850for a similar device of this geometry with the laser spot
overlapping both pads. We see separate switching events forthe two pads, which we confirmed by shifting the laser spotto cover only one or the other. P and AP states for this struc-ture can be defined by analogy to a spin-valve structure,according to whether the magnetization in the two pads ispointing in the same or opposite directions. During a majorloop, the AP state occurs between the two switching fields ofthe pads, and manifests itself as a plateau in the MOKE loopbetween the switching events, in this case between H=5.2
and 8.2 Oe. The MR loop shows magnetic switching from ahigh to low resistance state as the field is swept, with asubsequent return to a low resistance state at high field /H20849be-
yond the range of the data shown here /H20850. It is noteworthy that
the switch into the high resistance state occurs before thefield has passed through zero, contrary to our expectationbased on the switching into the AP state observed by focusedMOKE.
Our magnetotransport measurements are very sensitive
to the magnetic state in the region of the bridge. To study thismore closely, Lorentz microscopy was carried out on a simi-lar Py nanostructure. The magnetic induction vector mapsconstructed from DPC images are shown in Fig. 2. The DPC
measurement allows the direction of the magnetic inductionto be calculated, in the bridge region the average angle of theinduction is calculated along with its measured variance. Anegatively magnetized P state is shown in panel /H20849a/H20850. While
the pads are uniformly magnetized in the negative direction,the shape anisotropy in the bridge gives rise to a magnetiza-tion texture in its vicinity. Analysis of the DPC image showsthat on average the magnetization in the bridge is canted atan angle of
/H9258=−48/H1100610° to the vertical, leading to regions of
DW-like rotation of the magnetization at either end, withthicknesses /H9004of several tens of nm. The canting away from
/H9258=0 reduces the exchange energy costs in these regions.The subsequent state at remanence /H20849H=0/H20850is shown in
panel /H20849b/H20850. While the pads remain unswitched, the magnetiza-
tion in the bridge has relaxed to lie more closely along itsaxis: now
/H9258=−2/H110066° and horn-shaped regions of canted
magnetization extend from the bridge into the pads. On ap-plying a forward field the magnetization in the softer ellipti-cal pad forms a rippled state /H20849not shown here /H20850and then re-
verses with a 180° DW sweeping through the ellipse andpinning at the junction with the bridge, shown in panel /H20849c/H20850.
The magnetization in the bridge remains closely aligned withits axis, with
/H9258=+6/H110065°. On the scale of the Kerr laser spot
the system is in the AP state, but these images show thatlocally the situation is more complex. Upon increasing H
further, the DW is depinned from the bridge and the ellipticalpad fully reverses, shown in panel /H20849d/H20850, and now the magne-
tization begins to twist away from the bridge axis again, with
/H9258=+18/H110066°. For still higher Hthe pointed pad reverses,
again preceded by a rippled state /H20849not shown /H20850, returning the
device to a positively magnetized P state, shown in panel /H20849e/H20850,
with/H9258=+39/H110069°. At H=20 Oe, /H9258=44/H110069°/H20849this image is
not shown /H20850. The values for /H9258are consistent, within error
bars, with those obtained by micromagnetic modeling.23
It is known from our previous experiments that MR can
be observed due to the magnetic switching of such devices,which arise not from intrinsic DW MR,
24but are due to the
anisotropic magnetoresistance /H20849AMR /H20850effect.21,25Most of the
resistance arises in the bridge itself, and so this measurementessentially acts as a nanomagnetometer,
26measuring the lo-
cal magnetization direction in the bridge. The AMR givesrise to a drop in resistance wherever the magnetization direc-tion is rotated away from collinearity with the current den-sity. We would therefore expect a resistance contribution/H11008cos
2/H9258. Scaled values of this quantity are overlaid on the
MR curve in Fig. 1/H20849b/H20850. Consideration of the DPC images
shows that it is not strictly the change from P to AP state thatcontrols the MR, but the magnetization angle in and imme-diately around the bridge: switching into a low
/H9258state occurs
before the field passes through zero, consistent with the up-ward jump in MR observed in Fig. 1/H20849b/H20850. While the down-
ward jump is not properly reproduced, it should be noted thatwe are comparing different samples.
We now turn to the effects of dc current offsets on the
MR data, our key experiment in this report. As shown abovewe can determine the switching field H
swof the bridge from
a MR measurement, by first applying a large reverse field/H20849/H11002200 Oe /H20850to saturate the sample into a P state with both
pads magnetized in the negative direction, then sweeping itpositive and observing at what field we get an abrupt upwardstep in resistance. In Fig. 3we show a plot constructed from
a series of such normalized MR /H20849/H9004/H20850sweeps carried out with
different values of negative and positive J
dc. The total device
resistance was found to rise as Jdc2due to Joule heating. The
bridge resistance rose by /H1101110/H9024at the highest current den-
sities used. In Fig. 3we plot the MR ratio /H9004R/Rseparately
normalized for each run, and so this background effect is notevident.
The MR switching field H
swforJdc=0 is 1.5 /H110060.5 Oe,
corresponding to a change from red to blue contrast in theplot. We can see from Fig. 3that the effect of a finite value of
dc offset current is to shift the observed switching field. Thephase boundary for low R→high Rswitching is marked by
a dotted black line in Fig. 3, and the switching field is seen to
(a) (b) (c)
(d) (e)H = -20 Oe = -48 θ °
H=9O e =1 8 θ ° H=1 2 Oe= 39θ °H=0O e =- 2 θ ° H=5 . 6O e =6 θ °
θ
H
1µ m
FIG. 2. /H20849Color online /H20850Magnetic induction vector maps constructed from
scanning DPC images, which may be interpreted using the color wheel. Thesoft elliptical pad is uppermost. The average magnetization direction withinthe bridge is given for each frame along with the value of applied field.202505-2 Hickey et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 202505 /H208492010 /H20850
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128.235.251.160 On: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 00:31:09follow a linear relationship with Jdc. This is a signature of
spin-transfer torque phenomena, any thermal activation ef-fect would appear even in current. The spin-transfer torquetakes effect by displacing some of the magnetization textureat the ends of the bridge.
The rate of change of switching field with current den-
sity can be defined as a spin-transfer efficiency, measuredhere as
/H9264=dHsw/dJdc=0.027 /H110060.001 Oe /MA cm−2from a
linear fit to all the switching fields. Although measured by adifferent method, this is of the same order as that measuredfor Py by Vernier et al. , 0.05 Oe /MA cm
−2.6As a secondary
result, we can estimate from /H9264the spin-torque nonadiabatic-
ity parameter from standard theory describing spin-torque atDWs,
27/H20849related to, but distinct from, the Slonczewski
torques in multilayer nanopillars28/H20850using the formula /H9252
=2eMs/H9004/H92620/H9264/P/H6036/H9266.8For Py, the magnetization Ms
=0.83 MA /m,29and polarization P=0.5.12Analysis of the
DPC images leads to DW widths /H9004/H11011100 nm, yielding /H9252
/H110110.04, the same as previous estimates by us for Py in other
depinning studies,11,12and approximately five times the Gil-
bert damping constant /H9251/H110150.008 in our Py films prior to
patterning.30We note, however, that this formula for /H9252is
only valid when the energy barrier to be overcome is linearinH, and we are not certain that this is the case here.31
To summarize, we have studied the effect of high current
densities on the micromagnetic state of a nanoscale bridgeconnecting two microscale Py pads by measuring the char-acteristic AMR signal that indicates switching of the magne-tization direction in the bridge. The switching field wasfound to have a linear dependence on the current density.The canting angle
/H9258is given by equilibrium between the
torques exerted on the bridge magnetization that arise fromthe following energy terms: shape anisotropy, Zeeman, andexchange coupling to the magnetization in the pads. Thespin-transfer torque adjusts this equilibrium point, with J
dc
/H110220 providing an equivalent negative effective field, delayingthe relaxation of the bridge magnetization to point along its
length.
This work was carried out under the auspices of the
Spin@RT consortium, funded by the EPSRC, Grant Nos.EP/D000661/1 and EP/D062357/1 /H20849Leeds /H20850, EP/D003199/1
/H20849Glasgow /H20850, and EP/D50578X/1 /H20849Durham /H20850, and the European
Science Foundation EUROCORES project Spincurrent.
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0.010.020.030.04ΔR/R
(%)
low R statehigh R state
Jdc(MA/cm2)H( O e )
FIG. 3. /H20849Color online /H20850dc current offset effects on the MR. The bitmap is
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1.5063456.pdf | Asymmetric velocity and tilt angle of domain walls induced by spin-orbit torques
Manuel Baumgartner , and Pietro Gambardella
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 113, 242402 (2018); doi: 10.1063/1.5063456
View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5063456
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apl/113/24
Published by the American Institute of Physics
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Applied Physics Letters 113, 202404 (2018); 10.1063/1.5049566Asymmetric velocity and tilt angle of domain walls induced by spin-orbit
torques
Manuel Baumgartnera)and Pietro Gambardellab)
Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, H €onggerbergring 64, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
(Received 27 September 2018; accepted 24 November 2018; published online 11 December 2018)
We present a micromagnetic study of the current-induced domain wall motion in perpendicularly
magnetized Pt/Co/AlO xracetracks. We show that the domain wall velocity depends critically on
the tilt angle of the wall relative to the current direction, which is determined by the combined
action of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, damping-like, and field-like spin-orbit torques.
The asymmetry of the domain wall velocity can be controlled by applying a bias-field perpendicu-lar to the current direction and by the current amplitude. As the faster domain walls are expelled
rapidly from the racetrack boundaries, we argue that the domain wall velocity and tilt measured
experimentally depend on the timescale of the observations. Our findings reconcile the discrepancybetween time-resolved and quasi-static domain wall measurements in which domain walls with
opposite tilts were observed and are relevant to tune the velocity of domain walls in racetrack struc-
tures. Published by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5063456
The propagation of domain walls (DWs) plays a funda-
mental role in determining the efficiency and speed of
current-induced switching of magnetic devices.
1–10In the
context of spin-orbit torques (SOTs),11DW propagation has
been extensively studied by analytical12–15and micromag-
netic models,16–19magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE),4–9
nitrogen-vacancy magnetometry,20and x-ray imaging.10,21
An important conclusion drawn from this extended body of
work is that the DWs in perpendicular magnetized layers,
such as Pt/Co/AlO xand Ta/CoFeB/MgO, are chiral N /C19eel
walls stabilized by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction(DMI). The N /C19eel wall magnetization points in-plane, perpen-
dicular to the DW, and hence parallel to the current direc-
tion, which maximizes the amplitude of the current-induced
damping-like SOT and promotes very large DW displace-
ment velocities v
DW, of the order of 100 m s/C01for a current
density j¼108Ac m/C02. This large vDWallows for high speed
DW displacements in racetrack structures4,8,9and for sub-ns
reversal of ferromagnetic dots.10,22
Two prominent effects of the DMI in perpendicularly
magnetized layers are the tilting of the DW10,16,23–27and the
asymmetric vDWrelative to the current direction.9,26,28These
two effects are related by the DW dynamics under the com-
bined action of DMI and damping-like SOT.16,25–27Tilted
DWs were first observed in Pt/Co/Ni/Co layers by imaging
the magnetic domains after a sequence of current pulsesusing MOKE microscopy
23and later reproduced by ana-
lytical and micromagnetic models.16,25,27Figure 1(a) illus-
trates the DW configurations reported in Ref. 23for the four
combinations of current (black arrows) and up/down and
down/up domains propagating in a racetrack. The tilt angle
is indicated by w, and the propagation direction of the DW is
given by the green arrows. These DW tilt symmetries aretypical of perpendicularly magnetized films with a Ptunderlayer. Recent time-resolved x-ray microscopy measure-
ments on Pt/Co/AlO
xdots, however, reported DWs rotated
by about 90/C14for the same current polarity and domain orien-
tation,10as shown in Fig. 1(b). We suppose that these con-
trasting observations may arise from the static vs.time-
resolved nature of the experiments since in the first case, the
DWs are imaged after the injection of several current pulses,
whereas in the second case, the DWs are imaged during cur-
rent injection following a nucleation event. Furthermore, thefield-like component of the SOT may also induce a tilt of the
DW, similar to the effect of an in-plane field orthogonal to
the current.
16,25,29,30The aim of this work is to reconcile
these controversial observations by elucidating the time-resolved dynamics of tilted DWs in racetrack structures and
investigate the influence of DW tilt and field-like torque on
the velocity of the walls.
We present a study of the current-driven dynamics of
chiral DWs in heavy metal/ferromagnetic racetracks performed
using micromagnetic simulations. As a model system, wechoose Pt/Co/AlO
xstripes divided into 4 nm /C24n m/C21n m
rectangular cells with the following material parameters: Co
thickness, 1 nm; saturation magnetization, Ms¼900 kA m/C01;
exchange coupling, Aex¼10/C011Jm/C01; effective uniaxial
FIG. 1. Schematics of the current-induced tilted DWs for the four combina-
tions of current and domain orientation measured by (a) static MOKEmicroscopy
23and (b) time-resolved x-ray microscopy10in perpendicularly
magnetized Pt/Co bilayers. The black and green arrows indicate the current
and the propagation direction of the DWs, respectively. The tilt angle w
between the positive x-axis and the normal to the DW nis shown in (a).a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: manuel.baumgartner@
mat.ethz.ch
b)Electronic mail: pietro.gambardella@mat.ethz.ch
0003-6951/2018/113(24)/242402/4/$30.00 Published by AIP Publishing. 113, 242402-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 113, 242402 (2018)
anisotropy energy, Ku¼657 kJ m/C03; DMI constant, D ¼1.2
mJ m/C02; and damping a¼0.5. The magnitudes of the
damping-like and field-like SOTs are given in field units per
unitary magnetization as TDL¼18 mT and TFL¼10 mT per
j¼1/C2108Ac m/C02, respectively. For simplicity, we neglect
the effects of pinning and temperature,16,26which are not
central to the results presented in this work. The simulationswere carried out using the object oriented micromagnetic
framework (OOMMF) code
31including the DMI extension
module32and an additional SOT module. We note that the
outcome of the simulations does not change if we decrease
the cell size to, e.g., 1 nm /C21n m/C21n m .
Figure 2(a) shows the equilibrium configuration of an
up/down DW in Pt/Co/AlO x, which is a left-handed N /C19eel
wall stabilized by the DMI. In order to illustrate the differentmechanisms that lead to the tilting of the DW, we report in
Figs. 2(b)and2(c)the response of such a DW to a transverse
magnetic field B
yand damping-like torque TDL, respectively.
In Fig. 2(b),Byrotates the DW moments away from the lon-
gitudinal direction towards þy, which causes a negative tilt
of the DW in order to maintain the energetically favouredN/C19eel configuration. The equilibrium tilt is determined by the
balance between the external field, DMI, and DW energy,
which increases with the DW length and hence with the tiltangle.
16,25,29The effect of TDLdue to a positive electric cur-
rent (electrons flowing to the left) is shown in Fig. 2(c).I n
order to understand the tilt of the DW in this case, we have toconsider the action of the current-induced SOTs on the DW
magnetization. The damping- and field-like torques have sym-
metry T
DL¼TDLm/C2ðy/C2mÞandTFL¼TFLm/C2y,r e s p e c -
tively.33The Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation is then
given bydm
dt¼/C0jcj
ð1þa2ÞX
iTi/C0jcja
ð1þa2Þm/C2X
iTi;(1)
withX
iTi¼m/C2BeffþTDLþTFL; (2)
where m¼M=Msis the unit magnetization vector, cthe
electronic gyromagnetic ratio, l0the free space permeability,
andBeff¼BextþBK/C01
MsdEDMI
dm/C01
MsdEex
dmthe effective mag-
netic field. Here, Bextis the external magnetic field, BK¼
2Ku=Msthe effective out-of-plane anisotropy field (including
the demagnetizing field), and the last two terms are the
effective DMI and exchange magnetic fields. We considerfirst only the effect of the damping-like torque. In this case,
the LLG equation can be written in simplified form as
dm=dt//C0T
DL/C0am/C2TDL. Hence, the DW magnetization
is deviated towards /C0yandþzby the damping-like torque,
as shown schematically in Fig. 2(c). This dynamic process
leads to the observed propagation (due to the z-component of
dm=dt) and tilting of the DW (due to the y-component of
dm=dt). A quantitative description of this process is given in
terms of a one-dimensional model of DW propagation inRefs. 16,25, and 27. The effect of the field-like torque can
finally be understood in analogy with that of the magnetic
field B
yso that the DW tilt angle at steady state depends on
the ratio TFL=TDL, as shown in Fig. 2(d).
In order to investigate the relationship between the DW
tilt angle wand vDW, we simulate the dynamics of a DW
consisting of one straight and two tilted sections in a square
sample under the action of TDLalone (Fig. 3). The mag-
netization on the left (right) side of the structure points alongþz(/C0z). We first relax the DW magnetization, which leads
to the emergence of left-handed N /C19eel walls. Due to the initial
conditions, the three DWs have a tilt w¼/C045
/C14,0/C14, and 45/C14,
shown in (a). Successive snapshots of the magnetic con-
figuration during current injection reveal that the different
DW sections propagate with distinct velocities, as shown inFigs. 3(b) and3(c). This behaviour can be easily understood
in terms of Eq. (1)asT
DLrotates the DW magnetization
against the effective DMI field towards /C0y. As a result, for
sufficiently large current, mxis the largest (smallest)
for w¼/C045/C14ð45/C14Þ. Since vDW/ðdm=dtÞz/TDLand
TDL/mx,vDWis the largest (smallest) for w¼/C045/C14ð45/C14Þ.
Therefore, the different mxcomponents result in a pro-
nounced asymmetry of the current-induced DW motion, as
shown in (c). Alternatively, the difference in vDWcan be
understood by an energy argument. Due to the presence of
DMI, the energy is minimized if the DWs are of N /C19eel type.
During current injection, the DWs tilted at w¼0/C14and/C045/C14
deform and acquire a mixed N /C19eel-Bloch character. These
DWs propagate faster in order to reduce the total energy
of the system by increasing the length of the energeticallyfavoured N /C19eel walls. The fastest direction of DW propaga-
tion measured by time-resolved scanning transmission x-ray
microscopy
10and the largest displacements reported in
“oblique” Pt/Co/AlO xracetracks oriented at different angles
with respect to the current9are consistent with this picture.
A relevant consequence of the asymmetric DW velocity
is that, in an elongated stripe, the faster DWs ðw¼0/C14;/C045/C14Þ
FIG. 2. (a) Up/down DW in a Pt/Co/AlO xstripe at equilibrium. (b) Static
DW tilt induced by a magnetic field By¼20 mT. (c) Dynamic DW tilt due
toTDLduring the injection of an electric current j¼2/C2108Ac m/C02. The
schematics in (a)–(c) illustrate dm=dtaccording to Eq. (1)due to TDLand
the resulting DW tilt. (d) Dependence of the dynamic DW tilt on the ampli-tude of T
FLrelative to TDL¼18 mT per 108Ac m/C02for the same current
density as in (c).242402-2 M. Baumgartner and P . Gambardella Appl. Phys. Lett. 113, 242402 (2018)are rapidly expelled from the sample, and the final DW
observed in steady state conditions is the slowest one with
w¼45/C14[Fig. 3(d)]. This behavior has a compelling analogy
with crystal growth, in which the crystal facets with the slow-
est growth rate determine the final crystal shape.34Similar
arguments based on classical interface thermodynamicsexplain the faceting observed during the growth of chiral mag-
netic bubbles subject to an applied field.
35We thus conclude
that the discrepancy between the DW configurations reported
for quasi-static [Fig. 1(a)] and time-resolved measurements10,23
[Fig. 1(b)] is due to the different time-scales probed in these
experiments, which correspond to the slower and faster DW in
a racetrack, respectively. In time-resolved switching experi-
ments, the initial conditions, namely, the shape of the DW
after nucleation, also play a role in determining the tilt and
velocity of the DW. The final tilt angle is reached on a timescale of several ns, which increases with the stripe width.
25
The propagation velocity perpendicular to each DW
front, vn
DWðw¼45/C14Þ,vn
DWðw¼0/C14Þ, and vn
DWðw¼/C045/C14Þ,
can be calculated by measuring the distance travelled by the
DW as a function of time. Figure 4(a) shows that vn
DWin-
creases almost linearly with jfor all three DW components,however, with distinct slopes. Depending on w,vn
DWfor the
fastest and slowest DW can differ by more than a factor two.
Furthermore, the asymmetry of vn
DW, which we define as the
ratio vn
DWðw¼/C045/C14Þ=vn
DWðw¼45/C14Þ, increases proportion-
ally to jup to 3.5 /C2108Ac m/C02, as shown in Fig. 4(b).
Finally, we study the effect of the field-like torque on
vn
DW. For a positive current, TFLin Pt/Co/AlO xis equivalent
to a magnetic field Byopposite to the Oersted field.
Therefore, TFLcounteracts the rotation towards /C0yinduced
by the damping-like torque. More importantly, TFL>0ð<0Þ
leads to an additional ðdm=dtÞzcontribution which increases
(decreases) vn
DW. The amount of increase or decrease in vn
DW
due to the field-like torque depends on wand hence on the
damping-like torque and DMI. We find that the ratio
vn
DWðTFL>0Þ=vn
DWðTFL<0Þincreases linearly as a function
ofjforw6¼/C045/C14. Although the increase is only about 10%
at the highest j, this effect should not be neglected in devices
with a significant field-like torque. These results are consis-
tent with experiments in which an in-plane field Bywas
applied to reinforce the field-like torque, thus assisting the
magnetization reversal10and increasing the current-induced
DW velocity.5
FIG. 3. (a) Initial magnetic configura-
tion of a Pt/Co/AlO xsquare with one
straight and two oppositely tilted DWs.
The side of the square is 1.5 lm. The
magnetization components mx,my, and
mzare shown in color in different pan-
els. The scheme on the right shows the
in-plane magnetization and relative
displacement of the DW. (b) and (c)Snapshot of the magnetic configuration
during injection of a positive current of
amplitude j¼1.0/C210
8Ac m/C02and
4.5/C2108Ac m/C02, respectively, taken
after 0.9 ns. The dotted lines show the
initial DW position. (d) Snapshots of
the DW propagation during injectionof a positive current j¼4.5/C210
8A
cm/C02into a 4.5 lm long and 1.5 lm
wide stripe. Note that after /C251.5 ns, the
fastest DW is expelled from the stripe.
As a consequence, the tilt angle at
steady state corresponds to that of the
slowest DW.
FIG. 4. (a) Normal DW velocity vn
DW
as a function of current density for
different tilt angles. The velocities are
calculated for TDL¼18 mT and TFL
¼10 mT (full symbols), TFL¼0m T
(dotted symbols), and TFL¼/C0 10 mT
(open symbols) per j¼108Ac m/C02.
(b) Asymmetry ratio vn
DWðw¼/C045/C14Þ=
vn
DWðw¼45/C14Þ, plotted as a function of
current density for the three values
ofTFLshown in (a). Positive values
ofTFL, as in Pt/Co/AlO x, reduce the
asymmetry, whereas negative values
increase it.242402-3 M. Baumgartner and P . Gambardella Appl. Phys. Lett. 113, 242402 (2018)In summary, we reported a comparative study of the tilt
and velocity of DWs in perpendicularly magnetized Pt/Co/
AlO xlayers. Consistent with qualitative arguments derived
from the LLG equation, our micromagnetic simulationsevidence that DWs with different tilt angles propagate at
distinct speed, depending on the balance between DMI,
damping-like, and field-like torques, which determines them
xcomponent of the DW magnetization. As a result of the
asymmetric speed of tilted DWs, the fastest DW in racetrack
structures is expelled from the track after a time of the order
of 1.5 ns, which depends on the width of the track and initial
shape of the DW. Thus, quasi-static measurements of theDW displacements induced by a sequence of current pulses
probe the propagation and tilt of the slowest DW,
16,23,25,36
whereas time-resolved microscopy and “oblique” racetrack
measurements probe the fastest DW.9,10As a side remark,
we note that the fastest propagation direction of the DW cor-
responds to the direction of motion of magnetic skyrmions,as described by the so-called “skyrmion Hall effect”.
37,38
Because a skyrmion is delimited by a DW with a tilt angle
that varies continuously between w¼0/C14andw¼360/C14, the
skyrmion Hall effect can be rationalized in terms of the pref-
erential direction for DW propagation and the tendency of
the skyrmions to retain their topologically protected shape.These findings allow for a better understanding and tuning of
the DW motion and switching speed of magnetic memory
elements of different shapes.
We acknowledge funding by the Swiss National Science
Foundation under Grant No. 200020-172775. We acknowledge
fruitful discussions with C. O. Avci.
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1.5000245.pdf | Micromagnetic simulation of electric field-modulation on precession dynamics of spin
torque nano-oscillator
Congpeng Zhao , Xingqiao Ma , Houbing Huang , Zhuhong Liu , Hasnain Mehdi Jafri , Jianjun Wang , Xueyun Wang ,
and Long-Qing Chen
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 082406 (2017); doi: 10.1063/1.5000245
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.5000245
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apl/111/8
Published by the American Institute of Physics
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dynamics of spin torque nano-oscillator
Congpeng Zhao,1Xingqiao Ma,1,2,a)Houbing Huang,1Zhuhong Liu,1,2
Hasnain Mehdi Jafri,1Jianjun Wang,3Xueyun Wang,4and Long-Qing Chen3
1Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
2Weak Magnetic Detection and Application Engineering Centre of Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
3Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park,
Pennsylvania 16802, USA
4School of Aerospace Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
(Received 6 May 2017; accepted 14 August 2017; published online 25 August 2017)
Understanding electric field effects on precession dynamics is crucial to the design of spin transfer
torque devices for improving the performance in nano-oscillator. In this letter, the precession
dynamics of a CoFeB/MgO multi-layer structured nano-oscillator under externally applied electric
field is predicted using a micromagnetic simulation. It is revealed that the electric field can modifythe range of oscillation spectra in single frequency mode. With the increase in electric field, there
is a red-shift of the resonant frequency. When a positive electric field pulse is applied, a phase
lag of the spin precession is induced, which is proportional to the pulse amplitude and duration.The present work is expected to stimulate future experimental efforts on designing devices with
electric-field modulated spin transfer torque nano-oscillators. Published by AIP Publishing.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.5000245 ]
Manipulation of magnetization via electric field in ferro-
magnets attracts considerable attention due to the potentialapplications in spin devices such as spin transfer sensors,
1
spin transfer diodes,2,3magnetic random access memories,4,5
and spin torque oscillator (STO).6–8This has been achieved
in multiferroic magneto-electric heterostructures, wherein
the electric and magnetic order parameters can be coupled
through interfacing mechanisms such as charge/orbital modu-lation,
9–11exchange coupling,12–14or/and elastic coupling
via strain.14–18It can also be achieved via voltage-induced
spin-polarized current by spin transfer torque (STT)19,20or
spin-orbit torque.21,22Recently, electric field induced interfa-
cial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (IPMA) was found
both experimentally and theoretically in CoFeB/MgO (CM)bilayer.
23–27Both experimental and theoretical investigations
on IPMA have been reported yet, which is originated from
hybridization of Fe- dz2and O- pzorbitals.17Meanwhile, the
IPMA depends on the thickness of CoFeB layer16,26and
can be linearly changed by electric field on MgO layer;26
thus, the manipulation of the status of spins achieved by
electrical field via IPMA is possbile, which has been demon-
strated through simulation in magnetization reversal pro-
cess.28For the precession process in STO, however, most of
the previous work27,29focused on using magnetic field
(change field angle or amplitude) to modulate precession,
which is not easy to control for nano-integrated devices. Thismay be improved by introducing an electric field between the
electrodes of the nano-oscillator to replace the magnetic field.
Since modulation of precession is the key in designing andengineering high frequency nano-oscillators, the precession
dynamics under electrical field induced IPMA deserve inten-
sive studies.In this letter, we studied precession dynamics in CM
based STO under electric field modulation through IPMA by
micromagnetic simulation. Results show the modulation of
both spectrum profile types and frequency, by applying a
voltage across MgO layer. The phase of the oscillator could
also be modulated by applying square impulse voltage.
Figure 1schematically illustrates a STO framework
28of
combining spin transfer current and electric field, which con-
tains CoFeB-based free and pinned layers, barrier, MgO oxide
layer, and two electrodes. Barrier layer separates the free and
pinned layer, which is critical to introduce polarized electrons,
while an extra oxide layer on the top of free layer is used to
introduce IPMA. A free layer ( M) is magnetized along þz
axis, while the pinned layer ( P) is magnetized along þyaxis.
A negative spin current ( Istt) is expected to produce oscilla-
tion30in the free layer where the IPMA could be manipulated
under the extra electric field. In our model (Fig. 1), we consid-
ered varying electric field on the top MgO layer from /C00.5 to
0.5 V/nm. To study the dynamic behavior under electric field,
we solved Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert-Slonczewski (LLGS) equa-
tion by using a self-written code
FIG. 1. STO-device schematic via electric field modulation. The schematic
illustrates a STO-device combining electric field and spin-polarized current.a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: xqma@sas.ustb.edu.cn
0003-6951/2017/111(8)/082406/4/$30.00 Published by AIP Publishing. 111, 082406-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 111, 082406 (2017)
dm
dt¼/C0cm/C2Heffþam/C2dm
dt/C18/C19
þTstt; (1)
where arepresents Gilbert damping constant. m¼ðmx;my;
mzÞis normalized magnetization of free layer defined by
m¼M
Mswith saturation magnetization Ms.cis gyromagnetic
ratio normalized by c¼c0
1þa2(c0is gyromagnetic ratio). tis
reduced simulation time described by t¼c0Ms
1þa2t0(t0represents
real time). Torque term Tsttcontains in-plane torque and
field-like torque31,32
Tstt¼J/C22hgm;pðÞ
2l0M2
sedfreem/C2p/C2m ðÞ þnm/C2p/C2/C3; (2)
where p¼ðpx;py;pzÞ¼ð 0;1;0Þis normalized magnetiza-
tion of pinned layer defined by p¼P
Ms.Janddfreeare spin
current density and thickness of free layer, respectively. nis
the ratio coefficient, which describes ratio of in-plane andfield-like torques. gðm;pÞ¼
g
1þg2m/C1p33,34is scalar function in
MTJ which possess spin-torque asymmetry.35,36grepresents
polarization constant. The effective field ( Heff) takes into
account the contributions of anisotropy, magnetostatic, and
exchange interaction. Particularly, electric field dependentanisotropy or IPMA of free layer, e.g., the IPMA for CoFeB/MgO interface, is introduced as follows:
H
ani¼2K1EðÞ
l0M2
smzþ2K2
l0M2
smz1/C0m2
z/C0/C1
; (3)
where K1ðEÞ¼K01/C0EDK;K01,DK,K2are thickness
dependent magnetic anisotropy constants.26Erepresents the
electric field of MgO barrier induced by voltage. Parametersused in our simulations are anisotropy constants K
01¼6:5
/C2105J=m3,K2¼0:1/C2105J=m3,DK¼0:15/C210/C04J=ðm2VÞ,26
ratio coefficient n¼0:2, saturation magnetization Ms¼1:0
/C2106A=m, exchange constant A¼2:0/C210/C011J=m, and
damping constant a¼0:01. The total simulation size is 89 :6
/C2179 :2n m2(total simulation grid is 64 /C2128/C21 with cell
size: 1 :4/C21:4/C21:4n m3) and the thickness of free layer and
top oxide layer are 1.4 and 0.8 nm, respectively.
The spin oscillation profile under different current densi-
ties, i.e., from 0 to 10 /C2106A/cm2, was divided into fourregions: damping region (A), non-uniform precession region
(B), stable precession region (C), and flipping region (D) [Fig.2(a)], based on their different dynamic features. Four special
current densities 1.2, 3.0, 6.0, and 9.8( /C210
6A/cm2)w e r e
selected to show their oscillation behaviors of average magne-tization in each of the four regions [Fig. 2(a)]. In region A,
the current density is too weak to excite oscillation, and oscil-
lating amplitude of magnetization damped to near zero [Fig.2(b)]. In region B, oscillation is non-uniform, and the corre-
sponding spectrum possesses multiple frequency modes [Fig.2(c)]. In region C, the uniform oscillating behavior demon-
strates a spectrum with single frequency [Fig. 2(d)]. In region
D, magnetization flips and is stabilized in –ydirection under
high current density [Fig. 2(e)]. In addition, Fig. 2(a)shows
the boundary between regions B and C, which denotes thecritical current density between non-uniform (multiple dis-
crete frequencies) and uniform precession (single frequency).
The boundary indicates that output signals are qualitativelydifferent, which is important from the application point ofview (i.e., single frequency mode may be favorable as signalcarrier wave, compared with multiple frequency modes). Toinvestigate the influence of electric field on signal quality, weshow the power spectra versus current density under differentelectric field [Figs. 2(f)–2(h) ]. Output power P
outwas normal-
ized by Pout¼~PoutðfÞ=Pmax, where ~PoutðfÞandPmaxdenote
frequency dependent power density and the highest power
density, respectively (see the supplementary material for spec-
trum calculation). The critical current dividing the multi-frequency and single frequency precessions were marked by avertical black dashed line. Current density values rangingfrom /C03.0 to /C09.0/C210
6A/cm2and bias electric fields E¼0,
60.1 V/nm were selected to study spectral variations. As
shown in Fig. 2, patterns of spectra and critical curent density
may be manipulated by electric field. A positive Eassists the
critical current moving to the low-density side [Fig. 2(g)],
while a negative Efacilitates boundary shifting to the high-
density side [Fig. 2(h)]. Such shift is mainly due to the IPMA
change under electric field. Details of uniform oscillation(region C) and the field dependent shift are illustrated in thesupplementary material .
For the uniform precession state of STO, we investigated
the relationship among frequency ( f), current density ( J), and
FIG. 2. Illustration of STO spectrum
types altered by electric field. (a) Self-
oscillating spectrum regions of damp-
ing (A), multi-frequency (B), single fre-
quency (C) and flipping (D) under
different current density range. Points(b)–(e) correspond representing states
in each region of (A)–(D) at current
density /C01.2,/C03.0,/C06.0, and /C09.8
(/C210
6A/cm2), respectively. [Insets in
(b)–(e) are amplified region for time
range 44–49 ns.] (f)–(h) are spectra of
normalized output power density ( P)
versus current density at E¼0,60.1 V/
nm, respectively. The intensity of the
power density was represented by a
color bar. The critical current density
dividing the multi-frequency and single
frequency regions was marked by a
black vertical dashed line.082406-2 Zhao et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 082406 (2017)electric field ( E). It is shown that the frequency decreases
with the increase in current density under different Evalues
ranging from /C00.5 to 0.5 V/nm [Fig. 3(a)]. Meanwhile, fre-
quency decreases with the increase in Eranging from /C00.3 to0.3 V/nm under certain current densities. The relationship
between fandEis approximately linear [Fig. 3(b)]. The spec-
tra under different electric field for the current density value
8.0/C2106A/cm2are shown in Fig. 3(c). A slight shift in fre-
quency peak to lower frequency side with the increase in
electric field was observed. The corresponding modulation
rate for the peak deviation is estimated to be 31.2 MHz per0.1 V/nm Evalue. We calculated frequency using Larmor
precession model x¼cM
s½haniðEÞþhdþhstt/C138[see Eq. (S2)
in the supplementary material ], which describes the relation-
ship between precession frequency and angular moments,
to verify our simulation and to explain the effect of electric
field on the rate of frequency modulation. The results showthat relative change of frequency Df=fis 3.7% and scale
ofDfis 1–10
2MHz, estimated roughly by 3.7% of fscale
0.1–10 GHz, which concurs with our simulation result(31.2 MHz). From above f/h
aniðEÞrelation, IPMA field of
free-layer are weakened by positive electric field and subse-
quently causes frequency red shift.
As described earlier [Figs. 3(a)–3(c) ], the frequency
can be modulated within the range of 10–100 MHz by apply-
ing E(/C00.3–0.3 V/nm), meaning that electric field may
accelerate or decelerate spin precession. This offers a poten-tial approach of modulating the output phase by controlling
duration of the electric field pulse. The phase shift may be
adjusted by changing phase velocity through applied electricfield. The phase difference Dubetween the output signals
with and without Epulse reads
FIG. 3. Electric field modulating STO frequency. (a) Frequency versus cur-
rent density under different bias E(0,60.5,60.3). (b) Frequency versus
bias Eunder different current density J¼5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0( /C2106A/cm2). (c)
Frequency peak of output power under different Evalues /C00.2–0.2 V/nm at
a constant current density J¼/C08.0/C2106A/cm2, marked by the yellow line
in (b).
FIG. 4. Phase modulation by electric
field pulse. (a) 22 ns electric field
pulses applied during magnetization
precession. (b), (c) Output resistantsignal after adding different negative
or positive bias pulse. (d) Linear fit of
modulating phase versus electric field
under different eigen frequencies
(1.86–1.99 GHz). (e) Phase lag under
different pulse duration and electric
fields.082406-3 Zhao et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 082406 (2017)Du¼ðtE/C0t0Þtpulse¼2pDftpulse ; (4)
where t0is the initial phase velocity of eigen oscillation, tEis
the phase velocity of oscillation with Epulse, and tpulseandDf
represent pulse duration and frequency change, respectively.
For example, tpulse¼22 ns, Df¼/C031:2M H z ( w h e n p u l s e
amplitude E¼0:1V =nm and eigen current /C08.0/C2106A/
cm2), phase lag Duwas estimated to be /C01:372pwith Eq. (4).
For demonstration of above assumption, we simulate oscilla-tions of magnetic resistance by applying a 22 ns Epulse under
a stimulating current /C08:0/C210
6A=cm2,a ss h o w ni nF i g s .
4(a)–4(c) , illustrating phase shift appeared in both positive and
negative E. According to Eq. (4), positive Ecauses a phase
lag. The phase of wave peaks at Efrom 0 V/nm to 0.3 V/nm
are labelled in the following order: u0!u1!u2!u3.
Phase difference can be modulated by applying differentamplitude of Epulse. We compared the modulation rate in
context of different eigen frequencies (1.86, 1.92, 1.95, and
1.99 GHz) under pulse duration 22 ns. Slope of fitted resultsshow that the corresponding modulation rate are /C01:23p,
/C01:38p,/C01:41p,a n d /C01:37pper 0.1 V/nm, respectively [Fig.
4(d)]. Phase difference can also be manipulated by regulating
pulse duration. Effects of pulse time on phase modulation were
investigated by setting different pulse duration of 22 ns, 44 ns,
66 ns, and 88 ns [Fig. 4(e)]. Current density /C08.0/C210
6A/cm2
was chosen to stimulate eigen precession. The linear results of
phase variation Duversus the strength of Epulse were
observed under different pulse w idths. Larger negative or posi-
tive pulse amplitudes exhibit in creased positive or negative
slopes, respectively. In summary, phase shift may be adjusted
by both duration and strength of applied Epulse. This method
can potentially be applied to STO a r r a yt oa d j u s ta n dl o c kt h e
phase.
In summary, the spin precession dynamics in a CoFeB/
MgO based STT nano-oscillator is simulated. By introducing
a top oxide layer, the spin precession state can be manipu-
lated by an electric field between the two electrodes viainterfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The results
can be summarized in following three points: (i) by applying
appropriate electric field and current, the spectra have multi-frequency modes and single frequency modes, and the range
of the single frequency modes can be shifted by varying the
amplitude of applied electric field. (ii) The frequency of spinprecession may also be manipulated by electric field. The
frequency peak shifts to the low-frequency side with the
increase in electric field. (iii) by applying electric field pulse,phase of the spin precession can be modulated by controlling
the duration and amplitude of the pulses. A positive electric
field will cause phase lag, which is in proportion to theamplitude of the electric field. These results pave the poten-
tial way for future nano-oscillator design in many aspects,
such as selecting pure frequency range, adjusting oscillationfrequency, or modulating the phase of the oscillation.
Seesupplementary material for the details of uniform
oscillation, electric field-induced oscillation, theoretical cal-culation from Lamor model, and spectrum calculation.
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1.4752260.pdf | Thermal stability of exchange-biased NiFe/FeMn multilayered thin films
H. Y. Chen, Nguyen N. Phuoc, and C. K. Ong
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 112, 053920 (2012); doi: 10.1063/1.4752260
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4752260
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/112/5?ver=pdfcov
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129.174.21.5 On: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:37:05Thermal stability of exchange-biased NiFe/FeMn multilayered thin films
H. Y . Chen,1Nguyen N. Phuoc,2and C. K. Ong1,a)
1Center for Superconducting and Magnetic Materials, Department of Physics, National University
of Singapore, 2 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117542
2Temasek Laboratories, National University of Singapore, 5A Engineering Drive 2, Singapore 117411
(Received 20 May 2012; accepted 9 August 2012; published online 11 September 2012)
A systematic study of the effect of ferromagnetic thickness on magnetic and microwave properties
of exchange-biased NiFe/FeMn multilayered thin films was carried out with regards to thermal
stability. The temperature-dependent microwave characteristics of the films were obtained from thenear-field microwave microscopy technique and analysed based on Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert
equation. The complex microwave permeability spectra of the magnetic thin films up to 5 GHz in
the temperature range from room temperature to 420 K were measured. It was found that thickerferromagnetic layers helped to reduce the dependence of the magnetic properties on temperature,
leading to better thermal stability. The saturation magnetization M
S, dynamic magnetic anisotropy
field H Kdyn, and ferromagnetic resonance frequency f FMRwere found to decrease with temperature,
while the effective damping coefficient aeffwas increased with temperature. We also investigate
the rotational magnetic anisotropy field H Krotwith temperature which gives a measure of the
rotatable magnetization of the antiferromagnetic layers and its thermal stability. VC2012 American
Institute of Physics .[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4752260 ]
I. INTRODUCTION
The exchange bias phenomenon between ferromagnet
(FM) and antiferromagnet (AF)1,2has been widely used in
many applications such as spin-valve sensors, magnetic re-
cording in hard disk drives, and magnetic random accessmemory (MRAM).
2–5Most of these applications for the devi-
ces are in the form of a thin film in miniature devices2–5
employing exchange bias effect to providing an extra internal
magnetic field to pin a ferromagnetic layer.3Exchange-biased
thin films also enable the downsizing of communication devi-
ces working in microwave frequencies.6–11It is therefore
needful to characterize the magnetic properties of exchange-
biased films in the GHz frequency range.6–11In addition, ther-
mal fluctuations also become crucially important due to heattypically generated in these devices leading to degradation of
magnetic properties.
12–16Yet, there have been few works in
the literature focusing on the thermal stability study ofexchange-biased systems with regard to microwave character-
istics at high temperature.
12In this paper, we thus performed
a systematic investigation of an exchange-biased system con-sisting of alternating Ni
80Fe20layers being FM and Fe 50Mn50
layers being AF deposited on Si substrates with the FM thick-ness varied. This study investigates the temperature depend-ence of the magnetic properties up to 5 GHz, in the
temperature range from room temperature to 420 K, with the
influence of ferromagnetic layer thickness.
II. EXPERIMENT
Multilayered thin films of [Ni 80Fe20(x nm)/Fe 50Mn50-
(15 nm)] 10with the thickness of NiFe varied from 40 nm to120 nm were fabricated onto Si(100) substrates at an ambient
temperature using a radio-frequency (RF) sputter-deposition
system with the base pressure at 7 /C210/C07Torr. Both of the
layers, NiFe and FeMn, are sputtered from alloy targets andthe first layer deposited onto the substrate was a NiFe layer. A
SiO
2layer with the thickness of 20 nm was coated on the thin
films to protect them from oxidation. The thickness of eachlayer was controlled both by the deposition time and by keep-
ing the deposition rate constant, which was verified by a thick-
ness profile meter. A magnetic field of approximately 200 Oewas applied in the plane of the films to induce the unidirec-
tional anisotropy. The argon pressure was kept at
2/C210
/C03Torr during the deposition process by introducing ar-
gon gas at a flow rate of 16 SCCM (SCCM denotes cubic cen-
timeter per minute at STP). A M-H loop tracer and a vibrating
sample magnetometer (VSM) were employed to measure thehysteresis loops of the samples from 300 K to 420 K. The per-
meability spectra of the magnetic thin films in the temperature
range from 300 K to 420 K were measured using atemperature-dependent characterization system that has been
fabricated in-house based on the near-field microwave micros-
copy (NFMM) technique.
17In the NFMM technique, the fer-
romagnetic resonance (FMR) frequency is measured by a
microwave probe that excites a small local area of the sample
and picks up the electromagnetic response, which is then proc-essed by the vector network analyser (VNA).
17–20This tech-
nique places no constraints on the sample and allows a local
analysis of the sample and sample conditions (such as temper-ature) to be changed externally without damaging the trans-
mission lines and connectors.
17–20Hence, this method is quite
suitable for studying magnetic properties in temperature-dependent experiments. The microwave probe has an area of
2m m
2and the measurement frequency range used in the pres-
ent study is from 0.05 GHz to 5 GHz.17a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:
phyongck@nus.edu.sg. Tel.: 65-65162816. Fax: 65-67776126.
0021-8979/2012/112(5)/053920/6/$30.00 VC2012 American Institute of Physics 112, 053920-1JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 112, 053920 (2012)
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129.174.21.5 On: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:37:05III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 1depicts typical magnetization hysteresis loops
of [NiFe(40 nm)/FeMn(15 nm)] 10measured at T ¼330 K
using VSM measurement along the easy and hard axes.Here, the direction of the field applied during deposition is
defined as the easy axis, while the direction normal to the
easy axis but still in the plane of the sample is defined as thehard axis.
10,21,22Based on the magnetization curves as in
Fig.1, we are able to derive several important static parame-
ters such as the exchange bias field H E, the coercivity H C
and the static magnetic anisotropy field H Ksta.8,21,22
The first derived static parameter obtained from VSM
measurement is the exchange bias field H Ewhich is defined
as the hysteresis loop shift from the origin and occurs when
the AF spins are coupled to the FM spins. As shown in Fig.2(a), the exchange bias decreases when the temperature
increases because the FM-AF interface spins fluctuate due to
the thermal activation.
12–15This causes some of the AF spins
to become unstable and do not couple fully to the FM spins.
As a result, the exchange bias is reduced.12–15Another pa-
rameter derived from VSM measurement is the coercivityfield H
C, which is defined as half of the hysteresis loop width
and is the field required to switch the FM moment from one
direction to the other. The enhancement of coercivity was aneffect already observed in early exchange biased experi-
ments,
1but was not fully explained then due to many com-
plications. The model proposed by Stiles and McMichael23
explained that when the field is applied parallel or antiparal-
lel to the bias direction, the AF grains apply torques to the
FM magnetization that varies from grain to grain in magni-tude and direction. Hence, there will be torques on the FM
magnetization in both directions, and some parts have clock-
wise reversal while others have anticlockwise reversal.
23
These differences lead to a barrier for reversal, and are a
source of enhanced coercivity for a exchange-biased sys-
tem.23At higher temperatures, more energy is provided to
overcome the reversal barrier and coercivity decreases,24
which is in agreement with our experimental results shownin Fig. 2(b). The magnitude of the coercivity is also related
to the rotatable spin AF grains.
25,26When spins of the AF
grains become rotatable with the FM magnetization and fol-
low the rotation of FM moment, the coercivity would beenhanced due to the contribution of the AF reversal. Thethird derived parameter obtained from static magnetic mea-
surement is the static magnetic anisotropy field H
Ksta
extracted from the hard axis curve of the M-H loop.8,21,22As
presented in Fig. 2(c), the static magnetic anisotropy field
HKstafor all the samples are observed to decrease with tem-
perature. As is well-known, the static magnetic anisotropyfield H
Kstais the sum of the intrinsic uniaxial anisotropy field
HKof the FM layer and the exchange bias field H E.21,22With
the increase of temperature, the exchange bias field isdecreased as discussed above and the intrinsic uniaxial ani-
sotropy field is also decreased owing to the thermal fluctua-
tions of the FM spins.
12As a result, H Ksta, which is the sum
of these two contributions, decreases accordingly.
We now turn to the discussion of the thermal stability of
dynamic magnetic characteristics of our films in conjunctionwith the static magnetic properties. Typical permeability
spectra of [NiFe(40 nm)/FeMn(15 nm)]
10measured at vari-
ous temperatures using the NFMM technique are presentedin Fig. 3.
17The shift of the peak of the imaginary permeabil-
ity spectrum towards the lower frequency range with increas-
ing temperature is clearly observed, which is indicative ofthe reduction of ferromagnetic resonance frequency when
the temperature is increased. In order to have a more quanti-
tative analysis, we employed the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert(LLG) equation
27,28as below to fit the experimental dynamic
permeability spectra.
FIG. 1. Typical hysteresis loops along easy and hard axes of [NiFe(40 nm)/
FeMn(15 nm)] 10multilayer measured at T ¼330 K.
FIG. 2. Temperature dependences of: (a) exchange bias field H E, (b) coer-
civity H C, and (c) static magnetic anisotropy field H Kstafor [NiFe(t FMnm)/
FeMn(15 nm)] 10multilayers with various FM thicknesses as indicated in the
legends.053920-2 Chen, Phuoc, and Ong J. Appl. Phys. 112, 053920 (2012)
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129.174.21.5 On: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:37:05d~M
dt¼/C0cð~M/C2~HÞþaef f
M~M/C2d~M
dt: (1)
Here, M represents the magnetization of the FM layers, H the
magnetic field, aeffthe dimensionless effective Gilbert damp-
ing coefficient ( aeffincludes both intrinsic and extrinsic damp-
ings) and cthe gyromagnetic ratio. From the fitting procedure,
one can extract the dynamic magnetic anisotropy H Kdynas
well as the effective Gilbert damping factor aeff.11,26
Figure 4(a) summarizes the temperature dependence of
HKdynfor [NiFe(t FMnm)/FeMn(15 nm)] 10multilayers with
various FM thicknesses. Unlike H Kstain Fig. 2(c) which
shows a general decrease with temperature, H Kdynmanifests
itself in a more complicated behaviour. For samples with
thin NiFe layers, H Kdynis decreased with temperature while
it is rather stable for the samples with thicker NiFe layers.
We can also observe that there is a substantial discrepancy
between the magnitudes of H Kdynand H Ksta. Both these
behaviours can be explained in terms of the existence of
rotational magnetic anisotropy.21,25,26,29The rotational mag-
netic anisotropy is so-called because the direction of italways “follows” the magnetization.
30–32During the magnet-
ization reversal as in the M-H loops, when the magnetization
is switched, the anisotropy direction is also switched accord-ingly. Since the static magnetic measurement such as the
VSM only “senses” the change of the magnetization with the
applied field, it cannot sense the rotational magnetic anisot-ropy which always rotates to follow the magnetization.
Hence, the H
Kstavalue obtained from VSM measurement
does not include the rotational magnetic anisotropy.21,25,26,29
However, for the dynamic measurement such as our mea-
surement of permeability spectra in Fig. 3, the small excited
RF magnetic field which changes directions at microwavefrequency is not large enough to make the magnetization
reverse. Hence, this measurement can sense the existence ofthe rotational magnetic anisotropy while the static measure-
ment cannot.
21,25,26,29Therefore, the magnetic anisotropy
fields obtained from these two methods are quite different. In
other words, the difference between the static and dynamicmagnetic anisotropy fields is due to the rotational magnetic
anisotropy. We can therefore estimate the rotational mag-
netic anisotropy field H
Krotby subtracting the H Kstafrom the
HKdyn. This rotational anisotropy is defined as an anisotropy
that has an energy minimum that follows the FM magnetiza-
tion direction.21,25,26,29Hence, this anisotropy can be
“rotated” when the FM magnetization direction changes,
which comes from changing the applied magnetic field in
terms of magnitude and direction.21,25,26,29–32It is also
because of the contribution of this rotational anisotropy to
dynamic magnetic anisotropy that makes the temperature
behaviours of H Kstaand H Kdynquite different. The tempera-
ture dependence of H Krot(which is defined as H Krot¼HKdyn
/C0HKsta) is presented in Fig. 4(b) showing a complicated
behaviour depending on the FM thickness of the sample.This behaviour can be tentatively explained as follows. In
the exchange-biased system, the AF grains can roughly be
divided into three types as described in Fig. 5. The first type,
so-called random-spin grains (or disordered grains), is from
those with very small grain sizes, of which the magnetic
moments are thermally very unstable and fall into a para-magnetic state where their magnetic moments are random
and do not have any contribution to the magnetic anisotropy.
The second type of grains, which are frozen-spin grains (orfully ordered grains), has anisotropy K
AFlarge enough to
provide energy for a winding structure of a partial AF do-
main wall when FM moment rotates. These AF grains willspring and unwind back to their original direction when the
FM moment reverses back to the positive saturation. The
FIG. 3. (a) Real and (b) imaginary permeability spectra of [NiFe(40 nm)/
FeMn(15 nm)] 10multilayer measured at various temperatures. Lines are
LLG fitting curves.
FIG. 4. Temperature dependence of: (a) dynamic magnetic anisotropy H Kdyn
and (b) rotational magnetic anisotropy H Krotfor [NiFe(t FMnm)/
FeMn(15 nm)] 10multilayers with various FM thicknesses as indicated in the
legends.053920-3 Chen, Phuoc, and Ong J. Appl. Phys. 112, 053920 (2012)
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129.174.21.5 On: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:37:05grains remain in the original field-cooling direction, continu-
ing to contribute to the pinning of the FM magnetizationalong the field-cooling direction
33,34and accounting for
exchange bias anisotropy.33,34The third type of AF grains,
which are rotatable-spin grains (or partially ordered grains),is in between the above two types, with weaker K
AFsuch
that the AF partial domain wall may form when the FM mag-
netization is aligned to another direction. However, when theFM magnetization reverses back to positive saturation, the
magnetization of these AF grains can be irreversibly
“flipped” to the FM layer direction. Hence, the magnetiza-tion of the AF grains becomes rotatable following the direc-
tion of the FM magnetization which accounts for the
rotational anisotropy. Figure 4(b) shows that the rotational
anisotropy has large fluctuations with temperature, but is rel-
atively stable and increases for the samples with the thicker
FM layers. In general, the rotational anisotropy should beincreased as the temperature increases, because the energy of
spins to overcome the energy barrier increases. Essentially,
the contributions to the rotational anisotropy depend on thedelicate balance among the three types of AF grains, namely
random-spin grains, frozen-spin grains, and rotatable-spin
grains. As temperature increases, some of the frozen-spin AFgrains may become rotatable-spin AF grains as described in
Fig. 5, since these AF grains become more unstable and
energetic. It is also possible for some weaker K
AFrotatable-
spin AF grains to become random-spin AF grains for the
same reason. Hence, the number of rotatable-spin AF grains
may be increased or decreased with rising temperature,depending on how many old rotatable-spin grains disappear
(because temperature causes them to be more unstable andturn into random-spin grains) and how many new rotatable-
spin grains are formed from the frozen-spin grains (also
because temperature causes them to be more unstable andturn into rotatable-spin grains). For all the three samples
with thicker FM layers, H
Krotshows increasing trends as the
temperature increases because the trend that frozen-spingrains are energetically unstable to become rotatable-spin
grains dominates. Yet, for the ones with thinnest FM layers,
H
Krotis decreased with temperature because in these cases,
the trend that rotatable-spin grains are energetically unstable
to become random-spin grains dominates.
As presented in Fig. 6(a), the FMR frequency is seen to
decrease with increasing temperature. This behaviour is
owing to the fact that the FMR frequency is dependent on
both the saturation magnetization M Sand the dynamic mag-
netic anisotropy field H Kdynaccording to Kittel’s equation35
as follows:
fFMR¼c
2pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ffi
HKdynðHKdynþ4pMSÞq
: (2)
Since H Kdyndecreases with temperature as in Fig. 4(a),a n d
MSobtained from the VSM is also decreased with tempera-
ture, the FMR frequency shows the same decreasing trend. It
is interesting to observe that the reduction of f FMR for the
sample with thin FM layers is more drastic than that of thesample with thicker FM layers. This is also due to the temper-
ature dependent behaviour of H
Kdynand M S. For example,
FIG. 5. Diagram describing how three types of AF grains change upon heat-
ing. With increasing temperature, a fraction of rotatable-spin (partially or-dered) AF grains becomes random-spin (disordered) AF grains and another
fraction of frozen-spin (fully ordered) AF grains become rotatable-spin (par-
tially ordered) AF grains.
FIG. 6. Temperature dependence of: (a) ferromagnetic resonance frequency
fFMR, (b) frequency linewidth Df, and (c) effective Gilbert damping coeffi-
cient aefffor [NiFe(t FMnm)/FeMn(15 nm)] 10multilayers with various FM
thicknesses as indicated in the legends.053920-4 Chen, Phuoc, and Ong J. Appl. Phys. 112, 053920 (2012)
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129.174.21.5 On: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:37:05when temperature is increased from 300 K to 420 K, the
reduction of H Kdynand M Sfor the sample with t FM¼120 nm
is only 15% and 9%, while the reduction for the sample witht
FM¼40 nm is 48% and 18%, respectively. As a result, the
reduction of f FMRfor the sample with t FM¼120 nm is only
14% while the reduction of f FMR for t FM¼40 nm is 37%.
This implies that in our exchange-biased system, the multi-
layers with thicker FM layers have more thermal stability.
The reason for this is possibly due to the fact that sampleswith thicker FM layers may have bigger FM grains leading to
more thermal stability than that with smaller grains.
15,36At
this moment, we should give a comment on the prospect ofemploying exchange-biased thin films for high frequency
applications at high temperatures. For the requirement from
microwave applications, one needs magnetic thin films withhigh resonance frequency and consequently exchange-biased
films with thinner FM layers are preferable as they offer
higher resonance frequency.
6–10,22However, the films with
thinner FM layers may have problems when working at high
temperatures as their thermal stability is worse than that of
samples with thicker FM layers. This dilemma is a seriousissue that needs more research to tackle.
The temperature dependence of the frequency linewidth
Dfand the effective Gilbert damping coefficient a
effderived
from LLG fitting of the permeability spectra are shown in
Figs. 6(b)and6(c), respectively. The frequency linewidth Df
is determined by the following formula:11,26
Df¼caef fð4pMSþ2HKdynÞ
2p: (3)
There are intrinsic and extrinsic contributions to the effective
Gilbert damping.6,26,37The intrinsic part comes from the
intrinsic Gilbert damping factor while the extrinsic part is
likely to come from many other factors such as anisotropic
dispersions, two-magnon scattering (TMS) processes,magnon-phonon scattering, and eddy current losses.
6,26,37,38
Increasing the temperature results in a higher damping due
to the system becoming more thermally activated, and hencemore dispersions and scattering processes.
6,26,37In the sam-
ples with thicker FM layers, the effective damping coeffi-
cient is higher which is possibly due to more dispersion ofthe magnetic anisotropy. Another possible physical origin of
the increasing of the effective damping coefficient with FM
thickness is the losses due to eddy current effect. As it iswell-known, the thicker the film is the higher loss the eddy
current effect produces
38and this higher loss causes a rise in
the effective Gilbert damping with the film thickness.Another possible mechanism that should not be ruled out is
the TMS contribution. The TMS processes are known to be
critically related to the film microstructures, such as defects,grain size, and surface roughness.
6,37Hence, an increase of
FM thickness may lead to a change to the film microstruc-
tures and consequently bring about a change in the effectiveGilbert damping due to the TMS contribution. However, an
investigation of the detailed microstructures of the film to
shed a light on the correlation between the TMS processesand the film microstructures in the present samples is rather
complicated and beyond the scope of this paper.IV. SUMMARYAND CONCLUSION
In summary, we report our systematic investigation of
the temperature dependence of the magnetic properties at the
gigahertz frequency range in the temperature range fromroom temperature to 420 K with the influence of ferromag-
netic thickness. The NFMM technique was used to obtain
the permeability spectra and the LLG theory was used to fitthe spectra to extract dynamic magnetic properties of the
multilayered NiFe/FeMn system. The static magnetic prop-
erties were obtained using the vibrating sample magnetome-ter. For the samples with varying ferromagnetic thickness
and fixed antiferromagnetic thickness, the dynamic magnetic
anisotropy field, ferromagnetic resonance frequency,
exchange bias field, coercivity field, saturation magnetiza-
tion, and static magnetic anisotropy field are found todecrease with temperature, while the effective damping
coefficient increases with temperature. The rotational mag-
netic anisotropy field becomes relatively stable at thickerferromagnetic layers. Finally, for this set of samples, this
study concludes that thicker ferromagnetic layers result in
more thermal stability of the magnetic properties at highertemperatures.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The financial support from the Defence Research and
Technology Office (DRTech) of Singapore is gratefullyacknowledged.
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1.5010948.pdf | Coupled breathing modes in one-dimensional Skyrmion lattices
Junhoe Kim , Jaehak Yang , Young-Jun Cho , Bosung Kim , and Sang-Koog Kim
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 123, 053903 (2018); doi: 10.1063/1.5010948
View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5010948
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/jap/123/5
Published by the American Institute of Physics
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Journal of Applied Physics 123, 063902 (2018); 10.1063/1.5011130Coupled breathing modes in one-dimensional Skyrmion lattices
Junhoe Kim, Jaehak Y ang, Y oung-Jun Cho, Bosung Kim, and Sang-Koog Kima)
National Creative Research Initiative Center for Spin Dynamics and Spin-Wave Devices, Nanospinics
Laboratory, Research Institute of Advanced Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering,
Seoul National University, Seoul 151-744, South Korea
(Received 27 October 2017; accepted 24 January 2018; published online 7 February 2018)
We explored strong coupling of dynamic breathing modes in one-dimensional (1D) skyrmion latti-
ces periodically arranged in thin-film nanostrips. The coupled breathing modes exhibit characteris-
tic concave-down dispersions that represent the in-phase high-energy mode at zero wavenumber
(k¼0) and the anti-phase low-energy mode at the Brillouin zone boundary ( k¼kBZ). The band
width of the allowed modes increases with decreasing inter-distance between nearest-neighboring
skyrmions. Furthermore, the collective breathing modes propagate very well through the thin-film
nanostrips, as fast as 200–700 m/s, which propagation is controllable by the strength of magneticfields applied perpendicularly to the film plane. The breathing modes in 1D skyrmion lattices
potentially formed in such nanostrips possibly can be used as information carriers in information
processing devices. Published by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5010948
I. INTRODUCTION
Magnetic skyrmions1,2are topologically stable spin
textures found in bulk crystals3,4and ultrathin-film layered
structures5–7owing to a broken inversion symmetry and a
strong spin-orbit coupling. Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction
(DMI)8in these systems plays a key role in the formation of
magnetic skyrmions.3–7The exotic topological spin texture of
skyrmions and their manipulation, as well as their dynamic
modes in the high-frequency sub-GHz-to-several-tens-of-GHz range, are of increasing interest from both fundamentaland technological perspectives.
6,9–23For example, reliable
control of skyrmion motions in narrow-width thin-film nano-
strips by spin-polarized currents or magnetic fields allows forimplementation of skyrmions in potential information-storageand -processing devices.
6,9–14Moreover, single skyrmions
in geometrically restricted magnetic dots exhibit unique
GHz-range dynamic motions such as lower-energy gyrationmodes and higher-energy breathing modes.
15–17Furthermore,
the breathing modes of dynamically stabilized skyrmions
have been reported.18Therefore, microwave generators
and detectors have been proposed based on their inherentdynamic modes.
19–22Additionally, spin-wave propagation
and their dispersion characteristics in one-dimensional (1D)
periodic arrays of skyrmions have been studied in the aspectof dynamic magnonic crystals.
23Very recently, the collective
gyration modes in coupled individual skyrmions have been
explored as information carriers,24,25as analogous to propa-
gating spin waves in magnonic crystals26–30and to propagat-
ing gyration modes in physically connected or separated
vortex-state disks.31–33
In this work, we explore the coupled breathing modes
between the nearest-neighboring skyrmions in thin-film nano-
strips showing characteristic concave-down dispersions. The
collective motions of the individual skyrmions’ breathingmodes propagate well through the continuous nanochannels
owing to the strong coupling characteristics of the neighboringskyrmions. Their propagation speed, in fact, is much higherthan those of skyrmion arrays’ coupled gyration modes,
25and
also can be controlled by applying perpendicular magneticfields.
II. MODELING AND SIMULATIONS
In the present study, we used the Mumax3 code34that
incorporates the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation35to
numerically calculate the dynamic motions of individual sky-rmions periodically arranged in magnetic nanostrips withan open boundary condition at all of the edges. Co thin filmnanostrips of 1 nm thickness and 40 nm width interfaced withPt were modeled as follows:
9saturation magnetization Ms
¼580 kA/m, exchange stiffness Aex¼15 pJ/m, perpendicular
anisotropy constant Ku¼0.8 MJ/m3, and DMI constant D¼3.0
mJ/m2. Different values of nanostrip length, l,w e r eu s e df o ra
single skyrmion ( l¼40 nm), two skyrmions (64 nm), five sky-
rmions (160 nm), and more skyrmions (800 nm).36,37The unit-
cell size used in the micromagnetic simulations was 1 :0/C21:0
/C21:0n m3. An initial magnetization state was assumed to be
that of the Neel-type skyrmion,38,39which was then relaxed for
100 ns using the damping constant a¼0.3, until its ground
state could be obtained. Once we had obtained the ground stateof a single skyrmion or skyrmion lattices, we used a smallerdamping constant of a¼0.0001 for better spectral resolution of
the excited dynamic modes. For relatively large damping con-
stants, the frequency peaks of skyrmions’ coupled modesbecome broadened and the propagating signal of those modesis quickly attenuated (Refs. 25and33). However, the peak
positions, dispersion curves, and propagation speeds showalmost the same trends for both smaller and larger dampingconstants. Although our results here were obtained with amuch smaller value of a¼0.0001 than those of real cases, such
as Ta/CoFeB/MgO of a lower damping constant /C240.015,
40,41a)Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: sangkoog@
snu.ac.kr
0021-8979/2018/123(5)/053903/6/$30.00 Published by AIP Publishing. 123, 053903-1JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 123, 053903 (2018)
the concept of the coupled modes of skyrmions can remain
valid for real samples.
In all of the simulations, we also used zero temperature
without consideration of the thermal effect. Although thermalnoises were not included, our observation of breathing-modecoupling between neighboring skyrmions can be applicable toreal samples (Pt/Co/Ta and Pt/CoFeB/MgO multilayers
13,41)a t
room temperature in cases where further optimizations ofmaterial parameters and structural design are made.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
First, in order to excite the breathing mode of a single
skrymion in a square dot as depicted in Fig. 1(a), we applied
the sinc-function field Hz¼H0sin½xHðt/C0t0Þ/C138=½xHðt/C0t0Þ/C138
for 100 ns with H0¼10Oe;xH¼2p/C250GHz,a n d t0¼1n s
over the entire area shown in Fig. 1(a). The temporal oscillation
ofhmzi,mzaveraged over the entire region and its fast Fourier
transformation (FFT) spectrum are plotted in Figs. 1(b) and
1(c), respectively. A single peak that appeared at 22.32 GHz
corresponds to the breathing-mode frequency. Figure 1(d)
shows the temporal oscillation hDmzðtÞið¼ h mzðtÞi /C0 h mzðt
¼0ÞiÞ(left column) along with snapshot images of the local
Dmz(right column), as obtained by the inverse FFT of the FFTpower of hmziand the local mzin the frequency regions of
Df¼22.30–22.34 GHz, respectively. The mzoscillation in the
core region with its maintained radial symmetry corresponds toa characteristic breathing-mode behavior representative of peri-
odic expansion and contraction of the core.
15–17
Next, we examined two skyrmions placed in a recta ngular
dot as indicated in Fig. 2(a). To excite all of the possible
breathing modes of the two skyrmions, we applied, in the – z
direction, a 10 ns-width pulse field of 500 Oe locally to onlyone of the two skyrmions. After the local field was turned off,
we monitored, under free relaxation for 100 ns, the hm
ziin two
different regions surrounding each core (i.e ., x¼0–32 nm for
the left skyrmion and x¼33–64 nm for the right skyrmion), as
s h o w ni nF i g . 3(b). The FFTs of the hmzioscillations in the two
regions are plotted in Fig. 3(c). Two distinct peaks denoted as
xlandxhare shown at 2 p/C220.55 and 2 p/C224.66 GHz,
respectively, in the given frequency range.42The frequency
splitting for the two skyrmions was the result of the symmetry
FIG. 1. (a) Ground-state single skyrmion in a square dot. (b) Temporal varia-
tion of the average mzcomponent hmzi, over an entire square dot by excitation
of breathing mode using sinc-function field Hz¼H0sin½xHðt/C0t0Þ/C138=½xHðt
/C0t0Þ/C138, with H0¼10Oe ;xH¼2p/C250GHz, and t0¼1 ns. (c) FFT power
spectrum, as obtained from fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of hmzioscillations.
(d)hDmzioscillations obtained from inverse FFTs of peak with frequency
band Df¼22.30–22.34 GHz. On the right are perspective-view snapshot
images of the local Dmzof the breathing mode at the indicated two representa-
tive times.
FIG. 2. (a) Two skyrmions in a rectangular dot. (b) Temporal variation of
average mzcomponents hmziover each skyrmion region separated by a verti-
cal dotted line ( x¼0–32 nm for the left skyrmion and x¼33–64 nm for the
right one). (c) FFT power spectra, as obtained from FFTs of hmzioscillations
for both left and right skyrmion regions. (d) Perspective-view snapshot
images of higher- and lower-frequency modes at indicated times for one
cycle of each mode.053903-2 Kim et al. J. Appl. Phys. 123, 053903 (2018)breaking of the potential energy profile of the isolated skyrmion
due to its coupling, similarly to the coupled vortex disks
described in Refs. 43and44. From the inverse FFTs of the
local mz, we obtained, in the perspective view, snapshot images
of both the lower xland higher xhmodes. For the xlmode,
the left-side and right-side skyrmion cores oscillate as a breath-
ing mode; that is, each core expands and contracts periodically,
but both cores oscillate in anti-phase with each other. On theother hand, for the x
hmode, both cores oscillate in-phase, as
shown in Fig. 2(d). The anti-phase breathing motion of the two
skyrmions shows a lower energy than the in-phase breathing
mode, because the breathing modes represent the expansion
and contraction of skyrmion cores. Therefore, the expansion
of both cores in the same z(or – z) direction incurs higher
energy cost of dynamic periodic motion. This effect is oppositeto those of the coupled gyration modes of skyrmions or mag-
netic vortices.
25,31In-phase gyration motion between neighbor-
ing skyrmions or magnetic vortices shows a lower energy
than anti-phase gyration motion. This can be explained by
the dynamic dipolar interaction between the gyrations of neigh-
boring disks in vortex-state disks,31while the exchange, DMI,
and magnetic anisotropy as well as the dipolar energy togethercontribute to the coupled gyration modes of neighboringskyrmions.
25Coupled breathing motions also are affected by
the above-noted magnetic interactions, although gyration cou-
pling between neighboring vortices in 1D arrays of vortex-statedisks is governed by dynamic dipolar interaction between the
neighboring vortex-state disks.
31
Additionally, we studied with a coupling of five skyrmions
in a nanostrip, as shown in Fig. 3(a). To excite all of the cou-
pled modes in this five-skyrmion system, we applied a pulse
field only to the left region marked by the rectangular box (i.e.,sky1). The FFTs of the temporal oscillations of the hm
ziof the
individual skyrmions showed characteristic spectra for the indi-
vidual skyrmions, as shown in Fig. 3(c). Five peaks denoted as
xi(i¼1, 2, 3, 4, 5) were found, the relative FFT powers of
which differed by each skyrmion. For all of the skyrmions,
the five different peaks were located at 19.34, 20.31, 21.66,23.09, and 24.24 GHz. The first and fifth skyrmions showed
all five peaks; the second and fourth skyrmions had no third
peak, and the third skyrmion had no second or fourth peak.In order to understand the collective breathing modes, we per-
formed, for all of the skyrmions, inverse FFTs of each peak.
Figure 3(d) shows the spatial profiles of the hDm
zivariation
of the five individual cores for the different coupled modes.
The hDmzivariation profiles represent five different standing-
wave modes with fixed boundaries at both ends (the imaginary0th and 6th skyrmion positions). The shapes of all of the
standing-wave modes were either symmetric or anti-symmetric
with respect to the center. For the x
1mode, all of the skyrmion
cores oscillated in anti-phase between the nearest-neighboring
skyrmions. For the x2,x3,a n d x4modes, the phase difference
between the neighboring skyrmions decreased as the wave-length of the standing waves increased, thus resulting in a
smaller number of nodes in the standing waves. For the x
5
mode, all of the cores oscillated in-phase without standing-
wave nodes. Accordingly, on the basis of the fixed boundary
condition,31the wave vector of the allowed modes is expressed
ask¼ðNþ1/C0mÞp=½ðNþ1ÞdintÞ/C138, with Nthe number of
skyrmions, dintthe skyrmion inter-distance, and ma positive
integer number that satisfies m/C20N. Therefore, the discrete
five-modes’ k-values of collective skyrmion core breathing are
given by km¼ð6/C0mÞp=6dint,w h e r e m¼1, 2, 3, 4, 5, as
indicative of each mode. The nodes can thus be found at the nth
skyrmion according to the condition sin ððð6/C0mÞp=6dintÞ^k
/C1ndint^xÞ¼0.
As noted earlier, the excited breathing mode from the left
skyrmion can propagate through the neighboring skyrmionarrays. Thus, coupled breathing modes in skyrmion lattices
can be used as information carriers, owing particularly to the
strong coupling between the nearest-neighboring skyrmions.Therefore, we further examined a more general system: a
one-dimensional (1D) skyrmion lattice strongly coupled in
narrow-width strips as shown in Fig. 4(a).W eu s e d2 5s k y -
rmions with d
int¼32 nm average inter-distance between
nearest-neighboring skyrmions in a given nanostrip. The cou-
pled modes were excited by applying a pulse field only to thefirst skyrmion at the left end. After the local field was turned
off, we monitored the dynamic oscillations of m
zaveraged
over each skyrmion region under free relaxation. From theFFTs of the temporal oscillations of the hm
zifor each of the
25 skyrmion core regions, we obtained a dispersion relation
FIG. 3. (a) Five skyrmions in the nanostrip of indicated dimensions. The
black dotted rectangular box (i.e., sky1) indicates the region wherein a pulsefield was applied for mode excitation. (b) Temporal evolution of hm
zioscil-
lations of each skyrmion and (c) their FFT spectra. (d) Spatial profiles of
coupled breathing modes for each mode, as represented by hDmziof each
skyrmion.053903-3 Kim et al. J. Appl. Phys. 123, 053903 (2018)within the corresponding reduced zone, as shown in Fig. 4(b).
The overall shape of the dispersion curve was concave down;the frequency was highest at k¼0 and lowest at the Brillouin
zone, k¼k
BZ.A t k¼0, all of the skyrmion cores moved
coherently, while at k¼kBZ, they showed anti-phase motions
between the nearest-neighboring skyrmions (i.e., the nodes ofthe standing waves were between the nearest-neighboring
skyrmions), as shown in Fig. 4(c). Such concave-down disper-
sion is characteristic of the coupled breathing modes of sky-rmion motions. This dispersion shape is opposite to theconcave-up shape of the coupled gyration modes of sky-rmions and the vortex gyration modes. The breathing modesof skyrmions exhibit periodic expansion and contraction ofthe core in its motion.
Next, we studied how the band structure can be con-
trolled with d
intin a 1D skyrmion lattice model. Figure 5(a)
shows the variation of the dispersion curve with dint.B o t h
band width Dxand angular frequency xk¼0atk¼0 increased
with decreasing dint. This behavior can be explained by the
variation of the interaction energy between the neighboringcores in dynamic motions for different d
intvalues. In Ref. 45,
it was reported that the repulsive force between the skrymioncores increases as d
intdecreases. The decrease of dintleads to
the increase of magnetic interaction energies between the
neighboring skyrmion cores, resulting in a larger frequency
splitting.43On the other hand, the angular frequency xk¼BZat
k¼kBZdoes not significantly vary with dint, because the
neighboring skyrmion cores expand or contract in anti-phaseatk¼k
BZ, resulting in rather less interaction between the
neighboring cores.
The external field also can change the dispersion of sky-
rmion lattices. Here, we performed further simulations byapplying perpendicular magnetic fields H
z¼þ2,þ1,/C01, and
/C02 kOe. Figure 6(a) plots the variation of the dispersion-
curve with Hz.A sHzincreases from negative to positive val-
ues, the bandwidth decreases, but xk¼0andxk¼BZincrease,
as shown in Fig. 6(b). This band structure change is caused bythe change in the skyrmion core profile along the field direc-
tion with field strength. For skyrmions with the downwardcore, the size of the core expands under a negative magneticfield, whereas it shrinks under a positive magnetic field. As
a result, the eigenfrequency of the skyrmion’s breathing mode
increases linearly with the perpendicular field strength H
z,
as similar to those found in single skyrmions17or their 1D
arrays. Furthermore, we confirmed by micromagnetic simula-tions that the eigenfrequency of the breathing mode of a sin-
gle skyrmion of the downward core in a square dot changes
linearly with the field strength [see the red line in Fig. 6(b)].
Note that the breathing frequency monotonically increaseswith H
zdue to the strong confinement in nanostrips of small
width ( w¼40 nm). Therefore, the linear dependences of xBZ
onHzare mainly related to the change in the eigenfrequency
of the single skyrmions.17,46,47Also, the size of the skyrmion
core decreases with increasing Hz, resulting in a decrease in
the interaction energy between the cores and in Dxas well
[see Fig. 7(c)].
Finally, we calculated a technologically important
parameter of the propagation speed of coupled breathing-mode signals through a given nanostrip wherein skyrmions
are periodically arranged. Figure 7(a) plots the temporal
FIG. 4. (a) 1D skyrmion lattice in 40 nm wide, 800 nm long strip. The col-
ors, as indicated by the color bar, correspond to the out-of-plane components
of local magnetizations mz¼Mz/Ms. (b) Dispersion curve of the 1D sky-
rmion lattice and (c) Spatial profiles of Dmzcomponents of individual sky-
rmions for coupled breathing modes at k¼0 and k¼p/a where a ¼32 nm.
FIG. 5. (a) Dispersion curves of 1D skyrmion chains and (b) angular fre-
quency at k¼k0andk¼kBZ.for different inter-distances dint¼27, 29, 32,
34, and 38 nm.053903-4 Kim et al. J. Appl. Phys. 123, 053903 (2018)oscillations of the hDmz0i¼hmz(t)i/C0hmz(ground state) icom-
ponents of the individual skyrmion cores for the 1D skyrmion
array ( N¼25) after applying a pulse field only to the first
skyrmion. The excited signal from the left end propagates
well through the neighboring skyrmions along the nanostrip.
The speed of the collective-breathing-mode signal was esti-mated, using the 1st wave packet’s movement along the sky-
rmion lattice (denoted by the black line), to be about 340 m/s.
This value is faster than the group velocity ( /C24260 m/s) of
spin-wave propagation in 2D skyrmion lattices with a MnSi
material.
48Furthermore, it is also about three times faster
than that of the gyration signal in the same system25and
more than five times faster than that of the gyration signal invortex disk arrays.
32It has been known that the propagating
speed in a two-coupled-vortex system is inversely propor-
tional to the energy transfer time sex¼p
jDxj¼pj
x0jðgx/C0p1p2gyÞj,
where x0is the eigenfrequency of the vortex gyration, jis
the stiffness coefficient, pis the vortex polarization, and g
is the interaction strength.43Accordingly, the collective
breathing modes also can offer an advantage in their propaga-
tion speed as an information carrier, since the eigenfrequency
of the breathing mode (tens of GHz) is much higher thanthose of other modes such as the skyrmion gyration mode
(/C241 GHz) and vortex gyration mode (hundreds of MHz).
Furthermore, the speed of the breathing-mode signal was also
estimated for different values of dintandHz, as shown in
Figs. 7(b) and7(c), respectively. The resultant propagation
speeds generally followed the dependence of Dxondintand
Hz, respectively. The most important point here is that the
speed of the breathing-mode signal was found to be reliably
controllable by the system, specifically by the skyrmion core
inter-distance as well as external parameters such as perpen-
dicular magnetic field strength and direction. For example,for further reduction of the skyrmion inter-distance, the speed
was increased to /C24540 m/s for the case of d
int¼27 nm, and
the speed also was readily increased to /C24700 m/s by applying
a perpendicular field of /C02 kOe in the þzdirection. Such
controllability of the signal speed as well as the dispersion
curve of collective breathing modes in 1D skyrmion lattices
can be implemented in multifunctional microwave and logicdevices operating within a frequency range as wide as a few
tens of GHz.
49
IV. SUMMARY
In summary, we studied coupled breathing modes in 1D
skyrmion lattices in thin film nanostrips. The coupled modes
and their characteristic concave-down dispersions were foundand explained by a standing-wave model with a fixed bound-
ary condition. The dispersion curve of the collective breath-
ing modes of coupled skyrmions was controllable by the
skyrmion inter-distance and externally applied perpendicular
FIG. 6. (a) Dispersion curves of 1D skyrmion chains for different perpendic-
ular fields Hz¼/C02,/C01, 0, 1, and 2 kOe. (b) Angular frequencies xk¼BZ,
xk¼0, and eigenfrequency x0of breathing mode for isolated skyrmion ver-
susHz.
FIG. 7. (a) Contour plot of hDmz0iof individual cores’ oscillations with
respect to time and distance in the whole chain. The bracket indicates
the average value of mzin each skyrmion region and hDmz(t)0i¼hmz
(t)i/C0hmz(ground state) i. (b) Propagation speed and Dxof coupled breathing
mode versus (b) dintand (c) Hz.053903-5 Kim et al. J. Appl. Phys. 123, 053903 (2018)magnetic fields. Moreover, the coupled breathing modes of
skyrmions propagated well through neighboring skyrmions,
as fast as 200–700 m/s, whose functionality makes thempotential information carriers in future information process-
ing devices.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was supported by the Basic Science
Research Program through the National Research Foundation
of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and
Future Planning (NRF-2015R1A2A1A10056286).
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1.1662444.pdf | Theory of domainwall motion in magnetic films and platelets
J. C. Slonczewski
Citation: J. Appl. Phys. 44, 1759 (1973); doi: 10.1063/1.1662444
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Downloaded 28 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsTheory of domain-wall motion in magnetic films and platelets
J. C. Slonczewski
IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598
(Received 15 August 1972)
We calculate dynamical properties of plane and cylindrical magnetic domain walls in a uniaxial film
or platelet whose plane is perpendicular to the easy axis. First, we calculate the internal structure of
a freely moving wall to determine the nonlinear velocity-momentum relation. Using a Bloch-line
approximation to the kinetic wall energy, we find that stray magnetic fields emanating from surface
poles destabilize the structure at a critical velocity Vp' above which uniform motion is not possible.
For a plane wall, we have Vp =24yA /hK 112, where y is the gyromagnetic ratio, A is the exchange
stiffness, h is the film thickness, and K is the anisotropy. This velocity is usually much less than the
critical velocity for bulk wall motion derived by Walker. Combination of the velocity-momentum
relation with the conservation of momentum provides a simple method of calculating the
time-dependent velocity in the presence of a small drive field and small viscous damping. For very
small drive, the terminal velocity equals that given by the conventional linear-mobility theory.
However, for small drives exceeding a critical value corresponding to Vp' a periodic cycle of
Bloch-line generation, motion, and annihilation takes place at a frequency approaching the Larmor
frequency corresponding to the driving field. This is accompanied by a synchronous nonsinusoidal
oscillation of the wall, with a mean forward velocity tending to an asymptote Vo. Our relation
Vo= 7.1 yA / hK 112 agrees within a factor of 3 with the onset of nonlinear behavior observed by
means of bubble collapse in certain low-loss garnet specimens. Partial support is also given by data
for hexaferrite platelets. For radial motion of cylinders with finite diameter D, numerically
computed values of Vo are larger but never exceed this expression by more than 17%. The critical
velocity r;, also varies little for D / h > 2, but varies rapidly and attains large values for small D / h .
I. INTRODUCTION
We have recently derived nonlinear equations of motion,
based on the Landau-Lifshitz equation, for a generally
curved surface representing the boundary between op
positely oriented magnetic domains. 1,2 The material was
assumed to be uniaxial in first-order approximation,
with anisotropy constant K. The principal approximation
made was to neglect the velocity dependence of the wall
thickness .:l. This approximation is particularly appro
priate to materials satisfying the strong inequality
K»27TM2, which ensures the constancy of.:l. Moreover,
the current interest in "bubble" devices spurs the inves
tigation and perfection of materials satisfying the weak
er condition K>27TM2. 3 Thus, on the one hand, we have
a condition which facilitates the theory of domain-wall
motion without restriction to cases of uniform motion,
one-dimensional treatment, or small amplitude. On the
other hand, we have available for experimentation mixed
garnet and magnetoplumbite single-crystal films and
platelets to which the theory applies as a limiting case.
The first application considered was a medium without
boundaries. 1,2 However, the preferred experimental
geometry is a film or plate whose plane is normal to the
easy axis. The stray fields arising' from the surface
have a strong influence on the motion, and cannot be ig
nored. The object of this paper is to propose a workable
approach to this case and present results for simple
limiting cases. A brief report of some of this work, to
gether with experimental work of co-authors is already
available. 4
SchlOmann has also studied the motion of domain walls
in films. 5 Although his theory resembles ours, as de
tailed below, his results cannot be compared with ours
because he has considered the opposite case of easy
axis parallel to film surface, applicable to Permalloy
films.
1759 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 44, No.4, April 1973 In Sec. II, we review the general equations of motion
and derive a momentum conservation relation. In Sec.
III, we reduce the problem of wall-surface motion in the
presence of a drive field and damping to that of a single
coordinate and its conjugate momentum, without sacri
ficing the most important three-dimensional considera
tions. In Sec. IV, we discuss the kinetic structure and
resulting velocity-momentum relationShip for a plane
wall in a film. In Sec. V, we derive the nonlinear velo
city-field relation based on this kinetic structure. In
Sec. VI, we adapt the plane-wall theory to the radial
motion of a cylinder domain of finite diameter. In Sec.
VII, we compare the theory with experiment. The dis
cussion in Sec. VIII touches on the question of bubble
device data rate.
II. GENERAL RELATIONS
The theory rests on wall-motion equations derived pre
viously.1 The total energy W of the system is assumed
to have the conventional form
W=J J J [AM"2(VM)2+Ksin2e+H2/87T]dxdydz, (2.1)
where M(x, y, z) is the spontaneous magnetization vector,
A is the exchange stiffness constant, e(x, y, z) is the
polar angle defined by e=arccos(M.lM), and K(>O) is
the uniaxial anisotropy constant. The magnetic field H
satisfies the magneto static equations
v. (H+ 47TM) = 0, V XH= 0 (2.2)
and the corresponding boundary conditions that
(H + 47TM) • nand n XH are continuous, where n is a vec
tor normal to the surface in question.
Suppose e(x, y, z) to be continuous and to satisfy 0.,,; e.,,; 7T
everywhere and that there exist two domains with e -0
and e -7T, respectively. Then we may define a time-de
pendent geometric surface, the Bloch surface, by the
Copyright © 1973 American Institute of Physics 1759
Downloaded 28 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions1760 J.e. Slonczewski: Domain-wall motion in films
locus of points y == q(x, z, t) at which () == t1T. In first-or
der approximation, the transition layer (wall) between
domains has the conventional Bloch structure
()= 2 arctan{exp[(y -q)/ ~]}, (2.3)
where ~ '" (A/K)1/2 is the conventional thickness para
meter. This formula is accurate when I aq / ax I and
I aq/ az I are small compared to unity, and ~ is small
compared to domain size or other dimensions describing
the instantaneous domain structure.
In his solution of the one-dimensional uniform- motion
problem, Walker found the azimuthal angle 1/!, defined
by M,,= Msin() cos1/!, to be constant. 6,7 In our three-di
mensional problem, we allow 1/!(x, z, t) to vary over the
Bloch surface, and we have justified the neglect of its
variation across the thickness of the wall. 1 This angle
describes the orientation of a Bloch moment J.L per unit
area of the Bloch surface. The moment J.L lies in the
xy plane and its magnitude is
/l = 1.: M sin() dy = 1T ~M,
where () is given by Eq. (2.3).
In our previous paper, 1 the equations of motion
~== _ (y/2M)(o%q) _ a~-iq,
q== (y/2M)(oa/olf;) + a~~, (2.4)
(2.5)
(2.6)
were derived from the Landau-Lifshitz equation. Here
oa(x, z) is the surface variation of energy defined by
OW== f f oadxdz, (2.7)
and discussed in detail previously. 1 The quantities oa/oq
and oa/o1/! are the usual functional derivatives
oa", aa -V.~
oq aq avq' (2.8a)
(2.8b)
where V is now and henceforth the gradient in xz space.
The constant a is Gilbert's dimensionless viscous damp
ing coefficient. The formula for oa in the limit I Vq I «1,
~IV1/!1 «1, is
oa= {iaO(VQ)2+ 2A~(V1/!)2+ 41T~M2 sin2(1/! -:~) ]
+ 1T~M(H"sin1/!-Hycos1/!)o1/!- 2MH.Oq (ao"'4A1I2K1I2).
(2.9)
Equation (2 _ 5) states that the precession rate of the
Bloch moment at any point is proportional to the sum of
conservative and dissipative pressures on the wall.
Equation (2. 6) states that the velOCity of any point on the
Bloch surface is proportional to the sum of conservative
and dissipative torques on the Bloch moment. Aside
from dissipative terms, these equations are of Hamil
ton's form with 2M1f;/y the canonical momentum conju
gate to q. Their principal limitation is to neglect the
velocity-dependent contraction of the thickness~, im
plying the condition
sin21/!«Q=K/21TM2. (2.10)
If we want 1/! to be arbitrary, then we are limited by Q
J. Appl. Phys_, Vol. 44, No.4, April 1973 »1. Thus our equations represent a limiting case of
"magnetic bubble" materials, which are required to
satisfy Q:; 1.3 1760
With respect to the boundary conditions for Eqs. (2.5)
and (2. 6), we note the absence of surface terms in the
dynamic reaction of a magnetic medium at a magnetic
nonmagnetic boundary. In other words, there are no
surface concentrations of magnetic moment. In addition,
we neglect surface terms, such as surface anisotropy,
which might be present in the energy. We assume also
that the function (3(x, z) = 0 which defines the magnetic
nonmagnetic boundary does not depend on y. Then by the
usual procedure of calculus of variations, we find the
boundary conditions
aa aa
a(aq/an) = a(a1/!/an) = 0, (2.11)
where n is a coordinate normal to the boundary. We note
that, because of the term 41T~M20 sin2(1/! -aq/ ax) in Eq.
(2.9), this condition is not generally equivalent to the
limit ~ -0 of the condition aMI an = 0 of the Landau
Lifshitz equation. Such an equivalence should not be ex
pected because the order of a limit and derivative is not
generally interchangeable.
In addition to previously derived properties of Eqs. (2.5)
and (2.6), 1 such as the energy-conservation relation
(2. 12)
we may write a useful momentum-conservation relation.
Let us integrate both sides of Eq. (2.5) over the entire
wall surface:
f f dxdz[$+ (y/2M)(oa/oq) + a~ -lq]= O. (2.13)
By integrating the second term of Eq. (2.8a) and substi
tuting the boundary conditions (2.11) and Eq. (2.9), we
find
f f dxdz ~a = f f dxdz aa == -2M f f H.dxdz. (2.14) vq aq
Thus Eq. (2.13) becomes the momentum-conservation
relation expressed by
~= yii. -a~-i~, (2.15)
where the bar over any quantity Signifies an average
over x and z. According to this equation, the Bloch wall
in its entirety constitutes a "compound body" whose to
tal momentum is impelled by the total external force
minus the viscous retarding force. In the limit a= 0, it
represents a curious generalization of the Larmor rela
tion n= yH., requiring the wall as a whole to satisfy it
but not any local portion of it.
It is clear that the self-field Hw that is, the field ema
nating from the divergence of magnetization, contributes
nothing to H". For, a virtual uniform translation, q -q
+ E: where E: is constant, involves virtual work in the
amount 2ME: J J dxdz H., and only the external field can
do work on our translationally invariant system. There
fore, only the external field is involved in Eq. (2.15).
III. VELOCITY-FIELD RELATION
Independent of our work, SchlOmann has recently ex-
Downloaded 28 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions1761 J.e. Slonczewski: Domain·wall motion in films
(0) ENERGY
(b) VELOCITY
2.".
FIG. 1. Schematic energy Wi and velocity ui versus momentum
ljj for stable kinetic domain-wall structures in a magnetic film
or platelet. The values Iii = Iii! and lP2 are critical points at which
the structure becomes unstable.
amined the motion of free domain walls in infinite media 7
and thin films with the easy axis parallel to the film
plane. 5 Neglecting both the applied field and dissipation,
he calculates the internal structure of a freely moving
domain wall consistent with an assumed uniform velo
city u. Although the stray-field energy of the film case
was calculated in two dimensions, the theory is one
dimensional in the sense that the wall structure is as
sumed constant over the wall surface. SchlOmann finds
a velocity bound V crlt (which we denote Vp), depending
on material parameters and film thickness, which can
not be exceeded if the motion is to remain uniform. 5
Given the structure for any u less than Vp, it is simple
to calculate the dependence of terminal velocity on ap
plied field H. for light damping. It is only necessary to
calculate the power dissipated by the structure corres
ponding to the given velocity and equate it with the ex
ternally supplied power 2MH.u. 8 Palmer and Willoughby
have carried out this procedure for a bulk case involving
cubic anisotropy and magnetostriction.9 They worked
out numerically a nonlinear mobility relation, taking
into account the velocity dependence of the wall struc
ture. In the bulk uniaxial case, this approximate proce
dure is not necessary because Walker's exact solution is
correct for arbitrarily large damping. 6 Remaining in all
work to date is the question of what happens when H. ex
ceeds the field Hp corresponding to VI>'
The theory beginning in this section differs in important
respects from SchlOmann's film theory5 and all pre
vious theories. First, we allow the wall structure rep
resented by the functions q(x, z) and ljJ(x, z) to 7ary over
the wall surface, but at the cost of neglecting the velo
city-dependent wall contraction, which is unimportant
for 21TM2 «K. Second, we go one step further to calcu
late the nonuniform motion in the range H. >Hp. Since
our application (in Sec. IV) is to the case of easy axis
normal to the film plane, our results cannot be com-
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 44, No.4, April 1973 1761
pared with SchlOmann's.
We assume again that the sample surfaces are generated
by lines parallel to y, as in a plate of uniform thickness.
Then, if we neglect at first the applied field (Ii.== 0) and ... viscous damping (a== 0), ljJ vanishes according to Eq.
(2.15), We can then seek uniform solutions to Eqs. (2.5)
and (2.6), that is, with constant q==u and vanishing $.
These equations become
15(J/l5ljJ==2MuYl, 15(J/l5q==O. (3.1)
Since the variable q' '" q -ut does not depend on time,
and Wis translationally invariant by assumption, it fol
lows that these equations represent static equilibrium in
a coordinate system moving with velocity u. They may
be written in the variational form
I5(W- 2uMy-1~) == 0, (3.2)
where 15 represents variation with respect to the func
tions q'(x, z) and ljJ(x, z), and where we now and hence
forth normalize W [Eq. (2.7)] to unit projected wall
area. Equation (3. 2) in the limit of constant q' and ljJ re
duces essentially to the variational principle of Doring, 10
which is expressed by Eqs. (1) and (2) of SchlOmann, 5 in
the limit M2/K-0.
Since the constant 2uM/y plays a role of a Lagrange
multiplier, Eq. (3.2) may be written in the equivalent
constrained form
I5W== 0, ~== const, (3.3)
with u to be determined as explained below. For any
given ~ there exists at least one solution of this pro
blem, namely, the absolute minimum of W, since W is
a positive definite functional [Eq. (2.1)]. In general,
there exist n solutions
ljJ== ljJi(X, z, ~), q==u/t+ q/(x, z, ~
with kinetic energy W== W/(~, i== 1, 2, ... , n.
Now let us evaluate the derivative
dwliP) ==ff(l5(J 8ljJ/ + o(J 8q 1\ d d lliP" I5ljJ 8'iJi I5q 8lJi) x z.
Upon substitution of Eqs. (3.1) this becomes
dWI_ 2MUlff~d d (if -Y 8ijj x z.
Since the last integral is unity, the result is
_ 'Y dWI
UI-2M d~ , i==1,2, •.. ,n. (3.4)
(3.5)
(3.6)
(3.7)
This equation expresses the expected relation between
velocity, kinetic energy WI, and total cononical momen
tum 2M~h, considering the wall as a compound body.
Since all of the foregoing relations are unchanged by the
transformation 1/J-ljJ+ 21T, the periodic pattern of UI(lJi)
resembles the band structure of quantized electrons
moving in a periodic crystalline potential. We describe
the functions ljJl, q I' and UI as aspects of "kinetic wall
structure" .
We consider physically meaningful only those kinetic
structures which are dynamically stable. For a general
state of motion under the condition a== 0, dW/dt vanish
es according to Eq. (2.15). Then, in view of the as-
Downloaded 28 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions1762 J.e. Slonczewski: Domain·wall motion in films
FIG. 2. Schematic mean velocity Ii versus t in the presence of
a step-driving field Ha initiated at t~ 0, for two values of Ha.
Also shown is the approximate velocity Uj(t) for the case
Ha:> Hp' according to the present theory.
sumed translational invariance of W, the question of
dynamical stability in the laboratory frame reduces to
the question of static stability in the frame of the moving
domain wall. Thus, any given ldnetic structure specified
by Zjj and i is stable if W is a positive-definite functional
of 1/J(x, z), q(x, z) in a small neighborhood of 1/Jj(x, z, 1Jj),
qj(x, z, ~), holding q and ~ constant, and not otherwise.
In general, a stable structure for a given i will depend
continuously on~, perhaps terminating at a certain
point where the solution of Eq. (3.2) becomes either
nonexistent or unstable. Therefore a plot of Wj(~) or
Ui(~) for stable structures with all i generally consists
of a family of curves, some having endpoints and others
not. Since the equations of motion are invariant under
the transformation 1/J -1/J+ 21T, such plots also have the
period 21T. Schematic plots for the case of a film or
plate (details in Secs. IV and VI) are shown in Fig. 1.
Suppose the set of stable multivalued velocity functions
UI(~) are known. Then, the motion of the wall for finite
external driving field H.~(t) and ex may be found with re
lative ease under certain assumptions. First, we as
sume that Hu and ex are sufficiently small that the in
stantaneous velocity lj(t) is given by one or another
branch of the relation UI(ZP). This relation may be sub
stituted for ~ in the momentum conservation relation
(2.15) to give
(3.8)
This first-order differential equation is easily inte
grated numerically in practical cases. Th~ solution Zjj(t)
may in turn be used to provide q(t) = f~UI[1/J(t')]dt' by
direct integration.
The qualitative prediction of Eq. (3.8) for a step field
li •• = 0 (t < 0), li •• = Ha (t :> 0), where Ha is constant, is
illustrated in Fig. 2. Suppose the initial (at t= 0) condi
tions q= 0 and $= 0, with the wall structure on branch
i= 1 in Fig. 1. If Ha is small, then u, and ~ increase
with t along the branch i = 1 in accordance with Eq.
(3.8), approaching exponentially en asymptotic "termi
nal" velocity q .. found by setting $= o. It is given by
~~=Uj(t=oo)=~'YHa/ex. (3.9)
The velocity of this motion is sketched in Fig. 2. This
equation, of course, is the conventional linear-mobility
relation, which is unaffected by the structural details
described by $1(X, z) and q1(X, z). It holds under the con
dition
J. Appl. Phvs., Vol. 44, No.4, April 1973 1762
(3.10)
where Hp is the field corresponding to the peak velocity
for stable motion on the appropriate branch, as indi
cated in Fig. l(b) for branch 1.
Now suppose Ha >Hp. Then, according to Eq. (3.8) Ifj and
q = U1 respond to the step drive by increaSing with time
(see Fig. 2) until q(t1) = Vp at which point (1jj= ~ in Fig.
1) the structure on branch i = 1 becomes unstable. Be
yond this point the now unsteady motion does not obey
q= u1 nor Eq. (3.8) and recourse must be made to the
full partial differential equations (2.5) and (2.6). These
equations describe rapid fluctuations Owing to internal
forces not vanishing with Ha and ex. We assume that with
the passage of time the nonlinearities in the equations
cause these fluctuations to increase rapidly in spatial
and temporal frequency so that at some point in time the
fluctuations may be considered thermal and therefore
negligible. Since W is considered to exclude thermal
energy, we adjust W by subtracting the amount of ther
malized energy and note that the attendant temperature
rise is, in practical cases, a very small fraction of
10K. Moreover, given sufficient time, the thermal en
ergy diffuses away from the wall via lattice vibrations
and bulk spin waves. At room temperature, then, the
"renormalized" equations of motion (2.5) and (2.6), ne
glecting thermal fluctuations, are practically the same
as before. It follows that the system tends to some new
stable branch, say i= 2 with diminished W= W2(~) and a
new velocity U2(~) (see Fig. 1). The velocity q is peri
odic in time as illustrated in Fig. 2, with reversals of
sign possible.
To diSCUSS this case Ha :>Hp quantitatively, let us write
q(t) = Uj[Zjj(t)] + q(t-tl_1), (3.11)
where i is the branch index toward which the instanta
neous wall structure tends at time t, following an in
stability on branch i -1 at t= tl_1• Thus ~ represents,
by definition, the correction to q caused by the unstable
episode in the motion. Also let N be the smallest integer
required to satisfy the condition
1jJCt + T) = 1jj(t) + 21TN. (3.12)
(In simple cases N= 1, but other values are possible.)
Then, if H.~ and ex are proportional to a common infini
tesimal expansion parameter A, it is clear from Eq.
(3.8) that the time period T is proportional to A-1• But,
in the limit A-0 the dependence of ~ on t-t, should tend
to a limiting function with a limiting characteristic time
constant of decay. Therefore, the limiting displacement
correction f~ dt during this finite period becomes ne
gligible compared to the displacement based on Eq.
(3.8), since T tends to infinity. It follows that Eq. (3.8),
together with the set U1(iP), describes the motion in the
limit of small Ha and ex.
We derive a closed expression for the mean velocity in
the case Ha >Hp as follows. Integration of Eq. (2.15)
with respect to t from t= 0 to T gives
(3.13)
(3.14)
where V is the time average velocity. Equation (2.15)
Downloaded 28 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions1763 J.e. Slonczewski: Domain·wall motion in films
h + + +
o~------~-L~~+~+-y FIG. 3. Schematic illustration
of domain wall with y-coor
dinate q in a film of thickness
h. Surface poles giving rise to
stray-field component Hy acting
on wall are indicated.
q
may also be written
dt [H A -1( + l. ) ]-1 dlj/= Y a-a .... u, q/ • (3.15)
Integrating this equation, taking care to use the value of
i appropriate to the instantaneous~, one finds
!o2rN dt -1iil
T= -=d1/!=E [YHa-a~-l(ul+~I)]-ld~, o d1/! j ~j-l
(3.16)
where !PI is the unstable terminus of the stable branch
u/i$). The summation is carried over one cycle in time
ordered sequence, so that
(3.17)
From the argument given above it is clear that, in the
limit A -0, the range of ~ over which ~ I is appreciable
tends to zero. Neglecting ~ I in Eq. (3.16) and eliminat
ing T with Eq. (3. 13), one has
V=A:Hq{1_2WN[~ ~j~f1d~ (1-~;~!rrl} (3.18)
under the condition that ~YHa/ a exceeds the maximum u, occurring in the cycle, i. eo, Ha > Hp.
Now, consider the special case a/Ha= O. Retaining ~ in
Eq. (3.11) and integrating with respect to t, one has
V= r-1 E ftl [u,(t)+ ~(t-t'_l)]dt.
, t'_l (3.19)
Substituting the exact relation (3.13) with a= 0, and in
tegrating with the help of Eqs. (2.15) and (3.7), one
finds
(3.20)
where
(3.21)
The term Wf(~') -W'+l(~') is the energy disSipated at the
ith instability in the cycle. The form of Eq. (3.20)
shows that the neglected velocity correction ~ I contri
butes to the first-order dependence of V on HQ• This
observation illustrates the fact that our Eq. (3.18) is
correct only to zero order in a and H •. It is, however,
formally exact in the ratio H./ a.
We remark in passing that Eq. (3.21) is a direct conse
quence of conservation of energy and the Larmor pre
cession principle. It falls out of equating the input power
2MH" Vo to the dissipated energy Ej [W,(iP,) -W1+1(iP1)]
divided by the time 2wN /yH" required for N Larmor
cycles.
IV. KINETIC WALL STRUCTURE IN A THIN
FILM
According to Sec. TIl, the velocity-momentum relation
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 44, No.4, April 1973 1763
u,(~) of a freely moving wall is the key to deriving the
velocity-field relation in the limit of low losses. We
discuss it here for the simplest problem with one finite
dimension-an infinite plate of constant thickness h. We
assume its faces to be given by z = 0, h, and that it con
tains a single infinite domain wall with q and 1/! indepen
dent of x, as indicated in Fig. 3.
Interpreted literally, this model is somewhat artificial
because Hagedorn has shown that a single wall is stati
cally unstable with respect to Sinusoidal deformation, in
the absence of a gradient dHeei dy in the external field. 11
If a gradient sufficient for stability were provided, then
servoing of He with respect to q(t) would be required to
maintain the free-wall condition H"6[Y= q(t)]= O. None
theless we believe this model takes into account the
physical mechanisms essential to the velocity-field rela
tion for stable structures such as cylinder and stripe
domains. It should have some quantitative validity for a
cylinder of diameter D in the limit D/h- oo• The case of
general D/h is treated in Sec. VI.
The assumption ~ «h, made in the remainder of this
paper is usually well satisfied in experiments, Since,
in garnet films, ~ "'0.1 IJ,m and h is several IJ,m typi
cally. The more serious approximation of neglecting the
Bloch-line thickness in comparison with h is discussed
at the end of this section and in Sec. VII.
Figure 3 indicates a stray-field distribution emanating
from magnetic poles on the film surfaces. The presence
of the nonuniform component H y of this field at the wall
surface ensures that fJ1/!/ fJz"* O. Moreover, under .our
free uniform-motion assumptions (H. = 0, a= 0, !P= 0,
q=u), the differential equations (3.1) for 1/! and q-ut
are coupled through the magnetostatic interaction of the
surface monopole density -2M fJq / fJz with the surface di
pole density w~M sin1/!. However, we assume, in spite
of this, that the wall is flat (fJq/ fJz = 0). To support this
assumption, we consider first that the energy terms de
pending only on q(z), namely, the surface energy
f~dz ~(]o( aq/ fJZ)2 and the magneto static self-energy of the
pole density -2M fJq / fJz, are quadratic functionals of
fJq/ fJz and are each minimized by aq/ fJz = O. Second, one
can see from symmetry that the potential due to
w~M sin1/!, for arbitrary 1/!(z), is odd to zero order in
y -q. It follows that the magneto static interaction be
tween -2MfJq/ fJz and w~M sin1/! vanishes to first order in
q(z) -q. Therefore, the energy is stationary at the flat
wall state fJq/fJz= O. Since the surface energy dominates
in the limit of large Q, the flat wall provides a minimum
of the energy. Therefore we may safely let W be a func
tional of 1/!(z) alone.
Given the flatness of the wall, the only remaining non
local interaction is the magneto static self-energy of the
surface dipole distribution w~M Sin1/!. This energy is
small compared to the local demagnetizing energy
4w~M2 sin21/!, a point discussed fully in the Appendix.
With the nonlocal interaction neglected, W reduces (ac
cording to Eqs. (2.7) and (2. 9)J to a surface integral of
a local energy density,
W= h-1 JtO'dz, (4.1)
0'= 2A~ (~!y + 4w~M2 siull1/! -w~MHy sin1/!. (4.2)
Downloaded 28 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions1764 J.e. Slonczewski: Domain·wall motion in films
FIG. 4. Kinetic structure of
a plane wall in a film. (a)
indicates moment orientation
in a plane perpendicular to
both wall plane y = 0 and film
plane z = O. Stray fields from
surface poles twist wall
moment as shown. (b) shows
calculated contours of con
stant magneto static energy
urn -u"., and schematic func
tions I/J (z) for three different
velocities. Curve 2 with a
Bloch line (BL) at Z= z, corre
sponds to the moment config
uration in (a). [The sign con
vention for M and H in this
figure is opposite that of Eq.
(2.3) and Fig. 3.1
A simple magneto static calculation of the stray field
yields the formula
R ... =-4M[lnz-In(h-z)] (4.3)
in the limit Il/h= O. (Here the Signs of M and H differ
from Fig. 3).
Let us now examine the variational problem (3.3) for
any given~. First consider the magnetostatic terms
O'rn = 4rr/lM2 sin21/! -rrllMH y(z) Sin1/! (4.4)
of Eq. (4.2) alone. Let O'mo(z) be the minimum of O'm(z, 1/!)
with respect to !/J at 1/!= trr ± ¢(z), 0 < ¢ < rr. Contours of
O'm -O'mo in the space 1/!, z are shown by the faint (con
tinuous and dashed) curves in Fig. 4(b). The dashed
curves represent the minimum contour O'm = O'mo' (Note
that subtracting O'mo from 0' has a trivial effect on the
variational problem.)
Suppose tge exchange coefficient All is small. Then the
solution 1/!(z) of Eq. (3.3) should lie near a segment of
the minimum contour. Beginning with ~= 0, it may lie
along curve 1 of Fig. 4(b). If we now increase ~ con
tinuously to some value ~(2)' then 1/!(z) may change con
tinuously to a curve such as curve 2 in Fig. 4(b), which
follows minimum contours except in a narrow transition
region surrounding the point z = z" where 1/! = h. Fig
ure 4(a) depicts the moment configuration represented
by ~(2)' It is reasonable to expect most of the energy to
be concentrated in this transition region, and we esti
mate it using the concept of a Bloch line, analogous to
a Bloch wall. To do this, we neglect the z dependence
of Hy, setting it equal to the constant Hy(z ,). We write
the Bloch line energy
(b) 1764
(4.5)
under the condition that 1/! approaches the magneto static
minima h ± ¢(z ,) (0" ¢ ., rr) for z -z ,-'F 00, respective
ly. The extremal can be found from the usual Euler
equation. (See the Appendix for details.)
There are three cases, pertaining to three ranges of Hy:
I. Hy~ 8M, ¢= 0, WL= 0;
IT. IHy I., 8M, ¢= Cos-1H/8M, (4.6)
WL = BAMh-1(2rr/K)1/2(sin¢ -¢ cos¢); (4.7)
ITI. Hy" -8M, ¢ = rr,
W L = 41l(rrAM)1I2h-1
xl: [ -2M sin21/!+ t I H y 1(1 + cos1/!)]1/2 dl/!, (4.8)
where ¢ and H yare understood to be evaluated at the
point z=z,.
By definition, the momentum is given by
~= h-1 1: 1/!dz. (4.9)
In Fig. 4(b) it is evident that h1/!(2l> say, is equal to the
area between curves 1 and 2. In the Bloch-line limit we
consider l/! to lie exactly on minimum contours except
near z = z ,. Therefore ~ becomes
¢=2h-1 f'¢(z)dz,
a (4.10)
where z=z. and zb-;;h-za are the critical points, satis
fying ¢ (z a) = 0, ¢ (Z b) = rr, which separate the three re
gions of Eqs. (4.6)-(4.8). The velocity is found from
Eqs. (3.7, (4.7), and (4.10) to be
U1 = _ yA (2..)1/2 BHy(z I)
2M 2K 8z, (4. 11)
for IHyl., 8M, that is to say, for z. <z, <Zb' Substituting
the stray-field expression (4.3), we find
U1 = 2yA( rr/2K)1I2[z;1 + (h -z ,)"1] (4. 12)
in this range, with z. = hl(1 + e2) now.
The Bloch-line relations given above describe W1 = WL(~)
and U1 (~) through the parameter ¢ (z I), in view of the in
tegral (4.10), which requires numerical evaluation. We
obtain thus the branch i= 1 of the relations W(~) and
u/iP) plotted on a reduced scale in Figs. 5(a) and 5(b),
respectively. The curves labelled i = 1 for ~ < 0 arise
from a Bloch line which nucleates at z, = Z b' A second
branch i= 2 may be constructed by beginning at 1fj= rr
with a 1/!(z) which follows the minimum contour ABC in
FIG. 5. Kinetic energy Wi (a) and
velocity Uj (b) versus momentum ip
-1T"
n~ O-In~ +. 1T"
U, u2
-2
-Vp -Vp for a stable kinetic wall structure, cal
culated in the Bloch-line limit. WI is
in units of SAM(2il IK)! IZh-! and u, (s
in units of 4yA(27TIK)1/2h-1.
J. Appl. Phvs., Vol. 44, No.4, April 1973
Downloaded 28 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions1765 J.e. Slonczewski: Domain·wall motion in films
." 2'
z. z
FIG. 6. Illustration comparable to Fig. 4(b) showing nature of
instability for a Bloch line AB whose position lies between a
critical point and the film surface (z, > z,). A second Bloch
line may nucleate at a point c (z = zb) and move toward the left
to any position, such as DE with a decrease in energy at
constant iP.
Fig. 4(b), having odd symmetry about 1fi== rr. Increasing
(or decreasing) ijj from this point nucleates a Bloch line
at z = Z b (or z.). It is clear that 1fi2(ijj, z) == 1fil (ijj+ rr, h -z)
+rr, and U2==ul(ijj+rr). Although the general equations
(Sec. III) require the period 2rr, the higher symmetry of
this particular problem yields the period rr for u(lP) if we
eradicate the subscript.
Figure 5 shows the kinetic structure terminating abrupt
ly at the point lP== lPh and similar points. The reason for
this is that, for H y" -8M, corresponding to z > Z band
lP > lPl' the wall structure with a single Bloch line (AB in
Fig. 6) becomes unstable. A second Bloch line (DE in
Fig. 6) may form. Rather than deal with the question of
multiple Bloch lines we make the model assumption that
the points lP= $1 and 1P== $2 (for i== 2) are critical insta
bility pOints of the sort discussed in Sec. III.
We note that the Bloch-line limit gives rise to a non
phYSical discontinuity for Ul at ijj== O. This anomaly can
be traced to the fact that the width of the Bloch line tends
to infinity at z -z.. It follows that a better approxima
tion than the Bloch line is required to describe the ef
fective mass near rest (ijj== 0). Indeed direct numerical
integration of the differential equation (3.1), using the
energy density (4.2), eliminates the discontinuities at
lP== rrn (n= integer), showing that UI is a smooth function
of $ at such points. 12 In other respects, the exact re
sults increasingly approach those of the Bloch-line ap
proximation as h increases. In particular, the exact
procedure reveals critical 1P1 of instability, for h in the
range of existing experimental data;
V. VELOCITY·FIELD RELATION FOR
STRAIGHT WALL
Here we use the kinetic structure of a straight wall in
the Bloch-line limit, determined in Sec. IV, to deter-
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 44, No.4, April 1973 1765
mine the V(H.) relation in accordance with Sec. III. As
remarked before, this relation always has the conven
tionallinear form V== AyH. / Of under the condition H.
< H p = Of V / Ay. In the opposite case, we may substitute
the kinetic structure relation UI(lP), obtained numerically
in Sec. IV, into Eq. (3.8), which may be integrated with
respect to t. Alternatively, the function set UI(lP) is sub
stituted directly into the closed expression (3.18), which
is evaluated numerically. The numerical work of either
procedure is trivial and yields the results plotted in
Fig. 7.
The behavior V(H.) is well characterized by the critical
parameters Hp, Vp, and Va indicated in Fig. 7. The peak
velocity V p is obtained by substituting z, == Z b' corres
ponding to ¢,== rr, into Eq. (4.12). One finds
Vp== 4yAh-1(2rr/ K)1/2 cosh21 = 24. yA/hKl/2. (5.1)
The asymptote Va is obtained from Eq. (3.21). The re
quired initial critical energy "'1 (~1) is obtained by sub
stituting ¢ = rr in Eq. (4. 7) to find
WI (iPl) = 8rrAMh-1 (2 rr/K)1I2 . (5.2)
The corresponding 1Pl = O. 762rr is determined numerical
ly from Eqs. (4.10), (4.6), and (4.3). By symmetry,
W2(~I)== W1(rr-~1)' and we find numerically c= W2(ijjl)/
W1(lPl)=O.29. Thus, Eq. (3.21) reduces to
Va= 4(1-c) yAh-l (2rr/K)1/2 = 7. 1yA/hK1I2. (5.3)
VI. ADAPTATION TO CYLINDER
Our theory for the ideal case of an infinite straight wall
in a film is not susceptible to direct experimental veri
fication because this configuration is not stable even
statically. 11 (We note in passing that this difficulty does
not arise in the usual Permalloy configuration, consid
ered by SchlOmann, 5 in which the easy direction is par
allel to the film plane.) However, a bias field along the
z axis stabilizes a cylindrical domain; hence many "bub
ble-collapse" studies in pulsed fields have been made.
The collapse method suffers from the defect that the
radial driving pressure on the cylinder varies with time
even if the applied field H. is a perfect step function. As
discussed by Bobeck et al. 13 and Callen and Josephs, 14
H. must be corrected for an effective field of internal
origin, which may be written
FIG. 7. Reduced mean wall velocit~ (Vh/4Ay)(K/27r)1/2 versus
reduced driving field H.h/4a(27r.A)1 2 for a plane wall.
Downloaded 28 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions1766 J.e. Slonczewski: Domain-wall motion in films
-0.5
-1.0
_I .5'------'----'---.L-.---'-----"--'
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 O.S 1.0
z/h
FIG. 8. Reduced radial component of stray field acting on
cylinder wall of diameter D versus depth in a film of thickness
h. The curve D/h=10 is indistinguishable from D/h=oo_
H eff= ~; (47TrhM)-1, (6.1)
where r(r) is the potential energy of the cylinder of ra
dius r in the presence of the static bias. Since Heff de
pends on r, which varies in the course of the collapse
experiment, the desirable condition of constant drive is
not easily met. In practice, the applied field is kept
constant, and a Callen-Joseph type of analysis is re
quired to relate collapse time to applied-field ampli
tude. 14 Such an analysis, in our case of nonlinear re
sponse, would be complex.
However, we note that, in the limit Q/= 0, the critical
field Hp vanishes and the theory predicts the steprela
tion V= Vo sgnHa' Since V is then independent of drive
field, as long as its sign is constant, the measured col
lapse velocity is simply Vo. This assumes that the col
lapse time is many times the Larmor period 27T/YHa so
that the sawtooth behavior of instantaneous velocity, dis
cussed in Sec. IV, is averaged. Hence, Vo should cor-
1.0r-----,----,.---.--ro-r--rT"l
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
lf/7r
FIG. 9. Branch i = 1 of reduced kinetic energy versus momen
tum for a cylinder wall of diameter D in a film of thickness h.
All of the curves terminate at a reduced energy of unity.
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 44, No.4, April 1973 1766
->.. ..<:1« :::Iv
~l7r
FIG. 10. Branch i= 1 of reduced velocity versus momentum
for a cylinder wall, for three ratios of diameter to film
thickness.
respond to a plateau in the collapse velocity or, if high
er-order terms in the motion are important, to an ap
prOXimate intercept at the collapse threshold.
With respect to calculation of Vp and Vo, the principal
difference between the cylinder and the plane wall is the
radial stray-field component Hr(z) to be used in place
of H y(z) in Sec. IV. The required H r(z) is evaluated nu
merically by elementary methods, and the resulting
field distribution is plotted in Fig. 8. This is substi
tuted in the still valid relations (4.6), (4.7), (4.10), and
(4.11), also evaluated numerically. The principal
change in the kinetic structure for small diameter D = 2r
is to introduce plateaus in W!(~) corresponding to the
reduced variation of Hr for Bloch-line pOSition Z I near
the midplane. (See Figs. 8 and 9.) Correspondingly, the
minimum of Uj lies lower and its maximum at critical
points lies higher (Fig. 10).
The V(H.) relation for cylinders is similar to Fig. 7 and
is not displayed. Straightforward numerical evaluation
yields the dependences of Vp and Vo on D/h shown in
Figs. 11 and 12, respectively. We note that the quantity
W1('i/il) does not depend on diameter, since it is the
Bloch-line energy at a critical value Hr= 8M, regard
less of dependence on z. Since the relatively variable
WZ('i/il) is considerably smaller than Wl(~l)' it follows
12rT--,---,---,---,----~
10
OL-----L---~----~~--~----_:5
D/h
FIG. 11. Reduced critical peak velocity of uniform motion
versus ratio of diameter to film thickness.
Downloaded 28 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions1767 J.e. Slonczewski: Domain·wall motion in films
0.85,------~--.---___,--___,---
0.80
0.75
5
D/h
FIG. 12. Asymptotic reduced mean velocity Vo (see Fig. 7)
versus ratio of diameter to film thickness.
that Va' which is proportional to the function
1-W2(~1)/W1(~1) plotted in Fig. 12, varies little.
VII. COMPARISON WITH EXPERIMENT
Recent collapse experiments have revealed the existence
of garnet platelets, 15 garnet films, 4 and hexaferrite
platelets13 with pronounced nonlinear characteristics.
In the case of the garnet compositions, the nonlinear
behavior correlates with the presence of only low-loss
ions on the RE sites, namely, Y, Gd, or Eu. Of these,
Y is nonmagnetic, Gd is an S-state, and Eu is a singlet-
IO,-----------------------,~,
9
8
7
6
3
2 • SmO.l Gd2.24 Tbo.66 FeSOl2
x Y3G0I.SFe3.S012
. x.-----x-------x---
30 40 50 60 70
H(Oel
FIG. 13. Reciprocal collapse time versus pulsed field ampli
tude for two garnet film compositions (Calhoun et al .• Ref. 15)
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 44, No.4, April 1973 1767
20
•
S z
0
E 14 ... frllS I/) 5 .....
12 ffi 12 1&.1 ~ ~ 1&.1 1&.1
~ 10 • 2 -10
~ c
~ 1&.1 c:; oJ 8 9 III III
1&.1 ~ > III 6
oJ S oJ
~
o ,
0
FIG. 14. Mean collapse velocity versus pulse field amplitude
for the garnet GdO.3Y2.7Gal.03Fe3.9PI2 with (111) axis normal to
film plane (Argyle et al .• Ref. 4). Static diameter versus bias
field are shown in inset.
all special cases with little spin-lattice interaction.
Many of the other rare-earth ions are more lossy than
these. 16
The two types of behavior are illustrated by the platelet
data shown in Fig. 13. The high-loss composition
(SmO.1Gd2.24Tbo.66Fes012) behaves linearly. The low-loss
composition (Y3Ga1.5Fes.5012) has a very steep initial
slope, followed by a much reduced but varying slope.
Indeed, the initial slope is so great that the true initial
mobility is difficult to extract from the data; particular
ly because the corrections for bubble potential alluded
to in Sec. VI should be very important. However, a
wall-resonance experiment indicates that Cl! < 10-2 17 in
this specimen. A recent study of five low-loss garnet
films grown by liquid phase epitaxy included some spec
imens with similar variable-slope behaVior, as well as
two in which the velocity apparently saturated. 4 One of
these, GdO.3 Y2.7Ga1.03Fe3.97012, is shown in Fig. 14. In
such cases, it seems natural to associate the saturation
TU .; 0.4
CD
Q
I-
~ 0.2
0'----2.,.0-#1I3OB PbAJ4FeaOl9
S-B 14008 0.6mil
190 0.3
BIAS SET AT 160 Oe
lu=0.2 mil
FIG. 15. Reciprocal collapse time (and indicated mean velocity)
versus pulse field amplitude for platelet of the hexaferrite
PbAl4Fes019 (Bobeck et al .• Ref. 13). Static fields and diameter
for strip to bubble and collapse are indicated.
Downloaded 28 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions1768
'u ll.o
co2
>C
I...... -0.5 J.e. Slonczewski: Domain·wall'motion in films
., 2259 SrO.sCoO.5At4FeaOI9
S-B 380 08 0.48 mil
B 400 0.31
440 0.15
PULSE FIELD AMPLITUDE (Oe)
FIG. 16. Reciprocal collapse time (and mean velocity versus
pulse-field amplitude for the hexaferrite Sro.5Cao.:;A14FesOI9
(Bobeck et al. , Ref. 13).
velocity with Vo. However, in order to treat the garnet
data uniformly, we take the "knee" velocity, defined as
the first point of deviation from linearity, to compare
with our Vo. The great uncertainties in some of the
parameters entering into the theory make such distinc
tions immaterial.
In the case of the hexaferrite platelets, all but one ap
pear definitely to saturate, 13 so we take the plateau ve
locity. (See Fig. 15.) The remaining compound
(Sro.sCao.sA4Fes019), however, has a maximum followed
by a minimum V min' (See Fig. 16.) Since the maximum
might correspond to the peak in Fig. 7, in this case we
associate V min with Vo.
Comparison of theory and experiment is made in Table
I. The parameters Mand K of the garnet platelet were
estimated from the behavior of cylinder domains in
static applied fields. 15,17 In the case of the garnet films
M was Similarly obtained,4 but K /M was determined
more reliably by magnetic resonance. is The exchange
A for all garnets was estimated from Curie tempera
tures.4,15 For the films, resonance valueslS of g were
used in the expression 1'= 8. 8 X 1Q6g Oe-1 sec-l; in other
cases, the value g= 2 was assumed. 1768
Also shown are values of Q to indicate the a priori re
liability of our general equations, valid for Q = 00, as
well as P =Mh(21T/ A)1/2= h/ t.L (t.L is the Bloch-line
thickness at z = ~h) to indicate the reliability of the
Bloch-line approximation (P = 00). Also included in this
table are calculated values of V w = 21T t. I'M, the upper
bound on uniform velocity of a wall in infinite space, ac
cording to Walker, 6,7 in the limit Q = 00. Our Vo values
are based on the median ordinate of Fig. 12, Vo = 7. 7yA/hK1/2• Thus we neglect the modest (± < 8%) de
pendence on diameter. The Vo values are smaller than
V w by factors ranging from 3 to 30, because of our in
clusion of stray-field and nonuniform motion effects.
Finally, the characteristic experimental velocity Ve,
whether determined at the knee or plateau, as explained
above, is shown. In some cases the knee velocity is
not well defined experimentally so that a range is given
for Ve' The discrepancy between Vo and Ve for the garnet
platelets amounts to a factor of 3, and for the other
cases 2.2 or less.
Only one hexaferrite, PbA4Fes019, is listed in Table I
because not all of the parameters required to evaluate
Vo in other cases are known. 13,19 However, it is rea
sonable to suppose that Sro.sCao.sAI4Fes019 is magneti
cally similar to the cited compound, with comparable
values of y, A, and K. Since h is about 30 times greater
in the case of Sro.sCao.sA4Fes0t9, 19 Vo should be 30
times smaller, or about 1 cm/sec. But this is 100 times
smaller than the minimum in Fig. 16. Thus the present
theory cannot explain this observation.
VIII. DISCUSSION
We have found (Sec. IV) that stray fields have a subtle
~ffect on the internal structure of a domain wall moving
in a thin film or platelet. In the Bloch-line limit, the
structure is described by a Bloch-line pOSition corre
sponding to the velocity u. For some ranges of the ca
nonical momentum~, the velocity and Bloch-line posi
tion are single valued, for others double valued. This
structural detail has no effect on the initial linear mobi
lity, which is given correctly by the conventional theory.
However, when the drive field H. is increased to a cri-
TABLE I. Parameter values for garnet specimens of composition Gdy Y3_yGaxFe5-xOI2 or EUzY3 ... GaxFe5_xOI2, plus one hexaferrite.
Theory EAllt
x y z h 47TM KX10-3 A X107 g Q p Vw Va Ve S
Ga Gd Eu (Mm) (G) (erg/em3) (erg/em) (m/see) (m/sec) (m/sec) (erg/em 3)
Platelet 1.5 36 40 0.3 2. 1 2 5 62 94 4.6 12 -17 1.0
(Refs.
15 and
17)
Fllm, r" 0.3 3.7 58 1.4 2.6 1. 86 10 8 65 24 17 16
(Refs. 1. 05 0.47 3.7 150 3.6 2.5 2.2 4 22 120 17 8 40
4 and 1.1 0.5 6.8 320 13 2.7 1. 75 3 83 110 4 4-6 50
18) 1. 1 0.6 10.8 210 10 2.5 1. 64 6 90 75 2.5 2-6 20
1.1 5.2 43 1.0 2.5 2.19 14 9 65 22 7 -10 8
Platelet PbAl4Fes019 2.5 580 1500 1. 08 2 110 90 14 0.5 1.1 150
(Refs.
13 and
19)
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 44, No.4, April 1973
Downloaded 28 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions1769 J.e. Slonczewski: Domain·wall motion in films
tical value H P' U attains a value V fJ> corresponding to a
Bloch-line position for which the structure is unstable.
Here, the Bloch-line becomes annihilated, some kinetic
energy is dissipated, and a new Bloch line appears at
some new position corresponding to practically the same
/p. For Ha >Hp, a periodic behavior ensues, in which 1P
increases monotonically with time. In this range, Bloch
lines are repeatedly created, displaced, and annihilated;
while the velocity executes sawtooth behavior as in Fig.
2. The time-average velOCity V has a sharp downward
break at Ha= Hp and approaches the asymptote Vo for
Hi 01-00 (Fig. 7). The validity of the theory is limited to
small values of 01 and Ha'
Our main predictions are embodied in Eqs. (5.1) and
(5.3) for Vp and Vo in the limit of infinite diameter D,
and the computed plots (Figs. 11 and 12) of dependence
on D/h (h=thickness of platelet). These quantities de
pend only on static material parameters and cylinder
dimensions. They do not involve any sort of damping co
efficient, the energy dissipation implied by Vo being in
trinsic to the ferromagnet. The inverse dependence of
Vp and Vo on h for constant cylinder proportions is re
markable because the usual mechanisms of damping,
such as spin-lattice relaxation or surface-pit scattering,
predict velocities which are independent of thickness or
increasing with thickness. The peak velocity Vp varies
moderately with D/h over most of the range but in
creases sharply for small D/h. The asymptote Vo, how
ever, varies only by less than 8% from the median in the
range of 0 < D/h < 00.
The range of h for which the inverse relations hold needs
consideration. In the direction of small h, one error is
that of the Bloch-line apprOximation, which is serious
when the inequality P = h/ A L »1 is violated, and is cur
rently under numerical investigation. 12 As h increases,
our theory limits Ho to smaller values because neglected
wave motion of the wall surface becomes important.
However, at what values of hand Ho the tranSition to
bulk behavior occurs has not been determined. Indeed a
large gap in understanding bulk behavior remains. 1
Our theory has implications for bubble-device data rates
Suppose we take Thiele's preferred geometry for a cy
linder domain,3 given by
D= 2h= 81= 8(KA)1I2/1TM2,
and assume that the cylinder moves s diameters during
each bit transfer. We may define the data rate R= V/sD,
where V is the velocity. We might assume that 01 is op
timized, so that V= VI> at the driving field Hp, as in Fig.
7. Alternatively, we might consider 01 vanishes so that
V= Vo. Referring to Figs. 11 and 12, we have alterna
tive forms
R= Va = Cy(21TK)1/2 = Cy(21TA)1/2 = C1TyM
sD 32sQ! 2sDQ 16sQ3/2' (8.1)
according to whether K, D, or M is taken to be the in
dependent variable. (Here Q = K/21TM 2.) The coefficient
C is read off Fig. 11 and 12, and has the value 2.8 or
0.8, depending on whether 01 is optimized or set equal
to zero.
Suppose that we accept the premises of Eq. (8,1), and
also assume that sand Q have the smallest practical
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 44, No.4, April 1973 1769
values. Then, since there is little scope for varying y
or A, the optimum R is a fairly unique function of K or
D or M. Suppose we let s = 3, Q= 3, Y= 2 X 107 sec-1 Oe-1,
and assume that M == 2 x 103 G (iron) is an upper limit on
the magnetization. Assuming (II to be optimized (i. e.,
C = 2. 8), the resulting R = 1.4 X 109 sec-1 is an "ultimate"
upper bound on the data rate obtainable at low driving
fields, assuming the requiSite K= 7 x 107 erg cm-3 were
provided. The diameter would be less than 1000 A.
In addition, a driving-field differential BH across the
wall diameter must be provided to accelerate the wall
to the required velocity. The time required to accele.
rate to V p is roughly one-half of a Larmor period. This
fact implies the condition BH:; 6. R/ Y in order to achieve
the rate R. In the above illustration BH== 600 Oe.
Several qualifying remarks are in order: (i) The theory
applies strictly only to radial motion rather than trans
lation of the cylinder as a whole, whose details will be
different. In the case of translation, one expects at the
very least sinuous Bloch curves rather than Bloch lines
parallel to the film surface, so there must be some dif
ference in the details. (ii) The mean velOCity V is given
only in the limit 01== 0 and Ha-0, so that the theory does
not consider the increase of V beyond the knee seen in
some experimental cases such as Y3Ga1,sFe3.S012 in Fig.
13. (iii) The theory should not apply to weak ferromag
nets such as orthoferrites in which the presence of
Dzyaloshinsky fields makes the single-sublattice
Landau-Lifshitz theory inapplicable. It is known that the
orthoferrite YFe03 attains velocities in excess of 105
cm/ sec, 20 which approaches the Walker limit of 3. 6 X 105
cm/ sec. 16 Also, the large orthorhombic component of
anisotropy makes the present theory inapplicable to or
thoferrites, as explained below.
As a final remark, we point out that the theory neglects
all "basal" magnetic anisotropy (such as cubic crystal
line, rhombic growth, or hexagonal crystalline) which
would make different directions of M in the platelet
plane energetically inequivalent. (The effect of a rhom
bic component in the one-dimensional theory has already
been discussed. 1,2,21) The effect of basal anisotropy gen
erally is to make the two" easy" directions 1/1 = h ± ¢
of the wall moment inequivalent, thus contributing
kinetic energy throughout the entire wall surface. In the
above Bloch-line theory, however, the kinetic energy
includes only the demagnetizing energy (Plus an equal
amount of exchange) distributed within the Bloch-line
regions of the wall surface. Thus the basal anisotropy
need only be as large as the quantity S=21TALM2/h
= 21TM2/P == (21TA)1I2M/h to have a significant effect.
Since P = h/ A L ranges from 8 to 90 for the samples we
have discussed, the basal anisotropy need not be large
to be significant in these samples, as shown by the S
values in Table I.
A fortunate circumstance with respect to the garnet data
cited above is that the film plane in every case is (111),
which has magnetically sixfold rotational symmetry.
Thus, no orthorhombic component of growth anistropy,
which has twofold symmetry, is possible. Also, the cu
bic anisotropy coefficient K1 contributes no sixfold ener
gy variation in first order since it represents the am
plitude of a fourth-degree spherical harmonic. However,
Downloaded 28 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions1770 J.e. Slonczewski: Domain·wall motion in films
in garnet films of (100) orientation, the effect of
Kl( -6 x10S erg/cm3 for YIG), which is larger by far
than the S values in Table I, should be significant. In
other orientations [neither (100) nor (111)], the rhombic
component of "growth anisotropy", which may be as
large as -104 erg/ cm3, 22 should also be Significant. In
such cases, extension of the theory is required.
In the case of hexaferrites, the presence of a sixfold
crystal axis diminishes the danger of basal anisotropy
effects, because the sixfold coefficient is usually small.
In the case of the hexaferrite Znl.SFeO.s Y, for example,
the sixfold anisotropy is less than 6 erg/ cm3, 23 which
is much less than the value S= 150 erg/cm3 for the
hexaferrite in Table I.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author gratefully acknowledges stimulating discus
sions with B. E. Argyle, access to computations of V. L.
Moruzzi before publication, and private communications
fromA.H. Bobeck, D.C. Cronemeyer, B.A. Calhoun,
and F. B. Hagedorn.
APPENDIX
We define p = -1/J+ tIT and
(A1)
Then the variational problem (4.5) becomes equivalent
to the Euler equation
aJ _ ~~ = 0 J=pI2+ g(p)
ap dz ap' '
with the boundary condition g -0 for z -z ! -l' 00. A
first integral is (A2)
g(p)=p,2, J=2g(p). (A3)
Consequently, the Bloch-line energy becomes
W L = 4A~h-l 1'" g(p) ddZ dp= 4A~h-l f' g 1/2 dp, (A4)
-I/> P -q,
where p= ±¢ minimizes g(p).
Suppose H y ;, BM. Then ¢ = 0, W L = O. (A Bloch line of
angle less than 27T does not exist because there is only
one "easy" direction.)
Suppose IHyl <BM. Then cos¢=H/BM,
g= 27TM2A-l(cosp -COS¢)2,
and (A4) integrates to give (4.7).
Suppose Hy<-BM. Thencos¢= -1, ¢=7T, and (A5)
g= (2A~)"1[47T~M2(cos2p -1) -7T~MHy(cosp+ 1)], (A6)
and (A4) takes the form (4. B).
Now we can compare WL with the magneto static self-en
ergy Ws of the surface dipole distribution 7T~M sin1/J,
J. Appl. Phys .• Vol. 44, No.4, April 1973 1770
which has been neglected. By means of Fourier analYSis
one finds that for a plane wall this energy is given for
mally by
Ws= (7T~M)2(2h)"1 JOh J: (z -z,)"2[sin1/J(z') -sin1/J(z)]2 dz dz'.
(A7)
Therefore, in order of magnitude,
Ws'" (7T~)2/h.
From Eq. (4.7) we have
WslW L '" 7T/16Q 1/2. (AB)
(A9)
Thus, in the limit of large Q =K/27TM2, a basic approxi
mation of the general equations (2.5) and (2.6), Ws may
be neglected.
lJ. C. Slonczewski. Int. J. Magn. 2,85 (1972).
'J. C. Slonczewski, in AlP Conference Proceedings No.5. Magnetism
and Magnetic Materials-1971 (American Institute of Physics, New
York. 1972), p. 170.
3A. A. Thiele, J. App!. Phys. 41, 1139 (1970).
'B. E. Argyle, J. C. Slonczewski, and A. F. Mayadas, in AlP
Conference Proceedings No.5, Magnetism and Magnetic Materials-
1971 (American Institute of Physics, New York, 1972). p. 175. Abo
B. E. Argyle (private communication).
sE. Schlomann, App!. Phys. Lett. 20, 190 (1972).
6L. R. Walker (unpublished). The calculation is reproduced by J. F.
Dillon, Jr. in Treatise on Magnetism. edited by G. T. Rado and H.
Suhl (Academic, New York, 1963), Vol III, p. 450.
7E. Schlomann, App!. Phys. Lett. 19, 274 (1971).
SA. M. Clogston, Bell Syst. Tech. J. 34, 739 (1955).
9W. Palmer and R. A. Willoughby, IBM J. Res. Dev. 11,284 (1967).
lOW. Doring, Z. Naturforsch. A 3, 373 (1948).
"F. B. Hagedorn, J. App!. Phys. 41, 1161 (1970).
"J. C. Slonczewski and V. L. Moruzzi (unpublished).
13 A. H. Bobeck, I. Danylchuk, J. P. Remeika, L. G. van Vitert, and E.
M. Walters, Proceedings of the International Conference on Ferrites.
1970 (V. of Tokyo Press, 1971), p. 361. Also A. H. Bobeck
(private communication).
14H. Callen and R. M. Josephs, J. App!. Phys. 42, 1977 (1971).
15B. A. Calhoun, E. A. Giess, and L. L. Rosier, App!. Phys. Lett.
18,287 (1971); L. L. Rosier and B. A. Calhoun, IEEE Trans. Magn.
7,747 (1971).
16See the review article by F. B. Hagedorn, in AlP Conference
Proceedings No.5, Magnetism and Magnetic Materials-1971
(American Institute of Physics, New York, 1972), p. 72; O. P.
Vella-Coleiro, D. H. Smith, and L. G. van Vitert, App!. Phys. Lett.
21, 36 (1972).
17B. A. Calhoun (private communication).
ISO. C. Cronemeyer (private communication).
19In private communications, A. H. Bobeck has kindly supplied
estimates of h, and F. B. Hagedorn and D. H. Smith have kindly
provided values for M, A , and K.
'OF. C. Rossol, Phys. Rev. Lett. 24, 1021 (1970).
21A. A. Thiele (unpUblished); see F. B. Hagedorn, Ref. 16.
22A. Rosencwaig and W. J. Tabor, in AlP Conference Proceedings No.
5. Magnetism and Magnetic Materials-1971 (American Institute of
Physics, New York, 1972), p. 57.
23J. Smit and H. P. J. Wijn, Ferrites (Wiley, New York, 1959), p. 210.
Downloaded 28 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions |
1.4772613.pdf | Exploring the accessible frequency range of phase-resolved ferromagnetic resonance
detected with x-rays
P. Warnicke, R. Knut, E. Wahlström, O. Karis, W. E. Bailey, and D. A. Arena
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 113, 033904 (2013); doi: 10.1063/1.4772613
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4772613
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/113/3?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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134.129.164.186 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 17:35:07Exploring the accessible frequency range of phase-resolved ferromagnetic
resonance detected with x-rays
P . Warnicke,1,a)R. Knut,2E. Wahlstr €om,3O. Karis,2W. E. Bailey,4and D. A. Arena1
1National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
2Department of Physics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
3Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
4Materials Science and Engineering Program, Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics,
Columbia University, New York,, New York 10027, USA
(Received 4 April 2012; accepted 29 November 2012; published online 16 January 2013)
We present time- and element-resolved measurements of the magnetization dynamics in a
ferromagnetic trilayer structure. A pump-probe scheme was utilized with a microwave magnetic
excitation field phase-locked to the photon bunches and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism intransmission geometry. Using a relatively large photon bunch length with a full width at half
maximum of 650 ps, the precessional motion of the magnetization was resolved up to frequencies of
2.5 GHz, thereby enabling sampling at frequencies significantly above the inverse bunch length. Bysimulating the experimental data with a numerical model based on a forced harmonic oscillator, we
obtain good correlation between the two. The model, which includes timing jitter analysis, is used to
predict the accessible frequency range of x-ray detected ferromagnetic resonance.
VC2013 American
Institute of Physics .[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4772613 ]
I. INTRODUCTION
A preferred technique for examining magnetization dy-
namics at GHz frequencies is ferromagnetic resonance
(FMR), which has been used extensively to examine issues
such as damping mechanisms in elemental and compound fer-romagnets.
1–4FMR is particularly well suited for examining
magnetization dynamics as the energy scale of the microwave
excitation naturally matches with the precessional motion ofthe moments in many ferromagnetic materials. Recently, the
technique has been expanded by combining it with another
powerful spectroscopic technique: x-ray magnetic circulardichroism (XMCD). With XMCD, contributions from individ-
ual elements can be isolated and examined,
5and the spin and
orbital moment can be extracted via use of sum-rule analy-ses.
6These attributes make XMCD a particularly useful tech-
nique for examining alloys and other complex magnetic
materials such as oxides,7multilayers,8diluted magnetic
semiconductors,9and molecular compounds.10
The combination of XMCD and FMR, often referred to
as x-ray detected ferromagnetic resonance (XFMR), hasgained increasing popularity.
11,12,14–16Several different
modes have been employed to record XFMR spectra. In one
approach, time averaged and element-specific FMR spectrahave been recorded using microwave excitations that are
asynchronous with the photon bunches.
11–13A main advant-
age of this approach is that the full frequency space is accessi-ble as no phase relationship needs to be maintained between
the microwave source and the x-ray bunches. An alternative
approach takes advantage of the sub-ns x-ray pulses availableat most modern x-ray facilities to probe the orbit of precessing
magnetic moments stroboscopically as a function of the phasebetween the excitation of the magnetization dynamics and the
x-ray bunches.
15,16In this approach, a main distinction is the
type of source used to excite magnetization dynamics. Pulsedcurrent sources with fast ( /C24100 ps) rise times can be used to
provide a short Oersted field, which couples to the magnetiza-
tion in a thin film sample.
14,17The resulting motion can be
characterized by a relatively large angular deviation of the
magnetization ( /C2420/C14or more) before the magnetization
decays in an oscillatory fashion back to the equilibrium posi-tion. In principle, any resonance frequency of the system is
accessible by tuning an external magnetic bias field.
With the pulsed excitation approach, the timing resolu-
tion, which ultimately determines the ability to distinguish
phase differences between dissimilar magnetic moments,
depends primarily on factors such as the timing jitter ( t
j)
between the pulser and the bunch clock and the width of the
x-ray bunches ( sc). To date, timing resolution in the order of
645 ps has been achieved, which is comparable to the bunch
width used in the measurements.17,18
As mentioned, another method to implement XFMR is to
use continuous microwave excitations that are synchronized(phase locked) with the photon bunches. The technique offers
a number of advantages, including low jitter and wide range
of excitation angles, enabling studies of the magnetic systemin the low angle ( <1
/C14) continuous precession mode up to the
larger angle, non-linear regime. Moreover, XMFR with
synchronized microwave excitations adds the ability to detectthephase of precessing magnetic moments relative to the driv-
ing field.
19The latter characteristic is of particular importance
as it can be used to examine small differences in the phase ofprecessing elemental moments, which in turn can reveal weak
coupling between dissimilar moments.
20Another advantage is
the ability to measure the element-specific complex magneticsusceptibility ( v¼v
0þiv00) at arbitrary admixture between
the in-phase ( v0) and out-of-phase ( v00)r e s p o n s e .15,16,21,22a)Present address: Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen -
PSI, Switzerland. Electronic mail: peter.warnicke@psi.ch.
0021-8979/2013/113(3)/033904/6/$30.00 VC2013 American Institute of Physics 113, 033904-1JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 113, 033904 (2013)
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
134.129.164.186 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 17:35:07In conventional FMR, a wide frequency range for mea-
surement of the resonant response is useful as it enables
assessment of the frequency response at microwave bandsthat are of technological relevance (X-band and beyond).
Also, conventional FMR at high frequencies can reveal new
physics, such as the contribution of non-Gilbert damping inthin ferromagnetic films.
23It is, therefore, useful to examine
the potential limiting factors of XFMR such as the time struc-
ture of the probe. Of course, additional factors can limit thepractical frequency limit of XFMR, such as noise in the detec-
tion circuitry (e.g., voltage noise). However, this quantity is
specific to the experimental apparatus used to measure theXFMR signal and hence in this paper we focus our investiga-
tion on the more general consideration of the timing system,
parameterized by t
jandsc, and analyze how these parameters
influence the upper accessible frequency of XFMR. We begin
by reviewing the experimental methods used in the measure-
ments and then develop a numerical model to explore theeffects of t
jandsc.
II. METHODS
The measurements were carried out at the I1011 soft
x-ray beam line, located on the MAX-II storage ring at
MAX-lab, Lund University, Sweden. MAX-II operates with
a fundamental bunch clock of 100 MHz. The x-ray source
for I1011 beam line is an elliptically polarizing undulator,which permits selection of circularly or linearly polarized
soft x-rays for experiments. The beam line is also equipped
with an eight-pole vector magnet (octupole magnet). Thepoles of the magnet are oriented along the body centered
directions of a conventional cubic geometry, and the maxi-
mum gap between the poles is small (22 mm). The magneticarrangement provides on-sample magnetic fields ( H)u pt o
/C240:5 T in an arbitrary direction ( ^H). The vector magnet is
particularly useful for XFMR as it permits a simple changeof^Hfrom (i) partially parallel to the photon direction, which
is necessary for conventional XMCD scans, to (ii) orthogo-
nal to both the photon direction and the microwave excita-tion, suitable for phase-resolved XMFR measurements. A
photodiode mounted in the octupole chamber is used to
detect the photon transmitted through the thin-film samples.
Our microwave circuitry is similar to the one presented
by Arena et al. in 2009.
16Here, we briefly review the main
components of the measurement system, which affect the sig-nal levels and timing measurements. The harmonic spectrum
of the bunch clock from the synchrotron is generated by a low
phase-noise comb generator and the desired frequency for theXFMR measurements is selected by a narrow band pass filter
(BPF). This method restricts the available frequencies to the
harmonics of the fundamental x-ray bunch clock, but resultsin a phase resolution which is considerably smaller than the
bunch length of the x-rays. The relatively low frequency of
the MAX-II storage ring (100 MHz) correspondingly resultsin a fine spacing in the harmonic spectrum. Under normal
operation, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the
longitudinal photon bunch length amounts to s
c¼650 ps.
Timing control is obtained by a digital delay generator located
on the high-frequency side of the circuit, which permitsvariation of the delay time between the microwave pump and
the x-ray probe in steps of 5 ps. A final amplification stage in
the microwave circuit increases the power of the single-frequency signal to about þ30 dBm before it is directed on to
a co-planar waveguide (CPW) where the sample is mounted.
Alternating magnetic fields inductively generated from
the microwaves pass through the CPW and excite the magnet-
ization precession in the sample. Under forced precession, the
magnetization follows a highly elliptical orbit defined by theeffective field, which consists of contributions from the
applied bias, anisotropy, and dipolar fields. Our samples have
negligible anisotropy and the magnetic easy axis lies in-planedue to the dipolar fields; hence, the in-plane to out-of-plane
axis ratio of the precessional orbit is /C291. As the projection
of the XMCD is measured along the propagation direction ofthe x-ray photons, the alignment of the sample surface with
respect to the incoming photons, therefore, determines the
XMCD intensity. To increase the component along the photonpropagation direction from the magnetization precession, the
sample was rotated 20
/C14away from normal incidence. As the
photons arrive at the detector at a rate of 100 MHz, we strobo-scopically sample the instantaneous projection of the magnet-
ization along the photon beam direction.
XFMR can be used to examine complex structures com-
prising one or more magnetic elements in several layers. In
this study, we examine a trilayer sample consisting of two
magnetic layers with in-plane easy axes separated by a non-magnetic layer. The sample with a layer structure of
Ni
81Fe19ð15Þ=Cuð10Þ=Co93Zr7ð4Þ=Cuð2Þ(thickness in nm
and Ni 81Fe19as the bottom layer) was deposited onto a
1m m/C21 mm, 100 nm thick, silicon nitride membrane under
UHV base pressure using magnetron sputtering. The sample
was mounted with the film side facing a shorted CPW. Aperforated hole in the current-conducting central strip-line
of the CPW enables transmission of x-rays.
Two measurement protocols were used in the experi-
ments. Field scans are performed by sweeping the magnetic
bias field at a constant delay time while recording the XMCD
intensity. By selecting an energy corresponding to an elemen-tal core-level, this approach measures the element-specific
complex susceptibility, containing linear combinations of v
0
andv00, with relative amplitudes chosen through the delay.16
Timing delay scans, on the other hand, are performed by scan-
ning the delay time at a fixed bias field and photon energy and
such scans can provide a direct mapping of the magnetizationprecession orbit in the sample.
III. RESULTS
Conventional XMCD spectra were measured in trans-
mission mode using magnetic field switching. Fig. 1shows
x-ray absorption spectra (XAS) over the L3andL2edges of
Fe recorded using a fixed helicity of the x-rays. Below the
XAS, the XMCD difference spectrum is presented. Understatic conditions, the magnetization makes a complete rever-
sal in a single XMCD measurement. A different situation
applies under continuous excitation where the precessionangle is small: typically, the magnetization cone angle is in
the order of 1
/C14.20Consequently, the XMCD signal intensity033904-2 Warnicke et al. J. Appl. Phys. 113, 033904 (2013)
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134.129.164.186 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 17:35:07is about two orders of magnitude smaller in precessional
mode compared to static full-switching mode.
For the forced precession measurements acquired under
microwave excitation, we tune the energy to the point ofmaximum spin asymmetry which maximizes the XMCD sig-
nal (see arrow in Fig. 1). Field scans, obtained with a fixed
helicity, are presented in Fig. 2(a). In these scans, we mea-
sure the amplitude of the magnetization projected along the
beam direction as the external field is swept through reso-
nance. The line shape of the field scan is determined by themixture between v
0andv00, and the relative contribution can
be selected by tuning the phase delay between the micro-
wave driving field and the photon bunch clock. As wechange the frequency, and thereby the wavelength of the
microwaves, we expect a shift in the relative phase. The am-
plitude as well as the relative phase can be recovered from afit of the field scan with a complex Lorentzian. In Fig. 2(a),
as the frequency is increased from 1.0 to 2.3 GHz, we
observe a positive shift in the resonance field in accordancewith conventional FMR.
2The recovered phases of the dis-
played 1.0, 1.2, 1.3, 1.7, 2.0, and 2.3 GHz field scans are 84/C14,
68/C14,6 7/C14,9 8/C14, 102/C14, and 111/C14, respectively, indicating that
the scans are not purely imaginary but contain also some real
part. The square of the resonance frequency is plotted against
applied field in Fig. 2(b). Assuming the only significant con-
tribution to the effective field is the applied bias field H(i.e.,
neglecting anisotropy and contributions from exchange cou-
pling between the layers) our data are well described by theKittel relation
2
f2¼ðl0c=ð2pÞÞ2HresðHresþMsÞ (1)
at resonance H¼Hres,w h e r e l0is the vacuum permeability
andcthe gyromagnetic ratio. From the fit, we extract a sat-
uration magnetization l0Ms¼1:0 T, which is in line with
expected values for Ni 81Fe19.24
As mentioned, an alternative way to probe the precessional
motion is to stroboscopically sample the direction of themagnetization as a function of the delay time between the x-ray
pulses and the microwave exc itation, and such timing delay
scans are presented in Fig. 2(c). At a fixed frequency and near
the resonant field, the timing scans have a maximum amplitude,
which decays away as the field deviates from the resonantvalue. As expected, the resonant amplitude is reduced as the
frequency is increased, indicating that the opening angle of the
precession cone decreases with increasing frequency at a con-stant power. At frequencies above 2.3 GHz, the noise level of
the field scans becomes comparable with the signal level and
field scans similar to the data presented in Fig. 2(a)reveal only
noise. In contrast, timing scans performed at an extrapolated
resonance field value reveal disc ernible oscillations at a driving
f r e q u e n c yo fu pt o2 . 5G H z ,a ss e e ni nF i g . 2(d). This is the cen-
tral result of our paper. It is clear that the observed oscillation
period (400 ps) is considerably shorter than the x-ray bunch
length from the synchrotron (650 ps).
To address the experimental factors on the timing side
of the detection circuit, which limit the accessible frequency
range, we construct a numerical model for the sampling pro-cess. We will assume that, in analogy with a forced harmonic
oscillator, the magnetization is driven to forced precessionFIG. 1. X-ray spectroscopy for Fe recorded at reversed magnetic polarities
S/C0andSþ. The XMCD is obtained from the difference of these spectra.
Time-resolved XMCD scans were taken at the energy marked by the arrow.
FIG. 2. XFMR measurements. (a) Field scans of the normalized XMCD in-tensity showing data as solid circles and complex Lorentzian fits as solid
lines. (b) Resonance frequency squared plotted against field. (c) Time delay
scans of the normalized XMCD intensity (solid circles) obtained at the reso-
nance field with sinusoidal fits (solid line). (d) Time delay scan at 2.5 GHz
averaged over 5 scans at a bias field of 78 Oe. The vertical bars are standard
deviations to the data.033904-3 Warnicke et al. J. Appl. Phys. 113, 033904 (2013)
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134.129.164.186 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 17:35:07and attains the same frequency fas the magnetic driving
field. The projection of the precessing magnetization onto
the vector of the incoming x-rays for a given driving fre-quency fcan be represented by sðtÞ¼A
0sinð2pftþdÞwith
a phase d. The coefficient A0for a forced harmonic oscillator
can be described by
A0/1ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
4p2ðf2
0/C0f2Þ2þk2f2q ; (2)
where f0is the resonance frequency and ka damping parame-
ter.19At resonance, this expression reduces to A0/1=f
assuming the damping is constant. The model further assumesthat the x-ray probes, p(t), are uniform, Gaussian pulses
pðtÞ¼1
rcffiffiffiffiffiffi
2pp e/C0t2=ð2r2
cÞ(3)
with a FWHM of sc¼2ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2l n2p
rc. We simulate a delay scan
at a fixed frequency fnumerically by evaluating the inte-
grated product of the precession orbit with a sampling pulse,accumulated over Nphoton bunchesSðs
c;rj;td;fÞ¼1
NXN
n¼1ð1
/C01sðtÞpðt/C0td/C0tjðnÞÞdt (4)
for each delay time tdin the time range.25To take into
account the jitter of the bunch clock, the timing of the probe
for each sampling event nis shifted in time by a Gaussian dis-
tributed random number tjwith a standard deviation rj.28In
accordance with the experimentally measured amplitude, the
numerically sampled amplitude Ais extracted from a fit to the
simulated delay scan. In Fig. 3, we compare the numerical
calculations of the amplitude with experimental data.
The influence of timing jitter and frequency on ampli-
tude at a fixed bunch length is investigated in Fig. 3(a).A t
any given point in the parameter space, the amplitude drops
monotonically with increasing forrj. In relative terms, the
amplitude is more sensitive to a change of fcharacterized by
a slope more than two orders of magnitude larger than for rj
at the position of the solid circle. The shape of the amplitude
landscape can be understood by noting that the jitter pro-duces a shift of each probe, which results in a net broadening
and reduction of the sampled intensity. As seen in Eq. (2),
there is an increase in the precessional orbit amplitude forlower frequencies due to the 1/ fdependence.
FIG. 3. Numerical amplitude calculations compared with experiment. (a) For visual clarity, the square-root of the normalized amplitude Ais plotted versus rj
andffor a fixed bunch length of sc¼650 ps. The solid circle marks the experimental conditions of the highest attainable frequency at MAX-lab. (b) Experi-
mental and numerical amplitudes of the timing scans, both following a decaying trend with increasing frequency. The standard deviation of the fits to t he ex-
perimental data is normalized with the amplitude (star symbols). (c) Square-root of the normalized amplitude plotted versus scandffor a fixed jitter of
rj¼40 ps. A dashed line marks the 1/ fbunch length for comparison. (d) Amplitude profiles for 40 to 650 ps bunch length at rj¼40 ps.033904-4 Warnicke et al. J. Appl. Phys. 113, 033904 (2013)
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134.129.164.186 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 17:35:07The experimental amplitude decays to a frequency region
where the relative noise is about one order of magnitude
larger. This is illustrated in Fig. 3(b) together with numerical
data using parameters corresponding to the experimental con-
ditions: sc¼650 ps and rj¼40 ps.26The numerical ampli-
tude follows a non-linear decaying trend which is alsoobserved in the experimental data. Comparing the fitting error
of the measured timing scans with the numerical timing scans
two regimes are present in the frequency spectrum. Forf/C202:3 GHz, the fitting error of the experimental data (star
symbols) increases linearly with a slope of /C240:14 GHz
/C01fol-
lowed by a sharp increase in slope to 1 :8G H z/C01for
f>2:3 GHz. The numerical fits follow a similar trend with a
cut-off frequency at about 2.6 GHz (not shown). The rela-
tively small discrepancy in the fitting error for the amplitudebetween the experimental data and the simulated delay scans
may be due to the voltage noise in the measurement, which is
not included in our modeling.
Keeping the jitter parameter constant at 40 ps, the influ-
ence of the photon bunch length s
cis examined in Fig. 3(c).
Again, a monotonic decay in amplitude is observed forincreasing fors
c. At a fixed frequency, the amplitude is sen-
sitive to a relative change in sc. For example, a reduction of
the bunch length from 650 ps to 550 ps leads to an increasein the sampled amplitude from 3 :3/C210
/C05to 4:9/C210/C04.A t
the same position, the gradients have the same order of mag-
nitude along fandscimplying that the amplitude is more
sensitive to a change in scas compared to a change in rj.
In Fig. 3(d), the amplitude decay is shown as a function
of frequency for different choices of the bunch length and ata constant jitter of 40 ps. At a bunch length of 650 ps, the rel-
ative amplitude crosses the 10
/C04limit at about 2.5 GHz,
which coincides with the frequency where signals are stilldiscernible in the experiments (see Fig. 2). Using this value
as an estimate for the detection limit, the upper detectable
frequency increases at shorter bunch lengths. For 100 ps pho-ton bunches (available at several synchrotrons), the upper de-
tectable frequency exceeds 10 GHz. Detection at higher
frequencies can be a practical challenge due to prominentnoise. The signal-to-noise ratio scales with the square root of
the number of probing events so to maintain the signal level
at 10% of the amplitude one needs to increase the measure-ment time by a factor 100. The choice of a constant jitter in
Fig.3(d) focuses the analysis of the XFMR frequency limit
on the bunchlength. It should be noted that the jitter is alsoexpected to influence the upper detectable frequency.
IV. DISCUSSION
The experimental data and the numerical analysis imply
that the accessible frequency range in phase-resolved XFMRextends well beyond 1 =s
c(this ratio amounts to 1.54 GHz at
the MAX-II storage ring). While the amplitude of the signal
decays rapidly for increasing frequencies above this point, thefield scans can be measured at c onsiderably highe r frequencies
and the timing scans have a detectable signal at even higher fre-
quencies. These results suggest that it is feasible to extend thefrequency range of phase-sensitive and x-ray detected FMR
beyond the X-band, especially in consideration to the <80 psbunch lengths available at sever al of today’s third generation
synchrotrons. Furthermore, experimental schemes to transfer-
ring the XFMR technique to fourth generation synchrotrons,where photon bunch lengths in the sub-ps regime can be
achieved, have recently been proposed.
27
In conclusion, experimental measurements of the upper
accessible frequency for transmission mode XFMR exceed
the inverse bunch length. The observed upper accessible fre-
quency is supported by a numerical model, which accountsfor the sampled amplitude dependence on the pump fre-
quency as well as the time structure of the probe, i.e., the
bunch length and timing jitter. The model could be extendedfurther by including additional sources of jitter, for example,
sampling noise
28originating from the detector side of the
circuit.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank Dr. Gunnar €Ohrwall at MAX-lab for
beamline support. The support of the Swedish Foundation
for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Educa-tion (STINT) is gratefully acknowledged. The support of the
NSLS under DOE Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886 is
also gratefully acknowledged. W.E.B. acknowledges supportfrom the U.S. NSF-ECCS-0925829.
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1.4977490.pdf | Thickness dependence study of current-driven ferromagnetic resonance in Y 3Fe5O12/
heavy metal bilayers
Z. Fang , A. Mitra , A. L. Westerman , M. Ali , C. Ciccarelli , O. Cespedes , B. J. Hickey , and A. J. Ferguson
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 092403 (2017); doi: 10.1063/1.4977490
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4977490
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apl/110/9
Published by the American Institute of PhysicsThickness dependence study of current-driven ferromagnetic resonance
in Y 3Fe5O12/heavy metal bilayers
Z.Fang,1,a)A.Mitra,2A. L. Westerman,2M.Ali,2C.Ciccarelli,1O.Cespedes,2B. J. Hickey,2
and A. J. Ferguson1
1Microelectronics Group, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue,
Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom
2School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
(Received 19 December 2016; accepted 14 February 2017; published online 28 February 2017)
We use ferromagnetic resonance to study the current-induced torques in YIG/heavy metal bilayers.
YIG samples with thickness varying from 14.8 nm to 80 nm, with the Pt or Ta thin film on top, aremeasured by applying a microwave current into the heavy metals and measuring the longitudinal
DC voltage generated by both spin rectification and spin pumping. From a symmetry analysis of
the FMR lineshape and its dependence on YIG thickness, we deduce that the Oersted field domi-nates over spin-transfer torque in driving magnetization dynamics. Published by AIP Publishing.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4977490 ]
Insulating magnetic materials have recently played an
important role in spintronics since they allow pure spin cur-
rents to flow without the associated charge transport. Withinthe family of ferromagnetic insulators, yttrium iron garnet(YIG) holds a special place owing to several favourable
properties, including ultra-low damping, high Curie tempera-
ture, and chemical stability.
1–3By growing an overlayer of
heavy metal (HM), such as platinum or tantalum, severalimportant spintronic phenomena have been explored in the
YIG/HM bilayer system, including the magnetic proximity
effect,
4,5spin pumping,6,7spin Hall magnetoresistance
(SMR),8,9spin Seebeck effect,10,11and so on. Furthermore,
the spin Hall effect in HM can convert a charge current into
a transverse pure spin current, making it possible to manipu-
late the ferromagnetic insulator by spin transfer torque(STT). Recently, several groups have reported controllingthe damping in YIG by applying a DC charge current in a Pt
capping layer,
12by which spin-Hall auto-oscillation can be
realized.13,14Replacing the DC current with a microwave
current, the electrical signal in Pt can also be transmitted viaspin waves in YIG.
3In order to further explore the applica-
tion of the YIG/HM system, it is necessary to understand the
torque on YIG induced by the charge current in HM.
Current-induced ferromagnetic resonance (CI-FMR) is
an effective method to characterize ferromagnetic samples atmicrometre-scale and quantify the current-induced magnetictorques in ferromagnetic/HM bilayer systems.
15As shown in
Fig.1(a), an oscillating charge current in the HM layer gen-
erates a perpendicular pure spin-current, oscillating at thesame frequency via the spin Hall effect. This oscillating spincurrent flows into the ferromagnetic layer, exerting an oscil-
lating STT, which can drive magnetization precession when
the FMR condition is satisfied.
15–19Since no charge current
is required to flow inside the ferromagnetic layer in this pro-cess, it is possible to extend this method to ferromagnetic
insulator/HM bilayers. Instead of penetrating into the ferro-
magnetic layer, the electrons undergo spin-dependentscattering at the interface between the ferromagnetic insula-
tor and the HM, transferring angular momentum to theferromagnetic insulator. The accompanied Oersted field gen-erated by the charge current in Pt can also drive the magneti-zation precession. Although from the symmetry point ofview, the torques induced by the Oersted field and the field-like component of STT are indistinguishable from eachother, in our work, we confirm that the driving field is domi-nated by the Oersted contribution by repeating the measure-ment with Pt and Ta.
Recently, several groups have studied the CI-FMR in
YIG/Pt both theoretically
20,21and experimentally.22–24
Using the theoretical model built by Chiba et al.,21Schreier
et al. did the first experiment on in-plane CI-FMR in YIG/Pt
and identified the current-induced torque by the symmetryand the lineshape of the signals.
22Sklenar et al . then
repeated the experiment for an out-of-plane external mag-netic field.
23Very recently, Jungfleisch et al . imaged the
current-driven magnetization precession in YIG/Pt at the res-onance condition with Brillouin light scattering spectroscopyand argued that uniform precession is no longer applicable ata high microwave power.
24The behaviour of CI-FMR in
YIG/HM, however, should depend on the thickness of thefilms,
20which is one aspect that remains under explored.
Here, we study the current-induced torque in YIG/Pt (or
Ta) bilayer structures with different YIG thicknesses usingCI-FMR. By applying a microwave current into the HM andsweeping the external magnetic field in the plane of the devi-ces, a DC voltage is observed at the resonance condition.This DC voltage is generated simultaneously by two mecha-nisms:
20spin rectification and spin pumping. The nature of
the torque can be understood from the lineshape and the sym-metry of the DC voltage obtained from different samples.
YIG films with different thickness (listed in Table I)w e r e
grown using RF sputtering on substrates of (111) gadoliniumgallium garnet at a pressure of 2.4 mTorr. Since the depositedYIG was nonmagnetic, the film was annealed ex situ at 850
/C14C
for 2 h. A layer of 4.2 60.1 nm Pt (or 5.0 60.1 nm Ta) was
then deposited via DC magnetron sputtering. Both YIG and Pta)zf231@cam.ac.uk
0003-6951/2017/110(9)/092403/5/$30.00 Published by AIP Publishing. 110, 092403-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 110, 092403 (2017)
thicknesses were measured by x-ray reflectivity. The sam-
ples were patterned into 5 /C250lm2bars by using optical
lithography and argon ion milling. After a second round of
optical lithography, a layer of 5 nm Cr/50 nm Au was evap-
orated as the contact electrodes. Each bar was mounted on a
low-loss dielectric circuit board and connected to a micro-
strip transmission line via wire bonding. By using a bias-
tee, the DC voltage across the bar was measured at the same
time as microwave power was applied. A magnetic fieldHextwas swept in the film plane at an angle hwith respect
to the bar, as defined in Fig. 1(a).
The lineshape and the symmetry of the resonance in the
DC voltage that we measure depend on both how the magne-tization precession is driven and how the DC voltage is gen-erated. As for the driving mechanism, when a microwavecurrent I
0ejxtflows though the HM, two types of torques are
expected to act on YIG: a field-like torque sOe¼M/C2hOe
induced by the Oersted field hOe//y, where yis the unit
vector along the y axis, and an antidamping-like STTs
ST¼M/C2hSTinduced by an effective field hST//y/C2M.I f
Mis in the x-y plane, both torques reach their maximum
when Mis along the x-axis and become zero when Mis per-
pendicular to the current direction.
As for the generation of the longitudinal voltage, two
mechanisms are mainly involved: spin rectification and spin
pumping. At the FMR condition, the oscillating magnetiza-
tion leads to a time-dependent SMR in the HM at the samefrequency: R¼R
0þDRcos2h(t),8,25which rectifies the
microwave current, inducing a DC voltage along the bar. Wehave characterised the SMR for each YIG thickness byTABLE I. Summary of sample characteristics. The HM cap is Pt unless
specified.
tYIG
(nm)SMR
(10/C05)ceff/2p
(GHz/T)Meff
(kA/m)aeff
(10/C03)K2?
(kJ/m3)
14.8 4.8 60.6 30.0 60.1 69 63 1.41 60.02 12.6 61.3
22 5.9 61.0 29.9 60.1 81 64 1.15 60.03 11.2 61.1
36 2.9 60.3 29.8 60.1 82 63 1.00 60.02 11.1 61.0
49.5 5.1 60.1 29.8 60.1 82 63 0.97 60.02 11.1 61.0
62 3.1 60.5 29.9 60.1 77 64 0.93 60.04 11.6 61.2
80 (Ta) 1.2 60.5 28.1 60.9 90 67 1.36 60.31 10.2 60.9
(a)
FIG. 1. (a) Scheme of CI-FMR in YIG/Pt and the experiment setup. (b) and (c) Results from a YIG(14.8)/Pt(4.2) sample: (b) spectra of CI-FMR at 4–8 GHz;
(c) resonance frequency fas a function of the resonant field l0Hres, fitted with in-plane Kittel’s formula in dashed line. Inset: frequency dependence of the
FMR linewidth l0DH. (d) Plot of the effective damping aeffas a function of tYIG-active . Red dashed line represents the fitting result using EQ. (4).092403-2 Fang et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 092403 (2017)measuring the resistance of the Pt bar as an external in-
plane magnetic field is rotated. The results are reported
in Table I. The spin-rectification DC voltage consists of a
symmetric ( Vsym-SR ) and an antisymmetric ( Vasy-SR )
Lorentzian components26,27
VDC¼Vsym-SRDH2
Hext/C0Hres ðÞ2þDH2
þVasy-SRDHH ext/C0Hres ðÞ
Hext/C0Hres ðÞ2þDH2; (1)
Vsym-SR¼I0DR
2ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
HresHresþMeff ðÞp
DH2HresþMeff ðÞhSTsin 2h; (2)
Vasy-SR¼I0DR
2HresþMeff ðÞ
DH2HresþMeff ðÞhOesin 2hcosh; (3)
where Hext,Hres, andDHare the external applied magnetic
field, the resonant field, and the linewidth (half width at halfmaximum), respectively; M
eff¼Ms–2K2?/l0Msis the effec-
tive magnetization, where Ms,K2?, and l0refer to the satura-
tion magnetization, the interface anisotropy energy density,
and the vacuum permeability, respectively. Eqs. (2)and(3)
show that Vsym-SR is induced by the out-of-plane field hST
while Vasy-SR is induced by the Oersted field hOe.
The other mechanism that could lead to a DC longitudi-
nal voltage is spin pumping. The DC voltage from spin
pumping, irrespective of the driving mechanism, is describedby a symmetric Lorentzian component V
sym-SP , being inde-
pendent of the phase between the microwave current in the
HM and the precessing magnetization. Table IIsummarizes
the lineshape and the angle dependence of the DC voltagefor each of the driving and detecting mechanisms discussedabove. Here, the effective damping factor a
effis a function of
tYIGand includes the spin pumping term aSP28–30
aefftYIGðÞ ¼a0þaSP¼a0þglB
4pMstYIGg"#
eff; (4)
where a0is the intrinsic Gilbert damping coefficient of YIG
without HM cap; gis the g-factor; lBis the Bohr magneton;
andg"#
effis the interface effective spin mixing conductance
taking into account the backflow. Assuming that a0does not
change with tYIG,g"#
effcan be determined by measuring aeff
for samples of different YIG thicknesses.
Fig. 1(b) shows an example of CI-FMR signals mea-
sured at f¼4–8 GHz and h¼45/C14for a sample YIG(14.8)/
Pt(4.2). The resonances are well described by a Lorentzian
lineshape consisting of symmetric and antisymmetriccomponents. Fig. 1(c)plots the frequency dependence of the
resonance field and the linewidth (inset), which are well
fitted by the in-plane Kittel formula f¼(l0ceff/2p)[Hres(Hres
þMeff)]1/2and the linear linewidth function l0DH¼l0DH0
þ2pfaeff/ceff, respectively. Here, ceffis the effective gyro-
magnetic ratio and DH0is the frequency-independent inho-
mogeneous linewidth broadening. From the fitting, wecalculate the parameters, c
eff,Meff, and aeff, as summarized
in Table I, together with those obtained from each of the
samples considered in this study. By using a vibrating sam-
ple magnetometer (VSM), we measured the values of Msto
be 180620 kA/m for all the samples at room temperature,
andK2?can now be calculated (Table I). From VSM mea-
surement, we also find that there is a 5.1 60.1 nm-thick non-
magnetic dead layer in our YIG films. Therefore, we definethe thickness of active YIG layer as t
YIG-active ¼tYIG– 5.1 in
nm, and this value should be used in our calculation. As
shown in Fig. 1(d), the value of aefffor different tYIG-active is
well fitted by Eq. (4), and we find the values of a0andg"#
effto
be (8.1 60.1)/C210/C04and (7.1 60.2)/C21017m/C02for our
YIG/Pt samples, respectively, in reasonably good agreementwith the literature.
31
To characterize the current-induced torque, we now ana-
lyse the angle dependence of the symmetric and the antisym-metric components of the resonance signal. Fig. 2(a) shows
the result obtained from the YIG(14.8)/Pt(4.2) sample. The
V
asyis fitted well with a –sin2 hcoshfunction alone (red dash)
in agreement with a resonance driven by the Oersted field and
detected by spin-rectification (Table II). In contrast, Vsymis
fitted by the sum of a sin2 hcoshterm (orange dash) and a sin h
(green dash) term noted as Vsym-sin2 hcoshandVsym-sin h,r e s p e c -
tively. All components are linear in power (Fig. 2(b)), indicat-
ing that the small-angle precession approximation is satisfied.By carrying a quantitative analysis of V
asybased on Eq. (3),
we extract the value of the effective field that generates the
torque for each sample (Fig. 2(c)), normalized to a unit cur-
rent density of jc¼1010A/m2. This can be compared with the
value of the Oersted field calculated from Ampere’s law as
l0hOe¼l0jctPt/2/C2526lT( r e dd a s hi nF i g . 2(c)), where tPtis
the thickness of Pt. The good agreement between the two val-
ues confirms that the field-like torque is mainly attributed to
the Oersted field.
The analysis of the sin2 hcoshterm (orange dash)
in symmetric component is richer since it contains three
different terms as shown in Table II. Despite this, we can
still identify the main driving mechanism by comparing
Vsym-sin2 hcoshandVasy. Fig. 3plots the ratio Vsym-sin2 hcosh/Vasy
in each Pt/YIG sample with respect to 1/ aeff, showing a lin-
ear dependence. Referring to Table II, only jVOe-SP /VOe-SRj
/1/aeff, while the ratios between other terms have a more
complicated relation to aeffasaeffalso depends on tYIG-active
(Eq. (4)). From this, we conclude that Vsym-sin2 hcoshcan be
mainly attributed to the spin pumping driven by the Oersted
field. In addition to this, we carried out an experiment inwhich we replaced the Pt with Ta. Fig. 2(d) shows the angle
dependence for a YIG(80)/Ta(5.0) sample. While V
sym
changes its sign compared with the YIG/Pt case, the sign of
Vasystays the same. The change in the sign of Vsymis
explained with the opposite sign of the spin-pumping, which
results from the opposite value of the spin-Hall angle of TaTABLE II. Summary of resonance DC signal components involved, with
their Lorentzian lineshape and dependence on h, spin Hall angle #SH,tYIG,
andaeff.Ciare the positive coefficients independent from the parameters
listed above (see supplementary material for the deduction).
Driving Detecting lineshape Dependence on h,#SH,tYIG, and aeff
hST SR Symmetric /C0CST-SR½#3
SH=ðaefftYIGÞ/C138sin 2hcosh
SP Symmetric CST-SP½#3
SH=ðaefftYIGÞ2/C138sin 2hcosh
hOe SR Anti-symmetric /C0COe-SRð#2
SH=aeffÞsin 2hcosh
SP Symmetric COe-SPð#SH=a2
effÞsin 2hcosh092403-3 Fang et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 092403 (2017)compared with Pt.15,16,32The fact that the sign of Vasydoes
not depend on the sign of the spin-Hall angle of the metallayer further confirms that the Oersted field dominates overthe field-like STT in driving the magnetization dynamics inour samples.
33Since Vsymis dominated by the spin pumping
signal driven by the Oersted field and we have already deter-
mined the value of g"#
eff, following the method in Ref. 36by
assuming the spin diffusion length in Pt to be 1.5 nm37and
the precession ellipticity factor to be 1, we can estimate thespin Hall angle of Pt to be 1.0 60.2%, agreeing well with
the previous work.
7,28Our results from YIG/Pt are different
from some ferromagnetic metals/HM bilayers, such as Co/Pt
27or Py/Pt,15,34,35where the rectification signal driven by
STT dominates over the spin pumping signal, and Vsymand
Vasyare comparable with each other with the same sign in
the CI-FMR measurement, which might be caused by thelow interface spin mixing conductance in our samples.
We also briefly comment on an additional sin h(green
dash) term that appears in the fitting of V
sym. We note that
when measuring other material systems in our setup, e.g.,Co/Pt
27or Py/Pt,38this sin hcomponent is absent, indicatingFIG. 3. Plot of the ratio Vsym-sin2 hcosh/Vasyas a function of 1/ aeff, measured
from the YIG/Pt samples at 8 GHz. The dashed line represents the linear
fitting.FIG. 2. (a) Angle dependence of the symmetric part Vsym(blue) and anti-symmetric part Vasy(red) from YIG(14.8)/Pt(4.2) at 8 GHz. Dashed lines are fitting
results, where Vasyis fitted by sin2 hcosh, while Vsymneeds a sin hterm (green) in addition to the sin2 hcoshterm (orange). (b) Power dependence of the three
resonance components at 8 GHz. (c) Oersted field l0hycalculated from Ampere’s law (red dashed line) and Vasyusing Eq. (3)(black dot) for each YIG/Pt sam-
ple, normalized to jc¼1010A/m. (d) Angle dependence measurement from a YIG(80)/Ta(5.0) sample.092403-4 Fang et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 092403 (2017)its origin in the sample. This term was previously attributed
to an on-resonance contribution from the longitudinal spin
Seebeck effect.24However, neither STT nor Oersted field
can drive FMR at h¼90/C14, where this term is maximum.
In conclusion, we have used CI-FMR to investigate the
charge-current-induced torque on YIG magnetization in a
series of YIG/HM samples with different YIG thickness
between 14.8 nm and 80 nm. Our measurements show that
the Oersted field gives the dominant contribution to driving
the magnetisation precession and should therefore be taken
into account when carrying out CI-FMR studies in YIG/HM
systems.
See supplementary material for the deduction of the
dependence of the d.c. voltage on the parameters h,#SH,
tYIG, and aeffin Table II.
We thank L. Abdurakhimov for the experiment help and
T. Jungwirth, M. Jungfleisch and A. Hoffmann for the
valuable discussions. Z.F. thanks the Cambridge Trusts forthe financial support. B.J.H. thanks D. Williams and Hitachi
Cambridge for support and advice. A.J.F. was supported by
ERC grant 648613 and a Hitachi Research Fellowship. The
research leading to these results has received funding from
the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP –
People-2012-ITN) under Grant No. 316657 (SpinIcur) and
the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
(EPSRC).
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1.5129016.pdf | AIP Advances 10, 025120 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129016 10, 025120
© 2020 Author(s).Effect of asymmetric Pt thickness on
the inverse spin Hall voltage in Pt/Co/Pt
trilayers
Cite as: AIP Advances 10, 025120 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129016
Submitted: 26 September 2019 . Accepted: 17 January 2020 . Published Online: 12 February 2020
Tzu-Hsiang Lo , Yi-Chien Weng
, Chi-Feng Pai
, and Jauyn Grace Lin
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Effect of asymmetric Pt thickness on the inverse
spin Hall voltage in Pt/Co/Pt trilayers
Cite as: AIP Advances 10, 025120 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5129016
Submitted: 26 September 2019 •Accepted: 17 January 2020 •
Published Online: 12 February 2020
Tzu-Hsiang Lo,1Yi-Chien Weng,2
Chi-Feng Pai,1,3
and Jauyn Grace Lin2,3,a)
AFFILIATIONS
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
2Center for Condensed Matter Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
3Center of Atomic Initiative for New Materials, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: jglin@ntu.edu.tw
ABSTRACT
Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) is an effective technique for probing the magnetization dynamics of magnetic thin films. In particular,
bilayer systems composed of a paramagnetic layer and a ferromagnetic layer are commonly used for FMR-driven spin pumping experi-
ments. Spin pump-and-probe models have been adopted to obtain the spin Hall angle ( θSHE) and spin diffusion length ( λN) for various single
layer and bilayer systems. Trilayer systems, however, have rarely been studied with the same model. In this work, we study the structural
asymmetry effect on Pt/Co/Pt trilayers and find that the different thicknesses of Pt on two sides of Co may change the spin current sign.
Furthermore, we propose a method that allows analysis of Pt/Co/Pt trilayers using the spin pump-and-probe model. The obtained values of
θPtandλPtin the Pt/Co/Pt system are 0.116 nm and 1.15 nm, respectively, which are consistent with the values obtained from other Pt-based
bilayer systems.
©2020 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129016 .,s
I. INTRODUCTION
In 2004, Kato et al.1first observed the spin Hall effect
(SHE) experimentally in semiconductors through optical meth-
ods. Since then, the SHE has attracted considerable interest and
led to several experimental studies, including the nonlocal detec-
tion of the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE),2,3spin Seebeck effect,4,5
spin transfer torque,6spin-orbit torque,7and spin pumping.8–11
The spin–orbit interaction plays an indispensable role in these
effects. Among these studies, the spin pump-and-probe measure-
ment in heavy transition metals involves the ISHE model due to
the strong spin–orbit interaction therein, which converts spin cur-
rent into charge current. In the ferromagnetic layer, spin cur-
rent is generated via ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) and injected
into the adjacent heavy metal layer, resulting in an electrical sig-
nal which provides a quick way to acquire information of crit-
ical parameters such as spin diffusion length, spin mixing con-
ductance, and spin Hall angle. In both the SHE and ISHE, the
efficiency of spin–charge conversion can be expressed as the spinHall angle θSHE, which is the ratio of spin current to charge
current.
In general, the spin pump-and-probe measurement requires
a bilayer structure composed of one magnetic layer and one non-
magnetic layer. Permalloy (Py) is usually used as the magnetic layer,
and Pt is used as the non-magnetic heavy transition metal layer.
The charge current detected in the Pt layer is due to the ISHE of
the spin current generated in the Py layer. Recently, some groups
have proposed a self-induced spin pumping effect in a single mag-
netic layer.12–14The spin current flowing from the magnetic layer
to the substrate may explain the observation of self-induced spin
Hall voltage. To understand the “self-induced spin pumping” on
the single layer system, a systematic study on the thickness depen-
dent ISHE voltage was recently carried out on Co/Si and attributed
to the combination of spin-orbit coupling and long spin diffusion
length of Si.15In this study, we design a Pt/Co/Pt trilayer sys-
tem with different Pt thicknesses on two sides of Co and com-
pare the results with the Co/Pt bilayer system to investigate the
asymmetry effect on the ISHE.
AIP Advances 10, 025120 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5129016 10, 025120-1
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FIG. 1 . Schematic illustration of FMR and ISHE measurements.
II. SAMPLE FABRICATION AND THE EXPERIMENT
SETUP
Magnetic heterostructures Pt(t)/Co(10)/Pt(2) were deposited
onto Si(100) substrates with a dimension of 1.5 mm ×3 mm, where
t = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10. The values indicated in parentheses
are expressed as nanometers. Trilayer stacks were deposited using
an ultra-high vacuum magnetron sputtering chamber with a base
pressure of 3 ×10−8Torr and an Ar working pressure of 3 mTorr.
Room temperature FMR spectra were obtained from a Bruker EMX
system with the samples placed at the center of a TE 102microwave
(MW) cavity, in which the magnetic field of the MW was max-
imum and the electric field was minimum. The frequency of the
MW was 9.78 GHz, and the power of the MW ( PMW) varied from
10 mW to 60 mW. Angle dependent FMR measurement was then
performed. The DC voltage was detected with a Keithley 2182A
nanometer. The schematic illustration of FMR and spin pump-and-
probe measurements is shown in Fig. 1, with θHdefined as the
angle between the applied field (H) and the sample plane, and w
and ldefined as the respective width and length of the sample,
respectively.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The FMR spectra of Pt(t)/Co/Pt with PMW= 40 mW are shown
in Fig. 2(a). In order to obtain the resonance field ( HR) and linewidth
(ΔH), the differential Lorenz function is used to fit the FMR spectra
as follows:9,15
dI
dH=−16A⋅ΔH⋅(H−HR)
π[4(H−HR)2+(ΔH)2]2, (1)
where Ais the area of curve I(H) . The fitting results of HRand
ΔHare shown in Table I. The significant linewidth change in the
FIG. 2 . FMR spectra and DC voltages of Pt(t)/Co/Pt: (a) FMR spectra of Pt(t)/Co/Pt
where the resonance field increases with Pt thickness and (b) DC voltages of
Pt(t)/Co/Pt where the voltage decreases with increasing Pt thickness from t = 0
to t = 6; then, the voltage is saturated at t = 6 to t = 10.
trilayers (∼17 Oe in average) compared with the bilayer is mainly
due to the spin injection at the additional Pt/Co interface.8However,
the linewidth of Pt(t)/Co/Pt oscillates with changing t, which cannot
be simply explained by the modified bilayer model. This oscillation
behavior may be due to the mirror reflection of the top Pt(2 nm),
which requires further investigation. It is noted that H rincreases
with increasing t, suggesting the change in magnetic anisotropy.
In principle, effective magnetization increases with increasing mag-
netic anisotropy; however, in most spin pumping models, the cal-
culation of spin mixing conductance treats the anisotropy as the
angle of magnetization with respect to the sample plane (later,
this is denoted as θM]. Furthermore, we measured the magnetiza-
tion of Co(10) and Co(10)/Pt(10) in our samples and found only
2% enhancement in magnetization with Pt capping. Thus, we do
not consider the magnetic proximity effect of Pt in our analysis.
TABLE I . Resonance field and linewidth of Pt(t)/Co/Pt.
Materials Resonance field (Oe) Linewidth (Oe)
Pt(0)/Co(10)/Pt(2) 663 185
Pt(1)/Co(10)/Pt(2) 703 204
Pt(2)/Co(10)/Pt(2) 794 191
Pt(3)/Co(10)/Pt(2) 742 213
Pt(4)/Co(10)/Pt(2) 780 197
Pt(6)/Co(10)/Pt(2) 795 197
Pt(8)/Co(10)/Pt(2) 810 202
Pt(10)/Co(10)/Pt(2) 812 205
AIP Advances 10, 025120 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5129016 10, 025120-2
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The interface roughness of Co/Pt may induce magnetic inhomo-
geneity, which is reflected in the linewidth modulation. In this work,
we consider the interfacial roughness is the same for all trilayer sam-
ples and included the change in linewidth in the calculation of spin
mixing conductance.
The DC voltage of the Pt(t)/Co/Pt samples induced by spin
pumping is shown in Fig. 2(b). We define the direction of the
spin current from the Co layer to the top Pt layer as positive
sinceθSHE of Pt is positive. For the case of t >0, the spin cur-
rent jswould also flow from the Co layer toward the bottom Pt
layer during magnetization-precession, i.e., the precession generates
two spin currents of opposite directions according to the following
equation:10
jc=θSHE(js×σ), (2)
where the spin polarization σis parallel to the external magnetic
field. Therefore, for the case of Co/Pt, jcshould be positive.
Based on this spin pump-and-probe model, ideally, the
Pt(2)/Co/Pt(2) sample should have no signal at all since the spin
currents on the two Pt layers should be the same in magnitude but
opposite in direction. However, our experimental result indicates
that the voltage of Pt(2)/Co/Pt(2) still shows a small positive voltage,
as seen in Fig. 2(b), which could be due to the differences in voltage
at the top and bottom Pt/Co interfaces. Conversely, Pt(3)/Co/Pt(2)
demonstrates a negative voltage, indicating that down-direction spin
current dominates the system.
FIG. 3 .α,γ, and the g-factor of Pt(t)/Co/Pt: (a) αas a function of Pt thickness;
αis constant at different Pt thicknesses as t = 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 and (b) γand the
g-factor as a function of Pt thickness; γand the g-factor show the same trend; they
are constant at different Pt thicknesses at t = 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10.For the trilayer structure, the bottom Pt layer leads to an
additional spin current flowing from the Co downward to the Pt
layer. The spin current depriving the magnetization-precession of
the Co, therefore, enhances the linewidth which is proportional
to the Gilbert damping constant α. This leads to the relaxation of
magnetization-precession, and we can obtain αby measuring the res-
onance field and linewidth at different θHfrom 0○to 85○14while
simultaneously obtaining the g-factor and the gyromagnetic ratio γ.
Figures 3(a) and 3(b) show the thickness dependence of αand the
thickness dependence of γand the g-factor, respectively. The verifi-
cation of the mechanism of the ISHE by measuring the DC voltage
at 0○and 180○is shown in Fig. 4(a). The opposite sign of the voltage
is due to the opposite direction of the spin current.
The obtained DC voltage, as in Fig. 2(b), is composed of a
symmetric part VISHE and an antisymmetric part VAHE shown as
follows:16
Voltage=VISHEΔH2
(H−HR)2+ΔH2+VAHE−2ΔH(H−HR)
(H−HR)2+ΔH2. (3)
Figure 4(b) shows the decomposition of the DC voltage into VISHE
(green line) and VAHE(pink line). Figure 5 shows the value of VISHE
as a function of PMW. The linear dependence corresponds to the spin
pump-and-probe theory.8
FIG. 4 . (a)VISHEof Pt(4)/Co/Pt: the opposite voltage at 0○and 180○demonstrates
the net opposite spin current flowing from Co to Pt and (b) a decomposition of
VISHEandVAHEin Pt(2)/Co/Pt: the green curve is the contribution of VISHE, and
the pink curve is the contribution of VAHE.
AIP Advances 10, 025120 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5129016 10, 025120-3
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FIG. 5 .VISHEof Pt(t)/Co/Pt as a function of PMW; linear dependence indicates that
the inverse spin Hall effect is the main contributor of VISHE.
VISHE is converted to Icby Ohm’s law and then normalized to
the width of the sample.Ic
wvstPtis plotted as shown in Fig. 6. For the
convenience of data analysis, we treat the trilayer system as a bilayer
system, by considering the top Co/Pt(2 nm) as the spin pumping
layer and the bottom Pt(t) as the spin current detection layer. Based
on the spin pump-and-probe model for the bilayer system,10,17,18
Ic=θPtw(2e
̵h)λPttanh(tPt
2λPt)j0
s, (4)
whereθPtis the spin Hall angle of Pt, w = 1.5 mm, and λPtis the spin
diffusion length of Pt. j0
sis the spin current density, which can be
expressed as
j0
s=g↑↓
effγ2PMW̵h[4πMsγsin2θM+√
(4πMs)2γ2+ 4ω2]
8πα2√
(4πMs)2γ2+ 4ω2, (5)
where Msis the saturation magnetization of Co (1414 Oe/cc
obtained from VSM), ωis the angular frequency of MW, and g↑↓
eff
is the spin mixing conductance,8,19
FIG. 6 . Charge current as a function of Pt thickness at PMW= 40 mW;λPtandθPt
can be obtained using the red fitting curve.TABLE II . Summary of λPt,θPt, and g↑↓
eff.
λPt θPt g↑↓
eff
Materials (nm) (%) (1019m−2)Backflow Reference
Py/Pt 7.7 ±0.7 1.3 ±0.1 3.02 Y 10
3.7±0.2 4.0 ±1.0 2.4 Y 22
1.2 8.6 ±0.5 3.0 N 20
8.3±0.9 1.2 ±0.2 2.5 ±0.2 N 23
YIG/Pt 1.5 11 0.97 Y 21
7.3 10 ±1 0.69 ±0.06 N 24
LSMO/Pt 5.9 ±0.5 1.2 ±0.1 1.8 ±0.4 N 9
Pt/Co/Pt 1.15 11.6 2.85 N This work
g↑↓
eff=4πMsdF
γ̵h(ΔHF/N−ΔHF), (6)
where ΔHF/Nis the linewidth of Co/Pt, and ΔHFis the linewidth
of the single Co layer in FMR spectra. For the convenience
of analysis, we propose a modified bilayer model. We treat the
Pt(t)/Co(10)/Pt(2) as a bilayer system, where the Pt(t) is considered
the spin-detection layer and the Co(10)/Pt(2) is considered the effec-
tive spin injection layer. With this assumption, we only take into
account the interfacial effect between the bottom Pt(t) layer and
the Co(10). By fitting the data of IcvstPtwith Eq. (4), which can
be seen as the solid line in Fig. 6, we obtain g↑↓
eff=2.85×1019m−2
and j0
s=2.04×10−10A
m2.λPtandθPtare estimated to be 1.15 nm
and 0.116, respectively, which are comparable to previously reported
values.20,21
We summarize the results of λPt,θPt, and g↑↓
efffrom various
research groups and have listed them in Table II.9,10,20–24It is inter-
esting to note that a wide range of θPthas been obtained by differ-
ent groups using different measurement techniques. However, the
productλPtθPtis almost constant.25,26Our result, the product of
λPtθPt∼0.13, is equivalent to that obtained by Wang et al.26There-
fore, we suggest that the spin pump-and-probe model is also feasible
in fitting the trilayer system via a bilayer approach.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
In Pt(t)/Co/Pt samples, FMR and spin pumping measurements
were performed to analyze the effect of the bottom Pt layer on
VISHE. The linewidth, α, the g-factor, and γwere obtained. VISHE
of a series of Pt(t)/Co/Pt samples demonstrates a clear asymme-
try effect by changing the thickness of the bottom Pt layer. The
Pt(3)/Co/Pt(2) has a negative voltage in contrast with the positive
voltage in Pt(2)/Co/Pt(2). This result infers that spin currents with
opposite directions are driven by the precession of Co magnetiza-
tion, resulting in an imbalance of spin currents in asymmetric struc-
tures. Based on the spin pump-and-probe model, λPtandθPtare
1.15 nm and 0.116, respectively. The comparable values of λPtand
θPtin bilayer and trilayer systems suggest that spin pump-and-probe
models can also apply to a trilayer system. However, the oscillation
AIP Advances 10, 025120 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5129016 10, 025120-4
© Author(s) 2020AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
behavior in the FMR linewidth of Pt(t)/Co/Pt with changing t cannot
be simply explained by the modified bilayer model, which requires
further investigation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was financially supported in part by the Min-
istry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China and
National Taiwan University under the projects of Grant Nos. MOST
108-2112-M-002-022 and NTU-107L900803, respectively.
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1.3675614.pdf | Tuning of magnetization relaxation in ferromagnetic thin films through seed layers
Lei Lu, Jared Young, Mingzhong Wu, Christoph Mathieu, Matthew Hadley, Pavol Krivosik, and Nan Mo
Citation: Applied Physics Letters 100, 022403 (2012); doi: 10.1063/1.3675614
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129.21.35.191 On: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 09:34:10Tuning of magnetization relaxation in ferromagnetic thin films
through seed layers
Lei Lu,1Jared Y oung,1Mingzhong Wu,1,a)Christoph Mathieu,2Matthew Hadley,2
Pavol Krivosik,3and Nan Mo4
1Department of Physics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA
2Seagate Technology, Recording Head Operations, Bloomington, Minnesota 55435, USA
3Department of Physics, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs,
Colorado 80933, USA
4Southwest Institute of Applied Magnetics, Mianyang, Sichuan 621000, China
(Received 11 November 2011; accepted 16 December 2011; published online 9 January 2012)
Tuning of the magnetization relaxation in Fe 65Co35thin films via seed layers was demonstrated.
Through the use of different types of seed layers, one can tune substantially both the magnitude
and frequency dependence of the relaxation rate gof the film. This tuning relies on the change of
the film grain properties with the seed layer and the correlation between grain properties andtwo-magnon scattering processes. In spite of a significant change of gwith the seed layer, the film
static magnetic properties remain relatively constant.
VC2012 American Institute of Physics .
[doi:10.1063/1.3675614 ]
The magnetization in a magnetic material can precess
around the direction of a static magnetic field, and such pre-cession typically has a frequency in the microwave range.
One can excite and maintain a uniform magnetization pre-
cession with an external microwave magnetic field. Once themicrowave field is turned off, however, the magnetization
will tend to relax back to the static field direction. Such mag-
netization relaxation can be realized through energy redis-tribution within the magnetic subsystem, energy transfer out
of the magnetic subsystem to non-magnetic subsystems such
as phonons and electrons, or energy transfer out of the mate-rial to external systems.
1,2
The tailoring of the magnetization relaxation rate gin
ferromagnetic thin films is of great fundamental and practicalsignificance. In practical terms, for example, the relaxation
rates in thin film materials in magnetic recording heads and
media set a natural limit to the data recording rate;
3the band-
width, insertion loss, and response time of a magnetic thin
film-based microwave device are critically associated with g
in the film.4
Previous work has demonstrated three approaches for
the tuning of gin ferromagnetic thin films: (1) control of film
thickness, (2) addition of non-magnetic elements, and (3)doping of rare earth elements. Regarding (1), the tuning of g
relies on the sensitivity of two-magnon scattering (TMS) and
eddy current effects on the film thickness.
5,6Regarding (2),
one makes use of the addition of non-magnetic elements to
control the microstructural properties of the films and,
thereby, control the TMS processes.7Regarding (3), the
relaxation rates are enhanced through the slow relaxing im-
purity mechanism.8These approaches, however, are not
practically desirable. Approach (1) sets a limit to film thick-ness for a specific relaxation rate. For (2) and (3), the change
ingis always accompanied by significant changes in other
film properties, such as saturation induction 4 pM
s. It shouldbe noted that the TMS processes in thin films are critically
associated with film microstructures, such as defects, grainsize, and surface roughness.
9,10The processes manifest
themselves in a broadening in the ferromagnetic resonance
(FMR) linewidth and nonlinear behavior in the linewidth vs.frequency response, rather than linear behavior expected by
the Gilbert model. It is also possible that the processes give
rise to a saturation response or even a decrease in the line-width as one moves to higher frequencies.
11
This letter reports on the tuning of gin ferromagnetic
thin films through the use of different types of seed layers.Specifically, the letter presents experimental and numerical
results that demonstrate the tuning of g, both the magnitude
and frequency dependence, in 100-nm-thick Fe
65Co35films
through seed layers. It is found that the use of different types
of seed layers leads to films with different grain sizes and
grain-size distributions. The difference in the film grainproperties results in a difference in the levels of both grain-
grain two-magnon scattering (GG-TMS)
11and grain-
boundary two-magnon scattering (GB-TMS)12processes. As
a result, the films grown on different seed layers show differ-
ent relaxation properties, which manifest themselves as dif-
ferent FMR linewidth properties. It is also found that thefilms on different types of seed layers show similar static
magnetic properties, although they differ significantly in g.
These results clearly demonstrate a simple and practicalapproach for the control of relaxation properties in ferromag-
netic thin films.
The Fe
65Co35films were deposited at room temperature
by dc magnetron sputtering. The substrates were (100) Si
wafers with a 300-nm-thick SiO 2capping layer. Prior to the
growth of each film, a thin seed layer was deposited. Duringfilm deposition, a field of 80 Oe was applied to induce an in-
plane uniaxial anisotropy in the film. The nominal thick-
nesses of the Fe
65Co35films are 100 nm. The grain size dand
grain-size distribution rof each film were determined by
transmission electron microscopy. The static magnetic prop-
erties were measured by vibrating sample magnetometry.a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:
mwu@lamar.colostate.edu.
0003-6951/2012/100(2)/022403/3/$30.00 VC2012 American Institute of Physics 100, 022403-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 100, 022403 (2012)
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
129.21.35.191 On: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 09:34:10The FMR measurements were carried out by shorted rectan-
gular waveguides over a frequency range of 8.2-18.0 GHz.
The peak-to-peak field separation in each power absorptionderivative profile was taken as the FMR linewidth DH.
Table Iprovides the details of the samples. Column 2
gives the material, nominal structure, and nominal thickness(nm) of each seed layer. Column 3 gives the values of d
(left) and r/d(right). These values vary significantly with the
seed layer, but are relatively independent of the seed layerthickness (except for sample 9). Column 4 lists the 4 pM
sval-
ues, which are all close to each other. The average value is
23.1 kG, which matches that reported in Ref. 13and was
used in the numerical analyses. The small variation in 4 pMs
is probably due to the deviation of the film thickness from
the nominal value, which is in the 5% range. Column 5 givesthe gyromagnetic ratio jcjvalues, which are close to each
other. Column 6 gives the anisotropy field H
uvalues, all of
which are smaller than 40 Oe. The jcjandHuvalues were
obtained through fitting the measured FMR field vs. fre-
quency responses with the Kittel equation.
Figure 1shows the linewidth DHvs. frequency
responses. Graph (a) shows the data for films deposited on
different seed layers, as indicated. Graph (b) shows the data
for films deposited on Ru seed layers of different thick-nesses, as indicated. Four important results are evident in
Fig.1. (1) By using different seed layers, one can tune the
magnitude of DHover a rather wide range of 80-490 Oe.
(2) Films on different seed layers also show significantly
different DH-frequency responses. (3) None of those
responses shows linear behavior with a zero DHintercept at
zero frequency, as expected by the Gilbert model. (4) For a
given type of seed layer, a change in the seed layer thick-
ness leads to a notable change in the magnitude of DH, but
produces negligible effects on the frequency dependence of
DH.
These results clearly indicate the feasibility of tuning
the FMR linewidth properties of the Fe
65Co35films via
the use of different seed layers. They, however, provide
no details on the effects of the seed layer on physicalrelaxation processes in the films. To understand such
effects, numerical analyses were carried out as explained
below.
The experimental linewidth DHusually takes the form
DH¼DH
rþDH0; (1)where DHroriginates from the magnetization relaxation and
DH0takes into account the sample inhomogeneity-caused
FMR line broadening. The term DHrcan be related to gas
DHr¼2g
@xFMR =@H; (2)
where xFMRis the FMR frequency. In this work, one consid-
ers three contributions to DHr(andg): (1) Gilbert damping,1,2
(2) GG-TMS relaxation,11and (3) GB-TMS relaxation.12The
Gilbert damping results mainly from magnon-electron scatter-
ing, and contributions from magnon-phonon scattering, eddy
current, and spin pumping effects are relatively weak.2,11,12
The term DH0in Eq. (1)is not a loss. Rather, it arises from
the simple superposition of several local FMR profiles for dif-
ferent regions of the film. If the inhomogeneity is strong andDH
0is comparable to DHr,E q . (1)is inappropriate and the
combined linewidth DHshould take the form11,14
DH¼DH2
rþ1:97DHrDH0þ2:16DH2
0
DHrþ2:16DH0: (3)
The discussions below were based on Eq. (3).
Figures 2and3show the results from the fitting of DH
data with four linewidth contributions described above. The
fitting used a Gilbert damping constant a¼0.003,15an
exchange constant A¼1.25/C210/C06erg/cm, which was 30%
lower than that reported in Ref. 13, and a magneto-crystallineTABLE I. Summary of sample properties.
# Seed layer d(nm) and r/d4pMs(kG) jcj(MHz/Oe) Hu(Oe)
1 Cr/bcc/2.5 40.0/0.355 23.5 2.93 37.8
2 Ta/bcc/2.5 26.0/0.354 23.1 2.93 28.03 Pt/fcc/2.5 14.7/0.299 22.4 2.90 12.84 Cu/fcc/2.5 16.8/0.506 23.4 2.92 17.95 Ti/hcp/2.5 20.6/0.291 22.8 2.90 9.86 Ru/hcp/2.5 12.5/0.280 23.7 2.93 23.47 Ru/hcp/0.5 12.6/0.270 23.1 2.93 24.28 Ru/hcp/2.0 12.5/0.280 23.1 2.93 20.59 Ru/hcp/5.0 10.5/0.429 23.4 2.93 29.010 Ru/hcp/10 13.3/0.293 22.7 2.93 25.3
FIG. 1. (Color online) FMR linewidth vs. frequency responses for films
grown on (a) different types of seed layers and (b) Ru seed layers of differ-ent thicknesses.
FIG. 2. (Color online) Theoretical fits of FMR linewidth vs. frequencyresponses and relaxation rates for films grown on different seed layers. (a)
Film on Ru seed layer. (b) Film on Cr seed layer. (c) and (d) Six films.022403-2 Lu et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 022403 (2012)
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129.21.35.191 On: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 09:34:10anisotropy field Ha¼960 Oe, which was close to that reported
in Ref. 16. The values of DH0,d,r/d, and grain boundary
surface anisotropy constant Ksused in the fitting are given in
Table II. The use of higher avalues resulted in poor fits,
which are not shown in the figures.
In Fig. 2, graphs (a) and (b) show the total fits of the DH
data and the four components for the films on Ru (2.5 nm)
and Cr seed layers, respectively. Graph (c) shows the theoreti-cal fits (curves) to all the DHdata shown in Fig. 1(a).G r a p h
(d) shows the gvalues obtained with a two-step procedure:
(1) calculation of DH
rusing Eq. (3)with the experimental DH
values and the DH0values from the fitting and (2) calculation
ofgusing Eq. (2). The data in Fig. 2indicate three important
results. First, through the use of different seed layers, one cantune gover a rather wide range from 0.5 GHz to 4 GHz as
well as its frequency dependence, as shown in (d). Second,
this tuning relies on the changes of the GG-TMS and GB-TMS processes with the seed layer, as shown representatively
in (a) and (b). Third, the dominant contributions to the relaxa-
tion are from the TMS processes, whereas the contributionfrom Gilbert damping is relatively small.
In Fig. 3, graphs (a) and (b) show the total fits of the DH
data and the four components for the films on 0.5 nm and10 nm thick Ru seed layers, respectively. Graph (c) shows
the fits to all the DHdata shown in Fig. 1(b). Graph (d)
shows the corresponding gvalues obtained with the proce-
dure described above. Two important results are evident in
Fig.3. First, a change in the Ru seed layer thickness results
in negligible effects on the TMS processes, as shown in (a)and (b), and thereby gives rise to insignificant changes in the
relaxation properties, as shown in (d). Second, the seed layer
thickness change results in a notable change in DH
0and a
corresponding change in DH.
There are two important points to be emphasized. (1)
Thedvalues used in the fitting were all close to the experi-
mental values. Most of the fitting r/dvalues were smaller
than the experimental values, and this is probably due to the
relatively small numbers of grains (about 30) used in the sta-tistical analyses of the grain properties. Nevertheless, the rel-
ative differences in r/dbetween the samples are consistent
with those from the measurements. These facts strongly sup-port the interpretation of the mechanism of the presentedrelaxation tuning. (2) The tuning relies on the fact that the
GG-TMS and GB-TMS processes are the dominant relaxa-
tion processes. For films much thinner than the films in thiswork, spin pumping is also an important damping source so
that one can vary both the material and thickness of the seed
layer to tailor the film relaxation.
2
In summary, this letter reported the effects of seed layers
on the relaxation and FMR responses of 100-nm-thick
Fe65Co35films. It was found that the use of different types of
seed layers results in films with different relaxation rates,
both in magnitude and frequency dependence, but similar
static magnetic properties. No significant effects on therelaxation rate were observed when one varied the thickness
of the Ru seed layer. These results can be interpreted in
terms of the effects of the seed layers on the film grain prop-erties and the correlation between the grain properties and
the GG-TMS and GB-TMS processes.
This work was supported in part by the U. S. National
Science Foundation, the U. S. National Institute of Standardsand Technology, and Seagate Technology.
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tion, (Wiley, New York, 2000).FIG. 3. (Color online) Theoretical fits of FMR linewidth vs. frequency
responses and relaxation rates for films grown on Ru seed layers of differentthicknesses, as indicated.TABLE II. Summary of fitting parameters.
# d(nm) r/dK s(erg/cm2) DH0(Oe)
1 36.0 0.278 0.438 100
2 30.0 0.233 0.324 803 14.0 0.118 0.438 704 15.0 0.100 0.450 805 20.0 0.400 0.258 706 12.5 0.145 0.438 307 12.3 0.133 0.438 258 12.2 0.144 0.438 389 12.5 0.136 0.438 4510 12.7 0.134 0.438 50022403-3 Lu et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 022403 (2012)
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129.21.35.191 On: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 09:34:10 |
1.4817076.pdf | Spin-relaxation modulation and spin-pumping control by transverse spin-
wave spin current in Y3Fe5O12
Y. Kajiwara, K. Uchida, D. Kikuchi, T. An, Y. Fujikawa et al.
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 052404 (2013); doi: 10.1063/1.4817076
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4817076
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Downloaded 03 Aug 2013 to 129.93.16.3. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsSpin-relaxation modulation and spin-pumping control by transverse
spin-wave spin current in Y 3Fe5O12
Y . Kajiwara,1,a)K. Uchida,1,2,b)D. Kikuchi,1,3T. An,1,4,c)Y . Fujikawa,1and E. Saitoh1,3,4,5
1Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577, Japan
2PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
3WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577, Japan
4CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Tokyo 102-0076, Japan
5Advanced Science Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai 319-1195, Japan
(Received 13 June 2013; accepted 16 July 2013; published online 30 July 2013)
Heat-current-induced manipulation of spin relaxation in Y 3Fe5O12under an in-plane temperature
gradient is investigated. We show that the linewidth of the ferromagnetic resonance spectrum, i.e., the
spin relaxation, in an Y 3Fe5O12film increases or decreases dependi ng on the temperature-gradient
direction and that this modulation is attributed to the spin-transfer torque caused by a thermally induced
transverse spin-wave spin current in the Y 3Fe5O12film. The experimental results also show that the
spin-current magnitude generated by spin pumping in an attached Pt film is inversely proportional tothe square of the modulated Gilbert damping cons tant, consistent with a phenomenological spin-
pumping model.
VC2013 AIP Publishing LLC .[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4817076 ]
The spin-transfer torque (STT) is a phenomenon that
exerts torque on magnetization via a spin current, i.e., the
angular momentum transferred from conduction-electronspins to magnetic moments in a ferromagnet.
1,2Since the STT
enables modulation of spin relaxation and manipulation of a
magnetization direction, it plays an essential role in spin-tronics. Recent studies in spintronics have revealed that a spin
current induces the STT not only in metallic magnets
3,4but
also in insulating magnets,5–13such as Y 3Fe5O12. The STT
acting on Y 3Fe5O12has been investigated by using electrically
and thermally generated spin currents in Pt/Y 3Fe5O12
junctions with the aid of the spin Hall effect14–21and the spin
Seebeck effect (SSE).22–35
The thermally induced STT has been observed in
Pt/Y 3Fe5O12junctions in two different device configurations.
One is the longitudinal configuration, where a temperature
gradient is applied perpendicular to the Pt/Y 3Fe5O12inter-
face. Recently, several research groups7–11observed the
modulation of the spin relaxation in Y 3Fe5O12in the longitu-
dinal configuration, and showed that the thermally induced
STT in this configuration originates from the spin transferbetween conduction electrons in Pt and localized magnetic
moments in Y
3Fe5O12via the s-dexchange interaction
across the Pt/Y 3Fe5O12interface. The other is the transverse
configuration, where a temperature gradient is applied along
the Pt/Y 3Fe5O12interface. In the transverse configuration, a
spin-wave spin current5flowing along a temperature gradient
plays an important role in the STT. Using this configuration,
da Silva et al.12,13demonstrated that the inverse spin Hall
effect (ISHE) induced by the spin pumping36–39is modulated
by a transverse temperature gradient. However, the direct
measurement of the spin-relaxation modulation associated
with the thermally induced STT in the transverseconfiguration is yet to be reported. In this paper, we report
on the observation of the spin relaxation that is modulated by
the thermally induced STT mediated by a transverse spin-wave spin current in a Pt/Y
3Fe5O12structure. Furthermore,
we also show that, by making use of the thermally induced
STT, the spin pumping efficiency can be enhanced or sup-pressed depending on the direction of the spin-wave spin
current in Y
3Fe5O12.
Figure 1(a) shows schematic illustrations of the experi-
mental configuration used in the present study. The sample
system consists of a 2.7- lm-thick ferrimagnetic insulator
Y3Fe5O12(111) film and a 15-nm-thick Pt wire attached on
the center of the Y 3Fe5O12film. The Y 3Fe5O12film was
grown on a single-crystalline Gd 3Ga5O12(111) substrate by
liquid phase epitaxy, and then the Pt wire was sputtered onthe top of the film in an Ar atmosphere. Here, the surface of
the Y
3Fe5O12film has a 3 /C29m m2rectangular shape. The
length and width of the Pt wire are 3 mm and 0.1 mm,respectively. We put two thermoelectric Peltier modules
under both the edges of the Pt-wire/Y
3Fe5O12-film sample
and a heat sink under the center of the sample [see Figs. 1(b)
and1(c)]. When electric currents are applied to the Peltier
modules, in-plane heat currents flowing towards the Pt wire
or the edges of the Y 3Fe5O12film are generated [see the tem-
perature profiles shown in Figs. 1(b) and1(c)]. To measure
the spin-wave-resonance (SWR) spectra and the spin pump-
ing, a static in-plane magnetic field Hand a microwave with
the frequency fof 3.8 GHz and the power of 20 mW are
applied to the Pt-wire/Y 3Fe5O12-film sample.
The thermally induced STT in the present Pt-wire/
Y3Fe5O12-film structure is measured by using the ISHE com-
bined with the spin pumping. In the configuration shown in
Fig.1(a), the transverse temperature gradients generate spin-
wave spin currents in the Y 3Fe5O12layer along the gradients.
The excited spin-wave spin currents flow from the edges to
the center (from the center to the edges) of the Y 3Fe5O12in
the Pt-Lower T (LT) (Pt-Higher T (HT)) setup. At the center
of the Pt-wire/Y 3Fe5O12-film sample, the thermally induceda)Present address: Toshiba Corporation, R&D Center, Kanagawa 212-8583,
Japan.
b)Electronic mail: kuchida@imr.tohoku.ac.jp
c)Present address: RIKEN, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
0003-6951/2013/103(5)/052404/4/$30.00 VC2013 AIP Publishing LLC 103, 052404-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 103, 052404 (2013)
Downloaded 03 Aug 2013 to 129.93.16.3. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsspin-wave spin currents modulate the spin relaxation of the
Y3Fe5O12[see Figs. 1(d) and1(e)]. Since the spin-wave dy-
namics near the Pt/Y 3Fe5O12interface induces a spin current
in the Pt layer under the SWR conditions via the spin pump-ing, we can detect the modulation of the spin relaxation by
measuring the spectrum of an electric voltage induced by the
ISHE in the Pt.
In Figs. 2(a)and2(b), we, respectively, show the spectra
of the microwave absorption Iand the DC electric voltage V
for the Pt-wire/Y
3Fe5O12-film sample under 20 mW micro-
wave excitation, measured when Hwas applied perpendicu-
lar to the inter-electrode direction. In the Vspectrum, the
clear voltage signals with peak structures, VSP, appear
around the SWR fields ( /C2460:75 kOe); the VSPsignals are
attributed to the ISHE induced by the spin pumping. The
shapes of the VSPpeak structures are well reproduced by
multiple Lorentz functions and, from the fitting result, the
spectrum linewidth DHat the ferromagnetic resonance
(FMR) mode ðk¼0Þat the center of the Y 3Fe5O12film is
estimated to be DHk¼0¼3:9 Oe. From the value of DHk¼0,
the Gilbert damping constant ak¼0¼ðc=4pfÞDHk¼0at the
FMR mode is calculated as 1 :5/C210/C03, where cdenotes the
gyromagnetic ratio. In addition to VSP, when a finite temper-
ature difference was applied to the sample, a clear voltage
step originating from the SSE,22–35VSSE, was found to
appear around zero magnetic field [Fig. 2(b)]. We confirmed
thatVSSEin the Pt-LT setup is opposite in sign to that in the
Pt-HT setup [Figs. 2(c)and2(d)] and that the magnitude of
VSSEin both the setups is proportional to the temperature dif-
ference DT[Fig. 2(e)], where DT/C17Tedge/C0Tcenter with Tedge
andTcenter being the absolute temperature at the edges andthe center of the Y 3Fe5O12film, respectively. These results
are consistent with the feature of the SSE.24,40
Now, we focus on the DTdependence of the Vspectra
to investigate the modulation of the spin relaxation ofY
3Fe5O12by the transverse temperature gradient. Figure 3(a)
shows the comparison of the normalized Vspectra at DT¼
14:5 K (red curve) and DT¼0 K (black dotted curve) around
the FMR field. We found that the spectrum linewidth of VSP
atDT¼14:5 K is clearly narrower than that at DT¼0K .
By fitting the observed VSPstructure using multiple Lorentz
functions, DHk¼0andak¼0atDT¼14:5 K are estimated to
be 2.3 Oe and 0 :9/C210/C03, respectively. These values are
smaller than DHk¼0and ak¼0atDT¼0 K, showing that
the spin relaxation of Y 3Fe5O12is modulated by the
FIG. 1. (a) Schematic illustrations of the Pt-wire/Y 3Fe5O12-film sample and
the experimental configuration. The Pt-wire/Y 3Fe5O12-film sample was
bridged between two Peltier modules. A microwave with the frequency of
3.8 GHz and the power of 20 mW was applied to the sample by using a
microstrip line connected to a vector-network analyzer, where the microstrip
line was placed on the top of the sample. [(b), (c)] Temperature Tprofiles in
the Pt-wire/Y 3Fe5O12-film sample, measured when the edges of the
Y3Fe5O12film are heated [(b): Pt-LT setup] and cooled [(c): Pt-HT setup].
TPtdenotes the temperature of the Pt wire. The Tprofiles were measured
with an infrared camera (NEC-Avio TH9100MR). (d) A schematic illustra-
tion of the spin-wave spin current generated by the in-plane temperature gra-
dientrTin a ferromagnet. (e) A schematic illustration of the STT induced
by the spin-wave spin current and the damping torque (DT) of the localized
spins.
FIG. 2. [(a), (b)] The magnetic field Hdependence of the microwave absorp-
tionI(a) and the electric voltage V(b) for the Pt-wire/Y 3Fe5O12-film sample
at the temperature difference DT¼14:5 K in the Pt-LT setup. [(c), (d)] H
dependence of Vfor various values of DTin the Pt-LT setup (c) and the Pt-
HT setup (d) in the low Hregion. (e) jDTjdependence of the SSE voltage
VSSEatH¼0:1 kOe in the Pt-LT and Pt-HT setups.
FIG. 3. (a) H/C0HFMRdependence of V=Vmaxin the Pt-wire/Y 3Fe5O12-film
sample at DT¼14:5 K (red curve) and DT¼0 K (black dotted curve) in the
Pt-LT setup. HFMRandVmaxdenote the FMR field and the maximum value of
V,r e s p e c t i v e l y .( b ) H/C0HFMRdependence of V=VmaxatDT¼/C04:7K ( b l u e
curve) and DT¼0 K (black dotted curve) in the Pt-HT setup. (c) DTdepend-
ence of ak¼0ðDTÞ=ak¼0ðDT¼0KÞin two different Pt-wire/Y 3Fe5O12-film
samples. ak¼0ðDTÞdenotes the Gilbert damping constant at the FMR mode.052404-2 Kajiwara et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 052404 (2013)
Downloaded 03 Aug 2013 to 129.93.16.3. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsspin-wave spin current induced by the transverse temperature
gradient. We also found that, by reversing the direction of
the spin-wave spin current and temperature gradient, thespectrum linewidth of V
SPbecomes wider than that at DT¼
0 K [see Fig. 3(b)], consistent with the characteristic of the
STT. As shown in Fig. 3(c), the value of ak¼0monotonically
decreases with increasing DT. We confirmed that, when the
whole sample is uniformly heated, in which the transverse
spin-wave spin current is absent, the value of ak¼0does not
change. These results indicate that this spin-relaxation modu-
lation is attributed to the STT from the thermally induced
transverse spin-wave spin current.
Finally, we demonstrate that, by making use of the ther-
mally induced STT and the transverse spin-wave spin cur-
rent, the spin pumping efficiency can be thermallycontrolled. In the phenomenological spin-pumping model,
38
a spin current generated by the spin pumping under the FMRcondition is inversely proportional to the square of theGilbert damping constant, suggesting that the above spin-
relaxation modulation by the transverse spin-wave spin cur-
rent also can tune the magnitude of spin currents induced bythe spin pumping.
In Fig. 4(a), we show the Hdependence of Vunder 20
mW microwave excitation for various values of DTin the
Pt-wire/Y
3Fe5O12-film sample in the Pt-LT setup. In this
setup ( DT>0), the magnitude of the VSPsignal generated
by the spin pumping was observed to monotonically increasewith increasing DT[see Figs. 4(a),4(c), and 4(e) and note
that the shift of the resonant peak structure is attributed to
the increase in the base temperature]. In contrast, Figs. 4(b),
4(d), and 4(e) show that the V
SPsignal is suppressed in the
Pt-HT setup ( DT<0), indicating that the spin pumping is
modulated by the thermally induced STT. As shown in Fig.4(f), the magnitude of V
SPis almost proportional to 1 =~a2,
where ~a/C17ak¼0ðDTÞ=ak¼0ðDT¼0KÞ, consistent with the
phenomenological spin-pumping model.38We confirmedthat this spin-pumping modulation does not appear when the
Pt-wire/Y 3Fe5O12-film sample is uniformly heated [see Fig.
4(g)]. This modulation also disappears in the Pt/Y 3Fe5O12
bilayer wire on a paramagnetic Gd 3Ga5O12substrate, where
the width of the Y 3Fe5O12layer is the same as that of the Pt
wire. Since the transverse spin-wave spin current does notexist in the Pt/Y
3Fe5O12bilayer wire, this result becomes
strong evidence that the spin-pumping modulation observed
here is due to the transverse spin-wave spin current gener-ated by the in-plane temperature gradient.
In summary, using Pt/Y
3Fe5O12junctions, we have
investigated the magnetization dynamics coupled with theSTT and the transverse spin-wave spin current generated by
an in-plane temperature gradient. The experimental results
show that the heat-current-induced STT modulates the spinrelaxation of Y
3Fe5O12, which in turn changes the magnitude
of the inverse spin Hall voltage induced by the spin pumping
in the Pt layer. Since the heat-current-induced STT enablesthermal manipulation of spin relaxation and spin-pumping
efficiency, it will be one of the basic principles for driving
future spin-caloritronic devices.
The authors thank S. Maekawa, H. Adachi, J. Ohe, B.
Hillebrands, and S. M. Rezende for valuable discussions.
This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for JSPSFellows from JSPS, Japan, a Grant-in-Aid for Young
Scientists (A) (25707029) from MEXT, Japan, a Grant-in-
Aid for Scientific Research (A) (24244051) from MEXT,Japan, PRESTO-JST “Phase Interfaces for Highly Efficient
Energy Utilization,” CREST-JST “Creation of Nanosystems
with Novel Functions through Process Integration,” LC-IMRof Tohoku University, The Murata Science Foundation, The
Mazda Foundation, and The Sumitomo Foundation.
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FIG. 4. [(a), (b)] Hdependence of Vin the Pt-wire/Y 3Fe5O12-film sample for various values of DTin the Pt-LT setup (a) and the Pt-HT setup (b). [(c), (d)]
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1.3067757.pdf | Transverse wall dynamics in a spin valve nanostrip
J. M. B. Ndjaka, A. Thiaville, and J. Miltat
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 105, 023905 (2009); doi: 10.1063/1.3067757
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3067757
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/105/2?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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134.124.28.17 On: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 07:41:27Transverse wall dynamics in a spin valve nanostrip
J. M. B. Ndjaka,a/H20850A. Thiaville,b/H20850and J. Miltat
Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, Bât. 510, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
/H20849Received 26 August 2008; accepted 3 December 2008; published online 22 January 2009 /H20850
The magnetism of a Fe 20Ni80/Cu /Co spin valve, in which a layer of FeNi containing a head-to-head
transverse domain wall is coupled to a uniformly magnetized Co layer, via a nonmagnetic Cu layer,was investigated by micromagnetics /H20849mainly numerical simulations /H20850. In equilibrium, due to the
magnetostatic coupling between the layers, a quasiwall is created in the Co layer, which affects thedomain wall profile in the FeNi layer. The dynamics of the domain wall under an applied field is alsomodified, and two opposite effects due to the spin valve geometry have been found, resulting, on theone hand, from the variation in the width of the domain wall and, on the other hand, from theadditional damping of magnetization dynamics due to the cobalt layer. © 2009 American Institute
of Physics ./H20851DOI: 10.1063/1.3067757 /H20852
I. INTRODUCTION
Domain wall motion in magnetic nanowires and nanos-
trips under the influence of an applied magnetic field or spin-polarized current is currently the subject of worldwide inten-sive theoretical and experimental research.
1–4In a previous
theoretical study,5the displacement, under an applied mag-
netic field, of a transverse domain wall within a Permalloynanostrip revealed the existence of laminar and turbulent re-gimes, in full similarity to the displacement of /H20849Bloch /H20850do-
main walls in unbounded films.
6The laminar regime corre-
sponds to applied magnetic fields lower than a criticalvalue—named the Walker field—up to which domain wallvelocity generally increases with the applied field. In thatregime, the domain wall moves with a time-independent ve-locity, high mobility, and a stable structure. The turbulentregime is related to applied magnetic fields higher than theWalker field: the domain wall displacement occurs with pe-riodic changes in the wall structure, the wall velocity oscil-lates, and its average value is drastically low.
In the present study, we have extended this work to the
case of Fe
20Ni80/Cu /Co spin valves, where a soft FeNi layer
containing a transverse head-to-head domain wall interactswith a uniformly magnetized Co layer, via magnetostaticcoupling through a nonmagnetic layer. This FeNi/Cu/Co spinvalve structure has been used in many experiments,
1,7,8as the
giant magnetoresistance /H20849GMR /H20850effect gives an easy access
to the position of the domain wall /H20849in the ideal situation of a
single domain wall in one layer /H20850. However, recent
experiments8–10revealed that the mechanism of the displace-
ment of the domain wall contained in the FeNi layer of a Co/H208497n m /H20850/Cu /H2084910 nm /H20850/FeNi /H208495n m /H20850spin valve, under the com-
bined action of a polarized current and a magnetic field, isnot well understood. The purpose of our simulations is toadvance the understanding of the processes that occurin these spin valve samples. We begin by studying theaction of an applied magnetic field on a spin valveFe
20Ni80/H208494n m /H20850/Cu/H20849L/H20850/Co/H208494n m /H20850, where a FeNi nanostrip
containing one transverse magnetic wall is in magnetostatic
interaction /H20849but without exchange coupling /H20850with a cobalt
nanostrip, via a layer of a nonmagnetic material. The thick-ness of the separating Cu layer is a parameter that is varied inthe simulations. In the following, we first describe the staticequilibrium magnetization distribution and, thereafter, inves-tigate the domain wall dynamics in detail.
II. STATIC EQUILIBRIUM MAGNETIZATION
DISTRIBUTION
A proprietary code11was adapted to the case of an infi-
nite nanostrip, with a spin valve architecture. To this end, thecharges on the yzsurfaces of the calculation box were re-
moved /H20849more accurately, transferred to infinity /H20850and the mag-
netostatic field, created by each magnetic layer on the otherlayer, was evaluated. The indirect exchange between layerswas not included as, in experiments, the spacer is thickenough so as to avoid it. Figure 1schematically describes the
sample architecture and the magnetization distribution.
The nanostrip width was T
y=120 nm, and both mag-
netic layers had the same thickness, T1=T2=4 nm. The
thickness of the Cu layer Lwas a variable parameter of the
simulations. Outside the calculation box, the magnetizationwas fixed along the xaxis so as to induce a domain wall in
the soft layer only. In the calculation box, the magnetizationpointed initially toward the yaxis, corresponding to a trans-
a/H20850Permanent address: Département de Physique, Faculté des Sciences, Uni-
versité de Yaoundé I, BP 812 Yaoundé, Cameroun.
b/H20850Electronic mail: thiaville@lps.u-psud.fr.
T
x
L
F
e
2
0
N
i
8
0
C
u
C
o
T
2
T
y
T
1
x
y
z
FIG. 1. Schematic description of the spin valve Fe20Ni80/Cu /Co nanostrip
/H20849perspective view /H20850. The length of the physical system is infinite. The calcu-
lation box used in the simulations is drawn at the center. The value of spacerthickness /H20849L/H20850is varied in simulations.JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 105, 023905 /H208492009 /H20850
0021-8979/2009/105 /H208492/H20850/023905/8/$25.00 © 2009 American Institute of Physics 105 , 023905-1
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134.124.28.17 On: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 07:41:27verse wall structure. Indeed, the transverse wall is the stable
structure at such nanostrip size,12and moreover it is expected
to be stabilized by the spin valve structure /H20849see below /H20850. The
parameters for the FeNi layer /H20849index 1 /H20850were typical, namely,
saturation magnetization M1=8/H11003105A/m /H20849800 G /H20850, ex-
change constant A1=1/H1100310−11J/m/H2084910−6erg /cm/H20850with, in
addition, a weak perpendicular anisotropy K1=100 J /m3
/H208491000 ergs /cm3/H20850. For the cobalt layer /H20849index 2 /H20850, the magne-
tization was initially uniformly aligned with the positive x
axis throughout the sample. Parameters were M2=14
/H11003105A/m /H208491400 G /H20850, exchange constant A2=2
/H1100310−11J/m/H208492.0/H1100310−6erg /cm/H20850, and no anisotropy in a
first step /H20849mimicking a polycrystalline material with very
small grains /H20850. The introduction of a perpendicular anisotropy
constant K2=5/H11003105J/m3/H208495/H11003106ergs /cm3/H20850in the cobalt
layer was tested but did not result in any significant change
in the results.
An important parameter in the simulations is the length
of the calculation box. A too short box may constrain thedomain wall structure, whereas a too long box leads to longcalculation times. For the parameters chosen here, we found
that a length of T
x=960 nm was sufficient. In the FeNi and
Co layers, this calculation box was divided into 241 /H1100331
/H110031 cells so that the mesh size was very close to 4 nm. The
Cu layer appears in the calculations only via its thickness, asit affects the decay of the stray field in one layer arising fromthe magnetization in the other layer.
Figure 2/H20849a/H20850shows the equilibrium magnetization distri-
bution observed in the FeNi layer when the Cu layer has athickness of L=10 nm. It corresponds to a symmetric trans-
verse wall. From the equilibrium magnetization distribution,thexposition of the wall, the wall width, as well as the
magnetization profile were evaluated. The position of thewall qwith respect to the center of the calculation box can be
obtained by integration of the longitudinal magnetization,
q=1
2Ty/H20885mxdxdy . /H208491/H20850
This assumes that mx=+1 /H20849/H110021/H20850at the left /H20849right /H20850edge of the
calculation box. For the above magnetization distribution,the position of the center of the wall is +3.48 nm, so that thewall is practically centered within the calculation box. Thewall width was calculated according to Thiele’s definition,
13
/H9004T=2Ty/H20885/H20873/H11509m/H6023
/H11509x/H208742
dxdy. /H208492/H20850
We use this definition because, for wall dynamics, this is the
relevant quantity. For the magnetization distribution of Fig.2/H20849a/H20850, one finds /H9004
T=39.08 nm; this value remains unchanged
when the length of the calculation box is increased, a proofof the adequacy of the box length. This value proves largerthan the wall width in a single FeNi layer with the samedimensions /H20849/H9004
T=31.69 nm /H20850.
The magnetization profiles, obtained by averaging over
theycoordinate, are shown in Fig. 3/H20849a/H20850. As now well
known,4they turn out to be very close to Bloch wall profiles,
even though the situation is completely different /H20849charged
domain walls, no anisotropy /H20850. These profiles read
(a)
(b)
x
y
z
FIG. 2. /H20849Color online /H20850Zero field equilibrium magnetization distribution in a
Fe20Ni80/Cu /Co spin valve nanostrip, with 120 nm width, 4 nm thickness
for FeNi and Co, and 10 nm spacing. Only the central part of the calculationbox /H20849length 360 nm /H20850is shown. The panels refer to /H20849a/H20850the FeNi layer, at the
bottom of the stack and /H20849b/H20850the Co layer. The red color in /H20849a/H20850/H20851blue color in
/H20849b/H20850/H20852indicates the intensity of the positive /H20849negative /H20850value of magnetization
ycomponent, with a saturation at /H110060.2. Notice the marked asymmetry in the
position of the quasiwall in the Co layer.
0 200 400 600 800 100 0-0.4-0.200.20.40.60.811.2
x(nm )<mi,i= x, y, z>(x)<mx>
<my>
<mz>(b)
0 200 400 600 800 1000-1-0.500.51
x(nm )<mi,i = x, y, z>( x)<mx>
<my>
<mz>(a)
FIG. 3. /H20849Color online /H20850Magnetization profiles /H20849averaged over the nanostrip width /H20850in the Fe20Ni80/Cu /Co spin valve nanostrip, showing /H20849a/H20850the transverse
domain wall in the FeNi layer and /H20849b/H20850the quasiwall in the Co layer. The vertical lines mark the center of the domain wall and highlight the asymmetric
position of the quasiwall.023905-2 Ndjaka, Thiaville, and Miltat J. Appl. Phys. 105 , 023905 /H208492009 /H20850
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134.124.28.17 On: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 07:41:27mx=−t h/H20873x
/H9004/H20874,my=1
ch/H20873x
/H9004/H20874, /H208493/H20850
where /H9004is the wall width parameter. For these profiles,
Thiele’s width is exactly /H9004, and the average value of the
transverse component obeys
/H20855my/H20856Tx=/H9266/H9004. /H208494/H20850
By fitting /H20855mx/H20856/H20849x/H20850and /H20855my/H20856/H20849x/H20850to the Bloch wall profiles, the
values /H9004x=44.76 nm and /H9004y=40.56 nm were obtained, the
latter being close to the value /H9004y/H11032=39.72 nm resulting from
the average value /H20855my/H20856=0.13. Thus, all values are slightly
different, so that the wall is not perfectly described by the
Bloch profile. This arises from the magnetization nonunifor-mity in the ydirection due to the large width of the nanostrip
in comparison to the exchange length of FeNi /H208495n m /H20850.
The Co layer equilibrium magnetization distribution is
represented in Fig. 2/H20849b/H20850. We observe that there is no wall in
the Co layer but simply a fluctuation of magnetization. Theinfluence of the stray field of a Néel wall in one layer on the/H20849otherwise uniform /H20850magnetization of an adjacent layer was
noticed early
14,15and called a quasiwall.16The Thiele width
of this quasiwall is found to be 2687.37 nm. This very largevalue does not at all correspond to a geometrical width butrelates to the weaker magnetization gradients existing in thequasiwall /H20851see the definition in Eq. /H208492/H20850/H20852. The position of the
center of the quasiwall, determined by that of the maximumabsolute value of /H20855m
y/H20856/H20849x/H20850, amounts to /H1100217.76 nm. This re-
flects the relative positions of both structures in Fig. 2.I n
addition, Fig. 2/H20849b/H20850reveals a ydisplacement of the quasiwall
from the nanostrip symmetry axis.
The magnetization profile of the Co layer equilibrium
magnetization distribution is shown in Fig. 3/H20849b/H20850. Again, we
see that the center of the quasiwall is shifted /H20849inx/H20850as com-
pared to the center of the wall. In the quasiwall, /H20855my/H20856/H20849x/H20850is
negative, this being the direct analog of the coupling of the
transverse magnetizations in a Néel wall and its associatedquasiwall.
15The quasiwall shows a small perpendicular mag-
netization mzthat is much larger than in the wall.
All these phenomena are consequences of the magneto-
static field created in the Co layer by the magnetization ofthe wall located in the FeNi layer. This field is represented inFig. 4, where two contributions are distinguished. First, the
wall located in the FeNi layer contains “volume” charges−M
s/H20849divm/H20850, positive here as the wall is head-to-head, which
create a magnetic field orienting the magnetization of the Co
layer mainly in the direction of the positive zaxis, with in-
plane field components radiating from the wall center /H20851Fig.
4/H20849a/H20850/H20852. Second, the surface charges located in the xzsurfaces
of the FeNi layer create a magnetic field that pushes the Coquasiwall magnetization in the direction of the negative y
axis /H20851Fig. 4/H20849b/H20850/H20852, giving rise to the negative /H20855m
y/H20856/H20849x/H20850in the
quasiwall. The shift in the center of the quasiwall compared
to the center of the wall is stemming from the xcomponent
of the field due to the volume charges: the rotation, out of theeasy /H20849x/H20850axis, of the Co magnetization is favored by a field
opposing its easy axis magnetization. As the Co layer is mag-netized in the same direction as the domain on the left side of
the FeNi wall, the largest fluctuation occurs on the left of thedomain wall.
The influence of the thickness of the Cu layer on these
parameters was investigated. One observes, as shown in Fig.5, that the width of the wall located in FeNi layer increases
when the thickness of the separating Cu layer decreases,from the asymptotic value of /H9004
T=31.69 nm at infinite Cu
thickness. Similarly, the components /H20855my/H20856in the FeNi and Co
layers increase /H20849in absolute value /H20850when the Cu thickness
decreases, with opposite signs. This corresponds to a stabili-zation of the transverse wall structure, through flux closure
(a)
(b)
x
y
z
FIG. 4. /H20849Color online /H20850Magnetostatic field created in the cobalt layer by the
wall in the FeNi layer, evaluated for the equilibrium configuration. Thearrow coloring in red, black, or blue correspond to a negative, nil, andpositive value of the zfield component, respectively. The arrow length cor-
responds to the magnitude of the in-plane /H20849x-y/H20850component of the field, with
a maximum value of 0.002 times the Co magnetization /H2084935 Oe, 2.8 kA/m /H20850.
The maps show /H20849a/H20850the field created by volume charges within the FeNi
layer and /H20849b/H20850the field created by lateral surface charges along the edges of
the FeNi layer.
0 1 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0 1 0 0-0.1-0.0500.050.10.150.2
Cu thickness (nm)
<my>FeNi
Co
net
0102030405060∆∆∆∆T_ FeNi(nm)
FIG. 5. /H20849Color online /H20850Variation, with Cu thickness, in the Thiele domain
wall width in FeNi /H20849filled symbols, left scale /H20850and of the average myvalues
/H20849open symbols, right scale /H20850in the FeNi /H20849circles /H20850and Co /H20849squares /H20850layers.
The curve without symbols shows the average net myvalue. The horizontal
strokes on the right indicate the values for an isolated FeNi layer.023905-3 Ndjaka, Thiaville, and Miltat J. Appl. Phys. 105 , 023905 /H208492009 /H20850
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134.124.28.17 On: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 07:41:27inside the Co layer /H20849akin the stabilization of a Néel wall in
infinite bilayers /H20850. Thus, the width of the transverse wall in-
creases /H20849as shown by the /H20855my/H20856for FeNi /H20850and, as the magne-
tization gradient in the wall decreases, the Thiele domain
wall width increases. For the quasiwall, however, the Thieledomain wall width decreases /H20849but starting from infinity at
infinite spacing, not shown /H20850. One thus visualizes the penetra-
tion depth of the magnetostatic field created by the magneti-zation of each layer on the other.
III. MAGNETIZATION DYNAMICS UNDER APPLIED
MAGNETIC FIELD
In micromagnetics, magnetization dynamics obeys the
Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation, namely,
/H11509m/H6023
/H11509t=/H92530H/H6023eff/H11003m/H6023+/H9251m/H6023/H11003/H11509m/H6023
/H11509t, /H208495/H20850
wheremis the local unit magnetization vector, /H92530=/H92620/H20841/H9253/H20841is
the gyromagnetic ratio, and /H9251is the dimensionless Gilbert
damping coefficient.17A fourth order Runge–Kutta integra-
tion of Eq. /H208495/H20850simultaneously for FeNi and Co layers was
performed, under the influence of an applied magnetic field.The gyromagnetic ratio was
/H92530=2.21/H11003105m/H20849As /H20850−1for all
simulations. The damping coefficient was set to 0.02 for
FeNi and 0.05 for Co. The long-term dynamics could beaccessed by moving the calculation box in order to maintainthe wall always centered. The magnetization distributionused to start the calculations was the zero field equilibriummagnetization distribution represented in Fig. 2. The mag-
netic field was applied in the longitudinal direction of thesample, instantaneously at time 0, so that the transient periodduring which the wall accelerates was also calculated. Inorder to find the adequate time step, the energy loss wasmonitored.
18For a time step of /H9004t=25 fs, the computed
value/H9251numwas equal to the set /H9251value, with a 10−5absolute
precision. For each value of the applied magnetic field, thedetails of wall and quasiwall dynamics were calculated,namely, the temporal evolution of the position of the wall,the wall width, the instantaneous wall velocity, the averagevalues /H20855m
y/H20856and /H20855mz/H20856of wall magnetization components, as
well as the wall magnetization angle. That angle, denoted by
/H9278, was defined recently.19Schematically, for a transverse
wall,/H9278corresponds to the angle of the wall magnetic mo-
ment away from the yaxis in the yzplane; for a vortex wall,
it measures the yposition of the vortex. The angle /H9278was
determined, in each layer, by fourth order Runge–Kutta inte-gration of its defining equation,
d
/H9278
dt=1
2Ty/H20885dm/H6023
dt·/H20873m/H6023/H11003/H11509m/H6023
/H11509x/H20874dxdy . /H208496/H20850
The results show that the dynamics of the FeNi/Cu/Co spin
valve depends on whether the applied magnetic field ishigher or lower than the so-called Walker field, whose valueis very close to that obtained for a single FeNi nanostrip,namely, 32 /H11021H
w/H1102133 Oe /H208492546–2626 A/m /H20850. Figure 6, ob-
tained for an applied magnetic field Happ=5 Oe /H20849398 A/m /H20850,
illustrates the behavior below the Walker field and Fig. 7,
obtained for an applied magnetic field Happ=50 Oe /H208493979A/m /H20850, characterizes the behavior beyond the Walker field.
We observe in Fig. 6/H20849a/H20850that the temporal evolution of
the position of the wall located in FeNi increases linearlywith time, identical to the position of the quasiwall located inCo. In the transient period, the separation of the two wallsappears to increase slightly. Such a dynamic deformationmay be expected but could also be only an artifact of the
method used to determine the position of the quasiwall. Thevalue of /H20855m
y/H20856FeNiis opposite to that of /H20855my/H20856Co/H20851Fig.6/H20849b/H20850/H20852,a s
in statics, and changes weakly during the transient period.
The value of /H20855mz/H20856FeNiincreases markedly during the transient
period, a signature of the dynamic distortion of the trans-
verse wall, whereas that of /H20855mz/H20856Cohardly changes, as it is
determined by the volume charge of the domain wall /H20851Fig.
6/H20849c/H20850/H20852. This behavior is confirmed by Fig. 6/H20849d/H20850, which plots
the temporal evolution of the angle of the magnetization inthe wall and quasiwall. The minimum and maximum valuesofm
zare low and constant in the wall /H20851Fig.6/H20849e/H20850/H20852and quasi-
wall /H20851Fig.6/H20849f/H20850/H20852once the transient is over, indicating that no
vortex was injected. Thus, the dynamics below the Walkerfield is essentially the same as that characteristic of a singlelayer, with a nearly unchanged quasiwall attached to thewall.
Looking now at the regime beyond the Walker field, Fig.
7/H20849a/H20850shows that the wall and the quasiwall always progress in
an identical way, but now the temporal evolution exhibitssteps and the instantaneous velocity oscillates. As is wellknown,
5this reflects the periodic reversal of the ymoment of
the wall through injection and displacement of antivortices.In Fig. 7/H20849b/H20850, the temporal evolution of /H20855m
y/H20856shows that quasi-
wall moment follows the variation in the wall moment, keep-
ing an opposite sign. For /H20855mz/H20856, Fig. 7/H20849c/H20850reveals that the Co
moment is very constant, as seen before, whereas the FeNi
moment becomes very large during the periods where /H20855my/H20856is
maximum, i.e., when a transverse wall structure with no an-
tivortex is present. In order to display the antivortex exis-tence, Fig. 7/H20849e/H20850shows the time evolution of the minimum
and maximum m
zvalues in the FeNi layer. When the mini-
mum mzis very close to /H110021 or the maximum to 1, an anti-
vortex exists and the magnetization at its center providesthese extrema. In order to check that it is indeed an antivor-tex /H20849cross Bloch line /H20850and not a vortex /H20849circular Bloch lines /H20850,
one must look at the configurations of the magnetization orcalculate the winding number of the magnetization in thevicinity of this structure. The antivortex lifespan is /H110113n s
for this applied field, and this time decreases with increasingapplied magnetic field.
20On the contrary, Fig. 7/H20849f/H20850, repre-
senting the corresponding quantities for the Co layer, indi-cates only minor changes. The angle of the magnetization ofthe wall varies quasilinearly as expected /H20851Fig. 7/H20849d/H20850/H20852, while
the angle of the magnetization of the quasiwall remains al-most zero. Therefore, here also the behavior is qualitativelythe same as for a single layer, with a quasiwall that justfollows the transformations of the wall structure.
From the curves representing the temporal evolution of
the position of the wall center, the steady-state wall velocity/H20849for applied magnetic fields lower than the Walker field /H20850,o r
its average value /H20849when the applied magnetic field is higher
than the Walker field /H20850was estimated. These values are drawn023905-4 Ndjaka, Thiaville, and Miltat J. Appl. Phys. 105 , 023905 /H208492009 /H20850
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134.124.28.17 On: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 07:41:27in Fig. 8, together with those for a single FeNi layer. The
most apparent difference is the increase in domain wall ve-locity in the double layer nanostrip, and the most strikingsimilitude is the absence of shift in the Walker field for smalldamping in the Cobalt layer. This last result, surprising atfirst sight, means that, even if the magnetostatic interactionwith the Cobalt layer stabilizes the transverse wall structurein the FeNi layer, it little affects the antivortex injection pro-cess. In addition, the velocity-field relation just below theWalker field is slightly modified, with a maximum velocityreached at a field lower than the Walker field. Within theone-dimensional model,
4this can be explained by a variation
in the wall width when the effective transverse anisotropyterm is not negligible in comparison to the main /H20849axial /H20850ef-
fective anisotropy. To further illustrate the influence of theCo layer on wall dynamics, Fig. 8also shows the velocity for
the same spin valve nanostrip, when the Gilbert coefficientof Co layer is large /H20849
/H9251Co=0.5 /H20850. In this case, the wall veloci-
ties prove lower, and the Walker field becomes larger. Cal-culations were also performed for negative fields. Some
small differences could be seen. They originate from thebreaking of symmetry due to the interaction with the Colayer, which is apparent on the equilibrium structure in Fig.2/H20849b/H20850that breaks the left-right symmetry. However, these dif-
ferences are much smaller than those shown in Fig. 8, so that
we do not discuss them in detail.
In order to explain the influence of the Co layer, we
focus on the initial regime for low applied fields. In steadymotion, Thiele’s relation is exact and reads
v=/H92530/H9004T
/H9251Happ, /H208497/H20850
where the Thiele domain wall width /H9004Thas to be evaluated
for the moving domain wall structure. As we study here thezero field limit, we are entitled to use the static structure. Forthe more complex spin valve nanostrip studied here, Thiele’s2121.52222.52323.5
q1-q2(nm)
-1000100200300400500600700800q(nm)
FeNi
Co(a)
00.0010.0020.0030.004 <mz>
FeNi
Co(c)
00.010.020.03ΦΦΦΦ(rad.)
FeNi
Co(d)
x1 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5-0.04-0.0200.020.040.060.080.1
time (ns)extrema of mzin FeNi
max
min(e)
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5-0.04-0.0200.020.040.060.080.1
time (ns)extrema of mzin Co
max
min(f)-0.0500.050.10.15<my>
FeNi
Co(b)
FIG. 6. /H20849Color online /H20850Time evolution, under an applied magnetic field Happ=398 A /m/H208495O e /H20850,o f /H20849a/H20850the positions of the wall and the quasiwall, as well as
their difference /H20849right scale /H20850,/H20849b/H20850the average transverse magnetizations /H20849in FeNi and Co /H20850,/H20849c/H20850the average perpendicular magnetizations, /H20849d/H20850the magnetization
angle of the wall in FeNi and of the quasiwall in Co, /H20849e/H20850the maximum and minimum perpendicular magnetization components in FeNi, and /H20849f/H20850same for Co.
The field is applied instantaneously at time 0, and only the first 5 ns of the evolution are shown.023905-5 Ndjaka, Thiaville, and Miltat J. Appl. Phys. 105 , 023905 /H208492009 /H20850
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134.124.28.17 On: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 07:41:27analysis12can be readily extended as it simply expresses the
dynamic equilibrium of forces,
F/H6023+D/H6025v/H6023=0/H6023, /H208498/H20850
where F/H6023andD/H6025represent the external force and the dissipa-
tion matrix, respectively. In the case of a spin valve nanos-trip, the force arises only from the layer with the domainwall but the dissipation occurs in both layers, so that onewrites
F
/H6023=2/H92620M1S1Happx/H6023 /H208499/H20850
and01000200030004000q(nm)
FeNi
Co(a)
-50050q1-q2(nm)
0 5 10 15 20 25-101
time (ns)mzin FeNi
max
min(e)-0.02-0.0100.010.02
-0.02-0.02-0.02-0.02<mz>
FeNi
Co(c)-0.2-0.100.10.2 <my>
FeNi
Co(b)
0 5 10 15 20 2 5-0.0300.030.06
time (ns)mzin Coma x
min(f)-505101520 ΦΦΦΦ(rad.)FeNi
Co(d)
x 1000
FIG. 7. /H20849Color online /H20850Time evolution, under an applied magnetic field Happ=3979 A /m/H2084950 Oe /H20850,o f /H20849a/H20850the positions of the wall and the quasiwall, and their
difference /H20849right scale /H20850,/H20849b/H20850the average transverse magnetizations in FeNi and Co, /H20849c/H20850the perpendicular magnetizations, /H20849d/H20850the magnetization angle of the wall
in FeNi and of the quasi-wall in Co, with lines drawn at multiples of /H9266,/H20849e/H20850the maximum and minimum perpendicular magnetization component in FeNi, and
/H20849f/H20850same for Co. Note that the time span is 25 ns here. In /H20849e/H20850, the values do not reach exactly /H110061 when an antivortex is present, as the center of this structure
may move in between the mesh points.
0 1 02 03 04 05 00100200300400500600700
Applied magnetic field (mT)Wall velocity (m /s)
FIG. 8. Wall velocity as a function of the applied magnetic field, for a spinvalve nanostrip FeNi /H208494n m /H20850/Cu /H2084910 nm /H20850/Co /H208494n m /H20850/H20849filled symbols /H20850or just
the FeNi /H208494n m /H20850layer of the nanostrip /H20849open symbols /H20850. The damping of Co
is 0.05 /H20849filled circles /H20850or 0.5 /H20849filled squares /H20850, whereas it is 0.02 for FeNi. The
velocity is the stationary value below the Walker field, and the average valueabove.023905-6 Ndjaka, Thiaville, and Miltat J. Appl. Phys. 105 , 023905 /H208492009 /H20850
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134.124.28.17 On: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 07:41:27D/H6025v/H6023=−/H92620
/H92530/H20875/H92511M1/H20885
1/H20873/H11509m/H6023
/H11509x/H208742
dxdydz
+/H92512M2/H20885
2/H20873/H11509m/H6023
/H11509x/H208742
dxdydz/H20876v/H6023, /H2084910/H20850
where S1=TyT1is the cross section of the FeNi layer. By
expressing the wall velocity in the form of relation /H208497/H20850,w e
deduce from relations /H208498/H20850to/H2084910/H20850that an effective inverse
mobility /H20849Happ /v, that may be called a magnetic viscosity /H20850
exists for the spin valve structure, implying
/H20873/H9251
/H9004T/H20874
sv=/H92511
/H90041+M2T2
M1T1/H92512
/H90042. /H2084911/H20850
This relation, which refers to the Thiele domain wall width
and damping coefficient in both layers, could also be inter-preted as an effective damping, or as an effective Thieledomain wall width, in a spin valve sample. We prefer how-ever to formulate it as an effective viscosity with additivecontributions from both layers, the weighting factor beingthe magnetic moment of each layer. Note that, from Eqs. /H208499/H20850
and /H2084910/H20850, it is immediate to generalize Eq. /H2084911/H20850to the cases
where the gyromagnetic ratio, the thickness, the width T
y,
etc., are not the same in both layers. The values obtainedfrom Eq. /H2084911/H20850are very close to those deduced from the
curves representing the temporal evolution of the wall. Forexample, under an applied field of 5 Oe /H20849398 A/m /H20850, the cal-
culated velocity is 159.1 m/s, whereas that deduced from thecurves of the temporal evolution of the wall position is 158.5m/s. In addition, relation /H2084911/H20850allows for some predictions.
An increase in
/H92512raises the value of /H20849/H9251//H9004T/H20850sv; consequently,
the velocity of the wall should decrease. On the other hand,
when the Cu thickness increases, the value of /H90041decreases,
so that the wall velocity should decrease /H20849the effect arising
from the variations of /H90042is smaller /H20850. This is precisely what is
observed in Fig. 8.
The values /H90041and/H90042deduced from the equilibrium
magnetization distributions were used to predict the mobilityof the wall for various Cu thickness /H20849Fig.9/H20850. The results ofnumerical calculations, indicated by the symbols in Fig. 9,
confirm these predictions fully. In addition, from the figure,one may get the impression that a special value
/H9251Cocfor the
Gilbert coefficient of the Co layer exists, below which themobility decreases when the thickness of the Cu layer in-creases, and above which it increases. The numerical value is
/H9251Coc/H110150.2 for the parameters chosen. It has, however, no
physical meaning as a damping constant as, from Eq. /H2084911/H20850,
one understands that the existence of this special value isonly the indication that the Thiele domain wall width in theCo layer is close to a rational function of Thiele’s domainwall width in the FeNi layer, when the spacer thickness var-ies. Therefore, Fig. 9shows that, even if the coupling to
another layer does not change qualitatively the wall dynam-ics, the values of the wall velocity /H20849and Walker field /H20850is af-
fected. The effect gets more pronounced with decreasingspacer thickness. The effect of interaction is twofold: on theone hand, flux closure increases the domain wall width of thetransverse wall, hence its mobility increases. On the otherhand, if the second layer is characterized by a large damping,the wall velocity can be strongly reduced.
IV. CONCLUSION
The domain wall motion in a narrow Fe 20Ni80/Cu /Co
spin valve, under the influence of an applied magnetic field,has been studied by micromagnetic simulations. The FeNilayer contained a transverse domain wall /H20849a narrow and thin
nanostrip was considered /H20850, and the Co layer was uniformly
magnetized along the nanostrip axis. The equilibrium mag-netization distribution in the spin valve shows that the walllocated in FeNi layer widens when compared to a wallwithin a single layer nanostrip, and that a quasiwall is cre-ated in the Co layer. The transverse magnetizations of thewall and quasiwall are antiparallel, as for the coupling be-tween a Néel wall and a quasiwall in an infinite bilayer. Formoderate applied fields, the wall and the quasiwall move atthe same velocity. The influence of the second layer on thewall dynamics was found to result from the competition oftwo effects. First, the flux closure widens the transverse walland therefore increases its velocity. However the quality ofthe Co layer is also important, as the wall velocity decreaseswhen the Gilbert coefficient of this layer increases. Theseresults show that the use of a spin valve for the detection, bythe current in plane /H20849CIP /H20850GMR effect, of the domain wall
motion in a nanostrip, requires some care in the interpreta-tion of experimental data. Moreover, on top of the purelymagnetostatic coupling considered in this work, indirect ex-change coupling may occur for thinner spacers, and even amagnetization dynamic coupling by spin diffusion across themetallic spin valve thickness.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The stay of J.M.N. in Orsay was supported by an invited
professor fellowship from the Université Paris-Sud 11 and bya cooperation grant from the French government.
1T. Ono, in Handbook of Magnetism and Advanced Magnetic Materials ,
Micromagnetism Vol. 2, edited by H. Kronmüller and S. Parkin /H20849Wiley,
New York, 2007 /H20850, pp. 933–941.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 100.10.20.30.40.50.60.7
αCoW all mobility (m²/As)L=i n f i n i t y
40 nm20
10
0
FIG. 9. /H20849Color online /H20850Wall mobility as a function of the damping constant
of the cobalt layer in a FeNi /H208494n m /H20850/Cu/H20849L/H20850/Co/H208494n m /H20850spin valve nanostrip.
The damping parameter for FeNi is /H9251=0.02. Curves were calculated from
the equilibrium structure /H20849the Thiele domain wall width in each layer /H20850and
the damping coefficients in each layer. Points are the results of numericalsimulations under a finite applied field of 5 Oe /H20849398 A/m /H20850.023905-7 Ndjaka, Thiaville, and Miltat J. Appl. Phys. 105 , 023905 /H208492009 /H20850
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134.124.28.17 On: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 07:41:272L. Thomas and S. Parkin, in Handbook of Magnetism and Advanced Mag-
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3R. P. Cowburn, in Handbook of Magnetism and Advanced Magnetic Ma-
terials , Micromagnetism Vol. 2, edited by H. Kronmüller and S. Parkin
/H20849Wiley, New York, 2007 /H20850, pp. 983–1002.
4A. Thiaville and Y. Nakatani, in Spin Dynamics in Confined Magnetic
Structures III , edited by B. Hillebrands and A. Thiaville /H20849Springer, Berlin,
2006 /H20850, pp. 161–206.
5Y. Nakatani, A. Thiaville, and J. Miltat, Nature Mater. 2, 521 /H208492003 /H20850.
6A. P. Malozemoff and J. C. Slonczewski, Magnetic Domain Walls in
Bubble Materials /H20849Academic, New York, 1979 /H20850.
7T. Ono, H. Miyajima, K. Shigeto, K. Mibu, N. Hosoito, and T. Shinjo,
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Fert, and G. Faini, Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 2820 /H208492004 /H20850.
10J. Grollier, P. Boulenc, V. Cros, A. Hamzi ć, A. Vaurès, A. Fert, and G.Faini, Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 6777 /H208492004 /H20850.
11J. Miltat and M. Donahue, in Handbook of Magnetism and Advanced
Magnetic Materials , Micromagnetism Vol. 2, edited by H. Kronmüller and
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12R. D. McMichael and M. J. Donahue, IEEE Trans. Magn. 33,4 1 6 7 /H208491997 /H20850.
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14H. W. Fuller and D. L. Sullivan, J. Appl. Phys. 33, 1063 /H208491962 /H20850.
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17J. Miltat, G. Albuquerque, and A. Thiaville, in Spin Dynamics in Confined
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134.124.28.17 On: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 07:41:27 |
1.3609236.pdf | Spin Hall effect-driven spin torque in magnetic textures
A. Manchon and K.-J. Lee
Citation: Applied Physics Letters 99, 022504 (2011); doi: 10.1063/1.3609236
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3609236
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/99/2?ver=pdfcov
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129.12.234.99 On: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 03:10:20Spin Hall effect-driven spin torque in magnetic textures
A. Manchon1,a)and K.-J. Lee2,b)
1Division of Physical Science and Engineering, KAUST, Thuwal 23955, Saudi Arabia
2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 136-713, Korea
(Received 9 April 2011; accepted 17 June 2011; published online 13 July 2011)
Current-induced spin torque and magnetization dynamics in the presence of spin Hall effect in
magnetic textures is studied theoretically. The local deviation of the charge current gives rise to acurrent-induced spin torque of the form ð1/C0bMÞ/C2½ ð u
0þaHu0/C2MÞ/C1$/C138M, where u0is the
direction of the injected current, aHis the Hall angle and bis the non-adiabaticity parameter due to
spin relaxation. Since aHandbcan have a comparable order of magnitude, we show that this
torque can significantly modify the current-induced dynamics of both transverse and vortex walls.
VC2011 American Institute of Physics . [doi: 10.1063/1.3609236 ]
The study of the interplay between magnetization dynam-
ics and spin-polarized currents through spin transfer torque1–5
(STT) has culminated with the observation of current-induced
domain wall motion and vortex oscillations, revealing tremen-
dously rich physics and dynamical behaviors.6–8The precise
nature of STT in domain walls is currently the object of
numerous investigations both experimentally and theoreti-
cally. One of the important issues is the actual magnitude ofthe so-called non-adiabatic component of the spin torque b.
6–9
In addition, the nature of spin torque in the presence of
spin-orbit coupling (SOC) has been recently uncovered.Although SOC has been long known to generate magnetiza-
tion damping and spin relaxation, recent studies have sug-
gested that specific forms of structure-induced spin-orbit
coupling could act as a source for the spin torque.
10However,
in the case of impurity-induced SOC, incoherent scattering
averages out the spin accumulation so that no SOC-inducedspin torque can be generated in homogeneous ferromagnets.
11
Nevertheless, SOC-induced asymmetric spin scattering byimpurities in ferromagnetic materials generates anomalousHall effect (AHE), creating a charge current transverse to
both the injected electron direction and the local magnetiza-
tion.
12Interestingly, the Hall angle aH, defined as the amount
of deviated charge current, can be as large as a few percent in
thin films,12which is on the same order of magnitude as the
non-adiabatic coefficient b.6–8Therefore, it seems reasonable
to wonder whether anomalous charge currents could have a
sizable effect on domain wall velocities.
In this Letter, we study the influence of such a transverse
charge current on current-induced domain wall motion. We
show that this AHE-induced charge current generates an
additional torque component, proportional to the Hall angle,along the direction perpendicular to both the charge injection
direction u
0and to the local magnetization Mð/aH
½ðu0/C2MÞ/C1$/C138MÞ. The current-driven magnetization dynam-
ics in transverse and vortex walls is analyzed using Thiele
formalism.
The mechanisms underlying AHE have been studied
experimentally and theoretically for more than 60 years (seeRef. 12for a comprehensive review). For the transport re-
gime we are interested in (good metal regime, with a conduc-tivity /C2510
4/C0106X/C01cm/C01), the transport is dominated by
scattering-independent mechanisms, i.e., intrinsic/side-jump
contributions.12Disregarding the effect of band structure-
induced SOC, we will treat the spin transport within the first
order Born approximation, only accounting for the anoma-
lous velocity arising from side-jump scattering.13,14
We adopt the conventional s-dHamiltonian, where the
electrons responsible for the magnetization and the ones re-
sponsible for the current are treated separately and coupledthrough an exchange constant J. We also take into account
an impurity potential V
impand its corresponding spin-orbit
coupling acting on the itinerant electrons. The one-electronHamiltonian reads
^H¼^p2
2mþJ^r/C1Mþn
mð^r/C2$VimpÞ/C1^pþVimp;(1)
In Eq. (1), the hat ^denotes an operator while the bold charac-
ter indicates a vector. ^ris the vector of Pauli spin matrices,
nis the spin-orbit strength (as an estimation, n/C2510/C017/C010/C019
s), and Vimp¼Vimpð^rÞis the impurity potential, which is spin-
dependent (2 /C22 matrix) in principle. The magnetization direc-
tionM(r,t)¼(sinhcos/,s i n hsin/,c o s h)v a r i e ss l o w l yi n
time and space, so that the itineran t electron spins closely fol-
low the magnetization direction ( adiabatic approximation). In
this picture, the velocity operator is14
^v¼/C0i/C22h
m$þn
m^r/C2$Vimp: (2)
The expectation value of the velocity in the presence of spin-
orbit coupling has been worked out by several authors13,14
and can be written
h^vi¼1
i/C22hh½^r;H/C138i /C25vþn^Tv/C2^r; (3)
^T¼Rs^IþDs^r/C1M: (4)
Here,Rs¼1/s:þ1/s;,Ds¼1/s:/C01/s;,srbeing the spin-
dependent electron momentum relaxation time. The form of
the anomalous velocity displayed in Eq. (3)is the extensiona)Electronic mail: aurelien.manchon@kaust.edu.sa.
b)Electronic mail: kj_lee@korea.ac.kr.
0003-6951/2011/99(2)/022504/3/$30.00 VC2011 American Institute of Physics 99, 022504-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 99, 022504 (2011)
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129.12.234.99 On: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 03:10:20of the anomalous velocity derived in Ref. 13to non-collinear
magnetic textures.
The description of diffusive non-collinear spin transport
in ferromagnets has been intensively addressed over the pastten years
15–17using different approaches. As an example, for
slowly varying magnetization in the presence of anomalous
velocity, Eq. (2), the relaxation time approximation of the
Boltzmann formalism yields a spinor current of the form15
J¼ ^Cð^E/C0$^lðrÞÞ þ ^CHð^E/C0$^lðrÞÞ /C2M; (5)
where ^C¼1
2C0ð^IþPM/C1rÞis the normal conductance,
^CH¼1
2CH0ð^IþPHM/C1rÞis the anomalous conductance,
and^lðrÞis the local spin-dependent electro-chemical poten-
tial.Eis the electric field and P(PH) is the polarization of
the (anomalous) conductivity. This form is very similar tothe one derived by Zhang,
13extended to non collinear mag-
netization situations. The charge and spin currents are calcu-
lated using the spinor definition
Je¼Tr½J^I/C138;Js¼/C0lB
eTr½J^r/C138: (6)
In addition, the spin density continuity equation can be
extracted from Eq. (1)using Ehrenfest’s theorem and in the
lowest order in SOC
@tm¼/C0$/C1J s/C01
sJdm/C2M/C0dm
ssf; (7)
where m¼n0Mþdm(n0is the equilibrium itinerant spin
density) and the spin current is defined as: Js¼h h^r/C10^v
þ^v/C10^riik,^vbeing the velocity operator defined in Eq. (2).
The inner brackets h…idenote quantum mechanical averag-
ing and the outer brackets h…ikrefer to k-state average, /C10
being the direct product. By simply injecting the spin current
Eq.(6)into Eq. (7), we obtain the explicit spin continuity
equation
@tm¼lB
e½ðPC0EþPHCH0E/C2MÞ/C1$/C138M
/C01
sJdm/C2M/C0dm
ssf: (8)
To obtain a tractable form of the spin torque, we assume
P/C25PHandaH¼CH0/C0. After manipulating Eq. (8)(see
Ref. 2), the spin torque T¼1
sJdm/C2Min adiabatic approxi-
mation reads
T¼ð1/C0bM/C2Þ½/C0 n0@tMþbJ½u/C1$/C138M/C138; (9)
where bJ¼lBPC0E/e,u¼u0þaHu0/C2M,u0¼C0E/jC0Ej
being the injected current direction. One recognizes the
renormalization torque ð/@tMÞ, the usual adiabatic and
non-adiabatic spin torque2,3(/bJandbbJ), and the AHE-
induced torques ( /aHbJand/baHbJ). Note that recently
Shibata and Kohno have derived a similar form for the spin
torque in magnetic texture in the case of skew scattering.18
In the case of slowly varying magnetic texture ( @tM!0),
the spin torque becomes
T¼bJð1/C0bM/C2Þ½ðu0þaHu0/C2MÞ/C1$/C138M:(10)To extract the dynamics induced by these additional terms,
we analyze the current-driven domain wall motion using
Thiele free energy formalism19for rigid domain wall motion /C16
@tM¼ð /C0 v/C1$ÞM/C17
. Thiele’s dynamic equation yields
ð
dVFþG/C2ðvþbJuÞþD/C1ðavþbbJuÞhi
¼0
F¼$W;G¼/C0Ms
cð$h/C2$/Þsinh;
Dij¼/C0Ms
cð$i/$j/sin2hþ$ih$jhÞ:(11)
Here, Frefers to the external force, Gthe gyrocoupling vec-
tor, and the Dthe dissipation dyadic exerted on the domain
wall. The magnetic energy is W¼A
Msð$MÞ2þK
MsðM/C2xÞ2
þKd
MsðM/C2zÞ2/C0H/C1M, where Ais the ferromagnetic
exchange, Msthe saturation magnetization, K(Kd) is the ani-
sotropy (demagnetizing) energy, and His the external field.
Let us first consider a magnetic wire along xcontaining
an out-of-plane transverse wall defined by hðxÞ¼2arctan
esx
D;/¼/ðtÞ(s¼61). The external force reduces to F¼2s
HzMs/Dz, while the gyrocoupling force vanishes ð$/¼0Þ.
The final velocity is then
v¼1
a/C18
scHzMs/C0bJ/C18
bux/C0aHp
4uzsin//C19/C19
: (12)
Interestingly, the AHE-induced spin torque only acts on the
domain wall when injecting the current perpendicular to the
magnetic wire ( ux¼0,uz¼1). Still, in this latter case, the
velocity depends on sin /which is in principle time depend-
ent. This quantity can be determined through the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation
@
t/¼cHzþs
Dðb/C0aÞbJp
4aHuzsin//C0caHKcos/sin/:
(13)
Above Walker breakdown ð@t/6¼0;hsin/it¼0Þ, the ve-
locity, Eq. (12), does not show any dependence on the per-
pendicular current. On the other hand, below Walkerbreakdown ( @
t/¼0), Eq. (13) provides an implicit expres-
sion for the angle /. In the absence of external field ( Hz¼0)
and in the presence of in-plane anisotropy ( HK=0),//C250
and the velocity is directly proportional to the Hall angle:
v/C25aH
ap
4bJ. Since aHcan be as large as a few percent,12the
expected velocity is similar to the once driven by the non-adiabatic spin torque when the current is injected along the
structure ( u
x¼1,uz¼0).
In the absence of in-plane anisotropy field ( HK¼0), the
domain wall velocity becomes independent of the current
density and reduces to v¼s
acDHza/C02b
a/C0b. This indicates that
the anomalous current only distorts the domain wall struc-ture, without inducing any displacement.
In contrast with transverse walls, vortex walls present a
2-dimensional texture that couples longitudinal and trans-verse current-induced velocities.
20,21The vortex wall is
located at the center of a magnetic layer and in the vortex
region, the angles are
hr2<r2
0¼2stan/C01r
r0;hR2>r2>r2
0¼p=2; (14)022504-2 A. Manchon and K. Lee Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 022504 (2011)
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
129.12.234.99 On: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 03:10:20sin/r2<R2¼cx
r;cos/r2<R2¼/C0cy
r; (15)
where r¼xexþyey,c(s) is the chirality (polarity) of the vor-
tex. In principle, the vortex extends up to a radius R, beyondwhich the domain wall can be modeled as transverse walls.
In the present case, we do not consider the action of these
outer transverse walls and concentrate on the vortex wallcore dynamics. From Thiele free energy, Eq. (11), we get the
coupled equations for longitudinal and transverse velocities
aCv
x/C0vy¼/C0 bCþaH
2hi
bJux; (16)
vxþaCvy¼/C0 1/C0baH
2Dhi
bJux; (17)
where C¼1þ1
2lnq,D¼ 1þln2q
1þq2, and q¼R/r0. This
yields the velocities21
vx¼/C01þabC2þaH
2ðaC/C0bDÞ
1þa2C2bJux; (18)
vy¼ðb/C0aÞC þaH
2ð1þabCDÞ
1þa2C2bJux: (19)
It clearly appears that AHE significantly influences the
motion of a vortex core by enhancing the transverse velocity
vy. As an illustration, Fig. 1(a) displays the current-induced
polar angle of the core, h¼tan/C01vy=vx, as a function of q,
for different values of the Hall angle aH. It indicates that the
presence of AHE clearly enhances the polar angle by several
degrees.Whereas the polar angle is linear as a function of non-
adiabaticity [Fig. 1(b)], the influence of AHE-induced torque
can be quite significant, especially in the case of sharp vortex
core (see Fig. 1(b), inset). These results show that AHE can
contribute to more than half of the transverse velocity in the
case of current-driven vortex wall motion.
In conclusion, we showed that in the presence of SOC,
the spin transfer torque exerted on magnetic textures has the
general form ð1/C0bMÞ/C2½ ð u0þaHu0/C2MÞ/C1$/C138M. Whereas
the additional AHE-induced torque can induce domain wall
motion when injecting the current perpendicular to a trans-
verse wall, it can also significantly affect the velocity of vor-tex cores by increasing the transverse velocity.
K.J.L. acknowledges financial support from NRF grant
funded by the Korea government (MEST) (Grant No. 2010-
0023798).
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A. Marty, Y. Samson, F. Garcia-Sanchez, L. D. Buda-Prejbeanu, I.
Tudosa, E. E. Fullerton, and J.-P. Attan, Nat. Phys. 6, 17 (2010).
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Kasama, R. E. Dunin-Borkowski, L. J. Heyderman, H. J. van Driel, and R.
A. Duine, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 056601 (2010).
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Nolting, L. J. Heyderman, J. U. Thiele, and F. Kronast, Phys. Rev. Lett.
105, 187203 (2010).
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(2009).
10A. Manchon and S. Zhang, Phys. Rev. B 78, 212405 (2008); K. Obata and
G. Tatara, Phys. Rev. B 77, 214429 (2008).
11A. Manchon and S. Zhang, Phys. Rev. B 79, 094422 (2009).
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Mod. Phys. 82, 1539 (2010).
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FIG. 1. (Color online) (a) Polar angle as a function of qforaH¼0, 0.01,
0.02, 0.05; (b) Polar angle as a function of non-adiabaticity b/aforaH¼0,
0.01, 0.02, 0.05. Inset: Dh¼h(aH¼5%)/C0h(0) as a function of non-adia-
baticity for q¼5, 10, 30, 60.022504-3 A. Manchon and K. Lee Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 022504 (2011)
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
129.12.234.99 On: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 03:10:20 |
1.4714772.pdf | Fast switching of a ground state of a reconfigurable array of magnetic
nano-dots
Roman Verba, Gennadiy Melkov, Vasil Tiberkevich, and Andrei Slavin
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 192412 (2012); doi: 10.1063/1.4714772
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4714772
View Table of Contents: http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/APPLAB/v100/i19
Published by the American Institute of Physics.
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Downloaded 05 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsFast switching of a ground state of a reconfigurable array of magnetic
nano-dots
Roman Verba,1,a)Gennadiy Melkov,1Vasil Tiberkevich,2and Andrei Slavin2
1Faculty of Radiophysics, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv 01601, Ukraine
2Department of Physics, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan 48309, USA
(Received 20 March 2012; accepted 26 April 2012; published online 10 May 2012)
We show numerically that a ground state (ferromagnetic or chessboard antiferromagnetic) and
microwave absorption frequency of a dipolarly coupled two-dimensional array of axially magnetized
magnetic nano-dots can be switched by application of bias magnetic field pulses (duration 30–70 ns).
Switching to the ferromagnetic state can be achieved by applying a rectangular field pulse along thedot axis while switching to the antiferromagnetic state requires the field pulse oriented in the dot
plane and having a sufficiently long trailing edge (tail). Our results prove that arrays of magnetic
nano-dots can be used as materials having rapidly reconfigurable magnetic and microwaveproperties.
VC2012 American Institute of Physics .[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4714772 ]
Magnonic crystals (MC)—artificial structures with peri-
odic variation of magnetic parameters—are promising candi-
dates for application in microwave technology since the spinwave (SW) spectra and, therefore, the microwave absorption
properties of these structures depend on the structure geome-
try and can be tailored to the demand.
1–5It is of a particular
practical interest to create MCs capable of operating without
permanent bias magnetic field but having microwave absorp-
tion frequency that can be rapidly switched by application of
a bias magnetic field pulse. This can be achieved if the MC
has more than one stable magnetic configuration (ground
state) by switching between these states. Possibility of suchdynamical control of MC’s properties has been demonstrated
recently in the case of a one-dimensional MC—an array of
alternating long magnetic nano-wires of two differentwidths.
6–8In such a case switching between the different
ground states is possible under the application of a longitudi-
nal (along the wire long axis) bias field since the nano-wiresof different widths have different reversal magnetic fields.
This method, however, may not be suitable for practical
application because (i) the quasistatic magnetization reversalprocess in a wire is slow and (ii) the spectrum of microwave
absorption (or ferromagnetic resonance (FMR)) of the sys-
tem has a doublet structure caused by the presence of non-identical magnetic elements.
9
In this letter, we investigate the possibility of controlla-
blefastswitching of the microwave absorption frequency in
a two-dimensional array of identical magnetic nano-dots
coupled by magnetodipolar interaction. The dots are
assumed to be cylindrical particles with radius Rand height
hmade from a soft magnetic material (e.g., permalloy having
saturation magnetization Ms¼8/C1105A=m, gyromagnetic
ratio c¼2p/C128 GHz =T, and Gilbert damping constant
aG¼0:01) and ordered in a square lattice with lattice con-
stant a(Fig. 1(a)). Below we consider dots which are axially
magnetized single domain particles in the absence of anexternal magnetic field that is realized if dot radius is compa-rable or smaller than material exchange length (typically,
several tens of nanometers) and if dot’s aspect ratio h=R>2
(easy-axis shape anisotropy).
10
The two simplest ground states of such an array—
ferromagnetic (FM, see Fig. 1(a)) and chessboard
antiferromagnetic (CAFM, see Fig. 1(b))—can be stable
simultaneously in a wide range of array’s parameters
(Fig. 1(d)). The difference of FMR frequencies in these two
states significantly exceeds the FMR linewidth of Py and canreach several GHz (see Figs. 1(c)and1(d)).
9,11
It is clear that such an array of dipolarly coupled mag-
netic dots can be switched to the FM state by applying amagnetic field pulse directed along the dot axis and having a
sufficiently large amplitude. Switching to the CAFM state is
more subtle since it is practically impossible to apply pulsesof different directions to different nano-dots. Nonetheless, it
will be shown below that using a spatially homogeneous
field pulse directed in the dot plane and having proper
a
h
2RM0
FM CAFM(a)
2468 1 010
8
64
2
01GHz1GHz
2GHz2GHz
3GHz3GHza
xyz
f21(b)
c)((d)
FIG. 1. (a), (b) Sketch of the considered array in the FM and CAFM ground
states, respectively. (c) FMR power absorption spectra of the array in theFM and CAFM states (array parameters: h/R¼5,a/R¼5). (d) Difference of
the FMR frequencies f
21in two different ground states as a function of geo-
metric parameters a/Randh/R. The region where one or both ground states
are unstable is dashed.a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:verrv@ukr.net.
0003-6951/2012/100(19)/192412/3/$30.00
VC2012 American Institute of Physics 100, 192412-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 100, 192412 (2012)
Downloaded 05 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsparameters, the array can be switched into an almost ideal
CAFM state.
The switching dynamics in a coupled dot array is inves-
tigated by numerical integration of a system of Landau-Lif-shitz-Gilbert equations for magnetization vectors M
jof each
dot ( jis the dot number) in a macrospin approximation so
that the magnetization distribution in each dot is assumed tobe uniform
dMj
dt¼/C0cMj/C2Beff;j/C0aGc
MsMj/C2ðMj/C2Beff;jÞ;(1)
with the effective field
Beff;j¼BeðtÞ/C0l0MsX
k^Njk/C1MkþBTðtÞ: (2)
Here, BeðtÞis the external magnetic field, ^Njkis the mutual
demagnetization tensor,9,12the random thermal field BTðtÞ
represents an isotropic vector Gaussian white noise with var-
iance /C232¼2aGkBT=ðcMsVÞ;kBis the Boltzmann constant, T
is the absolute temperature, and V¼pR2his the dot volume.
Equation (1)is solved using mid-point rule technique.13,14
SW spectra are calculated by the method described in Ref. 9.
For all further calculations, the following parameters are
used: material parameters of Py, dot aspect ratio h/R¼5, lat-
tice constant a¼5R,/C23¼6/C210/C09T/C2s1=2(which corre-
sponds to the room temperature T¼300 K for dots with
R¼10 nm), and sizes of simulated array—20 /C220 dots with
periodic boundary conditions.
First, we consider switching of the array into the FM
ground state. This can be achieved by applying out-of-plane
field pulse of a sufficiently large magnitude, at which onlythe ideal FM state remains stable. The critical field magni-
tude B
c;zis determined from the condition that an isolated
defect (a single dot with an opposite magnetization direction)in an FM matrix loses its stability
B
c;z¼l0MsðNxx
sþFzz
0/C02Nzz
sÞ: (3)
Here, ^Ns¼^Njjis the self-demagnetization tensor of a dot
and^Fkis the array’s demagnetization tensor, defined in Ref.
9. The duration of the field pulse required to achieve the
switching is mainly determined by the time needed to excitea large-angle precession from the thermal level. It can be
estimated as s
z’lnðBc;zMsV=kBTÞ=½2aGcðBz/C0Bc;zÞ/C138. For
the considered system Bc;z¼0:355 T and sz¼38 ns at
Bz¼0:4 T. This estimated value of szis close to the value
sz/C2530 ns obtained from the numerical simulations (Fig.
2(a)).
The magnitude of the switching field can be reduced
using the well-known method in one-particle reversal—
applying a tilted field.15,16One may apply an in-plane field
pulse with the magnitude Bc;x(see Eq. (4)below), sufficient
to magnetize all dots in plane, and a small out-of-plane
pulse. The out-of-plane pulse should be longer than the in-plane one to avoid the random reversal caused by strong
magnetostatic interaction between the dots. As an example,
we simulated the reversal dynamics under the simultaneousapplication of the B
x¼Bc;x¼0:248 T pulse with duration
20 ns and the Bz¼0:075 T pulse with duration 30 ns(Fig. 2(f)). This pulse sequence successfully switches the
array to the ideal FM state (irrespectively of the initialarray’s configuration) and reduces the field magnitude jB
ej
by more than 25% compared to a single Bz-pulse.
Now we will consider the switching of the dot array into
a CAFM state. Since this state corresponds to the global
energy minimum (the true ground state) in a zero external
field,17one may expect that after putting the array into an in-
plane state (which corresponds to unstable saddle point) the
array with high probability will relax into the CAFM state.
The critical field Bc;xneeded to magnetize all the dots in the
in-plane direction can be found as a field at which the
in-plane FM state becomes unstable. For the considered
geometry this instability occurs at the wavevectork¼pe
x=aþpey=a, which exactly corresponds to the CAFM
periodicity, and the critical field is equal to
Bc;x¼l0MsðFxx
0/C0Fzz
jÞ (4)
independently of the angle between the field and the basis
lattice vectors. To avoid the influence of the initial state
(“memory effects”) the duration of the Bx-pulse should be of
the order of sx’ln½ðBx/C0Bc;xÞMsV=kBT/C138=½2aGcðBx/C0Bc;xÞ/C138
/C2420/C030 ns, which will ensure the relaxation of magnetiza-
tion down to the thermal level.
A typical remanent state of a dot array after the applica-
tion of a rectangular in-plane field pulse ( Bx¼0:275 T ;
sx¼20 ns) is shown in Fig. 2(d). The total magnetic moment
in this state vanishes, and the short-range correlations are of
the CAFM type (on average, the magnetizations of the near-
est neighbors are opposite), but on a large scale this statelooks nothing like the ideal CAFM state (compare Figs. 2(b)
and2(d)). The reason for such a behavior is that the CAFM
state is double-degenerate—two different, but equivalentconfigurations are related by inversion of the magnetization
of all dots. When the applied in-plane field is abruptly
removed, many local independent clusters with CAFM
FIG. 2. Shapes of the bias magnetic field pulses (a), (f) and remanent states
of the array after their application (b)-(e). Duration of the out-of-plane field
pulses sz¼30 ns, rectangular part of the in-plane pulses sx¼20 ns, duration
of the trailing edge (tail) sf¼50 ns. Dashed lines represent critical fields for
transition into the out-of-plane FM (blue) and in-plane FM (red) states. In
(e), one cluster of dots with the ideal CAFM periodicity is shown by greenbackground; other dots form a different ideal CAFM cluster.192412-2 Verba et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 192412 (2012)
Downloaded 05 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsperiodicity appear, in which one of the two possible CAFM
configurations is realized. The relaxation of each of the
CAFM clusters towards its local energy minimum is very
fast due to the large uncompensated magnetodipolar fields.Therefore, the collection of many small CAFM-clusters in
the remanent state shows the short-range order of the
CAFM-type, but the long-range CAFM order is absent.
To promote formation of the long-range CAFM order,
one can use magnetic field pulses with a slowly decreasing
amplitude, i.e., pulses with relatively long trailing edge (tail)
(see Fig. 2(f)). In the unstable region B
x<Bc;x, the instanta-
neous growth rate of fluctuations near the in-plane FM stateis proportional to ðB
c;x/C0BxðtÞÞ. For slowly decreasing
applied field BxðtÞ, the magnetization fluctuations grow
much slower, and the different local CAFM clusters willhave more time to adjust their mutual configurations. As a
result, one may expect that the average size of a CAFM clus-
ter in the remanent state will increase.
These qualitative arguments are supported by the results
of our numerical simulations. Figure 2(e)shows a typical re-
manent state of a dot array after the application of an in-planefield pulse with an exponential tail B
xðtÞ/C24expð/C0t=sfÞfor
sf¼50 ns. One can clearly see that there are only two CAFM
clusters with a large number of dots in each of them. Simula-tions performed for different s
fshowed that the average size
of a remanent CAFM cluster monotonically increases with the
increase of sf, up to the point (in order of 200 ns) when the
whole computational region (20 /C220 dots) becomes filled
with a single CAFM cluster.
In a real-life situation, with arrays consisting of millions
of dots, it would be, perhaps, practically impossible to achieve
the ideal CAFM state, and the remanent state will always con-
tain many CAFM clusters, which would lead to a certain inho-mogeneous broadening of the FMR peak. To study this effect,
we calculated the FMR absorption spectra in the remanent
state for different duration s
fof the field pulse trailing edge
(tail) (see Fig. 3). If the in-plane field decreases abruptly
(sf¼0), the resulting FMR spectrum has an asymmetric
shape with a broad maximum shifted about 1 GHz below theFMR frequency f
CAFM of the ideal CAFM state (Fig. 3(a)).
The FWHM linewidth of the absorption spectrum is about
8 times larger than the linewidth Df0¼2aGfof the ideal
structure9(Fig. 3(b)). With increasing sfthe FMR spectrum
narrows and becomes more symmetric (Fig. 3(a)). At sf
¼50 ns the absorption spectrum has only minor differences
compared to the ideal case, and the FMR linewidth exceeds
Df0only by a few percents (see Fig. 3(b)). Thus, the micro-
wave properties of such remanent states are practically indis-tinguishable from the properties on the ideal CAFM ground
state.
In conclusion, we demonstrated that the magnetic
ground state and the microwave absorption frequency of an
array of dipolarly coupled magnetic nano-dots can be
switched by short magnetic field pulses with a typical dura-tion of several tens of nanoseconds. While one can easily
switch the array into the ideal FM state, switching into theCAFM state is more difficult, and the remanent state of the
dot array will always contain clusters with two possibleCAFM configurations. The size of the clusters increases with
the increase of the tail duration s
fof the switching pulse, and
forsf/C2150 ns, the microwave response of the array becomes
practically indistinguishable from the response of an ideal
periodic structure.
This work was supported in part by the grant DMR-
1015175 from the National Science Foundation of the USA,by the grant from DARPA, by the Contract from the U.S.
Army TARDEC, RDECOM, by the Grant No. M/90-2010
from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, andby the Grant No. UU34/008 from the State Fund for Funda-
mental Research of Ukraine.
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Downloaded 05 Jun 2012 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions |
1.4968543.pdf | Voltage-controlled magnetization switching in MRAMs in conjunction with spin-transfer
torque and applied magnetic field
Kamaram Munira , Sumeet C. Pandey , Witold Kula , and Gurtej S. Sandhu
Citation: J. Appl. Phys. 120, 203902 (2016); doi: 10.1063/1.4968543
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4968543
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/jap/120/20
Published by the American Institute of Physics
Voltage-controlled magnetization switching in MRAMs in conjunction with
spin-transfer torque and applied magnetic field
Kamaram Munira, Sumeet C. Pandey, Witold Kula, and Gurtej S. Sandhu
Emerging Memory Technology Development, Micron Technology, Inc., Boise, Idaho 83707, USA
(Received 23 June 2016; accepted 10 November 2016; published online 28 November 2016)
Voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) effect has attracted a significant amount of
attention in recent years because of its low cell power consumption during the anisotropymodulation of a thin ferromagnetic film. However, the applied voltage or electric field alone is not
enough to completely and reliably reverse the magnetization of the free layer of a magnetic random
access memory (MRAM) cell from anti-parallel to parallel configuration or vice versa. An addi-tional symmetry-breaking mechanism needs to be employed to ensure the deterministic writing
process. Combinations of voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy together with spin-transfer torque
(STT) and with an applied magnetic field ( H
app) were evaluated for switching reliability, time taken
to switch with low error rate, and energy consumption during the switching process. In order to get
a low write error rate in the MRAM cell with VCMA switching mechanism, a spin-transfer torque
current or an applied magnetic field comparable to the critical current and field of the free layer isnecessary. In the hybrid processes, the VCMA effect lowers the duration during which the higher
power hungry secondary mechanism is in place. Therefore, the total energy consumed during the
hybrid writing processes, VCMA þSTT or VCMA þH
app, is less than the energy consumed during
pure spin-transfer torque or applied magnetic field switching. Published by AIP Publishing.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4968543 ]
I. INTRODUCTION
In magnetic random access memory (MRAM), informa-
tion is stored in the free layer of a magnetic tunnel junction
(MTJ).1An insulating spacer layer separates the fixed and
free ferromagnetic layers (Fig. 1). The stored data can be
sensed by measuring the tunneling resistance. In order to
compete with existing memory technology as a non-volatile
candidate, an MRAM bit cell should have high tunneling
magnetoresistance, and the free layer must have enough ther-
mal stability ( >60) against stochastic thermal switching to
retain data for at least ten years.2To write information to the
MRAM cell, the spin orientation of the free layer needs to be
manipulated. The writing process should be fast (within
10–20 ns) and have low power ( <0.1 pJ) with a very low
error rate (10/C09).
In the first generation of MRAMs, a write operation was
performed by an external magnetic field induced by field
lines.3,4This inductive writing has high power consumption
and a high probability for cross-interference as the devices
are scaled down.
The free layer can also be switched by using the spin-
transfer torque (STT) where the angular momentum from a
spin-polarized current is directly transferred to the free
layer.5,6With its ability to write and read faster, smaller cell
sizes than first generation MRAM, and non-volatility, STT-
MRAM technology has attracted a lot of interest in the lasttwo decades.
7,8In particular, magnetic tunnel junction
stacks, consisting of a MgO barrier and CoFeB magnetic
layers, have attracted considerable attention, thanks to their
combination of high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and
high tunneling magnetoresistance.9,10An STT-MRAM cell has a 1-MTJ/1-CMOS transistor
memory cell structure, where the CMOS transistor acts as
the access device.11As the device dimensions are scaled by
j, the voltage and current are also scaled by j.12As the size
of the MTJ is scaled to under 20 nm, the switching current
density will increase if the thermal stability is to be kept the
same. STT-MRAM technology will ultimately be limited by
the scaling of the CMOS technology. A CoFeB free layer
with a damping of about 0.005 would be able to be scaled
down to 40 nm for the 1-MTJ/1-T architecture of a 1 Gb
MRAM chip with data retention of 10 years.13Since MTJs
are highly resistive devices, the energy consumed by writing
can be several tens of fJ due to ohmic heating.14Due to the
roadblocks in scaling and highly inefficient energy usage
during the writing process, it is quite important to explore
other writing schemes in MRAM devices to reduce the write
power consumption.
Another method to manipulate the magnetization of the
free layer is through an electric field applied across the
MTJ.15–17Pure voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy
(VCMA) switching in precessional regime has also been stud-
ied where the electric field is turned off at an optimal time
when the precessing magnetization is tilted toward the
intended destination.22,23The voltage-controlled magnetic
anisotropy (VCMA) mechanism does not cause a static rever-sal of magnetization directly, only a modulation of the anisot-
ropy. At best, the perpendicular anisotropy of the free layer is
canceled, and the magnetization prefers to lay in-plane in the
presence of the electric field (Fig. 1). Therefore, additional
driving forces need to be supplied for bidirectional switching.
The estimated energy required for a single domain reversal is
around 0.01 fJ,
17which is three orders of magnitude lower
0021-8979/2016/120(20)/203902/8/$30.00 Published by AIP Publishing. 120, 203902-1JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 120, 203902 (2016)
than that required by spin-transfer torque switching. Spin
transfer torque18,19and externally applied fields20,21,35,36as
the driving forces have been extensively studied. However,
the reliability of the combined processes has not been properly
determined. Ref. 21has shown that with a static magnetic
field, a free layer with a thermal stability of 33 can beswitched with an error rate of 0.1%. The reference shows thaterror rate can be further reduced by lower damping.
In this paper, using a simple macrospin Landau-
Lifshitz-Gilbert model, we study four types of combinedswitching mechanisms, where the VCMA effect is used tonegate the perpendicular anisotropy of the free layer and aspin-transfer torque (STT) current or a magnetic field ( H
app)
normal to the free layer is utilized to bias the switching mag-netization towards the correct direction. The four switchingmechanisms were studied in this paper in terms of switching
reliability, the time taken to reverse the magnetization, and
the energy consumption during the switching process.Parasitic RC components do affect the energy consumptionand delay; in our simple model, we chose to neglect thoseeffects. The four switching mechanisms are: (A) combinedVCMA þSTT; (B) VCMA effect used to modulate the
anisotropy so the magnetization of the free layer with per-pendicular anisotropy is switched in plane, and after the elec-tric field is turned off, a spin transfer torque is introduced to
drive the magnetization of the free layer to its final orienta-
tion; (C) combined VCMA þH
app; and (D) as (B), but the
STT is replaced by Happ.
In Section II, the electric field efficiency of the anisot-
ropy modulation in the VCMA switching is discussed. The
best electric field efficiencies available in the literature arereviewed, and the lowest efficiency number required to can-cel the perpendicular anisotropy of the free layer with a ther-mal stability of 60 is estimated. In Section III, the model
used to study the switching mechanisms is described. Theassumptions made in the model for switching mechanism Band the voltage polarities for STT and VCMA are discussed.The performances of the four types of switching profile areevaluated in Section IV, and the summary of switching reli-
ability and error rates, and energy consumption are listed inTables IandII.
II. ELECTRIC FIELD EFFICIENCY IN
VOLTAGE-CONTROLLED MAGNETIC ANISOTROPY
The VCMA mechanism can be explained by the spin-
dependent charge accumulation/depletion effect at freelayer-insulator interface.
24,25It is important that the VCMA
effect is as strong as possible so the perpendicular anisotropyof the free layer can be negated at a voltage below the break-down voltage of the MTJ. The efficiency is defined as
b¼
dKef ftfre e
E; (1)
where dKeffis the change in anisotropy for the change in
electric field E and tfreeis the thickness of the free layer.26
The sign of the VCMA efficiency is not as robust as spin-
transfer torque where electron flow from the fixed layer to
the free layer will favor the parallel configuration while elec-
tron flow from the free layer to the fixed later will favor theanti-parallel configuration. The size and sign of the VCMAeffect are found to be dependent on the free layer material,the capping layer,
27and the insulator.28For any sign of the
applied electric field, anisotropy may increase, decrease, orstay the same.
29In the simple model studied in this work, we
assume that a positive voltage applied across the MTJ willswitch decrease the perpendicular anisotropy.
Insulators with a higher dielectric constant have a higher
VCMA efficiency due to an increased dwell time for the elec-trons at the interface. The timescale of the switching is around20 ps.
17A high VCMA efficiency has been reported in epitaxi-
ally grown V/Fe/MgO layers with bof 1150 fJ/Vm.30As
s h o w ni nF i g . 2, for such a high efficiency, a voltage of 0.5 V is
required for a change of anisotropy, dKeff,o f5 . 7 5 /C2105J/m3.
The best number for VCMA efficiency available in the litera-
ture for a fabricated CoFeB-MgO junction is 90 fJ/V m,13
which is not high enough to switch the magnetization of afree layer with a thermal stability of 60 (45 nm diameter,1 nm thick free layer, and saturation magnetization of1.1/C210
6A/m) within 1 V. A bof at least 312 fJ/V m is
needed to switch the free layer within 0.5 V. As we will seein Section III, a much higher bis required ( /C241600 fJ/V m) to
switch efficiently within 10 ns. The energy consumed duringthe VCMA process is 0.5 CV
2þI2Rtwhere the capacitance
of the junction is taken to be 0.1 fF (the measured capaci-tance of a typical MTJ at Micron Technology, Inc.) and V isthe applied voltage, I is the tunneling current, R is the resis-tance, and t is amount of time for which the voltage source isapplied. If the insulator thickness is more than 2.5 nm toblock the tunneling current, I
2Rtis negligible, and the total
energy dissipation can be calculated as 0.5 CV2(Fig. 2(b)).
III. MAGNETIZATION DYNAMICS OF THE FREE LAYER
The thermal stability of the free layer with perpendicular
anisotropy can be calculated by
FIG. 1. Parallel to anti-parallel switching in an MRAM cell. The magnetiza-
tion of the free layer is represented by the polar angle, h, which is measured
from the positive Z axis. When the free layer and the fixed layer are in paral-
lel configuration, his zero. In the presence of an electric field, the voltage-
controlled magnetic anisotropy mechanism modulates the perpendicular
anisotropy of the free layer and, at best, rotates the magnetization of the free
layer to in-plane configuration ( h¼p/2). A second mechanism is needed to
guide the magnetization to h¼p. In this study, the switching is considered a
success when the angle hcrosses 3 p/4.203902-2 Munira et al. J. Appl. Phys. 120, 203902 (2016)
D¼l0Hef f
KMSVol
2kBT; (2)
where l0is the vacuum permeability, Vol is the volume of
the free layer, MSis the saturation magnetization, kBis the
Boltzmann constant, and T is the temperature. Hef f
K¼
HK/C0l0MSis the effective anisotropy field resulting from
the crystalline anisotropy, the interfacial anisotropy of thefree layer with the insulator, and the demagnetizationfield.
31Under the macrospin and zero temperature assump-
tions, the critical spin-transfer torque current needed to
switch is
IC¼2qal0Hef f
KMSVol
/C22hg¼4qaDkBT
/C22hg; (3)
where ais the Gilbert damping constant, q is the electronic
charge, and gis the spin polarization of the current exerting
the torque on the free layer. While we desire the device tohave high thermal stability, the critical current and the timeneeded to switch also increase with the thermal stability.Since the cells have to switch within a short time with low
write error probability, a current greater than the critical cur-
rent, I/C29I
C, is needed to switch in the precessional regime.31
The critical applied field needed to switch the free layer is
Hef f
K.
The free layer was modeled using a macromagnetic sim-
ulator that solves the time-dependent Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation in the single-domain approximation
32
d^m
dt¼/C0c^m/C2Hef f
KþHapp/C16/C17
/C0ca^m/C2^m/C2Hef f
KþHapp/C16/C17
/C0cg/C22hJ
ql0MStfre e^m/C2^m/C2^mp; (4)
where cis the gyromagnetic ratio and ~Happis the applied
field. J is the applied spin current density and ^mand ^mpare
the magnetization of the free and spin transfer torque current.
^m/C2^m/C2^mPis the Slonczewski spin-transfer torque term
that induces the switching. The thermal perturbation is repre-sented by a Langevin random field ~H
Lthat can be added to
the effective magnetic field term. The field ~HLis related to
the system temperature T by~HL¼ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ffi
2akBT
l0cMSVols
~G; (5)
where ~Gis Gaussian white noise with a mean of 0 and a stan-
dard deviation of 1.33T is taken to be 300 K in this study. Each
switching mechanism was studi ed by performing 500 000 simu-
lations where the starting magnetization of the free layer was
chosen from a distribution of ini tial magnetizations that included
the effects of thermal perturbation at 300 K. The mean of the ini-
tial magnetization distribution is around 0 rad (spin up).
The geometric and magnetic parameters of the free layer
are chosen to produce a thermal stability Dof 60 with a cir-
cular disk of 45 nm in diameter and 1 nm thick. The satura-
tion magnetization and damping constant are taken to be that
of CoFeB, 1.1 /C2106A/m and 0.01, respectively.34The
anisotropy of the disk is to be 9.16 /C2105J/m3, making the
effective anisotropy, Keff, to be 1.56 /C2105J/m3. The energy
barrier of the circular disk can be expressed as Keffsin2hVol.
The VCMA was implemented in the simulator by makingthe magnitude of the anisotropy time dependent. The equa-
tions below show the anisotropy shape over one temporal
period t
VCMA .triserepresents the time the signal takes to
increase or decay exponentially
KtðÞ¼Kef f/C0dKef f1/C0e/C0t
trise/C0/C1
/C0l0
2M2
Sfort<tVCMA;(6)
KtðÞ¼Kef f/C0dKef fe/C0t/C0tVCMA
trise/C16/C17
/C0l0
2M2
Sfort>tVCMA:(7)
Fig. 3shows the time-dependent anisotropy K(t) for
tVCMA of 8 ns and triseof 200 ps.
In our simple model, the STT voltage polarity is fixed in
such a way to ensure spin up to down switching. For the
same voltage polarity as the STT, an electric field across the
MTJ will switch the anisotropy from perpendicular to in-
plane. As discussed in Section II, anisotropy modulations
with electric field in MTJs are much more complicated.
Switching is considered a success when the magnetiza-
tion passes 3 p/4 rad (Fig. 1), with the final state being around
prad. Switching is considered a success when magnetization
crosses p/2 rad during the write process in STT-
MRAMs.31,40The criteria are made stricter in this study to
FIG. 2. (a) Change in the perpendicular
anisotropy, dKeff, with respect to the
applied voltage for various electric field
efficiency values. An electric field sensi-
tivity of 312 fJ/V m is needed to cancel
the perpendicular anisotropy of a 45 nm
diameter and 1 nm thick free layer with
a thermal stability of 60 and saturationmagnetization of 1.1 /C210
6A/m. (b) The
energy (0.5 CV2) consumed during the
VCMA process.203902-3 Munira et al. J. Appl. Phys. 120, 203902 (2016)
ensure that the magnetization is being properly guided by the
second switching force and is headed in the right direction.In the case of low spin-transfer torque current or appliedmagnetic field, even after crossing the plane, thermal pertur-bation can kick back the magnetization to the starting point.Therefore, it is safer to have stricter criteria for successfulswitching. Pure spin-transfer torque switching is also held tothe stricter standard for fair comparison in Section IV B.
We are aware that switching mechanism B is unrealistic
since is it not possible to separate the VCMA and the STTwhen a voltage source is applied across the MTJ for thininsulators (1 nm) in a simple free layer-insulator-fixed layerMTJ. In Refs. 35and36, the thickness of the insulator MgO
was set to be greater than 2.5 nm to suppress the STT effectin order to study VCMA þHapp contribution to the switch-
ing. We decided to separate the two effects intentionally inswitching mechanism B to study the error rates in this paper,for reasons explained in Section IV B .
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Switching with voltage-controlled magnetic
anisotropy effect
While the low energy switching of the VCMA mecha-
nism is highly desirable, it is important that the magnetiza-tion of the free layer switches in-plane within a reasonabletime. Fig. 4(a) shows the maximum, minimum, and average
times for dK
eff, ranging from 2 /C2105J/m3to 8/C2105J/m3.When dKeffis 3/C2105J/m3(enough to cancel the perpendicu-
lar anisotropy of a free layer with Keffof 1.56 /C2105J/m3,
thermal stability of 60, and saturation magnetization of1.1/C210
6A/m), the average time to switch in-plane is 13 ns,
with the maximum being near 34 ns and the minimum near6 ns. This delay is quite high when compared to the 10 nsswitching time for DRAM or 70 ps for SRAM.
2Also, there
is a big variation in the switching time (6 ns to 34 ns), as
seen in Fig. 4(b). In order to switch within an average of
5 ns, a dKeffvalue greater than 6 /C2105J/m3is needed. When
dKeffis increased to 8 /C2105J/m3, the standard deviation of
the switching time spread reduces quite considerably. FordK
eff¼8/C2105J/m3, the maximum time for is 11 ns, the
average time is 3 ns, and the minimum time is 2 ns.
As MRAM devices are further scaled down, Keffof the
free layer will need to be increased to maintain thermal sta-bility. Materials will be needed with ever higher electric fieldefficiency.
B. Switching mechanisms A and B:
VCMA1spin-transfer torque
In switching mechanism A, a voltage is applied across
the MTJ with a 1 nm insulator (spin-transfer torque effectwill not be blocked). Both VCMA and STT effects will tryto rotate the magnetization. For VCMA, the desired endpoint is at h¼p/2 rad (Fig. 1), and for STT, it is at h¼prad.
In Fig. 5(a), for combined VCMA þSTT switching mecha-
nism, where bis 1600 fJ/V m at 0.5 V ( dK
eff¼8/C2105J/m3)
and I/IC¼0.72, the magnetization distribution does not
switch completely. Because of the high electric field effi-ciency and high dK
eff, the VCMA effect is much stronger
than STT. Therefore, the energy profile of the free layer hasits minimum at the angle p/2 rad. The mean of the distribu-
tion at 50 ns is at this angle. If the voltage source is removed,
half of the distribution will switch to the intended destinationwhile the other half will return to the origin.
In Fig. 5(b), an electric field efficiency of 312 fJ/V m is
used. The VCMA effect is not overpowering the STT in thiscase and is just strong enough to cancel the perpendicularanisotropy. dK
effis 1.56 /C2105J/m3,2 . 1 8 /C2105J/m3,a n d
3.12/C2105J/m3at 0.5, 0.7, and 1 V, respectively ( I/IC¼0.72,
FIG. 3. Time-dependent anisotropy Keff(t) for a tVCMA of 8 ns and a triseof
200 ps.
FIG. 4. (a) The maximum, minimum,and average times taken for the magne-
tization distribution of the free layer to
rotate to the in-plane orientation for
various dK
effvalues including the effect
of thermal perturbations at 300 K. In
order to switch to the in-plane configu-ration within an average of 5 ns, a dK
eff
value greater than 6 /C2105J/m3is
needed. (b) Time taken to switch to the
in-plane orientation when dKeffis
3/C2105J/m3and 8/C2105J/m3.203902-4 Munira et al. J. Appl. Phys. 120, 203902 (2016)
1, and 1.5). Ideally, the slope of the error probability vs. time
curve determines the speed of the switching. A steeper slopewill indicate faster switching. The reported slope for pure
STT as shown in Fig. 5(b) is less steep than that observed
experimentally.
37This is because our simple model is assum-
ing the free layer to be a single ferromagnetic domain.Therefore, mechanisms that aid switching, e.g., domain nucle-ation, and in-coherent switching, are not taken into account. Amicromagnetic model, which is outside the scope of thispaper, is needed to study such complicated mechanisms.
38
When compared to pure STT switching, the combined
mechanism cuts down the STT current by half. For pure STTswitching with I/I
C¼3, error rate is 10/C09at 11 ns. For
VCMA þSTT hybrid switching mechanism, an I/ICof 1.5
anddKeffof 3.12 /C2105J/m3will deliver the same low write
error rate at 20 ns.
As the STT current required from the combined switch-
ing effects of the VCMA and STT in (A) is still high, wedecided to separate the two processes in (B) (Figs. 6(a) and
6(b)). Separating the two processes will enable them to per-
form their intended functions without interference from theother. When the two processes are separated, VCMA will beused to rotate the magnetization from the starting point to in-plane orientation, and then, STT will be used to nudge themagnetization of the free layer toward the final destination.Also, in this switching mechanism, the more power-hungrySTT will not be used until required. An effective field is
applied across the tunnel junction for a t
VCMA of 3 and 8 ns
andtriseof 200 ps with dKeffof 8/C2105J/m3(b¼1600 fJ/V
m at 0.5 V). The spin-transfer torque current, I, is applied
FIG. 5. (a) Combined VCMA and STT
switching mechanism A. A voltage of
0.5 V is applied across the tunnel junc-
tion for b¼1600 fJ/V m and I/ IC¼0.7.
Since the VCMA effect overpowers theSTT, the magnetization prefers to be in
in-plane orientation with the mean of
distribution at h¼p/2. (b) Switching
mechanism A for b¼312 fJ/V m at
0.5 V, 0.7 V, and 1 V and I/I
C¼0.7, 1,
and 1.5, respectively, and pure STT
switching for I/IC¼1.5, 2, and 3. An
electric field sensitivity of 312 fJ/V m
reduces the STT current needed by half
for comparable performance.
FIG. 6. (a) Switching mechanism B for
b¼1600 fJ/V m at 0.5 V. The electric
field is turned on for tVCMA of 3 ns.
Spin transfer torque current, I, is
applied immediately afterward. The
error rate curves saturate after a certain
point. (b) tVCMA increased to 8 ns. The
dotted lines in the plot for tVCMA¼8n s
are approximations.TABLE I. The write error rates and energy consumption for pure STT and
switching mechanisms A and B. tVCMA indicates the amount of time the elec-
tric field is applied across the MTJ. It is not applicable in the case of pure
STT switching. ‘ON’ indicates that the electric field is on the entire time
(switching profile A). Delay accounts for the time required to reach the errorrate specified. The * indicates that this is an approximation.
Switching b t
VCMA I/IC Delay Error Energy
Mechanism (fj/Vm) (ns) (ns) rate (pJ)
STT N/A N/A 1.5 25 10/C020.8579
STT N/A N/A 2 25 10/C041.602
STT N/A N/A 3 22 10/C092.9446
A 312 ON 0.72 25 10/C020.1923
A 312 ON 1 25 10/C060.3926
A 312 ON 1.5 20 10/C090.6864
A 1600 ON 0.72 25 1000.1923
B 1600 8 0.2 22 <10/C020.0088
B 1600 8 0.3 21.8 10/C030.0196
B 1600 8 0.5 14.9 10/C050.0258
B 1600 8 0.7 13.5 10/C060.0423
B 1600 8 1 11 *10/C090.0471203902-5 Munira et al. J. Appl. Phys. 120, 203902 (2016)
immediately afterward. When the electric field is on, the
error probability is 100% because the magnetization
switches in-plane at most. As soon as the electric field is
turned off and the spin-transfer torque current is turned on,the error rate drops quickly as most of the magnetization dis-
tribution hovering in-plane switches to the final state
quickly.
For a t
VCMA of 3 ns, the error rates for I/IC¼0.2, 0.3,
and 0.5 remain constant after a certain point in time. This is
because 3 ns of VCMA is not enough to rotate the magneti-
zation of the free layer to the in-plane position, as shown in
Fig. 7(a). The mean of the distribution is still not centered
at an angle of p/2 rad. The error rates decrease, but when
tVCMA is increased to 8 ns, which is enough time for the
magnetization distribution to rotate to in-plane orientation,a ss h o w ni nF i g . 7(a).F o r I/I
C¼0.3, the error rate at 25 ns
drops from 10/C01to 10/C03when tVCMA is increased from 3 ns
to 8 ns.
The reason why the error rate becomes constant after a
certain time can be understood with the aid of Fig. 7(b).
When the electric field is turned off and the spin-transfer tor-que with I/I
C<1 is applied, the effective barrier between the
two bi-stable states, Eb¼Keff(1/C0I/IC)2), prevents the mag-
netization distribution closer to the starting point (near 0 rad)from reaching the final state ( prad). When I/I
C¼1i s
applied, the barrier disappears. The dotted lines in the plot
fortVCMA¼8 ns are approximations since 500 000 data
points were not enough to complete the error curves. We
assume that for tVCMA¼8 ns and I/IC¼1, there is no inflec-
tion point in the error curve, and the error rate drops to 10/C09
within 11 ns. A more accurate error rate can be calculated by
solving the Fokker-Planck equation for the two-step switch-
ing process.39,40
Table Ilists the energy consumed and write error rates
during the STT and VCMA þSTT writing processes in Figs.
5and6. The energy consumed during the spin-transfer tor-
que switching was calculated by 0.5 CV2þIV t where the
voltage V is estimated from the experimental results in Ref.
41and t is the amount of time taken to reach the best error
rate. For the switching mechanism B, VCMA is applied and
then STT; we assumed spin-transfer torque current, I, isnegligible when the time is shorter than tVCMA . Switching
mechanism A for b¼312fJ/Vm at 1 V and I/IC¼1.5 reaches
an error rate of 10/C04at 22 ns. The error rate is comparable to
pure STT switching with I/IC¼3. However, the energy con-
sumed for pure STT switching is roughly 4.3 times higher
than the combined mechanism. To get a lower error rate(down to 10
/C09) for switching mechanism B, a high bvalue
of 1600 fJ/Vm and an I/ICof 1 are needed.
C. Switching mechanism C and D: VCMA 1applied
field
A similar study was done for VCMA þapplied magnetic
field switching (Figs. 8and9). Figs. 8(a) and8(b) show
switching mechanism C for b¼1600 fJ/V m and b¼312 fJ/
V m, respectively. Similar to the combined VCMA þSTT
switching, bin Fig. 8(a) is too high and the magnetization
distribution centers at p/2 rad. b¼312fJ/Vm improves the
error rate, but a Happ=Hef f
Kof 1 is needed to reach an error
rate of 10/C04within 25 ns.
In Figs. 9(a)and9(b), the error rates for switching mecha-
nism D follow the same trend as B. The high power appliedfield switching is separated from the VCMA mechanism inorder to reduce energy consumption. Error rates improve ast
VCMA is increased from 5 ns to 8 ns. For Happ=Hef f
K¼0:5,
error rates drop from 10/C03to 10/C06when tVCMA is increased.
The error rates drop to acceptable numbers when tVCMA is
8 ns, and an effective field equivalent to Hef f
Kis applied.
FIG. 7. (a) The magnetization distribu-
tions of the free layer after an electric
field is applied for 3 ns and 8 ns. dKeff
is set to 8 /C2105J/m3. At 3 ns, the mean
of the distribution is still not centered
at 0.5 prad. (b) Energy potential of
the free layer for I/IC¼0, 0.3, and 1.
For I/IC>0, the effective barrier is
reduced. The barrier disappears when
the overdrive current is equal to or
greater than 1.
TABLE II. The write error rates and energy consumption for switching
mechanisms C and D. tVCMA indicates the amount of time the electric field is
applied across the MTJ. ‘ON’ indicates that the electric field is on the entire
time (switching profile C). Delay accounts for the time required to reach theerror rate specified. The * indicates that this is an approximation.
Switching b t
VCMA Happ Delay Error Energy
Mechanism (fj/Vm) (ns) =Hef f
K (ns) rate (pJ)
C 312 ON 0.5 25 <10/C0272.25
C 1600 ON 0.5 25 10072.25
C 312 ON 1 25 10/C04289.2
D 1600 8 0.5 14.9 10/C0619.0162
D 1600 8 1 11 *10/C0934.7045203902-6 Munira et al. J. Appl. Phys. 120, 203902 (2016)
Table IIlists the energy consumed during the VCMA
þHappwriting process. The current required for the magnetic
field induction can be estimated using Biot-Savart’s law,42
B¼l0I=2pd. d is the distance between the field line and the
free layer, and for our calculation, it is taken to be 22 nm.4
The energy consumed while the field is applied is I2Rt,w h e r e
I is the current required to induce the magnetic field, R is theresistance of the active area,
2and t is the amount of time taken
to reach the best error rate. The best error rate for C is 10/C04
when b¼312 fJ/V m and an Happ=Hef f
Kof 1 is used.
However, energy consumption is very high at 289.2 pJ. Fort
VCMA of 8 ns and Happ=Hef f
Kof 0.5, switching mechanism D
reduces the error rate to 10/C04while energy consumption
reduces to 19 pJ.
V. CONCLUSION
While using the VCMA during the writing process con-
sumes a small amount of energy, the mechanism is not suffi-cient to completely reverse the magnetization of the free layerof the MRAM from anti-parallel to parallel configuration orvice versa. An additional switching force (spin-transfer torqueor external magnetic field) is required to complete the switch-ing of the free layer. In this paper, we investigated the perfor-mance of VCMA þspin torque, and VCMA þappliedmagnetic field writing mechanisms for their switching reliabil-
ity, the time taken to switch, and the energy consumed duringthe writing process. The free layer has a diameter of 45 nm
and is 1 nm thick. The thermal stability of the free layer is 60,
the perpendicular anisotropy is 1.56 /C210
5J/m3,s a t u r a t i o n
magnetization is 1.1 /C2106A/m, and Gilbert damping is 0.01.
Error rate is calculated at 300 K. The four types of combinedswitching mechanisms studied are: (A) combinedVCMA þSTT; (B) the VCMA effect is used to modulate the
anisotropy to switch the magnetization of the free layer to in-plane orientation, and after the VCMA is turned off, an STTcurrent is introduced to drive the magnetization of the freelayer to its final destination; (C) combining the VCMAþexternally applied field; and (D) same as B, except that the
STT is replaced by H
app.
For switching mechanisms A and C, high electric field
anisotropy modulation ( b¼1600 fJ/V m) overpowers the
secondary forces giving the direction to the desired destina-tion, resulting in the magnetization rotating to the in-planeorientation and then to either of the bi-stable positions ( h¼0
orp) after the voltage source is removed. For a lower electric
field efficiency of 312 fJ/V m, the error rates are comparableto cases with just spin-transfer torque switching with doublethe overdrive current with significant reduction in writeenergy consumption. For switching mechanism C, where
FIG. 8. (a) Combined VCMA and Happ
switching mechanism C. A voltage of
0.5 V is applied across the tunnel junc-tion for b¼1600fJ/Vm and H
app=Hef f
K
¼0:5. Since the VCMA effect over-
powers the applied field, the magneti-
zation prefers to be in in-plane
orientation with the mean of distribu-
tion at h¼p/2. (b) Switching mecha-
nism C for b¼312fJ/Vm at 0.5 V and
Happ=Hef f
K¼0:5 and 1.
FIG. 9. (a) Switching mechanism D for
b¼1600 fJ/V m at 0.5 V. The electric
field is turned on for tVCMA of 5 ns. A
magnetic field, Happ, is applied immedi-
ately afterward. The error rate curves
remain constant after a certain point.
(b)tVCMA increased to 8 ns. The dotted
lines in the plot for tVCMA¼8n s a r e
approximations.203902-7 Munira et al. J. Appl. Phys. 120, 203902 (2016)
VCMA and magnetic field are applied simultaneously, the
error rate is still high (10/C04) for a high write energy of 289.2
pJ for Happ=Hef f
Kof 1 after 25 ns.
In order to lower the write energy, the VCMA and sec-
ondary force are separated in switching mechanisms C and
D. VCMA was used to rotate the magnetization to in-planeorientation using energy in the fJ range with bof 1600 fJ/V
m at 0.5 V and t
VCMA of 8 ns. A spin-transfer torque current
or an applied field comparable to the critical current and fieldof the free layer is applied afterwards to direct the magneti-
zation to the right destination. It is necessary to use a current
or field comparable to the critical ones to produce a very lowerror rate (10
/C09). The energy consumption for the hybrid
switching is much lower than just STT, magnetic field, and
combined VCMA þSTT or VCMA þapplied field as the
high-energy secondary force is used for a shorter time.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We gratefully acknowledge J. Harms at Micron
Technology, Inc., for valuable dis cussions on the technological
challenges.
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|
1.3238314.pdf | Tunable steady-state domain wall oscillator with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
A. Bisig, L. Heyne, O. Boulle, and M. Kläui
Citation: Applied Physics Letters 95, 162504 (2009); doi: 10.1063/1.3238314
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3238314
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/95/16?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
131.156.157.31 On: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 08:55:15Tunable steady-state domain wall oscillator with perpendicular magnetic
anisotropy
A. Bisig, L. Heyne, O. Boulle, and M. Kläuia/H20850
Fachbereich Physik, Universität Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, 78457 Konstanz, Germany
/H20849Received 10 August 2009; accepted 4 September 2009; published online 22 October 2009 /H20850
We theoretically study domain wall oscillations upon the injection of a dc current through a
geometrically constrained wire with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The frequency spectrum ofthe oscillation can be tuned by the injected current density and additionally by the application of anexternal magnetic field. Our analytical calculations are supported by micromagnetic simulationsbased on the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation. The simple concept of our localized steady-stateoscillator might prove useful as a nanoscale microwave generator with possible applications intelecommunications or for rf-assisted writing in magnetic hard drives. © 2009 American Institute of
Physics ./H20851doi:10.1063/1.3238314 /H20852
The recent discovery that a spin-polarized current can
exert a torque on a magnetization through transfer of spinangular momentum has opened a new way to manipulatemagnetization.
1Spin-polarized currents can be used to re-
verse a magnetization in multilayer pillar elements2and in-
teract with domain walls, leading to current induced domainwall motion in the direction of the electron flow.
3,4In the
nanopillar geometry, the spin transfer torque can compensatefor the magnetic damping and this leads to sustained magne-tization precession dynamics that are converted into micro-wave emission by magnetoresistive effects.
5Recently, new
schemes based on the oscillations of magnetic domain walls
due to spin-polarized currents have been studied.6–9These
schemes led to the concept of spin torque oscillator /H20849STO /H20850
based on domain walls, which may prove useful as for ap-plications in telecommunications or for rf-assisted writing inmagnetic hard drives.
Microwave generation due to the small angle precession
of a magnetic free layer in nanopillar structures
5leads to
small output power, so here the challenge is to increase thepower of the STO. In complicated nanopillar multilayerstructures, where an out-of-plane magnetic injector layer isused to polarize the current, full angle precessions of a mag-netic free layer in combination with a magnetic tunnel junc-tion gives rise to higher output power.
10However, a simpler
and easier to fabricate system of magnetization exhibitingfull angle precessions upon current injection is an oscillatingmagnetic domain wall. Here, the question is whether sus-tained precession of a pinned domain wall induced by spintransfer can be obtained. The spin transfer torque acts in thecase of domain walls differently from antidamping. This wasrecognized early on by Berger in a seminal paper
11and re-
cently it was shown that domain wall oscillation can be ob-tained through the Walker precession phenomena, where thewhole domain wall structure oscillates periodically at micro-wave frequencies.
6However, the large current density nec-
essary to attain this Walker regime has so far always led todomain wall motion in the standard wire geometry in softmagnetic materials, making it impossible to pin the domainwall during the oscillation.Several schemes have been proposed to solve this prob-
lem, including the use of wires with an artificial local gradi-ent of the magnetic damping
6or extremely narrow wires
with nanoscale lateral dimensions7resulting in lower critical
current for Walker precession, but these approaches are notvery realistic for the design of future devices. For three di-mensional geometrically confined domain walls which arecomplicated to fabricate, inside a magnetic bridge betweentwo electrodes, a similar behavior is presented.
9While the
concept of a domain wall oscillator seems appealing, asimple and more realistic system is missing. Furthermore, inthe approaches put forward so far, there is no possibility totune the frequency independent of the output power, which isa key prerequisite for a device.
In this letter, we show that in perpendicularly magne-
tized materials, Walker precession of a pinned domain wallcan be easily obtained by pinning the domain wall in asimple notch geometry. By properly choosing the constric-tion geometry dimensions, a small domain wall demagnetiz-ing field can be attained, while keeping the domain wallstrongly pinned. The steady-state oscillations are describedby analytical equations based on the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert /H20849LLG /H20850equation with spin torque terms. Micromag-
netic simulations are performed and show that precessionoccurs at zero applied field and is associated with large angleoscillation of the domain wall magnetization. The oscillationfrequency depends linearly on the injected current and can betuned over a wide range. In addition, higher order modes arerevealed which can be controlled by a small transverse mag-netic field. These results open a new route for a novel kind ofa spin transfer oscillator operating at zero field with a simplegeometry and with potential for large output power in moresophisticated implementations.
First, we consider a one dimensional system with per-
pendicular anisotropy where the magnetization Mis turning
from M
z//H20841M/H20841=1 to Mz//H20841M/H20841=−1 /H20849see Fig. 1/H20850. We describe
this system with an analytical model, based on the LLGequation with spin torque terms,12,13
/H11509m
/H11509t=−/H92530m/H11003Heff+/H9251m/H11003/H11509m
/H11509t−/H20849u·/H11612/H20850m+/H9252m
/H11003/H20851/H20849uS·/H11612/H20850m/H20852, /H208491/H20850
where m=M /MSis the unit vector along the local magneti-a/H20850Also at: Zukunftskolleg, Universität Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.
Electronic mail: mathias@klaeui.de.APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 95, 162504 /H208492009 /H20850
0003-6951/2009/95 /H2084916/H20850/162504/3/$25.00 © 2009 American Institute of Physics 95, 162504-1
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
131.156.157.31 On: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 08:55:15zation direction and Heffis the effective magnetic field in-
cluding the external field, the anisotropy field, the magneto-static field, and the exchange field. The spin current driftvelocity u=j
eP/H9262B/eM Sdescribes the spin current associated
with the electric current in a ferromagnet, where Pis the spin
polarization of the current, /H9262Bis the Bohr magneton, eis the
/H20849positive /H20850electron charge, and jeis the current density.14The
dimensionless constant /H9252describes the degree of nonadiaba-
city between the spin of the nonequilibrium conduction elec-trons and the local magnetization.
For the magnetization dynamics of this system, the
pinned domain wall can be described by two collective co-ordinates; the domain wall center position q/H20849t/H20850and the do-
main wall tilting angle
/H9274/H20849t/H20850. Following the approach of Jung
et al. ,15we obtain two equations, describing our system, re-
ferred to as the one dimensional collective coordinatesmodel,
/H9004
0/H9274˙−/H9251q˙=/H9252u+/H92530/H90040
2MS/H20873/H11509/H9280
/H11509q/H20874, /H208492/H20850
q˙+/H9251/H90040/H9274˙=−u−/H92530/H90040
MSKdsin 2/H9274, /H208493/H20850
where /H90040is the constant domain wall width, Kdis the effec-
tive domain wall anisotropy, and /H9280/H20849q/H20850is the domain wall
potential energy per unit cross-sectional area, representingthe pinning potential of the wire constriction geometry.16
In the case where the effective wall anisotropy
Kd=Ky−Kxvanishes, corresponding to a geometry where the
Bloch and Néel domain wall have the same magnetostaticenergy and no energy barrier in between, Eqs. /H208492/H20850and /H208493/H20850
lead to a steady-state oscillation of the polar angle
/H9274/H20849t/H20850,
/H9274˙=−u
/H9251/H90040. /H208494/H20850
This in-plane rotation corresponds to a continuous and re-
peated transition from Bloch to Néel wall and vice versa/H20849Fig.1/H20850. Note that in the non-adiabatic case steady-state os-
cillations are only possible in the presence of a pinning po-tential even when the magnetostatic energy difference K
d
vanishes since otherwise the domain wall will start to move.
However, in realistic wire geometries, inhomogeneous
demagnetization fields lead to energy barriers between theBloch and the Néel walls and the effective wall anisotropynever vanishes completely, even by proper tuning of the con-striction width wand wire thickness t. Hence, for /H20841K
d/H20841/H110220 the
domain wall starts to rotate when the current density jeis
larger than a certain threshold value Jcgiven by17
Jc=e/H92530/H90040
P/H9262B/H20841Kd/H20841. /H208495/H20850
This critical current density represents a minimal spin torque,
which has to be applied in order to turn the magnetization
from a Néel to a Bloch wall. In this case /H9274˙is no more
constant but oscillating and Eq. /H208494/H20850still holds with
/H20855/H9274˙/H20856=u//H9251/H90040for current densities large compared to the criti-
cal current density. Note that both, the linear dependence of
the oscillation frequency of the injected current density equa-tion /H20851Eq. /H208494/H20850/H20852, as well as the critical current density J
care
independent of the nonadiabatic spin torque constant /H9252.
To confirm this one dimensional picture, micromagnetic
simulations are performed. We consider a system consistingof a ferromagnetic structure with perpendicular magnetic an-isotropy with a geometrical confinement, as shown in Fig. 1.
The outer dimensions of the wire are 500 /H1100360/H110037n m
3, and
for this material Kdis minimal at a constriction width wof
16 nm. Note that the constriction with wdepends strongly on
the material parameters and can be easily made larger forother out-of-plane materials. We consider only the effect ofthe adiabatic spin torque /H20849
/H9252=0 /H20850, assuming typical material
parameters for Co/Pt multilayer with perpendicularmagnetic anisotropy:18,19MS=1.4/H11003106A/m, A=1.6
/H1100310−11J/m, the effective perpendicular magnetic aniso-
tropy Keff=2.7/H11003105J/m3, and Gilbert damping parameter
/H9251/H110050.15.
The results of our micromagnetic simulations employing
the LLG micromagnetic simulator20are shown in Fig. 2, il-
lustrating the linear dependence of the domain wall oscilla-tion frequency on the injected current density j
efor two val-
ues of /H9251. For the simulation, the system is divided into a
rectangular mesh with finite elements of 2 /H110032/H110037n m3,
smaller than the exchange length for Co/Pt which is lex
=3.6 nm. The linear behavior is in agreement with the
simple one dimensional model and can be observed over abroad frequency range between 500 MHz and 3.5 GHz. Thecritical current density J
cis marked by red points /H20849see Fig.
2/H20850, and it is not dependent on /H9251and calculated as Jcsim
FIG. 2. /H20849Color /H20850Domain wall oscillation frequency fas a function of the
injected spin current drift velocity ufor constant /H9251/H11005 /H208490.15, 0.25 /H20850.T h e
oscillation frequency shows a linear dependence on the current density overa broad frequency range between 500 MHz and 3.5 GHz. /H20849A/H20850The domain
wall profile is symmetric under rotation for low current density j
e=1.79
/H110031011A/m2./H20849B/H20850At high current density je=1.34/H110031012A/m2, the domain
wall shows asymmetric oscillations, this leads to a nonharmonic behavior.
FIG. 1. /H20849Color online /H20850Schematic illustration of the geometrically confined
structure. The arrows represent the magnetization configuration inside thestructure, which can be either a Bloch or a Néel domain wall.162504-2 Bisig et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 162504 /H208492009 /H20850
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
131.156.157.31 On: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 08:55:15=1.34/H110031011A/m2/H20849corresponding to spin drift velocity u
=1.11 m /s/H20850. The theoretical value Jc=1.2/H110031010A/m2
given by Eq. /H208495/H20850, assuming a constant domain wall width
/H90040=/H20881A/Keff=3.2 nm, is lower than the value extracted from
our simulations Jcsim/H11022Jc. This is due to the fact that the po-
tential landscape for the polar angle /H9274is modulated by the
wire constriction geometry in a way that additional spintorque has to be applied in order to turn the magnetizationinside the domain wall and this is not taken into account inthe one dimensional calculations.
The nonlinearity at higher current densities can be ex-
plained by the deformations exhibited by the domain walljust before depinning /H20851see Fig. 2, insets /H20849A/H20850and /H20849B/H20850/H20852. For a
low current density j
e=1.79/H110031011A/m2, the domain wall
center position qis not shifted q=/H208490/H110060.5 /H20850nm /H20851inset /H20849A/H20850/H20852,
whereas for high current density je=1.34/H110031012A/m2, the
center position is pushed to the left hand side due to the spintorque /H20851inset /H20849B/H20850/H20852.
So far the frequency of the domain wall oscillations can
only be tuned by the injected current density so that fre-quency and output power cannot be varied independently.By the application of an external magnetic field H
ext=Hyeˆy
in the plane of the wire, the potential landscape of the
polar angle is modulated, leading to fundamental changes inthe power spectrum of the oscillations. The power spectraof the magnetization dynamics for various field strengths
/H92620Hy=0–3 mT and constant current density je=1.79
/H110031011A/m2/H20849corresponding to spin drift velocity u
=1.48 m /s/H20850are plotted in Fig. 3. For/H92620Hy=0 mT it shows a
sharp peak at the oscillation frequency f=747 MHz, whereas
for higher field strength /H92620Hy/H110222.0 mT, the oscillation
frequency strongly decreases continuously down to f
=525 MHz, indicated by the red dashed line. For higher fieldstrengths, additional peaks at higher frequencies appear. Notethat in the graph, the first peak corresponding to the funda-mental oscillation frequency is scaled down by a factor of 10for comparison.
In conclusion, we have shown that Walker precession of
a pinned domain wall can be easily obtained in perpendicu-larly magnetized materials, where the domain wall is pinnedby the geometrical constriction of the wire. By properly
choosing the wire constriction dimensions, a small K
dcan be
attained, while keeping the domain wall strongly pinned.This combined with the high damping
/H9251results in Walker
precession at low current density. This STO can be tunedover a broad frequency range by the injected current density.When an external field is applied, the power spectrum ismodified leading to strongly nonharmonic oscillations open-ing a novel way for tuning the frequency of the domain wallSTO.
Finally, we would like to mention that for a realistic
device, a high output power is a key criterion. This can beachieved by the coupling of multiple STO’s and by signalenhancement through a magnetic tunnel junction, fabricatedin top of the wire constriction yielding a three terminal de-vice. The latter also opens an additional way of manipulatingthe oscillation frequency: the current in the plane of the wire,which excites the oscillation and sets the frequency, can beindependently tuned from the current that flows verticallyacross the tunnel barrier and determines the output power,which leads to a versatile microwave source.
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial
support by the DFG /H20849SFB 767, KL1811 /H20850, the Landesstiftung
Baden Württemberg, the European Research Council via itsStarting Independent Researcher Grant /H20849Grant No. ERC-
2007-Stg 208162 /H20850scheme, EU RTN SPINSWITCH /H20849MRTN-
CT-2006–035327 /H20850, and the Samsung Advanced Institute of
Technology.
1M. D. Stiles and J. Miltat, in Spin Dynamics in Confined Magnetic Struc-
tures , edited by B. Hillebrands and A. Thiaville /H20849Springer, Berlin, 2006 /H20850,
Vol. 3, pp. 225–308.
2J. A. Katine, F. J. Albert, R. A. Buhrman, E. B. Myers, and D. C. Ralph,Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 3149 /H208492000 /H20850.
3A. Yamaguchi, T. Ono, S. Nasu, K. Miyake, K. Mibu, and T. Shinjo, Phys.
Rev. Lett. 92, 077205 /H208492004 /H20850.
4M. Kläui, C. A. F. Vaz, J. A. C. Bland, W. Wernsdorfer, G. Faini, E.
Cambril, L. J. Heyderman, F. Nolting, and U. Rüdiger, Phys. Rev. Lett.
94, 106601 /H208492005 /H20850.
5S. I. Kiselev, J. C. Sankey, I. N. Krivorotov, N. C. Emley, R. J. Schoe-
lkopf, R. A. Buhrman, and D. C. Ralph, Nature /H20849London /H20850425,3 8 0
/H208492003 /H20850.
6J. He and S. Zhang, Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 142508 /H208492007 /H20850.
7T. Ono and Y. Nakatani, Appl. Phys. Express 1, 061301 /H208492008 /H20850.
8M. Franchin, T. Fischbacher, G. Bordignon, P. de Groot, and H. Fangohr,
Phys. Rev. B 78, 054447 /H208492009 /H20850.
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/H208492009 /H20850.
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Ponthenier, M. Brunet, C. Thirion, J.-P. Michel, L. Prejbeanu-Buda, M.-C.Cyrille, O. Redon, and B. Dieny, Nature Mater. 6, 447 /H208492007 /H20850.
11L. Berger, Phys. Rev. B 33, 1572 /H208491986 /H20850.
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13S. Zhang and Z. Li, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 127204 /H208492004 /H20850.
14A. Thiaville, Y. Nakatani, J. Miltat, and Y. Suzuki, Europhys. Lett. 69,
990 /H208492005 /H20850.
15S. W. Jung, W. Kim, T. D. Lee, K. J. Lee, and H. W. Lee, Appl. Phys. Lett.
92, 202508 /H208492008 /H20850.
16L. Thomas, M. Hayashi, X. Jiang, R. Moriya, C. Rettner, and S. S. P.
Parkin, Nature /H20849London /H20850443, 197 /H208492006 /H20850.
17G. Tatara and H. Kohno, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 086601 /H208492004 /H20850.
18O. Boulle, J. Kimling, P. Warnicke, M. Kläui, U. Rüdiger, G. Malinowski,
H. J. M. Swagten, B. Koopmans, C. Ulysse, and G. Faini, Phys. Rev. Lett.
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/H208492007 /H20850.
20M. R. Scheinfein, LLG Micromagnetics Simulatior
/H20849http://llgmicro.home.mindspring.com /H20850.
FIG. 3. /H20849Color online /H20850Fourier spectrum of the magnetization component Mx
as a function of frequency fforje=1.79/H110031011A/m2and various external
field strength /H92620Hy=/H208490 , 1 0 , 2 0 , a n d3 0m T /H20850. At zero field, a sharp peak in-
dicates an oscillation frequency of f=747 MHz, whereas for higher field
strenghts the oscillation frequency is shifted to lower frequencies down to
f=525 MHz /H20849indicated by the red dashed line /H20850. Furthermore, higher order
oscillations are visible by the peaks forming at higher frequencies.162504-3 Bisig et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 162504 /H208492009 /H20850
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
131.156.157.31 On: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 08:55:15 |
5.0018801.pdf | Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 102402 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0018801 117, 102402
© 2020 Author(s).Hybrid magnetoacoustic metamaterials for
ultrasound control
Cite as: Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 102402 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0018801
Submitted: 18 June 2020 . Accepted: 27 August 2020 . Published Online: 10 September 2020
O. S. Latcham
, Y. I. Gusieva
, A. V. Shytov
, O. Y. Gorobets
, and V. V. Kruglyak
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Applied Physics Letters 117, 102401 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0018869Hybrid magnetoacoustic metamaterials for
ultrasound control
Cite as: Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 102402 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0018801
Submitted: 18 June 2020 .Accepted: 27 August 2020 .
Published Online: 10 September 2020
O. S. Latcham,1
Y. I.Gusieva,2
A. V. Shytov,1
O. Y. Gorobets,2
and V. V. Kruglyak1,a)
AFFILIATIONS
1University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4QL, United Kingdom
2Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, 37 Prosp. Peremohy, Kyiv 03056, Ukraine
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: V.V.Kruglyak@exeter.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
We propose a class of metamaterials in which the propagation of acoustic waves is controlled magnetically through magnetoelastic coupling.
The metamaterials are formed by a periodic array of thin magnetic layers (“resonators”) embedded in a nonmagnetic matrix. Acoustic waves
carrying energy through the structure hybridize with the magnetic modes of the resonators (“Fano resonance”). This leads to a rich set ofeffects, enhanced by Bragg scattering and being most pronounced when the magnetic resonance frequency is close to or lies within acousticbandgaps. The acoustic reflection from the structure exhibits magnetically induced transparency and Borrmann effect. Our analysis showsthat the combined effect of the Bragg scattering and Fano resonance may overcome the magnetic damping, ubiquitous in realistic systems.
This paves a route toward the application of such structures in wave computing and signal processing.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0018801
The minimization of energy loss in modern computing devices
calls for unorthodox approaches to signal processing.
1,2For instance,
proposals to employ spin waves3as a data carrier to save energy in
nonvolatile memory devices have promoted growth in the research
area of magnonics.4However, these hopes are hampered by the short
propagation distance of spin waves, caused by the magneticdamping.
5,6Magnetostrictive materials offer a route to circumvent this.
Indeed, acoustic waves have longer attenuation lengths as compared to
spin waves at the same frequencies. In magnetostrictive materials,
acoustic waves can still couple to spin waves, forming hybrid magneto-
acoustic waves.7–13Thus, one regains the option of magnetic control
and programmability, catering to the design of systems that evoke ben-
efits of both acoustics and magnonics in terms of the energy efficiency.
The recently studied magnetoacoustic devices11and metamaterials13
were typically formed using alternating magnetostrictive materials,
so that the full acoustic and magnonic spectra were hybridized. To
reduce the influence of the magnetic damping, we explored systems
in which the magnetic loss was restricted to an isolated, thin-filmmagnetostrictive inclusion (“resonator”), hosting a single spin-wave
mode, that of the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR).
14The FMR mode
hybridized with acoustic waves only near the Kittel frequency,3
which led to their resonant scattering in a magnetoacoustic versionof the Fano resonance.
15The FMR mode’s frequency and linewidth
(and therefore the strength of the Fano resonance) were determinedby the bias magnetic field and by the magnetic damping, respectively.
Our analysis highlighted the need to enhance the (generally, weak)
magnetoelastic interaction and to suppress the (generally, strong)
magnetic damping, which was partly achieved by adopting an obli-que incidence geometry. A question arises as to whether the effects of
the magnetoelastic coupling could be enhanced even further due to
Bragg scattering in magnetoacoustic metamaterials
13formed by peri-
odic arrays of the magnetoacoustic resonators introduced in Ref. 14.
In this Letter, we demonstrate that, by combining individual
magnetoacoustic resonators into one-dimensional (1D) arrays (similar
to locally resonant phononic crystals),16one can indeed significantly
enhance their effect on incident acoustic waves. The acoustic reflectiv-ity of such a metamaterial exhibits a peak due to the magnetoacoustic
Fano resonance. The peak’s height and shape can be tuned at frequen-
cies in the proximity of phononic bandgaps. In particular, its behaviornear the two edges of a bandgap exhibits a strong asymmetry, which is
linked to the Borrmann effect.
17Inside the bandgaps, we identify
behavior reminiscent of the magnetically induced transparency.15
These features of our prototypical metamaterial could be employed to
process acoustic signals and engineer reconfigurable magnetoacoustic
devices.
The building blocks of our metamaterials are thin ferromagnetic
slabs (resonators) of thickness d, infinite in the Y–Zplane, separated
by nonmagnetic spacer layers of thickness dsðds/C29dÞ,a ss h o w ni n
Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 102402 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0018801 117, 102402-1
Published under license by AIP PublishingApplied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/aplFig. 1(a) . The slabs are magnetized by a bias magnetic field HB¼HB^z
and have saturation magnetization Ms. The elastic properties of the
magnetic and spacer materials may differ. The shear stress producedby propagating transverse acoustic waves perturbs the magnetization,as described by the standard magnetoelasticity theory.
7,9,18–20The
hybridization between the acoustic waves and the magnetization pre-cession manifests itself as a Fano-like peak in the frequency depen-dence of the acoustic reflectivity [ Fig. 1(b) ].
14This peak occurs near
the Kittel frequency of the slab, fFMR, and is therefore controlled by the
bias magnetic field. The strength of the coupling between the propa-gating acoustic and localized magnetic modes is noticeably enhancedfor an oblique incidence [ Fig. 1(b) ]. However, for realistic values of the
magnetoelastic coupling, B, a noticeable effect requires rather small
values of the Gilbert damping, e.g., a’10
/C03.
We aim to increase the interaction time of the acoustic waves
with the magnetic slabs by slowing the waves down in the vicinity ofphononic bandgaps. Hence, an enhancement of the magnetoacousticresponse of such a structure can be expected when this anticrossing istuned to the proximity of the phononic bandgap. So, we arrange theslabs into arrays, either containing Nmagnetic elements or semi-
infinite. Let the nth resonator be situated at x
n¼nL,w h e r e L
¼dþdsis the period of the array. Acoustic waves are obliquely inci-
dent on the array from the left. The magnetoacoustic response of finitearrays is characterized by the reflection, R
N, transmission, TN,a n d
absorption, AN, coefficients. Using the transfer matrix method,21these
coefficients can be expressed via the reflection, r, and transmission, t,
coefficients in the forward direction together with the respective coeffi-cients ~r,a n d ~t, in the backward direction. For normal incidence, reci-
procity between forward and backward reflection is maintained(r¼~r). However, at oblique incidence, rand ~racquire different
phases. The transmission and reflection coefficients for an individualslab are derived by considering the modes inside the slab and match-ing interfacial displacements and stresses with those of the incomingand outgoing elastic waves. The magnetoelastic interaction inside theslab can be included in the matching procedure adding relevant con-tributions to the stress
14,22,23or the acoustic impedance.14For a thin
slab, one can neglect exchange contribution to the effective magneticfield and treat magnetodipole interaction by introducing relevantdemagnetizing coefficients.
14As illustrated in Fig. 1(b) , the resulting
coefficients t,~t,r,a n d ~rexhibit a strong frequency dependence, indica-
tive of the resonant hybridization between the acoustic and magneticmodes. The spectral function (derived in the supplementary material )
of a phononic crystal with embedded magnetic slabs, as shown inFig. 1(c) , exhibits a magnetically tunable anticrossing with the usual
phononic bandgap dispersion.
The transverse acoustic displacement U¼Uðx;y;tÞ^zdue to an
obliquely incident acoustic wave inside the nth nonmagnetic spacer
layer,ðn/C01ÞL<x<nL/C0d,i sg i v e nb y
Uðx;y;tÞ¼e
/C0ixtþiqyyAnei/xþBne/C0i/x/C2/C3
; (1)
where qrepresents the wave number in the nonmagnetic layer and
/x¼qx½x/C0ðn/C01ÞL/C138.I nw h a tf o l l o w s ,w er e t a i no n l yt h e x-depen-
dence of the wave function. The amplitudes AnandBnare acoustic,
traveling to the right and to the left in the nth nonmagnetic layer,
respectively. Then, for a wave of unit amplitude incident from the leftonto a finite array, we have A
0¼1;B0¼RN,AN¼TN,BN¼0. To
form the transfer matrix Mfor a single period of the array, amplitudesatx¼nLandx¼ðnþ1ÞLcan be related via forward ( t,r) and back-
ward ( ~t;~r) transmission and reflection coefficients. Waves in neigh-
boring segments can be matched by treating them as “black boxes”
with the given transmission and reflection coefficients. Hence, wew r i t ef o rt h ei n t e r f a c eb e t w e e nt h e nth and ðnþ1Þth segment:
A
nþ1expð/C0ivhÞ¼tAnþ~rBnþ1expðivhÞ;
Bn¼~tBnþ1expðivhÞþrAn;(2)
where vh¼xdscoshffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ffi
q=Cp
i st h ea c o u s t i cp h a s ed e l a yw i t h i nt h e
spacer layer. The transfer matrix Mlinks the vector ðAnþ1;Bnþ1Þto
(An,Bn) and is constructed by inverting Eq. (2)as
M¼t/C0~rr~t/C01½/C138 expivhðÞ ~r~t/C01expivhðÞ
/C0r~t/C01exp/C0ivhðÞ ~t/C01exp/C0ivhðÞ8
<
:9
=
;: (3)
The action of Mcan be represented by its eigenvalues l6and the
respective eigenvectors. The eigenvalues that solve the characteristic
equation l2/C02Tlþd¼0 are given by l6¼T7ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
T2/C0Dp
,
whereD/C17detM¼lþl/C0and 2T/C17TrM¼lþþl/C0.F r o mE q .
(3),w efi n dt h a t D¼t=~t, which has an absolute value of one. As
usual, we find that the two eigenvalues of Meither both lie on the unit
circlejlj¼1 or one is inside and the other is outside. In our system,
FIG. 1. (a) The problem geometry is schematically shown. The metamaterial is
formed by a 1D array of thin-film magnetoacoustic resonators embedded in a non-
magnetic matrix. Individual resonators scatter acoustic waves incident from bothsides. A bias magnetic field H
Bis applied in the resonator’s plane. (b) The fre-
quency dependence of the reflection coefficient, r, for incidence angles ranging
from 0/C14to 20/C14is shown for an isolated Co resonator in a silicon nitride matrix. The
vertical line indicates the Kittel frequency for a field of l0HB¼50 mT and
a¼10/C03. The inset shows the corresponding transmission, t, and absorption, a,
coefficients. (c) The spectral function, S(f,k), of acoustic waves in the metamaterial
is shown. The frequency of the anticrossing is controlled by the bias magnetic field,
which has a value of l0HB¼50 mT here.Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl
Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 102402 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0018801 117, 102402-2
Published under license by AIP Publishingthe energy is dissipated due to the Gilbert damping. Hence, we can
define l6so that jlþj<1, representing the wave propagating to
the right. For a finite array of Nresonators, the full transfer matrix
MN¼MNretains the eigenvector basis with eigenvalues lN
6.T h ei n i -
tial and final state amplitudes are then projected onto a reciprocal of
this basis, multiplied by the eigenvalues, and resolved to obtain for thefinite array’s reflection coefficient,
R
N¼R11/C0l2N/C0/C1
1/C0nl2N ðÞ; (4)
where R1is the reflection from a semi-infinite array,
R1¼rexpð/C0ivhÞ~tl/C0/C0t~t/C0r~r ðÞ expivhðÞhi/C01
; (5)
andnis defined as
n¼t~t/C0r~r ðÞ expivhðÞ/C0~tlþ
t~t/C0r~r ðÞ expivhðÞ/C0~tl/C0: (6)
The transmission coefficient of a finite length array has the form
TN¼1/C0nðÞ lN
þ
1/C0nl2N: (7)
Detailed derivation of Eqs. (4)and(7)i sg i v e ni nS e c .Io ft h e supple-
mentary material . The absorbance is found as A2
N¼1/C0jRNj2
/C0jTNj2. In what follows, we omit the explicit dependence of the quan-
tities nandlupon the frequency, x, and the phase delay, vh.
To illustrate how RNdepends on the number of elements in a finite
array, we have performed detailed calculations for an array of resonatorswith parameters equal to those from Ref. 24:m a s sd e n s i t y
q¼8900 kg m
/C03, magnetoelastic coupling coefficient B¼8:8M Jm/C03,
shear modulus C¼76 GPa, gyromagnetic ratio c¼31:7G H zT/C01,
and saturation magnetization Ms¼203 kA m/C01;d¼30 nm. The
matrix is silicon nitride [ q0¼3192 kg m/C03;C0¼127 GPa ;ds
¼500 nm (Refs. 25and26)].Figure 2 presents the results of the calcula-
tions for a generic case, without fine-tuning of the magnetoelastic reso-nance. For N>1, the absolute value of the reflection coefficient reaches
unity in frequency regions corresponding to the acoustic stopbands
(phononic bandgaps). These are caused by the mismatch of the acoustic
impedance Z¼ffiffiffiffiffiffiqCpat the surface of the slabs, which occur even in
the absence of the magnetoelastic coupling ( B¼0).
27–29Each passband
contains N/C01p e a k s ,w h i c ha r ed u et ot h ep h a s ed e l a yo ft h ea c o u s t i c
waves increasing by pacross each Brillouin zone.21The magnetoelastic
coupling ( B6¼0) manifests itself via an asymmetric peak due to the
Fano resonance, positioned at the Kittel frequency fFMR
¼cl0ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
HBðHBþMsÞp
’8:8G H z a t l0HB¼180 mT.7The fre-
quency dependences of TNandANare given in the supplementary
material for a complete picture.
The rapid oscillation in passbands in Fig. 2 is formed due to the
multiple reflections within arrays of finite size. For sufficiently largearrays (i.e., when the decay length is smaller than the array size), these
oscillations are suppressed. Indeed, the oscillations are suppressed for
R
1[calculated using Eq. (5)and shown by the solid line in Fig. 2 ], as
expected for N!1 . So, our subsequent analysis is focused on the
semi-infinite array.
Figure 3 displays the reflectivity R1, of a semi-infinite array as a
function of the frequency for different values of the bias magnetic field.We identify two regimes based on the position of the Kittel frequency,
fFMR, relative to phononic bandgaps. Regime I occurs when fFMR
is tuned inside a passband, away from band edges. This is shown in
Fig. 3(a) , with insets comparing R1andr.T h ep e a ki n R1is lower
than that in rboth when fFMRis located in the passbands above and
below the stop band, away from band edges. This suppression iscaused by the destructive interference of waves reflected backwardfrom different resonators.
Regime II occurs when the Kittel frequency, f
FMR, either falls
within the bandgap [ Fig. 3(b) ] or approaches it from a passband
[Fig. 3(c) ]. Here, the resonant scattering becomes highly sensitive to
the detuning of fFMRfrom the band edge, differently affecting the scat-
tering of acoustic waves with frequencies within the bandgap and adja-cent passbands. In the passbands in close proximity to the bandgap,where the Bragg condition holds, the scattering is enhanced by theconstructive interference of waves reflected backward from differentresonators. In the bandgaps, the reflectivity is reduced from unity, asseen best in Fig. 3(b) .T h i sm a yb ei n t e r p r e t e da sam a g n e t i c a l l y
induced transparency, which is further supported by our analysis ofthe acoustic scattering from finite arrays, which is described in thesupplementary material .
This reduction of reflectivity is not symmetric as the bias field
sweeps the Kittel resonance frequency across the bandgap. The behav-ior at the upper and the lower bandgap edges is distinctly different: thereduction of reflectivity is stronger as f
FMR approaches the upper
bandgap edge. This can be attributed to the Borrmann effect.30,31In a
pure phononic crystal ( B¼0), the modes at the band edges are two
standing waves, phase shifted by 90/C14.32For one of the modes, the max-
ima of the stress occurs within the magnetic slabs, while for the other,this pattern is reversed: the slabs become the nodes. With the Gilbertdamping being the primary mechanism of energy dissipation, absorp-tion is suppressed for the mode that has nodes at the magnetic slabs,similar to Refs. 17and 33. This condition is realized at the lower
bandgap edge if the acoustic impedance of the magnetic (M) materialis greater than that of the nonmagnetic matrix (NM), i.e., Z
M>ZNM
(Fig. 3 ). The situation is reversed when ZM<ZNM.A tt h ei n fl u e n c e dFIG. 2. The frequency dependence of the reflection coefficient, RN, calculated using
Eq.(4)forN¼1 (i.e., r),N¼3, and N¼9, is compared to that for a semi-infinite
array, R1, calculated using Eq. (5). We assume a¼10/C02andl0HB¼180 mT.
The solid vertical line indicates the Kittel frequency, fFMR, and the inset is focused
around the region of the magnetoacoustic Fano resonance.Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl
Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 102402 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0018801 117, 102402-3
Published under license by AIP Publishingedge, a shift in the edge frequency is induced by proximity to the Kittel
frequency fFMR.34This band shift is separate from the induced trans-
parency; this becomes apparent when fFMRsweeps a bandgap with a
width significantly exceeding the Fano resonance linewidth, as shownin the supplementary material . We emphasize that the magnetoelastic
effects shown in Fig. 3 remain significant even for a realistic damping
value of a¼10
/C02.T h i si sac o n s i d e r a b l ei m p r o v e m e n tc o m p a r e dt oa
single resonator where this damping value would completely suppress
the Fano resonance.14
To characterize the tunability of the acoustic reflection coefficient
by the bias magnetic field, we introduce the field modulation coeffi-
cient f¼@jR1j=@HB, the frequency and field dependence of which
around the first three phononic bandgaps is shown in Fig. 4 .I np r a c -
tice, the higher frequency phononic bandgaps could be more difficultt oa c c e s s ,a st h i sw o u l dr e q u i r eal a r g eb i a sm a g n e t i cfi e l d( >0.25 T).
Hence, we limit our analysis to frequencies around the first bandgap
[Fig. 4(d) ]. We see that fis significantly enhanced when f
FMR(solid,
black) is tuned to the proximity of the bandgap edges (vertical, dashed,black), as expected for a Fano resonance induced modulation of scat-tering coefficients.
15The strength of the Fano resonance is determined
by the interplay between the damping and the strength of the magne-
toelastic coupling.14The damping in our metamaterial is modulated
by the Borrmann effect. This leads to an asymmetry of the field modu-lation coefficient with regard to the lower and higher frequency edgesof the phononic bandgap [ Fig. 4(d) ].
In summary, we have shown that the metamaterial approach is
indeed helpful for magnetoacoustics. Our hybrid metamaterials,formed by 1D arrays of resonators, magnify the effect of magnetoelas-
tic coupling upon the acoustic scattering, thereby mitigating theGilbert damping to tolerable levels. The scattering is tunable by a biasmagnetic field and exhibits a rich and complex behavior, such as the
induced transparency and Borrmann effect. The next step toward real-
istic structures and devices would be to extend the model into the sec-ond and third dimensions and to consider surface acoustic waves.However, the design strategies presented here will remain useful. Ourresults may help in engineering magnetoacoustic sensors, actuators,
radio frequency modulators, and other devices that could benefit from
the enhanced magnetic field modulation of the amplitude or the phaseof acoustic waves, as demonstrated here.
See the supplementary material for (i) the derivation of the reflec-
tion and transmission coefficients for finite arrays of scatterers, (ii) the
derivation of the phonon spectral function, (iii) additional figures for
the transmission and absorbance for finite arrays, and (iv) signaturesof magnetically induced transparency.
The research leading to these results has received funding
from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of theUnited Kingdom (Grant Nos. EP/T016574/1 and EP/L015331/1)and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and
innovation program under Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant
Agreement No. 644348 (MagIC).
DATA AVAILABILITY
The data that support the findings of this study are available
within the article and its supplementary material .FIG. 3. The frequency dependence of the acoustic reflection coefficient, R1, from
a semi-infinite array with a¼10/C02is shown for three different values of the Kittel
frequency, fFMR, tuned by the bias magnetic field, HB. The solid vertical lines indi-
cate the position of fFMR. The dashed black curve represents RB¼0, i.e., R1for
B¼0. (a) Regime I: fFMR is in the passband, far from the phononic bandgap. The
insets compare R1(solid) with r(dotted) at l0HB¼50 mT (left, red) and 150 mT
(right, black). Regime II: (b) fFMR atl0HB¼92 mT is inside the bandgap, and (c)
fFMRatl0HB¼98 mT is close to the bandgap.
FIG. 4. The frequency and field dependence of the absolute value of the modulation
coefficient, jfj¼j@jR1j=@HBj, is shown around the (a) first, (b) second, and (c) third
phononic bandgaps. The solid white lines represent fME. (d) The frequency and field
dependence of the modulation coefficient, f¼@jR1j=@HB, is shown around the first
phononic bandgap. The position of the bandgap edges at B¼0i sm a r k e dw i t hd a s h e d
vertical lines, and the solid black line represents fME. In all panels, a¼10/C02.Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl
Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 102402 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0018801 117, 102402-4
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Published under license by AIP Publishing |
1.4860946.pdf | Current induced domain wall dynamics in the presence of spin orbit torques
O. Boulle, L. D. Buda-Prejbeanu, E. Jué, I. M. Miron, and G. Gaudin
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 115, 17D502 (2014); doi: 10.1063/1.4860946
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4860946
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/115/17?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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128.118.88.48 On: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 13:15:34Current induced domain wall dynamics in the presence of spin orbit torques
O. Boulle,a)L. D. Buda-Prejbeanu, E. Ju /C19e, I. M. Miron, and G. Gaudin
SPINTEC, CEA/CNRS/UJF/INPG, INAC, 38054 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
(Presented 6 November 2013; received 23 September 2013; accepted 14 October 2013; published
online 17 January 2014)
Current induced domain wall (DW) motion in perpendicularly magnetized nanostripes in the
presence of spin orbit torques is studied. We show using micromagnetic simulations that the
direction of the current induced DW motion and the associated DW velocity depend on the relativevalues of the field like torque (FLT) and the Slonczewski like torques (SLT). The results are well
explained by a collective coordinate model which is used to draw a phase diagram of the DW
dynamics as a function of the FLT and the SLT. We show that a large increase in the DW velocitycan be reached by a proper tuning of both torques.
VC2014 AIP Publishing LLC .
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4860946 ]
The dynamics of magnetic domain walls (DWs) induced
by a spin polarized current has attracted a large effort of
research during the last ten years motivated not only by
promising devices in the field of magnetic storage and log-ics
1but also by the wealth of the physics involved. The prin-
ciple behind current induced DW motion is the spin transfer
effect where the spin current going through the DW is trans-ferred to the DW magnetization leading to spin transfer tor-
que and DW motion in the carrier direction.
2Whereas first
experiments in soft in-plane magnetized stripes were rela-tively well described by this scheme, it was shown later that
the spin transfer effect was much more efficient in ultrathin
out-of-plane magnetized multilayers, such as Pt/Co/Pt
3or
Pt/Co/AlOx multilayers4meaning that other effects were at
stack. This was first interpreted as the result of very large
additional non-adiabatic effects due to the incompleteabsorption of the spin current,
5but the physical mechanisms
behind were elusive.3In addition, puzzling experiments
were reported, for example in asymmetricPt(4 nm)/Co(0.6 nm)/Pt(2 nm) multilayers, where the DW is
moved in the direction or opposite to the current direction
when reversing the position of both Pt layers in the stack, incontradiction with the standard spin transfer mechanism.
6,7
Recently, it was shown that the large spin orbit coupling due
to the presence of heavy metal (such as Pt or Ta) as well asthe inversion asymmetry due to the interfaces can lead to
additional current induced spin-orbit torques.
8–10Two types
of torques have been identified: (1) a field like torque (FLT)m/C2JH
FLuysimilar to the one exerted by an in-plane mag-
netic field JHFLuyoriented perpendicularly to the current
direction (see Fig. 2); (2) a Slonczewski like torque (SLT)
/C0c0JHSLm/C2ðm/C2uyÞ. Recent experimental7,11,12and theo-
retical works19–22have underlined that these torques may
actually explain the apparent very large efficiency of the spintransfer effect reported in these systems.
In this paper, we study how the FLT and the SLT affect
the current induced DW dynamics. Using micromagneticsimulations, we show that depending on their relative values,the DW can move in one direction or the other with respect
to the current direction. The results of micromagnetic simu-
lations are well reproduced by a collective coordinate model
(CCM) taking into account both torques. This model is usedto predict a phase diagram of the DW direction and velocity
as a function of the FLT and SLT and allows the identifica-
tion of the torque conditions for maximum velocity.
We consider a perpendicularly magnetized stripe with a
width of 100 nm. Micromagnetic simulations are based on
the Landau-Lifschitz-Gilbert equation to which the currentinduced torques have been added
@m
@t¼/C0c0
l0MsdE
dm/C2mþam/C2@m
@t/C0u@m
@x
þbum/C2@m
@x/C0c0m/C2m/C2HSLJuyþc0m/C2JHFLuy;
(1)
where c0¼l0cwith cthe gyromagnetic ratio, Ethe energy
density, and Msthe saturation magnetization. The third term
is the adiabatic spin-transfer torque where
u¼JPglB=ð2eMsÞ,lBthe Bohr magneton, Jthe current
density, Msthe saturation magnetization, Pthe current spin
polarisation. The fourth term is the non-adiabatic torque
described by the dimensionless parameter b.5For the micro-
magnetic simulations, the fo llowing parameters have been
used: the exchange constant A¼10/C011A/m, the anisotropy
constant K0
an¼1:25/C2106J=m3,Ms¼1.1/C2106A/m, the
damping parameter a¼0.5,b¼0, and P¼1. The thickness of
the magnetic layer is 0.6 nm. 3 D micromagnetic simulations
were carried out using a homemade code.13Note that we do
not consider the Dzyaloshins kii-Moryia interaction11,12,14,15so
that a Bloch DW equilibrium configuration is observed.
Fig.1(a)shows the results of micromagnetic simulations
(dots) of the DW velocity as a function of the current density
forHSL¼0.025 T/(1012A/m2), and different values of the
FLT. The FLT strongly affects the current induced DWmotion: depending on the value of the FLT, the DW velocity
is positive or negative, meaning the DW moves in the direc-
tion or opposite to the current direction, and the DW velocityamplitude depends non-monotonically on the FLT.
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:
Olivier.boulle@cea.fr.
0021-8979/2014/115(17)/17D502/3/$30.00 VC2014 AIP Publishing LLC 115, 17D502-1JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 115, 17D502 (2014)
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128.118.88.48 On: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 13:15:34To better understand these results, we consider a CCM
which assumes that the DW keeps its static structure during
its motion and the DW is described by its position qand the
DW angle w(see Fig. 2).5,16
We first assume small current densities so that the DW
structure and the magnetization in the domains are littleaffected by the spin orbit torques and one can assume a
standard Bloch profile. The polar and azimuthal angles hand
uare then assumed as h¼2arctan ðexpf½x/C0q/C138=DðwÞgÞand
u¼w/C0p=2 with wconstant. Here DðwÞ¼ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
A=jp
is the
DW width with j¼ðK
anþKsin2wÞ1=2where Kan
¼K0
an/C0l0M2
s=2;Han¼2Kan=ðl0MsÞ;K¼l0MsHk=2 with
Hkthe DW demagnetizing field. The integration of Eq. (1)
over this DW profile leads to the following equations:
_wþa_q
D¼bu
Dþc0JHSLp
2sinw; (2)
_q
D/C0a_w¼c0Hk
2sin2wþu
Dþc0HFLJp
2sinw: (3)
The SLT enters the equations as an additional force on the
DW which is proportional to sin w, i.e., to the component of the
DW magnetization along the current direction. It is thus
zero for a perfect Bloch configuration whereas it is maximal
for a N /C19eel configuration. The effect of the SLT on the DW can
be seen as an effective non-adiabatic parameter bSLsinw
with bSL¼c0HSLDpeMs=ðglBPÞ. For the value of
HSL/C240.07 T/(1012A/m2) measured in Pt,10one obtains a large
value bSL/C243. The SLT can thus account for the large bvalues
reported in the literature in perpendicularly magnetized nano-
stripes.3A simple expression of the DW velocity can be
deduced from Eqs. (2)and (3)in the steady state regime
(_w¼0)
v¼bu
aþc0HSLJD
ap
2sinw: (4)The DW angle wwill thus determine the direction and
the amplitude of the DW velocity. The effect of the SLT is
in fact similar to an easy axis magnetic fieldH
SL¼m/C2JHSLuy¼sinwJHSLuz. For the configuration of
Fig.2andJ>0, a positive (resp. negative) sin wleads to HSL
aligned upward (resp. downward) and thus moves the DW in
the electron (resp. current) direction.
The steady state value of wis the result of a balance
between the different in-plane components of the currentinduced torques (see Fig. 2). In the steady state regime
(_w¼0), there are two stable positions for the angle wclose
to 0 and pand at low current density, wcan be switched hys-
teretically between these two positions when sweeping cur-
rent (see Fig. 1(b)). For small angles wclose to 0 and w
w¼uðb/C0aÞ=D
ac0Hkþ/C15p
2c0JðaHFL/C0HSLÞðþpÞ; (5)
v¼bu
aþp
2c0HSLJ
auðb/C0aÞ
p
2c0JðaHFL/C0HSLÞþ/C15ac0Hk;(6)
where /C15¼1( r e s p . /C15¼/C01) for w/C240 (resp. w/C24p). The direc-
tion of the DW motion is thus set by the relative values of b
andaon the one hand, and by the relative value of HSLand
aHFLon the other hand. We show in Fig. 1(a) (continuous
line), the DW velocity predicted by this CCM. A goodagreement is obtained with the micromagnetic simulations
forH
FL¼0o r HFL¼0.1 T/(1012A/m2) but the agreement
is less satisfactory at larger current densities forH
FL¼0.2 T/(1012A/m2). In this case, the large transverse
magnetic field Ht¼JHFLinduced by the FLT affects the do-
main and DW structure and the simple assumption of a BlochDW structure does not hold.
To account for the effect of large H
t, we consider a
CCM which assumes a more complicated DW structurewhere the domain and DW deformation induced by H
tis
taken into account.17To describe the current induced DW
dynamics for such a DW profile, a Lagrangian approach isconsidered.
15,17,18The Lagrange-Rayleigh equations then
lead to:
ar
4A_q/C0b
au/C18/C19
/C0c0HSLJu0sinh0cosðh0/C0wÞþ@fk
@w_w¼0;
(7)
@fk
@wð_q/C0uÞ/C0ar
4A1
k2
0þ1
3@1=k0
@w/C18/C192"
/C2p2/C0u2
0/C02u2
0
1/C0u0cotan u0 ! #
_w¼c0
2Ms@r
@w:(8)
Here ris the DW energy density, h0¼arccos ð/C0hsinwÞ;
u0¼arctan ½ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1/C0h2p
hcosw/C138 with h¼JHFL=Han;k0¼sinu0ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ðKanþKsin2wÞ=Aq
;fkðw;hÞis a dimensionless parameter
defined in Refs. 17and18. From Eq. (7), one can easily
derive the DW velocity in the steady state regime ( _w¼0)
_q¼bu=aþ4A
rac0HSLJu0sinh0cosðh0/C0wÞ: (9)FIG. 1. (a) DW velocity as a function of the current density for
HSL¼0.025 T/(1012A/m2) and different values of the FLT deduced from
micromagnetic simulations (dots), the standard CCM (continuous line), and
the extended CCM taking into account the DW deformation induced by the
FLT (dashed line). The DW demagnetizing field Hk¼33 mT is used for the
CCM simulations. (b) DW velocity and DW angle was a function of J
(HFL¼0 and HSL¼0.1 T/(1012A/m2)) calculated from the CCM.
FIG. 2. Schematic representation of the different current induced torques
acting on the DW magnetization.17D502-2 Boulle et al. J. Appl. Phys. 115, 17D502 (2014)
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
128.118.88.48 On: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 13:15:34If one compares Eq. (9)to Eq. (4), one can see that Htonly
affects the DW velocity induced by the SLT and this in twoways. First, the DW width in Eq. (4)is replaced by an effec-
tive DW width 4 A/r, which is increased by H
t. Second, Ht
changes the steady state angle wand thus the DW velocity.
These two elements lead to an increase of the DW velocity
as compared to the standard CCM model. We plot in Fig.
1(a)(dotted lines), the prediction of the model in the case of
a high FLT HFL¼0.2T/(1012A/m2). The model allows a bet-
ter agreement with the micromagnetic simulations compared
to the standard CCM model, in particular for high currentdensities where H
tis large. However, one limitation of our
model is that it does not take into account the deformation of
the domain induced by the SLT, which may be relevant athigh current density and large values of the SLT such that
JH
SL/C24Han.
This extended model can be used to draw a phase dia-
gram of the DW dynamics as a function of the FLT and
SLT. Fig. 3shows (a) the DW velocity and (b) the DW
angle win color scale as a function of the SLT and the
FLT for J¼1012A/m2, obtained by solving numerically
Eqs. (7)and (8). One can note that the direction of the
DW motion depends on the relative values of the SLT andFLT: on the top left of the diagram, for large SLT or low
FLT, the DW velocity is positive whereas on the lowerright corner, for large FLT and low SLT, the DW velocity
is negative. This change in the direction of the DW motion
goes with a switching of the DW chirality (Fig. 3(b)) with
p=2<w<pðsinw>0Þfor the positive velocity region
and/C0p=2<w<0ðsinw<0Þfor the negative velocity
region. As expected from Eq. (4), the direction of the DW
motion is determined by the sign of sin w. In these two
regions, the DW dynamics stays in the steady state regime
whereas in between, a small region with precessional re-gime is observed. Interestingly, the largest DW velocity
is predicted at the border of the precessional regime, and
corresponds to wclose to 6p/2 where the SLT is maxi-
mum. For this particular condition, the SLT and FLT
nearly compensate so that large angles wand thus large
SLT can be reached. One can show that these borderswith maximal velocity corresponds to the condition
H
SL/C25aHFL6ðaP/C22hÞðDeMsÞ. A large DW velocity can
thus be reached by a proper tuning of the SLT andFLT. Experimentally, whereas the SLT and the FLT due
to the spin orbit coupling are more related to the intrin-
sic properties of the material, the Oersted field generatedby the current flowing in the metallic layers surrounding
the magnetic layer also leads to a FLT. For a given cur-
rent density, its amplitude can be modified by playingon the width and thickness of the metallic layers.
To conclude, the direction of the current induced DW
motion and the associated DW velocity depend on the rela-tive values of the field like torque (FLT) and the
Slonczewski like torques (SLT). A large increase in the DW
velocity can be reached by a proper tuning of both torques.
This work was supported by project Agence Nationale
de la Recherche, Project No. ANR 11 BS10 008
ESPERADO.
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10K. Garello et al.,Nature Nanotechnol. 8, 587 (2013).
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FIG. 3. (a) DW velocity and (b) steady state DW angle win color scale as a
function of the SLT and the FLT, obtained by solving numerically Eqs. (7)
and(8)forJ¼1012A/m2. The black lines mark out the region associated
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1.369878.pdf | Coupling mechanisms in exchange biased films (invited)
T. C. Schulthess and W. H. Butler
Citation: J. Appl. Phys. 85, 5510 (1999); doi: 10.1063/1.369878
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Downloaded 09 May 2013 to 131.211.208.19. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsExchange Bias II Ivan Schuller, Chairman
Coupling mechanisms in exchange biased films invited
T. C. Schulthessa)and W. H. Butler
Metals and Ceramics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6114
We use an atomistic Heisenberg model in conjunction with the classical Landau Lifshitz equation
for the spin motion to study coupling mechanisms between ferromagnetic ~FM!and
antiferromagnetic ~AFM !films. Calculations for CoO/FM illustrate that there are two coupling
mechanisms at work, the spin–flop coupling and an AFM–FM coupling through uncompensateddefects. While the latter accounts for exchange bias and related phenomena, the former gives rise toa large coercivity and perpendicular alignment between FM spins and AFM easy axis. Acombination of the two mechanisms explains apparent discrepancies between reversible andirreversible measurements of the AFM–FM coupling. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.
@S0021-8979 ~99!31508-5 #
I. THE PROBLEM OF AFM–FM COUPLING
‘‘Exchange bias,’’1which refers to a shift ( Heb) in the
magnetization curve away from the zero field axis, is prob-ably the most intriguing of several phenomena
2observed
when a ferromagnet ~FM!is in contact with an antiferromag-
net~AFM !. Consequently most theoretical work1,3–9on the
subject has been primarily concerned with the description ofthis asymmetry in the magnetization curve. Despite four de-cades of research since its discovery, the understanding ofthis effect is still not established.
The key issue in a theory of exchange bias is understand-
ing how the coupling between the AFM and FM leads to aunidirectional anisotropy. The experimentally observed shift
in the magnetization curve implies that the two configura-tions at the respective endpoints of the curve have differentenergies. In the case of an AFM/FM system with largeenough anisotropy in the AFM, only the spins in the FM willinvert upon reversal of the applied field. Since the two con-figurations are not equivalent by inversion symmetry theycan have different energies, depending on the nature of thecoupling between the AFM and FM spins.
When the interfacial layer of the AFM is uncompensated
and perfectly flat, the existence of a coupling between theFM and AFM is straightforward to understand.
1It is clear
that in a simple model in which the interfacial AFM spinsmaintain ~approximately !their initial relative orientations,
the initial and final configurations, before and after reversalof the applied field will have different energies. For this case,Neel
3and later Mauri et al.4have shown, that realistic values
forHebcan be obtained when a domain wall forms in the
AFM during the reversal of the FM magnetization. When the
interface plane is compensated however, the nature of theAFM–FM coupling is not obvious.
Experiments indicate that the loop shift is of similar
magnitude for compensated and uncompensated inter-faces.
10,11Furthermore, an interface which is, in principle,uncompensated at the atomic scale may be compensated on
average over longer length scales when it is rough. Onlywhen interfacial terraces are much larger than the AFM do-main wall width, would one have the situation where theAFM can break up into domains which have uncompensatedinterfaces with the FM. Otherwise the AFM domains willspan several terraces and their interface to the FM will becompensated. Thus the case of magnetically compensatedAFM interface planes seems to be more relevant for the ex-change bias problem.
Using localized atomic spins, Hinchey and Mills
12and
recently Koon5demonstrated that, due to frustration of inter-
facial spins, the FM magnetization will align perpendicularto the AFM easy axis when the AFM interface plane is com-pensated. This establishes the coupling between the FM andthe AFM when the interface is compensated and is referredto asspin–flop coupling . However, contrary to Koon’s ex-
pectation, spin–flop coupling does not lead to the formationof a domain wall in the AFM during FM magnetization re-versal and therefore in itself does not lead to exchangebias.
13
A different route was taken by Malozemoff,6who ex-
plained the coupling as due to a random field which he at-
tributed to interface roughness. This theory is particularlyappealing because it accounts for many of the observationsthat are related to the loop shift.
7However, some of Maloz-
emoff’s conclusions with regard to dependence of the ex-change bias on the AFM layer thickness
8and the observed
increase of Hebwith decreasing interface roughness in some
systems14have led to arguments against his theory.15,5Suhl
and Shuller9have recently proposed yet another mechanism
which explains the loop shift. They use a quantum mechani-cal description of the spins and show that the emission andreabsorption of virtual spin waves leads to exchange bias.
Clearly there are several possible mechanisms that lead
to the result that the energies of configurations with reversedFM magnetization are different which, in turn, implies a uni-directional shift of the magnetization curve. However, atheory has to explain other important effects that are known
a!Electronic mail: schulthesstc@ornl.govJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS VOLUME 85, NUMBER 8 15 APRIL 1999
5510 0021-8979/99/85(8)/5510/6/$15.00 © 1999 American Institute of Physics
Downloaded 09 May 2013 to 131.211.208.19. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsto be related to the AFM–FM coupling. Discussing all of
these effects would require ant entire book chapter. Thus werestrict ourselves to the following effects which have beenobserved in many different AFM–FM systems: ~1!Exchange
bias, positive and negative, as well as related phenomenadiscussed by Malozemoff
7and the dependence of Hebon the
interface roughness. ~2!The large coercivity16–18that is
known to be related to the coupling because it disappearswhen the AFM is disordered. ~3!The perpendicular align-
ment between the FM magnetization and the AFM easyaxis.
16,17,19~4!The observation that reversible measurements
of the coupling can yield values several times larger thanthose determined from the loop shift, H
eb.20,21
While all of these effects are observed in some AFM/FM
systems, some are missing in other systems. For example, acoercivity related to the coupling is observed when Permal-loy~Py!is in contact with FeRh but the system shows no
exchange bias.
18The opposite is the case when FeMn or
IrMn are used as AFMs: in these systems, the coercivity issmall but the exchange bias can be considerable. The theorythus also has to be able to account for the possible absence ofsome of the effects.
In the present work, we start from a microscopic descrip-
tion within an extended Heisenberg model and use theLandau–Lifshitz equation to investigate the rather complexmagnetic configurations that can occur at AFM–FM inter-faces. We use CoO with ~111!interface planes as a model
AFM-layer, since it is the system for which many experi-ments are published and, more importantly, in which all ofthe above mentioned effects are observed. Our microscopiccalculations will be limited to idealized situations in whichthe AFM and FM films are single crystals and in a singledomain state ~i.e., we exclude the formation of domain walls
perpendicular to the interface !. But nevertheless, we are able
to show, that even in this simplified context most relevanteffects can be accounted for. We will discuss implications ofour results to situations that currently cannot be handled witha microscopic approach.
II. METHOD AND MODEL
In our model, a spin configuration is a set of three-
dimensional vectors, M[$mWi%, which are located on atomic
sites,iwhere we assume the bilayer to be periodic in the two
dimensions parallel to the interface. The energy of the spinconfiguration consists of four terms,
E
@M#5EZ1EJ1EA1ED,
of which the first three are, respectively, the Zeeman energy,
EZ5(imWiHWext, the exchange energy, EJ52(iÞjJijsWisWj,
withsW5mW/umWu, and the anisotropy energy, EA
5(iKisin2ui. The magnetic moments, mi, the exchange pa-
rameters, Jij, and the anisotropy constants, Ki, for CoO/
Py~111!and CoO/Co ~111!bilayers have been specified
elsewhere.22The mangnetostatic contribution to the energy is
ED5(iÞj$mWimWj23(mWinˆij)(mWjnˆij)%/uRWi2RWju3, wherenˆijis
the unit vector that points into the direction that connect the
sites atRWiandRWj. The magnetic moments are subject to the
Landau–Lifshitz equation of motion ~EOM !with the
Gilbert–Kelley form for the damping term,]
]tmWi52g~mWi∧Hi!1sSmWi∧]
]tmWiD1
umWiu,
whereHi@M#52(]/]mWi)E@M#is the local magnetic field,
gis the gyromagnetic ratio, and sis an arbitrary damping
parameter. The results do not depend on the actual values ofthe damping constant because the EOM is only used to findequilibrium solutions and to determine the stability of thesesolutions. With present computational resources, the treat-ment of domain walls perpendicular to the interface is notfeasible with our method. We thus treat only states in whichthere is a single domain parallel to the interface in order thatthe magnetic configurations are two-dimensional periodic.This implies that during field reversal the magnetization ro-tates coherently. We start with an initial solution of the EOMfor a certain applied field. Then we change the values of theapplied field in steps and determine the new solution of theEOM. When the applied field is reversed and there is anenergy barrier that prevents the FM from switching, the ini-tial solution becomes metastable. By further increasing themagnitude of the field one approaches a bifurcation pointwhere the metastable solutions becomes unstable and the FMmagnetization switches to align with the applied field. Themagnitude of the applied field at the bifurcation point thencorresponds to the coercive field.
III. SPIN–FLOP COUPLING
We begin with a qualitative discussion of the possible
spin configurations in our CoO/FM system. Since we assumethe CoO interface plane to be compensated with a fixeduniaxial anisotropy, we are left with two equivalent AFM
FIG. 1. Top view of CoO–FM ~111!interface with compensated AFM
interface plane. Filled and open arrows indicate, respectively, the unrelaxedand relaxed moment directions in the AFM layer. FM moment directions aregiven by triangles. The two possible spin-flop states for a given FM mag-
netization direction are labeled with AandB, respectively. A
WandBWare
the corresponding states with reversed FM magnetization and a domain wallin the AFM. The fan of arrows on one of the atoms indicates schematicallyhow the moment directions change going into the AFM from the interfaciallayer ~open arrow !to the interior ~filled arrow !. The spin-flop states with
reversed FM magnetization are denoted by A
8andB8.5511 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 85, No. 8, 15 April 1999 T. C. Schulthess and W. H. Butler
Downloaded 09 May 2013 to 131.211.208.19. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsspin-configurations ~denoted by AandBin Fig. 1 !. If both
the AFM and the FM spins are rigidly aligned among them-selves, the energy ~withH
ext50!is independent of the rela-
tive alignment between FM magnetization and AFM easyaxis. However, when the spins are allowed to cant in order tominimize the energy ~eg., by solving the EOM !, the FM
moments align perpendicular to the AFM easy axis whichgives rise to the spin–flop coupling. In the following, we callthe axis parallel to the interface and perpendicular to theAFM easy axis the spin–flop coupling axis .
For each AFM spin-configuration there are two ways to
align the FM perpendicularly and we are left with four states~A,A
8,B, andB8in Fig. 1 !that have the same energy when
no external field is applied. The Zeeman term lifts the four-fold degeneracy when a field is applied and selects the twostates which have an FM spin-component parallel to the fieldas the new energy minima. We choose the initial field direc-tions such, that states AandBhave lowest energy. Since
both configurations are equivalent, we will choose Afor the
remainder of the discussion. When the magnetic field is re-versed there are, in principle, two possible final configura-tions. The first possibility is the state in which a domain wallhas formed in the AFM ~A
Win Fig. 1 !. The second possibil-
ity is the spin-flop state with reversed FM spins ~A8in Fig.
1!. Since, upon field reversal, configuration A8is energeti-
cally equivalent to Athe magnetization loop that corre-
sponds to the path A!A8!Awill not be shifted. On the
other hand, AWhas to accommodate a domain wall and thus
has higher energy than A8andA. Therefore the loop of A
!AW!Awill show exchange bias. This is as far as we can
go with a qualitative discussion. The decision as to which ofthe two paths the spin-system follows depends on the relativeenergy barriers between the states and has to be determinednumerically.
When the spin motion is restricted to the plane parallel
to the interface, as in the calculation of Koon,
5the pathA
!A8is impossible since it requires the spins to come out of
plane when they rearrange. However, when the EOM issolved without any restriction,
13the energy barrier of A
!A8is lower than the domain wall energy in AW, and the
system switches between AandA8when the field is cycled,
giving rise to a symmetric magnetization curve. This is thecase in both models,
13Koon’s and the present CoO/FM bi-layer. A typical magnetization curve is shown in Fig. 2. The
effect of spin-flop is that it hinders the FM magnetizationreversal giving rise to hysteresis with large coercivity. Val-ues forH
care given in Table I.
IV. A MECHANISM FOR THE LOOP SHIFT
The conclusion of the last section is made under the
idealized assumption that the interface is perfectly flat. Re-alistically, however, the interface will be rough and containdefects such as dislocations. A simplified way to incorporatedefects related to interfacial roughness such as steps, islands,or point defects into our calculations, is to replace an FM sitewith a corresponding arrangement of AFM sites on the FMside of the interface. The case of a point defect is illustratedin Fig. 3. The defect moment is coupled to only one of thetwo AFM sublattices. The net interaction of the FM with thetwo AFM sublattices is no longer balanced. This causes theFM to cant away from the spin–flop coupling axis as indi-cated by configuration Din Fig. 3. Configuration Dis only
one of four possible states with lowest energy, and we as-sume that it was selected by an external field that points intothe second quadrant of the xyplane. When the field and the
FM magnetization are reversed we arrive at configuration D
8
in Fig. 3. As a consequence of the unbalanced exchange
coupling between the FM, the defect and the AFM, the en-ergy ofD
8will be higher and the magnetization curve that
corresponds to D!D8!Dwill be shifted.
The magnitude of the shift depends on the density of
these uncompensated defects ~larger shift for more uncom-
pensated defects !. For CoO/Py, however, Takano et al.23
have measured the amount of uncompensated AFM magne-
tization along the direction of the applied field and haveshown that it correlates with the values of H
eb. In our cal-
culation, we use a 4 34 unit cell with one point defect per
cell and apply a field parallel to the interface plane at an
FIG. 2. Typical set of magnetization curves for perfect ~diamonds !and
rough ~squares !interface. This particular example is for a 200 Å Py film
withJF–F516meV and AFM anisotropy axis along the @1¯1¯7#.TABLE I. Hcfor flat CoO/Py ~200 Å !interface as well as HcandHebfor
interface with uncompensated AFM-defects ~in Oe !.
AFM
easy axisJF–F
~meV!Flat interface
HcInterface with defects
Hc Heb
@1¯1¯7#16 885 575 75
@1¯01# 16 1625 1250 74
@1¯01# 9.4 1336 1039 38
FIG. 3. Magnetic configuration of an CoO–FM ~111!interface, where one
FM site has been replaced by an AFM site. The nomenclature is similar tothat of Fig. 1, where the open triangles in configuration Dindicate that the
FM moments are slightly canted away from the ideal spin–flop coupling
axis. In configuration D
8the FM spins are simply inverted. Dashed lines
highlight the next nearest neighbor interactions between the defect site andone of the two AFM sublattices.5512 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 85, No. 8, 15 April 1999 T. C. Schulthess and W. H. Butler
Downloaded 09 May 2013 to 131.211.208.19. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsangle fH510° from the yaxis. For this setup, we find that
the amount of uncompensated AFM magnetization projected
onto the field axis is about 1% of the moments in a CoOmonolayer. For this amount and a Py film thickness of d
FM
5300Å Takano et al.measured a loop shift of 50 Oe ~this
corresponds to about 75 Oe when dFM5200Å !. A typical
magnetization curve is shown in Fig. 2 and the calculatedloop shifts and coercivities are given in Table I. The calcu-lated values for H
ebagree reasonably well with experiment.
We conclude this section with a remark on positive ex-
change bias. In configuration D, the net uncompensated
AFM magnetization points away from the FM spins and theapplied field. This is because the negative exchange couplingto the FM overwhelms the Zeeman coupling between the netmagnetization of the defect and the applied field. In prin-ciple, however, one could think of a different system inwhich the Zeeman coupling of the defect is more importantfor very large cooling fields. In this case the spin-configuration is preset into the state with higher energy~which corresponds to D
8!and would switch to the lower
energy state upon field reversal, resulting in a positive shiftof the magnetization curve. Note that cooling in a very largefield is the actual requirement to observe positive exchangebias.
24
V. REVERSIBLE MEASUREMENTS
In order to determine the spin–flop coupling strength,
we apply a small field, H', parallel to the interface plane but
perpendicular to the spin–flop coupling axis ( fH590°). We
then solve the EOM and determine the energy differenceDE5E(H
')2E(0) and the angle, f, between the total mag-
netization and the coupling axis. For small enough fields25
the results satisfy the relations
DE5Keff~dFM!sin2f'Keff~dFM!f2, ~1!
where we have introduced effective coupling strength, Keff.
Since the spin–flop coupling only applies to interfacial spinsand the FM spins are not rigidly coupled to each other, theFM magnetization will twist when the field H
'is applied.
The energy of this twist is contained in DEand depends on
the thickness, dFM, of the FM film. Thus Keffshows a thick-
ness dependence as well. Coupling the FM spins rigidly toeach other would remedy this problem but would alsochange the spin–flop coupling strength, since the spin-relaxation in the FM also contributes to the effective cou-pling. Our method for calculating K
effis equivalent to the
experiment of Miller and Dahlberg,20who have applied a
small field perpendicular to the Co magnetization in aCoO/Co bilayer and determined the angle
fwith the aniso-
tropic magneto-resistance technique. The theoretical and ex-perimental coupling constants are compared in Fig. 4 wherethe difference in the definition of the coupling constants be-tween our and the experimental work
20requires the inclusion
of the factor 2. The agreement between the calculated andthe experimental results is remarkable, particularly since wehave not adjusted any parameters. The quantitative agree-ment should, however, not be overstated since the model ofthe bilayer and the Heisenberg Hamiltonian used for the cal-
culation both contain significant approximations.
VI. DISCUSSION
In the previous three sections we have shown that the
perpendicular coupling, the coercivity, the loop shift, and thestrong coupling seen in reversible measurements, can be un-derstood within an atomistic Heisenberg model. The modelused in the calculations, however, is in many respects toosimple to accurately describe the situation in thin films. Itenvisions a periodic arrangement of one type of defect andgives the proper loop shift, but it does not explain othereffects related to the loop shift. In a realistic interface, thedefects will be of different types and will be randomly ar-ranged. On average, the interactions between the AFM andthe FM may be fully compensated when the AFM is in asingle domain state. However, when the system is cooled inthe presence of coupling to an ordered FM film, the AFMmay break up into domains with walls perpendicular to theinterface such that the exchange coupling due to the defectsno longer cancels. This is precisely the mechanism that leadsto the Imry–Ma type of random field.
26Therefore, extending
the current model of rough interfaces to realistic lengthscales leads directly to the Malozemoff theory of exchangebias which accounts for many of the effects related to theloop shift.
7The explanation of positive exchange bias which
we have given at the end of Sec. IV is still applicable withinthe random field model. To complete the list of effects re-lated to the loop shift, we have to discuss the dependence ofH
ebon the roughness. Experiments show that interface
roughness can both increase27or decrease14the loop shift.
Clearly, when the random field is solely due to roughnessinduced defects, such as the point defects treated in Sec. IV,one would expect the random field and with it H
ebto in-
crease with increasing roughness. However, when the ran-dom field is induced by uncompensated regions that are re-lated to lattice strain ~such as dislocations !one would
observe the opposite trend: since roughness decreases latticestrains it would lower the random field and H
eb.
In thin films, the magnetization reversal is usually not a
coherent rotation as in our calculations. Reversal is ratherinitiated in some region of the film and is completed through
FIG. 4. Effective AFM–FM coupling strength between CoO and Co vs
thickness of the Co film. Experimental values ~crosses !are taken from Ref.
20. Theoretical values represent 2 Keffcalculated for JF–F516meV ~squares !
andJF–F512.4meV ~diamonds !.5513 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 85, No. 8, 15 April 1999 T. C. Schulthess and W. H. Butler
Downloaded 09 May 2013 to 131.211.208.19. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsgrowth of reversed domains, a process which implies the
propagation of domain walls through the film. Spin–flopcoupling can now lead to an increase in the coercivity in twodifferent ways. First, some of the AFM domains, to whichthe FM couples, are small enough that their magnetic con-figuration reverses during the inversion of the FM. This leadsto irreversible effects in the AFM that contribute to the co-ercivity. This idea was used by Lin et al.
28and recently by
Stiles and McMichael,29as well as by Hou et al.30to explain
irreversible effects in polycrystalline AFM/FM systems.
In a second mechanism, spin–flop coupling acts like an
induced uniaxial anisotropy in the FM layer which reducesthe size of domain walls when the FM is coupled to the AFMand thus increases the coercivity through pinning of thesedomain walls. In free Py the anisotropy is very small ( K
Py
.203103erg/cm3) which implies large domain walls for
which pinning is very unlikely and consequently the materialis magnetically ideally soft. When the AFM–FM coupling isaveraged over the entire film thickness, our results in theprevious section would yield a uniaxial anisotropy of theorder of 0.5 310
6erg/cm3for a 200 Å thick-film, which is
comparable to anisotropies in Fe. Spin–flop coupling, how-ever, is due to relaxation of spins in the interface region andthe anisotropy it induces is therefore concentrated in thatregion. Assuming this region to be about 10 Å and a corre-sponding estimate for the coupling of K
eff'2erg/cm2, one is
left with an average anisotropy constant of about 2310
7erg/cm3which is about three order of magnitude larger
than the bulk value for Py. The domain wall size in the filmcan thus be expected to reduce from ;10
3Å to below 100 Å
and pinning of domain walls in Py would then be realisticwhen the film is coupled to an AFM such as CoO.
These two mechanisms for the coercivity have quite dis-
tinct consequences. In the first mechanism, the coercivitydepends on the domain structure in the AFM and thereforecan be expected to depend on the magnetic history of thesample. In the second mechanism, the coercivity only de-pends on the spin–flop coupling and the morphology of the
film. It is not affected by the AFM domain structure and thusshould be independent of the magnetic history.
Since exchange bias and the coupling induced coercivity
have their origin at the interface, one expects them to beinversely proportional to the thickness of the FM layer. Forthe loop shift this is well accepted. In the case of the coer-civity, however, this is only a first guess which may applywhen the coercivity is due to losses in the AFM. If it is dueto the coupling induced reduction of domain walls discussedabove, the functional dependence of domain wall size anddefect densities at different length scales have to be consid-ered as well. The size of a domain wall depends not only onthe anisotropy, which in the present case is restricted to theinterface region and has no dependence on d
FM, but also on
the exchange interactions. The net FM exchange energy of adomain wall in the film increases linearly with the film thick-ness, which implies that the domain wall size will be propor-
tional to
AdFM. The density of defects which pin the wall is
more difficult to discuss and we will restrict ourselves to twomodel situations. ~1!When the defect density is constant at
all length scales below a certain threshold, the pinning willbe independent of the domain wall size as long as it is small
enough. In this case one expects H
c;1/dFM.~2!We assume
that the interface is of fractal nature and when the domainwall size, d
w, is decreased, the density of defects that can
pin the wall increases as 1/ dw. Withdw;AdFM, we thus
expectHc;1/dFM3/2. This last result is similar to that recently
obtained by Zhang.31
In contrast to the irreversible process of magnetization
reversal, the reversible measurements of Miller andDahlberg
20are much simpler to model. Actually, we think
that the calculations presented in the last section fully corre-spond to this measurement and thus it does not need furtherexplanation. The combination of spin–flop coupling and de-fect induced random field, however, clarifies the apparentdiscrepancy between reversible and irreversible measure-ment. While the former senses a ~not necessarily linear !su-
perposition of random field and spin–flop coupling, the latteronly measures the coupling due to the random field.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
We can therefore conclude that two coupling mecha-
nisms, spin–flop coupling and defect induced random fields,must be present, in order to explain all four classes of phe-nomena which are directly related to AFM–FM coupling.The consequences of the possible absence of one of themechanisms are relatively straightforward. The absence ofuncompensated defects and the corresponding random fieldwould eliminate the loop shift, but if spin–flop couplingwere still present, one should still be able to measure strongcoupling in reversible experiments, observe coupling in-duced coercivities, and the perpendicular coupling. On theother hand, if spin–flop coupling were absent while the de-fect induced random field is present, the system would showexchange bias but no coupling induced coercivity. In thiscase, perpendicular coupling would not be observable butmore importantly, the results of reversible and irreversiblecoupling measurement should be similar.
32
When we apply these conclusions to Py interfaced with
either NiMn, FeRh, and FeMn or IrMn, we argue that bothcoupling mechanisms are present in NiMn/Py whereas inFeRh/Py, the random field should be absent but spin–flopcoupling should be considerable. Thus in both systems oneshould observe strong coupling in reversible measurementsand perpendicular alignment between the FM magnetizationand the AFM easy axis. In FeMn/Py and IrMn/Py, we specu-late that the random field is present but the spin–flop cou-pling is much smaller since the coupling induced coercivityis much smaller. In fact, the discrepancy between irreversibleand reversible coupling measurements in IrMn/Py is found tobe at least an order of magnitude smaller than in NiMn/Py.
21
The spin–flop coupling strength seems to be related to theAFM spin-structure of these alloys. NiMn and FeRh withlarge spin–flop coupling are chemically ordered systemswith collinear spin structures
33,34and thus the situation is
similar to that of CoO. FeMn and IrMn, for which the currentdiscussion implies much smaller spin–flop coupling arechemically disordered and probably have noncollinear spinstructures
35which may cause the reduction in spin–flop cou-5514 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 85, No. 8, 15 April 1999 T. C. Schulthess and W. H. Butler
Downloaded 09 May 2013 to 131.211.208.19. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionspling strength. The absence of exchange bias in FeRh/Py is
not only intriguing but, in our opinion, implies a great op-portunity, since comparing interfacial spin structures andmorphologies between NiMn/Py and FeRh/Py could give im-portant information on defect induced coupling and randomfields.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Research sponsored by the Division of Materials Sci-
ences, U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-96OR22464 with Lockheed Martin Energy ResearchCorporation.
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21T. G. Pokhil and S. Mao ~unpublished !.
22See Ref. 13 for details about the model and parameters. In the present
work, we do not vary the AFM–FM exchange parameter but rather fix itto the values of the exchange in the AFM. Whenever the value for theFM–FM exchange parameter, J
F–F, differs from Ref. 13 as is mentioned
in the text.
23K. Takano, R. H. Kodama, A. E. Berkowitz, W. Cao, and G. Thomas,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 1130 ~1997!.
24J. Nogue´s, D. Lederman, T. J. Moran, and I. K. Schuller, Phys. Rev. Lett.
76, 4624 ~1996!.
25For field larger than a few hundred Oersted, the induced changes in the
AFM become notable and change the form of the field dependence of thetotal energy.
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32We assume that all effects are related solemnly to the AFM–FM coupling.
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Downloaded 09 May 2013 to 131.211.208.19. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions |
1.5116748.pdf | J. Appl. Phys. 126, 163903 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5116748 126, 163903
© 2019 Author(s).RF voltage-controlled magnetization
switching in a nano-disk
Cite as: J. Appl. Phys. 126, 163903 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5116748
Submitted: 27 June 2019 . Accepted: 30 September 2019 . Published Online: 24 October 2019
Joseph D. Schneider
, Qianchang Wang
, Yiheng Li
, Andres C. Chavez
, Jin-Zhao Hu , and Greg
Carman
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in a nano-disk
Cite as: J. Appl. Phys. 126, 163903 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5116748
View Online
Export Citation
CrossMar k
Submitted: 27 June 2019 · Accepted: 30 September 2019 ·
Published Online: 24 October 2019
Joseph D. Schneider,1,a)
Qianchang Wang,1,a)
Yiheng Li,2,a)
Andres C. Chavez,1
Jin-Zhao Hu,1
and Greg Carman1,b)
AFFILIATIONS
1Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
2Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China
a)Contributions: J. D. Schneider, Q. Wang, and Y. Li contributed equally to this work.
b)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: carman@seas.ucla.edu
ABSTRACT
Nanomagnetic oscillators are key components for radio-frequency (RF) signal generation in nanoscale devices. However, these oscillators
are primarily electric current-based, which is energy ine fficient at the nanoscale due to ohmic losses. In this study, we present an
actuation mechanism for magnetization switching using a multiferroic structure that relies on an RF voltage input instead of electricalcurrent. An AC voltage with a DC bias is applied to the piezoelectric substrate and the magnetic nanodisk with perpendicular magneticanisotropy that is attached onto the substrate, which can achieve steady magnetic oscillation when the driven voltage is at ferromagnetic
resonance (FMR) of the nanodisk. Changing the DC bias changes t he magnetic anisotropy of the magnetoelastic nanodisk, hence
changes the FMR and oscillation frequency. The frequency modulation is quanti fied using the Kittel equation. Parametric studies are con-
ducted to investigate the in fluence of voltage amplitude, frequency, waveform, and the thickness of the magnetoelastic nanodisk. This
multiferroic approach opens possibilities for designing energy e fficient nanomagnetic oscillators that have both large amplitude and
broad frequency range.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5116748
INTRODUCTION
Nanomagnetic oscillators have been used for many applica-
tions such as nanoscale RF signal generators,
1–3microwave-assisted
recording, nanoscale magnetic field sensors,4and neuromorphic
computing hardware.5In a conventional nanomagnetic oscillator,
steady magnetic oscillation is achieved when the current-induced
spin torque cancels the Gilbert damping.4–10However, current-
driven magnetic oscillations are power-consuming at the nanoscaledue to ohmic losses. In contrast, voltage-driven magnetic oscillationis a more energy e fficient control scheme. One of the more promis-
ing methods to achieve voltage-based magnetization control is
strain-mediated multiferroics, which are based on the magnetoe-lastic/piezoelectric heterostructure. Static magnetization controlusing multiferroics has been demonstrated both numerically andexperimentally.
11–18Additionally, multiferroics have been used
for dynamic magnetization control, such as spin wave genera-
tion19,20and ferromagnetic resonance driven by surface acousticwaves.21,22Another application where control over dynamic mag-
netization oscillations is critical is magnetic dipole antennas,23
which are important for communication in conductive mediums
(i.e., seawater).
A recent study numerically demonstrated magnetic oscillation
in magnetoelastic nanoellipses with in-plane magnetic anisotropy
patterned on a piezoelectric substrate.24The ellipse ’s magnetization
is controlled with a pair of electrodes located slightly o ff-axis of the
ellipse ’s minor length. Applying a voltage to the electrodes causes
the magnetization to rotate toward the minor axis of the ellipsebecause of strain-induced magnetic anisotropy. When the voltage is
removed, the shape anisotropy of the ellipse causes the magnetiza-
tion to return to ellipse major axis. Consequently, by applying
an AC voltage to the electrodes, a magnetic oscillation can be
achieved but the oscillation amplitude is limited to 90°. Moreover,no feasible frequency modulation mechanism is demonstrated in
this study. Therefore, a new design of multiferroic nanomagneticJournal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 126, 163903 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5116748 126, 163903-1
Published under license by AIP Publishing.oscillators with large oscillation amplitude and wide tunable fre-
quency range is needed.
THEORY
In this study, a nanoscale Ni disk with perpendicular magnetic
anisotropy (PMA) is simulated as a nanomagnetic oscillator andboth large oscillation amplitude and wide frequency tunabilityare numerically demonstrated. The nanodisk is placed on top ofa piezoelectric substrate with patterned electrodes to actuate the
system. The multiferroic oscillator system is evaluated with a 3D
finite element model that couples micromagnetics, electrostatics,
and elastodynamics.
12,14,25The model assumes small deformations,
linear elasticity, and linear piezoelectricity. Thermal fluctuations
would require a stochastic approach, which is beyond the scope of
this work and is not considered. The magnetocrystalline anisotropy
is assumed negligible. The precessional magnetic dynamics aregoverned by the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation
@m
@t¼/C0μ0γ(m/C2Heff)þαm/C2@m
@t/C18/C19
, (1)
where mis the normalized magnetization, μ0is the vacuum
permittivity, γis the gyromagnetic ratio, and αis the Gilbert
damping parameter. Heffis the e ffective magnetic field de fined by
Heff¼HexþHDemagþHPMAþHME, where Hexis the exchange
field,HDemag is the demagnetization field,HPMA is the e ffective
PMA field, and HMEis the magnetoelastic field generated by strain.
The PMA field is given by HPMA¼/C02KPMAmz^z=(μ0MS).14,26
Assuming the PMA originates from interfacial e ffects, the PMA
coefficient is KPMA=K i/t, where tis the thickness of the magnetic
thinfilm, and the interfacial anisotropy is Ki¼2:6/C210/C04J=m2
for Ni. The HMEfield is calculated as27
HME(m,ε)¼/C01
μ0MS@
@m/C26
B1εxxm2
x/C01
3/C18/C19
þεyym2
y/C01
3/C18/C19
þεzzm2
z/C01
3/C18/C19 /C20/C21
þ2B2(εxymxmyþεyzmymzþεzxmzmx)/C27
, (2)
where mx,my, and mzare components of normalized magnetiza-
tion along the x,y, and zaxes and B1and B2are the first and
second order magnetoelastic coupling coef ficients. B1and B2are
defined by B1¼B2¼3EλS
2(1þν), where Eis Young ’s modulus and λSis
the saturation magnetostriction coef ficient of the magnetic material.
In Eq. (2), the total strain ( ε) consists of two parts: ε¼εpþεm,
where εpis the piezostrain and εm
ijis the strain contribution due to
isotropic magnetostriction. The strain due to magnetostriction isgiven by ε
m
ij¼1:5λs(mimj/C0δij=3), where δijis the Kronecker
delta.27The piezostrain εpis determined using the linear piezoelec-
tric constitutive equations:
εp¼sE:σþdt/C1E, (3)
D¼d:σþeσ/C1E, (4)
where σis the stress, Dis the electric displacement, Eis the electric
field,sEis the piezoelectric compliance matrix under constant elec-
tricfield, dand dtare the piezoelectric coupling matrix and its
transpose, and eσis the electric permittivity matrix measured
under constant stress. A complete description of the coupled model
can be found in the publications of Liang et al.12,25
The precession characteristics of the multiferroic nanomag-
netic oscillator are studied by applying several di fferent voltage
amplitudes, frequencies, and waveforms for various disk thick-
nesses. First, static voltages of 0 V and 1.8 V are applied to the elec-
trodes to establish a baseline for the magnetization precession dueto PMA and under the in fluence of in-plane strain for a 2
nm-thick disk. Second, square waves with a minimum value of 0 V
and a maximum value of V
0are applied to the electrodes at four
different frequencies for a 2 nm-thick disk. The choice of squarewaves is motivated by the results of the static cases where a DC
voltage is applied to the electrodes. In particular, the four chosenwaveforms are (1) V
0= 1.8 V at 0.8 GHz, (2) V 0= 1.8 V at 1.1 GHz,
(3) V 0= 1.8 V at 1.6 GHz, and (4) V 0= 2.0 V at 1.4 GHz. Third,
the disk thickness tis varied and three di fferent cases are studied
for applied square waves at 3.2 GHz. The three cases are (1)V
0= 4.0 V with t= 2.0 nm, (2) V 0= 4.0 V with t= 1.8 nm, and (3)
V0= 4.3 V with t= 1.8 nm. Fourth, 0.55 GHz symmetric and asym-
metric square waves with V 0= 1.8 V are applied to the electrodes
for a 2 nm-thick disk. The asymmetric waveform is used to
produce an ultralow oscillation frequency. Fifth, the e ffects of wave-
form type on the 2 nm-thick oscillator dynamics are studied.Specifically, three di fferent applied voltages are used: (1) square
wave with V
0= 1.8 V at 1.1 GHz, (2) sinusoidal wave with
V¼0:9þ0:9 sin(2 πf0t), and (3) sinusoidal wave with
V¼0:9þ4
π/C20:9 sin(2 πf0t), where f0¼1:1 GHz. The initial volt-
ages of all applied waveforms start from V 0/2 and ramp toward V 0.
Figure 1(a) illustrates the simulated multiferroic nanomagnetic
oscillator structure. A PbZr 0.53Ti0.47O3(Ref. 28) PZT-5H (abbrevi-
ated as PZT) substrate is used as the piezoelectric material with
lateral dimensions of 1500 × 1500 nm2and 800 nm thickness. The
PZT ’s top surface is mechanically free and its bottom surface is
fixed (i.e., mechanically clamped on a thick substrate), and low-
reflecting boundary conditions are applied to the four lateral sides.
A Nickel magnetic disk with a diameter of 50 nm and a height of 2nm is perfectly adhered in the center of the PZT top surface. Two50 × 50 nm
2electrodes are placed symmetrically adjacent to the Ni
disk along the y axis. The edge-to-edge distance between the elec-
trode and the magnetic disk is 20 nm. The voltage pulses are always
applied to the two electrodes simultaneously, while the bottomsurface of PZT is electrically grounded. The Ni material parametersused in the analysis are α¼0:038, M
s¼4:8/C2105A=m, exchangeJournal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 126, 163903 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5116748 126, 163903-2
Published under license by AIP Publishing.stiffness Aex¼1:05/C210/C011J=m( u s e di n Hex), and λs¼/C034 ppm,
Young ’sm o d u l u s E= 180 GPa, density ρ¼8900 kg =m3,a n d
Poisson ’sr a t i o ν¼0:31.29–32
RESULTS
Figures 1(b) and 1(c) show the volume average magnetiza-
tion (i.e., integrated over the entire volume of the magnetic nano-disk) precession of the Ni disk for applied static voltages of0 V and 1.8 V, respectively. In both figures, the magnetization
is released from a canted out-of-plane direction chosen as
m¼(0, 1, 1) =ffiffiffi
2p
.Figure 1(b) shows the 3D trajectory for a 5-ns
magnetic precession without applied voltage. For this case, thedominant magnetic anisotropy is the PMA of the disk resulting ina volume average (i.e., integrated over the entire volume of the
magnetic nanodisk) e ffective magnetic fieldH
effdirected along
the z axis causing the magnetization to precess around this direc-tion. In contrast, Fig. 1(c) shows the Ni disk magnetization
precess around the y axis when 1.8 V is applied to the electrodes.
This occurs because the voltage induces a compressive strain
along the y axis and a tensile strain along the x axis. Speci fically,
the compressive direction corresponds to a strain-induced mag-netic easy axis and the tensile direction corresponds to a magnetichard axis since Ni is negative magnetostrictive. The two results of
Figs. 1(b) and1(c) illustrate a mechanism to generate large ampli-
tude oscillations of the disk magnetization. Without appliedvoltage, there are two stable magnetic states for the disk: m
z=+ 1
and m z=−1. When a voltage is applied to the electrodes, the
magnetization is brought to an intermediate state 90° away from
the z axis (i.e., in-plane). By leveraging these two e ffects and accu-
rately timing the voltage application, it is possible to oscillate themagnetization perpendicularly between m
z=+ 1a n dm z=−1.14.26
This demonstrates the potential for 180° oscillations, thus
overcoming the de ficiency (90° max oscillation) of previously dis-
cussed multiferroic designs.
Figures 2(a) –2(d) show the e ffects of applying a square wave
voltage amplitude and frequency on the precession dynamics ofthe multiferroic nanomagnetic oscillator. The applied voltages
have maximum values V
0= {1.8, 1.8, 1.8, 2.0} V at frequencies of
{0.8, 1.1, 1.6, 1.4} GHz, respectively. In the figures, the blue dashedlines represent the applied voltage while the solid black lines repre-
sent the 2 nm Ni disk ’s volume-averaged perpendicular magnetiza-
tion m zas a function of time. Figures 2(a) and 2(c) show a
disordered m ztemporal response for V 0= 1.8 V at 0.8 GHz and
FIG. 1. (a) 3D illustration of the simulated structure (unit: nanometer). (b) Trajectory of magnetic precession without voltage applied. (c) Trajectory of magnetic precession
when +1.8 V is applied to the top electrodes.
FIG. 2. (a)–(d) T emporal evolution of perpendicular magnetization m zunder
alternate applied voltage with different amplitudes and frequencies: (a) 1.8 V at
0.8 GHz, (b) 1.8 V at 1.1 GHz, (c) 1.8 V at 1.6 GHz, and (d) 2 V at 1.4 GHz. (e)
Summary of simulation results of steady oscillation cases and theoretical fitting
line derived from the Kittel equation.Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 126, 163903 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5116748 126, 163903-3
Published under license by AIP Publishing.1.6 GHz, respectively. In contrast, Figs. 2(b) and2(d) show steady
mzoscillations for V 0= 1.8 V at 1.1 GHz and 2.0 V at 1.4 GHz
frequencies, respectively. These two later results clearly show thatthe multiferroic oscillator achieves uniform large amplitude (i.e.,180°) perpendicular magnetic oscillations at di fferent voltages and
different frequencies.
The oscillation dynamics presented in Figs. 2(a) –2(d) can be
explained by comparing the frequency of the applied voltages tothe ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) of the nanomagnetic oscilla-tors. Speci fically, the uniform oscillation observed for V
0=1 . 8 V
at 1.1 GHz [ Fig. 2(b) ] occurs because the applied voltage fre-
quency matches the oscillator FMR frequency. This leads to the
strain-induced magnetization oscillations matching the intrinsicprecessional magnetization oscillations. Therefore, the magnetiza-tion reoriented by the voltage-induced strain is in phase with theprecessional motion. This is clearly seen in Fig. 2(b) as the mag-
netization reaches its extremum values (m
z=± 1 ) a t n e a r l y t h e
same time the max (1.8 V) or min (0 V) is reached. In contrast,the disordered oscillations for applied voltages of V
0=1 . 8 V a t
0 . 8G H za n d1 . 6G H z[ Figs. 2(a) and2(c)] are caused by the mis-
match between the intrinsic precessional motion of the magnetic
moments (i.e., FMR frequency) and applied voltage frequency.
Specifically, for the 2 nm disk with an applied voltage amplitude
of 1.8 V, the ferromagnetic resonance frequency is 1.1 GHz sooperating at 0.8 GHz or 1.6 GHz produces a disordered oscilla-
tion, i.e., signi ficant overshoot or undershoot as the magnetization
is reoriented by the voltage-induced strain. Consequently, thisovershooting or undershooting produces disordered nonperiodicoscillations of m
z. However, as shown in Fig. 2(d) , increasing the
voltage (V 0= 2.0 V) produces uniform periodic oscillations but at
a higher frequency, i.e., 1.4 GHz. The reason that the higher
applied voltage frequency is now in phase with the precessionalmotion is because the applied voltage shifts the oscillator FMRfrequency to a higher level, i.e., modi fies the magnetic anisotropy
with an applied voltage.
Further interpretation of the results can be explained as
follows. Observing Fig. (2d) ,i n i t i a l l ym=m
z= 1, a voltage applied
to the electrodes results in a compressive stress along the y axis ofthe disk forcing the magnetization in plane. The voltage pulse isthen released and m = m
z=−1, where the 180° switch is due to
the timing of the voltage pulse. Next, a voltage pulse is applied
resulting in compression on the Ni disk forcing the magnetizationin plane again. Upon release of the voltage, m = m
z=1 . I n
summary, the magnetization switched from +1 to −1( o n ec o m -
plete cycle) in two voltage cycles of 0 –2 V. Furthermore, the
current required is calculated using i¼V0ωC, where C is the
static capacitance of the structure calculated using Finite ElementMethods and ωis the 2 πmultiplied by the driving frequency. For
the case presented in Fig. 2(d) , the current required is 55 μA,
whereas spin-torque oscillators require a DC in the milliampere
range.
33,34
To better quantify the frequency tunability suggested in Fig. 2 ,
i.e., an applied oscillating voltage shifts the FMR, an analytical solu-tion for the frequency modulation by voltage is derived from
the Kittel equation. For a thin disk, as simulated in this work,
the demagnetization factors are approximately N
x=N y= 1 and
Nz= 0,35. Consequently, the FMR frequency ( f) can be determinedfrom the simpli fied Kittel equation:35
f¼γμ0
2πffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ffi
Heff(HeffþMS)q
, (5)
where Heff¼HexþHPMAþHME. This derivation assumes that
exchange is negligible because we are looking at the k = 0 mode(i.e., FMR); hence, we ignore H
exin the e ffective field. Furthermore,
since Ni is negatively magnetostrictive, we can assume that the
main contributing strain term to the e ffective magnetoelastic field
(Hme) is the compression strain along the y axis ( εyy). Hence, the
magnetoelastic field is reduced to
Hme¼/C02
μ0MSB1myεyy: (6)
The PMA e ffect can be approximated as a constant 2000 ppm
in-plane uniaxial strain in the magnetoelastic field since the
minimum uniaxial strain required to overcome PMA is −2000
ppm. Consequently, the total e ffective field can be written as
Heff¼/C02
μ0MSB1my(εyyþ2/C210/C03): (7)
In Eq. (7),myis set to be a constant value of 0.2 rather than a tem-
porally varying value to better explain the underlying physics.
By plugging Eqs. (7)into (5)wefind that the resonance fre-
quency ( f) is directly proportional to the square root of the
applied strain εyy. Furthermore, a finite element simulation shows
that εyyand voltage amplitude are related by the linear equation:
εyy¼/C01463/C2V0(ppm) for this speci fic geometry. The resulting
equation of frequency in terms of voltage is drawn in Fig. 2(e) as
a black dashed line, and several simulation results are shown as
blue dots for comparison. The simulation results are represented
by steady oscillation cases for a 2 nm disk with applied voltageamplitudes and frequencies of {1.5, 1.8, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0} V and{0.7, 1.1, 1.4, 2.3, 3.2} GHz, respectively. For comparison, the fourcases discussed in Figs. 2(a) –2(d) are also marked in Fig. 2(e)
with black open circles. As seen in Fig. 2(e) , the oscillation
frequency increases with applied voltage oscillation amplitudes,and the trend agrees with the analytical solution. This clearlyshows that the multiferroic oscillator produces frequency tuningin the presence of a dynamically oscillating voltage. The magni-
tude of the tuning is directly related to the amplitude of the
oscillating voltage.
Figures 3(a) –3(c) show dynamic magnetization data for
applied voltages V
0= {4.0, 4.0, 4.3} V with a frequency of 3.2 GHz
and are applied to oscillators with disk thicknesses of {2.0, 1.8, 1.8}
nm, respectively. Here, Fig. 3(a) shows that 4.0 V at 3.2 GHz
applied voltage can excite uniform magnetic oscillation; however,the oscillation becomes unstable when the thickness decreases to1.8 nm for this voltage, as shown in Fig. 3(b) . In contrast, Fig. 3(c)
shows that the uniform oscillation occurs again for the
1.8 nm-thick disk when the applied voltage increases to 4.3 V.Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 126, 163903 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5116748 126, 163903-4
Published under license by AIP Publishing.The change in uniformity and oscillation frequency for chang-
ing disk thickness can be explained by understanding that PMA isa function of Ni disk ’s thickness. Speci fically, since the PMA of the
Ni disk is inversely proportional to the magnet ’s thickness, the
1.8 nm oscillator has stronger PMA. Hence, the thinner disk
requires a higher voltage (i.e., larger strain) to overcome the PMA.
This means the FMR curve for the 1.8 nm oscillator shifts to theright when compared to the 2 nm oscillator [shown in Fig. 2(e) ], as
the intersection point of the FMR curve on the x axis correspondsto the minimum voltage required to overcome PMA. Therefore, the
1.8 nm oscillator requires higher voltage to achieve a steady mag-
netic oscillation at the same frequency. Note that 4.3 V is thehighest voltage used here, which corresponds to an electric field of
≈5.4 MV/m. Although this electric field exceeds PZT ’s 0.7 MV/m
coercive field,
36in the simulation the electric field does not reverse
direction, indicating that the high electric field will not reverse the
polarization.
All the cases discussed above have the voltage-on and
voltage-o ffsquare pulses with the same temporal length within
each period, i.e., referred to as symmetric. As discussed previ-
ously, the voltage-on requires accurate timing and should matchthe FMR. However, the duration of voltage-o ffstage can be
adjusted in a more flexible way than constrained to be equal to
voltage on. Figures 4(a) and4(b) compare a 1.8 V applied voltage
at 0.55 GHz with symmetric and asymmetric pro files for a 2 nm
Ni disk, respectively. In Fig. 4(a) , a steady magnetic oscillation is
absent (disordered) because the voltage frequency does not match
the FMR of the magnetic disk, which is 1.1 GHz at 1.8 V. In con-
trast, the voltage-on portion in Fig. 4(b) matches the FMR of
1 . 1G H z ,b u tt h ev o l t a g e - o ffportion is purposely extended.
Consequently, a steady magnetic oscillation with an overall muchlower frequency (i.e., 0.55 GHz) is achievable using an asymmetric
voltage pro file.
Figure 5 examines the in fluence of di fferent voltage wave-
forms on multiferroic nanomagnetic oscillators (2 nm Ni disk)response. Figure 5(a) shows the results from a square wave with a
1.8 V amplitude oscillated at 1.1 GHz producing steady oscilla-
tion. As shown in Fig. 5(b) , changing the square wave to a sinus-
oidal wave with a similar amplitude V ¼0:9þ0:9 sin(2 πf
0t)
(f0¼1:1 GHz) produces a dramatically di fferent magnetic
response. To better evaluate this di fference, we use a zeroth- and
first-order components of the Fourier series expansion of the
square wave to build the wave V ¼0:9þ4
π/C20:9 sin(2 πf0t). Using
this input, Fig 5(c) shows that a steady magnetic oscillation is
again achieved. In other words, modifying the sinusoidal wavecan achieve steady oscillations similar to the square wave. This
is important because it is easier to create sinusoidal waves as
compared to square waves.
FIG. 3. T emporal evolution of perpendicular magnetization m zfor magnets with
different thicknesses. (a) 2 nm-thick magnet with 4 V applied voltage at 3.2 GHz.
(b) 1.8 nm-thick magnet with 4 V applied voltage at 3.2 GHz. (c) 1.8 nm-thick
magnet with 4.3 V applied voltage at 3.2 GHz.
FIG. 4. T emporal evolution of perpendicular magnetization m zunder alternate
applied voltage with (a) symmetric square wave at 0.55 GHz and (b) asymmetricsquare wave at 0.55 GHz.Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 126, 163903 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5116748 126, 163903-5
Published under license by AIP Publishing.CONCLUSION
In conclusion, a new magnetic oscillator mechanism is pro-
posed using an alternating voltage applied to the piezoelectric sub-strate to excite sinusoidal magnetic oscillation. The oscillation
frequency can be tuned by changing the amplitude of the alternate
voltage or by changing the thickness of the magnet to dynamicallyadjust ferromagnetic resonance. The frequency range achieved inthis study is from 275 MHz to 1.6 GHz (note the magnetic oscilla-tion frequency is half of the voltage frequency). Using an asymmet-
ric voltage pro file adds additional tunability to the system and
further extends the lower bound of the oscillation frequency. Abasic analytical equation is derived to link the voltage amplitude tothe oscillation frequency. This work helps understand the opera-tional principles of the voltage-driven magnetic oscillator and guide
future design of the oscillator to speci fic frequency ranges.
Furthermore, the proposed device can change the operating fre-quency by increasing the voltage amplitude and frequency. Thiscan be used for a number of applications such as driving/producing
spin waves in a nearby spin bus or writing a bit of memory in the
magnetization.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by NSF Nanosystems Engineering
Research Center for Translational Applications of NanoscaleMultiferroic Systems (TANMS) Cooperative Agreement Award
(No. EEC-1160504) and EFRI NewLaw with Award No. 1641128.
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V¼0:9þ4
π/C20:9 sin(2 πf0t), where f0¼1:1 GHz.Journal of
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Published under license by AIP Publishing. |
1.44703.pdf | AIP Conference Proceedings 286, 309 (1992); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.44703 286, 309
© 1992 American Institute of Physics.Scaling behavior of
magnetization in the critical
region of a-Fe90−xCoxZr10
alloys
Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 286, 309 (1992); https://
doi.org/10.1063/1.44703
Published Online: 29 May 2008
V. Siruguri , B. D. Babu , and S. N. Kaul
SCALING BEHAVIOR OF MAGNETIZATION IN THE CRITICAL
REGION OF a-Fego-xCox%rlo ALLOYS
V.Sirugnri, P.D. Babu and S~N. Kaul
Scho61 of Physics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad-500 134, INDIA
Contrar I to earlier reports, a detailed ]erromafnetic resonance (FMR) stldy in the
critical region of Feeo-ffiCozZrlo alloys with 0 <_ z < 10 shows that the critical ez-
ponents ~ and ~/ for spontaneous mafnetization and initial nsceptibilitl, respectieeil,
which characterize the ferromaonetic (FM) - paramaonetic (PM) phase transition at the
Csrie tentperatere, To, possess ealnes which are close to the three-dimensional Heisen-
berf ealnes and are independent o~ composition. The ~raction of spins that participates
in the FM-PM phase transition possesses a ealne of llfG for the alloy with x = 0 and
increases with Co concentration x. The peak-to-peak FMR linewidth is foeerned by
the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert relazation mechanism in the critical region and the Land~
splitting factor g and the Gilbert dampin# parameter ~ are independent of temperatere.
WTtile A decreases with x, g has a constant value of ~.07 -I. 0.0~.
In this paper, we present the results of the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR)
study in the critical region of ~-Fego_~Co~Zrlo alloys with 0 < x < 10 undertaken to
resolve the controversy 1 surrounding the nature of pareanagnetic (PM) to ferromagnetic
(FM) phase transition in these alloys. This t~hnique has been used earlier ~ to deter-
mine the critical exponents for some of the concentrations in the above-mentioned series.
In the present study, extra efforts have been made to determine the critical exponents
and 7 for spontaneous magnetization and initial susceptibility, respectively, more accu-
rately by t~king FMR data at temperatures much closer to the Curie temperature, To,
than in the previous set of measurements 2 through an improved temperature control
and to extend such FMR measurements to higher Co concentrations. In addition an at-
tempt has been made to investigate the temperature dependence of the FMR linewidth
in the critical region and deduce a reliable estimate of the Gilbert damping parameter,
~, for a given alloy configuration.
Amorphous Feeo-sCo, Zrlo alloys were prepared by the single-roller melt-quenching
technique in Ar atmosphere and their amorphous structure was confirmed by x-ray
diffraction. FMR measurements were carried out using an X-band ESR spectrome-
ter operating at a fixed microwave frequency of -~9.23 GHz in the temperature range
(To - 15K) ~ T _< (To + 15K). The sample temperature was measured by a copper-
constantan thermocouple and kept fixed to within + 50mK at a given temperature
setting. The microwave power absorption derivatives, dP/dI'I, were measured as a func-
tion of the external static magnetic field (H) using horizontal- parallel (in which H lies
in the ribbon plane and is directed along the length of the sample) and vertical-parallel
(in which H is directed along the breadth within the sample plane) orientations. Since
these alloys are extremely sensitive to stress, adequate care was taken to ensure a stress-
free mounting of the samples.
Accurate values of saturation magnetization, M,, at different temperatures are de-
duced from a detailed lineshape analysis s of the FMR spectra. With M,(Hr6,, T) -=
@ 1994 American Institute of Physics 309
310 Scaling Behavior of Magnetization
M(H,T) and H~, identified with the ordering field H conjugate to M (-ffi M,), the
M(H,T) data are found 2 to satidy the waling equation of state (SES)
m = f (1)
where plus and mln~ls Slanmt refer to T > Tv and T < Tc and rn ffi M/[e[ p and h ffi
H/lelP+~ are the ,~ded masnet~atlon and scaled field, respectively, and e -- (T-
Tc)/Tv. A more rigorous test of whether or not the critical exponents and Tv are
accurately determined is provided by the SF_~ of the form
m' = :~=~ + b, (hl~) (~)
which also allows determination of the a'itical amplitudes mo = a~/2 and ho/mo =
=+/b+, defined by
u.(d = ~o(-d p, ~ < 0 (3)
and
X2(d = (h./'~-) ~-~, ~ > 0 (4)
The m 2 versus h/m sca~ag plots for a few representative concentrations are shown
in Fig. 1. The intercepts on the ordinate and the abscissa of the universal curves give
the critical amplitudes. The values of the critical exponents fl (---0.384- 0.02) and ~f (=
1.38 4- 0.03) obtained from the SES analysis are dose to the 3D Heisenberg values and
are found to be isdcpendelt of the composition. If he is an =~erafe eMective elementary
moment involved in the FM-PM phase transition, the ratio #,Hho/kBTv = 1.58, the 3D
Hekeuberg value, since the exponents pmsess 3D Hekenberg values. The concentration
of such effective moments equals the fraction of spins participating in the FM-PM phase
transition and is give~x by
where/to is the average magnetic moment per alloy atom at OK. The variation of #ey!
and c with Co concentration strong]y indicates that only a small fraction of the moments
(11% for x=O) partidpates in the PM-FM transition and the variation of c with Co
concentration = can be described by an empirical relation c(=) - r -~ az =.
The FMR linewidth, AHM, , has two main contributions given by/XH0, which is
independent of the microwave frequency u, and/XHLr.o, which lure a linear dependeace
on U. Thus, ZkH~,(v,T) is given by
ZkH~,0,, T) = ~T/o(T) + LkHz~o(v,T) (6)
The first term arises from magnetic inhomoge~eities and multi-magnon scattering mech-
anlmms, which is weaJdy temperature-dependent, whereas the second term = 1.45)~0~/72
[M,(T)] -~ re~t. from the Landau-L~h't~Gabert (LLG) ~meon m~,-~--. In
the critical region, the LLG term dominates (Fig. 2) over the other terms. The LLG
dampi~ parameter, ~, and the Land6 splitting factor, 9, turn out to be independent
of temperature in the critical region. While ~ decreases with = from 5.0xl0Sser -~ for
= = 0 to 2.1xl0Ssec -z for = = 10, g remains constant at a value g = 2.074-0.03.
V. Siruguri et al. 311
5
3 x-lO
2 -- ~-- "~5 2
~_ 31" x='6 _~gJ ja~-'~ I
o 4
go' x= ,o
"r'51- ~ .---12 ~ r'~ I
..s t _ r
45i l- i , il 9 2 3 4 5 6 2
M'-I (10-= G-I) xffiO
0 1 2 3 4 5
Fig. 1. FMRlinewidth, &Hm,, plotted ,g&inst h/m (10 4)
hwegse saturation m~et~fion in the ~m~rs-
ture int~ -0.0|<_ ~ <_0~| for s-~_.~.Zrt0 ~. ~. m= - ~e - A/m pbt, for ~F~_.Co.gno
~s. The st~_~t ~es ~ t~u~ the d~a d~ constru~ runs Ms(T) d~a d~u~ ~m
~in~ ~reseat ~usree fit to the &H~T) the PMR s~rs reco~ M ~ffet-ent
data ~ on ~. (6). tures in the ~ti~ resin.
To conclude, the critical exponemts for &Fem..=Co=Zrlo alloys are r
eitios-isdepeBde~t and possess values that are close to the 3D Heisenl>erg values. The
fraction of spins participating in the FM-PM phase transition is very small (~11% for
= = 0) and increases with z. The LLG relAY~tion mecbanlmm dominantly contributes
to the FMR iinewidth in the critical region because of its M7 ~ dependence. Both the
Land~ factor g and Gilbert parameter )~ are tentperatlre-isdepeBde~t but A decreases
1. S.NJ(anl, J. Phys. F18, 2089 (1988).
2. S2~J(anl and PJ)J~abu, Phys Rev. B45, 295 (1992).
3. S~J~au] and V.Sirugurl, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 4, 505 (1992),
|
1.5050916.pdf | J. Appl. Phys. 125, 103902 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5050916 125, 103902
© 2019 Author(s).Definition of the interlayer interaction type
in magnetic multilayers analyzing the shape
of the ferromagnetic resonance peaks
Cite as: J. Appl. Phys. 125, 103902 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5050916
Submitted: 03 August 2018 . Accepted: 18 February 2019 . Published Online: 08 March 2019
O. G. Udalov
, A. A. Fraerman , and E. S. Demidov
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Cite as: J. Appl. Phys. 125, 103902 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5050916
View Online
Export Citation
CrossMar k
Submitted: 3 August 2018 · Accepted: 18 February 2019 ·
Published Online: 8 March 2019
O. G. Udalov,1,2,a)
A. A. Fraerman,2and E. S. Demidov3
AFFILIATIONS
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, California State University, Northridge, California 91330, USA
2Institute for Physics of Microstructures RAS, Nizhny Novgorod 603950, Russia
3Physics Department, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod 603950, Russia
a)oleg.udalov@csun.edu
ABSTRACT
We present a theoretical study of the ferromagnetic resonance in a system of two coupled magnetic layers. We show that an interaction
between the layers leads to the occurrence of the so-called Fano resonance. The Fano resonance changes the shape of the ferromagnetic res-
onance peak. It introduces a peak asymmetry. The asymmetry type is de fined by the sign of the interaction between the magnetic layers.
Therefore, by studying the shape of the ferromagnetic resonance peaks, one can de fine the type of the interlayer coupling (ferromagnetic or
antiferromagnetic).
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5050916
I. INTRODUCTION
Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) is a powerful tool for study-
ing the magnetic multilayer structures.1–10The FMR method allows
one to obtain the information on the magnetization magnitude andmagnetic anisotropy of each layer. It can be used for studying theinterlayer coupling. A lot of e fforts were spent on investigation of
the coupling in the systems with magnetic layers separated by a
metallic non-magnetic spacer.
1,8,11–15In this case, the interlayer
coupling is strong enough. This makes it relatively easy to de fine
the coupling sign and magnitude studying shifts of FMR peaks.
The situation is di fferent for systems where ferromagnetic
films are separated by an insulating spacer. In this case, the inter-
layer coupling is much weaker,16–19leading to a small shift of the
FMR peak which is of the same order or even less than the reso-nance linewidth. While the FMR method is applicable in this case,
4
people mostly use the magneto-optical Kerr e ffect to study the cou-
pling in multilayers with an insulator spacer.16–19It is important to
mention that both methods require several samples to register the
shift and to study the interaction.
Note that there are at least two types of interlayer couplings in
multilayers. The first one is the exchange coupling16–19which isisotropic. This kind of coupling can be studied using the in-plane
orientation of an external magnetic field. The second interaction
type is the dipole-dipole “orange-peel ”effect.20,21This coupling is
anisotropic. When magnetization of the layers is in-plane, the“orange-peel ”effect favors a ferromagnetic arrangement. For the
out-of-plane orientation of the magnetization, the dipole-dipole
coupling is antiferromagnetic. To study the anisotropic interaction(with Magneto-optical Kerr e ffect (MOKE) or FMR method) one
needs to perform measurements for both the orientations of themagnetic field. The magnitude of the field in the out-of-plane
geometry is much higher than that in the in-plane. Since the e ffect
of the interlayer interaction ~Jis of the order of ~J=H
ext/C281 (where
Hextis the external field), it is hard to observe it in the out-of-plane
geometry. Therefore, an alternative method is desirable.
In the present work, we propose a novel approach for
defining the interlayer interaction sign and magnitude. The
approach is based on studying the FMR peak shape rather thanthe shift. We will show that the interaction induces an FMR peakasymmetry. Such an asymmetry can be considered as the Fanoresonance
22in a magnetic multilayer. Studying the shape of this
asymmetry, one can de fine the interaction sign and magnitude.
Such a method is particularly useful when resonance frequenciesJournal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 125, 103902 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5050916 125, 103902-1
Published under license by AIP Publishing.of two interacting layers are close to each other. As we will
show, it also allows studying the interlayer coupling in the case
when the external magnetic field and magnetization are out of the
sample plane.
Studying the interaction sign and magnitude with the conven-
tional method based on the FMR peaks shift requires a reference
sample without the interlayer interaction. This allows us to measure
the peak shift. The approach based on the peak shape does not havesuch a disadvantage. One can de fine the interaction sign and magni-
tude using a single sample.
The paper is organized as follows. In Sec. II, we analyze a sim-
plified model in which two magnetic moments are placed into a
strong magnetic field. Such a model allows analytical consideration
providing insight into the physics behind the FMR peak shape(asymmetry). In Sec. III, we study the numerically magnetic bilayer
system (NiFe/Co) with an arbitrary orientation of the external mag-
netic field.
II. SIMPLIFIED MODEL
In this section, we consider a simpli fied model of two coupled
magnetic moments. We calculate dissipation (FMR signal) in this
system and demonstrate how the asymmetric peak of absorption
appears. Consider two ferromagnetic (FM) films with uniform
magnetizations M
1,2(seeFig. 1 ). For simplicity, we assume that the
magnetic moments of both layers are the same jM1,2j¼M0. There
is a uniaxial anisotropy in each film along the z-axis. It can be
induced by a demagnetizing field or by an internal anisotropy.
The anisotropy constants are λ1,2. An external magnetic field
Hext¼H0z0is applied to the system. There is also a weak high-
frequency alternating field along the x-axis h(t)¼h(t)x0. Magnetic
films interact with each other. The interaction energy is given by
the expression
Eint¼/C0 ~J(M1M2): (1)
We linearize the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equations for
both magnetic moments M1,2in the vicinity of equilibriumpositions M1,2¼M0z0. The equations take the form
_m1x¼/C0H1m1y/C0J(m1y/C0m2y)/C0~α1_m1y,
_m1y¼H1m1x/C0J(m2x/C0m1x)þ~α1_m1x/C0h,
_m2x¼/C0H2m2yþJ(m1y/C0m2y)/C0~α2_m2y,
_m2y¼H2m2xþJ(m2x/C0m1x)þ~α2_m2x/C0h:8
>><
>>:(2)
Here, m1,2are the corrections to the equilibrium magnetizations
normalized by M0, the magnitude of the e ffective field acting on
the layers are H1,2¼γ(H0þ2λ1,2M0),J¼γ~Jis the interaction
constant multiplied by the gyromagnetic ratio γ. The renormalized
damping constants are ~α1,2. The system equation (2)can be trans-
formed into two second order equations of the form
€m1xþα1_m1xþω2
1m1x¼A1m2xþD1_m2xþh1,
€m2xþα2_m2xþω2
2m2x¼A2m1xþD2_m1xþh2,/C26
(3)
where we introduced the following notations:
α1,2¼2~α1,2(H1,2þJ)
1þ~α2
1,2/C252~α1,2(H1,2þJ),
ω2
1,2¼(H1,2þJ)2þJ2
1þ~α2
1,2/C25H2
1,2þ2JH1,2,
A1,2¼(H1þH2)Jþ2J2
1þ~α2
1,2/C25(H1þH2)J,
D1,2¼J(~α1þ~α2)
1þ~α2
1,2/C250,
h1,2¼H1,2hþ~α1,2_h
1þ~α2
1,2/C25H1,2h:(4)
Equation (3)describes the system of two coupled oscillators
with the resonant frequencies ω1,2. There are two types of cou-
pling between the oscillators. We assume that the damping is
weak ( ~α1,2/C281, or α1,2/C28ω1,2for the case of weak coupling),
which is often the case for ferromagnets. In this limit, one canneglect the dissipative coupling terms D
1,2_m1,2x.A l s o ,t h e
retarded external excitation ~α1,2_hcan be omitted. For our pur-
poses, we can also neglect ~α2
1,2in denominators in Eqs. (4).W e
assume that the coupling between the films Jis weak compar-
ing to the e ffective fields H1,2. Therefore, we keep only the
t e r m sl i n e a ri n J.
A response of the system to a periodic external fieldh1,2¼
h(0)
1,2eiωtcan be represented as m1,2x(t)¼m1,2eiωt. The complex
amplitudes m1,2are given by
m1¼(ω2
2/C0ω2þiα2ω)h(0)
1þA1h(0)
2
(ω2
2/C0ω2þiα2ω)(ω2
1/C0ω2þiα1ω)/C0A1A2,
m2¼(ω2
1/C0ω2þiα1ω)h(0)
2þA2h(0)
1
(ω2
2/C0ω2þiα2ω)(ω2
1/C0ω2þiα1ω)/C0A1A2:8
>>><
>>>:(5)
FIG. 1. A model system. Two magnetic moments placed in an external mag-
netic fieldHext. An alternating magnetic fieldhis applied perpendicular to Hext.
M1,2shows equilibrium orientation of the magnetic moments.Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 125, 103902 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5050916 125, 103902-2
Published under license by AIP Publishing.A. Layers with essentially different damping, but the
same resonant frequencies
Let us now further simplify our consideration assuming that
α2¼0 and ω1¼ω2. This means that H1¼H2,h(0)
1¼h(0)
2, and
A1¼A2¼A. Next, we assume that the interaction is weak com-
paring to the damping ( α1/C29A=ω1or~α1/C29γ~J=ω1). In this case,
the oscillation amplitude of the first layer magnetization is given by
jm1j2¼[(ω2
2/C0ω2)þA]2(h(0)
2)2
(ω2
2/C0ω2þA)2(ω2
2/C0ω2/C0A)2þω2α2
1(ω2
2/C0ω2)2:(6)
In the case of no interaction ( A¼0), we have an ordinarily reso-
nance peak with the frequency ω2/C0α2
1=(4ω2)¼ω2(1/C0~α2).
Introduction of the finite interaction Aleads to an additional shift
of the peak, but we can neglect it when α1/C29A=ω1(~α1/C29γ~J=ω1).
Thefinite interaction is also responsible for the appearance of two
peculiar points at ω¼ω2+A=(2ω2)¼ω2+γ~J. At the point
ω¼ω2/C0A=(2ω2)¼ω2/C0γ~J, the amplitude reaches its maximum.
Oppositely, the oscillation amplitude goes to zero at the frequencyω¼ω
2þA=(2ω2)¼ω2þγ~J. Such a reduction of the oscillation
amplitude is called the dynamical damping and is very well known
in the oscillation theory.23–25Two periodic forces act on the the
magnetic moment m1. The first one is due to the external field and
the second one is due to the interaction with the second magneticlayer. Phases of the forces depend on frequency. When the phase
difference is π, the forces cancel each other. Such a cancellation
appears at ω¼ω
2þA=(2ω2) and therefore, m1does not oscillate
at this frequency. At ω¼ω2/C0A=(2ω2), these two forces are in
phase leading to enhancement of oscillations. Finally, the shape ofthe resonance peak is distorted and the peak asymmetry appears.
Such a peculiarity in the frequency dependence of the oscillation
amplitude is well known as the Fano resonance.
22
When we take finiteα2into account, there is no full damping
and the amplitude is not zero, but one still has the minimum at
ω¼ω2þA=(2ω2) and the maximum at ω¼ω2/C0A=(2ω2).
Important feature here is that if one changes the interaction
sign the minimum and maximum switch their positions. For A,0
(antiferromagnetic (AFM) interaction), the dynamical dampingappears below ω
2.F o r A.0 (FM interaction), the dynamical
damping appears above ω2. This feature can be used for de fining the
interaction sign.
Figure 2 demonstrates behavior of jm1j2as a function of nor-
malized frequency ( ω=ω2). Damping constant is ~α1¼0:05. The
solid red curve shows the case of zero interaction, ~J¼0. In this
case, there are no peculiarities in the amplitude behavior. Blue
dashed curve in Fig. 2 shows jm1j2forfinite AFM interaction
γ~J=ω2¼/C01:5/C110/C04. These parameters are within the limitations
of the present simpli fied model. One can easily see the asymmetry
of the resonant peak. According to our consideration, the dynami-
cal damping occurs in this case below ω2. Note that the curve is
plotted for finite α2and therefore instead of zero amplitude at
ω¼ω2(1/C0~α2
1), we have finite oscillations. The dynamical
enhancement appears at ω¼ω2(1þ~α2
1). Dash-dotted green line
shows jm1j2for positive FM interaction γ~J=ω2¼1:5/C110/C04. One
can see that the Fano resonance (asymmetry) is re flected withrespect to ω¼ω2in this case. So, the shape of the peak is clearly
different for di fferent signs of the interlayer interaction.
Closing this section, we have to mention that the Fano reso-
nance disappears if the dissipation is the same in both layers. This
happens because the coupled oscillators become the same and theirmutual in fluence is the same. In the simpli fied model (the case
considered in this section), we fixed the same magnetization and
anisotropy of the layers. Therefore, the only di fference between the
oscillators occurs due to di fferent damping constants. In real
systems, the coupled magnetic films may have di fferent magnetiza-
tions or thicknesses or other parameters. This should also inducedifference of the oscillators and lead to appearance of the peak
asymmetry.
B. Layers with essentially different resonant
frequencies
Similar behavior occurs when the resonant frequencies of two
layers are not the same. The Fano resonance appears around the
resonant frequency of the layer with lower dissipation. Again, thesign of the interlayer interaction de fines the shape ( “direction ”)o f
the Fano resonance. Figure 3 shows the amplitude jm
1j2as a func-
tion of normalized frequency ( ω=ω1)a tω2=ω1¼1:01,~α1¼0:015
and ~α2¼5/C110/C04,γ~J=ω1¼0,+1:5/C110/C04.
It is important to note that the Fano peculiarity disappears as
the resonance frequencies become far from each other and there isno overlap between the FMR peaks.
C. Absorption
In the FMR experiment, the measured quantity Wis the
absorption or imaginary part of the system response
W=ω¼M
0h(0)Im(m1xþm2x)/differenceα1jm1xj2þα2jm2xj2:(7)
Figure 4 shows the absorption as a function of normalized fre-
quency ( ω=ω1) for two interacting magnetic moments, where ω1¼
ω2are the resonance frequencies, dissipation constants are
FIG. 2. Amplitude of the magnetization of the first layer jm1j2as a function of
frequency ω. The red line is for the zero interlayer coupling ( ~J¼0). The blue
dashed line is for the finite AFM interaction ( ~J,0). The green dash-dotted line
corresponds to ~J.0. The black line shows the amplitude of the second layer
oscillation jm2j2(reduced 10 times to make it comparable to jm1j2).Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 125, 103902 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5050916 125, 103902-3
Published under license by AIP Publishing.~α1¼5/C110/C04,~α2¼0:01,γ~J=ω1¼0,+2:5/C110/C03. One can see
that at zero interaction, the absorption peak is symmetric, while forfinite interaction, the peak asymmetry appears. Here, the asymme-
try is de fined by the interlayer interaction sign.
III. NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS
In Sec. II, on the basis of the simpli fied model, it was shown
that the FMR peak asymmetry arises due to a weak interaction of
the magnetic layers. The frequency dependencies of FMR signal
were studied which was relevant for comparison of magnetic multi-layer systems with other systems showing the Fano resonances. Inthe FMR experiment, the field dependence is ordinarily measured
at afixed frequency of alternating field.
Besides, in the model, a limit of strong field was considered in
which magnetizations M
1,2were co-directed with each other and
with the external field. In a real FMR experiment, the magnitude of
the external field is limited. Therefore, the coincidence of resonancefields of the magnetic layers ( Hr1/C25Hr2) may appear in the situa-
tion when the external magnetic field and the equilibrium magnetic
moments of the layers are not co-directed. The analytical solutionof the problem in this situation is not feasible. Therefore, here wepresent numerical demonstration of the FMR peak asymmetry in arealistic situation.
We use a well known numerical algorithm to solve the LLG
equations for magnetic films.
1,26The system energy is given by
E¼EZþEDþEAþEint, (8)
where the Zeeman energy is
EZ¼/C0X
i¼1,2di(MiHext), (9)
the magneto-dipole shape anisotropy is
ED¼X
i¼1,22πdiM2
icos2(θi), (10)
the uniaxial anisotropy is
EA¼X
i¼1,2diKicos2(θi): (11)
Here, θ1,2are the polar angles of magnetizations (see Fig. 5 ). Note
that the FMR spectrum is obtained at a strong magnetic field.
Therefore, there are no domains in the system and we can treat themagnetization as uniform. The external magnetic fieldH
extis
inclined by an angle θHwith respect to the sample normal. Kis the
anisotropy constant. Equilibrium angles of magnetizations θ(0)
1,2are
defined by minimization of system energy equation (8). We use the
parameters approximately corresponding to the NiFe/I/Co
FIG. 4. Absorption W[Eq. (7)] as a function of frequency ω. The case of equal
resonant frequencies of the magnetic layers is shown. The red line is for the
zero interlayer interaction ( ~J¼0). The blue solid line is for finite FM interaction
(~J.0). The green dash-dotted line corresponds to finite AFM interaction
(~J,0).
FIG. 5. System geometry used in our numerical modeling. Two magnetic layers
(NiFe and Co) with thicknesses d1,2are placed in an external magnetic field
Hext. The field makes angle θHwith the layers normal. The alternating magnetic
fieldhis applied perpendicular to Hext. Equilibrium magnetic moments M1,2
make angles θ(0)
1,2with the normal.
FIG. 3. Amplitude of the magnetization of the first layer jm1j2as a function of
frequency ω. The case when the resonant frequencies of the layers are different.
The red line is for the zero interlayer coupling ( ~J¼0). The blue dashed line is
for the finite AFM interaction ( ~J,0). The green dash-dotted line corresponds
to the finite FM interaction ( ~J.0).Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 125, 103902 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5050916 125, 103902-4
Published under license by AIP Publishing.magnetic bilayer. Such a system is a good candidate for veri fication
of the method that we propose in the present work, since it can
also be studied by conventional methods (shift-based FMR andMOKE). The thickness of NiFe and Co is the same d¼1 nm.
The g-factors are g
1,2¼2, the frequency of the alternating field
isω¼9:5 GHz, the saturation magnetizations are M1¼325 G
and M2¼1420 G, the uniaxial anisotropy constants are
K1¼/C07:5/C1105G/C1Oe and K2¼4/C1106G/C1Oe, and the damping
parameters are α1¼0:006 and α2¼0:04.
Figure 6 shows the behaviour of equilibrium magnetization
angles as a function of the external field magnitude at θH¼5:8/C14.
Thefield magnitude and angle are chosen in the region where we
will observe the FMR peak asymmetry. One can easily see that theequilibrium magnetic moments are not co-directed with each otherand with the magnetic field.
Figure 7 shows the dependence of the FMR signal as a func-
tion of the external magnetic field magnitude [ W(H
ext)] at a fixed
frequency of the alternating field. The upper and lower panels cor-
respond to di fferent signs of the exchange interaction ~J¼+0:001
J=m2.E a c h figure shows several plots for di fferent angles θHof the
applied field. We consider two films made of di fferent materials.
Therefore, the FMR peaks may occur at di fferent resonant fields.
One sees two separate resonances corresponding to NiFe and Colayers at the angles θ
H.6:5/C14andθH,5:5/C14. The NiFe peak is the
narrow one and the Co peak is the wide one. There is no peak
asymmetry when the NiFe and Co peaks are far from each other.
This is in agreement with our analytical model.
However, changing the angle of the applied field one shifts the
resonance field of NiFe and Co films Hr1,2. Since the magnetic
anisotropy of these films is quite di fferent Hr1,2(θH) the dependen-
cies are not the same and intersect with each other at a certain
angle θH. One can see that the peaks overlap at the angle
θH/C255:9/C14. In this case, the asymmetry appears. Comparing upper
an lower panel, one can see that the peak asymmetry is di fferent
for FM and AFM interaction. Therefore, one can de fine the interac-
tion sign by measuring FMR spectrum at conditions of intersection
of peaks. If the slope of the narrow peak is higher on the left side,
FIG. 6. Equilibrium angles θ(0)for Co and NiFe layers as a function of external
field magnitude. The external field is applied by the angle θH¼5:8 deg with
respect to the sample normal.
FIG. 7. FMR spectrum (absorbed power Was a function of the external field
magnitude Hext) obtained numerically for NiFe/Co system. (a) FM interlayer
interaction ~J¼0:001 J =m2. (b) AFM interlayer interaction ~J¼/C0 0:001 J =m2.
Different curves in the same plot correspond to different inclination angles of the
external magnetic fieldθH. The curves for different θHare shifted with respect
to each other for better visibility.
FIG. 8. FMR spectrum (the derivative of absorbed power dW=dHextas a func-
tion of the external field magnitude Hext) obtained numerically for the NiFe/Co
system for different exchange coupling constants ~J¼/C0 0:001 J =m2(black solid
line), ~J¼0J=m2(green dashed line), ~J¼0:0005 J =m2(blue solid line),
~J¼0:001 J =m2(red solid line and blue squares), ~J¼0:002 J =m2( purple
dash-dotted line).Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 125, 103902 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5050916 125, 103902-5
Published under license by AIP Publishing.the interaction is FM. If the slope is higher on the right side, the
interaction is AFM. The extent of the asymmetry can be used fordefining the magnitude of the interaction.
A. The procedure de fining the interlayer coupling
Generally, the procedure for studying the interaction can be
the following: (1) one calculates the resonance fields for both mag-
netic layers as a function of the angle of the external field, and
finds the orientation at which these fields are the same. At this step
one can consider the films as non-interacting. (2) One measures
the FMR spectrum applying the external field at the angle found at
the previous step. (3) One fits the experimental data using the
numerical simulations taking the interlayer interaction into
account, and estimates the sign and the magnitude of the coupling.
Figure 8 illustrates the third step of the procedure. It shows
“experimental ”(which in our case is a result of numerical model-
ing) FMR signal for NiFe/Co interacting system (open squares,
J¼0:001 J/m
2). This time we plot not the absorption itself, but its
derivative with respect to magnetic field magnitude. This plot is
more easy to use for fitting of experimental data. There is an asym-
metry of the FMR spectrum. The asymmetry shows itself as a
difference in the height of the peak and deep of the narrow line
(left peak amplitude is higher than the right deep amplitude). Thisdifference corresponds to di fferent left and right slopes of the
narrow peak shown, for example, in Fig. 7 . Solid lines in Fig. 8
show FMR spectrum calculated for di fferent exchange interactions
between the films. If we take zero interaction (dashed green line),
the peak and deep heights are the same, meaning that there is nocoupling. If we take negative interaction (black line), we get oppo-site asymmetry (peak amplitude is lower than the amplitude of thedeep). If one takes positive small (twice smaller, J¼0:0005 J/m
2)
interaction, the asymmetry is small comparing to the “experiment ”
(see solid blue line). If one takes twice stronger interaction (dot-dashed purple line, J¼0:002 J/m
2), the asymmetry is too high.
Finally, taking the right magnitude of the coupling, one gets good
fit of the data (solid red line) and de fine the sign and the magni-
tude of the coupling.B. Discussion
We consider here the films with the same thickness. The
dependence of the asymmetry on the ratio of the thickness
requires a more detailed investigation. However, some trends can
be easily understood without a modeling. If one film is much
thicker than the other, this film mostly contributes to the FMR
signal. Here, the interaction does not in fluence this film.
Therefore, one can not observe the coupling (asymmetry) in this
case. So, to observe the coupling, it is better to study the films
with similar thickness.
As we mentioned previously, there should be di fferent dissi-
pations in films to observe the asymmetry. If the materials of
which the films are made have similar dissipation constants, one
can tune the damping constant in one of the films by adding a Pt
layer on top of it. It was demonstrated that the interfacialspin-orbit interaction in this case enhances the dissipation in amagnetic film.
27,28
We investigate numerically the dependence of the FMR
spectra on the damping constant of magnetic films. Figure 9 dem-
onstrates the FMR absorption of the NiFe/Co magnetic bilayer withthe FM interlayer interaction, ~J¼0:001 J/m
2. Three di fferent
angles of the external field are studied. At these angles, the reso-
nance fields of both NiFe and Co layers are approximately the
same. We change the ratio of damping constants of these filmsα1
andα2. One can see that when the ratio α2=α1is 2 or 3, the asym-
metry is seen for all angles.
Interestingly, that even in the case of equal damping constant,
there is some asymmetry at angle θH¼5:9/C14andθH¼5:95/C14.
IV. CONCLUSION
We considered the FMR resonance in two coupled magnetic
layers. We showed that the interaction between these layers leads tothe occurrence of the so-called Fano resonance. The Fano reso-nance shows as a peculiarity in the absorption spectrum of the
coupled system. In particular, the resonance peak becomes asym-
metric. The asymmetry type is de fined by the sign of the
FIG. 9. FMR spectrum (absorbed power Was a function of the external field magnitude Hext) obtained numerically for NiFe/Co system for different damping constants α1
andα2. There is a positive (FM) interaction between the films ( ~J¼0:001 J =m2). (a) The external field angle is θH¼5:85/C14, (b)θH¼5:9/C14, (c)θH¼5:95/C14.Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 125, 103902 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5050916 125, 103902-6
Published under license by AIP Publishing.interaction between the layers. One can use the asymmetry to dis-
tinguish between FM and AFM interlayer coupling. Generally,
using numerical simulations, one can even estimate a magnitude ofthe interaction fitting the asymmetric FMR peak.
As a final remark, we would like to mention that in our work,
we considered the isotropic interaction equation (1). Such an equa-
tion describes the exchange coupling. However, many experiments
evidence that in magnetic multilayer systems, there is also themagneto-dipole coupling called the orange-peel e ffect. In contrast
to the exchange coupling, the orange-peel e ffect is anisotropic and
described by a di fferent equation.
20The anisotropy will lead to the
angular dependence of the coupling constant J¼J(θH). This pecu-
liarity can be used for distinguishing between the exchange cou-pling and the orange-peel e ffect. This opportunity requires further
investigation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was supported by the State Program
0035-2018-0022 and the RAS program “Electronic spin resonance,
spin-dependent phenomena and spin technologies. ”
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Published under license by AIP Publishing. |
1.3671632.pdf | Hysteretic spin-wave excitation in spin-torque oscillators as a function of
the in-plane field angle: A micromagnetic description
G. Finocchio, A. Prattella, G. Consolo, E. Martinez, A. Giordano et al.
Citation: J. Appl. Phys. 110, 123913 (2011); doi: 10.1063/1.3671632
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3671632
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Downloaded 03 Oct 2013 to 128.233.210.97. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsHysteretic spin-wave excitation in spin-torque oscillators as a function
of the in-plane field angle: A micromagnetic description
G. Finocchio,1,a)A. Prattella,1G. Consolo,2E. Martinez,3A. Giordano,1
and B. Azzerboni1
1Dipartimento di Fisica della Materia e Ingegneria Elettronica, University of Messina, Salita Sperone 31,
98166 Messina, Italy
2Dipartimento di Scienze per l’Ingegneria e l’Architettura, University of Messina, C.da di Dio, 98166 Messina,
Italy
3Departamento de Fisica Aplicada, University of Salamanca, Plaza de la Merced s/n, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
(Received 8 September 2011; accepted 18 November 2011; published online 23 December 2011)
This paper describes a full micromagnetic characterization of the magnetization dynamics driven
by spin-polarized current in anisotropic spin-torque oscillators (STOs). For field angles approaching
the hard in-plane axis, the excited mode is uniform and a super-critical Hopf-bifurcation takes placeat the critical current density J
C. For field angles close to the easy axis of the free layer, the excited
mode is localized (non-uniform) and a sub-critical Hopf-bifurcation occurs at JC. In this
latter region, a hysteretic behaviour is, therefore, found. We demonstrate numerically that thenon-linearities of the STO are strongly reduced when the oscillation frequency at the critical
current is near the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) frequency computed at zero bias current, and
in particular, this condition corresponds to the field orientation at which a minimum in theFMR-frequency is achieved.
VC2011 American Institute of Physics . [doi: 10.1063/1.3671632 ]
I. INTRODUCTION
The discovery that the spin-transfer torque can drive per-
sistent oscillations of the magnetization of a nanomagnet in
the GHz range1,2has been giving the possibility to use spin-
valves,3point-contact geometries,4and magnetic tunnel junc-
tions5as high frequency tuneable oscillators (spin-torque
oscillators (STOs)). The behaviour of these devices has been
extensively studied in the last decade experimentally,6–8ana-
lytically,9,10and numerically.11,12The STOs are strongly
non-linear because of the coupling between the oscillation fre-
quency x¼2pfand the oscillation power ( p)(xðpÞ).13,14
This coupling results in an enhancement of the STO-linewidth
in the presence of thermal fluctuations since the power noise
in turn induces a frequency noise.15Experimentally, it has
been demonstrated that most of the dynamical properties of a
STO can be controlled via an external magnetic field. For
example, in point contact geometries, the direction and theamplitude of the external field determines the nature of the
spin-wave mode which is excited by a spin-polarized cur-
rent:
16propagating Slonczewski mode for out of plane bias
fields17and evanescent bullet mode for in-plane bias fields.18
In different geometries, such as spin-valves or magnetic tun-nel junctions having elliptical cross section or with uniaxialmagneto-crystalline anisotropy (anisotropic STOs), a strong
dependence of the linewidth as function of the direction of an
in-plane bias field has been observed.
19,20In general, the line-
width of a typical STO ( Dx) can be expressed as15
Dx¼C/C0ðpÞkBT
bp1þtðpÞ2/C16/C17
; (1)where C/C0ðpÞis the negative damping due to the spin polar-
ized current and tis the ratio between the non-linear
frequency shift N¼dxðpÞ
dpand the derivative of the effective
dampingdðCþ/C0C/C0Þ
dpwith respect to the power being CþðpÞthe
positive damping. Tand kBare the temperature and the
Boltzmann constant, respectively, while b¼xðpÞMSV0=cis
the power-energy proportionality coefficient. MSis the satu-
ration magnetization, V0is the free layer volume where the
oscillation takes place, and cis the gyromagnetic ratio. If the
applied current density Japproaches the critical current den-
sityJCneeded to excite persistent magnetization oscillations,
the relationship xðpÞcan be simply written as 2 pfðpÞ
¼2pf0þNpwhere f0is the oscillation frequency at the criti-
cal current. Analytical calculations21and measurements22
showed that the origin of the minimum linewidth corre-sponds to the situation at which the non-linear frequencyshift vanishes ( N¼0). In particular, as the field angle
approaches the in-plane hard axis direction, the physical
coupling between oscillation frequency and power tends todisappear. Previous micromagnetic simulations and computa-
tions based on complex Ginzburg-Landau equation showed
that this variation is related to a transition of the excitedmode from a non uniform to an uniform mode with a conse-
quent change of the magnetic volume V
0where the oscillation
takes place.19,23Here, we performed a complete numerical
experiment to fully understand the dynamical behaviour of an
anisotropic STOs as function of the bias field angle by consid-
ering the same experimental framework of Ref. 19.
Our main results can be summarized as follows. Simi-
larly to what observed in point contact geometries,16we
found a range of field angles where uniform and non uniformmodes are both excited and they are non-stationary in time.
For field angles approaching the hard in-plane axis, the
excited mode is uniform and a super-critical Hopf-bifurcationa)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:
gfinocchio@ingegneria.unime.it.
0021-8979/2011/110(12)/123913/6/$30.00 VC2011 American Institute of Physics 110, 123913-1JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 110, 123913 (2011)
Downloaded 03 Oct 2013 to 128.233.210.97. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionstakes place at JC. For field angles close to the easy axis of the
free layer, the excited mode is localized (non-uniform) and a
sub-critical Hopf-bifurcation occurs at JC. In this latter
region, a hysteretic behaviour is, therefore, found.
We also demonstrate numerically for the first time that
in proximity of the condition N/C250 (null tunability), the
oscillation frequency coincides with the ferromagnetic reso-
nance frequency ( fFMR) as predicted by analytical theory.10
II. NUMERICAL MODEL
We studied the magnetization dynamics driven by spin-
transfer-torque in exchange biased spin-valves, the active part
of spin-valve is composed by Py(4)/Cu(8)/Py(4)/IrMn(8)(Py¼Ni
81Fe19) (the thicknesses are in nm). The cross section
is elliptical with axes of 150 nm and 50 nm. In the following,
we refer to the exchange biased Py-layer acting as pinnedlayer by using the index pand to the single Py-layer (free
layer) with the index f. Our computations take also into
account the coupled magnetization dynamics ( m
fandmpare
the normalized magnetization vectors) of the two nanomag-
nets due to both magnetostatic field and spin-transfer-torque.
Our results are based on the numerical solution of theLandau-Lifshitz-Gilbert- Slonczewski (LLGS) equation
24,25
dmf
ds¼/C0 ð mf/C2heff/C0fÞþaGfmf/C2dmf
ds/C0Tðmp;mfÞ
dmp
ds¼/C0 ð mp/C2heff/C0pÞþaGpmp/C2dmp
ds/C0Tðmp;mfÞ8
><
>:;
(2)
where aGfandaGpare the damping parameters for the free
and pinned layer, respectively, ds¼cMSdtis the dimension-
less time step. We implemented the 3-dimentional general-
ization of the spin-torque formulation Tðmp;mfÞcomputed
by Slonczewski in 2002 for symmetric spin-valves,26in
which the free layer magnetization acts as the polarizer of
the pinned layer and vice versa
Tðmp;mfÞ¼glBjj
jejcM2
sJ
Lfeðmf;mpÞmf/C2ðmf/C2mpÞ
/C0J
Lpeðmp;mfÞmp/C2ðmp/C2mfÞ8
>><
>>:;(3)
where gis the gyromagnetic splitting factor, lBis the Bohr
magneton, eis the electron charge, Jis the current density,
LfandLpare the thicknesses of the free and pinned layer,
respectively, eðmp;mfÞ(eðmp;mfÞ¼eðmf;mpÞ) is the
polarization function given by
eðmp;mfÞ¼0:5PK2=1þK2þð1/C0K2Þmp/C15mf/C0/C1
;(4)
where P and K2are the torque parameters. The material pa-
rameters are: exchange constant A¼1.3 10/C011J/m and
MS¼650/C2103A/m for both the free and pinned layer and
damping parameters aGf¼0.025 and aGp¼0.2 for the free
and the pinned layer, respectively. The presence of the
exchange bias with an antiferromagnet increases the damp-ing by an order of magnitude.
27The torque parameters are
P¼0.38 and K2¼2.5, respectively (see Ref. 24for moredetails about the parameter values). The initial configuration
of the magnetization for each field value has been computed
by solving the Brown equation (with a residual of 10/C07)
mf/C2heff/C0f¼0
mp/C2heff/C0p¼0/C26
: (5)
For sub-threshold current densities (smaller than those
required to excite magnetization self-oscillation), the static
configuration is computed by solving a generalized expres-
sion of the Eq. (5)
mf/C2ðheff/C0f/C0rJeðmf;mpÞðmf/C2mpÞÞ ¼ 0
mp/C2ðheff/C0p/C0rJeðmf;mpÞðmp/C2mfÞÞ ¼ 0/C26
;(6)
where r¼glBjj
jejc0M2sd(Ref. 28).
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Here, we will focus on the description of the computa-
tional results due to an applied field with an amplitude of
100 mT. Similar qualitative results have been also observed
for fields from 90 mT to 140 mT. Fig. 1(a) summarizes the
value of the average x-component of the free layer (black
‘þ’) and the pinned layer (red ‘o’) as function of the in-
plane field angle b(see Fig. 1(a)). It is possible to identify
three different regions: (1) “collinear” for 0/C14<b/C2050/C14,
where the two magnetizations mpandmfat the equilibrium
are near to the parallel configuration, (2) “non-collinear” for
50/C14<b/C2095/C14where the offset angle between the equilib-
rium position of mpandmfis larger than 4/C14, and (3) “anti-
parallel” for b>95/C14(we simulated field angle up to
b¼125/C14) where the initial configuration of the magnetiza-
tions is close to the anti-parallel state. For positive currents,the magnetization dynamics is observed in the field angle
regions (1) and (2) only.
First of all, we studied the dependence of the critical
current (J
C)as function of the field angle ( b). Fig. 1(b) sum-
marizes the computations of the critical currents obtained
sweeping back and forth the current density from J¼0t o
J¼1.0/C2108A/cm2. For current densities J<JON, the mag-
netization is found to be in a static state S computed by solv-
ing the Eq. (6). When the current reaches the critical value
J¼JON, the magnetization is no longer static and a dynami-
cal state (D) is excited. The D state is also stable for sub-
critical values J<JONup to the value JOFF. For J<JOFF, the
D state disappears and the stable configuration S-state is
achieved. Our results show the presence of an hysteretic
region S/D.29Analytical computations based on Melnikov
theory point out for collinear configuration of the magnetiza-
tion, the coexistence of a limit cycle, and a fixed point of dy-
namics in the phase diagram for some range of field andcurrent amplitude.
9The bi-stability region S/D becomes
smaller as the field angle approaches 90/C14. The inset of Fig.
1(b) displays an example of frequency vs current density
hysteresis loop computed for b¼45/C14.
We characterized the dynamical properties of the STO by
also studying the power spectrum of the magnetization dynam-ics and the spatial distribution of the oscillation power within
the cross sectional area of the spin-valve. Figs. 2(a)–2(c) show123913-2 Finocchio et al. J. Appl. Phys. 110, 123913 (2011)
Downloaded 03 Oct 2013 to 128.233.210.97. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsthe power spectra computed at JONby means of the micromag-
netic spectral mapping technique30,31for different field angles:
(a)b¼45/C14,( b ) b¼60/C14, and (c) b¼87.5/C14. As found in previ-
ous micromagnetic simulations19and in computations based
on the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation,23also our numeri-
cal computations showed that, as the field angle bincreases,
the spatial distribution of the excited dynamical mode changes
from non-uniform to uniform (inset of Fig. 2(a)compared to
the inset of Fig. 2(c), the oscillation power increases from
white to black). The reason for the change of the spatial profile
of the excited mode can be understood qualitatively by consid-
ering the magnitude and direction of the spin-transfer torquesas a function of the field angle bin the case of collinear (orquasi-collinear) and non-collinear initial configuration of the
magnetization of the two ferromagnets. Since for each compu-
tational cell, the magnitude of spin torque is approximatelyproportional to sin h
i(where hiis the angle between the mag-
netization of the free and the pinned layer computed at the i-
micromagnetic cell), and in the non-collinear configuration,the spin torque acting on each spin of the free layer is relatively
large and the variations from one micromagnetic cell to
another are small. This situation of, a large, nearly uniformspin torque leads to a nearly coherent rotation of all spins of
the free layer and gives rise to the excitation of the uniform
mode. For the case of collinear configuration, the excitation ofa non uniform mode is due to the fact that the spin torque
FIG. 1. (Color online) (a) Average x-
component of the magnetization for the
two ferromagnets as function of the field
angle ( H¼100 mT). (b) Critical current
densities JONandJOFFfor the transition
from the S !D state and vice versa com-
puted as function of the field angle. Inset:
Example of frequency vs current densityhysteresis loop computed for b¼45
/C14. (c)
Trajectories of the average magnetiza-
tion of the free layer computed at JONfor
b¼45/C14and for b¼87.5/C14. (d) and (e)
projection of the trajectories of average
magnetization plotted in (c) in the x-z
plane and x-y plane, respectively.
FIG. 2. (Color online) Power spectra at JON
computed by mean of the micromagnetic
spectral mapping technique for (a) b¼45/C14,
(b)b¼60/C14,a n d( c ) b¼90/C14. The insets repre-
sent the power distribution of the excited
mode related, (the distributed power is nor-
malized (the maximum value in the power
spectrum coincides to one, see the colour scale
indicated in (a)) and increases from white to
black. (d) A comparison among the oscillationfrequency computed at J
ONandJOFFand the
ferromagnetic resonance frequency.123913-3 Finocchio et al. J. Appl. Phys. 110, 123913 (2011)
Downloaded 03 Oct 2013 to 128.233.210.97. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsacting on each micromagnetic cell is small and can vary in
direction because during the dynamical transient the micro-
magnetic state of the free magnetic layer can differ from anuniform configuration.
Our first result points out that the transition in term of
field angle between the excitation of a non-uniform mode toan uniform mode is not abrupt but there exists a narrow
range of field orientation where both uniform and non-
uniform mode are excited as displayed in the power spectraof Fig. 2(b) which was computed at J
ONforb¼60/C14(two
Lorentzian functions have been used to fit the peaks). A time
domain study based on wavelet analysis32points out that the
excitation of the two modes is non-stationary (not shown)
similarly to the results published in Ref. 16for point contact
geometries. Fig. 2(d) summarizes the oscillation frequency
atJONand JOFF as a function of the field angle, where
the frequency of the excited mode with largest power is
displayed.
The different qualitative behaviour of the magnetization
dynamics at 45/C14and 87.5/C14can be attributed to the different
Hopf bifurcation at JON. In particular, we identify, as sub-
critical Hopf bifurcation, the transition from S to D when the
excited mode is non-uniform.33This aspect is confirmed by
the finite oscillation power observed at the critical currentdensity (see Fig. 1(c)for the average normalized magnetiza-
tion trajectory at b¼45
/C14). From the theoretical point of
view, the presence of a sub-critical Hopf bifurcation givesrise in the bifurcation phase diagram to an hysteretic behav-
ior.
33As the field angle approaches the in-plane hard axis,
we identify the transition from S to D state as a super-criticalHopf bifurcation. The oscillation power at J
ONis close to
zero (see Fig. 1(c)for the average normalized magnetization
trajectory at b¼87.5/C14). Figs. 1(d) and1(e) display the pro-
jection of the two trajectories for b¼45/C14andb¼87.5/C14at
JONin the x-z and x-y plane, respectively. From physical
point of view, the key difference between the two Hopfbifurcation is related to the oscillation axis. While for sub-
critical Hopf bifurcations (non-uniform mode), the oscilla-
tion axis of the magnetization at J
ON(in the cell where the
mode is excited) is different from the equilibrium axis of the
magnetization and for super-critical Hopf bifurcations (uni-
form mode), the oscillation axis at JONcoincides with the
equilibrium configuration.
To take into account the presence of sub-critical Hopf
bifurcation in the usual spin-torque oscillator theory, theamplitude of the “dimensionless power” cannot be inter-
preted as the power of the spin wave mode.
10
In order to qualitative understand whether the spin-
torque-driven modes observed in our full micromagnetic sim-
ulations can be related to the normal modes (eigenmodes) of
the system, we apply the technique recently developed inRef. 34(compared to the full micromagnetic simulations, the
Oersted field, the dipolar coupling between pinned and free
layer, the spatial-time dependence of the polarization function,and the back spin-torque on the pinned layer have not been
taken into account). That technique allows to identify the nor-
mal modes of the ferromagnets which become unstable underthe action of non-conservative contributions, such as damping
and spin-transfer torque. It should be pointed out that can becaptured the only dynamics which takes place very close to
the excitation threshold, where the magnetization configura-
tion only slightly differ from that at equilibrium within a linearapproximation (very small magnetization trajectory).
By applying that technique to the setup of this paper,
our finding is that none of the sub-critical modes (modeswhich exhibit a finite power at the excitation threshold and
whose precessional trajectory is rather large) can be related
to the normal modes, these are non-linear modes and cannotbe classified as eigenmodes. In the supercritical case, on the
contrary, our computations confirm that the mode which is
excited at threshold is a normal mode and corresponds to theeigenmode which exhibits the lowest frequency (energy).
In some experimental data, a low frequency tail in the
measured power spectra is observed (see for example theFig.2(a)in the Ref. 19). Here, we demonstrate from our nu-
merical computations that the origin of the low frequency
tail is related to the co-existence of a limit cycle and a fixedpoint of dynamics in the phase diagram. In other words, there
exists an hopping of the magnetization between the S and the
D state in the time domain near a sub-critical Hopf bifurca-tion. The presence of this hopping is clearly observed also at
low temperature. Fig. 3summarizes our results computed for
J¼0.6/C210
8A/cm2,ab¼45/C14, and a temperature T¼25 K.
FIG. 3. Dynamical characterization of the x-component of the magnetiza-
tion computed at JONforb¼45/C14in presence of the thermal fluctuations
(T¼25 K): (a) time domain trace; (b) wavelet scalogram (the colorbar is
related to the amplitude of the wavelet transform); and (c) power spectrum.123913-4 Finocchio et al. J. Appl. Phys. 110, 123913 (2011)
Downloaded 03 Oct 2013 to 128.233.210.97. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsFig3(a) shows the time trace of the hmXi(the most signifi-
cant component for the giant-magneto-resistance signal),
while Fig. 3(b) displays the Wavelet transform of the time
traces in Fig. 3(a)computed by means of the complex Morlet
wavelet mother as described in Ref. 32, the color bar is
related to the amplitude of the wavelet coefficient (powerdensity increases from black to white). As can be clearly
observed, from 68 to 73 and from 77 to 80, the oscillation
output power (white) disappears indicating a static state, outof those time slots, a dynamical state is observed where the
instantaneous frequency (as defined for the Wavelet trans-
form)
35is modulated from the power and frequency noise
close to the zero-temperature oscillation frequency. Fig. 3(c)
shows the power spectrum computed by means of the micro-
magnetic spectral mapping where can be observed a low fre-quency tail also for a simulation long 500 ns at low
temperature ( T¼25 K) (as example, compare Fig. 2(a) of
Ref. 19to Fig. 3(a)). On the other hand, this hopping is not
observed close to the in-plane hard axis, in agreement with
the experimental data (not shown).
19We argue that this hop-
ping of the magnetization gives rise to the shape distortionand the linewidth enhancement observed near the critical
current in STOs with large non-linear frequency shift.
36–38
From the relationship between oscillation frequency and
power (parametric plot as function of the current density), it
is possible to identify the properties of STOs.10,39,40In those
devices, strong non-linearities correspond to a large slope ofthe curve xðpÞcomputed near the critical current. Recently,
we numerically demonstrated that for a fixed field angle, the
non-linearities of the oscillator can be tuned by means of theamplitude of the applied field, and an oscillation frequency
independent of the applied current density (and consequently
on the oscillation power) can be achieved.
41Fig.2(d) shows
a comparison between the oscillation frequency computed at
JON(fON) and JOFF(fOFF) and the fFMR.
The fFMR (Ref. 42) has been computed as response
of the system to a weak external ac current density of the
form J¼JMcosð2pfACtÞ(JM¼0.25/C2108A/cm2) (no bias
current density) computing the oscillation amplitude of theaverage x-component of the magnetization. Our numerical
results prove that exists a field angle region where the oscil-
lation frequency coincides (or it is very close) to the f
FMR
computed at zero bias current in agreement with the predic-
tion of analytical theory based on the universal model of
non-linear oscillators. As well known when the condition atwhich the non-linear frequency shift change its sign ( N/C250)
is achieved, a minimum in the linewidth is observed.
15,21
However, we point out that for the whole field angle region
where a super-critical Hopf-bifurcation is observed, the os-
cillation frequency at the critical current is very close to the
fFMReven if N/C290 being at JONthe oscillation power very
small.
For a given field amplitude, our results indicate that the
non-linearities of a STO is strongly reduced near a minimumin the f
FMR computed as function of the field angle “hard
angle” (which in general does not coincide with the hard axis
of the ellipse20) at zero bias current. This result could be
used as a systematic pre-processing tool to identify an opti-
mal STO configuration bias point.Fig.4(a)shows typical FMR-spectra computed for three
different angles b¼45/C14,b¼60/C14, and b¼87.5/C14. The larger
area of the curve near the in-plane hard axis is related to the
larger offset angle between the magnetization of the two fer-
romagnets (see Fig. 1(a)). The reduced non-linearity gives
also rise to a narrow linewidth FMR-spectra (see Fig. 4(b)).
The effect of spin-torque driven FMR can be used for appli-
cation such as microwave frequency detector43reaching very
large sensitivity comparable with the Shottky diode,44our
computations predict that the sensitivity at the hard angle
due to the non-collinear configuration of the pinned and freelayer is sensibly increased together to an improvement of the
selectivity (FMR-spectra with narrow linewidth). These
results can be used in the next generation of spin-torquediode based on anisotropic magnetic tunnel junction.
In summary, we performed a multidomain micromag-
netic study of the spin-wave properties excited in STOs asfunction of the in-plane field angle in exchange biased
spin-valves, characterizing their behaviour in term of self-
oscillations and FMR-spectra.
As the field angle approaches the in-plane hard axis of
the ellipse, the magnetization dynamics is characterized by a
transition of the exited mode from a non-uniform spatial dis-tribution (sub-critical Hopf bifurcation) to an uniform spatial
distribution (super-critical Hopf bifurcation). While the sub-
critical modes are non-linear, the super-critical modes canbe related to the eigenmode of the free layer with the lowest
frequency. We also find that in the field angle region where a
non-uniform mode is excited, a hysteretic behaviour isobserved as a function of the current density, and in presence
of thermal fluctuation in that region, a hopping between a
FIG. 4. (Color online) (a) Examples of FMR-spectra computed with no bias
current for three different angles b¼45/C14,b¼60/C14, and b¼90/C14; (b) linewidth
of the FMR spectrum as a function of the field angle.123913-5 Finocchio et al. J. Appl. Phys. 110, 123913 (2011)
Downloaded 03 Oct 2013 to 128.233.210.97. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsdynamical state and a static state can be achieve. We argue
that the origin of the linewidth enhancement and distortion
observed in some experimental data near the critical currentis related to the presence of this hysteretic region. At inter-
mediate angles, the magnetization is characterized by the
excitation of two modes in the power spectrum.
When the super-critical modes are excited at the critical
current, the oscillation frequency is very close to the f
FMR
even if the non-linear frequency shift is very large due to the
low oscillation power. We demonstrated numerically that the
non-linearities of the STO are strongly reduced, only when
the oscillation frequency at the critical current is near thef
FMRcomputed at zero bias current in the particular condition
which corresponds to the field orientation (hard angle) at
which a minimum in the fFMRis achieved (the non-linear fre-
quency shift change its sign). Finally, our computations pre-
dict that for applications such as resonant microwave
detection at the hard angle, the spin-torque diode present thelarger the sensitivity and the selectivity.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by Spanish Project under
Contract Nos. MAT2008-04706/NAN and SA025A08.
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1.3087748.pdf | Nonlinear electromagnetic response of ferromagnetic metals: Magnetoimpedance in
microwires
D. Seddaoui, D. Ménard, B. Movaghar, and A. Yelon
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 105, 083916 (2009); doi: 10.1063/1.3087748
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3087748
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/105/8?ver=pdfcov
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132.174.255.116 On: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:07:19Nonlinear electromagnetic response of ferromagnetic metals:
Magnetoimpedance in microwires
D. Seddaoui,1,a/H20850D. Ménard,1B. Movaghar,2and A. Yelon1
1Department of Engineering Physics and Regroupement Québécois sur les Matériaux de Pointe (RQMP),
Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal, CP 6079, Succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, Québec H3C 3A7,Canada
2Center for Quantum Devices, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science, Northwestern University,
Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA
/H20849Received 11 November 2008; accepted 22 January 2009; published online 23 April 2009 /H20850
Numerical calculations based on simultaneous solution of the Maxwell and Landau–Lifshitz
equations were performed, in order to study the voltage response of ferromagnetic conductorscarrying ac current. Since no significant approximations are made in the calculations, the modelyields both linear and nonlinear giant magnetoimpedance /H20849GMI /H20850behavior and low and high power
ferromagnetic resonance. Application to nonlinear GMI in ideal wires, with regions of uniformanisotropy, allows us to understand many aspects of the observed behavior and to predictphenomena such as solitary-wave-like propagation of the magnetization at fairly high currentamplitude. Using appropriate magnetic structure, we were able to reproduce, with good agreement,the experimental observations for cobalt rich amorphous microwires. We have also found that evenharmonics of GMI signal are very sensitive to the domain structure of the wire, whereas the oddharmonics are not. © 2009 American Institute of Physics ./H20851DOI: 10.1063/1.3087748 /H20852
I. INTRODUCTION
Calculation of the electromagnetic response of magnetic
metals in the linear continuum limit has been well estab-lished for over 50 years.
1,2The methodology of simulta-
neously solving Maxwell’s equations and the Landau–Lifschitz equation, and satisfying the appropriate boundaryconditions, was applied especially to ferromagnetic reso-nance /H20849FMR /H20850in films
1,2and later in wires3and more recently
to giant magnetoimpedance /H20849GMI /H20850/H20849see. Refs. 4–7and ref-
erences therein /H20850. When a dc magnetic field is applied parallel
to the axis of a very soft magnetic conductor, the ac imped-
ance Zis an extremely sensitive function of the field. First
reported in 1935 for NiFe alloy,8,9the effect was rediscov-
ered about 60 years later for ultrasoft magneticmicrowires
10–12and is now referred to as GMI. Such calcu-
lations are essentially analytic, even if numerical means areemployed for obtaining the solutions.
Over the past 15 years, there have been a vast number of
experimental studies of GMI, due to its promise for manyapplications, especially to low cost magnetic sensors. Whenthe applied sinusoidal current amplitude is relatively low, thevoltage response across the sample is sinusoidal, and theGMI is linear. Dynamic models for this regime are welldeveloped
4,6,7,13,14with various levels of approximation.15At
high current amplitude, distortions appear in the voltage,16–18
leading to the appearance of higher harmonics in the re-
sponse. In this case, the GMI is nonlinear /H20849NLGMI /H20850, and it is
sometimes referred to as magnetoinductance in the low fre-quency regime.
16The second harmonic signal is of particular
interest due to its extreme sensitivity to variations infield
19–22and stress.23,24It should also be mentioned that alarge fraction of experimental studies have been performed
under conditions of NLGMI but have been analyzed usinglinear models.
15
NLGMI is not well understood at the present time. Ex-
isting models for this regime are essentially quasistatic17,20,25
and are therefore limited to relatively low frequencies. While
they yield useful insights concerning the second harmonicsignals,
20they cannot properly describe most of the existing
experimental data in the NLGMI regime. This has motivatedus to develop nonlinear calculations, despite the great in-crease in difficulty which this produces, since these must betotally numerical. We present here the methodology whichwe have developed for such calculations and apply it to theanalysis of NLGMI in a commercial soft magnetic wire. Themethod is very general and has the potential for explainingmany phenomena in GMI and in FMR /H20849including parallel
pumping
26/H20850which may be treated by a continuum model,
that is, which do not require explicit quantum mechanicalexplanations. Ideal wires, consisting of symmetrical regionsof uniform anisotropy, are treated here for simplicity, but themethod can also be readily adapted to other sample shapes,such as microtubes, electroplated wires, and thin films, andto more complicated magnetic structure. However, its appli-cation to a specific set of properties, such as magnetization,
anisotropy, exchange, and conductivity, as a function of po-sition requires extensive calculations for variable static field,current amplitude, and frequency. If we are to obtain detailedpredictions as a function of the various parameters, this willrequire a greater effort than has been expended on linearbehavior, over the past 50 years.
Here, we treat first the simplest situation which can pro-
vide an idea of the evolution of the nonlinear voltage: uni-
a/H20850Electronic mail: djamel.seddaoui@polymtl.ca.JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 105, 083916 /H208492009 /H20850
0021-8979/2009/105 /H208498/H20850/083916/12/$25.00 © 2009 American Institute of Physics 105, 083916-1
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132.174.255.116 On: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:07:19form properties and free surface spins. We then present the
behavior of a real sample and introduce the least complicatedmodel which can reproduce this behavior.
II. DYNAMIC MODEL AND NUMERICAL PROCEDURE
A. Dynamic model
The origin of the nonlinearity of GMI is the nonlinear
dependence of the circumferential magnetic flux on the cir-cumferential magnetic field H
/H9272induced by the ac current.
The behavior of the magnetic flux within the wire may beobtained by solving the nonlinear Landau–Lifshitz equationas a response to an effective field dominated by the circum-ferential excitation field. Since the magnetic field is not ho-mogeneous in the wire, Maxwell’s equations includingOhm’s law need to be solved as well. In this configuration,the skin effect combined with the exchange interaction resultin radial spin waves, greatly affecting the electromagneticresponse.
1–6Therefore, the exchange field must be included
in the Landau–Lifshitz equation, and boundary conditions onthe magnetization are required, in addition to the usual con-ditions on electromagnetic fields.
In what follows, we assume that the microwire is a long
cylinder, submitted to a uniform axial dc magnetic field, andthat its behavior is uniform with length zand circumferential
angle
/H9272. Then, the dynamic electric E/H20849r,t/H20850and magnetic
H/H20849r,t/H20850fields within the wire are only functions of time tand
radial position r. With these assumptions, Maxwell’s equa-
tions in cylindrical coordinates give
r/H115092Hz
/H11509r2+/H11509Hz
/H11509r=r/H9268/H92620/H20873/H11509Hz
/H11509t+/H11509Mz
/H11509t/H20874, /H208491a/H20850
/H115092H/H9272
/H11509r2+1
r/H11509H/H9272
/H11509r−1
r2H/H9272=/H9268/H92620/H20873/H11509H/H9272
/H11509t+/H11509M/H9272
/H11509t/H20874, /H208491b/H20850
Hr=−Mr, /H208491c/H20850
where Mis the magnetization and /H9268is the conductivity. The
radial spin waves result in a high demagnetizing dipolar field/H20851Eq. /H208491c/H20850/H20852. As a consequence, the radial component of the
magnetization is very small. Thus, the magnetization rotatesprimarily in the z-
/H9272plan. The solution of Maxwell’s equa-
tions imposes the discretization of the radial axis into Ncol-
location points. Equations /H208491a/H20850and /H208491b/H20850are solved using the
boundary conditions
H/H9272/H20849r=0 ,t/H20850=0 , /H208492a/H20850
/H11509Hz
/H11509r/H20849r=0 ,t/H20850=0 , /H208492b/H20850
H/H9272/H20849r=a,t/H20850=I0
2/H9266asin/H20849/H9275t/H20850, /H208492c/H20850
Hz/H20849r=a,t/H20850/H110150. /H208492d/H20850
Equations /H208492a/H20850and /H208492b/H20850result from continuity in cylin-
drical symmetry of the circumferential components of themagnetic field H/H9272and of the electric field E/H9272=−/H9268−1/H11509Hz//H11509rat
the cylindrical wire axis. Equation /H208492c/H20850results from Am-
pere’s law.
The approximation /H20851Eq. /H208492d/H20850/H20852requires justification. The
fundamental /H20849first harmonic /H20850of the electromagnetic field
within the wire is coupled to an electromagnetic wave propa-gating outside of the wire, with amplitude given by the Han-kel function.
27At the wire surface, the dynamic axial mag-
netic field is assumed to be sinusoidal. Its amplitude is givenby
13
Hza=/H92550
/H92620E/H9272aEza
H/H9272a, /H208493/H20850
where E/H9272a,Eza, and H/H9272aare the values, at the surface, of the
amplitudes of the circumferential and axial electric fields,and circumferential magnetic field, respectively. From Eq./H208493/H20850, given that the typical order of magnitude of E
za/H/H9272ais
1/H9024and that E/H9272amay reach a maximum value of the order of
100 V /m, a maximum of Hzawill be of the order of magni-
tude 10−3A/m. This justifies the approximation, Hz/H110150o f
Eq. /H208492d/H20850even when the nonlinear regime is reached /H20849the
same analysis can be carried out for each higher harmonic /H20850.
The solution of Eq. /H208491/H20850requires knowledge of the varia-
tion in the magnetization with time, which is given by theLandau–Lifshitz equation
/H11509M
/H11509t=/H92620/H9253/H20849M/H11003Heff/H20850−/H92620/H9253/H9251
Ms/H20851M/H11003/H20849M/H11003Heff/H20850/H20852, /H208494/H20850
where /H9253is the gyromagnetic ratio, /H9251is the Gilbert damping
coefficient, Msis the saturation magnetization, and M
=M/H20849r,t/H20850is the magnetization vector whose modulus is al-
ways Ms. The effective magnetic field Heffis given by
Heff/H20849r,t/H20850=H/H20849r,t/H20850+Happ+Hani/H20849r,t/H20850+Hex/H20849r,t/H20850. /H208495/H20850
In Eq. /H208495/H20850,H/H20849r,t/H20850is the dynamic field, Happis the applied
static field, Hani=2Ku//H92620Ms2/H20849M·nˆk/H20850nˆkis the anisotropy field
/H20849where Kuis the anisotropy constant and nˆkis a unit vector
parallel to the easy axis /H20850andHex=2A//H92620Ms2/H20849/H116122M/H20850is the
exchange field /H20849where Ais the exchange constant /H20850.
B. Numerical procedure
Except for Happ, which is constant and homogeneous, all
fields in Eq. /H208495/H20850are dependent on time and radial position.
The radial variation in both the dynamic field and the mag-netization, between successive collocation points nand n
+1, is interpolated by polynomial functions of third orderwhich pass through points n−1 to n+2. Thus, the radial de-
rivatives used in the expression of H
exare easily determined.
Figure 1is a diagram summarizing the method of calcu-
lation. At t=0, the magnetization of the wire is set in a static
configuration, not necessarily the equilibrium state. All initialconfigurations with cylindrical symmetry are permitted.However, it is preferable to avoid abrupt radial variation inorder to reduce computation time. At t/H110220, a sinusoidal cur-
rent begins to flow in the wire, leading to a change in themagnetization. The response time of the magnetization isvery long in comparison with the time step of the calculation,/H9004t/H20849of the order of 1 ps /H20850. This allows us to assume that083916-2 Seddaoui et al. J. Appl. Phys. 105, 083916 /H208492009 /H20850
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132.174.255.116 On: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:07:19/H11509M//H11509t/H20849r,t/H20850remains approximately constant from instant t
until t+/H9004t. Hence, /H11509M//H11509t/H20849r,t/H20850calculated from Eq. /H208494/H20850for
instant tmay be used in Eq. /H208491/H20850for instant t+/H9004t. Equation
/H208491/H20850gives the dynamic magnetic field H/H20849r,t/H20850for instant t
+/H9004twhich is then used in Eq. /H208494/H20850by means of the effective
field /H20851Eq. /H208495/H20850/H20852, for the same instant, and so on. The magne-
tization M/H20849r,t+/H9004t/H20850at the instant t+/H9004tis calculated from
M/H20849r,t/H20850using the Runge–Kutta method.
After several periods of the current, the system reaches a
stationary state. Convergence is achieved when the magneti-zation shows periodic behavior M/H20849r,t+T/H20850=M/H20849r,t/H20850, where T
is the current period. After convergence, when the stationary
state is reached, the voltage across the wire is obtained fromthe axial electric field at the wire surface
V/H20849t/H20850=lE
z/H20849r=a,t/H20850. /H208496/H20850
The harmonics Vnfare given by the Fourier transform of V/H20849t/H20850
Vnf=2
T/H20879/H20885
0T
V/H20849t/H20850ein/H9275tdt/H20879. /H208497/H20850
Within the wire, Ez/H20849r,t/H20850may be expressed as /H20849see the Appen-
dix/H20850Ez/H20849r,t/H20850=RdcI/H20849t/H20850
l+/H20885
0r/H11509B/H9272/H20849r/H11032,t/H20850
/H11509tdr/H11032
−2
a2/H20885
0a
r/H20885
0r/H11509B/H9272/H20849r/H11032,t/H20850
/H11509tdr/H11032dr, /H208498/H20850
where Rdcis the dc resistance, lis the wire length, and B/H9272
=/H92620/H20849H/H9272+M/H9272/H20850is the circumferential induction.
The second term on the right hand side /H20849RHS /H20850of Eq. /H208498/H20850
is the inductive part of the impedance. The third term is atime dependent correction, which results from the adjustmentof the current I/H20849t/H20850to its imposed value at each time t.I nt h e
linear regime, as the frequency increases, this term tends to
cancel the dc resistance contribution term R
dcI/H20849t/H20850/l, so that
Ez/H20849r,t/H20850and the current density J/H20849r,t/H20850=/H9268Ez/H20849r,t/H20850tend to zero
at the center of the wire. The radial profile of the current
density is then governed by the induction term, which isnegligible in the interior of the wire due to the smallness ofthe current /H20849weak H
/H9272/H20850in this region. Thus, the two last terms
of Eq. /H208498/H20850are interdependent. We can then say that the last
term of Eq. /H208498/H20850is at the origin of the skin effect in the linear
regime.
In the nonlinear regime, because the time and radial
variations in B/H9272are not simple, the skin effect is not well
established. That is, the radial profile of the current cannot bedefined by a known function, as it is in the linear regime,where the radial dependence of the current density amplitudefollows a Bessel function with the skin depth in itsargument.
3,4,7However, even in the nonlinear regime, the
root mean square /H20849rms /H20850value of the current density is lower
in the interior of the wire than at the surface, especially athigh frequency. Here, we refer to this as the skin effect, andrefer to the last term in Eq. /H208498/H20850as the skin effect term.
III. HOMOGENEOUS MAGNETIC PROPERTIES AND
FREE SURFACE SPINS
The model described so far is quite general. The only
significant assumption has been that the properties of thewire are independent of zand
/H9272. In order to perform realistic
calculations on ferromagnetic conductors, it is necessary tospecify the properties, especially the anisotropy distributionof the sample. It is well known that the magnetic propertiesof the sample, especially anisotropy, have a large influenceon GMI results, as demonstrated by the difference betweenthe GMI curves of wires with nearly axial and nearly trans-verse anisotropy.
13,28These properties are determined by the
composition, fabrication, and subsequent treatment of thewire in question. For example, for amorphous wires, whichare typically studied in GMI experiments and used in GMIdevices, the anisotropy is strongly dependent on the magne-tostriction and stress distribution.
29However, as long as the
shape and the magnetic properties of the sample can be as-sumed to exhibit cylindrical symmetry, all types of wires,amorphous or crystalline, can be treated using the presentmodel.
FIG. 1. /H20849Color online /H20850Diagram of the method of calculation. In the first
iteration, the initial value of /H11509M//H11509t/H20849ri,t=0/H20850/H20849which is taken to be null for all
collocation points /H20850is used for solving Maxwell’s equations at t=/H9004t/H20849/H9004tis
the time increment /H20850. The value of the current at t=/H9004tis taken into account
in the boundary conditions. /H11509M//H11509t/H20849ri,t=0/H20850andM/H20849ri,t=0/H20850are assumed to be
constant from t=0 to t=/H9004t. The solution of Maxwell’s equations gives the
dynamic field, which is added to the effective field. Knowing the effectivefield H
eff/H20849ri,t=/H9004t/H20850andM/H20849ri,t=/H9004t/H20850, the Landau–Lifshitz equation gives a
new value of /H11509M//H11509t/H20849ri,t=/H9004t/H20850/H20849which is assumed to be constant until t
=2/H9004t/H20850and then the configuration of the magnetization M/H20849ri,t=2/H9004t/H20850att
=2/H9004tis obtained with the Runge–Kutta method. At this step, one iteration is
completed. Hence, the system evolves, iteration after iteration until the in-stant t=nT/H20849nis an integer and Tis the current period /H20850when the condition of
convergence M/H20849r
i,t=nT/H20850=M/H20849ri,t=/H20849n−1/H20850T/H20850is observed. The voltage may
be calculated in the last period.083916-3 Seddaoui et al. J. Appl. Phys. 105, 083916 /H208492009 /H20850
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132.174.255.116 On: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:07:19A. Simplified magnetic structure
In this section, and the next, we treat the simplest pos-
sible structure which can give an idea of the general lines ofnonlinear behavior: a sample with homogeneous anisotropyand spins free at the surface. In Sec. V , we present a morecomplex structure in order to reproduce experimental resultson a particular material.
We assume that the easy axis is directed in a helical
direction, making an angle
/H9274with respect to the circumfer-
ential direction and that the anisotropy field amplitude isH
k=2Ku//H92620Ms=40 A /m. The value of /H9274is assumed to be
small /H20849near-circumferential anisotropy /H20850, as we believe that
this case is more interesting than that of /H9274/H11011/H9266/2/H20849near-axial
anisotropy /H20850. The method described in Sec. II generates a core
shell equilibrium structure. Near the surface, the magnetiza-tion is along the easy axis. On the axis of the wire, cylindri-cal symmetry requires that the magnetization be in the axialdirection. This generates a vortex, as discussed in Sec. IV .
The free surface spin condition means that these spins
are not submitted to any additional fields related to the pres-ence of the surface, such as a surface anisotropy field.
30The
only difference between the effective field at the surface andin the interior of the wire /H20851which is described by Eq. /H208495/H20850/H20852lies
in the exchange field which takes into account the fact thatthe surface spins have neighbors only on one side. At thewire surface, the free spin condition is given in cylindricalcoordinates by
4
/H20879/H20873/H11509M/H9272,r
/H11509r+M/H9272,r
r/H20874/H20879
r=a=0 . /H208499/H20850
B. Validation of the numerical procedure
The results of our calculations have been compared, at
different frequencies, with the analytical results of Melo et
al.14for homogeneous properties, free surface spins, and /H9274
=10° in the linear regime. The results of the two methods forthe same parameters are in excellent agreement, as shown inFig. 2where we present Z/R
dcversus Happ /Hk,a t1 0M H z
and 1 GHz frequencies. The negligible discrepancies be-tween the two are due to the limitation of the accuracy of ourcalculation in order to reduce the computation time. Thiscomparison validates the methodology.
In all calculations reported here, unless indicated other-
wise, the following parameters are used: saturation magneti-zation, M
s=660 kA /m; gyromagnetic ratio, /H9253=176 rad /sT
/H20849/H9253/2/H9266=28 GHz /T/H20850; damping coefficient, /H9251=10−2; wire ra-
dius, a=15/H9262m; wire length, l=3 cm; wire conductivity, /H9268
=8/H11003105/H20849/H9024m/H20850−1; and exchange constant, A=10−11J/m.
These parameters are typical for Co-rich amorphous wires.4
All GMI curves were obtained by sweeping Happfrom nega-
tive to positive values.
IV. NLGMI RESPONSE OF HOMOGENEOUS WIRE
WITH FREE SURFACE SPINS
In Fig. 3, the normalized circumferential component of
the magnetization M/H9272/Msis plotted as a function of normal-
ized time t/T/H20849Tis the current period /H20850and radial position r/a/H20849r/a=0 corresponds to the wire axis and r/a=1 corresponds
to the wire surface /H20850for no applied field /H20849Happ=0/H20850and for
1 MHz driving currents at three different amplitudes. Here,
the wire diameter is taken to be 35 /H9262m. In Fig. 3/H20849a/H20850, the
static magnetization shows a vortex at the wire center since itpasses from the axial direction at the wire axis /H20849r/a=0/H20850to a
helical direction at r/a/H110220. The vortex results from compe-
tition between the exchange field, which tends to keep themagnetization in the axial direction /H20849parallel to the magneti-
zation of the wire axis /H20850, and the anisotropy field, which tends
to rotate the magnetization in the helical direction. Differentvalues of
/H9274and of Awill change the details of the vortex, but
it is always present for /H9274/HS11005/H9266/2.
A. Effect of driving current on magnetization
dynamics
Figure 3/H20849a/H20850, corresponding to 5 mA rmscurrent amplitude
and 1 MHz frequency, shows that magnetization reversal oc-curs in the surface region /H20849about 30% of wire radius depth /H20850,
whereas the inner region remains in the initial direction. Atthe surface, the circumferential field is high enough to re-verse the magnetization from one circumferential direction tothe other. The occurrence of attenuated propagation from thesurface toward the wire axis is indicated by the small tail inFig. 3/H20849a/H20850. When the current is increased /H20851Fig. 3/H20849b/H20850/H20852, the re-
gion of reversed magnetization increases. If the tail persistsuntil the next current period, it enlarges due to the favorablecircumferential field during the next period. It will continueto propagate toward the wire axis, forming a magnetizationstructure which resembles a solitary-wave, as shown in Fig.3/H20849b/H20850. In this case, the magnetization alternates symmetrically
between the two circumferential directions in the entire wire.-8 -4 0 4 82468Z/RDC
Happ/Hknumerical
calculation
linear analytical
calculationf=1 0M H z
0 5 10 15 200102030
numerical calculation
linear analytical calculationZ/RDC
Happ/Hkf=1G H z(a)
(b)
FIG. 2. Normalized static field dependence of the normalized wire imped-
ance in the linear regime for /H20849a/H2085010 MHz and /H20849b/H208501 GHz frequency. Com-
parison between our results and analytical results /H20849Ref. 14/H20850.083916-4 Seddaoui et al. J. Appl. Phys. 105, 083916 /H208492009 /H20850
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132.174.255.116 On: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:07:19At even higher current amplitude, the magnetization in the
entire wire reverses quasicoherently, as shown in Fig. 3/H20849c/H20850.
The solitary-wave velocity, clearly higher in Fig. 3/H20849c/H20850than in
Fig. 3/H20849b/H20850, depends upon whether the circumferential mag-
netic field is favorable to the propagating tail or not. For atypical amorphous GMI wire, the amplitude of the current in
Fig.3/H20849c/H20850might be higher than that required to yield irrevers-ible structural changes in the sample due to heating, which is
not accounted for here. The aim of this figure is to show thetrend in the magnetization behavior as the current is in-creased.
B. Effect of applied field on NLGMI response
Figure 4/H20849a/H20850shows the total /H20849rms /H20850voltage across the wire
as a function of the normalized applied field at 1 MHz fordifferent current amplitudes. In the linear regime /H20849low cur-
rent /H20850, the peaks increase in height without changing field
position. When the nonlinear regime is reached, the valleygradually disappears, as the peaks begin to shift towardlower field until they merge. This shows that the optimaldriving current for maximum field sensitivity is roughly atthe onset of nonlinear behavior.
The field dependence of the second harmonic signal, V
2f,
is shown in Fig. 4/H20849b/H20850for/H9274=1°. We may observe that all of
theV2fsignals are confined to the low-field region /H20849−Hkto
Hk/H20850in which the wire is not saturated. At intermediate cur-
rent amplitude /H20849limit between the linear and nonlinear re-
gimes /H20850, the field dependence of the second harmonic signal
V2fshows a two-peak structure. The peak positions corre-
spond to abrupt jumps of the total signal. As the currentamplitude increases, the two peaks show the same behavioras those of the total voltage. They increase in height and shiftto lower field until they merge. A maximum V
2fsignal is then
obtained for current amplitude at which the two characteris-tic GMI peaks merge. At higher current amplitude, V
2fde-
creases and shows a four-peak structure, as observedexperimentally.
19,20It is important to note that in this calcu-
lation, the anisotropy angle /H9274is neither zero nor /H9266/2/H20849helical0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.00.20.40.60.81.0
r/at/T-1.01.0
5m A rms (a)
M/Mφs
0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.000.20.40.60.81.0
r/at/T8mA (b) rms
Mφ/Ms
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.00.20.40.60.81.0
r/at/T(c) 30 mA rms
M/Mφs
FIG. 3. /H20849Color /H20850Circumferential component of normalized magnetization,
M/H9272/Msas a function of normalized radial position and normalized time at
1 MHz for /H20849a/H208505m Arms,/H20849b/H208508m Arms,a n d /H20849c/H2085030 mArms. There is no applied
field, the anisotropy is characterized by Hk=0.5 Oe /H208491O e = 1 03/4/H9266A/m/H20850,
/H9023=1° and the initial magnetization /H20849att=0/H20850is set in the easy axis with
negative circumferential component. The wire radius is a/H1100517.5 µm.-4 -2 0 2 40.00.20.40.6Voltage (Vrms)
Happ/Hk0.1mA0.5 mA1m A2m A3m Af= 1 MHz
-1 0 10.00.10.20.30.5 mA
2m A
3m A
5m ASecon dharmon ic (V)
Happ/Hkf= 1MHz -0.3 0.0 0.30.000.010.020.03(b)(a)
FIG. 4. Calculated voltage responses as a function of normalized applied
field for various current amplitudes at 1 MHz frequency: /H20849a/H20850total signal and
/H20849b/H20850second harmonic. The inset shows the second harmonic for 5 mArmsat
low field. The applied field is swept from negative to positive. Hk=0.5 Oe
/H208491O e = 1 03/4/H9266A/m/H20850,/H9023=1° and a/H1100515µm.083916-5 Seddaoui et al. J. Appl. Phys. 105, 083916 /H208492009 /H20850
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132.174.255.116 On: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:07:19anisotropy /H20850, otherwise the second harmonic disappears.
However, even a very small angle /H9274is sufficient to obtain a
V2fsignal of several hundreds of mV , as in Fig. 4/H20849b/H20850where
/H9274=1°.
C. Skin effect in the nonlinear regime
In order to gain more insight into the electromagnetic
behavior in the nonlinear regime, we now consider the spaceand time evolution of the fields. The normalized radial andtime dependences of E
z/H20849r,t/H20850andM/H9272/H20849r,t/H20850are shown in Figs.
5and6, respectively, for I=1 mA rms,f=1 MHz, and for sev-
eral applied fields. For this set of current frequency and am-plitude, corresponding to the middle curve in Fig. 4/H20849a/H20850, the
voltage is already nonlinear and the peak of the GMI curve issituated at H
pk=0.6 Hk/H20849Hk=0.5 Oe=40 A /m/H20850instead of
Hpk=Hk, as in the linear regime.10,11,31The Happ=0 behavior
is not shown in Fig. 6due to the negligible variation in thecircumferential magnetic flux. For this field and driving cur-
rent, the circumferential field is too weak to cause magneti-zation reversal as in Fig. 3/H20849a/H20850. In these circumstances, the
skin effect is weak /H20849
/H9254/H11271a/H20850, as shown in Fig. 5/H20849a/H20850, and Zis
linear and nearly equal to Rdc.
When an axial static field is applied, for a given driving
current, greater variation in the magnetization is induced,leading to increases both in the skin effect and in the induc-tion effect. A comparison between responses for H
app=Hk
/H20851Fig. 5/H20849c/H20850/H20852andHapp=Hpk/H20851Fig. 5/H20849b/H20850/H20852shows that the skin ef-
fect is stronger at Hkthan at Hpk/H20849the value of Ezatr=0 is
smaller /H20850. In contrast, in the linear regime, the attenuation is
maximal /H20849skin depth minimal /H20850at the peak position, Hpk. This
suggests that the GMI peak in the nonlinear regime is essen-tially due to the induction term rather than to the skin effectterm. This is confirmed in Fig. 6where we may see that the0.20.40.60.8
1.0-30-20-100102030
0.20.40.60.81.0
Ez(V/m)
t/T
r/aHapp=0
0.20.40.60.81.0-30-20-100102030
0.20.40.60.81.0Happ=Hpk=0.6 Hk
Ez(V/m)
t/T
r/a
0.20.40.60.81.0-30-20-100102030
0.20.40.60.81.0
Ez(V/m)
t/T
r/aHapp=Hk(a)
(b)
(c)
FIG. 5. Normalized radial and time dependence of the axial electric field for
current of 1 mArmsamplitude and 1 MHz frequency. The static applied field
is/H20849a/H20850Hz=0, /H20849b/H20850Hz=0.6 Hk, and /H20849c/H20850Hz=Hk.0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0-1.0-0.50.00.51.0
0.20.40.60.81.0
Mϕ/M
s
t/T
r/aHapp=Hpk=0.6Hk
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0-1.0-0.50.00.51.0
0.20.40.60.81.0
Mϕ/M
s
t/T
r/aHapp=Hk
0.20.40.60.81.0-0.04-0.020.000.020.04
0.20.40.60.81.0Mϕ/M
s
t/T
r/aHapp=10 Hk(a)
(b)
(c)
FIG. 6. Normalized radial and time dependence of the circumferential com-
ponent of the normalized magnetization for current of 1 mArmsamplitude
and 1 MHz frequency at applied field /H20849a/H20850Hz=Hpk=0.6 Hk,/H20849b/H20850Hz=Hk,a n d
/H20849c/H20850Hz=10Hk.083916-6 Seddaoui et al. J. Appl. Phys. 105, 083916 /H208492009 /H20850
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132.174.255.116 On: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:07:19rate of variation with time of the circumferential magnetiza-
tion is higher at Hpk/H20851Fig. 6/H20849a/H20850/H20852than at Hk/H20851Fig. 6/H20849b/H20850/H20852, espe-
cially in the surface region.
For currents for which 0 /H11021Hpk/H11021Hk, the skin effect is
weak for Happ/H11021Hk. This is due to the fact that the perme-
ability is small in the interior of the wire, which behavesalmost like a nonmagnetic medium. When H
appis increased
/H20851Fig. 6/H20849b/H20850/H20852, the magnetization variation becomes smoother
and extends toward the wire axis, that is, the abrupt time andradial variations in the magnetization gradually disappear,leading to higher skin effect /H20849lower penetration depth /H20850.A t
higher H
app, the magnetization variations diminish and tend
to be linear with the circumferential field as does the totalresponse. Figure 6/H20849c/H20850, obtained for H
app=10Hk, shows that
the wire magnetization behavior is similar to that of mag-netic wire in the linear regime with a relatively small perme-ability and a quasistaticlike linear variation in the circumfer-ential field as a function of the radius.
D. Critical switching field
The abrupt jumps at Hpk, shown in Fig. 4/H20849a/H20850, are due to
abrupt increases in the circumferential permeability, as mag-netization reversal becomes possible. This is followed by agradual decrease in permeability at higher field. The positionof these transitions /H11011H
pkmay be estimated very approxi-
mately using the astroid of Stoner–Wohlfarth critical switch-ing fields
32shown in Fig. 7for the case of circumferential
anisotropy.20The magnetization is periodically reversed
when the total field Htot/H20849composed of the static applied field
Happand the dynamic circumferential field H/H9272/H20850crosses the
astroid in both directions. If not, the sign of the magnetiza-tion remains constant. In the linear regime, this never takesplace, and the peak in permeability is at H
k, where the effec-
tive internal field reaches a minimum. In the nonlinear re-gime but with H
/H9272small, this happens only when Happis close
toHk. Thus, Hpk/H11015Hk.A s H/H9272increases, Hpkdecreases. It
should be noted that this representation works best in thequasistatic regime
20where the magnetization may be as-
sumed to always be in its equilibrium state.
E. Effect of frequency
Increasing frequency has almost the same effect on the
magnetization behavior as decreasing current amplitude.That is, at constant large current /H20849for which Hpk=0/H20850, with
increasing frequency, the depth in which quasicoherent re-versal of the magnetization occurs at H
app=0 decreases and
then disappears. The peak position moves to higher field un-til it reaches H
kand then stabilizes. The system has returned
to the linear regime, in which the peak remains at Hk, until
resonance occurs at high field.4,33Higher current amplitude
is needed to reach the nonlinear regime. Despite the fact thatthe spatial region of quasicoherent reversal of magnetizationdecreases with frequency, the voltage signal increases due tomore rapidly increasing time variation in the circumferentialinduction.
AtH
z=100 Hk, even at 10 mA rms /H20849H/H9272/H11015100 A /m/H20850, the
voltage is linear with current at 10 MHz and higher. The
characteristic of FMR is shown in Fig. 8/H20849a/H20850where the real
and imaginary parts of the voltage are plotted as a functionof the frequency. The radial dependence of the amplitude ofE
zis shown for various frequencies in Fig. 8/H20849b/H20850. We note
that, in these circumstances, the skin effect is large /H20849penetra-
tion depth is small /H20850compared to that of the nonmagnetic
metal only near resonance /H208491.9 GHz /H20850. At higher frequency
/H20849beyond resonance frequency /H20850, the penetration depth in-
creases, tending to that of the nonmagnetic metal of the sameresistivity.
Preliminary calculations indicate that at extremely high
current, and for small H
app, bifurcation and chaotic behavior
should occur, provided there are no significant changes in thematerial properties due to the driving current. A possible wayto investigate this behavior is by using high power FMRmeasurements in cavities, in a pulsed regime, for which it is
easier to drive the wire with high amplitude hf signals thanH//H⊥⊥⊥⊥
HkHk
-HkφZ
Htot1
Htot2Hz1
Hz2
FIG. 7. Astroid of magnetization reversal H/H110362/3+H/H206482/3=Hk2/3in the case of
circumferential anisotropy. The astroid axes coincide with the wire axes.The total field H
totseen by the astroid is composed of the static axial field Hz
and dynamic circumferential field H/H9272. When the amplitude of H/H9272increases,
the static field Hzneeded to fully cross the astroid decreases.0.1 1 10-10-505101520Voltage (V)
Frequency (GHz)Re
Im
0 . 00 . 20 . 40 . 60 . 81 . 0050100200400600Ez(V/m)
r/a10 MHz
100 MHz
1G H z
1.9 GHz
10GHz(a)
(b)
FIG. 8. For Happ=100 Hkand 10 mArmscurrent, /H20849a/H20850Real /H20849Re/H20850and imaginary
/H20849Im/H20850parts of the voltage signal as a function of the frequency and /H20849b/H20850the
radial dependence of the axial electric field amplitude at various frequencies.083916-7 Seddaoui et al. J. Appl. Phys. 105, 083916 /H208492009 /H20850
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132.174.255.116 On: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:07:19with usual GMI measurement setups. This needs to be ex-
plored in detail, and will be discussed elsewhere.34
V. COMPARISON WITH EXPERIMENT
In this section, we compare the results of the model with
experimental results obtained on typical microwires used instudies of GMI. We shall show that the spin free magneticstructure, assumed in the previous section, needs to be modi-fied in order to reproduce the experimental results ad-equately. Nevertheless, the general trends discussed in Sec.IV remain valid.
A. Experimental procedure
The sample of interest was an amorphous melt-extracted
microwire of composition Co 80.89Fe4.38Si8.69B1.52Nb4.52
/H20849wt % /H20850manufactured by MXT Inc. of Montreal. The micro-
wire of 35 /H110065/H9262m diameter and 25 mm length had satura-
tion magnetization of 660 kA /m and very weak helical an-
isotropy, with an anisotropy field, known from the linearregime, of about 0.5 Oe /H208491O e = 1 0
3/4/H9266A/m/H20850.
The sample was placed on the axis of a long coil, which
provides a dc axial magnetic field of maximum value of5.8 Oe. The sample was connected, in series with a largeresistor, to a function generator. The purpose of the resistor isto keep the distortion of the current generated by the samplenegligible in comparison with the total load /H20849resistor
+microwire /H20850of the generator. Thus, the sinusoidal current I
flowing in the sample remains undistorted. The amplitude of
the current Iwas measured by an oscilloscope using a cur-
rent probe and was kept constant by adjusting the amplitudeof the generator signal. The voltage across the microwire wasFourier analyzed by the same oscilloscope.
B. Experimental results
The field dependence of the amplitude of the total signal
is shown in Fig. 9for a range of values of current amplitude
at 1 MHz frequency. These curves were obtained by varyingthe dc magnetic field, step by step, and measuring, at eachstep, the total voltage across the wire. At low current, thecurves are similar to those observed for linear GMI despitethe fact that the voltage was already nonlinear at 3 mA
rms.A s
the current increased, so did the amplitude, while the char-acteristic peaks of GMI shifted to lower field, until they
merged at the field origin, in qualitative agreement with themodel.
Figure 10shows a comparison between calculated and
measured total voltage amplitude across the microwire as afunction of applied field for 5 mA
rmscurrent amplitude and
1 MHz frequency. As we may see, despite the fact that thegeneral behavior of the calculated GMI signal agrees withexperiment when the current amplitude is varied, the twocurves in Fig. 10are very different, both in shape and in
height. The calculation overestimates the effect of currentamplitude, that is, the numerical curve is similar to that ob-tained experimentally for higher current /H20849see Fig. 9/H20850. This
indicates that the effective permeability is overestimated, es-pecially in the surface region where most of the contributionto the GMI effect is produced.
C. Hard surface condition
Introducing a surface spin pinned condition,
/H11509M/H20849a,t/H20850//H11509t=0, as was done elsewhere14for the linear re-
gime, reduces the peak somewhat, but not enough. To further
reduce the calculated total signal, we have included a hardsurface of thickness bin the structure of the wire. The easy
axis direction at the surface is assumed to remain the same asin the interior of the wire and the anisotropy field is assumedhigh enough to keep surface spins insensitive to currentvariation in the range of study. This appears justified by ex-periment. In Fig. 11, axial hysteresis loops measured for two
different field ranges /H20849the first from −500 to 500 Oe and the
second from −20 to 20 Oe /H20850are shown. These loops are ob-
tained on microwire of 2.7 mm length using a vibratingsample magnetometer /H20849VSM /H20850. In this figure, the second loop
shows a very small coercivity and corresponds to one branchof the first loop. This suggests that about 95% of the wirevolume has a very weak anisotropy /H20849we assume this to be the
interior of the wire /H20850and the rest /H20849which we assume to be the
surface /H20850is hard enough to be almost insensitive in the field
range from −20 to 20 Oe.
Figure 12shows a comparison at 5 and 10 mA
rmscurrent
amplitude and 1 MHz frequency between the measured fielddependence of the total signal and that calculated including ahard layer. The hard surface magnetic structure results in adecrease in GMI signal and a separation between the two-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 60.00.20.40.60.81.0
II= 14mARMS
I=3 m ARMSVoltage (V)
Applied field (Oe) (1 Oe ~ 80 A/m)
FIG. 9. Field dependence of the voltage response of the wire at f=1 MHz
andIvarying in 1 mArmssteps between 3 and 14 mArms.-4 -2 0 2 40.20.40.60.8calculation with
free spin condition
experimentVoltage (V)
Applied field (Oe) (1 Oe ~ 80 A/m)
FIG. 10. Comparison between total signal amplitude measured and calcu-
lated with the free spins condition, as a function of applied field, for5m A
rmsand 1 MHz.083916-8 Seddaoui et al. J. Appl. Phys. 105, 083916 /H208492009 /H20850
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132.174.255.116 On: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:07:19peaks, without abrupt variation between them. A good fit is
obtained when the shell thickness is in the vicinity of750 nm, the wire radius is a=15
/H9262m, and the anisotropy
field in the surface is 50 Oe, 100 times higher than that in theinterior of the wire. At low field, the exchange interactionwith the immobile spins of the surface region reduces themotion of the inner spins. This results in a minimum in theGMI curve at H
z=0. Higher current is required to reverse
magnetization and then merge the peaks.
D. Second harmonic signals
Figure 13shows a comparison between measured and
calculated V2fas a function of Happin same conditions as in
Fig. 12. In contrast to the total signal, the predicted second
harmonic disagrees with experiment. The field dependenceof the calculated V
2fshows one peak of about 250 mV in
height at the field origin. The measured V2fshows a four-
peak structure of a maximum value of 20 mV. The reason forthis two order of magnitude difference is that the influence ofthe hard surface magnetization creates an asymmetry in thecircumferential hysteresis loop, which leads to an increase inthe second harmonic signal. It is evident that the presence ofa single-domain hard surface is not sufficient to entirely ex-plain the measurements.While the evidence for a magnetically hard component is
strong, and placing it at the surface is plausible, its single-domain structure is far less obvious. We interpret the verylow value of the second harmonic as an indication of thedivision of the hard surface into two types of domain /H20849D1
and D2 /H20850. In this way, under the influence of the surface, the
behavior of the magnetization of the core is different, de-pending on whether it is situated under D1 or D2. Due to theopposite directions of the magnetizations of the two do-mains, the asymmetry in circumferential hysteresis loops,upon which the second harmonic depends,
19,25is opposite for
the core under D1 from that under D2.
Figure 14shows the normalized field dependence of the
real and imaginary parts of the fundamental signal generatedby each domain. All parameters of the calculation are thesame as in Figs. 12and13and any interaction between the-100 -50 0 50 100-1.0-0.50.00.51.0
-500 to 500 Oe cycle
- 2 0t o2 0O ec y c l eAxial reduced magnetization
Applied field (Oe) (1 Oe ~ 80 A/m)
FIG. 11. Normalized axial hysteresis loops for two different ranges of ap-
plied field. Line: from −500 to 500 Oe. Line+point: from −20 to 20 Oe/H208491O e = 1 0
3/4/H9266A/m/H20850.
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 60.20.40.60.8Voltage (V rms)
Applied field (Oe) (1 Oe ~ 80 A/m)experiment
theory10 mArms
5m Arms
FIG. 12. Comparison between the calculated and the measured total signal
amplitude as a function of applied field for 5 mArmsand 10 mArmscurrent
amplitude and 1 MHz frequency. Hard surface condition is used in calcula-tion.
/H9274=1°, b/a=6%, Hksurface =100 Oe, Hkcore=0.5 Oe /H208491O e
=103/4/H9266A/m/H20850.-2 0 20.000.050.100.150.200.25
experiment
calculation with hard
surface conditionSecond harmonic (V)
Applied field (Oe) (1 Oe ~ 80 A/m)
FIG. 13. Comparison between the calculated and the measured second har-
monic signal as a function of applied field for current amplitude of 5 mArms
and frequency of 1 MHz. The parameters of the calculation are the same asin Fig. 12.
-12 -8 -4 0 4 8 12-0.2-0.10.00.10.2Re {V2f}
Happ/HkD2
D1Mean value
-12 -8 -4 0 4 8 1 2-0.10.00.1Im {V2f}
Happ/HkD2D1
Mean value(a)
(b)
FIG. 14. Normalized applied field dependence of real and imaginary parts of
V2fin D1 and D2 domains, and total wire.083916-9 Seddaoui et al. J. Appl. Phys. 105, 083916 /H208492009 /H20850
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132.174.255.116 On: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:07:19magnetizations of the two domains is neglected. It is also
assumed that the domain walls are pinned in the workingfrequency range. In this figure, it may be seen that both thereal and the imaginary parts of the second harmonic signalsof the two domains are of opposite sign whereas the funda-mental /H20849not shown here /H20850does not show any significant dif-
ference since it is not sensitive to the hysteresis loop asym-metry.
Because the asymmetries in the two domains are in op-
posite directions, the signs of the real and imaginary parts ofV
2fare different in the two domains. Thus, both the real and
imaginary parts across the wire, which are given by a linearcombination of those obtained for each domain, decreasedrastically. The resulting total second harmonic modulus isthen reduced, while the fundamental remains almost un-changed. Due to the fact that the fundamental is the predomi-nant signal, the change in the total voltage is very small/H20849/H110215% /H20850. Here, the anisotropy angle is taken to be very small
/H208491°/H20850but not zero because if it were, the even harmonic sig-
nals of the two domains would be exactly opposite and thenall total even harmonics disappear when the lengths of thetwo domains are equal. When the relative lengths of the twodomains are changed, the V
2f/H20849Happ/H20850curve changes sensi-
tively and shows complicated structure.
Figure 15shows a comparison of the resulting V2fwith
experiment. The calculation yields not only the right order ofmagnitude but also the four-peak structure with the rightasymmetry. Despite the discrepancies between the twocurves, we consider the result of the calculation satisfactory,considering the complexity of the second harmonic signal, itshigh sensitivity to impurities and shape defects of the wire,and to the fact that the interaction between domains is ne-glected. However, the significance of the assumed structureis not easy to interpret. Since we use a linear combination ofresponses of two independent regions, there are no specificassumptions on the structure of D1 and D2. For instance,they can be well separated into distinct regions or inter-mixed.
Because the proposed magnetic structure is not unique, it
is evident that reproducing one of the experimental curvescannot demonstrate the validity of our model. However, thefact that the same magnetic structure fits both the secondharmonic and the total signal for different current amplitudesand frequencies increases our confidence concerning thischoice.The presence of a magnetically hard single-domain sur-
face reduces the GMI signal and makes the calculated data fitthe measured one. The presence of the domains at the surfacedrastically reduces the even harmonics without affecting theodd harmonics. Modeling the total signal is useful for obtain-ing information about sample parameters but the second har-monic, due to its complexity, gives more details about do-main structure or the variation in the surface anisotropy ofthe sample.
E. Influence of the axial dynamic field
The axial current produces a circumferential field. As-
suming locally coherent rotation of the magnetization, as im-plicit from Eq. /H208494/H20850which preserves the modulus of the mag-
netization, applied fields below the anisotropy field producea significant rotation of the magnetization. That is, we mayhave a significant term in
/H11509Mz//H11509t/H20849r,t/H20850. We may see from Eq.
/H208491a/H20850that/H11509Mz//H11509t/H20849r,t/H20850is coupled to the axial dynamic mag-
netic field Hz/H20849r,t/H20850, which we have shown is negligible at r
=a, but may not be so elsewhere. In other words, through
Maxwell’s equations, this field is coupled to the circumfer-ential electric field, which causes the current to follow ahelical trajectory rather than a straight one. The circumferen-tial component of current is, in its turn, coupled to the axialmagnetic field. All of these quantities must be obtained in aself-consistent manner. This is assured by the method de-scribed in Fig. 1.
In Fig. 16, the axial dynamical fields H
zin the two types-3 0 302040Secon dharmon ic( m V )
Applied field (Oe) (1 Oe ~ 80 A/m)experiment
theoryf=1M H z
I=5m Arms
ψ=1o
Hk=0 . 5 O e
a=1 5 µm
b/a=6 %
FIG. 15. Applied field dependence of second harmonic, calculated with
two-domain hard surface condition, compared with experiment.0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0-0.4-0.20.00.20.4
0.20.40.60.81.0
Hz(Oe)
t/Tr/a(a)
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
10-0.4-0.20.00.20.4
0.20.40.60.81.0
Hz(Oe)
t/Tr/a(b)
FIG. 16. Axial dynamical field as a function of time and radial position inthe two-domain hard surface magnetic structure. /H20849a/H20850domain D1; /H20849b/H20850domain
D2. The applied field is 0.5 Oe /H208491O e = 1 0
3/4/H9266A/m/H20850.083916-10 Seddaoui et al. J. Appl. Phys. 105, 083916 /H208492009 /H20850
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132.174.255.116 On: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:07:19of domain are shown as a function of time and radial position
for the applied field Happof 0.5 Oe /H2084940 A /m/H20850. It can be seen
thatHz/H20849r/H20850is almost uniform in the interior of the wire due to
the fact that the current flows only in the vicinity of the
surface, where Hzchanges from its value in the interior to
zero at r=a. The values of Hz/H20849r,t/H20850in D1 and D2 are of
opposite signs at any time t.
The calculated dependence of total voltage on Happis
different in the low-field region depending on whether or notH
zis taken into account, as shown in Fig. 17where the
experimental curve is also shown. The parameters of the cal-culation are the same as in Figs. 12–16. When H
zis ignored
in the calculation, the result fits experiment better than whenH
zis taken into account. A likely explanation for this is that
in the two-domain structure, the axial dynamic fields createdin the two domains are in opposite directions. This suggeststhat the fields created in a given domain are largely canceledby the axial fields generated by the two neighboring domainsor by dipole generated at the domain wall. Another possibleexplanation is that the magnetization does not rotate coher-ently, even locally.
All of the calculations reported above, concerning the
comparison with experiment, do not include an H
zcontribu-
tion. We note from Figs. 12and17that the fit of total signal
to the model is then excellent at all currents and frequencies,except at the lowest applied fields, where the sample is un-saturated. A possible reason for this discrepancy is that theaxial field which is created at the domain wall and whichmay cancel H
zmay then be greater than Hzso that the re-
sulting total axial field is opposite to Hz. This would explain
the observation that the results of the calculation excludingH
zare closer to experiment than those including Hz.
F. Extension to other GMI wires
Here, we have presented a comparison of the model with
experimental results for one type of wire, as an example ofapplication of the model and method. The calculation hasbeen based on coaxial regions of uniform anisotropy. Theanalysis suggests that magnetically hard regions, possiblyclose to the surface of the wires, have a significant role inreducing the GMI signals as compared to an ideal soft wire.It is expected that these conclusions would remain valid forother wires with different magnetic properties. Indeed, theassumption of cylindrical symmetry is generally reasonable
for all types of microwires and the use of coaxial regions ofuniform anisotropy, rather than a true vortex structure,should not lead to significant change in the outcome of thecalculation. While different values of the anisotropy fields inother wires would change the peak position and thresholdcurrent for nonlinear behavior, the general behavior wouldremain essentially unchanged. In particular, significant modi-fications of the GMI response due to magnetically hard re-gions are to be expected in other types of wires as well.
VI. CONCLUSION
Dynamic calculations, solving the nonlinear Landau–
Lifshitz and Maxwell equations including Ohm’s law havebeen performed numerically for magnetic wire with simpli-fied coaxial magnetic structure, without introducing any sig-nificant approximations. This allows us to model both thespace and time variation in the magnetization for linear andfor nonlinear behavior. This, in turn, permits us to obtaininformation about the electromagnetic fields within the wirein NLGMI conditions and to understand the mechanism ofvariation in the circumferential induction. The model and themethod are quite general. For example, we have found that,at relatively high current, circumferential flux variation oc-curs by means of solitary-wave-like propagation of magneti-zation. We have also found that a maximum of skin effectoccurs when the applied field is in the vicinity of the aniso-tropy field even if the voltage maximum in the nonlinearregime appears at lower field. These conclusions should begenerally valid for all types of GMI microwires.
Comparison with experimental results for a GMI wire
shows that the calculations based on a homogeneous wire,with a spin free condition at the surface, overestimate thevoltage response. The presence of a magnetically hard sur-face reduces the voltage response as observed. The secondharmonic gives additional information concerning the mag-netic structure. However, due to its high sensitivity to de-tailed domain structure of the wire, the second harmonic isvery difficult to reproduce with accuracy.
Detailed investigation of the effect of varying the aniso-
tropy skew angle
/H9274, as well as varying each of A,M,Hk, and
/H9268while leaving the other properties fixed as will applying it
to parallel pumping in FMR, and to other sample geometries,will require lengthy, if straightforward, application of themethod. More complex, inhomogeneous, models will requirefurther effort. We have begun work on studying the nonlinearproperties of other GMI wires and hope to report results ofthese in the near future. We expect that the behavior of thetotal signal will remain qualitatively as reported here even ifquantitatively quite different. We also intend to pursue studyof the rich structure of higher harmonics such as we havepreviously reported.
20,23It is possible that higher, especially
even, harmonics may vary greatly from sample to sample.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are grateful to Dr. A. Rochefort for giving us access
to his multiprocessor computer. Thanks are due to L. G. C.Melo for providing analytical calculation results and for0120.20.40.60.8
experiment
calculation including Hz
calculation excluding HzVoltage (V)
Applied field (Oe) (1 Oe ~ 80 A/m)f=1 0M H z
I=5m A
FIG. 17. Wire voltage vs applied field. Comparison between experiment and
calculation with and without including Hz. The current amplitude is 5 mArms
and the frequency is 10 MHz.083916-11 Seddaoui et al. J. Appl. Phys. 105, 083916 /H208492009 /H20850
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132.174.255.116 On: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:07:19helpful discussion. This work was supported by the Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, andby CSI Inc.
APPENDIX: EXPRESSION OF THE VOLTAGE
ACROSS THE WIRE
Let us assume that there is no significant space variation
in the fields along the wire axis, that is, the fields are inde-pendent of z. The voltage across the wire is proportional to
the axial electric field at the surface,
V/H20849t/H20850=lE
z/H20849r=a,t/H20850,
where lis the wire length.
The Maxwell–Faraday equation written in cylindrical
coordinates gives the axial electric field
Ez/H20849r,t/H20850=Ez/H20849r=0 ,t/H20850+/H20885
0r/H11509B/H9272/H20849r/H11032,t/H20850
/H11509tdr/H11032. /H20849A1/H20850
The last term on the RHS is the contribution of the time
variation in the circumferential magnetic flux.
The current flowing in the wire is
I/H20849t/H20850=/H20885/H20885
SJds=/H20885/H20885
S/H9268Eds=2/H9266/H9268/H20885
0a
rEz/H20849r,t/H20850dr,/H20849A2/H20850
where Jis the current density, Sis the wire cross section, and
/H9268is the conductivity.
Substituting Eq. /H20849A1/H20850into Eq. /H20849A2/H20850
I/H20849t/H20850=/H9266/H9268a2Ez/H20849r=0 ,t/H20850+2/H9266/H9268/H20885
0a
r/H20885
0r/H11509B/H9272/H20849r/H11032,t/H20850
/H11509tdr/H11032dr.
/H20849A3/H20850
From Eq. /H20849A3/H20850, the axial electric field at the wire axis is
Ez/H20849r=0 ,t/H20850=I/H20849t/H20850
/H9266/H9268a2−2
a2/H20885
0a
r/H20885
0r/H11509B/H9272/H20849r/H11032,t/H20850
/H11509tdr/H11032dr. /H20849A4/H20850
The first term of the right member corresponds to the
electric field in the case of homogeneous flow of the currentin the wire and may be written in terms of dc resistance,
I/H20849t/H20850
/H9266/H9268a2=RdcI/H20849t/H20850
l. /H20849A5/H20850
The second is due to the fact that the current is imposed.
Substituting Eqs. /H20849A4/H20850and /H20849A5/H20850into Eq. /H20849A1/H20850, we obtain
the electric field expression given in Eq. /H208498/H20850,
Ez/H20849r,t/H20850=RdcI/H20849t/H20850
l+/H20885
0r/H11509B/H9272/H20849r/H11032,t/H20850
/H11509tdr/H11032
−2
a2/H20885
0a
r/H20885
0r/H11509B/H9272/H20849r/H11032,t/H20850
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132.174.255.116 On: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:07:19 |
5.0029284.pdf | J. Appl. Phys. 128, 191102 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0029284 128, 191102
© 2020 Author(s).Characterization of ferroelectric domain
walls by scanning electron microscopy
Cite as: J. Appl. Phys. 128, 191102 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0029284
Submitted: 11 September 2020 . Accepted: 21 October 2020 . Published Online: 17 November 2020
K. A. Hunnestad ,
E. D. Roede ,
A. T. J. van Helvoort , and
D. Meier
COLLECTIONS
Paper published as part of the special topic on Domains and Domain Walls in Ferroic Materials DDWFM2021
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Cite as: J. Appl. Phys. 128, 191102 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0029284
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CrossMar k
Submitted: 11 September 2020 · Accepted: 21 October 2020 ·
Published Online: 17 November 2020
K. A. Hunnestad,1
E. D. Roede,1
A. T. J. van Helvoort,2
and D. Meier1,a)
AFFILIATIONS
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU),
7491 Trondheim, Norway
2Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7491 Trondheim, Norway
Note: This paper is part of the Special Topic on Domains and Domain Walls in Ferroic Materials.
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: dennis.meier@ntnu.no
ABSTRACT
Ferroelectric domain walls are a completely new type of functional interface, which have the potential to revolutionize nanotechnology.
In addition to the emergent phenomena at domain walls, they are spatially mobile and can be injected, positioned, and deleted on demand,giving a new degree of flexibility that is not available at conventional interfaces. Progress in the field is closely linked to the development ofmodern microscopy methods, which are essential for studying their physical properties at the nanoscale. In this article, we discuss scanningelectron microscopy (SEM) as a powerful and highly flexible imaging technique for scale-bridging studies on domain walls, continuously
covering nano- to mesoscopic length scales. We review seminal SEM experiments on ferroelectric domains and domain walls, provide
practical information on how to visualize them in modern SEMs, and provide a comprehensive overview of the models that have beenproposed to explain the contrast formation in SEM. Going beyond basic imaging experiments, recent examples for nano-structuring andcorrelated microscopy work on ferroelectric domain walls are presented. Other techniques, such as 3D atom probe tomography, areparticularly promising and may be combined with SEM in the future to investigate individual domain walls, providing new opportunities
for tackling the complex nanoscale physics and defect chemistry at ferroelectric domain walls.
© 2020 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0029284
I. INTRODUCTION
The research on ferroelectric materials and phenomena has
matured significantly since the discovery of ferroelectricity inRochelle salt in 1920.
1Today, ferroelectrics are used in different
fields of technology, for instance, finding application in active
damping units, capacitors, and random-access memories.2Despite
the tremendous progress that has been made in understanding fer-roelectrics, this class of materials keeps attracting attention as a richsource for new emergent properties, representing a fascinating
playground for both fundamental and applied sciences. Recent
examples include spin-driven ferroelectrics,
3which facilitate a
unique coupling between spin and lattice degrees of freedom,4as
well as ferroelectric skyrmions and vortices,5–7representing new
and intriguing states of matter. In this article, we will focus on the
rapidly growing field of research that studies ferroelectric domain
walls and their functionality.8–11Due to the small length scales associated with ferroelectric
domain walls, which usually have a width in the order of
1–10 nm,11progress in this field is closely related to advances in spa-
tially resolved characterization methods.12Transmission electron
microscopy (TEM) is nowadays readily applied to study theatomic-scale structure at ferroelectric domain walls,
13–15and electron
energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) provides insight into the local elec-tronic and chemical properties.
16–19At the nanoscale, scanning probe
microscopy (SPM) methods, such as piezoresponse force microscopy(PFM)
20,21and conductive atomic force microscopy (cAFM),22,23are
routinely used to determine domain wall charge states and studytheir electronic transport behavior, respectively.
14,24–31In addition,
photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM)32–35and low-energy
electron microscopy (LEEM)36–39have been explored to widen the
accessible parameter space, mapping transport phenomena andelectrostatic potentials with nanoscale spatial resolution.
40Journal of
Applied PhysicsTUTORIAL scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 128, 191102 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0029284 128, 191102-1
©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0One of the most common characterization techniques that
allows for spatially resolved measurements with nanometer scale
resolution is scanning electron microscopy (SEM). As such, it isnot surprising that SEM also plays a special role among theimaging techniques that have been applied in the research on ferro-electric domain walls. In the 1970s, SEM was used to image ferro-
electric domain walls and gain insight into their unusual nanoscale
physics.
41–43Since then, the SEM technology has evolved consider-
ably and, together with SPM, has turned into a mainstream techni-que for surface analysis. SEM has an outstanding —yet not fully
exploited —potential for domain-wall related investigations, offering
contact-free and non-destructive high-speed imaging, nanoscale
spatial resolution, and a high flexibility in terms of specimen prepa-ration and geometry that allows, for example, to combine micros-copy with nano-structuring or in situ /in operando transport
measurements.
In this Tutorial, we discuss the practical use of the SEM
technique in connection with visualizing ferroelectric domains anddomain walls. Mastering the ferroelect ric contrast enables possibilities
for combining SEM with other complementary techniques, such asSPM, TEM, and FIB (focused ion beam), opening new pathways for
the investigation of the complex physics at domain walls and property
monitoring in device-relevant geometries. We begin the Tutorial withan introduction to domain walls in ferroelectrics (Sec. IA)a n dt y p i c a l
characterization techniques applied to investigate them (Sec. IB). In
Sec.II, the SEM technique is introduced; we begin with a history of
SEM-based domain and domain wall imaging experiments (Sec. II A),
followed by the basic operating principles (Sec. II B)a n ds o m e
practical advice for imaging ferroelectric domain walls (Sec. II C). In
Sec. II D, we provide an overview of the different models used to
explain the SEM contrast at neutral and charged domain walls.
Sections IIIandIVare devoted to correlated techniques, considering
SEM in combination with FIB. We discuss how SEM can be inte-grated/essential/correlated to other techniques such as TEM, SPM,and atom probe tomography (APT), respectively, with a focus on
new possibilities for future domain wall research.
A. Domain walls in ferroelectrics
Ferroelectric materials exhibit a spontaneous polarization that
can be switched by an external electric field.
44Depending on thesymmetry of the unit cell, ferroelectrics have at least two symmetri-
cally equivalent directions for polarization. A region with a
constant direction of the polarization is called a domain, and thedomains are separated by a natural type of interface, that is, the“domain wall ”(see Fig. 1 for a schematic illustration). Depending
on the possible domain states, anisotropy and dipole –dipole inter-
actions, there are different ways for the polar order to changeacross domain walls as discussed in detail in the comprehensivetextbook by Tagantsev et al.
44In BiFeO 3, for example, the polariza-
tion can point along any of the ⟨111⟩directions in the rhombohe-
dral unit cell, forming 71°, 90°, and 180° domain walls.45In
prototypical ferroelectrics, such domain walls are pre-dominantlyIsing-type walls, but more complex mixed structures are also possi-
ble, involving Bloch- or Néel-like rotations of the polarization
vector.
46Here, for simplicity, we will focus on 180° domain walls,
where the polarization changes by 180° from one domain to thenext, without discussing further details of the inner domainwall structure.
Within the category of 180° domain walls, we can further sep-
arate between three fundamental cases: The polarization P at the
wall can either be in side-by-side ( ↑↓), head-to-head ( →←), or
tail-to-tail ( ←→) configuration as depicted in Figs. 1(a) –1(c).
At head-to-head and tail-to-tail domain walls, the polarization has
a component normal to the wall (div P ≠0), which leads to the for-
mation of bound charges.
47–49These bound charges require screen-
ing, driving a redistribution of mobile charge carriers (ionic and/orelectronic). Electrons, for example, are attracted by the positiveelectrostatic potential at head-to-head walls and repelled by thenegative electrostatic potential at tail-to-tail domain walls. As aconsequence of this redistribution, increased and reduced con-ductivities can be observed at charged ferroelectric domainwalls.
26,29However, the charge-driven mechanism described
here is only one of the established mechanisms causing conduc-tion. Other mechanisms include a reduction in the bandgap or
formation of intra-bandgap states caused by defects at the walls
(see, e.g., Refs. 50and 51for a review). In short, domain walls
represent naturally occurring interfaces, which exhibit uniqueelectronic properties different from the surrounding bulk, offer-ing great potential as 2D systems for the development of thenext-generation nanotechnology.
52
FIG. 1. Schematic illustration of the three fundamental types of ferroelectric 180° domain walls. (a) Neutral side-by-side domain wall (purple). Black arr ows indicate the
direction of the spontaneous polarization P in the adjacent domains (yellow and green). (b) Positively charged head-to-head domain wall (red). The a ssociated domain wall
bound charges (+) are screened by accumulating mobile charge carriers, which can either be electrons, negatively charges ions, or a combination of bo th. (c) Negatively
charged tail-to-tail domain wall (blue). Negative bound charges ( −) are screened by mobile positively charged carriers (electron holes and/or positively charged ions).Journal of
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©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0B. Spatially resolved measurements
To access all relevant length scales from atomically sharp
domain walls to mesoscopic domains, a variety of microscopy tech-niques has been applied, as illustrated in Fig. 2 . Historically, optical
techniques with a resolution of about 1 μm were the primary
option for ferroelectric domain imaging, nowadays reaching downto 200 nm in near-field optical microscopy.
53,54Optical imaging
was used, for example, to resolve domains in optically active mate-rials, such as lead germanate (Pb
5Ge3O11)55and in combination
with preferential chemical etching in hexagonal manganites
(YMnO 3).56With the advent of modern microscopy methods, fer-
roelectric domains and domain walls in a much wider range ofmaterials became accessible, facilitating a more comprehensiveanalysis. Figure 2 presents selected microscopy studies performed
on the family of hexagonal manganites, which has evolved into one
of the most intensively studied model systems in the field ofdomain wall nanoelectronics. Going beyond the resolution limit ofclassical optical microscopy measurements, the domain formationin hexagonal manganites and other ferroelectrics has been investi-
gated by piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM).
57,58The func-
tional properties of domain walls, such as conductivity andmagnetism, have been investigated by conductive-atomic forcemicroscopy (c-AFM) and magnetic force microscopy (MFM),respectively.
26,59–61At the atomic scale, transmission electron
microscopy (TEM) allows for the direct observation of the atomic
positions and can visualize the internal domain wall structure.62–65
Thus, it is possible to cover all relevant length scales in spatially
resolved measurements, ranging from exact atomic positions to the
macroscopic correlation phenomena associated with domain walls.
It is important to note, however, that the specimen requirementsfor the different microscopy methods are completely different,
which can make correlated studies challenging.
SEM is a surface sensitive imaging technique that is highly
flexible and has been proven to be a very powerful technique forthe visualization of ferroelectric domains and domain walls.Compared to the other methods, SEM sticks out because of the
remarkably large range of length scales it can cover as illustrated in
Fig. 2 . Due to this continuous coverage of nano- and macroscopic
length scales, SEM is an explicitly promising tool for domain-wallrelated research, adding value regarding accessibility and the inte-gration of other advanced characterization and nanostructuring
methods as we will discuss in Secs. II–IV.
II. SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY —FUNDAMENTALS
AND APPLICATION OPPORTUNITIES
A. Domain and domain wall imaging by SEM —A
short history
The SEM as we know it today was invented by Zworykin et al.
in 1942.
66In 1965, SEMs became commercially available67and
just two years later, the first paper on ferroelectric domain
imaging in BaTiO 3by SEM was published [ Fig. 3(a) ].41Since
then, SEM has become a standard tool for many fields of surfacescience, as it can provide significantly higher resolution ( ≈1n m )
than optical measurements and can exploit diverse contrast
mechanisms, such as topographic contrast, elemental contrast,
and grain contrast (see the book on SEM by Reimer
68for a
detailed description).
An important breakthrough regarding the investigation of
ferroelectrics by SEM was made by Le Bihan et al. in 1972.85
FIG. 2. Upper part: length scales covered by different characterization techniques that are regularly applied to investigate ferroelectric domains and do main walls.
Lower part: examples of spatially resolved measurements of the ferroelectric domain structure in the hexagonal manganites, including optical micr oscopy, SEM, PFM, and
TEM. In the two images on the left, bright and dark regions correspond to +P and −P domains with P oriented normal to the surface plane (out-of-plane polarization).
In the two images on the right, P lies in the surface plane pointing in the directions indicated by the arrows (in-plane polarization). PFM and TEM image s are adapted from
Refs. 26and 64. Optical image is reproduced with permission from Šafránková et al., Czech. J. Phys. B 17, 559 (1967). Copyright 1967 Springer Nature. SEM image is
reproduced with permission from Li et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 152903 (2012). Copyright 2012 AIP Publishing LLC.Journal of
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©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0In pioneering experiments, the team achieved domain contrast
in ferroelectric BaTiO 3using low acceleration voltages. The result
is remarkable, as it removed the need for domain-selective-etching for creating topographic features, providing an opportu-nity to study ferroelectric domains and related phenomena in amuch wider range of materials. In the following years, SEM was
applied to study different ferroelectrics, including triglycine
sulfate (TGS),
70Gd2(MoO 4)3,42LiNH 4SO4,71and LiNbO 343[see
also Figs. 3(c) –3(e)]. As advances in electron sources, optics and
stability greatly improved the low voltage capabilities of SEM,high-resolution imaging became possible giving the SEM the
unique ability to image everything from macroscopic ferroelectric
and ferroelastic domain structures to nanometer sized domainwalls (see Fig. 3 ).
Originally, however, the primary focus of SEM studies in the
field of ferroelectrics was the imaging and characterization of
domain structures with little attention being paid to the domainwalls. The majority of SEM studies were performed on samples
with out-of-plane polarization and neutral domain walls. Charged
ferroelectric domain walls were first investigated by SEM in 1984by Aristov et al. in LiNbO
343[Figs. 3(d) and 3(e)]. Although the
exact contrast mechanism and physical origin of the anomalousresponse at the domain walls was not known at that time (see
Sec. II D), the work already foreshadowed many aspects discussed
in modern domain wall research as we will discuss later on.
B. Basic operation
To understand the image formation and emergent domain
and domain wall contrasts in SEM, we begin by discussing thebasic structure of modern SEMs. A typical SEM consists of (1) theelectron source and electron optics column, (2) the specimen
chamber with a goniometric stage, and (3) one or more detectors
for recording of secondary electrons and backscattered electrons as
FIG. 3. Overview of seminal SEM-based studies on ferroelectric domains and domain walls. (a) First observation of SEM domain contrast in BaTiO 3, realized by selective
etching and resulting topographic contrast. Bright and dark areas correspond to 90° domains as illustrated on the left. Black arrows indicate the pol arization direction.
Although such 90° domains and other variants are common in ferroelectrics, most SEM imaging studies have focused on 180° domains as presented in (c) –(e).
Reproduced with permission from Robinson and White, Appl. Phys. Lett. 10, 320 (1967). Copyright 1967 AIP Publishing LLC. (b) Observation of SEM contrast from ferro-
electric domains (black and gray regions) and neutral domain walls (bright stripes) in BaTiO 3. The SEM data was recorded with low acceleration voltage (3 kV), removing
the need for selective etching or specific coatings for imaging the domain distribution in ferroelectrics. Reproduced with permission from Le Bihan , Ferroelectrics 97,1 9
(1989). Copyright 1989 Taylor & Francis Ltd. (c) Observation of domain walls (bright stripes) in improper ferroelectric Gd 2(MoO 4)3. Reproduced with permission from Meyer
et al., Ultramicroscopy 6, 67 (1981). Copyright 1981 Elsevier. (d) and (e) show SEM images of charged domain walls in periodically poled LiNbO 3. In (d), the negatively
charged tail-to-tail walls are visible as black stripes under negative surface charging (3 kV); in (e) positively charged head-to-head domain walls are visible as bright stripes
under positive surface charging (1 kV). The SEM data in (d) and (e) are adapted with permission from Aristov et al., Phys. Status Solidi A 86, 133 (1984). Copyright 1984
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Journal of
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©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0shown in Fig. 4 .67,68,72In addition, optional optical cameras are
available for monitoring the specimen chamber. The electron
source is based on thermionic or field emission; the source in thelatter case is called a field emission gun (FEG). After the electronsare emitted from the source under a certain acceleration voltage(V), they enter the column where a series of electromagnetic lenses
and apertures focuses the beam onto the sample surface. Both the
column and the chamber are kept in vacuum (<10
−6Pa). Modern
SEMs often use an in-lens detector (ILD) where the detector ispositioned inside the electron column for immersion modeimaging. The beam diameter, or spot size, is closely tied to the res-
olution of the microscope and for modern SEMs it can even be
sub-nanometer when using a FEG.
As the electrons from the beam (primary electrons, PEs) reach
the sample, a variety of complex interactions occurs; for example, thePE can either interact with the negative electron clouds of the atoms
or the positive nuclei. The interaction with the nuclei causes the PE
to be scattered approximately elastically and, in some cases, electronsare reflected with an energy close to the incident energy (E
0). These
reflected electrons are called back-scattered electrons (BSEs). Theprobability of backscattering increases with atomic number of the
material under investigation, which implies that detection of BSEs
will contain elemental contrast. Interactions of PEs with the electroncloud of the target atoms are typically inelastic and associated withthe generation of secondary electrons (SEs). Generated SEs have a
low kinetic energy (<50 eV
73) and thus quickly recombine with holes
so that only SEs generated close to the surface ( ≲30 nm depth) can
escape the specimen. SEs can also be generated from BSEs withinthe material, as well as on surfaces inside the specimen chamber,
blurring the imaging results and mixing the SE signal with BSE con-
trast. The angle of the sample surface with respect to the beam direc-tion, as well as the surface topography, co-determine the region fromwhich SEs can escape, generating topographic contrast which iscommon when imaging with SEs. Combined with selective etching,
such topographic contrast was originally exploited for domain visual-
ization (see Sec. II D 1 ). Note that the contributing volume of the
BSEs, and thus also that of the BSE induced SEs, is highly dependenton the acceleration voltage (V). Thus , lowering the acceleration voltage
means the signal is generated from a smaller volume, which can be
exploited to increase the resoluti on. However, V also affects the spot
size, with higher V giving the smaller spot size due to reduced aberra-tions. Thus, a compromise has to be found between probe size andinteraction volume to optimize resolution.
To obtain spatially resolved data, the electron beam is raster-
scanned across the specimen. At evenly spaced points, the beam
stops for a time interval (dwell time) in the range of 1 μs, while the
detectors record a SE or BSE signal. The most common detectorused is the Everhardt –Thornley detector (ETD); a more detailed
explanation can be found elsewhere.
68The ETD is surrounded by a
metallic grid that can be biased positively to attract the low energy
SEs for imaging, or negatively to repel them and only detect BSEsinstead. Imaging in the immersion mode (immersing the sample inthe magnetic field of the objective lens) improves resolution as a
smaller probe can be formed but requires the use of a detector
mounted in the electron column (ILD). While ETDs can display aso-called shadowing effect due to the positioning on the side of the
FIG. 4. (a) Schematic of a dual-beam FIB with major components added and labeled. The setup of classical SEMs is similar but without the additional ion beam. (b )
Representative example of a domain image gained in SIM mode (SEs generated by ion beams) gained on ErMnO 3with out-of-plane polarization. Bright and dark areas
indicate ferroelectric 180° domains with opposite polarization orientation. (c) SEM image recorded on an ErMnO 3sample with the same surface orientation as in (b) with
bright and dark areas corresponding to ±P domains.Journal of
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©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0chamber, the ILD provides a more homogeneous signal and
typically has a better signal to noise ratio. However, even when
operating both detectors in the SE imaging mode, there will be adifference in the ratio of BSEs and SEs that reach the detectorsbecause of the geometry and the contrast might differ.
74
A specific challenge arises for ferroelectric domain and
domain wall imaging as ferroelectrics usually exhibit insulating or
semi-conducting properties. Thus, irradiation with charged parti-cles can generate a significant surface charge, which affects theimaging conditions. The ratio between emitted electrons and inci-dent electron is called the electron yield ( δ). This yield is highly
material dependent and varies with the acceleration voltage (V) as
sketched in Fig. 5 .
69The figure shows that whenever the yield is
not equal to unity, the sample gets charged: for δ>1( V 1<V<V 2),
the sample charges positively, and for δ<1( V>V 2and V < V 1), it
charges negatively. As a result, the PEs are accelerated or deceler-
ated on the way toward the surface, while the emitted SEs are
attracted or repelled from the surface, respectively, dynamicallychanging the imaging conditions. The charging will proceed until adynamic equilibrium is reached where δ= 1. For conductive materi-
als such charging can readily be avoided by grounding the sample
so that excess charge can dissipate. For ferroelectrics, or insulating
materials in general, however, the excess charges accumulate at thesurface. This can cause distortions and imaging artefacts. Thus, it isoften necessary to adjust and fine-tune the acceleration voltage
around δ= 1 to achieve stable imaging conditions. This is particu-
larly challenging when imaging areas with spatially varying con-ductivity as different areas charge differently, requiring special care.
C. Practical considerations for optimizing domain and
domain wall contrasts
1. Acceleration voltage
The acceleration voltage is arguably the most important
parameter when imaging ferroelectric domains and domain wallsby SEM, becoming increasingly important the more insulating thesample is. The impact on domain and domain wall visualization iswell demonstrated in Fig. 6 , showing an early example from the
seminal work of Le Bihan et al.
69As shown in Fig. 5 , for insulating
materials, the surface will become positively charged for accelera-tion voltages between V
1and V 2, and negatively charged for accel-
eration voltages higher than V 2or lower than V 1. For domain
contrast, working close to the equilibrium voltage V 1or V 2is favor-
able, because otherwise the deposited surface charge can screen the
polarization charges responsible for the contrast. We note that thesecond equilibrium point V
2is usually preferred as V 1is typically
so low in energy that aberrations will dominate the final resolution.In contrast, for domain wall imaging off-equilibrium voltages are
favorable, because here moderate charging can be useful as dis-
cussed in more detail in connection with different models proposedfor contrast formation in Sec. II D.
In general, strong charging of the material can create pro-
nounced distortions in the SEM images. The distortions usually
manifest as large variations in SE emission or drift within a single
scan.
75In principle, finding the equilibrium or optimal voltage is
not too difficult. It can be achieved by starting at a low voltage(e.g., 1 kV), progressively increasing the value. If domain ordomain wall contrast becomes visible, the voltage can then be fine-
tuned until maximum domain/domain wall contrast is reached. In
practice, however, dynamical charging effects often occur whileimaging, leading to variations in the surface potential and, hence,unstable imaging conditions.
In cases where no contrast is seen from the domains or
domain walls after quickly surveying the accessible range of acceler-ation voltages, or charging is too severe, other basic charging prin-ciples may be considered to find the equilibrium voltage wheredomain contrast is most pronounced. Below V
2, the sample should
become positively charged and the scanned area will appear darker
than the neutral surface. When the equilibrium point V 2has been
reached, this contrast should invert: the scanned area becomesnegatively charged and thus brighter than the neutral surface(see Ref. 68for more rigorous methods).
2. Secondary parameters (beam current, dwell time,
detector, and specimen)
Adjusting the acceleration voltage is not always enough to get
good domain and domain wall contrast and even when working
at ideal acceleration voltage the contrast can be very subtle, requir-
ing further optimization of secondary parameters. In general,increasing the beam current decreases noise and improves contrastsin SEM, and this also applies for the imaging of domain structures,possibly even more so if the contrast mechanism at play originates
either from heating or charging effects (see Sec. I ID1 for details).
Note, however, that as the beam current is increased, dynamicalcharging effects may get more pronounced. In addition, the risk ofcarbon contamination increases,
76as well as the risk of poling the
ferroelectric sample under the beam while imaging. Both these
effects are amplified by using longer dwell times, i.e., slower scans.
Faster scanning may be preferred for strongly charging samples,and if excessive charging cannot be avoided, a compromise must bemade in terms of beam current and scan speed. In the case of very
insulating specimens or multi-component systems, it is helpful to
touch a grounded micromanipulator to the sample surface near to
FIG. 5. Schematic of the secondary electron (SE) yield for varying acceleration
voltages V .68At the equilibrium points, V 1and V 2, the yield is at unity and there
is no surface charging. For V 1<V<V 2, the sample is slightly positively charged,
while for V > V 2(and V < V 1), the sample becomes negatively charged. When
working with voltages V > V 2, the dynamical negative charging caused by the
electron beam leads to a deceleration of the primary electrons (referred to ascharging direction) until V
2is reached.Journal of
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©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0the region of interest, improving the path to ground. For SEMs
without micromanipulators, conductive paint or tape can be placednear the region of interest as an alternative.
Trivially, but very important, clean and flat surfaces with a
root mean square roughness in the order of 1 nm, as obtained fromproper polishing, eliminate topographic contrast that can dominateover weak domain and domain wall contrast. Finally, it should benoted that both SE
42,69,77and BSE78,79detection modes have been
reported to give domain and domain wall contrast, but not neces-
sarily work equally well on the same material. From our experience,the best contrast is achieved using an in-lens detector biased for SEimaging. This can be explained by its high sensitivity to low energySEs and more effective discrimination of BSE induced SEs thus
making it better suited to distinguish between small differences in
the SE yield.
74The discussion in Sec. II D will thus focus on SE
detection.
3. Biasing with the electron beam
To verify that SEM contrast originates from ferroelectric
domains, the domains may be switched with the electron beam,analogous to PFM studies, where the switching is realized usingan electrically biased AFM tip.
70,80,81If the detected contrast
inverts along with the polarization orientation, this is a strong indi-
cation that the SEM contrast is of ferroelectric origin. Focusing theelectron beam with a high current onto a small region has beendemonstrated to create a sufficiently high electric field that canswitch the polarization direction.
70,82,83While the sub-surface
domain structure remains unknown, which is a limitation of SEM
and surface analysis techniques in general, the surface can be modi-fied with high spatial precision, although one has to be careful notto confuse domain switching with charging effects. As demon-strated, for example, for LiTaO
380and LiNbO 3,82,83the electron
beam at higher acceleration voltages (15 kV) induces negative
charging at the surface, which can be used to locally flip the polari-zation from −P to +P. In general, with a small contact-free electron
probe any specimen of any geometry can be manipulated and
subsequently imaged, reflecting the high flexibility of SEM-based
experiments.D. Contrast mechanisms
1. Out-of-plane polarization
Using SEM, ferroelectric domains and domain walls have been
visualized in many ferroelectric materials over the years. Although
the technique offers a quick way to image domain structures, acareful analysis is required to make statements about the local ferro-electric properties, because emergent contrast mechanisms can gowell beyond the basic description of SE and BSE contrast as observed
in common materials as described in Sec. II B.
The original and probably most simple approach for achieving
domain contrast is through domain-related topographical varia-
tions that arise due to surface treatment, such as chemical polishingand etching processes.
84In their early work on BaTiO 3, Robinson
and White exploited that ferroelectric domains with and without
surface bound charges etch differently leading to variations in
surface roughness, which was used to image 90° domains by SEM[Fig. 3(a) ]
41(note that although 90° domains and other variants
are common in ferroelectrics, most of the SEM studies havefocused on 180° domains). Due to the higher surface roughnessand thus larger escape area, the SE yield was found to be enhancedfor the positive domains with P normal to the surface so that they
are brighter in SEM measurements. Detrimental charging effects
were suppressed by depositing a conductive coating onto thesample surface. Alternatively, height differences can also occur, forexample, when the domains polish at a different speed, leading tovisible domain-related steps in surface topography (i.e., Ref. 41).
While this approach allows for studying the domains in out-of-planepolarized specimens, the topography transition from one domain to
the next is not necessarily correlated to the existing domain wall
structure as walls can, in principle, move after a topographic patternhas been imprinted. Furthermore, in situ experiments are not possi-
ble and domain switching cannot be captured, and the added con-ductive layer can limit further investigations with other microscopytechniques, such as conductive or electrostatic force microscopy.Finally, the resolution is limited by the etching/polishing rather than
the SEM instrumentation. However, it was later found that using low
acceleration voltages, charging can be avoided and a conductive
FIG. 6. SEM domain and domain wall images obtained on TGS. The images show how SEM contrast in ferroelectrics with out-of-plane polarization can vary dependi ng
on the acceleration voltage V . (a) Domain contrast is achieved for V = V 2with +P domains appearing darker than −P domains (see Fig. 5 for an illustration of the imaging
conditions). (b) and (c) show SEM contrast at neutral domain walls gained at V < V 2(bright walls) and V > V 2(dark walls), respectively. Figures are adapted with permission
from Le Bihan, Ferroelectrics 97, 19 (1989). Copyright 1989 Taylor & Francis Ltd.Journal of
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©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0coating could be omitted.85This discovery was important as it
enabled the visualization of domains and domain walls on the polar
surface without selective etching.
Aside from topographic contrast, polarization charges and
electrostatics associated with the ferroelectric order can beexploited for domain imaging in SEM. Since the first observationof electrostatic contrast variations by Le Bihan in 1972, different
theories have been proposed to explain the mechanisms behind
SEM domain contrast on polar surfaces.
69,77,86Three main mecha-
nisms for domain contrast that have been discussed in the litera-ture are illustrated in Figs. 7(a) –7(c), that is, (i) polarization
contrast,
69(ii) pyroelectric contrast,87and (iii) emission contrast.69
FIG. 7. Main mechanisms that can lead to domain contrast (top row) and domain wall contrast (bottom row) in SEM. (a) Uncompensated negative (blue) and positiv e (red)
bound charges (leading to an electric potential V pol)a tt h es u r f a c eo f −P and +P domains ( −and +) can repel and attract secondary electrons (SEs), respectively. This leads to
variations in the SE yield and, hence, the detection of domain contrast, with more intensity for −P domains (light gray) compared to +P domains (dark gray).69(b) Due to local
heating from the electron beam and the pyroelectric effect, the spontaneous polarization can decrease. Assuming that the bound charges at the surfac e were initially fully
screened, the decrease in polarization can lead to excess screening charges, giving rise to a domain-dependent surface potential (V pyro) that is detectable by SEM. Note that
the pyroelectric contrast is inverted compared to the polarization contrast in (a).87(c) Physical properties such as work function (W ±) and penetration depth (R ±) can be different
from one domain to another leading to changes in SE emission and, in turn, to domain contrast.69(d) Because of the bound charges at the surface of −P and +P domains, a
built-in electric field E exists (in-plane), where the domain wall intersects with the sample surface. This built-in field forces PEs and SEs into adj acent domains, keeping the wall
neutral. Under positive surface charging, a potential V deparises. The wall region which has remained less charged than the bulk will have a smaller attraction of SEs and more
detected yield.69(e) Deposited charge and the accompanying converse piezoelectric effect cause contraction and expansion of domains leading to a change in topograph y.
When using a side-mounted detector (ETD), half the domain walls will have a larger exposed surface and the detector will detect more SEs.87(f) Due to local beam-induced
switching, domain walls can tilt away from their ideal charge-neutral position. Under positive charging, −P domains expand and domain walls can tilt as sketched in (f), changing
the domain wall configuration and the local surface charge state. Assuming that surface charges in the switched area are not instantaneously screene d, the emergent negative
surface bound charges in the inverted area will create a negative surface potential relative to the screened regions, which increases the SE yield.77In addition, the emergent
domain wall bound charges and related changes in local conductivity can result in SEM contrast (see Fig. 8 ).Journal of
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©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0Mechanism (i) was discussed in connection with BaTiO 3, where
the domain contrast has been attributed to uncompensated surface
bound charges that arise from the bulk polarization [ Fig. 7(a) ].
The bound charges either repel or attract the SEs, reducing theyield for domains with positive surface charges compared todomains with negative surface charges. This effect was also used
to explain the domain contrast observed in TGS [ Fig. 6(a) ], where
domains with positive surface charges appeared to be darker thanthe domains with negative surface charges. While it is clear that asurface potential will alter the SE yield, the origin of the surfacepotential is not always clear and much more difficult to deter-
mine. This is because surface bound charges can be screened to a
varying degree by free charge carriers (ionic or electronic); thischarging may further vary dynamically while imaging, and thecontribution and impact of potentially charged adsorbents on thesurface are often unknown. The potential impact of adsorbents is
reflected, e.g., by x-ray photoemission electron microscopy
(X-PEEM), low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM), and x-rayphotoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies,
88,89and analogous sys-
tematic investigations on ferroelectric domains and domain wallsby SEM are desirable.
Aside from polarization contrast, the pyroelectric effect
can lead to domain contrast in SEM as a result of heating bythe electron beam.
87A pyroelectric potential is formed as the
polarization value changes due to the heating with opposite value
for opposite domains [ Fig. 7(b) ], given that emergent changes
ΔP = P(T) –P(T + ΔT) are not screened instantaneously. The result-
ing domain-dependent surface potential modifies the total numberof SEs reaching the detector in a similar way as in the model con-sidering polarization charges at a constant temperature. As a conse-
quence, different equilibrium voltages V
2exist for the two domain
states (see Fig. 5 ). It is important to note that the domain contrast
evolving from the pyroelectric effect [ Fig. 7(b) ] is inverted com-
pared to the contrast that arises from surface bound charges[Fig. 7(a) ], highlighting the importance of a careful analysis to
identify the correct polarization orientation and mechanism at
play. Furthermore, variations in other physical properties can causeor contribute to the domain contrast, such as differences in electronpenetration depth (R
±) and work function (W ±)[Fig. 7(c) ].
Compared to the phenomena observed for 180° domains with
out-of-plane polarization we discussed so far [ Figs. 7(a) –7(c)], the
interpretation of effects related to the associated neutral domainwalls is even more challenging. This is because the domain wallscan have completely different intrinsic properties than the bulk
(see Sec. IA), leading to a different interaction with the PEs and
SEs. In particular, their electronic and thermal conductivity canbe different, which is known to be crucial for the contrast forma-tion in SEM. However, while it is clear that this correlationenables new research opportunities, systematic, and comprehen-
sive SEM-based investigations of local transport phenomena at
ferroelectric domain walls remain to be realized.
An early model from Le Bihan
69(charging contrast model)
explained the contrast at neutral 180° domain walls in out-of-planepolarized samples based on a built-in electric field. The built-in
electric field arises from the bound surface charge next to the wall,
pushing the PEs into the adjacent domains so that the neutralwalls do not charge up as shown in Fig. 7(d) . Thus, the yield forthe walls will be higher than for the bulk when the surface is posi-
tively charged, owing to less attraction of SEs, and lower than for
the bulk when the surface is negatively charged [see also Figs. 6(b)
and 6(c)]. Similar effects are also expected if the neutral domain
wall exhibits a higher conductivity than the domains, which locallyreduces the charging under the electron beam. This becomes
increasingly important for thinner samples and films grown on
conducting back-electrodes, where it becomes more likely thatconducting domain walls directly connect surface to ground,leading to substantially reduced resistivity relative to the domains.A second model (piezoelectric contrast) is presented in Fig. 7(e) ,
where domain wall contrast is attributed to topographical varia-
tions caused by the converse piezoelectric effect: as the sample
charges, a surface potential builds up, which leads to a contractionor expansion of the ferroelectric domains, depending on the accel-eration voltage and the respective polarization orientation. The
latter translates into domain dependent variations in surface top-
ography, which can be resolved in SEM [ Fig. 7(e) ]. When using a
side-mounted detector (ETD), half of the domain walls will have alarger exposed surface and the detector will detect more SEs so thatthese walls appear brighter in SEM.
87Alternatively, SEM contrast
can arise as domain walls are bent away from their ideal charge-
neutral configuration (switching contrast) due to local heating orsurface charging by the electron beam.
77,86When negative domains
expand, as it is the case for positive surface charging, the switched
area will develop a negative surface potential, assuming that the bound
charges of the newly switched area are not screened instantaneously.The surface potential then deacceler ates PEs and repels SEs, increasing
the yield so that the switched area appears brighter [ Fig. 7(f) ]. Aside
from the emergent surface potential due to domain switching, the
domain walls bend away from their charge-neutral position, which
leads to domain wall bound charges. The latter can cause additionalcontrast contributions as explained in detail in Sec. I ID2 ,w h e r ew e
address SEM imaging of charged domain walls.
The overview presented in Figs. 7(d) –7(f) shows that the
interpretation of domain wall contrast in SEM can be highly non-
trivial and the exact mechanisms are still far from being fullyunderstood. The development of a more comprehensive modelexplaining the SEM contrast formation at nominally neutral ferro-electric domain walls is therefore highly desirable to enable quanti-
tative measurements and benefit from the SEM`s nanometer spatial
resolution and high sensitivity to electronic and electrostaticdomain wall properties.
2. In-plane polarization
Compared to surfaces with out-of-plane polarization, surfaces
where the polarization lies in-plane are far less studied with SEM.Domain contrast has been observed on surfaces with in-planepolarization,
43and the contrast has been explained by the emission
model [ Fig. 7(c) ], assuming that oppositely polarized domains have
a difference in emission at equilibrium conditions. However, addi-
tional work is desirable to clarify the origin of ferroelectric domaincontrast in SEM on non-polar surfaces. Importantly, it was clearearly on that emergent domain wall contrasts can provide valuable
information about the physical properties at charged ferroelectric
domain walls. In addition to the phenomena that arise at neutralJournal of
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©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0walls, the charged domain walls exhibit bound charges and diverg-
ing electrostatic potentials that add to their complexity, as well aspronounced variations in electronic conductivity.
The first observation of charged domain walls by SEM was
made in 1984 by Aristov et al .
43By mapping the ferroelectric
domain structure in LiNbO 3under negative charging conditions
(Fig. 5 ), it was found that tail-to-tail domain walls became visible
due to a lower SE yield than the bulk [ Fig. 3(d) ]. For positive
surface charging, the positively charged head-to-head domain walls
became visible because of a higher SE yield than the bulk [ Fig. 3(e) ].
The authors explained this effect based on electrostatics, arguing thatthe domain wall represents a potential barrier which preventscharges to accumulate. For instance, under negative surface charging
[Fig. 8(a) ] a negative domain wall (tail-to-tail) would be kept neutral
and thus exhibit a lower yield than the bulk due to less repulsion ofSEs and PEs. The opposite happens at the head-to-head walls, whichremain neutral under positive charging so that more SEs reach thedetector. Alternatively, differences in the surface potential can arise
at charged domain walls due to their distinct electronic transport
properties [conductivity contrast, Fig. 8(b) ]. X-ray photoemission
electron microscopy (X-PEEM) measurements demonstrated thatsurface charging is suppressed at charged domain walls withenhanced conductivity.
32The correlation between domain wall con-
ductivity and SEM contrast is evident from recent measurements on
ErMnO 3, revealing a direct connection between SEM domain wall
contrast and the local transport properties90[seeFigs. 9(b) –9(d)].
In 2007,91further investigations on poled LiNbO 3with
charged domain walls showed that the SE yield at negative
tail-to-tail domain walls is higher than for the bulk under positive
surface charging and lower under negative surface charging(head-to-head domain walls were not reported). It was suggestedthat the SEM contrast could be due to increased recombination
activities, resulting from an accumulation of point defects and
impurities at the negatively charged domain walls. This couldreduce the negative charging at the wall and thus lead to a lower
yield [ Fig. 8(c) ]. Although the results are not fully consistent with
the aforementioned SEM study on charged domain walls inLiNbO
3,43the work is intriguing as it foreshadows the possibility to
apply SEM to explore the local defect chemistry at charged ferro-
electric domain walls.92In general, it is very likely that multiple
effects are present, contributing simultaneously to the SEM contrastat charged domain walls. Thus, especially with fixed imaging con-ditions, it is challenging to unambiguously identify the physical
origin of the contrast as reflected by the work on charged domain
walls in LiNbO
3.
In conclusion, although SEM attracted much attention for
imaging ferroelectrics early on, the reported observations have
shown that we still do not have a good enough understanding of
the underlying contrast mechanisms. In this sense, it is an over-looked technique with more potential, considering its great flexi-bility and speed in visualizing both nanoscale and macroscopicdomain structures. However, it is also clear that a better under-
standing of the contrast formation process and the development
of a comprehensive theory is highly desirable to deconvolutecompeting contrast-formation mechanisms and ultimately facili-tate quantitative SEM-based measurements at domain walls inferroelectrics.
III. DUAL-BEAM FOCUSED ION BEAM
Seen as a surface analysis technique for ferroelectric domains
and domain walls, SEM combines several key aspects, offering non-
destructive and contact-free imaging with high spatial resolution.
Furthermore, SEM is much faster than comparable domain analysistechniques such as PFM. Possibly the biggest advantage of SEM isthe opportunity to combine domain wall imaging with other nano-
characterization and fabrication tools. Most notably, the dual-beam
FIB (focused ion beam, Fig. 4 ) combines nano-structuring with
FIG. 8. SEM contrast at charged domain walls. (a) Under negative surface charging, the potential barrier at a negative tail-to-tail domain wall prevents neg ative charges to
accumulate, keeping it more neutral with less yield (same as in Fig. 6 ). (b) Enhanced conductivity at domain walls can locally reduce charging effects,32causing a potential
difference relative to the more insulating domains. Analogous to (a), this potential difference influences the SE yield, leading to domain wall cont rast in SEM. (c)
Recombination contrast illustrated for the case of a negatively charged tail-to-tail domain wall (blue line). One possibility to screen the negativ ely bound charges at
tail-to-tail domain walls is to accumulate positively charged ionic defects (white circles). It has been proposed that such ionic defects may locall y increase the recombination
activity for the primary electrons (PE), which reduces the SE yield at the position of the domain wall so that they are darker than the in-plane polarize d domains in the
SEM image.Journal of
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©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0high-resolution imaging within one setup, enabling preparation of
ferroelectric specimens with varying shapes and dimensions fordomain engineering,
93–96as well as correlated microscopy studies
of domain walls in device-relevant geometries.97Here, we will
focus on these two topics and give recent examples related todomain wall research. For a comprehensive introduction to theFIB, we refer the reader to, e.g., the textbook by Yao.
95
A. Ions vs electrons
The basic setup of FIB optics is very similar to the SEM optics
(Fig. 4 ), but instead of an electron beam, FIB uses an ion beam.95
Replacing the electron source by a liquid-metal ion source, typically
Ga+, results in completely new functionality. In general, FIB has
four basic applications: milling, deposition, implantation, andimaging. In addition, supplementary features, such as micro-manipulators, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and
compatible probe stations are often found on FIB instruments,
making it a highly useful toolkit for nanotechnology-relatedresearch. Originally, the FIB was developed for the semiconductorindustry to do microfabrication and failure analysis, but today it isalso extensively used in research laboratories for characterization
and specimen preparation at nano- to macroscopic length scales.
Many modern FIBs include an SEM, referred to as dual-beam
FIB. Here, both microscopes use the same vacuum chamber anddetector system, and the two beams (electrons and Ga
+) are coinci-
dent at the sample surface ( Fig. 4 ). In contrast to the electron
beam, the ion beam is focused with electrostatic lenses (notelectromagnetic) due to the higher ion mass compared to an elec-
tron. When reaching the sample, the heavy Ga+ions strongly inter-
act with the surface atoms. This interaction can be an elastic
collision with the nucleus and/or inelastic processes with the elec-
tron cloud generating SEs. Due to the large mass of the incidention, the former interaction can transfer significant momentum tothe target atoms, knocking them out of position. This creates a
cascade of collisions in the targeted specimen and can lead to
sputtering of surface atoms, which is the basis for ion beammilling. Aside from milling, the incident Ga
+beam can cause
amorphization and implantation of Ga+. Related artefacts can be
minimized by adequately adjusting the acceleration voltage of the
Ga+beam. Lower acceleration voltages typically lead to more
implantation, but also a smaller penetration depth and thinnerdamage layers. Should the sputtered atoms also be ionized andemitted from the surface as SI (secondary ions), they can bedetected and reveal strong elemental contrast. Due to ion channel-
ing, the penetration depth of the Ga
+ions depends on the crystal
orientation. The likelihood for SEs to escape and be detectedincreases and thus contrast due to variations in crystallographicorientation is possible for ion induced SE imaging.
In general, the FIB retains the basic imaging functions,
complementary to the electron imaging of the SEM, referred to as
scanning ion microscopy (SIM, see Fig. 4 ). The biggest advantage,
however, arises from the added functionalities beyond just imaging.For instance, sputtering can be used to remove the surface
layer-by-layer and create cross sections of the material to reveal
sub-surface structures. Furthermore, by introducing gases into the
FIG. 9. Applications of dual-beam FIB to ferroelectrics. (a) SEM image (BSE mode) of an ErMnO 3lamella with in-plane polarization, extracted from a bulk sample using a
dual-beam FIB.90The red dashed square marks the region where the data shown in (b) –(d) was recorded. (b) SEM image (SE mode) obtained in the area marked in (a).
Ferroelectric domain walls are visible as bright lines on a homogeneous gray background. (c) PFM image (in-plane contrast) of the same location as in ( b), revealing the
polarization direction in the domains (bright: −P; dark: +P). (d) cAFM data showing enhanced conductance at the position of the domain walls. Consistent with Ref. 17,
tail-to-tail domain walls are observed to exhibit higher conductance than the head-to-head domain walls, reproducing the contrast levels observed in the SEM scan in (b).
(a)–(d) are reproduced with permission from Mosberg et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 115, 122901 (2019). Copyright 2019 AIP Publishing LLC. (e) Example of a TEM lamella pre-
pared by FIB. The lamella is attached to a half TEM grid (left side) in a “flagpole ”geometry, where the outermost part of the lamella has a thickness below 40 nm.100
Image is adapted with permission from Schaffer et al., Ultramicroscopy 114, 62 (2012). Copyright 2012 Elsevier.Journal of
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©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0specimen chamber, the ion beam can be used for depositing elec-
trical surface contacts or protecting capping layers with nanoscale
spatial precision. Typically, this would be tungsten or platinumwhen high conduction is required, or carbon and silicon dioxidefor a more resistive material. Please note that the deposits containhigh amounts of carbon remains for the carrier molecules and Ga
with ion-assisted deposition.
98,99Combining the different deposi-
tion possibilities with milling al lows for complete 3D nanostruc-
turing. Another essential feature of modern FIBs are integratedmicromanipulators, which allow for extracting specimens with thedesired shape and dimension from bulk samples. Other microma-
nipulator setups include probe stations that enable in situ charac-
terization of local transport properties, making the FIB awell-equipped toolbox for studying ferroelectric domain walls. Inthe following, we will give two examples that highlight how theapplication of dual-beam FIB pushes the frontiers of domain wall
research, addressing the extraction and study of individual
domain walls ( Fig. 9 ) and creation, and testing of device-relevant
geometries ( Fig. 10 ).
B. Specimen preparation and nanostructuring
FIB-SEM is widely used to prepare specimen for the
TEM,
93,100which otherwise can be a time-consuming process and
less site-specific. The FIB can readily extract lamellas (typical
dimensions: 5 to 10 μm squared and 1 μm thick) from a
site-specific region of interest (ROI) with 10 nm precision and thinthe lamella down to the desired thickness and shape [ Fig. 9(e) ]. As
a result, the FIB has become a standard tool for TEM specimen
preparation. The preparation of thin lamella-shaped specimen,
however, is no longer just of interest to enable high-resolutionTEM studies. Nanostructuring by FIB-SEM has evolved into aresearch field by itself, enabling preparation and manipulation ofmaterials to study confinement effects, emergent phenomena at the
nanoscale and more.
97For example, FIB-SEM has been used totailor ferroelectrics leading to different breakthroughs, including
the creation of exotic domain states and controlled injection of
domain walls with nanoscale spatial precision.96,101
As we discussed in Sec. I, conductive domain walls have been
intensively studied and great progress has been made in recentyears. Yet, the investigations mostly focused on the application of
surface sensitive techniques, while more detailed information on
the 3D structure is needed for a better understanding of theunusual electronic transport phenomena at ferroelectric domainwalls. Using FIB-SEM, it becomes possible to study individualdomain walls with a well-defined geometry as recently demon-
strated by measurements on the hexagonal manganite ErMnO
3.90
Using a micromanipulator, a lamella was extracted from a bulk
out-of-plane polarized sample. After extraction, the lamella wasfurther thinned down to 700 nm and then polished with the ionbeam at low acceleration voltages to remove the surface damage
layer and improve contrast of surface sensitive techniques. This
approach made it possible to image the lamella from both sides inSEM, giving an estimate of the orientation of the domain walls in3D via linear extrapolation. The lamella was then placed on anMgO substrate for correlated PFM and cAFM studies as shown in
Figs. 9(b) –9(d). The correlated investigations, combined with the
knowledge about the 3D structure, enabled a refined understandingof the conducting domain walls. In particular, the work explainedwhy deviations from the expected transport behavior occur when
considering only the domain wall state at the surface, highlighting
the importance of the domain wall orientation hidden withinthe bulk.
Going beyond the advanced imaging capabilities, 3D nano-
structuring by FIB has been applied to control domain wall
motions exploiting size-effects. Although ferroelectric domains can
be controlled with electric fields, they will only shrink and expanddepending on the direction of the electric field. Domain wallsenclosing one domain will then necessarily move in oppositedirections. In order to achieve a unidirectional movement, the
surface of the ferroelectric material can be altered, creating an
asymmetric potential landscape for the domain walls, facilitatingthe design of domain-wall based shift registers as demonstratedby Whyte et al.
102
Figure 10 shows a domain wall diode extracted from ferroelec-
tric KTiOPO 4using FIB, representing an intriguing example for 3D
nanostructuring. A lamella was extracted from a bulk sample andplaced between two electrodes as shown in Fig. 10(a) . While the
backside was kept flat, the surface of the lamella was milled into a
wedge shape followed by a step in the topography, as sketched in
Fig. 10(b) .G a
+-induced damage at the surface was partially
removed by thermal annealing and subsequent acid etching.103A
strong electric pulse of +100 V was then applied to remove anyexisting domains, followed by two electric pulses of −55 V and
+32 V, respectively. PFM images were acquired after each pulse as
shown in Fig. 10(b) , where the domain walls are the interfaces
between up (yellow) and down (purple) polarized domains. Thefirst pulse nucleated a domain in the right part of the lamella,which progressively moved to the left and over the surface step.
During the second pulse, the surface step prevents the existing
domain wall from moving to the right and instead a seconddomain wall was nucleated and moved toward the left. Thus, the
FIG. 10. FIB-SEM nano-structuring of ferroelectric devices. (a) SEM image of a
ferroelectric domain wall diode. (b) In the top, a schematic of the topography is
shown and below are two PFM images taken after a voltage pulse has been
applied to the lamella in single domain state. First, a voltage pulse of −55 V is
applied, creating a domain wall that is moved from the right to the left, stoppingat the surface step. Then, a second voltage pulse of +32 V is applied, creating a
new domain wall and moving it to the base of the wedge. Dark arrows in the
PFM image indicate the polarization direction, and bright arrows indicate domainwall movement. Adapted with permission from Whyte and Gregg, Nat. Commun.6, 7361 (2015). Copyright 2015 Springer Nature.Journal of
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©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0domain walls can only move in one specific direction, analogously
to the operating principle of a conventional diode that only allows
current to flow from the anode to cathode.
In conclusion, the examples in Figs. 9 and 10reflect the
diverse application opportunities of combining FIB nanostructur-ing and SEM imaging in the field of domain wall nanoelectronics.
Applications range from the characterization of the transport
behavior at individual domain walls to the creation of device-relevant geometries that allow for precise control of domain wallmotions. At present, however, we are just beginning to explore allthe different nanofabrication capabilities and related opportunities
for the research on functional domain walls. We anticipate that
FIB-SEM will play an important role in the future for facilitatingproof-of-concept devices such as memory cells, domain wall enabledmemristors, and FE-RAM with domain-wall based read-out.
IV. CORRELATED SEM AND ATOM PROBE
TOMOGRAPHY INVESTIGATIONS OF INTERFACES
In this last part of the Tutorial, we will go beyond conven-
tional and rather well-established research directions and discusspossible future opportunities for the studies of ferroelectric domainwalls, arising from the combination of FIB-SEM and atom probetomography (APT). We consider this combination a particularly
promising example as it allows for characterizing domain walls in
3D down to the atomic scale and with highly sensitive element-specific compositional analysis.
104–108This capability facilitates
unprecedented insight into the chemical composition of domainwalls and their interaction with point defects, which may lead to
important breakthroughs in the field of domain wall nanoelec-
tronics, likely pushing the state of the art in the years to come.
A. Atom probe tomography
The basic function of an APT instrument is to field evaporate
materials atom-by-atom, which are then detected using a time-of-flight method so that the atoms can be identified (i.e., chemically
labelled) and back projected onto a virtual specimen to build a 3D
model. For details about the setup and the general working princi-ple of APT we refer the reader to, for example, the textbook byGault et al.
106Here, we will restrict ourselves to a short summary
of key parameters, focusing on the added value of combined
FIB-SEM and APT for the study of ferroelectric domain walls.
To evaporate atoms, ideally “one at a time ”, a strong electric
field is needed ( ∼1010Vm−1), which is achieved by the combina-
tion of a positive high voltage source, between 2 and 12 kV, and aspecific shape of the sample under investigation: in APT, the
sample usually has the shape of a sharp needle with tip radius of
50 to 150 nm. By measuring the (x, y)-coordinates for each atom ata given position, i.e., the position of the 2D detector (microchannelplate and delay-lines), the original position of the atom on thespecimen surface before evaporation can be deduced considering
its trajectory in the applied electrostatic field. The third coordinate
is then calculated based on the tip geometry and the ionic volumeresulting in a full 3D measurement of the atomic positions. To alsoobtain the time-of-fligh t, which is directly related to the mass-to-charge
ratio of the detected atom/ion, laser pulses (or voltage pulses) are
applied to the specimen tip, which controls the time of departure,making the APT method element specific. In modern APT instru-
ments, up to 80% of the evaporated atoms are detected and for
every single atom the mass-to-charge ratio can be determined.Studying materials in this atom-by-atom fashion results in out-standing chemical sensitivity which, combined with the sub-nanometer spatial resolution, puts APT in a unique position for
3D nanoscale investigations.
109,110
Originally relying on voltage pulsing, the application of APT
used to be restricted to metals, shaped into needles by electropo-lishing. Because of this, the technique has been applied extensivelyto metals for studying the composition of precipitates, dislocations,
and grain boundaries.
104,111Today, with the integration of the
laser-based evaporation and sample preparation by dual-beam FIB,virtually any material can be investigated, opening the door forAPT studies of ferroelectric domain walls. However, due to thesmall analysis volumes (in the range of 10
7nm3), careful prepara-
tion of specimens is key for a successful APT analysis of domain
walls.112–115Here, SEM and its capability to image ferroelectric
domain walls comes into play (see Sec. II), with FIB allowing
extraction of individual walls with nanoscale spatial precision. Asan example of the potential of combined FIB-SEM and APT
studies, we briefly discuss the recent work by Xu et al.
118on grain
boundaries in oxides in Sec. IV B .
B. Applications of APT to interfaces in oxides
Analogous to ferroelectric domain walls, it is established
that grain boundaries in ionic conductors can exhibit enhanced
or reduced conductivity,116representing quasi-2D systems with
specific properties different from the homogenous bulk. Theorigin of the anomalous transport behavior at the boundaries isoften attributed to impurity elements accumulating at the grain
boundary.
117
Figure 11 presents an APT study of a grain boundary in
Sm-doped CeO 2from the recent work by Xu et al.118InFig. 11(a) ,
a SEM image is shown of the needle specimen before and after the
APT analysis. This specimen was extracted from the specific loca-
tion of a grain boundary, which was identified with the SEM. Thecorresponding APT analysis is presented in Fig. 11(b) , which
shows that Sm is homogeneously distributed in the bulk, with addi-tional impurity elements that are nominally only a few ppm accu-
mulated at the boundary. As the APT technique has a sensitivity as
low as a few ppm, it can readily detect such small concentrationswell below 0.1 at. %, in addition to their spatial distribution aroundthe grain boundary.
The impurity elements where shown to cause a space charge
potential at the grain boundary, leading to a depletion of oxygen
vacancies. Similar findings have previously been made on dopedSrTiO
3,117,119where grain boundaries of doped samples show a
negative potential at the grain boundary core, in contrast to pristinesamples that showed no sign of such electrostatic potential. This
combination of SEM and APT led to a breakthrough in under-
standing the origin of grain boundary transport properties, and thesame procedure could be applied to study the impact of pointdefects at domain walls, leading to novel insight regarding the
nanoscale physics and defect chemistry at functional domain walls
in ferroelectrics.Journal of
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©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0V. CONCLUSION
For about half a century, scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
has been used to visualize the domain and domain wall distribution
in ferroelectrics, providing a unique opportunity for scale-bridging
microscopy studies and continuously covering nano- to mesoscopiclength scales. In addition, the SEM measurement is contract-freeand fast, with typical data acquisition times in the order of a few
seconds. On the one hand, it is an advantage of SEM that diverse
mechanisms can be exploited to achieve domain and domain wallcontrast, making it applicable to a wide range of ferroelectric mate-
rials. On the other hand, this diversity of contrast mechanismsoften makes it difficult to identify the dominant contribution,making the data analysis at ferroelectric domain walls highly non-
trivial. At this point, we do not understand the contrast formation
well enough, which is reflected by the patchwork-like selection ofmodels that have been proposed to explain observed SEM contrastat neutral and charged domain walls. The development of a
comprehensive theory for the contrast formation at ferroelectric
FIG. 11. Combining SEM and APT . (a) SEM image of a needle-shaped Sm-doped CeO 2sample, obtained before and after (inset) APT analysis. The SEM data shows
how the needle is blunted during the APT analysis, resulting from successive field evaporation of the surface atoms. (b) 3D reconstruction of the evap orated area of the
needle in (a). Here, only the impurity ions are shown. The Sm atoms are homogeneously distributed within the specimen. In contrast, at the grain bounda ry located in the
center of the needle, an accumulation of various other elements is observed. (c) Cross-sectional data showing the variation in concentration for dif ferent elements across
the grain boundary in (b). Adapted with permission from Xu et al., Nat. Mater. 19, 887 (2020). Copyright 2020 Springer Nature.Journal of
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J. Appl. Phys. 128, 191102 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0029284 128, 191102-14
©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0domain walls is highly desirable in order to achieve quantitative
insight and fully exploit the benefits offered by SEM.
The perhaps biggest advantage of SEM is its outstanding flexi-
bility when it comes to correlated studies beyond just imaging.Dual-beam FIB-SEM allows for combining imaging with nano-structuring, correlated microscopy measurements, and in situ
switching experiments. In addition, in operando studies are feasible,
allowing to study the performance of domain walls in devices anddevice-relevant geometries.
Other opportunities that are yet to be explored fully are com-
binations with advanced characterization methods such as atom
probe tomography (APT), enabling 3D chemical structure analysis
at domain walls with unprecedented precision. In addition, theoption to both image and cut in FIB-SEM instruments can be usedto resolve domain wall structures in 3D and with nanoscale spatialaccuracy; setups with micromanipulators are further capable of
four-probe transport measurements, providing a pathway to deter-
mine the intrinsic conductivity at domain walls.
In summary, SEM has shown its value and still has a huge
potential for studying ferroelectric domain walls that is yet to beunlocked, and with the field moving closer and closer to first
device applications, it is likely that in situ/in operando studies by
SEM will play an increasingly important role in the future.
DATA AVAILABILITY
The data that support the findings of this study are available
within the article.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
D.M. acknowledges support by NTNU through the Onsager
Fellowship Program and the Outstanding Academic FellowsProgram, and funding from the European Research Council (ERC)under the European Union ’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation
Programme (Grant Agreement No. 863691). The Research Council
of Norway is acknowledged for support to the Norwegian Micro-and Nano-Fabrication Facility, NorFab (Project No. 295864).
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©A u t h o r ( s )2 0 2 0 |
1.1868057.pdf | Precessional switching on exchange biased patterned magnetic media with
perpendicular anisotropy
M. Belmeguenai, T. Devolder, and C. Chappert
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 97, 083903 (2005); doi: 10.1063/1.1868057
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1868057
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/97/8?ver=pdfcov
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[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
130.159.70.209 On: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 15:36:47Precessional switching on exchange biased patterned magnetic media
with perpendicular anisotropy
M. Belmeguenai,a!T. Devolder, and C. Chappert
Institut d’Electronique Fondamentale, UMR CNRS 8622, Bâtiment 220, Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay,
France
sReceived 23 July 2004; accepted 11 January 2005; published online 5 April 2005 d
We propose to use an in-plane exchange bias field to assist the applied field to obtain precessional
switching of the magnetization in a high perpendicular anisotropy media. Our calculation is madein the limit of a nondamped macrospin particle. From the energy conservation, we derive themagnetic trajectories for any applied field magnitude and orientation. Precessional switching isshown to occur only for sufficiently large but not too high applied fields. The writing windowassociated with this switching field interval enlarges when the exchange bias field increases, ascalculated quantitatively in the case of perpendicular recording. The potential application of thisconcept to magnetic recording is discussed. Compared to conventional media, the switching fielddistribution will be narrowed because the exchange bias provides a better immunity to texturedispersion.Sinceexchangebiasreducessignificantlythereversalfield,wecanusehigheranisotropymaterials and enhance the areal density while preserving the thermal stability. © 2005 American
Institute of Physics .fDOI: 10.1063/1.1868057 g
I. INTRODUCTION
Obtaining subnanosecond magnetization switching of
submicron nanostructures is a key technological issue for theapplications of nanomagnetism, and especially for perpen-dicular magnetic recording. This technology is based on thehigh anisotropy media required for thermally stable ultrahighdensity storage.
1The main remaining difficulties of perpen-
dicular recording are the low switching speed2and the poor
signal-to-noise ratio sSNR dresulting from a large distribu-
tion of switching field inside the media.3Despite the need for
faster data rates, little work has been dedicated to the fastdynamics of these media
4–6in contrast with the case of soft
magnetic materials.
In order to get better SNR and narrower switching field
distribution, the case of tilted anisotropy media wassuggested.
3,6–8This could bring a significant increase in
SNR, hence, in the areal density together with a faster mag-netization switching than perpendicular media.
6However, a
critical issue is the manufacturability of such tilted aniso-tropy media.
3Another alternative to gain a better SNR is to
redesign the recording head so that the write field is angledwith respect to the perpendicular direction.
9The main draw-
back of this proposed design is that shielding will be re-quired, in both the down and cross-track directions, to avoidthat the field causes multipass erasure.
3Thus, none of the
earlier approaches completely solves the mentioned issues.
Patterned magnetic media is one proposed approaches
for extending magnetic storage densities beyond the limit setby thermal decay for conventional granular media. Thispromising technology, where real densities as high as200 Gbits/in
2have been demonstrated, dramatically reduces
jitter and improves SNR.10Therefore, in this article, we
show that fast precessionnal magnetization reversal of highperpendicular anisotropy nanostructures can be achieved at
reduced applied field by polarizing the media using an in-plane exchange bias field. The exchange bias field lowers theswitching field so that high anisotropy materials can be usedto enhance thermal stability, at the same cost in writing field.
Some aspects of this exchange biasing strategy have
been partly presented elsewhere, notably in the case of pre-cessional dynamics triggered by in-plane applied field.
11,12
We have underlined that a benefit is obtained on the switch-ing field and writing time.
11However, this case restricted to
toggle switching and does not allow direct overwrite.
The aim of this article is to study the general case of any
applied field orientation, and to determine the orientationsthat allow direct overwrite. The article is organized as fol-lows: we first define our model and derive the analyticalexpressions of magnetization trajectory sSec. II d. These are
obtained from the energy conservation in the case of negli-gible damping and for variable field magnitude. Then wediscuss these trajectories and the effect of the exchange biason the switching field for applied fields collinear to the per-pendicular easy axis sSec. III A d. We also describe the mini-
mum reversal field for various orientations of the appliedfield sSec. III B d. The effect of the damping on the obtained
results in the previous sections is also discussed sSec. IV d.
Finally, we show that the storage density can be enhancedwhile maintaining the thermal stability.Applications to mag-netic recording are finally discussed sSec. V d.
II. MAGNETIZATION DYNAMICS AND TRAJECTORY
ALGEBRA
Magnetization dynamics is described by the well-known
Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation13 adElectronic mail: mohamed.belmeguenai@ief.u-psud.frJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 97, 083903 s2005 d
0021-8979/2005/97 ~8!/083903/6/$22.50 © 2005 American Institute of Physics 97, 083903-1
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
130.159.70.209 On: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 15:36:47dM
dt=g0HeffˆM−a
iMiSdM
dt3MD, s1d
where g0=0.221 MHz/ sAm−1dis the gyromagnetic factor,
andais the damping parameter. The magnetization is sup-
posed uniform and given by M=Msm, whereMsis the spon-
taneous magnetization and mis a unit vector. Heffis the
effective field, comprising the applied field H, the anisotropy
fieldHk, the demagnetizing field HD, and an exchange bias
fieldHexcalong the sxdaxis. This exchange bias field can for
instance arises from a properly field annealed antiferromag-
netic layer adjacent to the magnetic layer of interest.
We consider that the easy anisotropy axis is along szd.
We write Hkeff=sHk−Msdthe amplitude of the effective an-
isotropy field and we consider a macrospin approximation
sthe intrinsic contribution to the exchange field is zero d.I n
the following, lowercase letters are used to indicate magne-tization and fields normalized to M
s. For instance, hkeff
=Hkeff/Ms.A tt=0, the system is at equilibrium with mz.0.
A field pulse is applied in the sxzdplane at an angle uwith
thes+zdorientation sFig. 1 d.
Standard media for perpendicular magnetic recording
typically exhibit Ms=300 kA/m8,14andHkhigher than
800 kA/m. In terms of exchange biasing, exchange bias fieldof about 27 kA/m have been reached at room temperature,on a fPts20 Å d/Cos4Ådg
5/Pt/s2Åd/FeMn s130 Å d
multilayer with perpendicular anisotropy.15The damping
constant of CoPt systems is typically in the range of0.02–0.1.
4,16
Here, we restrict to the case hkeff.hexc. When the applied
field is fast rising and has a short duration, the magnetizationswitching is dominated by precession. Since our primarygoal is to present simple and indicative solution in that fast-rising limit, we shall neglect the damping in Eq. s1d, in con-
trast with other studies.
17
The system energy per unity of volume is given by
E
m0Ms2=−mxshexc+hsinud−hkeff
2mz2−hmzcosu. s2d
In the equilibrium state the total energy fEq.s2dgis mini-
mum, which givesmx=hexc
hkeff,my=0 andmz=±˛1−hexc2
hkeff2. s3d
The initial state corresponds to a positive value of mz.
Now let us derive the expression of the magnetization
trajectories. Using the energy conservation and the initialconditions fEq.s3dg, the trajectory in the plane sxzdis di-
rectly obtained from Eq. s2d. We get
m
x=−1
hexc+hsinuFhkeff
2mz2+hcossudmz−hkeff
2+hexc2
2hkeff
−hcossud˛1−hexc2
hkeff2G+hexc
hkeff. s4d
Injecting the magnetization norm invariance smx2+my2
+mz2=1din Eq. s4d, we obtain the trajectory in the syzdplane
my2=1
shexc+hsinud2H−hkeff2
4mz4−hhkeffcossudmz3
−Sh2cos2u−hkeff2
2+hexc2
2−hhkeff
3cossud˛1−hexc2
hkeff2+hshexc+hsinudsinsudDmz2
−2hcosuF−hkeff
2+hexc2
2hkeff−hcossud
3˛1−hexc2
hkeff2−hexc
hkeffshexc+hsinudmzG+cJ,s5d
where
c=2hcosuF−hkeff
2+hexc2
2hkeff−hexc
hkeffshexc+hsinudG
3˛1−hexc2
hkeff2−S1−hexc2
hkeff2DFh2cos2u+hkeff2
4−hexc2
4
−hshexc+hsinudsinuG.
In the same manner the trajectories in sxydplane can be
obtained.
III. MAGNETIZATION TRAJECTORIES
In magnetic recording systems, practical write heads
generate fields either in the film plane su=±90° dor out of
the film plane su=0° and u=180° d. The switching of ex-
change biased perpendicular magnetic anisotropy films wasstudied by means of in-plane fields elsewhere.
11We here
focus first on the case of perpendicular applied field hsu
=180° and u=0°d. The magnetization trajectory to any inter-
mediate applied field will be studied later sSec. III B din
analogy with the representative case of u=180°.
FIG. 1. Field geometry used in calculation. uis the angle between the
applied field Hand thezaxis.Hexc,Hk, andHDare, respectively, the
exchange bias, the anisotropy, and the demagnetizing fields.083903-2 Belmeguenai, Devolder, and Chappert J. Appl. Phys. 97, 083903 ~2005 !
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130.159.70.209 On: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 15:36:47A. Field collinear with the perpendicular easy axis
Some representative magnetization trajectories are plot-
ted in Fig. 2 for hexc=0.5hkeffand for u=180°.
For small values of h, the trajectory is a small elliptic
oscillation starting from the initial state and precessingaround the in field equilibrium position. Two energy degen-erate lobes are present fFigs. 2 sbdand 2 scd: curves 1 and 1
8g
but only one scurve 1 dis gone through due to the initial
conditions. The trajectory is anisotropy dominated and themagnetization stays in the positive s+zdhalf space fFig.
2scdg. Such a low field does not permit switching.
When increasing the field above the so-called minimal
switching field sh
swmindthe small and large lobes get connected
by a bifurcation point fFig. 2 scdcurve 2 g, so that magnetiza-
tion can pass from one lobe to the other and get effectivelyswitched from m
z.0t omz,0.
For an applied field slightly above hswmin, the system un-
dergoes a high amplitude precessional motion passingthrough the positive s+zdand the negative s−zdhalf spaces
following a pear like trajectory fFig. 2 scd: curve 3 g.
For larger field, the excursion of the trajectory in the
negative half space s−zddecreases with the applied field
strength.Above h=h
swmax, the magnetization cannot switch be-
cause the trajectory does not reach any longer the mz,0 half
space fFig. 2 scdcurve 4 g. This is due to our choice of a=0,
so the system cannot dissipate its high Zeeman energy andnever reaches the negative half space s−zd. Therefore, the
magnetization precesses mostly around the applied field, i.e.,
along szd.
For an applied field along s+zddirection, the magnetiza-
tion always stays in positive s+zdhalf space and no switching
occurs snot shown here d. Therefore, if h
swmin,h,hswmaxthe fi-
nal state depends on the applied field direction fhis+zdor
his−zdgand on its duration and not on the initial magnetiza-
tion state. Direct overwrite can be achieved systematically
provided that hswmin,h,hswmaxandu=0° or 180°.We point out
that having hswmin,h,hswmaxforu=180° is only necessary and
not sufficient to switch the magnetization. In this case themagnetization reversal depends also on the pulse field dura-tion ssee Sec. IV d.
The minimal reversal field is determined by the lobe
merging, while the maximal field is determined by the con-ditionz
28=0fsee Fig. 2 scdg. These properties have been used
for a numerical estimate of the reversal field marginfh
swmin,hswmaxg, plotted in Fig. 3. This margin vanishes shswmin
=hswmaxdforhexcł0.11hkeffand enlarges monotonously for
higher exchange coupling. For hexcless than 0.11 hkeff,
switching is not possible with zero damping.
The minimal reversal field can also be derived based on
the energy surface model.18An example illustrating this pro-
cedure where analytic solution was possible is represented inRef. 11 for the case of
u=90°.
B. Arbitrary applied field orientation
Our aim now is to determine the minimal applied field to
switchmzfrommz.0t omz,0 for variable applied field
orientations. Two cases have to be distinguished when deter-mining the switching field:1. 90° <u<270°
For an applied field in the negative s−zdhalf space
s90°,u,270° d, the trajectories are similar in shape and in
FIG. 2. Magnetization trajectories for exchange bias field hexc=0.5hkeffand
for an applied field hcollinear with the zaxis su=180° d.sadMagnetization
trajectories in sxzdplane. sbdTrajectories in sxydplane and scdinsyzdplane.
Stars s*dand cross s1dindicate, respectively, the initial position and the
degenerate initial position. The bold lines indicate the not visited part of thetrajectories.083903-3 Belmeguenai, Devolder, and Chappert J. Appl. Phys. 97, 083903 ~2005 !
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130.159.70.209 On: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 15:36:47characteristics to those shown in Fig. 2. In this case, magne-
tization switching occurs when the small and large lobes getconnected by a bifurcation point fidem Fig. 2 scd2gfor a field
value equal to h
swmin. The corresponding field value hswminis
obtained by solving Eq. s5dnumerically with respect to mz,
for given field and uvalues, to find the mzextrema fz1,z2,
z18, andz28in Fig. 2 scdg. This process is repeated while in-
creasing the applied field huntil we get z2=z18and 0 łmx2
ł1.
2. 0° <u<90° and 270° <u<360°
For an applied field in the positive s+zdhalf space s0°
,u,90° and 270° ,u,360° d, the switching depends on
the applied field orientation. Switching and no switching ar-eas, which are separated by critical orientations
u1andu2,
respectively, for 0° ,u,90° and 270° ,u,360°, can be
differentiated.
Foru2,u,u1, the magnetization always stays in posi-
tives+zdhalf space and no switching occurs.
Foru1,u,90°, the trajectory is a large elliptic preces-
sion starting from the initial state and trying to join the otherlobe which can take place in the m
z,0 half space. This lobe
disappears for uvalues far from 90°. Here it is important to
give the switching field expression and not the condition ofthe existence of the lobe in the negative half space. Theconnection between the two lobes occurs in the m
zł0 half
space. Therefore, the hswminrequired is obtained from Eq. s4d
by putting mz=0 andmx=1fEq.s6dg. Figure 4 shows a typi-
cal magnetization trajectory for u=70°,hexc/hkeff=0.5 and for
an applied field equal to hswmingiven by Eq. s6d. For this field
value, magnetization passes by mz=0 andmx=1 and switch-
ing is possible
hswmin=1
2hkeff˛S1−hexc
hkeffD3
˛1−hexc
hkeffsinu−˛1+hexc
hkeffcosu. s6dFor −90° ,u,u2the trajectory is very similar to that of
the case of u1,u,90°. The switching field hswminis obtained
fEq.s7dgby putting mz=0 andmx=−1 in Eq. s4d:
hswmin=−1
2hkeff˛S1+hexc
hkeffD3
˛1+hexc
hkeffsinu+˛1−hexc
hkeffcosu. s7d
Figure 5 shows the polar representation of hswmin, obtained
numerically using the method described in case 1 and usingEq.s6d. These numerical results show that for all the ex-
change field values the minimal switching field is obtainedfor
uaround 135°. The plots in Fig. 5 are compared to the
switching field in Stoner–Wohlfarth model.19This clearly
shows that the exchange field significantly lowers the switch-ing field. For example, for
u=180° and hexc=0.25hkeff, the
reversal field is equal to 42% of its value with zero exchangefield sh
swmin=hkeffd. Moreover, our exchange bias strategy
offers a significantly better immunity to the texture
dispersion of a typical media since u]hswmin/]uuu=180°hexcÞ0
FIG. 3. Minimal shswmindand maximal hswmaxswitching fields vs the normalized
exchange bias field hexc/hkefffor an applied field collinear with the zaxis
su=180° d.
FIG. 4. Magnetization trajectory for exchange bias field hexc=0.5hkeffand
applied field h=0.719876 hkeffwith an angle u=70° with the zaxis.
FIG. 5. Polar representation of the minimal switching fields for two differ-
ent values of the exchange bias field hexc. The bold line represents the
Stoner–Wohlfarth astroid. The dashed and dotted lines indicate the no
switching limit su1dforhexc=0.5hkeffand 0.25 hkeff, respectively. The scale in
the left indicates circles radius shswmin/hkeffmagnitudes d.083903-4 Belmeguenai, Devolder, and Chappert J. Appl. Phys. 97, 083903 ~2005 !
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130.159.70.209 On: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 15:36:47au]hswmin/]uuu=180°Stoner–WohlfarthsFig. 5 d. For example, the switch-
ing fieldhswminvaries only from 0.41 hkeffto 0.34hkeffsi.e., 17% d
when uchanges from 180° to 170° for hexc=0.5hkeffand from
hkeffto 0.673hkeffsi.e., 32% dfor the Stoner–Wohlfarth model.
For practical reasons, we studied in more details the case
of an applied field along u=180°. According to Fig. 2 scd,
hswminis greater than the field given by Eq. s6dbecause the
trajectories get connected in the positive half space s+zd.
Therefore, we used Eq. s6dto obtain an analytical expression
fEq.s8dg, which is an underestimate for minimal switching
field sFig. 6 d:
hswmin
hkeffø0.7˛s1−hexc/hkeffd3
1+hexc/hkeffforu=180° . s8d
Comparing to the case of in-plane-applied field, we observe
that, forhexc.0.3hkeff, negative easy axis applied field allows
switching magnetization with less field compared ssee Fig. 6 d
to the in-plane applied case.11
IV. EFFECT OF THE DAMPING
The aim of this section is to examine the effect of the
damping on the earlier-obtained results.
Figure 7 shows OOMMF simulation smacrospin case d
for the magnetization trajectory in yzplane during the first
precession period with a=0.003. It is obtained for an applied
fieldHmaking an angle u=180° with the normal and for
m0Hexc=0.15Hkeff=0.21 T. This magnetization trajectory is
very similar to the corresponding one obtained with ourmodel in case of
a=0. It is apparent that our conclusions are
still valid despite the non-negligible damping.
This figure shows that the maximal excursion of mzin
the negative half space gets reduced as the applied field in-creases and thus confirms the existence of a field intervalfh
swmin,hswmaxgfor the switching. In this case the minimal shswmind
and the maximal shswmaxdswitching fields are increased respec-
tively by 6% and 4% while the field margin fhswmin,hswmaxgis
decreased by 10% compared to those obtained in case of a
=0.As indicated earlier, the cases of u=90° or u=180° are
the most practical for the magnetic recording technology. For
u=90°, the two values of mzgiven by Eq. s3dare the in field
maxima of mz. Therefore, the ringing can be suppressed if
the field pulse is switched off once mzis near its maxima
sprecessional ballistic switching d. This is obtained if we ap-
ply a field pulse of duration TPequal to the half of the pre-
cession period stime that mzneeds to go from one maximum
to other d.11
For u=180°,Eist=0+,mx=hexc/hkeff,mz=˛1−hexc2/hkeff2d
ÞEst,mx=hexc/hkeff,mz=−˛1−hexc2/hkeff2dsEiis the initial en-
ergy just after switching on the field dwhatever tsa=0dand
thusmznever reaches its equilibrium position in the negative
half space smz=−˛1−hexc2/hkeff2d. Therefore, no precessional
ballistic switching is possible and the ringing cannot be to-
tally suppressed. In this case, the magnetization final statedepends on the field pulse duration and having m
z,0 is not
sufficient for magnetization reversal after switching off thefield pulse. The switching is obtained by precise choice ofthe field pulse duration and larger is
afew are the oscilla-
tions sringing dafter switching off the field and shorter is the
reversal time.
V. THERMAL STABILITY
This section is devoted to discuss the consequences of
our previous results on the potential use of the exchange biasfor magnetic recording. Indeed, the exchange bias field de-creases the switching field which may be detrimental to thethermal stability of the magnetization, a crucial criterion formagnetic storage applications. To estimate this effect, wecompare the energy barrier DEthat separates the two stable
remnant states, with the 10 years stability requirements ie:DEV.40k
BT,20whereT=300 K, kBis Boltzmann’s constant
andVis the bit volume. This barrier energy per unit volume
DEis given by
FIG. 6. Switching field as function of exchange field for an applied field in
sxzdplane with u=180° sout-of-plane applied field dand u=90° sin-plane
applied field dssee Ref. 11 d. For the out-of-plane applied field, the numerical
values are underestimated by Eq. s8d. The dashed line indicates the hexcfor
which the reversal field margin fhswmin,hswmaxgvanishes in the case of out-of-
plane applied field.
FIG. 7. OOMMF simulation of mmagnetization trajectory in yzplane ob-
tained for a=0.003, an exchange bias field m0Hex=0.15Hkeff=0.21 T, Ms
=298 kA/m and for an applied field making an angle u=180° with the
normal. The applied m0H=0.93 T is the maximal switching field for a=0.083903-5 Belmeguenai, Devolder, and Chappert J. Appl. Phys. 97, 083903 ~2005 !
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130.159.70.209 On: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 15:36:47DE=m0Ms2
2hkeffF1−hexc
hkeffS2−hexc
hkeffDG. s9d
It is the total energy difference, at zero applied field, sDE
=uEuh=0mx=1,mz=0−uEuh=0inidbetween the maximal sobtained for
mx=1,my=0, andmz=0dand the minimal sinitial denergies
uEuh=0inicorresponding to initial magnetization given by Eq.
s2d.
Only the case of u=pis analysed in this section. We
shall illustrate this through a numerical example using a headfieldH
head=1114 kA/m.21To gain in the areal density in
perpendicular recording, we try to maximize DE, while keep-
ing the writing possible sHswmin,Hheadd, withHexcandHkeffas
free parameters.
Assuming cubic bits with volume V=D3, this offers
stable bits down to sizes D=s40kBT/DEd1/3. Using Eq. s8d
andHswmin=Hhead, the bit sizes are reported in Table I for sev-
eral exchange field values and for Ms=298 kA/m.22The in-
crease in stable bit size Dcorresponds to our increase of 24%
in areal density for optimum hexc=0.3hkeff. This value of the
exchange bias is, however, higher than the demonstrated val-ues at room temperature. Therefore, in practical cases thehigherH
excshexcł0.3hkeffd, the higher will be the benefit for
perpendicular recording.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
In summary, our strategy can use the effect of exchange
biasing on switching field to increase the recording arealdensities, or decrease the switching field. This can beachieved by going to higher anisotropy materials provided
we can generate high exchange bias fields. The angular de-pendence of the switching field showed that the minimalswitching field is obtained for 135° between the applied fieldands+ozd. Moreover, another interest of this strategy is the
precessional mode that can lead to a very fast switching, as
will be studied in a forthcoming paper. This may find appli-cation to magnetic storage.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The work is supported in part by the European Commu-
nities Human Potential programme under Contract No.HRPN-CT-2002-00318 ULTRASWITCH.
1D. A. Thompson, J. Magn. Soc. Jpn. 21,9s1997 d.
2Q. Peng and H. Bertram, J. Appl. Phys. 81, 4384 s1997 d.
3K. Z. Gao and H. N. Bertram, IEEE Trans. Magn. 38, 3675 s2002 d.
4C. H. Back and H. Siegmann, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 200,7 7 4 s1999 d.
5A. Lyberatos, J. Appl. Phys. 93, 6199 s2003 d.
6Y. Y. Zou, J. P. Wang, C. H. Hee, and T. C. Chong, Appl. Phys. Lett. 82,
2473 s2003 d.
7C. H. Chee, Y. Y. Zou, and J. P. Wang, J. Appl. Phys. 91, 8004 s2002 d.
8K. Z. Gao and H. N. Bertram, IEEE Trans. Magn. 39,7 0 4 s2003 d.
9M. Mallary, A. Torabi, and M. Benakli, IEEETrans. Magn. 36,3 6s2000 d.
10M. Albrecht, C. T. Rettner, A. Moser, M. E. Best, and B. D. Terris, Appl.
Phys. Lett. 81, 8275 s2002 d.
11T. Devolder and C. Chappert, J. Phys. D 36,3 1 1 5 s2003 d.
12T. Devolder, M. Belmeguenai, C. Chappert, H. Bernas, and Y. Suzuki,
Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 777, T6.4 s2003 d.
13L. Landau and E. Lifshitz, Phys. Z. Sowjetunion 8,1 5 3 s1953 d;T .L .
Gilbert, Phys. Rev. 100, 1243 s1955 d.
14H. N. Bertram and M. Williams, IEEE Trans. Magn. 36,4s2000 d.
15F. Garcia, J. Sort, B. Rodmacq, S. Auffert, and B. Dieny, Appl. Phys. Lett.
83,3 5 3 7 s2003 d.
16A. Misra, P. B. Visscher, and D. M. Apalkov, J. Appl. Phys. 94, 6013
s2003 d.
17G. Bertotti, I. Mayergoyz, C. Serpico, and M. Dimian, J. Appl. Phys. 93,
6811 s2003 d.
18K. Z. Gao, E. Boerner, and H. N. Bertram, J.Appl. Phys. 93, 6549 s2003 d.
19E. C. Stoner and E. P. Wohlfarth, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London 240,7 4
s1948 d.
20D. Weller and A. Moser, IEEE Trans. Magn. 35, 4423 s1999 d.
21F. Liuet al., IEEE Trans. Magn. 38, 1647 s2002 d.
22D. Weller et al., IEEE Trans. Magn. 36,1 0 s2000 d.TABLE I. Minimal stable grain diameter Dfor different magnitudes of
exchange field Hexcand anisotropy field Hkeff. The media is writable with a
head field of Hswmin=1114 kA/m oriented at u=180°.
HkeffskA/m d1114 2020 2343 2712 3142 4269
Hexc/Hkeff0 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.30 0.4
HswminskA/m d1114 1114 1114 1114 1114 1114
Dsnmd 9.26 8.46 8.38 8.34 8.31 8.32083903-6 Belmeguenai, Devolder, and Chappert J. Appl. Phys. 97, 083903 ~2005 !
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130.159.70.209 On: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 15:36:47 |
1.5066573.pdf | J. Chem. Phys. 150, 084701 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5066573 150, 084701
© 2019 Author(s).Structural variation of anatase (101) under
near infrared irradiations monitored
by sum-frequency surface phonon
spectroscopy
Cite as: J. Chem. Phys. 150, 084701 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5066573
Submitted: 15 October 2018 . Accepted: 18 January 2019 . Published Online: 27 February 2019
Xinyi Liu , Tao Zhou , and Wei-Tao Liu
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Structural variation of anatase (101) under near
infrared irradiations monitored by sum-frequency
surface phonon spectroscopy
Cite as: J. Chem. Phys. 150, 084701 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5066573
Submitted: 15 October 2018 •Accepted: 18 January 2019 •
Published Online: 27 February 2019
Xinyi Liu, Tao Zhou, and Wei-Tao Liua)
AFFILIATIONS
State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Key Laboratory of Micro and Nano Photonic Structures (MOE) and Department of Physics,
Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Note: This article is part of the Special Topic “Nonlinear Spectroscopy and Interfacial Structure and Dynamics” in J. Chem. Phys.
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: wtliu@fudan.edu.cn
ABSTRACT
We probed the anatase (101) surface irradiated by near-infrared and infrared photons in different ambient gases by monitoring the
surface lattice phonon mode using sum-frequency spectroscopy. We found that even under the irradiation of such low energy
photons, the stability of surface oxygen vacancies, in comparison to sub-surface oxygen vacancies, can increase sensibly. The
variation of this surface phonon mode is also in accordance with the photo-induced hydrophilicity of titanium oxide surfaces,
which may provide the microscopic insight into this phenomenon.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5066573
I. INTRODUCTION
Titanium dioxides (TiO 2) are among the most promising
and most studied photocatalytic materials exhibiting a wide
range of exciting properties ranging from the photocatalytic
hydrogen production to dye-sensitized solar cells.1–6One
important application of TiO 2is on the self-cleaning coating,7
which has been commercialized based on the photo-induced
hydrophilicity discovered by Fujishima and co-workers in
1997.8Under the illumination of ultraviolet (uv) light, the
TiO 2surface could turn from slightly hydrophobic to highly
hydrophilic, and the reversal process happened by stock-
ing the TiO 2surface in darkness for a few days. This phe-
nomenon has aroused much interest and received intensive
studies afterwards.9–11However, there still remain controver-
sies on its microscopic mechanism, particularly on whether it
is induced by the removal of organic adsorbates9or change
in the TiO 2surface itself, for example, the creation of sur-
face oxygen vacancies.12For the latter, it was usually consid-
ered to only occur under the illumination of high energy uv
photons; yet, self-cleaning coatings often function in ambientenvironment without much uv dosage,13which apparently
contradict the vacancy scenario.
One major difficulty in studying this phenomenon is
that the reaction occurs under ambient conditions. Regarding
that, the surface specific sum-frequency generation (SFG) is
arguably the most viable technique to study surface reactions
in ambient and yield molecular-level information. Most exist-
ing SFG studies on TiO 2surfaces have focused on behaviors
of adsorbates.14–19 Recently, we have further applied SFG to
probe surface phonon mode of TiO 2, which can yield struc-
tural information of surface lattices under reaction condi-
tions.20In this study, by monitoring the surface phonon mode
of the anatase (101) surface, we show that the relative sta-
bility of surface oxygen vacancies can increase even under
the illumination of low energy near infrared (NIR) or infrared
photons. The sub-surface oxygen vacancies can thus migrate
to the topmost surface lattice, increasing the density of sur-
face oxygen vacancies and possibly the surface reactivity as
well.20,21 This is most likely due to the photodoping of the sur-
face conduction band through mid-gap defect absorption.21
Moreover, the evolution of the surface phonon mode, or
J. Chem. Phys. 150, 084701 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5066573 150, 084701-1
Published under license by AIP PublishingThe Journal
of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcp
density of the surface oxygen vacancies, is closely correlated
with that of the photo-induced hydrophilicity, which may help
us to gain insight into the phenomena at the microscopic
level.
II. THEORY AND EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
The basic theory of SFG is described elsewhere.22Briefly,
when the IR frequency ( !IR) is near the phonon resonance, the
SF signal ( SSF) generated by two incident beams is proportional
to$NR+$R2, where$NRis the non-resonant background,
and
$R=X
q$
Aq
!IR !q+i q(1)
is the resonant contribution, with$
Aq,!q, and qbeing the
amplitude, frequency, and damping coefficient of the qth
resonance mode, respectively.
The experimental geometry is similar to that depicted
elsewhere.20The laser system consisted of a Ti:sapphire oscil-
lator (MaiTai SP, Spectra Physics), a regenerative Ti:sapphire
amplifier (Spitfire, Spectra Physics), and an optical parametric
amplifier (TOPAS-C, Spectra Physics) followed by a difference
frequency generation stage. An amplifier seeded by an oscil-
lator was used to produce 4 W of 800 nm, 35 fs pulses at
1 kHz repetition rate. The beam was divided into two parts
by a beamsplitter. About 2.6 W of the beam passed through
a Bragg filter (N013-14-A2, OptiGrate), generating narrow-
band pulses of 0.5 nm bandwidth. The rest was used to
obtain broadband IR pulses ( 200 cm 1) centered at about
880 cm 1from the optical parametric amplifier and the dif-
ference frequency generation stage. The narrowband 800 nm
beam of12J/pulse and the IR input beam, tunable from
780 to 980 cm 1of1.4J/pulse, overlapped at the sam-
ple surface with incident angles of 45and 57, respectively.
The incident NIR intensity is 21 W/cm2. The generated SF
signal was collected by a spectrograph (Acton SP2300) and
recorded on a CCD camera (Princeton Instruments PyLoN
1340100).We bought anatase (101) sample (Fe-doped mineral crys-
tal) of 2 mm thick from MaTeck. After re-polishing by
Hefei Kejing Materials Technology Co., Ltd., the epi rough-
ness reached0.4 nm. Before the measurement, it was
cleaned by sonicating in acetone, ethanol, and deionized water
(18.2 M
cm) consecutively. We then placed it in a chamber
purged with pure oxygen, followed by uv-ozone treatment
for 10 min to remove organic contamination and redundant
defects. During the measurement, the sample was mounted in
a chamber with a base pressure <100 Pa. Pure nitrogen and
oxygen gas could fill the chamber to different pressures. The
NIR and IR beams could be controlled on and off by mechanical
shutters separately. All experiments were conducted at room
temperature.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 1(a) illustrates the lattice structure of the stoi-
chiometric anatase (101) surface. Figure 1(b) presents sum-
frequency vibrational spectra from the surface in the spectral
range of700-1000 cm 1, with the beam polarization com-
bination being PPP (referring to P-polarized SF output, P-
polarized NIR input, and P-polarized IR input, respectively),
and the beam incident plane being parallel to the [10 ¯1]-axis.20
A prominent resonant mode shows up at 850 cm 1, which
is a surface phonon mode due to the stretching vibration of
the bond between the five-fold surface titanium ion [Ti(5c)]
and the three-fold oxygen ion beneath it [O(3c)] [Fig. 1(a)].20
As time elapsed, the mode intensity gradually drops, with the
lineshape and the central frequency remained nearly the same
[Fig. 1(b)]. Figure 1(c) shows the time variation of the integrated
mode intensity, with the initial intensity at time zero (the onset
of NIR and IR beams) set as 100%.
In our previous work,20we observed a sharp drop of the
phonon mode upon uv irradiation that is known to gener-
ate surface oxygen vacancies on anatase (101).23The surface
oxygen vacancies locate preferentially on 2-fold surface oxy-
gen sites [O(2c), Fig. 1(a)]. Since O(2c) are directly bonded to
Ti(5c) sites, the generation of surface oxygen vacancies low-
ers the coordination of the conjoint Ti(5c) to four-fold, thus
FIG. 1. Phonon spectra of anatase (101) and intensity variation under photo illumination. (a) Lattice structure of the anatase (101) surface. Preferential positions for the
surface and sub-surface oxygen vacancies are indicated by white circles. (b) Series of SF spectra from anatase (101) under the irradiation of NIR and IR pulses. All spectra
are taken in a vacuum with the polarization combination being PPP. The beam polarization plane is parallel to the [10 ¯1]-axis. (c) The intensity variation of the surface phonon
mode under continuous NIR and IR irradiations (solid squares and line). The intensity change upon uv irradiation is shown for comparison (dashed line).
J. Chem. Phys. 150, 084701 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5066573 150, 084701-2
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causing the corresponding phonon mode to diminish.20To see
whether the same mechanism applies here, we compared the
intensity variation in a vacuum to that in pure oxygen (O 2)
ambient (6000 Pa) [Fig. 2(a)], and the latter clearly dropped
at a much lower rate. We also checked the effect of different
ambient gases [Figs. 2(b) and 2(c)]. We recorded the phonon
intensity in a vacuum for 15 min, then turned off the inci-
dent laser beams, purged the sample with different gases
for another 15 min, and recorded the phonon intensity
again. It turns out that the intensity can partly recover
after the purge of O 2[Fig. 2(b)] but not after nitrogen
(N2) [Fig. 2(c)]. Notably, the phonon intensity can com-
pletely recover after being purged by ozone (O 3) to the ini-
tial level [Fig. 2(c)]. Since both O 3and O 2are able to heal
the surface oxygen vacancies,20and O 3has even stronger
oxidation power, the measurements above strongly suggest
that the phonon intensity drop under NIR and IR irradi-
ations is also related to the increment of surface oxygen
vacancies.
We further examined the effect of incident photon ener-
gies. Figure 3(a) shows that by turning off both beams for
15 min in a vacuum, the phonon intensity can recover by about
5%. This recovery is due to that on anatase (101), surface oxy-
gen vacancies are not as stable as the sub-surface vacancies
in a vacuum, and the former could migrate down to become
the latter.21,24 We then turn off the NIR beam, but leave the IR
beam on. After 15 min, the phonon intensity again recovered by
almost 6% [Fig. 3(b)]. On the other hand, if we turn off the IR
beam, but leave the NIR beam on, the intensity did not recover
after 15 min [Fig. 3(c)]. The above measurements clearly indi-
cate that it was the NIR beam at about 800 nm, or 1.5 eV, that
mainly caused the gradual phonon intensity drop during the
measurement. Meanwhile, the drop/recovery of the phononmode with/without irradiation has an analogous trend to that
of the photo-induced hydrophilicity of titania surfaces, which
can be turned on/off by illumination.
Now we discuss the mechanism of this effect. Upon uv
irradiation, the high energy uv photons can break surface
Ti–O bonds and generate surface oxygen vacancies directly
[Fig. 3(d), left panel]. However, since the bandgap of anatase is
about 3.2 eV,25the 1.5 eV photons cannot directly excite from
the oxygen 2p band via one-photon absorptions. To exam-
ine whether two-photon effect could occur [Fig. 3(d), right
panel], we varied the NIR power (relative to the full power)
and recorded the percentage of photon intensity drop per unit
time, as shown in Fig. 3(e). On the double logarithmic scale, the
power dependence of the signal drop rate has a slope of about
1.2, indicating that the two-photon effect is minor in our case.
On the other hand, it is known from previous studies
on anatase (101) that there can exist a large amount of sub-
surface vacancies underneath the sample surface.24These
vacancies, together with other defects, form defect levels
inside the anatase bandgap, the NIR irradiation can excite
electrons from such defect levels to the bottom of the con-
duction band [Fig. 3(d), right panel].13As we pointed out in
our previous study,20,21 doping of the conduction band can
increase the stability of the structural configuration with sur-
face oxygen vacancies. Therefore, though NIR cannot generate
surface oxygen vacancies directly, it can dope the anatase and
increase their relative stability, and effectively “attract” sub-
surface vacancies to the top-most surface layer, and cause the
slow drop of the phonon intensity. To further test that our
observation is due to the migration of sub-surface vacancies,
we stored the sample in an oxygen deficient dark environment
for about 14 days, during which period surface oxygen vacan-
cies cannot be healed, but could migrate downward to form
FIG. 2. (a) Variation of the surface
phonon mode intensity in a vacuum
(black squares and line) and in pure O 2
(red circles and line). [(b) and (c)] The
variation of the surface phonon mode
intensity with 15 min purge in darkness
by (b) O 2, (c) N 2, and O 3, respectively.
All measurements in (b) and (c) were
done in a vacuum.
J. Chem. Phys. 150, 084701 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5066573 150, 084701-3
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FIG. 3. The variation of the surface phonon mode intensity with 15 min (a) in darkness, (b) IR irradiation only, and (c) NIR irradiation only. (d) Excitation schematics upon the
uv or NIR irradiation. (e) Power dependence of intensity drop and fitting. All measurements were done in a vacuum.
sub-surface vacancies. As expected, under the same NIR irra-
diance, the phonon intensity dropped more rapidly to about
70% in 30 min, in accordance with an increased amount of
sub-surface vacancies.
IV. CONCLUSION
To conclude, we observed a gradual drop in the surface
phonon intensity of the anatase (101) surface upon the con-
tinuous irradiation of the NIR and IR photons. We found that
the intensity drop was mainly due to the NIR beam, which
dope the sample with electrons via defect band absorption and
increases the relative stability of surface oxygen vacancies.
This shows that even low energy photons can increase the sur-
face vacancy densities of anatase surfaces, which may explain
the reactivity of self-cleaning coatings (which are mainly of the
anatase phase) under indoor/visible light illumination. More-
over, the drop of the surface phonon intensity upon irradia-
tion, and the recovery of the mode in darkness, has a similar
trend with that of the light-induced hydrophilic/hydrophobic
transitions of titanium dioxides. Further studies on this subject
may reveal the microscopic mechanism of the phenomenon.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was funded by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China and the National Basic Research Program
of China under Grant Agreement Nos. 2016YFA0300900 and
11622429. W.T.L. acknowledges the support from the National
Program for Support of Top-Notch Young Professionals,
and “Shuguang Program” supported by Shanghai Education
Development Foundation and Shanghai Municipal Education
Commission.REFERENCES
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and P. S. Cremer, Langmuir 20(5), 1662 (2004).
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Published under license by AIP Publishing |
1.5130458.pdf | AIP Advances 9, 125322 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5130458 9, 125322
© 2019 Author(s).Precession damping in [Co60Fe40/Pt]5
multilayers with varying magnetic
homogeneity investigated with
femtosecond laser pulses
Cite as: AIP Advances 9, 125322 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5130458
Submitted: 03 October 2019 . Accepted: 04 November 2019 . Published Online: 23 December 2019
M. A. B. Tavares
, L. H. F. Andrade
, M. D. Martins , G. F. M. Gomes , L. E. Fernandez-Outon , and F.
M. Matinaga
COLLECTIONS
Paper published as part of the special topic on 64th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
Note: This paper was presented at the 64th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials.
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Precession damping in [Co 60Fe40/Pt] 5multilayers
with varying magnetic homogeneity investigated
with femtosecond laser pulses
Cite as: AIP Advances 9, 125322 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5130458
Presented: 7 November 2019 •Submitted: 3 October 2019 •
Accepted: 4 November 2019 •Published Online: 23 December 2019
M. A. B. Tavares,1
L. H. F. Andrade,1,a)
M. D. Martins,1G. F. M. Gomes,2,3L. E. Fernandez-Outon,1,3
and F. M. Matinaga3
AFFILIATIONS
1Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear, CDTN, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, M.G., Brazil
2PPGMCS, UNIMONTES, 39401-089 Montes Claros, M.G., Brazil
3Departamento de Fisica, UFMG, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, M.G., Brazil
Note: This paper was presented at the 64th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials.
a)Corresponding author. E-mail address: lhfa@cdtn.br (L. H. F. Andrade)
ABSTRACT
We report on the ultrafast magnetization dynamics of [Co 60Fe40/Pt] 5multilayers studied with femtosecond laser pulses. The samples were
grown at room temperature by DC magnetron sputtering with Ta capping and Pt buffer layers and present the same thickness and per-
pendicular magnetic anisotropy as determined by vibrating sample magnetometry. Controlled growth rate of the Pt buffer layer modified
the anisotropy fields and magnetic domain sizes as measured by magnetic force microscopy (MFM). An estimation of the average magnetic
domain sizes was obtained from the profile of the self-correlation transform of the MFM images. For multilayers having an average magnetic
domain size of 490 nm, we report a damped precession of the magnetization which decays with a time constant of ∼100 ps and which has a
frequency which varies from 8.4 GHz to 17.0 GHz as the external field increases from 192 mT to 398 mT. Fitting the precession dynamics with
the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation we evaluated the damping α, which decreases from 0.18 to 0.05 with increasing magnetic domain sizes
(127 nm to 490 nm). These αvalues are higher than for single layers suggesting an enhanced scattering and spin pumping effects from the Pt
adjacent layers. In addition, the precession frequency increases from 2.04 GHz to 11.50 GHz as the anisotropy field of the multilayers increases
from 6.5 kOe to 13.0 kOe. Finally, a comparative analysis between micromagnetic simulations and MFM images allowed us to determine the
exchange stiffness (A ex) in the [Co 60Fe40/Pt] 5multilayers.
©2019 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5130458 .,s
Using femtosecond light pulses to study ultrafast magnetiza-
tion dynamics has been a fruitful approach for investigating mag-
netic materials and their applications. It has been allowing a bet-
ter understanding of magnetization dynamics at sub-picosecond
timescales which is a pre-requisite for improving the speed of
current devices.1–3
Initially, it was shown that magnetic materials could be
demagnetized locally by femtosecond pulses at sub-picosecond
time scales.4In the following, that the ultrafast photoexcitation
of electrons and spins could lead to changes of the effective field
launching a magnetization precession that may be followed inreal space in the time domain.5,6Now, it is well known that
the analysis of this precession may be used, analogously to fer-
romagnetic resonance, to evaluate important material parameters,
like the dynamic anisotropy, the magnetic anisotropy field and
the damping in magnetic films and magnetic nanostructures.3,7,8
Thereafter, this field of research has flourished with the investiga-
tions of all-optical switching in ferrimagnetics,9the inverse Fara-
day effect in dielectrics and antiferromagnets1and more recently, it
has been extended to the attosecond time scale with element speci-
ficity and new probing wavelengths.10Nowadays, much attention
has been devoted to the investigation and generation of ultrafast
AIP Advances 9, 125322 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5130458 9, 125322-1
© Author(s) 2019AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
superdiffusive spin currents and terahertz radiation following ultra-
fast photoexcitation.11–13
Here we report on the ultrafast magnetization dynamics of
[Co 60Fe40/Pt] 5multilayers which were synthesized with varying
magnetic textures. Magnetic multilayers with Co xFeyand Pt or Pd
interlayers have attracted much interest because they have been
proposed as reference layers in STT-MRAM and magneto-resistive
sensors.14,15The investigated samples were grown at room tem-
perature by DC magnetron sputtering with Ta capping and Pt
buffer layers and present perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA)
as determined by vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). Con-
trolled growth rate of the Pt buffer layer modified the anisotropy
fields and magnetic domain sizes as measured by magnetic force
microscopy (MFM) and VSM. In order to have a set of samples
with varying magnetic homogeneity, a set of [Co 60Fe40/Pt] 5multi-
layers (S1-S4) with the same thickness and which distinguish them-
selves only by the growth rate of the buffer layers were synthe-
sized. Details of sample growth and characterization are presented
in Ref. 16.
The time-resolved measurements were carried out with 100
fs laser pulses from a Ti:Saphire oscillator. The experiments were
done at low fluency ( ∼0.1 mJ.cm-2) in a degenerate pump and probe
setup in the Kerr configuration in a standard time resolved fem-
tosecond magneto-optical setup.17After photoexcitation by 100 fs
pump pulses, we report an ultrafast demagnetization of the mul-
tilayers in hundreds of fs followed by a partial remagnetization,
which occurs typically with a time constant of ∼1.5 ps (not shown).
Thereafter, as displayed in Figure 1a, a damped precession of the
magnetization is observed to decay with a time constant of ∼100 ps
for the multilayers with larger domain sizes (S4). In Figure 1b
we present the frequency dependence of the precession which in
this case varies from 8.4 GHz to 17.0 GHz as the external field
increases from 192 mT to 398 mT for the sample S4. Expect-
edly, the decay time, η, increases for higher fields reaching a con-
stant value, in this case of ∼100 ps for fields greater than 200 mT
(Figure 1c).
From the decay time it is possible to determine a value for
the damping, α, in Co 60Fe40/Pt multilayers fitting the experimental
data with the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation (Figure 1b).3
Assuming a sample uniformly saturated to magnetization, perpen-
dicular magnetic anisotropy, small deviations of saturation magne-
tization, Ms, from the equilibrium direction, an external DC field ⃗Happlied in the plane of incidence under an angle θHand an effec-
tive field comprising the applied field plus and effective anisotropy
field defined as Heff
K=HK−4πMs(HKbeing the sample’s intrinsic
anisotropy field) it is possible to solve the LLG equation to obtain the
frequencies of precession and the decay time. The solution gives the
following expression for the frequency of precession and the decay
time
ω=γ⋅√
H1⋅H2 (1)
and
1
η=1
2⋅α⋅γ⋅(H1+H2) (2)
where
⎧⎪⎪⎨⎪⎪⎩H1=H⋅cos(θH−θ0)+Heff
K⋅cos(2⋅θ0)
H2=H⋅cos(θH−θ0)+Heff
K⋅(cos2θ0)(3)
andγ=gLμB/̵his the gyromagnetic factor, gLis the Landé fac-
tor,μBis the Bohr magneton and̵h=h/2πwhere his the
Planck constant. For fitting the experimental data in Figure 1b we
used the saturation magnetization and anisotropy field measured
from VSM ( ±10%) and a value of g=5.18 for [Pt/Co 60Fe40/Pt] 5
multilayers. The anisotropy field was derived from M-H loops as
Hk=Hs+ 4πMs.18We note that this surprisingly large value of g
was necessary for fitting the experimental results and may be related
to additional orbital moment contribution from the Co/Pt inter-
face.17,19,20Clearly, it would be interesting to check this hypothesis by
using other techniques like ferromagnetic resonance and x-ray mag-
netic circular dichroism (XMCD) but it goes beyond the scope of the
present work.
As shown in Figure 2, we observed a decreasing damping
with increasing the magnetic domain sizes observed by MFM in
the multilayers (inset Figure 2). Let’s stress that all the investi-
gated Co 60Fe40/Pt multilayers have the same thickness and vary-
ing magnetic domain sizes due to the fact that they were grown
over Pt buffer layer which had distinct crystalline textures and
magnetic homogeneity. Fitting the experimental data with the LLG
equation, we may evaluate αin each sample which decreases
from 0.18 to 0.05 for multilayers with increasing magnetic domain
sizes. Note that these values are higher than for single lay-
ers and may be correlated, as reported before in multilayers,
FIG. 1 . (a) TR-MOKE, (b) precession frequency and (c)
decay time as a function of the external magnetic field for
S4.
AIP Advances 9, 125322 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5130458 9, 125322-2
© Author(s) 2019AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
FIG. 2 . Precession damping for multilayers with increasing
magnetic textures: S1 (Fig. 2a), S2 (Fig. 2b), S3 (Fig. 2c),
S4 (Fig. 2d). The insets show the corresponding MFM
images.
with an enhanced scattering and spin pumping effects from the
Pt adjacent layers.21,22We note that the precession frequency
(extracted fitting the data to LLG) increases from 2.04 GHz to
11.50 GHz as the anisotropy field of the multilayers increases from
6.5 kOe to 13.0kOe.
For characterizing the magnetic homogeneity of the multilay-
ers, we did MFM measurements (inset of Figure 2) and micro-
magnetic simulations (Figure 3). The simulations were made by
using MuMax3 software, developed at the DyNaMat group by
Prof. Van Waeyenberge at Ghent University.23MFM measurements
were obtained using a NTEGRA Aura (NT-MDT Co). The MFM
measurements were done at demagnetized state. Let’s stress that
the domain in the demagnetized states also mirror local inho-
mogeneities.22An estimation of the average magnetic domain
sizes of the samples was obtained from the profile of the self-
correlation transform of the MFM images.24The results show that
we have an average domain size of 127.5nm for the sample S2,
176.5nm for the sample S3 and 490.0nm for the sample S4. For
the sample S1 it was not possible to infer the average domain
size since the domains size of this sample is smaller than the tip
resolution.
In order to estimate the exchange stiffness, Aex, value for each
multilayer we used the adjustment of micromagnetic simulations to
MFM measurements (Figure 3). Usually Aexa key parameter con-
trolling magnetization reversal in magnetic materials. The simula-
tions are carried varying the Aexin order to most closely match the
MFM images. The obtained values of Aexfor each sample are pre-
sented in Table I. Pre-requisite for simulating the domain pattern
with MuMax3 and determinating Aex, is the knowledge of the Ms,Ku
andα, which here were determined respectively from VSM measure-
ments and from analysis of the magnetization dynamics measure-
ments as discussed previously. The static magnetic properties weredetermined for each sample by measuring the magnetic hysteresis
loops at parallel and perpendicular directions to the film plane and
thereafter calculating the anisotropy constant, Ku=HkMs/2.18The
simulations that best adjusted to the MFM images are displayed in
FIG. 3 . Micromagnetic simulation results of sample (a) S1, (b) S2, (c) S3 and
(d) S4. All images correspond to areas of 5 μm x 5μm.
AIP Advances 9, 125322 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5130458 9, 125322-3
© Author(s) 2019AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
TABLE I . Saturation magnetization (M s), uniaxial anisotropy (K u), damping ( α),
exchange stiffness (A ex), magnetostatic exchange length (l ex1) and magnetocrys-
talline exchange length (l ex2) values for the samples.
Msat Ku Aex lex1 lex2
Sample (kA/m) (MJ/m3) α (pJ/m) (nm) (nm)
S1 472 1.91 0.180 15.5 10.5 2.85
S2 770 4.95 0.179 42.8 10.7 2.94
S3 551 2.75 0.076 24.3 11.3 2.97
S4 560 2.75 0.053 26.3 11.5 3.09
Figure 3 and the obtained values of Aexfor each sample are presented
in Table I.
The exchange stiffness is defined by Aex=nJS2/a, where n
is the number of nearest neighbours, S2the square of spin, Jthe
exchange integral and athe lattice constant and therefore the dis-
tance between the spins. The exchange length, which is defined as
lex1=√
2Aex/μ0M2scorresponds to magnetostatic exchange length
and lex2=√
Aex/Kucorresponds to magnetocrystalline exchange
length25and both increase with the increase of the average domain
size.
We note that the obtained values of Aexare in the same order
of the values reported before in Co-based films ∼10pJ/m18,26and
present some variation in the set of investigated samples. It has been
reported that Aexmay vary with fabrication conditions, such as Ar
gas pressure, substrates, seed layers, compositions, and annealing
conditions because it is sensitive to the distance between magnetic
atoms and number of nearest neighborhoods.27In our case, since
the Pt buffer layer crystallinity and magnetic homogeneity vary with
the growth processes, we could expect that Aexcould be different for
each sample.
In conclusion, we report on the ultrafast magnetization dynam-
ics of a set of [Co 60Fe40/Pt] 5multilayers with varying magnetic
homogeneity and same thickness which present a decreasing damp-
ing (0.18 to 0.05) as we increase the magnetic domain sizes (127 nm
to 490 nm) and which frequency of precession increases from
2.04 GHz to 11.5 GHz as the anisotropy field of the multilay-
ers increases from 6.5 kOe to 13.0kOe. Fitting the magnetization
dynamics with LLG equation we extracted from the decay time
of the precession αvalues which are higher than for single layerssuggesting an enhanced scattering and spin pumping effects from
the Pt adjacent layers. Finally, a comparative analysis between
micromagnetic simulations and MFM images allowed us to deter-
mine the exchange stiffness, Aex, which is a key parameter control-
ling magnetization reversal in magnetic materials. As magnetic mul-
tilayers with Co xFeyand Pt or Pd interlayers have been proposed as
reference layers in STT-MRAM and magneto-resistive sensors, we
hope that the investigation of its dynamic properties may be useful
for the design of new fast magnetic devices.
The authors thank the financial support from FAPEMIG,
CNPq, CDTN/CNEN and CAPES.
REFERENCES
1A. Kirilyuk, A. V. Kimel, and T. Rasing, Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 2731 (2010).
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9C. D. Stanciu et al. , Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 207401 (2007).
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11V. Shokeen et al. , Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 107203 (2017).
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AIP Advances 9, 125322 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5130458 9, 125322-4
© Author(s) 2019 |
1.1452685.pdf | Thermal magnetization fluctuations in CoFe spin-valve devices (invited)
Neil Smith, Valeri Synogatch, Danielle Mauri, J. A. Katine, and Marie-Claire Cyrille
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 91, 7454 (2002); doi: 10.1063/1.1452685
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1452685
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/91/10?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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130.209.6.50 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:32:59Thermal Magnetic Stability of
Nano-Sized Magnetic Devices Mike Mallary, Chairman
Thermal magnetization fluctuations in CoFe spin-valve devices invited
Neil Smith,a)Valeri Synogatch, Danielle Mauri, J. A. Katine, and Marie-Claire Cyrille
IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, California 95120
Thermally induced magnetization fluctuations in the Co 86Fe14free~sense !layer of micron-sized,
photolithographically defined giant magetoresistive spin-valve devices are measured electrically, bypassing a dc current through the devices and measuring the current-dependent part of the voltagenoise power spectrum. Using fluctuation–dissipation relations, the effective Gilbert dampingparameter
afor 1.2, 1.8, and 2.4 nm thick free layers is estimated from either the low-frequency
white-noise tail, or independently from the observed thermally excited ferromagnetic resonancepeaksinthenoisepowerspectrum,asafunctionofappliedfield.Thegeometry,field,andfrequencydependence of the measured noise are found to be reasonably consistent with fluctuation–dissipation predictions based on a quasianalytical eigenmode model to describe the spatialdependence for the magnetization fluctuations. The extracted effective damping constant
a’0.06
found for the 1.2 nm free layer was close to 3 3larger than that measured in either the 1.8 or 2.4
films, which has potentially serious implications for the future scaling down of spin-valve readheads. © 2002 American Institute of Physics. @DOI: 10.1063/1.1452685 #
I. INTRODUCTION
It was recently demonstrated1that broadband ~white !re-
sistance noise generated from thermally induced magnetiza-tion fluctuations, or ‘‘mag-noise,’’ in the soft, ferromagneticfree layer of the giant magnetoresistive ~GMR !spin-valve
read heads used in hard disk drives can contribute to a sub-stantial, if not dominant portion of the head’s intrinsic outputnoise power. Hence, mag-noise will pose a fundamental limitto the signal/noise ratio of any form of magnetoresistive~MR!sensor employing thin-film ferromagnetic sensing lay-
ers. Due to the potentially important implications for presentand particularly future read heads with ever decreasing de-vice sizes, this topic has gained considerable furtherattention
2–4in the past few months.
In addition to its practical implications, mag-noise in
MR sensors can be used to provide a simple electrical mea-
surement technique to quantitatively study the basic dampingproperties and loss mechanisms of the constituent soft ferro-magnetic thin films. This includes, in particular, any geo-metrical dependencies of these properties or mechanisms insmall submicron ‘‘nanostructures’’ not as easily probed bymore traditional ferromagnetic resonance ~FMR !methods.
The relations between the measured noise and the dampingproperties of the thin films can be described via thefluctuation–dissipation theorem ~FDT!.
5
This article will briefly report on mag-noise measure-
ments in GMR spin valves with ultrathin ~1.2–2.4 nm !
Co86Fe14free-layers, which were more fully presented at the46th MMM conference in Seattle.6Unfortunately, due to the
very recent nature of the experimental results, publicationconstraints for these proceedings did not permit a more thor-ough description of the complete set of measurements, nordetails of the noise modeling techniques which are describedin general terms elsewhere.
7A considerably more complete
description of this work is planned to be submitted for pub-lication in the near future.
II. EXPERIMENT
The experimental device structure used in the measure-
ments is described pictorially in Fig. 1. The 2 mm thick
a!Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; electronic mail:
neils@almaden.ibm.com
FIG. 1. ~Top!Image of planar view of test structure; contact leads/pads are
approximately to scale. ~Bottom !Image of cross section view of test struc-
tures; contact leads/pads not included;gap g550nm.JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS VOLUME 91, NUMBER 10 15 MAY 2002
7454 0021-8979/2002/91(10)/7454/4/$19.00 © 2002 American Institute of Physics
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130.209.6.50 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:32:59Ni80Fe20plated ‘‘keeper’’layer ~easy axis along 6zˆ!was left
unpatterned over the entire wafer, and chemically–mechanically polished smooth. The sputtered spin-valve ma-terial had the following basic layer structure: seedlayers/PtMn/CoFe/Ru/CoFe/Cu/CoFe( t
free)/cap layers, with
free layer saturation induction Bs54pMs>17 kG and thick-
ness,tfree>1.2, 1.8, and 2.4 nm ~fromB–Hloops against
calibrated Ni 80Fe20standards !. All of the magnetic layers
were sputtered from a Co 86Fe14target.
The spin-valve films were photolithographically pat-
terned into 30- mm-long, narrow stripes of width L~Fig. 1 !,
with 0.5 mm<L<1mm. Au/Ta leads of much lower sheet
resistance were deposited by liftoff, and electrically definedan ‘‘active trackwidth’’ W
a>3L, such that device resistance
was sensitive magnetoresistively to only the magnetizationinside this active region. The pad geometry was tailored tothe probe tips of a high-frequency voltage probe, with mini-mized contact area to reduce the series pad-shield capaci-tance to ,1p F .
Strong exchange pinning between PtMn and the bottom
CoFe ‘‘pinned’’ layer, combined with considerably strongerantiparallel ~AP!coupling
8between pinned and ‘‘reference’’
CoFe layers across the ’1 nm Ru spacer, keeps the magne-
tization in this combined ‘‘synthetic ferrimagnet’’ stifflyaligned along 6xˆeven in the presence of applied fields on
the order of 1 kOe. From the well-known GMR cosine law,
9
the device resistance should then vary as R5R01DRm¯x,
wherem¯xis the transverse ~xaxis!component of the free-
layer unit magnetization mˆ(x,z), averaged over the ‘‘active
volume’’ Va[LWatfree. Depending on tfree, the present de-
vices had R0’73–80 VandDR/R0’6%–8%, including
lead/parasitic resistance. When applying a nonzero dc biascurrentI
b, fluctuations IbdRin spin-valve output voltage
provide a direct electrical measure of the mean free-layermagnetization fluctuations
dm¯xinsideVa.
For the present work, the mag-noise contribution
SVmag(f;Ib)5SV(f;Ib)2SV(f;I50) to the total device volt-
age noise power spectral density, SV(f;Ib) has been mea-
sured in spin-valve devices as a function of both frequency f
and quasistatic longitudinal ~z-axis!fieldHzusing commer-
cially available instrumentation.10In all the present cases Ib
55 mA. A static x-axis bias field was applied to cancel out
fields from both interlayer coupling as well as the ‘‘image’’currents in the lower NiFe keeper, in order to maintain ap-proximate longitudinal alignment mˆ(x,z)’zˆof the quiescent
free layer magnetization inside the active volume.
III. RESULTS
Using arguments similar to those described previously,1,2
the FDT can be used to derive the following relationship:
4kTa
gMsVa>SVmag~f!0;Ib,Hz!
~IbdR/dHx!2, ~1!
where ais the Gilbert form of the phenomenological damp-
ing parameter. The right half of Eq. ~1!contains only mea-
surable quantities. @Here,SVmag(f!0) was estimated by
SVmag(f>170 MHz; Hz), anddR/dHxversusHzwas mea-
sured using a lock-in amplifier and a small, transverse ac‘‘tickle field’’ dHx>0.1 Oerms. #Hence, Eq. ~1!may be used
to extract the effective damping parameter a, as all other
physical parameters are known ~T>300 K, and gyromag-
netic ratio g>19 Mrad/Oes !.
The result of this procedure, for spin-valve devices with
tfree>1.8 nm and L>0.5, 0.7, and 1.0 mm is shown in Fig. 2.
Restricting attention to the Hz.25 Oe data, one can estimate
a ‘‘mean’’ value of a¯’0.023 to within about 610% peak–
peak variation. As was typical of this type of measurement,no discernible systematic dependence of the extracted
ais
seen with either HzorL. The latter confirms the predicted
1/Vadependence from Eq. ~1!over a 4 3variation. The rem-
nant, oscillatory variations with Hzof the extracted a, par-
ticularly for small Hz,25 Oe, is believed due to significant
anisotropy dispersion in the free layer, which typically re-sulted in nonmonotonic behavior of
udR/dHxuwithHz.
The damping properties and/or avalues for the free
layer may be alternatively measured from the broadband fre-quency dependence of the normalized mag-noise power
spectral density S
V8mag(f)[SVmag(f)/SVmag(f!0), which
FIG. 2. Extracted values of damping parameter aby the method of Eq. ~1!,
using test devices with tfree51.8 nm and stripe widths L50.5, 0.7, and 1.0
mm. Dashed line represents ‘‘eyeball’’-estimated mean value of a¯’0.023.
FIG.3. ~Solidlines !Measurednormalizedmag-noisepowerspectraldensity
vs frequency for test device with tfree51.2 nm and stripe width L
50.7 mm; discrete values of dc bias field as indicated. ~Dashed lines !Theo-
retically predicted with an ‘‘eyeball’’ fitted value of a¯(tfree)50.060, using
methods described in Ref. 7 and briefly herein.7455 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 91, No. 10, 15 May 2002 Smithet al.
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130.209.6.50 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:32:59scales out explicitdependencies on kTandMsVa, as well as
amplifier gain and field source calibration factors. Figure 3
showsSV8mag(f;Hz) for anL>0.7mm,tfree>1.2 nm device
for a series of discrete values of dc longitudinal bias fieldH
z. The upper bound of 2.9 GHz for the measured spectra
was limited by our presently available spectrum analyzer.10
Since the measurement is itself completely passive, the peaksin the spectra clearly demonstrate the thermal excitation oflow order ferromagnetic resonance mode ~s!, which give non-
zero contribution to the volume-averaged magnetizationfluctuation
dm¯x.
However, unlike Eq. ~1!, quantitative analysis is here
considerably more modeling intensive, the details of which,for reasons mentioned above, will be postponed until a laterpublication. In brief, mag-noise spectra were computed usingthe general formalism described previously,
7by expanding
thex,ymagnetization components m(x,z) in terms of the
static eigenmodes n(x,z) of the ‘‘stiffness-field’’ tensor7HI
for a patterned stripe in the presence of a ‘‘keeper’’ layer.
Then(x,z) were analytically approximated with trigonomet-
ric functions ~standing spin waves !, corrected for finite stripe
widthLin ways similar to that described elsewhere11to im-
prove eigenvalue accuracy.
The modeled mag-noise power spectral density for the
L>0.7mm,tfree>1.2 nm device geometry is also shown in
Fig. 3. The extracted value of a¯’0.06 was determined by an
‘‘eyeball-fit’’ to the FMR peak heights which, scaling ap-proximately as 1/
a2, are the most sensitive parametric to a.
However, the calculated results here also provide a fairlygood representation of the FMR resonance frequencies andlinewidths, along with their H
zdependence, despite the rela-
tively ideal, simplistic nature of the model.
Extracted values a¯(tfree) using the method of Eq. ~1!,
and by modeling SV8mag(f;Hz), are summarized in Fig. 4.
@Being less dependent on modeling approximations, a¯from
Eq.~1!is considered here to be more reliable. #For the thin-
nest free layer tfree>1.2 nm, the value of a¯’0.06 was con-
sistent between both methods, and there is no doubt thatthese ultrathin Co
86Fe14free layers show anomalously large
damping. The mechanism for this appears confined to ex-tremely thin Co 86Fe14films, since a¯extracted from both
tfree>1.8 and 2.4 nm spin valves was roughly the same
within experimental error, and close to three times smallerthan that for the case of t
free>1.2 nm.
Vibrating sample magnetometer ~VSM !measurements
with perpendicular to plane fields on 1 in. witness couponsshown in Fig. 5 unambiguously indicate that there exists alarge thickness-dependent perpendicular uniaxial anisotropy
H
k’>9.8 and 4.5 kOe in free layers with tfree>1.2 and 1.8
nm, respectively. The linearity of the in-plane field B–H
loops with deposition time confirms that value of Bs
(>17 kG) is virtually independent of free layer thickness.
The VSM measurements with perpendicular fields were mo-
tivated by initial failure, assuming Hk’50, to account for the
observed resonance frequencies in the data of Fig. 3, atwhich point in time all witness coupons for t
free52.4 and 3.0
nm spin-valve films had been used up during ion-millingcalibration for lithography purposes. The two available datapoints suggest a somewhat stronger than 1/ t
freedependence
forHk’, the latter being expected for effects of surface/
interface-induced anisotropy, e.g., as believed observed inAu/Co/Au and Au/Cu/Co/Cu/Au sandwiches
12with similar
Co film thickness.
IV. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The observed sharp increase in the effective damping
parameter awith decreasing free-layer thickness in ultrathin
(tfree<1.5 nm) CoFe films, is here at least suggestive of
surface/interface inhomogeneity acting as a mechanism foradditional mode coupling between quasidegenerate eigen-
FIG. 4. Summary of present experimental results for extracted ~fitted!val-
ues of mean, effective Gilbert damping parameter a, using either Eq. ~1!
~solid circles !or normalized power spectral density ~open circles !.
FIG. 5. Coupon VSM measurements of magnetic moment mvs perpendicu-
lar to plane field H’. The moment is expressed in units of equivalent NiFe
magnetic thickness t*5tNiFe(m/msNiFe), where msNiFe5BsNiFetNiFeis the satu-
rated moment of a similar size NiFe coupon of known thickness tNiFeand
BsNiFe510kG. Onset of saturation field ~indicated by dashed vertical lines !
provides a measure of BsCoFe2Hk’.~The fields applied here are much less
than required to overcome the very strong antiparallel coupling between
pinned and reference CoFe layers, so that t*is virtually that of only the free
layer. !Inset shows low-field ~,100 Oe !in-plane saturated measurements of
tfree*5tfree(BsCoFe/BsNiFe) vs free-layer deposition time ~}physical thickness
tfree!.7456 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 91, No. 10, 15 May 2002 Smithet al.
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130.209.6.50 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:32:59modes of high ( kzWa>2p) and low ( kzWa<p) wave num-
berskz.~The present data further suggest a possible link
between this hypothesized surface/interface effect, and oneresponsible for the strongly thickness-dependent increase in
H
k’.!It is only the latter, ‘‘low’’- kzmodes that contribute
significantly to the volume-averaged fluctuations dm¯x,
which are presently observed magnetoresistively. Such modecoupling ~two-magnon process !could simulate excess damp-
ing by channeling thermal energy out of low- k
zinto high- kz
degenerate modes, and if interfacial in nature, would be
expected13to have a strong ;1/tfree2dependence. Interest-
ingly, such a mechanism would notbe expected to be scale
invariant once the active device ‘‘trackwidth’’ Wawas suffi-
ciently small ~!1mm!such that exchange stiffness would
significantly break the degeneracy between modes of highand lowk
zvalues. Use of the present technique, accompa-
nied perhaps by structures alternatively fabricated viae-beam lithography, would be a relatively straightforward,direct way to further investigate this.
In addition to the explicit 1/ V
ascaling from Eq. ~1!, the
issue of the film thickness ~and other geometrical !dependen-
cies of mag-noise in future MR read head gains in impor-tance as device size will approach and eventually drop belowthe 0.1
mm range. Previous scaling analysis2suggests that
the magnetic stiffness of read sensors will tend to increasewith smaller device size, such that the lowest order FMRfrequencies will remain above the read channel bandwidth. Ifso, signal/noise limitations due to mag noise will be deter-
mined by the low frequency tail S
Vmag(f!0), which scales
proportionally with the damping parameter a@Eq.~1!#.
Assuming a tfree-independent a, the same scaling analy-
sis has already argued that mag-noise will likely tend to sub-stantially reduce the otherwise expected benefit of increasing
read head magnetic sensitivity by thinning the free layer.Having a simultaneously increasing damping constant withdecreasing t
freewould only further aggravate this situation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to thank Linda Lane for mask design
of the test structures measured here, and Tsann Lin and TyChen for assistance in spin-valve film deposition.
1N. Smith and P. Arnett, Appl. Phys. Lett. 78, 1448 ~2001!.
2N. Smith, IEEE Trans. Magn. ~to be published !.
3N. H. Bertram, Z. Jin, and V. L. Safonov, IEEE Trans. Magn. ~to be
published !.
4J. Zhu, J. Appl. Phys. 91, 7273 ~2002!; Y. Zhou, A. Roesler, and J. Zhu,
ibid.91, 7276 ~2002!; S. B. Shueh and L. Liu, paper CB-08 presented at
the 46th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Se-attle, WA, November 12–16, 2001; V. L. Safonov and H. N. Bertram, J.Appl. Phys. 91, 7279 ~2002!;ibid.91, 7285 ~2002!.
5R. Kubo, Rep. Prog. Phys. 29, 255 ~1966!; L. D. Landau and E. M.
Lifshitz, in Statistical Physics ~Pergamon, Oxford, 1980 !, Chap. 12, pp.
384–96.
6N. Smith et al., J. Appl. Phys. 91, 7454 ~2002!.
7N. Smith, J. Appl. Phys. 90, 5768 ~2001!.
8S. S. P. Parkin and D. Mauri, Phys. Rev. B 44, 7131 ~1991!.
9B. Dieny, V. S. Speriosu, S. S. P. Parkin, B.A. Gurney, D. R. Wilhoit, and
D. Mauri, Phys. Rev. B 43, 1297 ~1991!.
10Picoprobe 20 GHz probe, MITEQ 0.1–8 GHz preamp ~43 dB gain, 1.3 dB
noise figure !, Agilent 8560-EC spectrum analyzer ~2.9 GHz !.
11P. H. Bryant, J. F. Smyth, S. Shultz, and D. R. Fredkin, Phys. Rev. B 47,
1255 ~1993!.
12C. Chappert and P. Bruno, J. Appl. Phys. 64, 5736 ~1988!.
13R. D. McMichael, M. D. Stiles, P. J. Chen, and W. Engelhoff, Jr., J.Appl.
Phys.83, 7037 ~1998!; S. M. Rezende,A.Azevedo, M.A. Lucena, and F.
M. deAguiar, Phys. Rev. B 63, 214418-1 ~2001!.7457 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 91, No. 10, 15 May 2002 Smithet al.
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
130.209.6.50 On: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:32:59 |
1.3635782.pdf | Spin-torque-driven ballistic precessional switching with 50 ps impulses
O. J. Lee, D. C. Ralph, and R. A. Buhrman
Citation: Applied Physics Letters 99, 102507 (2011); doi: 10.1063/1.3635782
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3635782
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/99/10?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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138.251.14.35 On: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 16:59:34Spin-torque-driven ballistic precessional switching with 50 ps impulses
O. J. Lee,1,a)D. C. Ralph,1,2and R. A. Buhrman1
1Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
2Kavli Institute at Cornell, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
(Received 29 May 2011; accepted 16 August 2011; published online 7 September 2011)
We demonstrate reliable spin-torque-driven bal listic precessional switching using 50 ps current
impulses in a spin-valve device that includes both in- plane and out-of-plane spin polarizers. Different
threshold currents as the function of switching direc tion and current polarity enable the final orientation
of the magnetic free layer to be steered, in accord wi th a macrospin analysis, by the sign of the pulse,
eliminating the need for read-before-write toggl e operation. The pulse amplitude windows for this
deterministic operation are wider and more symme tric as a function of current polarity for shorter
impulses, while inhomogeneous fringe fields from t he polarizers lead to asymmetries as a function of
current direction. VC2011 American Institute of Physics . [doi: 10.1063/1.3635782 ]
The fast reversal of a nanomagnet is of active interest
because its study can enhance understanding of fundamental
magnetic dynamics and because of the technological advan-tages that a successful high-speed non-volatile magnetic
memory could provide. Several schemes
1–7have been
explored for fast nanomagnet switching, with the perhapsmost scalable approach being demonstrated by recent
experiments
8–11which achieved reliable high-speed reversal
of a thin film nanomagnet by using the spin torque (ST) froma spin-polarized current pulse as short as 100 ps. These
experiments utilized devices in which a thin film free layer
(FL) is located between an out-of-plane (OP) spin polarizer(OPP) and an in-plane (IP) analyzer/polarizer (IPP). In this
configuration, the ST ( s
OP) generated by a strong OP-
polarized current pulse incident upon the FL forces theFL moment out of plane, inducing a demagnetization field
(H
demag ) about which the FL begins to precess.6,7If the pulse
width and amplitude are properly controlled, the result canbe a rapid rotation of the moment by 180
/C14to the reversed
equilibrium position.
The simplest form of this OP-precessional reversal
scheme has the potential disadvantage of being a toggle opera-
tion, in which both parallel (P) to anti-parallel (AP) and
AP-to-P switching occur for either sign of current. This is incontrast to a deterministic operation in which the final state is
controlled by the current polarity, as is the case for ST devices
only utilizing IP polarized currents. However, previousOP-ST experiments
8–10in which the IPP also exerted a strong
ST,sIP, on the FL obtained differences in the threshold cur-
rents for switching as a function of current polarity andswitching direction. This indicated that the final state in
OP-ST devices may be determinable by pulse-current polarity,
although with pulse widths /C21100 ps, only one current polarity
showed a sufficiently wide window between the switching
currents for P-to-AP and AP-to-P to yield reliable writes.
8
Here, we report the achievement of reliable and deter-
ministic spin torque ballistic precessional switching (STBPS)
by using 50 ps current impulses, demonstrating that shorter
and stronger pulses can enhance the influence of sIP, provid-ing wider current windows for deterministic switching.
Based on micromagnetic simulations, we also conclude that
inhomogeneous stray magnetic fields from the two polarizersinduce asymmetries in the deterministic switching windows
for the two current polarities.
We fabricated nanopillar spin valve devices from thin-
film multilayers with the structure: bottom lead/OPP/Cu(6)/
Py(5)/Cu(12)/Py(20)/top lead (thicknesses in nm), where Py
is Ni
80Fe20. The OPP was Pt(10)/[Co(0.44)/Pt(0.68)] 4/
Co(0.66)/Cu(0.3)/Co(0.66). The 5 nm Py layer served as the
magnetic FL and the 20 nm Py layer was the IPP. The devices
were fabricated into approximately elliptical cross-sectionswith dimensions 50 /C2170 nm
2, with the etch producing
slightly tapered side walls (20-30/C14from vertical).12The thick-
ness of the IPP (20 nm) was chosen to be much greater thanthe spin-diffusion length ( /C245 nm) to ensure a strong s
IP. For
pulses longer than 200 ps, these devices exhibited preces-
sional switching characteristics similar to previous meausure-ments
8. Here, we focus on results obtained with 50 and 100
ps impulses.
We generated 50 ps current impulses (Fig. 1(b)) by dif-
ferentiating a sharply falling step pulse, while pulses with
100 ps widths were generated with a commercial pulse gen-
erator. The current through the device was calculated takinginto account the impedance mismatch between the load re-
sistance and the 50 Xtransmission line.
13All measurements
were performed at room temperature under an applied mag-netic field canceling the average in-plane dipole field from
the IPP. Ten devices were studied in detail and similar
behavior was obtained in all cases. We define positive cur-rent to correspond to electron flow from the OPP to the FL
(and to the IPP).
Figures 1(c) and1(d) show switching probabilities ( P
s)
obtained from one device as a function of current amplitude,
polarity, and switching direction (P-to-AP or AP-to-P) using
both 50 ps and 100 ps current impulses. For the 50 ps case,reliable P-to-AP switching ( P
s/C2195%) was achieved for cur-
rent pulse amplitudes beyond Iþ
r;P/C0AP/C2411 mA, but AP-to-P
switching was not observed up to the highest pulse levelemployed, from which we conclude that the threshold
current ( P
s/C215%) to initiate switching is Iþ
th;AP/C0P>17 mA.
This yields a deterministic window at positive pulsea)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:
ol29@cornell.edu.
0003-6951/2011/99(10)/102507/3/$30.00 VC2011 American Institute of Physics 99, 102507-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 99, 102507 (2011)
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138.251.14.35 On: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 16:59:34amplitudes for ST switching to the AP state of
Dþð50 ps Þ/C17Iþ
th;AP/C0P/C0Iþ
r;P/C0AP>6 mA (Fig. 1(c)), while
Dþð100 ps Þ/C244 mA (Fig. 1(c)). For negative 50 ps impulses,
the pulse amplitude required for reliable AP-to-P switching
was larger in magnitude, I/C0
r;AP/C0P/C24/C015 mA, resulting in a
window D/C0ð50 ps Þ/C17/C0 ð I/C0
th;P/C0AP/C0I/C0
r;AP/C0PÞ>3 mA (Fig.
1(d)), while D/C0ð100 ps Þwas negligible. The increase in the
switching windows DþandD/C0with the reduction of pulse
width to 50 ps demonstrates the possibility of implementing
ultra-fast deterministic STBPS.
Certain aspects of the switching behavior, including the
origin of the deterministic switching windows, can be under-
stood with a simple zero-temperature (T ¼0) macrospin
model that utilizes the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert ( LLG) equa-
tion including the effects of ST14–16from the two spin
polarizers
dbm
dt¼/C0 cbm/C2H!
effþabm/C2dbm
dtþca1ðh1Þbm/C2bp1/C2bm
/C0ca2ðh2Þbm/C2bp2/C2bm; (1)
where aiðhÞ¼/C22h
2eIpðtÞ
loMoVPigiðhÞand H!
eff¼ðHkmxþHdx
þHaÞ^xþðHdz/C04pMomZÞ^z. Here, cis the gyromagnetic ra-
tio,^mis the unit vector of the FL, Hkis the anisotropy field
of the FL, HdxandHdzare the IP and OP components of the
effective dipole field Hdacting on the FL, Hais the external
applied field along the FL easy axis, ^p1is the spin polariza-
tion axis of the OPP ( ^z) and ^p2is of the IPP ( /C0^x),
gðhÞ¼2K2=½ðK2þ1ÞþðK2/C01Þcosh/C138,h1ð2Þis the angle
between the FL and OPP (IPP), Kis a torque asymmetry pa-
rameter due to spin accumulation effects (we assume sym-
metric electrodes), Mois the saturation magnetization of the
FL, and Piis the spin polarization.17
In the STBPS, the reversals are mostly governed by the
initial out-of-plane rotation angle generated by the currentpulse because this angle determines the strength of H
demag .
From Eq. (1), we have the initial equation of motion for the
out-of-plane rotation1þa2
cde
dt¼ða1þa2eoÞþð a2/C0a/C14pMoÞe; (2)
where eis the out-of-plane offset angle of the FL moment
relative to the equilibrium angle ( eo¼Hdz=4pMo). The rota-
tion angle e(sp)when the pulse is terminated is
a1ðeða2/C0a/C14pMoÞsp/C01Þ=ða2/C0a/C14pMoÞ, assuming that a
square pulse with the width sp¼ctp=ð1þa2Þ/C25ctpis
applied and eo¼0. In the absence of an IPP ( a2¼0), the cur-
rent required to achieve a given out-of-plane rotation angleis independent of both current polarity and switching direc-
tion. However, in the presence of an IPP, as s
OPforces the
FL out of plane, the IPP causes an additional non-zero torqueperpendicular to the sample plane, s
IP/ð^m/C2^p2/C2^mÞZ(see
Fig. 1(a)), that, assuming the a1>0 case, either accelerates
(a2>0) or retards ( a2<0) the out-of-plane rotation of the
FL moment driven by sOP. This additional torque ðsIPÞZ
causes a difference between the currents required for AP-to-
P and P-to-AP switching for a given pulse polarity (compareFig.1). From Eq. (2)and using parameters appropriate to our
devices (see below), the macrospin calculation yields
D
þ¼D/C0/C241.5 mA, 2.5 mA, and 4.5 mA for tp¼200 ps,
100 ps, and 50 ps, respectively.
Our devices have the interesti ng features that the P-to-AP
switching current at positive bias is always less than the magni-tude of the AP-to-P switching current at negative bias ( s
IPis
favorable to the switching direct ion in both cases) and that the
deterministic window for the posit ive current pulses is invaria-
bly larger than for the negative. To understand these features
and the details of the STBPS, we performed T ¼0m i c r o m a g -
netic simulations that utilized Eq. (1)and employed the follow-
ing magnetic parameters: Mo(IPP)¼850 emu/cm3,
Mo(FL)¼650 emu/cm3,Mo(OPP) ¼870 emu/cm3, exchange
constants A(IPP)¼A(FL)¼13/C210/C06erg, A(OPP) ¼26
/C210/C06erg, OPP anisotropy K?ðOPPÞ¼8/C2106erg/cm3,a n d
FL damping a¼0:03.18The simulated nano-pillar had an el-
liptical cross-section of 50 /C2170 nm2and the mesh size was
5/C25/C22.5 nm3. The static magnetic configurations were first
calculated by the energy minimization method19for an external
magnetic field located at the center of the minor loop for the Pand AP states. Then a current impulse ( I
p(t)) was applied at
time t¼0 taking into account nonzero rise and fall times, with
the calculated ST exerted on the interface cells of each mag-netic layer.
The micromagnetic ST simulations reveal that the
STBPS in this device structure is initiated by reversal at oneend of the FL ellipse, with the remainder of the FL follow-
ing.
20Fig.2shows the simulated time-traces of hmxi(Figs.
2(a) and2(b)) and hmzi(Figs. 2(c) and2(d)) for the left 60
nm and the right 60 nm of the FL for positive (Figs. 2(a)and
2(c)) and negative (Figs. 2(b) and2(d)) 50 ps impulses. In
this simulation, K¼1.5,P1¼0.20, and P2¼0.37. For both
current polarities, and even for P2¼0.0, the FL reversal is
an inhomogeneous process in which the right (left) side
rotates faster for P-to-AP (AP-to-P) reversal, rather than theuniform rotation of a macrospin.
7
This nonuniform reversal occurs because the reference
layers’ dipole fields are inhomogeneous at the position of theFL (H
dxis plotted in Fig. 2(a)inset) and the local critical cur-
rent density Jcfor OP ST excited precession depends on this
FIG. 1. (Color online) (a) Scheme of STBPS. In the case shown, the current
polarity and orientations of the fixed layers are such that the OP torque pro-
motes upward (positive z) displacement of bmand the IP torque retards it. (b)
Measured waveform of the /C2450 ps (FWHM) current impulse injected into
the device. Measured switching probabilities ( Ps) using (c) positive and (d)
negative 50 ps or 100 ps current impulses.102507-2 Lee, Ralph, and Buhrman Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 102507 (2011)
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138.251.14.35 On: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 16:59:34field, Jc/Heff
k;x¼j6Hk=2þHaþHdxj(Ref. 21;þcorre-
sponds to AP-to-P, /C0to P-to-AP). For the simulated device
in the AP configuration, Heff
k;L/C25230 Oe when averaged over
the leftmost 60 nm of the FL, while Heff
k;R/C25460 Oe for the
rightmost 60 nm. For the P configuration, the variation in
Heff
kis even greater, with Heff
k;L/C25490 Oe and Heff
k;R/C25140 Oe.
Furthermore, HdZcauses the magnetization of the FL to tilt
out of plane, with this effect being stronger (weaker) on the
right (left) end of the FL due to the additive (subtractive)
combination of the IPP and OPP fields. The effect of HdZfor
þIis to increase the influence of the sIPdue to the significant
equilibrium hmzi(eo>0) on the right side of the FL (Fig.
2(c) and Eq. (2)) for P-to-AP ( sIPis favorable to this direc-
tion) but eo/C250 on the left side for AP-to-P. For /C0I, the effect
ofHdZprovides a eothat is opposite to the displacement
driven by the OP-ST, resulting in a smaller maximum valueofhm
zifor a given pulse amplitude and hence a reduction in
the influence of sIP.
The consequences of the influence of the sIPwithin the
micromagnetic simulations can be seen in Fig. 3which com-
pares the P2¼0.37 and P2¼0.0 cases, and the consequences
of the nonuniform dipole fields can be seen by comparingFigs. 3(a)–3(d) (w/H
d) to Figs. 3(e)and3(f)(w/o Hd). With-outHd, we obtain, as in the original macrospin model, more
uniform FL reversals and large and symmetric values for D/C0
andDþ, with only a small difference between jIþ
th;P/C0APjand
jI/C0
th;AP/C0Pjarising from our use of K¼1.5 (Figs. 3(e) and
3(f)). With Hd, we find that for 50 ps pulses jIþ
th;P/C0APjis
reduced while jI/C0
th;AP/C0Pjis increased and Dþ>D/C0. For 100
ps pulses (Fig. 3(c)and3(d)), the simulations show that both
D/C0andDþare reduced further relative to the 50 ps case (the
reduction in Dþis not visible in Fig. 3because Iþ
th;AP/C0P
ð100 ps Þ>18 mA). This is consistent with the experiment
and Eq. (2).
In summary, we have demonstrated reliable and deter-
ministic STBPS with a 50 ps spin polarized impulse current
where the shorter current impulse enhances the deterministic
write operation. If the fringe fields can be reduced close tozero, then nearly symmetric deterministic windows should
be achievable for both pulse polarities, enabling very fast,
energy efficient STBPS.
This research was supported by the Office of Naval
Research and by the NSF/NSEC program through the Cornell
Center for Nanoscale Systems. We also acknowledge NSF
support through use of the Corne ll Nanofabrication Facility/
NNIN and the Cornell Center for Materials Research facilities.
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FIG. 2. (Color online) (a) Micromagnetic simulation of the time trace of
hmxiat the two ends (blue, as averaged over the left 60 nm of the FL, and
red, averaged over right 60 nm (see inset)) of the FL for AP ( hmxi/C251) and P
(hmxi/C25/C0 1) initial configurations using a positive impulse Ip¼þ10 mA,
tp¼50 ps (FWHM). Dashed lines: initial P configuration, solid lines: ini-
tially AP. Inset: the calculated easy-axis component of the inhomogeneous
dipole fields acting on the FL. (b) Simulated time trace of hmxifor AP and P
initial configurations using a negative impulse Ip¼/C013.6 mA and tp¼50
ps. (c) and (d) Simulated time trace of hmzifor the same conditions as (a)
and (b), respectively; note different time scale for (c) and (d).
FIG. 3. (Color online) Simulated switching probabilities Psat zero tempera-
ture. Top figures: P1¼0.2 and P2¼0.37, bottom figures: P1¼0.2 and
P2¼0.0, i.e., no spin-torque from the in-plane polarizer/analyzer. Rectan-
gles: P-to-AP switching, circles: AP-to-P. (a) and (b) Psfor 50 ps Ipimpulses
for (a) positive and (b) negative pulses. (c) and (d) Psfor 100 ps impulses.
(e) and (f) Psfor 50 ps impulses assuming zero dipole field from the polar-
izer layers acting on the FL.102507-3 Lee, Ralph, and Buhrman Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 102507 (2011)
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138.251.14.35 On: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 16:59:34 |
5.0056995.pdf | Reversible strain-induced spin–orbit torque
on flexible substrate
Cite as: Appl. Phys. Lett. 119, 042402 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0056995
Submitted: 17 May 2021 .Accepted: 19 July 2021 .
Published Online: 29 July 2021
Grayson Dao Hwee Wong,1,2
Calvin Ching Ian Ang,1
Weiliang Gan,1
Wai Cheung Law,1,2
Zhan Xu,1,3
Feng Xu,3
Chim Seng Seet,2and Wen Siang Lew1,a)
AFFILIATIONS
1School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 21 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637371
2GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore Pte. Ltd., 60 Woodlands Industrial Park D St 2, Singapore 738406
3MIIT Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallic and Intermetallic Materials Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering,
Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: wensiang@ntu.edu.sg
ABSTRACT
We propose the use of mechanical strain and mild annealing to achieve reversible modulation of spin–orbit torque (SOT) and Gilbert
damping parameter. X-ray diffraction results show that the residual spin–orbit torque enhancement and Gilbert damping reduction, due to
the post-mechanical strain treatment, can be reset using mild annealing to alleviate the internal strain. The spin Hall efficiency of the heat-and strain-treated Pt/Co bilayer was characterized through spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance, and it was found that the device couldswitch between the strain enhanced SOT and the pristine state. The Gilbert damping parameter behaves inversely with the spin Hall effi-
ciency, and therefore, strain can be used to easily tune the device switching current density by a factor of /C242 from its pristine state.
Furthermore, the resonance frequency of the Pt/Co bilayer could be tuned using purely mechanical strain, and from the endurance test, thePt/Co device can be reversibly manipulated over 10
4cycles demonstrating its robustness as a flexible device.
Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0056995
The ability to manipulate magnetization has helped the current-
induced spin–orbit torque (SOT) gather a considerable amount of
interest in recent decades.1–6SOT is induced by a pure spin current
that is generated as the result of a spin–orbit interaction when a charge
current passes through a non-magnetic metal.6,7In heavy-metal/
ferromagnetic (HM/FM) heterostructures, the SOT is contributed by
two established phenomena: the spin Hall effect (SHE) in the HMand/or the Rashba–Edelstein effect at the HM/FM interface.
8–11The
spin Hall efficiency heffis commonly used to quantify the performance
of this charge-to-spin conversion, and it is ideal to have a large hefffor
better energy-efficient memory. To date, most studies are concentrated
around HM with a strong spin–orbit coupling (SOC), such as Pt,
b-Ta, and b-W, topological insulators, and even antiferromagnetic
materials.12–18
To further push the boundaries of the heff, many efforts have
been devoted to manipulating the extrinsic contribution of the spin
Hall effect (SHE). Such works include alloying of the HM with lighter
conductive metals, usage of insertion layers within the HM and the
varying deposition condition of the HM, and many others.19–24The
extrinsic SHE mechanism capitalizes on electron scattering caused byimpurities within the HM, and the two most prominent scattering
processes are skew scattering and side-jump scattering.25,26Although
theheffcan be easily enhanced through tuning the resistivity of the
HM, its manipulation after the device fabrication is irreversible.22–24
Among them, the use of mechanical strain is a promising candidatenot only for enhancing the h
effbut also for tuning it reversibly.27,28
Previous works have demonstrated SOT enhancement with the use of
strain;29however, the ability to revert the enhancement has yet to be
demonstrated and research is required to further develop the use of
mechanical strain into a feasible option for the manipulation of the
SOT.
In this work, we demonstrate the ability to manipulate the strain-
mediated SOT enhancement reversibly in Pt/Co using a combination
of mechanical strain and mild annealing. By annealing Pt/Co at mild
temperatures, the internal strain induced by mechanical tensile strain
is alleviated, and this has been confirmed using x-ray diffraction
(XRD). When the internal strain is removed, the device behaves simi-
larly to its pristine state making further manipulation of the device
possible. The generated spin current was characterized using the spin-
torque ferromagnetic resonance technique (ST-FMR), and the Gilbert
Appl. Phys. Lett. 119, 042402 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0056995 119, 042402-1
Published under an exclusive license by AIP PublishingApplied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apldamping parameter of Pt/Co was found to behave inversely with the
manipulated SOT. Furthermore, using the mechanical tensile strain,
the resonance field of Pt/Co devices can be tuned allowing for micro-
wave detection applications. These findings establish a unique tech-nique to influence the strain-mediated SOT and have a considerablecontribution to the development of flexible spintronics devices.
The effects of tensile strain and mild annealing on the spin cur-
rent generation of Pt/Co bilayers are characterized using the spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) measurement. The bilayerPt(5 nm)/Co(5 nm) films used in this study were deposited using mag-netron sputtering onto unstrained flexible Kapton at room tempera-
ture using an Ar pressure of 2 mTorr and a base pressure lower than
5/C210
/C08Torr. A Ti(5 nm) seed and a cap layer were used for film
adhesion and oxidation prevention, and from the previous study, itwas shown that Ti does not contribute to spin current generation.
29
Within the bilayer, Pt takes up the role of the SOT generation via SHE
due to its strong SOC. ST-FMR devices and coplanar waveguides
(CPWs) were patterned using optical lithography. Figure 1(a)illustrates the ST-FMR measurement setup and device. During the ST-
FMR measurement, a microwave radio frequency (RF) charge current
ðJCÞis injected into the CPW and along the longitudinal direction of
the microstrip device (10 /C250lm2). Simultaneously, an in-plane
external magnetic field ðHextÞis applied at a 45/C14angle with respect to
the longitudinal direction of the device. The RF current passing
through the Pt layer generates an oscillating transverse spin current by
SHE, which will then enter the adjacent Co layer. The magnetizationof the Co layer experiences an in-plane and out-of-plane torque fromthe RF current.
16,17When the RF spin current frequency matches the
precessional frequency of the magnetization, the FMR is established,
and the oscillating torques will result in the oscillation of the device
resistance due to anisotropic magnetoresistance in the Co layer. Byusing a bias tee, the mixing of the RF current and the oscillating resis-tance is measured as a rectified DC voltage signal ðV
mixÞ.
The magnitude of the strain ewas approximated using
e¼T=2R,w h e r e Tand Rare the total thickness of the substrate
(120lm) and the bilayer structure and the curvature radius of the
FIG. 1. (a) Schematic illustration of the Pt/Co bilayer device for the ST-FMR measurement. The green and navy blue arrows represent the precessing magnetiza tion in the Co
layer and the applied external field, respectively. An RF current was applied along the longitudinal direction ( x-axis) of the device generating two orthogonal torques as it
passes through the heavy metal. Photo of strained ST-FMR devices on the flexible Kapton substrate and the optical image of the device are as shown in the i nset. (b) X-ray
reflectivity profiles for Pt(5 nm)/Co(10 nm) films at different steps of the process: step ‹is the pristine film, step ›is the pristine film annealed at 150/C14C for 1 h, step fiis the
tensile strain treatment of epost¼1:5% for 1 h, and step flis the annealing process at 150/C14C for 1 h. (c) X-ray diffraction spectra of Pt(25 nm)/Co(25 nm) films demonstrating
a right shift in the Pt(111) peak shift when strained and back when treated with mild annealing.Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl
Appl. Phys. Lett. 119, 042402 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0056995 119, 042402-2
Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishingmold, respectively.30All strains used in this work are mechanical ten-
sile strain, and the direction of the strain is along the longitudinaldirection of the microstrip. Two methods of strain measurement wereused. The first is the strain treatment, where the sample is strained at a
specific e
postfor 1 h and measured at its relaxed state, while the second
is an in situ strain measurement where the sample is strained at ein
during measurement.
X-ray reflectivity (XRR) spectroscopy was performed on
Pt(5 nm)/Co(10 nm) at different steps of the characterization processto determine the effects of strain and mild annealing on the interfacialroughness between Pt and Co. The sample used throughout the differ-ent step processes is the same, and the spectra are shown in Fig. 1(b) .
The different steps of the process are: step ‹is where the film is pris-
tine, and this is used as a reference; step ›is the pristine film after
being vacuum annealed at 150
/C14C for 1 h; step fiis the annealed film
treated with a tensile strain of epost¼1:5% for 1 h; and step flis the
strain-treated film after annealing at 150/C14Cf o r1 h .F r o mt h eX R R
measurements (see the supplementary material ), no significant change
in interfacial roughness was observed, and this concurs with previous
study that the strain-mediated SOT enhancement is a bulk effect dueto the extrinsic SHE.
29,31X-ray diffraction measurement was also per-
formed on Pt(25 nm)/Co(25 nm) films for steps ‹,›,fi,a n dfl.
Similar to the XRR measurement, the XRD sample used for all foursteps is the same. From Fig. 1(c) , the Pt(111) peak shifts right after the
strain treatment indicating that the internal strain persists within thefilm even after the strain has been removed. However, upon treatingthe film with mild annealing, the Pt(111) peak shifted back. This dem-onstrates the use of annealing as a means to relieve the residual inter-nal strain-induced and suggests that the strain-mediated SOTenhancement can be reversed. Unlike the Pt(111) peak, the Co(002)peak remains stationary, and this difference in response found in theCo and Pt layers is due to their different Poison’s ratios.
32This implies
that the Co layer is unaffected by both the strain and mild annealing.
Figure 2(a) shows the ST-FMR spectra for bilayer Pt/Co mea-
sured at a microwave power of 12 dBm with a frequency range of8–17 GHz in steps of 1 GHz. The measured V
mixconsists of a symmet-
ric and anti-symmetric Lorentzian function, which can be expressed as
Vmix¼V0SFSHextðÞ þAFAHextðÞ ½/C138 ; (1)
where
V0¼/C01
4dR
ducl0IRFcosu
2pDHd f =dHext ðÞ jHext¼Hres;
FSHextðÞ ¼DH2
Hext/C0Hres ðÞ2þDH2;
and
FAHextðÞ ¼DHH ext/C0Hres ðÞ
Hext/C0Hres ðÞ2þDH2:
Here, V0,DH,Hext,S,a n d Aare the scaling factors, linewidth,
the applied external field, the magnitude of the symmetric and anti-symmetric components of the V
mix, respectively. The symmetric com-
ponent is proportional to the damping-like torque, and theanti-symmetric component is the result of the sum of the Oersted field
and the field-like torque.
16,33The peak-to-peak voltage VP/C0Pof theST-FMR spectra decreases with increasing einas shown in Fig. 2(b) .
From Eq. (1), there are several contributing factors such as DH,a n d
ðdf=dHextÞjHext¼Hrescan lead to a change in VP/C0P. However, the magni-
tude of VP/C0Pis primarily influenced by the resistivity of Pt as an
increased resistivity would decrease the current density through the Pt
layer. When the tensile strain is employed along the longitudinal direc-
tion of the microstrip, the strip elongates and narrows along the direc-
tion of strain resulting in an enhancement in resistivity.
To determine the change in Pt resistivity, a separate set of single
layer Pt(5 nm) microstrips were fabricated and characterized using a
semiconductor analyzer at different steps as shown in Fig. 3(a) . At step
‹, the film is in its pristine state after fabrication. To set the device, the
sample is annealed at 150/C14Cf o r1 hi ns t e p ›. The resistivity slightly
decreased as a result of the improvement in film quality from the mild
annealing. Thereafter in step fi, a tensile strain of epost¼1:5% was
applied for 1 h. During the strain treatment, the resistivity increases as
the microstrips are stretched along the longitudinal direction, resulting
in a narrower cross-sectional area. Relaxing the film after the treat-
ment for measurement, the residual strain within the Pt retains the
enhanced resistivity as shown in the plot. For step fl, the sample was
annealed at 150/C14C for 1 h before characterization, and upon mild
annealing, the resistivity of Pt decreases as the internal strain caused
by the strain treatment is relieved. Finally, steps /C176and–are repeated
steps that are the same as steps fiandfl, respectively, that show the
repeatability of the process. The strain response of Co resistivity was
measured and found to be negligible in contrast to Pt (refer to the sup-
plementary material ).
Since the Pt layer thickness is much larger than its spin diffusion
length, the field-like torque in bilayer Pt/Co can be assumed to be neg-
ligibly small as shown in previous work.16,29,34Using this approxima-
tion, the spin Hall efficiency for the Pt/Co bilayer is calculated by the
following expression:
FIG. 2. (a) Measured ST-FMR spectra of the Pt/Co bilayer while applying
ein¼1:5% for frequencies between 8 and 17 GHz using a microwave power of
12 dBm. (b) In situ strain dependence of VP/C0Pmeasured at 12 GHz. (c) Leftward
shift of ST-FMR spectra due to the tensile strain at varying ein. (d) In situ strain
dependence of HRes.Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl
Appl. Phys. Lett. 119, 042402 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0056995 119, 042402-3
Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishingheff¼S
Ael0MStCotPt
/C22hffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1þ4pMeff
Hresr
; (2)
where tCoandtPtare the thicknesses of Co and Pt layers, respectively,
MSis the magnetization saturation, and Meffis the effective magneti-
zation. The MSof bilayer Pt/Co measured at epost¼0% and 1.5% was
obtained to be 1220 630 and 1130 640 emu/cc3,r e s p e c t i v e l y ,w h i c hi s
within a range consistent with other works, and therefore, the mag-
netic proximity effect is assumed to be negligible in this study.35–38To
obtain the required Meff, the in-plane magnetization Kittel equation
f¼c=2pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ffi
ðHresþHKÞð4pMeffþHresþHKÞp
was used, where cis
the gyromagnetic ratio and HKis the total magnetic anisotropy field.
Having similar behavior as the qPt,t h e heffat various measurement
s t e p si sa ss u m m a r i z e di n Fig. 3(b) . From the proportionality between
both the qPtandheff, the strain-mediated SOT enhancement is a result
of the extrinsic SHE in the Pt layer.
Predominantly, the DHof the ST-FMR spectra is broadened by
extrinsic contribution such as the film inhomogeneous broadening
term ðDHÞand two magnon scattering. Two magnon scattering
results in a nonlinear frequency dependence of the DH, which is not
observed in the measured samples.39The effective Gilbert damping
parameter ðaeffÞwas calculated from the DHdependences of the fre-
quency expressed as DH¼DH0þ4pfaeff=c;where DHis a result of
sample imperfections that are assumed to be frequency independent,
and the data are as shown in Fig. 3(c) . The two main aeffcontributors
of bilayer Pt/Co are the intrinsic Gilbert damping ðaintÞfrom Co and
the damping introduced by the spin pumping effect ðaSPÞdue to the
adjacent Pt.40,41aintremains unchanged as it is independent of the
strain-induced magnetic anisotropy.42–44TheaSP, however, is highly
dependent on the spin pumping effect at the interface between the Ptand Co layers. An enhancement in the extrinsic SHE will result in agreater spin pumping effect and, hence, larger a
SPcontribution.
Therefore, aeffh a sa ni n v e r s et r e n da sc o m p a r e dt ot h e qPtandheff.The effects of strain and mild annealing on the critical switching
current density JC0of an in-plane magnetization SOT device can be
evaluated using the following equation:
JC0/C252e
/C22haeff
heff4pMeff
2/C18/C19
MStFM: (3)
From this equation, JC0is proportional to the ratio aeff=heff, and a
decrease in this ratio will denote a lower JC0.35,45The inset in Fig. 3(c)
shows how the JC0can be controlled using a combination of mechani-
cal strain and mild annealing. This method allows the JC0to alternate
between /C2490% and /C2450% of the pristine JC0, allowing for an addi-
tional degree of freedom in inducing magnetization reversal of the
SOT device.
Aside from SOT manipulation, the mechanical strain can also be
used to tune the resonance frequency by shifting the FMR spectrum,
and from Fig. 2(c) , a left shift motion of the ST-FMR spectra is
observed as the in situ tensile strain applied increases.46The shift in
HResis attributed by the magnetoelastic anisotropy induced by the
mechanical tensile strain. This additional anisotropy has an easy axis
perpendicular to the uniaxial anisotropy generated by the external
magnetic field, which will result in a shift in the magnetic easy axis of
the Pt/Co bilayer.30Figure 2(d) shows the HResdependence of ein.T h e
Pt/Co device has a tunable HReswith a magnitude of /C012366O ep e r
unit ein. Using this tuning capability, the detectable HRescan be
adjusted based on the applied strain and then reversed by relaxing thedevice.
Figure 4(a) demonstrates how the Pt/Co device can switch
between two states of H
Resby applying strain and relaxing it. The first
cycle begins with the device in the pristine state measured at the
relaxed position. Subsequently, the even cycles refer to the in situ strain
d e v i c ew h i l et h eo d dc y c l e sa r em e a s u r e dw h e nt h ed e v i c ei sr e l a x e d .
With every cycle, a distinct shift in HResis observed. This cycle of
FIG. 3. (a) Resistivity of a single layer Pt(5 nm) microstrip measured at different steps of Nwith the inset illustrating the individual steps: step ‹is the pristine film, step ›is
the pristine film annealed at 150/C14C for 1 h, step fiis the annealed film treated with a tensile strain of epost¼1:5% for 1 h, step flis the strain-treated film annealed at 150/C14C
for 1 h, and steps /C176and–are repeated treatment procedures that are the same as steps fiandfl, respectively. (b) From the ST-FMR measurements of the Pt/Co bilayer,
heffand (c) Gilbert damping parameter as a function of Nare presented. The normalized switching current density of the Pt/Co bilayer is shown in the inset.Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl
Appl. Phys. Lett. 119, 042402 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0056995 119, 042402-4
Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishingstraining and relaxing is performed continuously for a repeatability
test as shown in Fig. 4(b) . For consistency of the cycles, the straining
and relaxing are performed using a linear actuator attached with a
stepper motor. The HResat both 0% and 1% strain are highly stable for
104cycles demonstrating the device robustness against the mechanical
strain.
In summary, we investigated the use of mild annealing and
mechanical strain for reversible manipulation of the SOT. In the Pt/Cobilayer, XRD spectra show that the tensile strain induces a residual
strain within the Pt layer that can be alleviated by treating the film
with mild annealing. Using a combination of these two treatmentmethods, the spin Hall efficiency and Gilbert damping parameter
become versatile and can be tuned with ease even after fabrication.
Apart from SOT manipulation, strain can be used to tune the reso-nance field of the Pt/Co bilayer, and in the endurance test performed,
the tunability of the device remains highly stable even after 10
4cycles.
These results pave an alternative avenue for manipulating the SOTreversibly that can also be used as a tunable microwave detector.
See the supplementary material for the interfacial roughness of
the Pt and Co layers measured using XRR and the Co resistivity
change at different Nsteps.
AUTHORS’ CONTRIBUTIONS
G.D.H.W. conceived the idea, designed this work, drafted the
manuscript, and fabricated the devices for measurement. W.C.L.
assisted in the development of the experimental setup. W.L.G.,
C.C.I.A., and Z.X. made scientific comments on the result. W.S.L.,C.S.S., and F.X. coordinated and supervised the entire work. All
authors contributed to the discussion and the revision of the final
manuscript.This work was supported by an Industry-IHL Partnership
Program (No. NRF2015-IIP001-001) and an EDB-IPP (Grant No.RCA-17/284). This work was also supported by the RIE2020
ASTAR AME IAF-ICP Grant No. I1801E0030.
The authors declare that they have no competing interest.
DATA AVAILABILITY
The data that support the findings of this study are available
within the article and its supplementary material .T h ed a t at h a ts u p -
port the findings of this study are available from the corresponding
author upon reasonable request.
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Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing |
1.5079313.pdf | Appl. Phys. Lett. 114, 042401 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5079313 114, 042401
© 2019 Author(s).Spin-orbit-torque-driven multilevel switching
in Ta/CoFeB/MgO structures without
initialization
Cite as: Appl. Phys. Lett. 114, 042401 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5079313
Submitted: 30 October 2018 . Accepted: 13 January 2019 . Published Online: 29 January 2019
S. Zhang , Y. Su , X. Li , R. Li , W. Tian , J. Hong
, and L. You
Spin-orbit-torque-driven multilevel switching in
Ta/CoFeB/MgO structures without initialization
Cite as: Appl. Phys. Lett. 114, 042401 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5079313
Submitted: 30 October 2018 .Accepted: 13 January 2019 .Published Online:
29 January 2019
S.Zhang,a)Y.Su,a)X.Li,R.Li,W.Tian, J.Hong,
and L. Youb)
AFFILIATIONS
School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
a)Contributions: S. Zhang and Y. Su contributed equally to this work.
b)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: lyou@hust.edu.cn
ABSTRACT
Spin-orbit torque (SOT) has been proposed as an alternative writing mechanism for the next-generation magnetic random access
memory (MRAM), due to its energy efficiency and high endurance in perpendicular magnetic anisotropic materials. However, the
three-terminal structure of SOT-MRAM increases the cell size and consequently limits the feasibility of implementing high den-
sity memory. Multilevel storage is a key factor in the competitiveness of SOT-MRAM technology in the nonvolatile memory mar-ket. This paper presents an experimental characterization of a multilevel SOT-MRAM cell based on a perpendicularly magnetizedTa/CoFeB/MgO heterostructure and addresses the initialization-free issue of multilevel storage schemes. Magneto-optical Kerreffect microscopy and micromagnetic simulation studies confirm that the multilevel magnetization states are created by chang-
ing a longitudinal domain wall pinning site in the magnet. The realization of robust intermediate switching levels in the commonly
used perpendicularly magnetized Ta/CoFeB/MgO heterostructure provides an efficient way to switch magnets for low-power,high-endurance, and high-density memory applications.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5079313
The conventional spin-transfer torque magnetic random
access memory (STT-MRAM) offers non-volatility, high den-sities, and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor(CMOS) process compatibility.
1–4However, the key drawback
of STT-MRAM is that reading and writing current share thesame path through the junction.
3–6Hence, the aging of the
tunnel barrier is accelerated on injecting high-write-currentdensities, especially for switching on the nanosecond timescale. Moreover, the read disturb challenge grows with thescaling technology as the read-to-write current ratiodecreases. Fortunately, the concept of a three-terminal mag-netic memory device based on a spin-orbit torque (SOT)effect has been recently proposed in heavy metal (HM)/fer-romagnetic metal (FM)/oxide heterostructures, where themagnetic bit is written by a current pulse injected throughthe bottom HM, and a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) can beemployed to read the state of the magnetic bit, namely, theSOT-MRAM.
3,4,7–11The decoupled write and read paths of
SOT devices can naturally resolve the problems related to
the endurance and reliability of conventional two-terminalSTT-MRAMs. Moreover, separate optimization is available fortuning the two independent read and write channels, relaxing
the high magnetoresistance ratio and low resistance-areaproduct simultaneously required for MRAM.
H o w e v e r ,t h el o ws t o r a g ed e n s i t yp r o b l e mi naS O T - M R A M
becomes serious owing to its three-terminal architecture. Onekey solution is the multilevel cell (MLC) configuration, a maturetechnique already utilized in flash memories, which can providean enhanced integration density. Until now, the demonstration
of MLC in SOT-MRAM has been rarely reported. Four-bit SOT-
MLC was demonstrated by connecting two MTJs in one storageelement.
12However, the fabrication process of such a design is
complicated. Recently, SOT-MLC design was reported in a Co/Ptmultilayer ferromagnet by controlling the multidomain forma-tion through the current pulse and also in Pt/Co/Ta/Co multi-layers by tilting the magnetization through an external magneticfield or antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling.
13–16By contrast,
from the material point of view, materials such as CoFeB whichcombine high spin polarization and a low Gilbert damping con-stant are highly desirable for spintronic devices. In addition, Ta/
CoFeB/MgO heterostructures with perpendicular magnetic
anisotropy offer high scalability as the shape anisotropy field
Appl. Phys. Lett. 114, 042401 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5079313 114, 042401-1
Published under license by AIP PublishingApplied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apleffect is negligible and have been commonly used in perpendicu-
lar MTJ with high tunnel magnetoresistance.2,17,18
Here, we report that multilevel magnetization states can be
controlled in perpendicularly magnetized Ta/CoFeB/MgO het-
erostructures by modulating the in-plane field and are indepen-
dent of the initial state. The film stack consists of Ta (10 nm)/Co
40Fe40B20(CoFeB, 1.2 nm)/MgO (1.6 nm)/Ta (20 nm) (from the
bottom), which is sputtered on a thermally oxidized Si substrateat room temperature. This heterostructure closely resemblesthe one described in our previous work.
19As depicted in Fig. 1(a) ,
when an in-plane charge current flows through the Ta layer, thespin current is generated due to the spin Hall effect (SHE) in Taand is transmitted across the Ta/CoFeB interface. This results inthe application of a torque on the CoFeB layer. The devicesbased on such a heterostructure are patterned into a Hall barwith dimensions of 400 (length) /C250 (width) lm
2[Fig. 1(b) ]. The
anomalous Hall resistance RH, which is proportional to the aver-
age out-of-plane magnetization component of CoFeB, is mea-sured under a small current of 0.1 mA. Measurements as afunction of a vertical magnetic field exhibit sharp switching,indicating a good perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) inthe cells [ Fig. 1(c) ]. Current-induced switching is measured by
applying a current pulse (0.5 s in duration) under the assistanceof an in-plane magnetic field H
xcollinear to the current. With a
fixed magnetic field in the þx direction, sweeping a quasistaticin-plane current generates hysteretic magnetic switching
between the M z>0 and M z<0 states, with the positive current
favoring M z>0[Fig. 1(d) ]. The switching direction changes
when the in-plane field is inversed. This is consistent with nega-
tive spin Hall angle hSHin Ta, which was reported to be –0.09 in
our previous work.19
According to SHE, when the charge current flows along x,
the spin moments within the generated spin current point in the
ydirection. The effective magnetic field produced by SOT can be
expressed as ~HSOT/~M/C2y. As a result, the z-component of the
SOT effective field, HSOT
z,i se x p r e s s e da s8
HSOT
z¼/C22h
2eM sthSHJm x; (1)
where /C22his Planck’s constant, eis the electron charge, Msis the
saturation magnetization, tis the thickness of the CoFeB layer,
hSHi st h es p i nH a l la n g l eo fT a ,a n d Jis the current density. It is
reported that the function of the in-plane magnetic field Hxis to
orient the magnetic moments within the domain wall (DW) to
have a significant in-plane component mx.20Therefore, a tunable
effective field HSOT
zc a nb ee x e r t e do nt h em a g n e t i cfi l mb yv a r y -
ing the magnitude and the direction of Hx. Hence, the domain
configuration and the resultant Hall resistances of the Hall bar
can be controlled by varying the external magnetic field Hx.
This concept is confirmed by our measurement of RH–J
loops under various Hx, as depicted in Fig. 2 . Under the in-plane
magnetic field of abs( Hx)<20Oe, the magnetization switching
is incomplete and results in an RHvalue smaller than the value at
Hx¼620 Oe. In addition, the magnetization switching even
starts to occur at the very small in-plane field abs( Hx)/C202O e ,
which indicates that DW could move under a small SOT effective
field HSOT
zin our film structure. This magnetic field range
(2–20 Oe) along with the switching current density ( <3.5/C2106A
cm/C02) is lower than the reported value in similar Ta/CoFeB/
MgO structures.21,22With an Hxlarger than 20 Oe, for instance,
when Hx¼50Oe, 100Oe, and 200 Oe, there is no significant
change in the RHvalue (see Sec. S1 of the supplementary mate-
rial). By analyzing the dependence of the SOT efficiency on the
in-plane field, a Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI) effec-
tive field ( HDMI) is obtained to be around 100 Oe (referring to
Sec. S2 of the supplementary material ), stabilizing a right handed
N/C19eel wall of the ferromagnet. The DMI constant was estimated
to be around 0.13 mJ m/C02, which is close to the reported values
in similar structures.21,23
FIG. 1. SHE-driven magnetization switching. (a) Sample geometry for SHE switch-
ing measurements. In-plane current flowing through tantalum along the x direction(electrons along the –x direction) causes spin separation across the thickness of
the tantalum (z-direction). This results in the accumulation of electrons with y-
polarized spins at the Ta/CoFeB interface, which offers SHE-induced spin torque tothe magnetization and thereby moves the domain wall with the assistance of the in-plane magnetic field H
x.Irepresents the applied direct current, and the green arrow
denotes the current direction. The blue and pink arrows represent the orientations
of accumulated spins. The red and orange colors in the CoFeB film indicate themagnetic domains with opposite directions of magnetic moments, which is either“upwards” or “downwards”. (b) Optical micrograph of the fabricated Hall bar struc-
ture. The width of the Hall bar ( W)i s5 0 lm, and the length ( L) is 400 lm. (c)
Anomalous Hall resistance R
Has a function of the perpendicular magnetic field Hz
(RH-Hzloop). (d) Current-induced magnetization reversal when Hxis parallel (red)
or antiparallel (green) to the current direction.
FIG. 2. RH-Jloops measured under different values of (a) positive and (b) negative
in-plane magnetic fields Hx.Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl
Appl. Phys. Lett. 114, 042401 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5079313 114, 042401-2
Published under license by AIP PublishingIn most multilevel storage mechanisms, extra initialization
steps are required to reset the memory cell for the next writing
event.24–26This results in a prolonged writing time and
increased power consumption. MLC design using an SOT mech-
anism in Co/Pt multilayers resolves this issue.13Here, we also
emphasize that the initialization is no longer necessary in our
MLC scheme. As shown in Fig. 3 , by applying different values of
the magnetic field Hxsuch as 620,612,67, and62O e ,t h eM L C
can be set to eight resistance states at a fixed current density of
J¼4.3/C2106Ac m/C02. The Hall resistance solely relies on the Hx
value and does not rely on the previous magnetic states. In sucha scheme, the state can be written to a target level from any of
the eight levels, and it can also reach all other levels from oneparticular level. This means that any of the multistates can be
achieved by setting the corresponding in-plane magnetic field
without any initialization step. Here, the demonstrated eightHall resistance states can represent an MLC with 8 bits. Themultilevel states hint that the evolution of domain structures
must play an important role.
The domain configurations can be visualized by using
Magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) spectroscopy, as shown in
Fig. 4 .W es a t u r a t e dt h em a g n e t i z a t i o n M(pointing downwards)
in the Hall bar by using a sufficiently high external field and thenapplied a current pulse ( J¼3.5/C210
6Ac m/C02in current density
and 0.5 s in duration) along the þx direction in the presence of
different magnitudes of the in-plane magnetic field Hx.U n d e r
Hx¼20 Oe, most of the magnetic moments were reversed to
point upwards [ Fig. 4(a) ]. Then, Hxswept to /C020 Oe step by step,
and the MOKE images were captured at every step, as shown in
Figs. 4(b)–4(i) . It can be seen clearly that the pinning site of the
longitudinal domain wall depends on the magnitude of Hx.T h e
magnetization orientation in the reversed domain was deter-
mined by the zcomponent of the Oersted field generated by the
current pulse (a detailed analysis can be found in Sec. S3 in thesupplementary material ). By reversing the direction of the cur-
rent, the position of the m
z¼1a n d mz¼/C01 polarized domains
was reversed (referring to Sec. S4 of the supplementary
material ).
As a complementary confirmation, we also performed
Object-Oriented Micro-Magnetic Framework (OOMMF) micro-magnetic simulations (details can be found in Sec. S5 in thesupplementary material ) based on the generalized Landau–
Lifschitz–Gilbert (LLG) theory in order to obtain the relationship
between H
xand the DW pinning position.27Through the micro-
magnetic simulations, the controlling of DW displacement bythe in-plane field and an initialization-free process are demon-
strated. As shown in Fig. 5(a) , with out-of-plane Oersted fields
acting on the top and bottom edges and an in-plane currentflowing through the whole magnet simultaneously, 7 differentmagnitudes of in-plane fields induce 7 stable magnetizationstates of the magnet. Then, an identical in-plane field of
/C0200 Oe is applied on the magnet with the aforementioned 7
initial states. We observe that whatever the initial state be, thesame final state is obtained under an identical in-plane field [ Fig.
5(b)]. That is to say, in our multilevel cell device, final states are
only controlled by the in-plane field, and no initialization is
needed in the working process. The simulations show qualitativeagreement with our experimental results except the larger in-plane fields used in simulations. The main reason for such
FIG. 3. Multilevel states in the Ta/CoFeB/MgO heterostructure controlled by eight
different in-plane magnetic fields Hxunder a current with a current density of
J¼4.3/C2106Ac m/C02. (a) Sequence of applied magnetic fields Hx. (b)
Corresponding RHresponse to the Hxsequence shown in (a).
FIG. 4. MOKE microscopy images of a Hall bar device after applying a series of
external magnetic fields Hx: from (a) 20 Oe to (i) /C020 Oe in the presence of a cur-
rent pulse with an amplitude of J¼3.5/C2106Ac m/C02and a duration of 0.5 s along
theþx direction. Bright and dark regions in the channel correspond to magnetiza-
tion pointing upward ( þmz) and downward ( /C0mz), respectively.
FIG. 5. Micromagnetic simulations of
initialization-free switching with the
Oersted field and SOT acting on the mag-
net. (a) The various initial states achievedunder different in-plane fields. (b) The cor-responding final states when the in-plane
field switches to –200 Oe.Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl
Appl. Phys. Lett. 114, 042401 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5079313 114, 042401-3
Published under license by AIP Publishingdiscrepancy is the imperfection of real material structures, and
the temperature has not been taken into account in simulation.
InFig. 5(a) , the arrows in the DW represent the direction of
magnetization moments. It is clearly shown that in the presenceo ft h ei n - p l a n em a g n e t i cfi e l d ,t h em a g n e t i cm o m e n ti n s i d et h eDW prefers to align with the external field. The magnitude of H
x
determines the tilting angle of the magnetic moments within the
DW. As a result, according to Eq. (1), perpendicular SOT effective
fields are different under various in-plane fields. For our CoFeBfilm considered here, the longitudinal DW is likely to be of N /C19eel-
type due to the DMI effective field, as previously mentioned. Inthe case of H
x¼0,HSOT
zis zero as mx¼0 within the DW. The
DW finally displaces to the center of the Hall bar under the com-
bined effect of the Oersted field, DMI field, exchange field, mag-netostatic field, etc., in accordance with R
H¼0X. However, for
Hx6¼0,HSOT
zdrives the DW, moving it to a new pinning position
and resulting in an intermediate magnetization between full sat-
uration and demagnetization. The DW pinning effect is preferredto lower the total energy. The final steady position of the DWdepends on the orientation and magnitude of H
SOT
z.
In our demonstration, in principle, the pinned position of
the longitudinal DW, and consequently anomalous Hall effect
resistance, can be tuned in an analogue manner by magneticfields, which indicates that our devices may exhibit a memristivebehavior. On the other hand, to confirm the feasibility of scalingdown, we performed OOMMF micromagnetic simulations with
t h ec e l ls i z ed o w nt o8 0 /C280 nm
2, which still resulted in dual
magnetic domains. It is possible to approach MLCs below100 nm by carefully adjusting the material properties.Consequently, our devices can be used as artificial synapses inartificial neural networks for neuromorphic computing.
28
Besides, due to the large memory capacity, MLC may become agood candidate for processing-in-memory.
29
In summary, we investigated that multilevel resistance
states can be achieved in the perpendicularly magnetized Ta/
CoFeB/MgO heterostructure by controlling the magnetization
configurations of the magnet through an in-plane magneticfield. The DW moves orthogonally to the current flow driven bySOT, and the final pinning position of the DW is independent ofits initial state. These results are crucial in the realization of
high-density and low-power-consumption SOT-MRAM and fer-
romagnetic memristor applications.
Seesupplementary material for current induced switching
under in-plane fields above 20 Oe (S1), the estimation of the DMIconstant (S2), the analysis of Oersted field inducing nucleation(S3), MOKE images under current along the –x direction (S4),
and details of OOMMF micromagnetic simulations (S5).
This work was financially supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Grant Nos.
61674062 and 61821003).
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Published under license by AIP Publishing |
1.1453336.pdf | Microwave, structural, and magnetic properties of Cu/Fe/CoFe/Cu
P. Lubitz, S. F. Cheng, F. J. Rachford, M. M. Miller, and V. G. Harris
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 91, 7783 (2002); doi: 10.1063/1.1453336
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1453336
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/91/10?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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130.239.20.174 On: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 09:54:34Microwave, structural, and magnetic properties of Cu ÕFeÕCoFeÕCu
P. Lubitz,a)S. F. Cheng, F. J. Rachford, M. M. Miller, and V. G. Harris
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375
The structure and the static and dynamic magnetic properties of pure Fe films with a surface
overlayer of Co 9Fe1were studied. These structures are potential components of spin-valve or
tunneling devices in which small magnetic damping, large moment, low anisotropy and high spinpolarization may be advantageous.The films are polycrystalline and have Cu under and over layers.The Fe layers studied are from 3 to 20 nm thick and the CoFe layer was usually 1 nm. With a CoFeoverlayer we found a range of Fe thicknesses from below 4 to near 6 nm in which low coercivityandnarrowferromagneticresonance ~FMR !linewidthresulted.Bothbelowandabovethisrangethe
properties degraded, apparently because the 2 nm Cu top layer was inadequate to protect the Feagainst oxidation. Using extended x-ray absorption fine structure, we found only bcc Fe; atomicforce microscopy shows a systematic decrease in roughness with increasing thickness of Fe, whichmay explain the magnetic hardness for the thinnest films. Fe ~5n m !/CoFe ~1n m !, with a Gilbert
a;0.004, has FMR linewidths about 2/3 those of Permalloy films of comparable thickness. For
some applications investigated, distinct advantages can be obtained using the high Qof the
ferromagnetic system. © 2002 American Institute of Physics. @DOI: 10.1063/1.1453336 #
I. INTRODUCTION
Polycrystalline iron with grain size less than about 20
nm can be a nearly ideal soft magnetic material. Embodi-ments such as nano-crystalline alloys,
1multilayer structures
with negligible magnetostriction2and single layer polycrys-
talline thin films3have been shown to display, respectively,
very small coercivity, very large rotational permeability~;4000!and the minimum reported ferromagnetic linewidth
for a metal, ~;15 Oe at 10 GHz !. To date, however, pure Fe
has not been extensively explored as a ‘‘sense’’layer in spin-valve-type structures, although it was the soft component ofthe first reported such material, Co/Cu/Fe.
4For some appli-
cations its relatively small giant magnetoresistance ~GMR !
effect, its high conductivity, and its large moment are unat-tractive, but these liabilities can be overcome, or possiblyused advantageously, for other applications such as GMRbased magnetic sensors.
The Gilbert relaxation parameter
athat describes intrin-
sic relaxation effects is usually obtained from ferromagneticresonance ~FMR !linewidths. Small values of
ahave been
reported for Fe.5,6However, the actual widths observed to
date are somewhat larger than those attributable only to in-trinsic damping. For instance, Ref. 5 finds damping equiva-lent to
aof about 0.002, corresponding to a linewidth in-
crease of 0.7 Oe/GHz. However, the measured linewidthextrapolated to 9.5 GHz is about 45, roughly a factor of 3more than reported here. Linewidth additional to intrinsicmay arise from a variety of inhomogeneities, although thestrong exchange coupling of the moments in Fe averagesregions with size smaller than ;20 nm
1,7so that fine grains
and surface irregularities do not add significantly to line-width.
Many features of the Cu/Fe/Cu multilayer system have
been studied extensively, both using single crystal or poly-crystalline Cu starting or ‘‘seed’’layers. The presence of Cu
at both interfaces in our work is motivated by the need toprotect the Fe from oxidation and to simulate the interfacerequired in actual spin valves. Characteristics of this systeminclude initial growth of low moment fcc Fe on Cu up toabout 1 nm, then conversion of the total Fe layer to bccaccompanied by roughening of the surface and developmentof essentially the full moment for the entire layer. Kicuchielectron diffraction of Fe grown on Cu ~111!, the dominant
texture of our Cu layers, indicates that a sixfold symmetrypersists at least to 11 nm of Fe,
8although this probably rep-
resents a mosaic of ~110!twinned facets.
In this study, we address the question of whether addi-
tion ofa1n mC o 9Fe1at the top surface of a polycrystalline
Fe layer, as is customarily used with permalloy ~Py!when it
is the soft or sense layer in spin valves, adversely affects thesoft magnetic properties of the Fe. We used the alloy with90% Co, which we found earlier
7has essentially no magne-
tostriction under our deposition conditions, as opposed to the95% alloy sometimes used; we also found linewidths as lowas 30 Oe for this alloy, i.e., somewhat wider than Fe or Py.We observed the ferromagnetic resonance of the system aswell as its magnetic switching properties. FMR, in additionto probing linewidths, allows us to determine the magneticmoment and anisotropies of the system.
We find that under some conditions, a thin CoFe layer
may be added to the Fe surface with negligible degradationof the desirable magnetic switching properties, or of theFMR linewidth.
II. EXPERIMENT
Polycrystalline Cu/Fe/CoFe/Cu structures were made by
magnetron sputtering at ambient temperature. Polished Siwafers with native oxide surfaces were used as substrates.Some films of Cu/Fe/Cu were made by electron beam depo-sition using substrates held at 250 °C. These had marginally
a!Electronic mail: lubitz@anvil.nrl.navy.milJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS VOLUME 91, NUMBER 10 15 MAY 2002
7783 0021-8979/2002/91(10)/7783/3/$19.00 © 2002 American Institute of Physics
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130.239.20.174 On: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 09:54:34better linewidths and were thus selected for study of the fre-
quency dependence of the linewidth from 1 to 40 GHz.
Our other FMR studies were conducted at about 9.5 GHz
and at 300 K using a commercial microwave spectrometer.Because of the high moment of our materials, only in-planeresonance could be observed with our equipment. Switchingbehavior, e.g., H
c, was determined using vibrating sample
magnetometry. The surface roughness was obtained usingatomic force microscopy ~AFM !. RMS roughness values and
lateral size of representative features were obtained using thesystem software. Extended x-ray absorption fine structure~EXAFS !was employed to determine if any of the Fe re-
mained in the bcc phase.
III. RESULTS
Figure 1 shows the frequency dependence of the deriva-
tive peak-to-peak linewidth for a Cu/Fe 20 nm/Cu structuremade by electron beam deposition, as a function of fre-quency. Clearly the nonintrinsic contribution is only a fewOe, while the slope is 1.24 Oe/GHz. The result correspondsto
aof 0.004.
When we used magnetron sputtering and reduced the Fe
thickness, the widths were nearly as low, e.g., 17 Oe for 4–5nm of Fe. Furthermore, for Fe of thicknesses from 4 to about6 nm, the linewidths were not adversely affected by the pres-ence of a surface layer of 1 nm of CoFe. Figure 2 shows thedependence of the FMR linewidth on the Fe thickness forthis structure. For thinner or thicker Fe, the width increasedsignificantly. Changing the thickness of the CoFe layer af-fected the region of soft properties, with thicker CoFe in-creasing the ‘‘window.’’ For this reason, and because thesefilms were found to degrade further with time, we believe theharder properties are a result of surface oxidation.
The coercivities show a pattern similar to the linewidth,
indicating that oxidation increases both coercivity and line-width. In the range 4–6 nm of Fe the easy axis loop is nearlysquare with H
cof about 6 Oe while in the hard direction Hc
is about 2 Oe with a well defined knee at about 4 Oe, con-
sistent with the in-plane anisotropy as determined usingFMR. For structures with 7–10 nm Fe, the loops are stillmoderately square, but H
cis about 16 Oe and there is only a
slight different between easy and hard directions, althoughthe net in-plane uniaxial anisotropy field is still only on the
order of 5 Oe. Some Hcvalues are also included in Fig. 2.
The in-plane FMR fields, Fig. 3, vary strongly with Fe
thickness, and also correlate strongly with increased line-width and coercivity. The FMR fields can be related to aneffective moment, 4
pMeff, assuming the widely accepted
value of g52.1. 4 pMeffis 19 kOe when the Fe layer is
about 5 nm, only slightly less than that expected for bulk Fe.This falls considerably for the films with wide lines. Thesereductions are not seen in direct measurements of Msuch as
with a vibrating sample magnetometer and integrated FMR.This implies that a uniaxial field with magnitude up to ap-proximately 6.5 kOe is acting on the magnetic layers.
EXAFS did not reveal any Fe in bcc form, consistent
with previous work on the Cu/Fe/Cu system in this thicknessrange. However, theAFM scans did show a systematic varia-tion in roughness with Fe thickness, indicating a rms rough-ness for 3, 5, 7 and 8 nm Fe layers, respectively, of 0.8, 0.4,0.34 and 0.23 nm. The lateral scale of observed surface fea-tures was much larger, being typically 50 nm with a slighttendency to be larger and more dispersed for the thickest ofthese.
We also investigated some other candidates as protective
or seed layers for Fe. Of these Ni was more effective than Cuin protecting the surfaces and also maintained soft magneticproperties. Al and Ag as protective layers produced verypoor quality Fe, often with linewidths of hundreds of Oe andcoercivity nearly as large, with nearly isotropic M-Hloops,
and low effective moments.
FIG. 1. Linewidth vs frequency. Some of these data were obtained by fitting
a Lorenztian line shape to the absorption and were converted to derivativepeak-to-peak widths by multiplying by A3/2.
FIG. 2. Linewidth and selected coercivities vs frequency. Solid circles show
linewidths as a function of Fe thickness for 1 nm of CoFe overlayer, opencircles for 0.5 nm Co on 4 nm Fe and 2 nm CoFe on 7 nm Fe. Trianglesindicate coercivity for 1 nm CoFe on 5- and 10-nm-thick Fe.
FIG. 3. Resonant fields as a function of Fe thickness for Cu/Fe ~x!/CoFe 1
nm/Cu. Solid squares denote CoFe of 1nm thickness. Open squares are for0.5 and 2 nm of CoFe and 4 and 7 nm of Fe, respectively.7784 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 91, No. 10, 15 May 2002 Lubitz
et al.
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130.239.20.174 On: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 09:54:34IV. DISCUSSION
There is a moderate discrepancy between our work and
some others as to the relaxation rate in pure Fe. The slope ofour data with frequency in Fig. 1 is clearly almost a factor of2 higher see Ref. 5, for example.The data of Schreiber et al.
5
seem to be consistent with a constant slope, whereas ours
may even curve upward slightly, but our actual linewidthsare less than theirs at all common frequencies. Therefore it ispossible that the true frequency dependence of their line-width is masked by an inhomogeneous contribution which isreduced by the large applied fields needed for high frequencyFMR. A very recent article
9found the linewidths of single
crystal Fe films of thicknesses comparable to those of thisstudy to have nearly the same widths as ours at comparablefrequencies, leading to a relaxation rate of 1.26 310
8/s, i.e.,
essentially the same as we find.
The superior soft magnetic properties of these Fe layers,
as indicated in Fig. 2, either without any CoFe, or for Fe/CoFe, at least when the Fe thickness is near 5 nm, are con-sistent with known soft magnetic properties
3,7of nanocrys-
talline Fe or CoFe separately. The puzzle here is why, forsome thicknesses of CoFe deposited on top of Fe, the usuallyeffective exchange narrowing that commonly occurs is inef-fective and huge perpendicular anisotropy results. The EX-AFS data show that almost all of the Fe is in bcc form andmagnetometry indicates that it has essentially the bulk mo-ment. Therefore it is unlikely that any magnetic abnormali-ties are occurring in the Fe. However, surface or inter-granular oxidation is a likely problem for the thinner Felayers because the roughness was found to be comparable tothickness of the surface protecting Cu layer.
Since the starting substrates were found to be flat to
about 0.2 nm, it is likely that the greater roughness seen isinduced during the martensitic transformation of initial fcciron to bcc, as reported in studies of the growth of Fe on Cu.
8
The persistence of large effects, particularly effective out-of-plane fields of many kOe, to thicknesses past 8 nm of Fe, iscurrently under investigation. Magnetostriction, even in thepresence of moderate strain at the Cu/Fe or CoFe/Cu inter-face, is not likely to be significant since it is small in both ofthese magnetic materials.
However, it is known that for Co, a low symmetry envi-
ronment may confer uniaxial anisotropy fields of order 10kOe, e.g., hcp Co. In fact, the value of anisotropy in hcp Cois determined by the c/a axes ratio,
10among other factors.
Anisotropy in hcp Co is so sensitive to c/a ratio that itsvariation with temperature causes changes in this quantity of;14 kOe, even over a moderate temperature range well be-
lowT
c.6Also note, in a low symmetry environment like
Co/P~111!multilayers, perpendicular anisotropy is sufficient
to overcome demagnetization, resulting in easy out-of-planedirection.
11Hence, even though the CoFe is only ;20% of
the magnetic structure, it is conceivable that it could inducethe up to 6.5 kOe of out-of-plane anisotropy seen. Further-
more, slight variations of this anisotropy would be effectivein inducing coercivity and linewidth.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The system Cu/Fe/CoFe/Cu, which may be a good pros-
pect as a soft, or sense layer component of spin-valve GMRstructures, has been shown to have nearly ideally soft mag-netic properties over a range of Fe thicknesses near 5 nm.However, for Fe thicknesses more than about 1 nm above orbelow this value, coercivity, linewidth and an out-of-planeanisotropy all increase sharply. Surface oxidation is impli-cated, especially for the thinner layers, since roughness wasfound to increase rapidly with decreasing Fe thickness in thisrange, reducing the effectiveness of the protective Cu layer.The effects for Fe thicker than 6 nm may arise from CoFehaving large out-of-plane anisotropy, as in the hcp Co, orCo/Pt multilayers, induced by the reduced symmetry andstrain arising from growth on textured Fe.
Preliminary evaluations of GMR in spin-valve structures
based on a sense layer of Fe/CoFe and a pinned layer ofCoFe/IrMn, indicate only moderate MR values, less thanpure CoFe. The linewidths, while narrow for parallel senseand pinned layers, broaden rapidly near the antiparallel, orhigh resistance configuration, as is often seen when someNe´el coupling is present between the magnetic layers.
12
Possible adverse effects of high conductivity of pure Fe
may be avoided by the addition of a few percent of suchsoluble elements as Ni or Si, either of which rapidly in-creases resistivity while Si also reduces magnetostriction.
13
The narrow linewidths of the Cu/Fe/CoFe/Cu structures
studied indicate that the FMR has a very high Qat the lowest
frequencies measured. While this would be a liability inrapid switching applications, it is advantageous for a class ofsensors we are considering as sensors of small microwavemagnetic fields in the 1–10 GHz range.
1G. Hertzer, IEEE Trans. Magn. 25,3 3 2 7 ~1989!.
2M. Senda and Y. Nagai, J. Appl. Phys. 65, 1238 ~1989!.
3P. Lubitz, M. Rubinstein, D. B. Chrisey, J. S. Horwitz, and P. R. Brous-
sard, J. Appl. Phys. 75, 5595 ~1994!.
4A. Chaiken, P. Lubitz, J. J. Krebs, G. A. Prinz, and M. Z. Harford, Appl.
Phys. Lett. 59, 240 ~1991!.
5F. Schreiber, J. Pflaum, Z. Frait, Th. Mu ¨hge, and J. Pelzl, Solid State
Commun. 93, 965 ~1995!.
6S. M. Bhagat and P. Lubitz, Phys. Rev. B 10,1 7 9 ~1974!.
7P. Lubitz, S.-F. Cheng, K. Bussmann, G. A. Prinz, J. J. Krebs, J. M.
Daughton, and D. Wang, J. Appl. Phys. 85, 5027 ~1999!.
8G. Gubbioti, L. Albini, S. Tacchi, G. Carlotti, R. Gunella, and M. De
Crescenze, Phys. Rev. B 60, 17150 ~1999!.
9R. Urban, G. Woltersdorf, and B. Heinrich, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 217204
~2001!.
10W. J. Carr, Phys. Rev. 109, 1971 ~1958!.
11I. B. Chung, Y. M. Koo, and J. M. Lee, J. Appl. Phys. 87, 4205 ~2000!.
12W. Stoecklein, S. S. P. Parkin, and J. C. Scott, Phys. Rev. B 38, 6847
~1988!.
13R. Bozorth Ferromagnetism ~Van Nostrand, New York, 1951 !.7785 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 91, No. 10, 15 May 2002 Lubitzet al.
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9.0000151.pdf | AIP Advances 11, 035316 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/9.0000151 11, 035316
© 2021 Author(s).Voltage-controlled spin-wave intermodal
coupling in lateral ensembles of magnetic
stripes with patterned piezoelectric layer
Cite as: AIP Advances 11, 035316 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/9.0000151
Submitted: 15 October 2020 . Accepted: 15 February 2021 . Published Online: 08 March 2021
A. A. Grachev ,
E. N. Beginin , S. E. Sheshukova , and
A. V. Sadovnikov
COLLECTIONS
Paper published as part of the special topic on 65th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials ,
65th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials , 65th Annual Conference on Magnetism and
Magnetic Materials , 65th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials , 65th Annual Conference on
Magnetism and Magnetic Materials and 65th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
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Voltage-controlled spin-wave intermodal
coupling in lateral ensembles of magnetic stripes
with patterned piezoelectric layer
Cite as: AIP Advances 11, 035316 (2021); doi: 10.1063/9.0000151
Presented: 6 November 2020 •Submitted: 15 October 2020 •
Accepted: 15 February 2021 •Published Online: 8 March 2021
A. A. Grachev,a)
E. N. Beginin,
S. E. Sheshukova, and A. V. Sadovnikov
AFFILIATIONS
Laboratory “Magnetic Metamaterials,” Saratov State University, Saratov 410012, Russia
Note: This paper was presented at the 65th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials.
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: Andrew.A.Grachev@gmail.com. Laboratory “Magnetic metamaterials,”
Saratov State University, Saratov 410012, Russia.
ABSTRACT
Here we report about the strain-tuned dipolar spin-wave coupling in the adjacent system of yttrium iron garnet stripes, which were strain-
coupled with the patterned piezoelectric layer. Spatially-resolved laser ablation technique was used for structuring the surface of the piezoelec-
tric layer and electrodes on top of it. Using a phenomenological model based on coupled modes equation, we demonstrate a voltage-controlled
intermodal coupling in lateral magnonic stripes. The features of the tunable spin-wave coupling by changing the geometric parameters and
the type of magnetization is demonstrated.
©2021 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1063/9.0000151
I. INTRODUCTION
The using elementary quanta of magnetic excitations (magnons
or spin waves (SW)) as carriers of information signals has attracted
more interest in recent years due to the possibility of transferring
the magnetic moment (spin) of an electron without transferring an
electric charge and without generating Joule heat inherent in semi-
conductor technologies.1–5The properties of SWs are determined
by the dipolar and exchange interactions in magnetic medias6–8and
can change significantly during structuring of magnetic films. SWs
are used for generation,9transmission10and the processing11,12of
the information signals in micro- and nanoscale structures. A thin
ferrites films is used for these purposes, for example, yttrium iron
garnet (YIG) which demonstrates record low values of the spin-wave
damping parameter.6
The voltage-controlled tunability of the spin-wave spectra in
the thin magnonic films carried out due to the transformation
of the effective internal magnetic field. The latter changes due to
inverse magnetostriction (Villari effect) as a result of local deforma-
tion of the magnetic film. It has been experimentally demonstrated
that electrical field tunability of spin-wave coupling can be effec-
tively used to control the magnon transport,13,14which led to thecreation of a class of spin-wave devices, such as two-channel
directional couplers,15spin-wave splitters.16,17This demonstra-
tion of spin-wave coupling phenomena opens the possibility of
study the nonlinear dynamics of SW18and the mechanisms
for the spin-wave coupling tunability. The using of YIG films
opens a possibility to create functional elements of magnonic net-
works based on the study the properties of spin waves propa-
gating along irregular magnetic stripes with broken translational
symmetry.19
Here, we use a numerical and experimental techniques to
demonstrate the effects of voltage-controlled the spin-wave coupling
in a system of three lateral magnetic stripes with a patterned piezo-
electric layer. Spatially-resolved laser ablation technique was used
for structuring the surface of the piezoelectric layer and electrodes
on top of it. We show an effective tuning of the spin-wave charac-
teristics using an electric field due to local deformation of the piezo-
electric layer and the inverse magnetostriction effect in YIG stripes.
Using a phenomenological model based on coupled modes equation,
we demonstrate a voltage-controlled intermodal coupling in lateral
magnonic stripes. The features of the tunable spin-wave coupling by
changing the geometric parameters and the type of magnetization is
demonstrated.
AIP Advances 11, 035316 (2021); doi: 10.1063/9.0000151 11, 035316-1
© Author(s) 2021AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
A lateral structure consisted of three parallel-oriented
magnonic stripes S1,S2andS3(Fig. 1(a)). Using the laser ablation
technique based on fiber YAG:Nd laser with the high precision
2D galvanometric scanning module (Cambridge Technology
6240H) magnonic structure was fabricated from t=10μm-thick
a yttrium iron garnet (YIG) film [(YIG) Y3Fe5O12(111)], grown
on a 500 μm-thick gallium-gadolinium garnet [(GGG) Gd 3Ga5O12
(111)] substrate. A system of w=500μm-width with a distance of
d=40μmbetween each other forms three spin-wave channels. The
length of the magnonic stripes was 6 mm for S1,3and 8 mm for S2.
The SW was excited using a microstrip antenna with 1 μm-thick and
30μm-width. The structure is placed in external static magnetic field,
H0=1100 Oe. Field is oriented along the xaxis. This configuration
is allows to excite the magnetostatic surface wave (MSSW) in
stripe S2. A 200 μm-thick lead zirconate titanate (PZT) is used as
a piezoelectric material. A 1 μm-thick copper electrode is placed
(“GND” in Fig. 1(a)) on a top side of PZT, which does not have
a significant effect on the propagation of SW in magnetic stripes.
On the bottom side of PZT a 100 nm-thick titanium electrodes
G1andG2were deposited above S1andS3, respectively. For more
efficient magneto-electric coupling, we use a spatial resolution laser
ablation technique to patterned a piezoelectric layer on 25 μm-thick.
In the upper inset in Fig. 1(a) shows a SEM image of the edge
of a piezoelectric layer in direct contact with a YIG stripes. A
voltage Vg1,2was separately applied to each of the electrodes in the
experiment. We use a two-component epoxy strain gauge adhesive
(labeled “EA” - epoxy adhesive in bottom inset in Fig. 1(a)) to
connect the magnonic stripes and the PZT layer.
FIG. 1. (a) Scheme of the considered structure. The inset at the bottom shows the
cross section of the x−zof the lateral structure. The inset at the top shows a SEM
image of the edge of the piezoelectric layer. Distribution of the component of the
tensor of mechanical stresses Syyin the case of an unpatterned (b) and patterned
(c) piezoelectric layer.To demonstrate a processes of piezo-magnetic coupling, we are
developed a numerical program based on a finite element method
(FEM). First, we calculate elastic deformations caused by an external
electric field in the piezoelectric layer. Next, we obtain the profiles
of the internal magnetic field in lateral magnetic stripes. Then, the
obtained profiles of the internal magnetic field were used in the
micromagnetic simulation.20
The relative transformation in the size of the PZT layer is shown
in Fig. 1(b), where the colour gradient is shows the distribution of the
mechanical stress tensor component Syyin the case of Vg1=250 V.
It means that the deformation of the piezoelectric layer occurs in
the local region of the PZT layer under the electrode G1, which
leads to a change in the value of the internal magnetic field Hintin
the stripe S1due to the inverse magnetostrictive effect. In addition,
we estimate the effective deformations in case of patterned piezo-
electric layer (see Fig. 1(c)) and of unpatterned piezoelectric layer
(see Fig. 1(b)). It should be noted that in the case of a patterned
piezoelectric layer we obtain the amplification of local deforma-
tions in the region of contact of the piezoelectric layer with the YIG
stripe.
We use the phenomenological model based on the idea of the
coupling of the co-propagating spin wave. In the case of multimode
spin-wave transport the intermodal coupling coefficients between
the magnetic stripes can be obtained from experimentally observed
beating of spin waves propagating in adjacent channels:21
−id
dy⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪A1
1
A1
2
A2
1
A2
2
A3
1
A3
2⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪=⎛
⎜⎜⎜⎜⎜⎜⎜⎜⎜⎜⎜⎜⎜⎜
⎝β1 0 κ11 κ12 0 0
0 β2κ21 κ22 0 0
κ11 κ12 β1 0 κ11 κ12
κ21 κ22 0 β2κ21 κ22
0 0 κ11 κ12 β1 0
0 0 κ21 κ22 0 β2⎞
⎟⎟⎟⎟⎟⎟⎟⎟⎟⎟⎟⎟⎟⎟
⎠⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪A1
1
A1
2
A2
1
A2
2
A3
1
A3
2⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪⌟⟨rro⟪⟪⟩r⟪(1)
where coupling coefficients κ11,κ12,κ21,κ22represents the inter-
modal interaction between 1st and 2nd transverse modes,6,22Aj
i- is
the dimensionless SW amplitude along xcoordinate, βiis the wave
number of SW propagating in the single magnonic waveguide of the
same width as the widht of one of the magnonic channel in the lat-
eral structure, κis the coupling coefficient between the SW in the
adjacent stripes. Figure 2(a) shows mode profiles of each separated
magnetic stripe S2,3atE1=E3=0 kV/cm for 1st transverse mode in
S2(blue solid curve), 1st transverse mode in S3(red solid curve) and
2nd transverse mode in S3(red dashed curve). The shaded area in
this case is called the overlap integral C(f,E). In terms of the phe-
nomenological theory of coupled waves, we can introduce the value
C(f,E), the numerical value of which is equal to the integral of the
overlap of the eigenmodes of two separate YIG stripes:
C(f,Ei)=∫Φ1(x,f,E1)Φ2(x,f,E3)dx√
∫Φ2
1(x,f,E1)dx∫Φ2
2(x,f,E3)dx, (2)
whereΦi(x,f,Ei)is the distribution of the field of the eigenmodes
of the SW propagating in the ith stripe. An exact calculation of the
coupling coefficient C, including for a system of three stripes, can be
performed using the FEM23and is beyond the scope of this work.
AIP Advances 11, 035316 (2021); doi: 10.1063/9.0000151 11, 035316-2
© Author(s) 2021AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
FIG. 2. (a) Mode profiles of each separated magnetic stripe S2,3atE1=E3
=0 kV/cm for 1st transverse mode in S2(blue solid curve), 1st transverse mode in
S3(red solid curve) and 2nd transverse mode in S3(red dashed curve). 2D spatial
maps of intensity of MSSW using system (1) for E1=E3=0 kV/cm (b) and E1
=10 kV/cm, E3=0 kV/cm (c).
Figures 2(b), (c) shows the solution of the system (1), it should
be noted that the SW intensity in the stripes is redistributed peri-
odically along the stripes S1,2,3. In case of E1=10 kV/cm and E3=0
kV/cm (see Fig. 2(C)) spin-wave energy ceases to be transmitted in
the stripe S1due to decrease internal magnetic field and in terms of
this model due to changing β1.
To demonstrate the voltage-control distribution of the spin-
wave signal a numerical simulation was performed based on the
solution of the Landau-Lifshitz-Hilbert equation (LLG):24–26
∂M
∂t=γ[Heff×M]+α
Ms[M×∂M
∂t], (3)
where Mis the magnetization vector, Ms=139 G is the satu-
ration magnetization of the YIG film, α=10−5is the damping
parameter of SW, Heff=H0+Hdemag+Hex+Ha(E)is the effec-
tive magnetic field, H0is the external magnetic field, Hdemag -
demagnetization field, Hex- exchange field, Ha(E)is the anisotropy
field, which includes taking into account the external electric field,
γ=2.8 MHz/Oe is the gyromagnetic ratio in the YIG film.
In order to reduce signal reflections from the boundaries of
the computational domain, regions (0 <y<0.3 mm and 3.7 <y
<4.0 mm) were introduced in numerical simulation with the
damping parameter αwith exponential decreasing. Figure 3 shows
the intensity distribution I(x,y)=√
m2y+m2zin the case of the
MSSW propagation (see Figs. 3(a, b, e, f)) and in the case of
propagation backward volume magnetostatic waves (BVMSW) (see
Figs. 3(c, d, g, h)).
If voltage is applied to the electrode G1, the spin-wave intensity
distribution is transformed. So for E1=10 kV/cm and E3=0 kV/cm,
a spin-wave power is transfer between S2andS3(see Fig. 3(e-h)).
In this case, Lnumerically coincides with the coupling length in
two identical laterally magnetic stripes.21,27It should be noted that
changing of geometric parameters affects to the internal magnetic
field distribution. Herewith the effective tuning of the coupling
length via local strains changes in such a way that when the distance
between the stripes changes from 20 μm(see Fig. 3(a, c)) to 60 μm(see
Fig. 3(b, d)) the Lincreases by 1.25 times.
FIG. 3. Results of calculating the spatial distribution of the SW intensity I(x)for
E1=E3=0 kV/cm ((a-d) or left column) and for E1=10 kV/cm, E3=0 kV/cm
((e-h) or right column) in case of MSSW at f=4.9 GHz (a, b, e, f) and BVMSW at
f=4.85 GHz (c, d, g, h).
To fully describe the dipolar SWs in the lateral structure, the
dipolar coupling efficiency was calculated for forward volume mag-
netostatic waves (FVMSW) propagating in a laterally stripes in the
case of equilibrium magnetization direction normal to the surface of
the structure (along the zaxis). In this case, the internal magnetic
field in the YIG stripes Hint≈H0−4πMs.6In case of propagating of
the FVMSW in two lateral magnetic stripes,28it was found that the
propagation regime of the FVMSW in the lateral geometry is inef-
fective due to the pronounced increase in the value of the coupling
length Lin the long-wavelength part of the spectrum. In a system of
three lateral stripes, this leads to the fact that in the case of excitation
of the FVMSW in S2, there is no directional coupling of SW into the
lateral stripes S1andS3.
To understand the influence of local elastic strains on the sta-
tionary distribution of the MSSW, using a Brillouin light spec-
troscopy (BLS) technique of magnetic materials.22,29A probe laser
beam with a wavelength of 532 nm was focused on the transparent
side of the GGG composite structure, as shown by the arrow in the
inset in Fig. 1(a). We obtain the frequency dependence of IBLSin the
section along the axis xaty=5.0 mm, in the case of E1=10 kV/cm
andE3=0 kV/cm (see Fig. 4(a)), which demonstrate the transfor-
mation of spin-wave intensity, when an electric field is applied. In
the frequencies from f1=4.925 GHz to f2=4.985 GHz, we observe
a damping of SW in S2, which corresponds the regimes when the
spin-wave energy is localised in S3. It should be noted, in this case,
the we observe the edge mode30propagation in the stripe S2. We see
a coupling between the edge modes propagating along S1andS2. To
AIP Advances 11, 035316 (2021); doi: 10.1063/9.0000151 11, 035316-3
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FIG. 4. The frequency dependence of the BLS signal (a) and SW intensity (b) in
the section y=3 mm at E1=10 kV/cm and E3=0 kV/cm. (c, d) 2D spatial maps
of the normal component of the dynamic magnetization of SW by variation of the
electric field E1atE3=0 kV/cm, E3=−5 kV/cm (the value E3is shown in the
figure).
prove a strain-tuned SW switching we use the micromagnetic simu-
lations and obtain a frequency dependence of the SW intensity (see
Fig. 4(b)). We see a good agreement with the experimental data.
Let us consider the effects of gradual variation of the elec-
tric field polarity on the dynamic magnetization component mz,
which can determine the SW phase in a section along the xaxis at
y=3.0 mm. With a gradual variation of E1(see Fig. 4(c)), a change
in the magnitude and sign is observed (phase change exceeds the
value π)mzin the stripes S1andS2. When the field E3=−5 kV/cm
is applied to the electrode G2, the internal fields in the S2and S3
become equal and the E1changes in the range −10...+10 kV/cm
leads to a change in the sign of mzin all three stripes of the YIG.
Thus, we observe the strain-tuned dipolar spin-wave coupling
in the adjacent system of ferromagnetic stripes. As an experimental
demonstration of the investigated physical processes, a configura-
tion of the magnonic structure with a piezoelectric layer and struc-
tured electrodes on its surface is proposed. We use the spatial resolu-
tion laser ablation technique for structuring the piezoelectric layer.
The latter is thus created by structuring the surface of the magnetic
film and creating irregular waveguiding channels on it. As a demon-
stration of this physical effect, using numerical and experimental
methods we show a voltage-controlled spin-wave transport along
a three-channel lateral structure. We demonstrate that the varia-
tion in the geometric parameters of adjacent magnonic stripes leads
to a change in the internal field and the effectiveness of the influ-
ence of elastic strains on the properties of propagating coupled SWs
and characteristic features are revealed that manifest themselves in
a change in the modes of spin-wave transport. Using a phenomena-
logical model based on coupled modes equation, we demonstrate a
voltage-controlled intermodal coupling in lateral magnonic stripes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work is supported by grant of the RFBR (19-37-90145).
DATA AVAILABILITY
The data that support the findings of this study are available
from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.REFERENCES
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1.2838019.pdf | Toggle switching of weakly coupled synthetic antiferromagnet for high-density
magnetoresistive random access memory
Y. Fukuma, H. Fujiwara, and P. B. Visscher
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 103, 07A716 (2008); doi: 10.1063/1.2838019
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2838019
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/103/7?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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131.193.242.161 On: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 22:41:02Toggle switching of weakly coupled synthetic antiferromagnet
for high-density magnetoresistive random access memory
Y . Fukuma,a/H20850H. Fujiwara, and P . B. Visscher
MINT Center, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487, USA
/H20849Presented on 7 November 2007; received 24 September 2007; accepted 20 November 2007;
published online 27 February 2008 /H20850
The toggle-switching behavior for circular and elliptic cylinder shaped memory cells of weakly
coupled synthetic antiferromagnet with a diameter and thickness /H20849ferromagnetic layer /H20850ranging from
200 to 400 and from 2.5 to 5.0 nm, respectively, has been studied by micromagnetic simulation. Thecritical fields for a circular cylinder are much larger than those predicted by a single domain model.This is due to the formation of edge domains resulting in a so-called Sstate. The elliptic cylinder
with an aspect ratio of /H110221.2 is found to be necessary to prevent the increase of the start field by the
edge domains. © 2008 American Institute of Physics ./H20851DOI: 10.1063/1.2838019 /H20852
I. INTRODUCTION
The invention of the toggle-writing scheme by Savtch-
enko et al. has helped solve the write margin problem of the
conventional Stoner–Wohlfarth writing scheme in magne-toresistive random access memory /H20849MRAM /H20850,
1leading to a
successful introduction of MRAM into the market.2How-
ever, to further increase the memory density it is imperativeto reduce the switching field. In toggle-MRAM, the freelayer consists of a synthetic antiferromagnet /H20849SAF /H20850. The
word and digit fields are applied sequentially at /H1100645° with
respect to the easy axis of the magnetic anisotropy of thememory element. According to the analytical/numerical/H20849A/N /H20850calculation based on the single domain model,
3–7this
leads to a conclusion that the exchange coupling betweentwo ferromagnetic layers comprising SAF should be made tobe very small, or rather in the ferromagnetic range due to theexistence of the magnetostatic coupling. Moreover, the mag-netostatic coupling should also be reduced substantially byincreasing the thickness of the intermediate nonmagneticlayer in the SAF and/or keeping the aspect ratio /H20849length/
width /H20850of the shape of the memory cell relatively low.
3–7
For higher density memory, the magnetic layer thickness
must be increased to prevent thermal instability. This willlead to generation of complex domain structures such as vor-tices and 2
/H9266wall during the switching process. In this ar-
ticle, the toggle-switching behavior of circular and ellipticcylinder shaped memory cells with weakly coupled SAF isinvestigated by micromagnetic simulation in order to under-stand the deviation of the actual magnetization behavior ofthe memory cell from the single domain model.
II. MODEL
The Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation is used for deter-
mining local equilibrium of magnetizations in memory cells.We consider the memory cell of a magnetic tunnel junctionwith a SAF free layer structure combined with an ideal ref-erence layer structure designed to produce no stray field.Thus, only the free layer structure is modeled here. The mag-
netic layer of SAF is supposed to be CoFe with a saturationmagnetization of 1200 emu /cm
3, an uniaxial anisotropy of
1.8/H11003104erg /cm3, and an exchange constant of 1.6
/H1100310−6erg /cm. The interlayer exchange coupling of SAF is
set to zero, assuming 5 nm thickness of an intermediate non-magnetic layer.
8The memory cells modeled are circular or
elliptic cylinders. Each magnetic layer is discretized into asmall mesh of 5 /H110035/H11003tnm
3/H20849tis the thickness of the mag-
netic layer /H20850using the commercial simulator “LLG.”9To
compare the micromagnetic simulation results with the A/Ncalculation results, the simulations are quasistatic: the Gil-bert damping constant is 0.2 and relatively long field pulsesof 3 ns duration and 1 ns rise/fall times are assumed for thetoggle-writing operation. The operation is supposed to beperformed by applying a series of a word field pulse and adigit field pulse with the same amplitude.
Based on a single domain model, the critical fields for
toggle switching, start field H
startand end field Hend/H20849the
minimum and maximum pulse durations that lead to switch-ing/H20850, can be expressed analytically as
H
start/H11015Hflop //H208812, Hend=Hsat//H208812 /H208491/H20850
with
Hflop=/H20881Hk*Hcouple +Hk*Hk,tot /H20849Hk,tot/H333560/H20850, /H208492/H20850
Hsat=Hcouple −Hk,tot, /H208493/H20850
where Hk*is the effective anisotropy field representing the
thermal stability of the SAF memory cell, Hk,totis the total
anisotropy field which is the sum of the intrinsic uniaxialanisotropy field and the shape anisotropy field, and H
couple is
the coupling field between two magnetic layers in SAF in-cluding both interlayer exchange coupling and magnetostaticcoupling.
7
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In the simulation, the initial state is generated by first
saturating the magnetization of each layer at an angle of 80°a/H20850Electronic mail: fukuma@yamaguchi-u.ac.jp.JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 103, 07A716 /H208492008 /H20850
0021-8979/2008/103 /H208497/H20850/07A716/3/$23.00 © 2008 American Institute of Physics 103 , 07A716-1
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131.193.242.161 On: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 22:41:02with respect to the easy axis and then letting the magnetic
moments relax to equilibrium without applying a field. Then,a series of toggle-switch test pulse fields separated by anequilibrium time of 1.5 ns is applied consecutively, increas-ing the amplitude H
pin increments of 5 Oe. After each
toggle-switch testing, the magnetic moment of each layer ischecked to find out whether the toggle switching has beensuccessful or not in determining H
startand Hend. The span
between HstartandHendis the operating field margin.
Figure 1shows HstartandHendas a function of a diameter
dobtained for the circular cylinder shaped memory cell of
CoFe /H208492.5 nm /H20850/Ru /H208495.0 nm /H20850/CoFe /H208492.4 nm /H20850. The thick-
nesses of the bottom and top CoFe layers are taken to be
slightly different to ensure that the first relaxation processyields a unique initial state. The solid lines show the predic-tions of the A/N calculation. The results obtained by themicromagnetic simulations are quite different from the pre-dictions: the simulation gives higher H
startandHend. Besides,
Hendford=200 nm is lower than that for d=300 nm, while
the single domain model shows a monotonic decrease withincreasing d. Figure 2shows how the magnetization configu-
ration of the top and bottom layers changes during thetoggle-switching process for the case of d=300 nm /H20849H
p
=200 Oe /H20850. At the remanent state, the magnetic moments at
both edges in the easy axis direction are tilted upward or
downward, making an Sstate in both layers. The magnetiza-
tion reversal is initiated, in this particular case, with the ro-tation of the magnetization at the center of the bottom layer/H20849with a negative x-directional net moment M
x/H20850toward the
word field followed by or together with the switching of themoments at the edges. Note that those edge /H20849pseudo /H20850domain
moments in the top and bottom layers are almost antiparallelto each other at the remanent state to reduce the magneto-
static energy. This stabilizes the edge domains, causing thedelay of the response of the bottom magnetization to theword field compared to a single domain. The deviation ofH
startfrom the single domain model increases with decreas-
ingdbecause the adverse effect of the edge domains for the
net moment rotation is enhanced: the exchange interaction ofmoments between the edges and the middle of the cell be-comes looser as dincreases and, thus, the moments in the
middle become easier to rotate first leaving the switching ofthe edge moments to occur through a kind of wall motion.Actually, we observed that the magnetic moments around thecenter in the 200 nm cell were tilted clearly upward or down-ward to reduce exchange energy, demonstrating the effect ofthe exchange coupling throughout the cell. For H
end, which
gives the saturation field of SAF along the easy axis direc-tion when both of the word and digit fields are applied, thesimulation values drastically increased compared to thesingle domain model due to the very high demagnetizingfield H
dat the edges. A higher field is necessary to saturate
the moments at the edges than to saturate the middle mo-ments. The decrease of H
endfor the 200 nm cell is ascribed
to the increases of the coherency to reduce the exchangeenergy.
Thus, the aspect ratio dependence of H
startandHendfor
200 nm width elliptic cylinder shaped cells of CoFe/H208492.5 nm /H20850/Ru /H208495.0 nm /H20850/CoFe /H208492.4 nm /H20850and CoFe
/H208495.0 nm /H20850/Ru/H208495.0 nm /H20850/CoFe /H208494.9 nm /H20850has been studied. The
results are shown in Fig. 3.H
startfor the aspect ratio of 1.2 is
almost consistent with the single domain model, while Hend
is significantly larger than that of the single domain model.
As for Hstart, the difference increases with decreasing aspect
ratio and with increasing thickness of the magnetic layer.Figure 4shows the deviation of H
startfrom the single domain
model and the normalized net moment Mxof the cells. These
results suggest that the drastic increase of Hstartwith decreas-
ing aspect ratio can be attributed to the formation of the edgedomains in the same manner as discussed in the previousparagraph. On the other hand, H
endis less sensitive to the
aspect ratio. This is because, in contrast to the magnetizationprocess determining H
start, no switching process of the edge
domains is involved in the final stage of the saturation, that
FIG. 1. /H20849Color online /H20850Diameter dependence of toggle start and end fields
for circular cylinder shaped cells of CoFe /H208492.5 nm /H20850/Ru /H208495.0 nm /H20850/CoFe
/H208492.4 nm /H20850. Closed circles and triangles show start and end fields, respectively,
by simulation. Lines show the single domain result.
FIG. 2. /H20849Color online /H20850Magnetic moment configurations of 300 nm circular
cylinder shaped cell for toggle switching at 200 Oe.
FIG. 3. /H20849Color online /H20850Aspect ratio dependence of toggle start and end fields
for circular cylinder shaped elements of CoFe /H208492.5,5.0 nm /H20850/Ru
/H208495.0 nm /H20850/CoFe /H208492.4, 4.9 nm /H20850with 200 nm width. Closed circles and tri-
angles show start and end fields, respectively, by simulation. Lines show thesingle domain result.07A716-2 Fukuma, Fujiwara, and Visscher J. Appl. Phys. 103 , 07A716 /H208492008 /H20850
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
131.193.242.161 On: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 22:41:02is, in aligning the edge magnetic moments in the easy axis
direction against the edge demagnetizing field. The remark-able increase of H
start, especially for smaller aspect ratio and
greater thickness, indicates that some measure, such as theuse of eye- or diamond-shaped memory cells,
10,11is neces-
sary to prevent the formation of edge domains for futurehigh-density toggle-MRAMs.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
We have studied the toggle-switching behavior of circu-
lar and elliptic cylinder shaped memory cells of weaklycoupled SAF by micromagnetic simulation. The critical
fields are much larger than those predicted by a single do-main model due to the formation of end domains. As thediameter and the aspect ratio of the elliptic cylinder decrease,the moments at the edges participate in the switching to re-duce the exchange energy, causing higher start field. Theelliptic cylinder with an aspect ratio of /H110221.2 is necessary to
prevent the increase of the start field.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported in part by the National Science
Foundation MRSEC under Grant No. DMR-0213985. Y.F. issupported by JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowships for ResearchAbroad.
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FIG. 4. /H20849Color online /H20850Aspect ratio dependence of deviation of toggle start
field from single domain model and normalized net moment for the identicalcells in Fig. 3.07A716-3 Fukuma, Fujiwara, and Visscher J. Appl. Phys. 103 , 07A716 /H208492008 /H20850
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5.0054459.pdf | Chaos 31, 063111 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0054459 31, 063111
© 2021 Author(s).Local and network behavior of bistable
vibrational energy harvesters considering
periodic and quasiperiodic excitations
Cite as: Chaos 31, 063111 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0054459
Submitted: 19 April 2021 . Accepted: 24 May 2021 . Published Online: 07 June 2021
Karthikeyan Rajagopal , Arthanari Ramesh , Irene Moroz ,
Prakash Duraisamy , and Anitha Karthikeyan
COLLECTIONS
Paper published as part of the special topic on In Memory of Vadim S. Anishchenko: Statistical Physics and Nonlinear
Dynamics of Complex Systems
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Local and network behavior of bistable vibrational
energy harvesters considering periodic and
quasiperiodic excitations
Cite as: Chaos 31, 063111 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0054459
Submitted:19April2021 ·Accepted:24May2021 ·
PublishedOnline:7June2021View Online
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Karthikeyan Rajagopal,1,a)
Arthanari Ramesh,2,b)Irene Moroz,3,c)Prakash Duraisamy,1,d)
and
Anitha Karthikeyan4,e)
AFFILIATIONS
1CenterforNonlinearSystems,ChennaiInstituteofTechnology, Chennai600069,India
2CenterforMaterialsResearch,ChennaiInstituteofTechnology, Chennai600069,India
3MathematicalInstitute,UniversityofOxford,AndrewWilesBuilding,Ox fordOX26GG,UnitedKingdom
4DepartmentofElectronicsandCommunicationEngineering,Prathy ushaEngineeringCollege,Thiruvallur,TamilNadu602025,
India
Note:ThispaperispartoftheFocusIssue,InMemoryofVadimS.Anishchen ko:StatisticalPhysicsandNonlinearDynamicsof
ComplexSystems.
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: karthikeyan.rajagopal@citchennai.net
b)ramesha@citchennai.net
c)irene.Moroz@maths.ox.ac.uk
d)prakash.duraisamy@citchennai.net
e)mrs.anithakarthikeyan@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Vibrational energy harvesters can exhibit complex nonlinear behavior when exposed to external excitations. Depending on the number of
stable equilibriums, the energy harvesters are defined and analyzed. In this work, we focus on the bistable energy harvester with two energy
wells. Though there have been earlier discussions on such harvesters, all these works focus on periodic excitations. Hence, we are focusing our
analysis on both periodic and quasiperiodic forced bistable energy harvesters. Various dynamical properties are explored, and the bifurcation
plots of the periodically excited harvester show coexisting hidden attractors. To investigate the collective behavior of the harvesters, we
mathematically constructed a two-dimensional lattice array of the harvesters. A non-local coupling is considered, and we could show the
emergence of chimeras in the network. As discussed in the literature, energy harvesters are efficient if the chaotic regimes can be suppressed
and hence we focus our discussion toward synchronizing the nodes in the network when they are not in their chaotic regimes. We could
successfully define the conditions to achieve complete synchronization in both periodic and quasiperiodically excited harvesters.
Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0054459
Vibration energy harvesters (VEHs) exhibit rich dynamical prop-
erties when excited with periodic excitations as shown in the
literature. Though such discussions are abundant, there is no lit-
erature discussing the effect of quasiperiodic excitations. Also,
we have discussed multistability and coexisting attractors in
a bistable energy harvester and have shown that a quasiperi-
odic excited energy harvester does not exhibit multistability.
Though local dynamics of the VEHs are significant, it is its
network behavior which is very important to investigate thesynchronization behavior as a periodic VEH completely synchro-
nized will be efficient against a chaotic VEH exhibiting chimera
states.
I. INTRODUCTION
Wireless sensors and other low powered health monitoring
devices have been widely used in industrial, medical, military,
Chaos31,063111(2021);doi:10.1063/5.0054459 31,063111-1
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engineering, and environmental health monitoring areas.1–3These
devices need a continuous power supply with the least replacement
cost and long-lifetime service. Their power supply requirements are
not fully addressed using the traditional batteries.4Vibration energy
is readily available in the environment in the form of wind, ocean
waves, human motion, and mechanical vibration.5Among these,
the mechanical energy is one of the most suitable one for structural
health monitoring due to its availability.4As a result, energy har-
vesting from mechanical vibration is a promising means to replace
conventional power sources.
Linear resonant energy harvesters have been used to exploit
ambient vibration energy based on the linear resonant vibration
principle. They are effective only if the excitation power is con-
centrated in a narrow band of frequency, i.e., stationary excita-
tion. But when the excitation frequency does not match the res-
onant frequency, the harvesting efficiency reduced severely. Many
researchers tried to solve this issue by expanding the bandwidth
of frequency using techniques such as frequency upconversion,
resonance tuning, and deliberate introduction of nonlinearity.6–12
Among these, the inclusion of nonlinearity to harvesters attracted
much attention. Monostable and bistable harvesters found their
significance due to various advantages under different excitation
conditions and initial conditions. Monostable harvesters hold a sim-
ple configuration and have one stable equilibrium state. Compared
to linear systems, they are able to widen the frequency response
range.8But their performance drops when they are subjected to
real-world scenarios such as random excitation and have a similar
output to linear harvesters when they are excited by white noise
vibrations.13As an improvement to the drawback of monostable
harvesters, researchers have focused on multistable harvesters. The
bistable harvester has been explored widely.14–17It has two poten-
tial wells with a barrier in between. If the excitation amplitude is
high enough, the system will jump between the stable wells creating
an interwell oscillation with high amplitude. The shape of the wells
influences the response of the system. When the wells are shallow,
the bandwidth of the harvester increases; however, the amplitude
of the response is reduced. Compared to monostable harvesters,
bistable shows improvement in harvesting, when the amplitude of
the excitation is large enough to trigger an interwell oscillation.18,19
In addition to that, there is only minimal literature found for
studying the network behaviors of energy harvesters but practi-
cally, they should work in a network to obtain a significant output.
The coupling effect plays an important role in network dynamics
and shows significant results in output energy. If the network of
harvesters is not properly tuned, there is chance of energy dissi-
pation in nodes. Hence, there is a huge demand in finding proper
coupling strength and periodic frequency. The study of an inter-
esting phenomenon on synchronization20,21and incoherent oscil-
lations of a horde non-locally coupled oscillators22is pronounced
as “chimera states.” The dynamics of chimera states and different
topologies to handle chimera has been investigated vigorously in
recent literature.23–25The existence of chimera states and their con-
trol are studied with experimental evidence in some literature.26–31
Hence, considering undeniable mutual effects of chimera states in
dynamics of network and spatiotemporal nature, the intriguing
characteristics of the system can be analyzed and it becomes a
fruitful test ground for energy efficiency also.Motivated from the above discussion, in this paper, we for-
mulated a Bistable Energy Harvester (BEH) supplied with higher
order nonlinearity under quasi-periodic excitation. Stability analysis
is carried out and presented in Sec. III. Bifurcation plots and the cor-
responding Lyapunov spectrum are derived for different scenarios
in Sec. IV. The major contribution of this work lies on the network
dynamics of BEH under periodic and quasi-periodic excitations, the
simulations are portrayed and interpreted in Sec. V. Finally, we pro-
vided concluding remarks and highlighted the significance of the
present study.
II. MATHEMATICAL MODELING
InFig. 1 , the configuration of a nonlinear energy harvester
is shown. The configuration of a bistable energy harvester consists
of a stainless-steel substrate with two lead zirconate titanate (PZT)
piezoelectric layers positioned near the base and two tip magnets.
There are two external magnets located with the required distance
and angle.
The equation of motion for the BEH configuration presented
inFig. 1 is derived as follows:
m¨r(t)+c˙r(t)+Fh−θV(t)=/Phi1(t),
Cp˙V(t)+V(t)
R+θ˙r(t)=0,(1)
where mandcare the equivalent mass and damping, Cprefers to the
equivalent capacitance, θrepresents the electromechanical coupling
coefficient of the piezoelectric material, Rdenotes the load resis-
tance, Vdenotes the voltage, ris the displacement, and /Phi1(t)refers
to the external excitation.
FIG.1.Configurationofbistableenergyharvester(BEH).
Chaos31,063111(2021);doi:10.1063/5.0054459 31,063111-2
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For brevity, the equations of motion can be further nondimen-
sionalized by using the following terms:
x=r
lc,t=tωn,V=Cp
θlcV, (2)
where lcis a length scale introduced to nondimensionalize the
displacement and ωn=/radicalBig
k
mis the natural frequency of the har-
vester. With these transformations, the nondimensional model can
be expressed as
¨x+2ξ˙x+Fh−κ2V=/Phi1(t),
˙V+αV+˙x=0,(3)
where
ξ=c
2√k1m,δ=k3lc2
k1,κ=θ2
k1Cc,α=1
ωnCpR.
Here, xrepresents displacement, ωnis the natural frequency,
andξrefers to the damping ratio. In this paper, we introduced a
quartic nonlinearity term as restoring force, and the expression is as
follows:
Fh= −x+βx2+δx3+γx4. (4)
Most of the analyses done on the existing models are with peri-
odic excitation. Literature on experimental studies of BEH show
that quasi-periodic excitation affects the performance significantly;
hence, we are introducing quasi-periodic excitation. Generally,
quasi-periodic excitation will induce a strange nonchaotic attrac-
tor (SNCA) and results in multistability. Hence, in this paper, we
considered the system is supplied with quasi-periodic excitation and
denoted as /Phi1(t)=A1[sin(ω1t)+A2sin(ω2t)].
The state space equation of the system can be written as
˙x=y,
˙y=A1[sin(ω1t)+A2sin(ω2t)]−2ξy+x−δx3
−βx2−γx4+κz,
˙z= −y−αz.(5)
III. EQUILIBRIUM POINTS AND STABILITY ANALYSIS
Fh(x)is the nonlinear restoring force, while /Phi1(t)is the external
excitation: Periodic if A2=0 and quasi-periodic if A2/negationslash=0. We take
the parameter values in Eq. (5)to be A1=0.5,ω1=1,ω2=√
5−1
2,
A2=1,ξ=0.0933, δ=0.5495, β=0.1,γ=0.1,α=0.4065,
κ=0.001 85.
Stanton et al.32performed a Melnikov analysis on a simplified
bistable harvester by considering perturbations from a Hamiltonian
limit. We follow part of their analysis here.
We rewrite (5)as a perturbed Hamiltonian system,
˙x
˙y
˙z
=
y
Fh(x)
0
−ε
0
−2ξy+κz+f(t)
−y−αz
, (6)where we have introduced a small parameter εto represent the non-
Hamiltonian terms. When ε=0, Eq. (6)becomes
˙x=y, (7)
˙y=x−βx2−δx3−γx4, (8)
which leads to the Hamiltonian
E(t)=1
2y2+V(x). (9)
With the potential energy function V(x)
V(x)= −1
2x2+β
3x3+δ
4x4+γ
5x5. (10)
The fixed points of (7)satisfy (x,y)=(0, 0),y=0 and the
cubic roots of 1 −βx−δx2−γx3. The trivial fixed point (0, 0)is a
saddle point. Values for the parameters, we find the remaining fixed
points to be x1= −4.8675 (another saddle point), x2= −1.7810 and
x3=1.1535 (both centers).
Figure 2 shows the double homoclinc loop in black refers to
the simplified model with γ=0, homoclinic loop (magenta) that
passes through the saddle point (0, 0), as well as the large homo-
clinic loop passes through the saddle point x1= −4.8675. For the
double homoclinic loop, E(t)=0, while for the large homoclinic
loop, E(t)=6.781. Solving (9)forywith E(t)=0 for the chosen
parameter values, we get
yDH= ±x[(x+5.8548 )(x+2.6347 )(1.6207 −x)], (11)
so that the separatrix through the double homoclinic loop passes
through xs2=1.6207 and xs1= −2.6347. There is also a separate
branch (not shown) that passes through x= −5.8548, whose com-
ponents tend to ±∞.Figure 2 shows the potential function V(x),
including the two end points xs1andxs2of the separatrix for the
double homoclinic loop.
FIG. 2.The double homoclinic loop for the BEH (magenta) passing thro ugh the
fixedpoints (0,0)andenclosingthetwocenters x2andx3.Thereisalsoalarge
homoclinicloop(green)passingthrough x1andenclosingtheotherfixedpoints.
Chaos31,063111(2021);doi:10.1063/5.0054459 31,063111-3
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For the large homoclinic loop (green), we got x= −4.8677
(twice), x=2.6711 (the point at which the large orbit crosses the
y-axis), and two other complex valued roots.
If we set γ=0, the model considered by Wang et al.,33we no
longer get the root x= −5.8548, and the result is the larger black
double homoclinic loop, shown in Fig. 2 . Since E(t)=0, Eqs. (10)
and(11)give
y=dx
dt= ±x/radicalbig
g(x), (12)
where
g(x)=a2x2+a1x+a0 (13)
=1−2βx
3−δx2
2(14)
= −(x−xs1)(x−xs2). (15)
Litak and Borowiec34investigated the case of an asymmetric double
homoclinic loop for a potential function of the form Eq. (10)with
γ=0. In Eq. (15), we have taken xs1andxs2to be the end points
on the black and magenta separatrices of Fig. 1 , given in Eq. (11).
Equation (14)uses the expressions for ajfrom Eq. (10). For(13), we
obtain
t=/integraldisplaydx
x/radicalbig
g(x)= −1√a0ln/vextendsingle/vextendsingle/vextendsingle/vextendsingle/vextendsingle2a0+a1x+2/radicalbig
a0g(x)
x/vextendsingle/vextendsingle/vextendsingle/vextendsingle/vextendsingle. (16)
Provided a0>0. Since a0=0 [by rearranging Eq. (9)], this is
certainly the case here.
We can invert Eq. (17)to find an expression for xand then
foryfor the double homoclinic loop. Defining E=exp t√a0, tak-
ing the exponential of both sides of (17)and rearranging gives, after
straightforward algebra, x=0 (the saddle point at the origin) and
xdh=4a0E
[(E−a1)2−4a0a2]. (17)
The derivativedxdh
dtgives the ycoordinate for the double homoclinic
loop,
ydh=4Ea3/2
0[a2
1−4a0a2−E2]
[(E−a1)2−4a0a2]. (18)
A. The unforced BEH system
For the full BEH with γreinstated, we can find a solution for
xdhin terms of Jacobi Elliptic functions of the first and third kinds
and involving inverse trigonometric sine functions. We omit their
expressions here as not being very instructive. There is, also, no sim-
ple equation for the large green homoclinic loop, shown in Fig. 2 .
Instead, some level sets, corresponding to a potential function V(x)
for the full BEH system, are shown in Figs. 3 and4.
In the absence of external forcing (so that /Phi1(t)=0), the equi-
librium states are given by y=0,z=0, and x.sa solution to
Fh(x)=0. We, therefore, obtain the trivial equilibrium x=0,
together with the three nontrivial equilibrium states obtained in the
Hamiltonian limit, namely, a saddle point and two centers. For the
given set of parameter values, these are the roots of the RHS of
FIG. 3.The potential function V(x) for the BEH with the end points xs1andxs2
oftheseparatrixofthedoublehomoclinicloop.
Eq.(17). The linear stability of the equilibrium state is determined
by the eigen spectrum of the characteristic equation,
λ3+/Delta12λ2+/Delta11λ+/Delta10=0, (19)
where
/Delta12=2ξ+α, (20)
/Delta11=2ξα+κ−Gx, (21)
/Delta10= −αGx, (22)
Gx=1−2βx−3δx2−4γx3. (23)
FIG.4.Somelevelsetsforthepotentialfunction V(x)fortheBEH.Theseparatrix
forthedoublehomoclinicloopandthelargehomoclinicloop areshownasblack
curves.
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TABLEI. Equilibriumpointsanditsstability.
Equilibrium points Eigen values Stability
E0=[0; 0; 0] [0.9104; −1.0962; −0.4073] Saddle node
E1=[−4.8675; 0; 0] [2.9155; −3.1020; −0.4066] Saddle node
E2=[−1.781; 0; 0] [ −0.0935; ±1.2673 i;−0.4061] Stable focus
E3=[1.1535; 0; 0] [ −0.0935; ±1.4252 i;−0.4061] Stable focus
For the trivial equilibrium state x=0,Gx=α. This means there
are no steady bifurcations from the trivial equilibrium. Moreover,
by substituting λ=iωinto Eq. (19), it is straightforward to show
that there are also no possible Hopf bifurcations, since this would
require /Delta12+α=0: not possible when all parameters are positive.
Codimension one steady state bifurcations can occur when /Delta10=0
for the nontrivial saddle point at γ=0.139 (keeping all remain-
ing parameter values at their prescribed values). The condition for
a Hopf bifurcation, /Delta10−/Delta11/Delta12=0, is not possible since this would
require
ω2=αGx
2ξ+α=2ξα+κ−Gx. (24)
Numerical integrations show that these two criteria for ω2cannot be
simultaneously satisfied.
Moreover, numerical integrations for the unforced system also
show that the only stable states are steady states; we found no evi-
dence of periodic solutions. When the z-dependence is present, the
saddle point x1remains a saddle, while the two centers x2andx3
become stable foci.
For the parameter values ξ=0.0933; δ=0.5495; α=0.4065;
β=0.1;γ=0.1;κ=0.001 84, the equilibrium points and corre-
sponding eigen values are calculated and presented in Table I for
understanding the stability.
The system shows a chaotic attractor for the following param-
eter values, A1=0.5,ω1=1,A2=1,ω2=√
5−1
2,ξ=0.0933,
δ=0.5495, β=0.1,γ=0.1,κ=0.001 84, α=0.4065 for the ini-
tial condition {1,0,1}. The 2D phase portraits are given in Fig. 5 ,
where (a) represents the state phase portrait between Y and Z, (b)represents the state phase portrait between X vs Y, and (c) represents
the state phase portrait between X vs Z, respectively.
IV. BIFURCATION AND LYAPUNOV SPECTRUM
We investigated the bifurcation property for two scenarios: case
(1) the system under periodic excitation and case (2) the system
under quasi-periodic excitation. We used Runge–Kutta numerical
method for simulating the results. We considered the parameter
values: A1=0.5,A2=1,ξ=0.0933, δ=0.5495, β=0.1,γ=0.1,
κ=0.001 84, α=0.4065, and initial condition {1,0,1}. For inves-
tigating the bistability nature of the system under mentioned exci-
tation conditions, we provided the bifurcation plots using forward
continuation (plotted with blue dots) and backward continuation
(plotted with red dot), and the corresponding Lyapunov exponent
spectrum is calculated using Wolf algorithm35and plotted for a finite
time of 20 000 s.
Case (1): Under periodic excitation
First, we considered the system (5)is supplied with periodic
excitation /Phi1(t)=Fsin(ωt)and the response of the system is noted
and presented as a bifurcation plot. In Fig. 6 , we could observe the
bistability phenomena which are considered dangerous for mechan-
ical systems. We varied the parameter ωfor the range of 0.9–1.3.
For detailed analysis, we provided the bistable regions in Fig. 6(b)
and the corresponding Lyapunov exponent spectrum for forward
and backward continuation also presented in Figs. 6(c) and6(d).
From the bifurcation plots, we can observe the system holds the
multistability property.36–39
Case (2): Under quasi-periodic excitation
In this case, we considered the system (5)is supplied with
quasi-periodic excitation; real systems that are mostly influenced
with different frequencies for simplification purpose only are con-
sidered as single frequency, i.e., periodic excitation. In order to
analyze the system with quasi-periodic excitation, we considered the
parameter values in Eq. (5)to be A1=0.5,ω1=1,ω2=√
5−1
2, and
A2=1. The influence of excitation frequency plays a vital role in
behavioral analysis. We derived the bifurcation plots for frequency
FIG. 5.2D phase portrait of system (6)for the parameter values A1=0.5,ω1=1,A2=1,ω2=√
5−1
2,ξ=0.0933, δ=0.5495, β=0.1,γ=0.1,κ=0.001 84,
α=0.4065andinitialcondition {1,0,1}(a)YvsZ,(b)XvsY,and(c)XvsZ.
Chaos31,063111(2021);doi:10.1063/5.0054459 31,063111-5
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FIG.6.BifurcationplotandthecorrespondingLyapunovexponents ofparameter ω1variation.(Periodicexcitation)(a)Representsthebifur cationplotof0.9 ≤ω1≤1.3,(b)
representsthebifurcationplotof0.9 ≤ω1≤1,(c)representsLyapunovexponentsspectrumfor(a),and( d)representsLyapunovexponentsspectrumfor(b),respect ively.
range 0 ≤ω1≤3. The corresponding Lyapunov exponent spec-
trum also presented. Comparing with periodic excitation ( Fig. 6 ),
we could observe that there is no limit cycle oscillation as in Fig. 7 .
Chaotic attractor and torus were identified, and the corresponding
Lyapunov exponent spectrum confirms it. We could observe that the
multistability property is vanished during quasi-periodic excitation.
V. NETWORK DYNAMICS OF BEH
The local behavior of the BEH with periodic and quasi-periodic
excitations shows some interesting dynamical behaviors but energy
harvesters will normally be applied in large networks. Hence, we
consider N coupled BEH whose mathematical model is shown in
Eq.(25)
˙xi=yi+σN/summationdisplay
j=1Cijxj,
˙yi=/Phi1(t)−2ξyi+xi−δx3
i−βx2
i−γx4
i+κzi,
˙zi= −yi−αzi.(25)
The term σdefines the coupling constant and the con-
nection between the nearby nodes is defined by the connection
matrix Cij. The external excitation is defined by /Phi1(t)=A1[sin(ω1t)
+A2sin(ω2t)], where ω1=1 is the frequency of the periodic term
while ω2=√
5−1
2is the golden mean contributing to the quasi-
periodic excitation. We have considered two different cases fordiscussion depending on the type of excitation applied to the nodes
in the network.
A. Network behavior with periodic excitation
In this case, we consider A2=0, we now apply a periodic
excitation to the nodes in the network and for simulation we con-
sider the parameters as A1=0.5,ω1=1,ξ=0.0933, δ=0.5495,
β=0.1,γ=0.1,κ=0.001 84, α=0.4065 and random initial con-
ditions are chosen. We have used the RK4 method to solve the
system (25)with the step size of 0.01 and a total simulation time
of 3000 s. In Fig. 8 , we have shown the spatiotemporal behavior of
the network for coupling strengths σ≤0.015 for which we could
see that the nodes are in complete incoherency. We have also plot-
ted the instantaneous state variable value of xmeasured at the end of
simulation. For σ=0.015, the nodes try to achieve synchronization
and lead us to a clue to check for chimeras by increasing coupling.
Now, we increased the coupling to σ=0.018 to identify the
existence of coherent and incoherent nodes in the network. In Fig. 9 ,
we could see that most of the nodes try to achieve coherency and
some nodes are still in the complete incoherent state. This confirms
the existence of chimeras in the network. It should be noted that
only if all the BEH nodes are in the coherent state, the energy effi-
ciency will be more, and such chimeras will result in residue current
in the BEH nodes which could damage the node permanently. Such
chimeras are seen in the network for σ <0.03 but we have only
shown spatiotemporal behavior of selected values of σ.
Chaos31,063111(2021);doi:10.1063/5.0054459 31,063111-6
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FIG. 7.Bifurcation analysis of system (5)under quasi-periodic excitation, (a) represents the bifur cation plot for 0 ≤ω1≤3 and (b) represents the Lyapunov exponent
spectrumfor0 ≤ω1≤3.
Further increasing the coupling strength to σ=0.03, the nodes
try to achieve synchronization in small clusters. Though such phe-
nomenon of cluster synchronization is not uncommon in spiking
networks, its undesirable in such networks where complete synchro-
nization is mandatory. In other words, we need all the BEH nodes in
the network to operate in a single frequency or at least in coherency
to maximize the energy efficiency of the harvesters. In Fig. 10 , we
have shown several cluster synchronization conditions for various
values of σ.
We have used re-occurrence plots to identify different regimes
of synchronization in the network. The re-occurrence plots are cal-
culated by finding the Euclidean distance between xiandxjwhere
i.j∈[1,N]. InFig. 11 , we have shown the re-occurrence plots and
the absence of structures in the plot for σ=0.001 shows that thereare no coherent nodes in the network. For σ=0.01, we could see
small structures formed in the network confirming the emergence of
chimeras. For the remaining values of σ <0.03 shown in the plots,
we could see majority of blue and red regions. The blue region shows
coherent oscillators and the red shows the incoherent oscillators.
The presence of other colors in these plots confirms the existence
of multiple intermediate nodes which neither belong to the red and
nor to the blue regions confirming different incoherent frequencies
in the network. But when σ >0.03 we could note only blue and red
dominant confirming different clusters of synchronizations.
Though we could achieve cluster synchronization in the
network as shown in Fig. 11 , we could not reach complete
synchronization. For values of coupling σ >0.1, the network goes
in to unbounded states and thus we could not use the coupling
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FIG. 8.The collective behaviorofthe network (1)for differentvalues ofthe couplingcoefficient ( σ)consideringa periodicexcitation. Theplots confirmthat th e nodesare
asynchronous.
FIG.9.Thecollectivebehaviorofthenetwork (25)fordifferentvaluesofthecouplingcoefficient( σ)consideringaperiodicexcitation.Theplotsconfirmthatth enodesare
showingbothsynchronousandasynchronousnodesconfirming theexistenceofchimeras.
Chaos31,063111(2021);doi:10.1063/5.0054459 31,063111-8
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FIG.10.Thecollectivebehaviorofthenetwork (25)fordifferentvaluesofthecouplingcoefficient( σ)consideringaperiodicexcitation.Theplotsconfirmsevera lclustersof
synchronizedBEHnodesinthenetwork.
strength to achieve synchronization. As the BEH is externally excited
by the periodic force, our interest now is on the amplitude of the
periodic force which can be properly tuned to achieve complete syn-
chronization. In Fig. 12 , we have shown the spatiotemporal plots for
the amplitude values A1=[0.4, 0.45, 0.5] and the plots confirm the
emergence of chimeras in the network. Though for A1=0.5, the
incoherent nodes are very less confirming that the nodes are moving
to complete synchronization.
InFig. 13 , we have shown the complete synchronization of the
nodes achieved through the tuning of the amplitude of the external
excitation. We could note that for A1<0.4 and A1>0.6 the nodes
attain complete synchronization and achieve the same frequency of
operation. Thus, we could achieve the maximum efficiency from
the energy harvesters when connected to a network. But it has been
shown in the literature that non-chaotic BEH34can be productive in
energy harvesting but as seen from the re-occurrence plot ( Fig. 12
right most) for A1=0.3, the nodes are no more chaotic and show
periodic behaviors and for A1=0.7 the nodes are chaotic and are
completely synchronized as there Euclidean distance is very low
in 10−13. Thus, we recommend an amplitude value of A1=0.3 to
achieve complete synchronization in the periodically excited BEH
network.
B. Network behavior with quasi-periodic excitation
In this case, we consider A1=0.5, we now apply a quasi-
periodic excitation to the nodes in the network by consideringA2/negationslash=0,ω2=√
5−1
2with the other parameters as ω1=1,A2=1,
ξ=0.0933, δ=0.5495, β=0.1,γ=0.1,κ=0.001 84, α=0.4065.
The other setting for simulations is similar to Sec. V A. As we
have earlier shown that the coupling coefficient could not be tuned
to achieve complete synchronization (Sec. V A), we verified the
same for quasi and could again confirm that σcannot be tuned
for synchronization in the quasi-periodic case. Hence, we have not
provided the discussion on σas it will be redundant. We focus
our discussion on the amplitude of the quasi-periodic term ( A2)
and have kept σ=0.025. In Fig. 14 , we have shown the spa-
tiotemporal plots for different values of A2and unlike Fig. 13 , we
could not find periodic regimes for A2<1 and the network shows
both coherent and incoherent nodes confirming the existence of
chimeras.
To find the amplitude values that could help us achieve com-
plete synchronization with nodes are not in their chaotic regime, we
further increase the value of A2=1.5 and could observe complete
synchronization and the same is the case for A2=1.8, presented in
Fig. 15 . But our interest is to check whether the nodes are not in their
chaotic regime while achieving complete synchronization.
As discussed, we must verify which of the amplitude (A2)can
achieve complete synchronization while the BEH nodes are not
chaotic. Hence, we use the re-occurrence plots as shown in Fig. 16 .
While checking the re-occurrence plots for A2=1.5 we could see
that the nodes are in synchronization with period-4 oscillations and
forA2=1.8, the nodes whose different colors confirming they are
chaotic but their Euclidian distance in the range of 10−13showing
Chaos31,063111(2021);doi:10.1063/5.0054459 31,063111-9
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FIG. 11.Re-occurrence plots of the BEH network for different values of the coupling coefficient. The blue regions show the coheren t oscillators and the red show the
incoherentoscillators.
complete synchronization. Hence, when exposed to quasi-periodic
excitation, we could recommend the amplitude combination as
A1=0.5 and A2=1.5 for complete synchronization as for these two
amplitude values the nodes are periodic and chaotic oscillations are
suppressed.
VI. CONCLUSION
An energy harvester model with two stable equilibrium
points is analyzed considering periodic and quasiperiodic externalexcitations. The dynamical properties of the model are analyzed and
we could show coexisting hidden attractors in the system for peri-
odic excitation. Though local behavior can help us understand the
complex oscillations and bifurcation patterns of the bistable energy
harvesters, our focus is to investigate its collective dynamics. A
mathematical model of a 2D lattice network is constructed whose
local dynamics is governed by the bistable energy harvesters. First,
a periodic excitation is applied to the nodes and the spatiotempo-
ral behavior is captured. We could observe regions of asynchronous
nodes for very low coupling values, while increasing the coupling
Chaos31,063111(2021);doi:10.1063/5.0054459 31,063111-10
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FIG. 12.The collective behaviorof the network (1)for differentvalues of the amplitude of the periodicexcita tion considering σ=0.024.The plots emergenceof chimera
stateswithsynchronousandasynchronousnodes.
FIG. 13.The collective behavior of the network (25)for different values of the amplitude of the periodic excita tion considering σ=0.024. The plots confirm the nodes
achievingcompletesynchronization.
Chaos31,063111(2021);doi:10.1063/5.0054459 31,063111-11
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FIG. 14.The collective behavior of the network (25)for different values of the amplitude of the quasi-periodic excitation considering σ=0.025. The plots confirm the
emergenceofchimeras.
FIG. 15.The collective behavior of the network (25)for different values of the amplitude of the quasi-periodic excitation considering σ=0.025. The plots confirm nodes
achievingcompletesynchronizationfor A2=1.5andA2=1.8.
Chaos31,063111(2021);doi:10.1063/5.0054459 31,063111-12
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FIG.16.Re-occurrenceplotsfordifferentvaluesof A2withtheblueregionsshowingcoherentnodeswhiletheother colorsshowingincoherentnodes.
some nodes are synchronized while some remain incoherent. This
confirms the emergence of chimeras. We tried different values of the
coupling to observe complete synchronization, but we could observe
only cluster synchronization. Hence, we shifted our investigation
to the excitation amplitude, and we could observe two ranges of
amplitude which could achieve complete synchronization. But our
interest is on the amplitude for which the nodes are not in chaos,
but the network achieved synchronization. To calculate this, we
introduced the re-occurrence plots which is useful in understand-
ing different regimes in a network. From the re-occurrence plots,
we could show that for a certain amplitude the nodes are not in
chaos, but the network achieved synchronization. Similar studies are
conducted for quasiperiodically excited energy harvesters and again
we could show some values of the amplitude that can achieve syn-
chronization without disturbing the local complex behavior of the
nodes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Arthanari Ramesh, Karthikeyan Rajagopal, and Prakash
Duraisamy have been partially funded by the Research Grant of the
Center for Nonlinear Systems, Chennai Institute of Technology with
Reference No. CIT/CNS/2021/RP-017.
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.DATA AVAILABILITY
The data that support the findings of this study are available
from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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1.468772.pdf | Is slow thermal isomerization in viscous solvents understandable with the idea of
frequency dependent friction?
Hitoshi Sumi and Tsutomu Asano
Citation: The Journal of Chemical Physics 102, 9565 (1995); doi: 10.1063/1.468772
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.468772
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134.176.129.147 On: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:41:42Is slow thermal isomerization in viscous solvents understandable
with the idea of frequency dependent friction?
Hitoshi Sumi
Institute of Materials Science, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan
Tsutomu Asano
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Oita University, Oita 870-11, Japan
~Received 2 November 1994; accepted 22 March 1995 !
Thermal Z/Eisomerization of substituted azobenzenes and N-benzylideneanilines takes place
slowly after fast photoinduced E/Zisomerization. Its rate constant kobsis smaller than about 103s21
because of a high reaction barrier of about 50 kJ/mol. The pressure dependence of kobsmeasured in
solvents as glycerol triacetate can well be understood in the framework of the transition state theory~TST!at low pressures. At high pressures, however, k
obsbegins to steeply decrease as the pressure
increases, to be more exact, as the solvent viscosity hincreases with the pressure, and the reaction
enters the non-TST regime. Since the h-induced decrease of kobsat high pressures is slower than
h21, it cannot be described by the Kramers theory which regards the reaction as the barrier
surmounting by Brownian motions regulated by frequency independent friction. Next, it wasadjusted to the Grote–Hynes theory incorporating the idea of frequency dependent friction. Thesituation of k
obsmentioned earlier enabled us to derive, without adjustable parameters, the
correlation time tscamong random forces for friction due to solvent microscopic motions in the
generalized Langevin equation on which the theory is based.At h;107Pa s, we obtained tsc;1 ms.
It is too long to justify the theory, since such a long-time correlation cannot be realized amongrandom forces exerting on the isomerizing moiety with an angstrom dimension. It will also beshown that
tscmust be so long unphysically as to be at least much longer than 1 ps even if kobsat
low pressures is adjusted to the theory. © 1995 American Institute of Physics.
I. INTRODUCTION
The most traditional theory for chemical reaction rates is
the transition state theory ~TST!established in the 1940’s. It
has recently been disclosed, however, that the TST cannot beapplied to varieties of solution reactions. Examples can beseen in biological enzymatic reactions,
1electron or proton
transfer reactions,2atom-group transfer reactions,3and iso-
merization reactions.4Study of solution reactions is one of
the most fundamental as well as the most traditional sub-jects in chemistry. The situation mentioned above, however,means that we have not yet established a general expressionon rates of solution reactions.Accordingly, many discussionshave been aroused on this subject.
5
In the TST, it is assumed a priorithat fluctuations in the
reactant state are so fast that the distribution of populationsin the reactant state is always maintained in thermal equilib-rium in the course of reactions. Then, the population of re-actants in the transition state is also always maintained inthermal equilibrium with those in the reactant state, and therate constant can be calculated from this population withoutknowledge on dynamics of fluctuations in the reactant state.In this assumption, therefore, the rate constant should notdepend on how fast fluctuations are in the reactant state.Molecular arrangements of the solute-solvent system cantake various conformations. They fluctuate due to jolting anddamping by microscopic motions of solvent molecules.Since the speed of these conformational fluctuations de-creases as the viscosity
hof solvents increases, h21can be
regarded as a measure of the speed. In the solution reactionsmentioned earlier, the rate constant observed decreases as
hincreases, that is, as h21decreases. This means that the rate
constant depends on the speed of conformational fluctuationsin the solute-solvent system and, hence, that these reactionsare nonthermalized reactions located outside the framework
of the TST. To be more exact, these reactions are controlledby slow speeds of these fluctuations.
The first theory giving the
h-induced decrease of the rate
constant is the Kramers theory6presented as early as 1940.
He explicitly treated dynamical processes of fluctuations inthe reactant state, not assuming a priorithe thermal equilib-
rium distribution therein. He envisaged solution reactions asoccurring as a result of surmounting over the transition-statebarrier along the reaction coordinate by diffusive Brownianmotions. These diffusive motions are excited by randomforces and damped by frictional forces, both of which arisefrom microscopic motions of solvent molecules. When thediffusive motions are sufficiently fast in his theory, the ther-mal equilibrium distribution in the reactant state is automati-cally obtained, and the rate constant reduces to that expectedfrom theTST.As
hincreases, however, the diffusive motions
become slow, and the reaction becomes limited by their slowspeed. In this non-TST regime, the rate constant given by histheory decreases in proportion to
h21.
Most often investigated experimentally, concerning the h
dependence of the rate constant in solution, is photoinducedE/Z~trans!/~cis!isomerization of stilbenes.
4The isomeriza-
tion takes place essentially by the surmounting over a tran-sition-state barrier on the excited-state potential surface. Thereaction is very fast with a rate constant on the order of 10
10
s21due to a small height ~about 15 kJ/mol !of the barrier.
9565 J. Chem. Phys. 102(24), 22 June 1995 0021-9606/95/102(24)/9565/9/$6.00 © 1995 American Institute of Physics
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
134.176.129.147 On: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:41:42The observed rate constant kobsdecreases as hincreases. To
be more exact, kobsoften decreases more slowly than h21,
describable by a fractional-power dependence on h21as
kobs}h2awith 0 ,a,1. The hdependence deviates from
that expected from the Kramers theory.
To understand the slow hdependence of kobs, an idea
has often been employed that friction felt by the reactant candecrease when it surmounts over the transition-state barrierwith a high speed. In this case, the rate constant should notbe as small as expected from the Kramers theory, and henceits
hdependence should be milder than h21expected from
the theory.This idea of frequency dependent friction is basedon the Grote–Hynes ~GH!theory
7first presented in 1980.
Actual fitting of the hdependence of kobswith the theory
was made by several authors.8–11They all pointed out coin-
cidentally that the fitting could be made only by adopting anunphysically small value for the downward curvature of thepotential at the top of the transition-state barrier.
The rate constant of photoinduced isomerization of stil-
benes in solution always decreases as
hincreases.This arises
from a situation that the rate constant is very large because ofa low height of the transition-state barrier and hence the re-action is easily controlled by a slow speed of conformationalfluctuations in the solute-solvent system. This situation itselfis very interesting, but is not convenient from the standpointof investigating the general expression for the rate constantof solution reactions. More adequate is a situation that therate constant can be described by the TST in the small
h
region, but decreases with hin the large hregion, entering
the non-TST regime. Such a situation was recently reportedby one of the present authors ~Asano !and his collaborators
12
for thermal Z/Eisomerization of substituted azobenzenes
andN-benzylideneanilines. Although these molecules are
similar in structure to stilbenes, the reaction investigatedwith these molecules is the recovering of the Eform from
theZform obtained after the photoinduced E/Zisomeriza-
tion, which was investigated for stilbenes. Quite differentlyfrom the E/Zphotoisomerization of stilbene, this reaction
takes place slowly with a rate constant smaller than about10
3s21by surmounting over a high transition-state barrier
~with height of about 50 kJ/mol !on the ground-state poten-
tial surface. The solvent viscosity was changed over about10
4times by pressures. In the low-pressure region, the rate
constant of this reaction showed a pressure dependencewhich could be understood in the framework of the TST. Inthe high-pressure region, on the other hand, it steeply de-creased as the pressure increased, to be more exact, as thesolvent viscosity
hincreased with the pressure. In this non-
TST regime, the observed rate constant kobsshowed a frac-
tional power dependence on h21, as observed for stilbenes.
It was shown by the present authors13that the pressure
~or viscosity !dependence of kobsmentioned earlier could be
understood by considering a two-step mechanism that thereaction took place as a result of sequential two steps in-duced first by slow conformational fluctuations in the solute-solvent system and then by fast intramolecular vibrationalfluctuations in the solute molecule. The former are regulatedby solvent fluctuations, having a relaxation time proportionalto the solvent viscosity
h, while the latter are not influencedby solvent fluctuations, having a relaxation time on the order
of a typical phonon period. To be more exact, it was experi-mentally shown that k
obshad a form of kobs51/~kTST211kf21!,
wherekTSTrepresents the rate constant expected from the
TST, while kf~.0!represents the rate constant controlled by
solvent fluctuations, having a fractional-power dependenceon
h21askf}h2awith 0 ,a,1. In this form, when kf@kTST
in the low pressure ~or viscosity !region, we have kobs'kTST
confirming the TST. When kf!kTSTin the high pressure ~or
viscosity !region, on the other hand, we have kobs'kf}h2a,
as observed experimentally.
The two-step mechanism mentioned above was origi-
nally proposed by one of the present authors ~Sumi !and
Marcus,14called the Sumi–Marcus model. Subsequently, it
was shown by Sumi15that the rate constant in this model is
given by the form of 1/ ~kTST211kf21!mentioned earlier. In this
model, the reaction is directly induced by fast intramolecularvibrational fluctuations, but, in order for this step to takeplace most effectively, the solute-solvent system must takeappropriate conformations induced by slow solvent fluctua-tions. The fractional-power dependence of k
fonh21is ob-
tained when the appropriate conformations have a nonvan-ishing distribution.
The two-step mechanism mentioned above is completely
different from the reaction mechanism in the GH theory.Then, it is quite natural to ask what we can derive when k
obs
of the thermal isomerization of substituted azobenzenes and
N-benzylideneanilines is adjusted to the GH theory. The pro-
cess is performed in the present work. The plan of thepresent work is as follows. Characteristic features of the ther-mal isomerization are first pointed out in Sec. II. The adjust-ing is performed in Sec. III. Remaining discussions are leftin Sec. IV.
II. CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF THE THERMAL
ISOMERIZATION
As concrete examples in molecules investigated ex-
perimentally in Refs. 12 and 13, we take 4- ~di-
methylamino !-48-nitroazobenzene ~DNAB !andN-@4-
~dimethylamino !-benzylidene #-4-nitroaniline ~DBNA !, since
these molecules showed widest ranges of variation in the rateconstant with the pressure increase. Solvents used were glyc-erol triacetate ~GTA!and Traction Fluid B ~TFB!, the latter
of which was a commercial product ~of Nippon Oil
Co.!whose main constituent was 2,4-dicyclohexyl-2-methyl-
pentane. Molecular structures of DNAB and DBNA areshown in Fig. 1 together with the schematic profile of theground ~S
0!- and the excited ~S1!-state potential surfaces.
The photoinduced reaction cycle of these molecules pro-
ceeds on these potential surfaces as follows. In the photoin-ducedE/Zisomerization process, denoted by 1 in Fig. 1, a
molecule with the stable form Eon theS
0potential surface is
photoexcited to the S1surface, from which, surmounting
over a small potential barrier, the molecule drops to an inter-mediate state at the lowest point of the S
1surface. Then, the
molecule makes a transition to the top of the S0surface, from
which, along the S0surface, about half of it relax to the Z
form and the remaining half relax to the original Eform. In
this process 1, the surmounting over the potential barrier on9566 H. Sumi and T. Asano: Slow thermal isomerization in viscous solvents
J. Chem. Phys., Vol. 102, No. 24, 22 June 1995
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134.176.129.147 On: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:41:42theS1surface is rate limiting. Then, measuring the rise of
population in the Zform, we can determine the rate constant
of the barrier surmounting, as performed for stilbenes. SincetheZform is metastable on the S
0surface, higher than the E
form, it gradually transforms itself to the Eform, surmount-
ing over the potential barrier with height Dshown in Fig. 1.
Process 1 is very fast because of a low barrier on the S1
surface. In stilbenes, the barrier height is about 15 kJ/mol
and this process takes about 100 ps after photoexcitation,4as
mentioned in Sec. I. Process 2 is, on the other hand, slowbecause of a high barrier on the S
0surface. In both DNAB
and DBNA, the barrier height is about 50 kJ/mol and thisprocess takes at least about 1 ms. In the measurement withtime resolution longer than 1 ns, therefore, we observe as ifprocess 1 took place simultaneously after photoexcitation,and that process 2 follows slowly.
In order for the reaction to take place with the mecha-
nism in the GH theory as well as in the Kramers theory, thereactant must surmount over the transition-state barrier onlyby diffusional Brownian motions regulated by solvent fluc-tuations. In the two-step mechanism of the Sumi–Marcusmodel, on the other hand, the surmounting over the trans-ition-state barrier is accomplished as a result of sequentialtwo steps. That is, the barrier is climbed first by the diffu-sional Brownian motions only up to intermediate heights,from which much faster intramolecular vibrational motionsexcite the reactant to the transition state at the top of thebarrier. It is apparent, therefore, that differences betweenthese two mechanisms manifest themselves most drasticallywhen the transition-state barrier is much higher than the ther-mal energy k
BTwhich is about 2.5 kJ/mol for T5300 K. In
this respect, thermal isomerization of substituted azoben-zenes and N-benzylideneanilines on the S
0surface is moreinteresting than photoisomerization of stilbenes on the S1
surface, since the barrier height for the former12,13is about
50 kJ/mol while that for the latter4is only about 15 kJ/mol.
The observed pressure dependence of the rate constant
kobsfor thermal isomerization of DBNA in TFB and DNAB
in GTAis shown, respectively, in Figs. 2 ~a!and 2 ~b!for four
temperatures around room temperature. Detailed experimen-tal set up for the measurement was described in Refs. 12 and13. The viscosity
hof these solvents was determined also in
Refs. 12 and 13 by best fitting to the values measured atseveral pressures with a formula that log
his a linear func-
tion of pressure.
In Fig. 2 ~a!for DBNAinTFB, kobsis nearly independent
of pressure PwhenP&100 MPa ~51000 bar !.This behavior
can well be understood in the framework of the TST as asituation
16that the volume of the reactant is almost un-
changed between the reactant and the transition states. InFig, 2 ~b!for DNAB in GTA, on the other hand, k
obsin-
creases as Pincreases when P&250 MPa ~52500 bar !. This
behavior can also be understood well in the framework of theTST as a situation of a negative activation volume
17that the
transition state with a polar structure has a volume smallerthan the reactant state. Fitting of the pressure dependence ofk
obsby the TST with an appropriate activation volume in the
low pressure region was performed in Refs. 12 and 13. The
FIG. 1. Photocycle of isomerization of DBNA and DNAB, composed of
photoinduced E/Zisomerization ~process 1 !and thermal Z/Eisomerization
~process 2 !in the ground ~S0!- and the excited ~S1!-state potential surfaces.
FIG. 2. Pressure dependence of the rate constant kobsof thermal Z/E
isomerization of DBNA in TFB @~a!#and DNAB in GTA @~b!#.9567 H. Sumi and T. Asano: Slow thermal isomerization in viscous solvents
J. Chem. Phys., Vol. 102, No. 24, 22 June 1995
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134.176.129.147 On: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:41:42fitting was nearly complete for DBNA in TFB when P<90
MPa at 278 K, P<120 MPa at 288 and 298 K, and P<135
MPa at 308 K, while for DNAB in GTA when P<250 MPa
at 278 K, P<300 MPa at 288 K, P<350 MPa at 298 K, and
P<400 MPa at 313 K. Solvent viscosities hin these low-
pressure regions in theTSTregime are shown in Fig. 3 ~a!for
TFB and in Fig. 3 ~b!for GTA, where h/~1023Pa s!was
shown on the ordinate with a logarithmic scale for later con-venience ~10
23Pa s51c P!.
Expressing the rate constant observed in the low-
pressure region in a form expected from the TST with anappropriate activation volume, we can analytically extrapo-late it to the high-pressure region, as performed in Refs. 12and 13. In this way we can obtain the rate constant expectedfrom the TST in the entire pressure region, and it is writtenask
TST. In the low-pressure region, kobsis the same as kTST,
but in the high-pressure region, kobsdeviates downwards
fromkTST. The ratio kobs/kTSTbetween them in the high-
pressure region was plotted in Fig. 4 ~a!for DBNA in TFB
and in Fig. 4 ~b!for DNAB in GTA, where they were shown
vs solvent viscosities hinstead of vs pressures P. The high-
pressure region in Fig. 4 ~a!for DBNA in TFB is P>120
MPa ~h>1930 Pa s !at 278 K, P>150 MPa ~h>1310 Pa s !
at 288 K, P>150 MPa ~h>227 Pa s !at 298 K, and P>165
MPa ~h>99.7 Pa s !at 308 K. That in Fig. 4 ~b!for DNAB in
GTA isP>350 MPa ~h>3050 Pa s !at 278 K, P>400 MPa
~h>775 Pa s !at 288 K, P>450 MPa ~h>201 Pa s !at 298 K,
andP>500 MPa ~h>18.8 Pa s !at 313 K.III. ADJUSTING OF kobsTO THE GH THEORY
Let us examine what we can derive by assuming that kobs
is describable by the GH theory.7To this end, we first need to
review the essence of the GH theory, which is done below. Inthis theory the ratio k
obs/kTSTis called the transmission coef-
ficient, and is related to the frequency ~that is, the speed !m
with which the reactant passes, by diffusive Brownian mo-
tions, through the transition-state barrier region, by
kobs/kTST5m/vb, ~1!
where vbrepresents the imaginary frequency, proportional to
the square root of the downward curvature, at the top of thetransition-state barrier. The
vbhas been estimated8,9to have
a magnitude on the same order as typical phonon frequencieson the order of 10
13s21. Figure 4 gives kobs/kTSTdetermined
experimentally as a function of the solvent viscosity hin the
high-pressure region in the non-TST regime. Then, Eq. ~1!
shows that the frequency mhas already been determined ex-
perimentally as a function of hin the present systems if kobs
is describable by the GH theory.
In the GH theory, mis determined as a solution of
m/vb5vb/@m1z~m!#, ~2!
called the GH equation, where z~m!represents the frequency
dependent friction, which is defined by the Laplace trans-form of the frictional memory function
zˆ(t) of time t,a s
z~m!5E
0`
zˆ~t!e2mtdt. ~3!
FIG. 3. Solvent viscosity h~in units of 1023Pa s!in the low-pressure region
in theTSTregime realized for DBNAinTFB @~a!#and DNAB in GTA @~b!#.
FIG. 4. Viscosity dependence of the ratio of kobsto the TST-expected rate
constantkTSTin the non-TST regime realized for DBNA in TFB @~a!#and
DNAB in GTA @~b!#.9568 H. Sumi and T. Asano: Slow thermal isomerization in viscous solvents
J. Chem. Phys., Vol. 102, No. 24, 22 June 1995
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134.176.129.147 On: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:41:42The reaction coordinate in the GH theory is a coordinate
connecting the two minimum points at the Zform and at the
Eform on the S0surface in Fig. 1 through the transition-state
barrier between them. It was written as Xin Fig. 1, and the
double-well potential on the S0surface is written as W(X)
alongX. The frictional memory function zˆ(t) regulates the
time evolution of diffusive Brownian motions along the co-ordinateX, written as X(t) as a function of time t, through
the generalized Langevin equation
d
2X~t!
dt252dW@X~t!#
dX~t!2E
2`t
zˆ~t2t8!dX~t8!
dt8dt8
1R~t!, ~4!
whereR(t) represents random forces in contrast to the sys-
tematic force 2dW[X(t)]/dX(t) coming from the potential
W(X) at the position X(t). The second term on the right-
hand side of Eq. ~4!represents that the strength of frictional
forces for the motion X(t) at time tcomes also from the
magnitude of its velocity dX(t8)/dt8in the past at time t8,t
through a nonvanishing tail of the frictional memory func-tion
zˆ~t!att5t2t8~.0!. Since zˆ~t!.0a ta n y t.0, the
frequency dependent friction z~m!defined by Eq. ~3!is a
decreasing function of m. This means that the faster is the
passage of the reactant through the transition-state region,the smaller is the friction felt by the reactant. This was theoriginal starting point of GH for introducing the frequencydependence of friction to generalize the Kramers theorywithout it. In fact, the Fokker–Planck equation used byKramers can be derived from the Langevin equation for
zˆ(t2t8)}d(t2t8) in Eq. ~4!.18
In general, both R(t) and zˆ(t) appearing in Eq. ~4!arise
from microscopic motions of heat-bath modes interactingwith the reaction coordinate.
19–21To say specifically to
isomerization in solvents, both of them arise from micro-scopic motions of solvent molecules interacting with theisomerizing moiety. Then they must be related to each other.This relation is known as the fluctuation-dissipation theorem,and is written as
^R~t!R~t8!&5kBTzˆ~t2t8!fort.t8, ~5!
where ^{{{&represents the statistical average over heat-bath
modes at temperature T. In the present problem, the time of
correlation between tandt8on the left-hand side of Eq. ~5!
should be on the order of the inverse of the width of fre-quency distribution of microscopic solvent motions whosewavelength is comparable to or smaller than the dimensionof the isomerizing moiety of a solute molecule.
19–21The con-
dition for the wavelength arises from the situation that themicroscopic solvent motions contributing to R(t) must inter-
act with an appreciable strength with the isomerizing motiondescribed by the reaction coordinate X. Let us write this
correlation time as
tsc. It also gives the correlation time of
the frictional memory function on the right-hand side of Eq.~5!. From the general principle for
tscmentioned earlier, we
can estimate tscto be at most on the order of 1 ps, since 1 ps
corresponds to the width of frequency distribution of about30 cm
21'h/~1p s!wherehrepresents the Planck constant.
Since the order of magnitude of tscthus estimated plays im-portant roles in the discussion developed later in the present
work, it will be explained in more detail in the Appendix.
Let us consider here a scaled correlation function given
by^R(t)R(0)&/^R(0)2&and regard it as a function of a
scaled variable t/tsc,a s
f~t/tsc![^R~t!R~0!&/^R~0!2&5zˆ~t!/zˆ~0!, ~6!
where the second equality is ensured by Eq. ~5!. Since zˆ(t)
decays with the correlation time tsc, function f(x) defined
above satisfies f~0!51, andf(x)'1 forx!1 whilef(x)!1
forx@1. The Laplace transform of f(x) is written as F~l!,
which is defined by
F~l![E
0`
f~x!e2lxdxYE
0`
f~x!dx5z~l/tsc!/z~0!,
~7!
where the second equality is ensured by Eq. ~6!with Eq. ~3!.
ThisF~l!is a decreasing function of l, since so is z~m!as a
function of m, withF~0!51. Especially, it satisfies
F~l!'1 for l!1 andF~l!'~al!21~!1!forl@1,
~8!
with
a[E
0`
f~x!dx5O~1!, ~9!
where the second relation in Eq. ~8!is obtained by approxi-
matingf(x)b yf~0!~51!in the numerator in the central
expression of F~l!in Eq. ~7!.As noted in Eq. ~9!, it is certain
thatais a number of order unity, irrespective of the func-
tional form of f(x), although amay have a slight depen-
dence on the solvent viscosity hthrough a possible slight h
dependence of the functional form of f(x).
In the last expression of F~l!in Eq. ~7!,z~0!represents
the friction at zero frequency. This is the friction used byKramers
6in his theory. In fact, if the time ( t) variation of
dX(t)/dtis very small in the time interval of tsc, the second
term on the right-hand side of Eq. ~4!can be approximated
as
E
2`t
zˆ~t2t8!dX~t8!
dt8dt8'z~0!dX~t!
dt, ~10!
since zˆ(t2t8)'0 whent2t8@tsc. In this case, therefore, the
generalized Langevin equation of Eq. ~4!reduces to the
Langevin equation, which can be converted to the Fokker–Planck equation used by Kramers.
18The zero-frequency fric-
tionz~0!appearing in the Kramers theory has successfully
been regarded as proportional to the solvent viscosity h,
obeying the hydrodynamic Stokes–Einstein relation.10,22,23
To be more concrete, adopting the slip boundary conditionfor an uncharged rotating moiety or for nonpolar solvents,we can express
z~0!as
z~0!54pChr2d/I ~11!
when the isomerization motion is modeled as the motion of a
sphere of hydrodynamic radius drotated at a distance rwith
a moment of inertia Iaround a fixed axis, where Cis a
number of order unity dependent on the actual shape andvolume of the rotating moiety. Equation ~11!has also been9569 H. Sumi and T. Asano: Slow thermal isomerization in viscous solvents
J. Chem. Phys., Vol. 102, No. 24, 22 June 1995
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134.176.129.147 On: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:41:42adopted as the zero-frequency value of the frequency depen-
dent friction z~m!in its explicit calculation.8–11Combination
of Eqs. ~7!and~11!enables us to express z~m!in terms of
F~l!as
z~m!5~4pCr2d/I!hF~mtsc!. ~12!
The explicit adjusting procedure of kobsshown in Fig. 2
to the GH theory is started from here. Let us begin with theTST regime where k
obsis describable by the TST. The TST
regime for DBNA in TFB and DNAB in GTA is realized inthe low-pressure region which can be read in Fig. 3 by theprojection of a line segment for each temperature on theabscissa in Fig. 3 ~a!for DBNA in TFB and on that in Fig.
3~b!for DNAB in GTA. In order for theTSTto be recovered
in the GH theory,
m/vb'1 and z~m!!m, ~13!
must be satisfied, respectively, in Eqs. ~1!and~2!. Applying
Eq.~12!to Eq. ~13!,w eg e t
bF~mtsc!!~1023Pa s!/h ~14!
with
b[4pC~1023Pa s!r2d/~Ivb!5O~1! ~15!
as a relation which must be satisfied when the TST is recov-
ered in the GH theory.As noted in Eq. ~15!,bis a number of
order unity since I/r2has a magnitude on the order of the
total mass of the rotating moiety ~;2310225kg!, and
d;2.5310210m, while vb;1013s21as noted below Eq. ~1!.
The value of h/~1023Pa s!, the inverse of which appears on
the right-hand side of Eq. ~14!, can be read in Fig. 3 by the
projection of a line segment for each temperature on theordinate in Fig. 3 ~a!for DBNA in TFB and in Fig. 3 ~b!for
DNAB in GTA in the TST regime. Then we see that thevalue of ~10
23Pa s!/hhas a magnitude in the range of
1026–1022for DBNA in TFB and of 1025–1021for DNAB
in GTA. Therefore, ~1023Pa s!/his much smaller than unity,
and Eqs. ~14!and~15!require that F~mtsc!must be much
smaller than unity, too. From Eq. ~8!, the situation of
F~mtsc!!1 is obtained only when mtsc@1 and, in this case,
F~mtsc!'~amtsc!21should be realized with adefined by Eq.
~9!. Applying this relation to Eq. ~14!and utilizing the first
near equality in Eq. ~13!in the TST regime, we get
cvbtsc@h/~1023Pa s! ~16!
with
c[a/b5O~1! ~17!
as a relation which must be satisfied when the TST regime
realized for DBNAin TFB and DNAB in GTAis describableby the GH theory. As noted in Eq. ~17!,cis a number of
order unity since so are both aandbas noted respectively in
Eqs.~9!and~15!. For other terms appearing in Eq. ~16!,
vb
has a magnitude on the order of 1013s21as noted below Eq.
~1!, while h/~1023Pa s!for DBNA in TFB, shown in Fig.
3~a!, is at least about 102at the low-pressure edge ~at ambi-
ent pressure at 308 K !in the TST regime, and reaches about
33105at the high-pressure edge at 278 K in theTSTregime.
For DNAB in GTA shown in Fig. 3 ~b!,h/~1023Pa s!is atleast about 10 at the low-pressure edge ~at ambient pressure
at 313 K !, and reaches about 105at the high-pressure edge at
278 K. In order that the TST regime realized for DBNA inTFB is describable by the GH theory, therefore, the correla-tion time
tscamong random forces in the generalized Lange-
vin equation must be much larger than 10 ps at the low-pressure edge ~at ambient pressure at 308 K !in the TST
regime, and be much larger than 30 ns at the high-pressureedge at 278 K in theTSTregime. For DNAB in GTA, it mustbe much larger than 1 ps at the low-pressure edge ~at ambi-
ent pressure at 313 K !, and be much larger than 10 ns at the
high-pressure edge at 278 K. These requirements cannot besatisfied in real systems, since
tscmust be at most on the
order of 1 ps as mentioned below Eq. ~5!.Therefore, theTST
regime realized in these systems is not describable by the GHtheory.
Let us next examine the non-TST regime where k
obsde-
viates downwards from the TST-expected rate constant kTST.
It was shown above that the GH theory had a problem con-cerning
tscin its applicability to the TST regime realized in
these systems. It will be shown later that the problem be-comes more serious in its applicability to the non-TST re-gime also realized in these systems. If the non-TSTregime isdescribable by the GH theory, the transmission coefficient
m/vbmust be equal to kobs/kTSTplotted in Fig. 4 as a func-
tion of the solvent viscosity hin the non-TST regime. In the
GH theory, the frequency dependent friction z~m!divided by
vbis given by ( m/vb)212(m/vb) from the GH equation of
Eq.~2!. Then, Eq. ~12!enables us to get
bF~mtsc!5~1023Pa s/h!@~kobs/kTST!21
2~kobs/kTST!#, ~18!
withbdefined by Eq. ~15!. It is a relation which must be
satisfied when the non-TST regime is describable by the GHtheory. The value of the quantity on the right-hand side ofEq.~18!can easily be calculated from k
obs/kTSTobtained in
the non-TST regime. For DBNA in TFB, it is shown in Fig.5~a!as a function of the solvent viscosity
hin the non-TST
regime, while for DNAB in GTA, it is shown in Fig. 5 ~b!.
We see in Fig. 5 that the value of the quantity on the right-hand side of Eq. ~18!is much smaller than unity in the non-
TST regime realized in these systems. Then, from Eq. ~18!,
the scaled correlation function F~
mtsc!must also be much
smaller than unity in these systems, since bis a number of
order unity as noted in Eq. ~15!. From Eq. ~8!, the situation
ofF~mtsc!!1 is obtained only when mtsc@1, and in this case
F~mtsc!'~amtsc!21should be realized with adefined by Eq.
~9!. Applying this relation to Eq. ~18!and utilizing Eq. ~1!,
we get
cvbtsc5~h/1023Pa s!@12~kobs/kTST!2#, ~19!
withcdefined by Eq. ~17!. It is a relation which must be
satisfied when the non-TST regime realized for DBNA inTFB and DNAB in GTA is describable by the GH theory.The value of the quantity on the right-hand side of Eq. ~19!
can easily be calculated from k
obs/kTSTobtained in the non-
TST regime. For DBNAin TFB, it is shown in Fig. 6 ~a!as a
function of the solvent viscosity hin the non-TST regime,9570 H. Sumi and T. Asano: Slow thermal isomerization in viscous solvents
J. Chem. Phys., Vol. 102, No. 24, 22 June 1995
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134.176.129.147 On: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:41:42while for DNAB in GTA, it is shown in Fig. 6 ~b!. We see in
Fig. 6 ~a!that the value of the quantity on the right-hand side
of Eq. ~19!is at least about 5 3105at the low-pressure edge
ath'102Pa s at 308 K in the non-TST regime, and reaches
about 5 31010ath'53107Pa s at 278 K for DBNAin TFB.
We see in Fig. 6 ~b!that it is at least about 105at the low-
pressure edge at h'20 Pa s at 313 K in the non-TST regime,
and reaches about 7 3109ath'73106Pa s at 278 K for
DNAB in GTA. These values give cvbtscfrom Eq. ~19!,
wherecis a number of order unity as noted in Eq. ~17!and
vbhas a magnitude on the order of 1013s21as noted below
Eq.~1!. In order that the non-TST regime realized for DBNA
in TFB is describable by the GH theory, therefore, the cor-relation time
tscamong random forces in the generalized
Langevin equation must be at least about 50 ns at the low-pressure edge at
h'102Pa s at 308 K in the non-TST re-
gime, and be as large as about 5 ms at h'53107Pa s at 278
K. For DNAB in GTA, it must be at least about 10 ns at thelow-pressure edge at
h'20 Pa s at 313 K in the non-TST
regime, and be as large as about 1 ms at h'107Pa s at 278
K. These requirements cannot be satisfied in real systems,since
tscmust be at most on the order of 1 ps as mentioned
below Eq. ~5!. Therefore, the non-TST regime realized in
these systems is not describable by the GH theory.
The problem mentioned here in the applicability of the
GH theory to thermal Z/Eisomerization of DBNA in TFB
and DNAB in GTA was derived, without adjustable param-eters, only from experimental data on the pressure ~or vis-
cosity !dependence of the rate constant.The applicability of the Stokes–Einstein relation of Eq.
~11!has not yet been checked for viscosities
has high as
shown on the abscissa in Fig. 4, where the non-TST regimewas observed. It will be shown in Ref. 24 that the conclusionof the present paper remains unchanged even if Eq. ~11!is
not maintained, as it is, for
hin the non-TST regime.
IV. DISCUSSION
Thus, it was shown to be inappropriate to consider that
thermalZ/Eisomerization of DBNA in TFB and DNAB in
GTA with a transition-state barrier as high as about 50 kJ/mol took place only by diffusional Brownian motions in theframework of the GH theory. Then the interpretation pro-posed in Ref. 13 remains plausible following the Sumi–Marcus model
14whose rate constant was derived in Ref. 15.
In this interpretation, the surmounting over the transition-state barrier is accomplished as a result of sequential twosteps, induced first by diffusional conformational fluctuationsin the solute-solvent system and then by much faster in-tramolecular vibrational fluctuations in the solute molecule.
In the analysis presented in this work for investigating
the applicability of the GH theory, it was essentially impor-tant that the quantity on the right-hand side of Eq. ~14!was
much smaller than unity in the TST regime realized forDBNA in TFB and DNAB in GTA. It was also essentially
FIG. 5. Viscosity dependence of the scaled correlation function F~mtsc!
multiplied by bof order unity in the non-TSTregime, with m/vb5kobs/kTST,
obtained under an assumption that the non-TST regime is describable by theGH theory for DBNA in TFB @~a!#and DNAB in GTA @~b!#.
FIG. 6. Viscosity dependence of the correlation time among random forces
tscmultiplied by cof order unity and vb~;1013s21!in the non-TST regime,
obtained under an assumption that the non-TST regime is describable by theGH theory for DBNA in TFB @~a!#and DNAB in GTA @~b!#.9571 H. Sumi and T. Asano: Slow thermal isomerization in viscous solvents
J. Chem. Phys., Vol. 102, No. 24, 22 June 1995
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134.176.129.147 On: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:41:42important in the non-TST regime realized in these systems
that the quantity on the right-hand side of Eq. ~18!was much
smaller than unity. The former situation enabled us to derivea requirement which must be satisfied by the correlation time
tscamong random forces in the generalized Langevin equa-
tion if the observed TST regime was describable by the GHtheory. The latter situation enabled us to derive, without ad-justable parameters, the value of the correlation time itself ifthe observed non-TST regime was describable by the GHtheory. It was also important that the TST-expected rate con-stant could be determined in the non-TSTregime by extrapo-lating the rate constant in the TST regime at low pressures.
It is interesting to apply the analysis mentioned above
also to photoinduced E/Zisomerization of stilbenes in solu-
tion. As an example, let us take the reaction in liquidn-hexane solution. In this reaction, the observed rate con-
stantk
obsdecreases as the pressure is increased, obeying the
fractional-power dependence on the inverse of the solventviscosity
hin the high-pressure region,25as mentioned in
Sec. I. In Fig. 3 of Ref. 25, however, it appears that the h
dependence of kobsat 298 K reaches a saturation at two ex-
perimental points at hof about 0.3 and 0.4 31023Pa s in the
neighborhood of ambient pressure. If it is allowed to con-sider that k
obsenters in theTSTregime in these two values of
hat 298 K, Eq. ~14!must be satisfied there if theTSTregime
is simultaneously describable by the GH theory.The quantityon the right-hand side of Eq. ~14!has a magnitude of about
2–3 at these values of
h. Since it is not much smaller than
unity, we cannot regard F~mtsc!on the left-hand side of Eq.
~14!as much smaller than unity.Then, we cannot derive such
a requirement as Eq. ~16!. In this case, therefore, it is pos-
sible that mtsc@'vbtscin the TST regime from Eq. ~13!#has
a magnitude of order unity and it is possible from vb;1013
s21thattscbecomes a quantity, at most, on the order of 1 ps
in the TST regime for stilbenes, as noted below Eq. ~5!.
Concerning the non-TST regime realized for photoin-
ducedE/Zisomerization of silbenes in solution, however, it
is difficult to perform an analysis based on Eq. ~18!since we
do not know the TST-expected rate constant kTSTin the non-
TSTregime. In fact, even in n-hexane at 298 K we have only
two experimental points which can be located in the TSTregime at low pressures.Then, it is difficult to derive k
TSTby
extrapolating kobsat these two points to the high-pressure
region in the non-TST regime.
APPENDIX
Since random forces R(t) arise from microscopic mo-
tions of solvent molecules, it can be expressed as a linearcombination of amplitudes of normal modes of these mo-tions, as
R
~t!5(
jcjxj~t!, ~A1!
with appropriate coefficient cj’s, where xj(t) represents the
amplitude of the jth normal mode at time t. Let us denote the
frequency of the jth normal mode by nj, and the distortion
energy at its amplitude xj(t)b y1
2gjxj(t)2with a force con-
stantgj~.0!of the normal mode. At temperature Taroundroom temperature, the thermal energy kBTcan be regarded
as much larger than the energy quantum hnjof the normal
mode, where hrepresents the Planck constant. In this situa-
tion,xj(t) can be regarded as a classical variable whose sta-
tistical properties are determined by
^xj~t!&50,^xi~t!xj~t!&5di,jkBT/gj
and^x˙i~t!xj~t!&50 with x˙j~t![dxj~t!/dtJ, ~A2!
where ^{{{&represents the statistical average. The second
equality in Eq. ~A2!can be derived from the equipartition
law of energy ^1
2gjxj(t)2&51
2kBT, while the third equality
represents that amplitude xj(t) of a coordinate has no corre-
lation with its velocity x˙j(t) as well as with velocity x˙i(t)o f
any other coordinate on the average. Correlation betweenamplitudes at different times is determined by
^xi~t!xj~t8!&5di,j~kBT/gj!cos@2pnj~t2t8!#, ~A3!
since it should oscillate in t2t8with frequency njunder the
initial condition composed of the second and the third rela-tions in Eq. ~A2!. Then, Eqs. ~A1!and~A3!give
^R~t!R~t8!&5kBT(
jsjcos@2pnj~t2t8!#
withsj[cj2/gj. ~A4!
This relation is essentially the same as shown in Refs. 19–
21.
Whent2t850 on the right-hand side of Eq. ~A4!, each
sj~.0!is summed up with a coefficient of unity since
cos@2pnj(t2t8)#51 for any mode in this case.As t2t8~.0!
increases, however, differences in njamong different modes
cause dephasing among 2 pnj(t2t8)’s.Ast2t8~.0!further
increases, even the sign of cos @2pnj(t2t8)#begins to
change among different modes and individual terms speci-fied byjon the right-hand side of Eq. ~A4!begin to cancel
among themselves in the summation in j. In this way, the
correlation function on the left-hand side of Eq. ~A4!decays
ast2t
8~.0!increases. Its average decay time was called
the correlation time tscin the text. In the decay mechanism
mentioned here, the average rate of the decay, 1/ tsc, should
be nearly equal to the width of distribution of frequency nj’s
of modes contributing to the summation on the left-hand sideof Eq. ~A4!. In this case, modes contributing to the summa-
tion must have an appreciable value of s
j. This means that
these modes interact with an appreciable strength with mo-tions of the isomerizing moiety of the solute molecule. Theinteraction with an appreciable strength is realized by modeswhose wave length is comparable to or smaller than the di-mension of the isomerizing moiety at most of about severalangstroms. Inelastic neutron-scattering studies on the energyspectrum in liquids
26show that even if the wavelength is
fixed at a single value of about several angstroms, corre-sponding to a single wave vector of about 2
p/~several ang-
stroms !;1Å21, microscopic solvent motions have a width
of about several THz in their angular frequencies, that is, awidth of about 1 THz in their frequencies, or, a width ofabout 30 cm
21in their energies. This shows that frequencies9572 H. Sumi and T. Asano: Slow thermal isomerization in viscous solvents
J. Chem. Phys., Vol. 102, No. 24, 22 June 1995
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
134.176.129.147 On: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:41:42of microscopic solvent motions contributing appreciably to
the summation on the right-hand side of Eq. ~A4!are distrib-
uted over a width at least larger than 1 THz. Then, it isreasonable to consider that the correlation time among ran-dom forces
tscis a time at most on the order of 1 ps @5~1
THz!21#, or, much shorter than it.
1See, for example, N. G. Goguadze, J. M. Hammerstad-Pedersen, D. E.
Khoshtariya, and J. Ulstrup, Eur. J. Biochem. 200, 423 ~1991!.
2See, as a review, M. J. Weaver and G. E. McManis III, Acc. Chem. Res.
23, 294 ~1990!.
3See, for example, P. J. Steinbach et al., Biochem. 30, 3988 ~1991!.
4See, as a review, D. H. Waldeck, Chem. Res. 91, 415 ~1991!.
5For example, Ber. Bunsenges. Phys. Chem. 95, No. 3 ~1991!.
6H. A. Kramers, Physica 7, 284 ~1940!.
7R. F. Grote and J. T. Hynes, J. Chem. Phys. 73, 2715 ~1980!;74, 4465
~1981!.
8B. Bagchi and D. W. Oxtoby, J. Chem. Phys. 78, 2735 ~1983!; B. Bagchi,
Int. Rev. Phys. Chem. 6,1~1987!.
9G. Rothenberger, D. K. Negus, and R. M. Hochstrasser, J. Chem. Phys.
79, 5360 ~1983!.
10S. K. Kim and G. R. Fleming, J. Phys. Chem. 92, 2168 ~1988!.
11N. Sivakumar, E.A. Hoburg, and D. H. Waldeck, J. Chem. Phys. 90, 2305
~1989!.
12K. Cosstick, T. Asano, and N. Ohno, High Pressure Res. 11,3 7~1992!.13T. Anaso, H. Furuta, and H. Sumi, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 116, 5545 ~1994!.
14H. Sumi and R. A. Marcus, J. Chem. Phys. 84, 4894 ~1986!; see also, W.
Nadler and R. A. Marcus, ibid.86, 3906 ~1987!.
15H. Sumi, J. Phys. Chem. 95, 3334 ~1991!.
16T. Asano, H. Furuta, H.-J. Hofmann, R. Cimiraglia, Y. Tsuno, and M.
Fujio, J. Org. Chem. 58, 4418 ~1993!, and earlier papers cited therein.
17T.Asano and T. Okada, J. Org. Chem. 51, 4454 ~1986!, and earlier papers
cited therein.
18N. G. van Kampen, Stochastic Processes in Physics and Chemistry, Re-
vised and Enlarged Edition ~North Holland, Amsterdam, 1992 !.
19R. Zwanzig, J. Stat. Phys. 9, 215 ~1973!.
20E. Cortes, B. J. West, and K. Lindenberg, J. Chem. Phys. 82, 2708 ~1985!.
21B. J. Gertner, K. R. Wilson, and J. T. Hynes, J. Chem. Phys. 90, 3537
~1989!.
22J. S. McCaskill and R. G. Gilbert, Chem. Phys. 44, 389 ~1979!.
23D. H. Waldeck, W. T. Lothshaw, D. B. McDonald, and G. R. Fleming,
Chem. Phys. Lett. 88, 297 ~1982!.
24H. Sumi and T. Asano, Chem. Phys. Lett. ~to be published !.
25J. Schroeder, J. Troe, and P. Vo ¨hringer, Chem. Phys. Lett. 203, 255
~1993!; see also, J. Schroeder and J. Troe, in Reaction Dynamics in Clus-
ters and Condensed Phases , edited by J. Jortner et al. ~Kluwer, Nether-
lands, 1994 !, p. 361.
26F. J. Bermejo, F. Batallan, J. L. Martinez, M. Garcia-Hernandez, and E.
Enciso, J. Phys. Condensed Matter 2, 6659 ~1990!; E. G. D. Cohen, P.
Westerhuijs, and I.M. de Schepper, Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 2872 ~1987!.9573 H. Sumi and T. Asano: Slow thermal isomerization in viscous solvents
J. Chem. Phys., Vol. 102, No. 24, 22 June 1995
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
134.176.129.147 On: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:41:42 |
1.4939441.pdf | Control of magnetic relaxation by electric-field-induced ferroelectric phase transition
and inhomogeneous domain switching
Tianxiang Nan , Satoru Emori , Bin Peng , Xinjun Wang , Zhongqiang Hu , Li Xie , Yuan Gao , Hwaider Lin , Jie Jiao ,
Haosu Luo , David Budil , John G. Jones , Brandon M. Howe , Gail J. Brown , Ming Liu, , and Nian Sun,
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 108, 012406 (2016); doi: 10.1063/1.4939441
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4939441
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apl/108/1
Published by the American Institute of Physics
Control of magnetic relaxation by electric-field-induced ferroelectric phase
transition and inhomogeneous domain switching
Tianxiang Nan,1Satoru Emori,1BinPeng,2Xinjun Wang,1Zhongqiang Hu,1LiXie,1
Yuan Gao,1Hwaider Lin,1JieJiao,3Haosu Luo,3David Budil,4John G. Jones,5
Brandon M. Howe,5Gail J. Brown,5Ming Liu,2,a)and Nian Sun1,b)
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston,
Massachusetts 02115, USA
2Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
3Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
4Department of Chemistry, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
5Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB,
Ohio 45433, USA
(Received 7 September 2015; accepted 19 December 2015; published online 5 January 2016)
Electric-field modulation of magnetism in strain-mediated multiferroic heterostructures is considered
a promising scheme for enabling memory and magnetic microwave devices with ultralow power
consumption. However, it is not well understood how electric-field-induced strain influences mag-
netic relaxation, an important physical process for device applications. Here, we investigate resonantmagnetization dynamics in ferromagnet/ferroelectric multiferroic heterostructures, FeGaB/PMN-PT
and NiFe/PMN-PT, in two distinct strain states provided by electric-field-induced ferroelectric phase
transition. The strain not only modifies magnetic anisotropy but also magnetic relaxation. In FeGaB/PMN-PT, we observe a nearly two-fold change in intrinsic Gilbert damping by electric field, which is
attributed to strain-induced tuning of spin-orbit coupling. By contrast, a small but measurable change
in extrinsic linewidth broadening is attributed to inhomogeneous ferroelastic domain switchingduring the phase transition of the PMN-PT substrate.
VC2016 AIP Publishing LLC .
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4939441 ]
Electrical manipulation of the magnetization state is
essential for improving the scalability and power efficiency of
magnetic random access memory (MRAM).1–5A particularly
p r o m i s i n gs c h e m er e l i e so na ne l e c t r i cfi e l dt oa s s i s to ri n d u c e
magnetization switching with minimal power dissipation.4,6,7
Multiferroic magnetoelectric materials with coupled magnet-
ization and electric polarization offer possibilities for electric-
field-driven magnetization switching at room temperature.8–14
Such magnetoelectric effects have been demonstrated with
strain-,15–19charge-,20–23and exchange bias mediated cou-
pling mechanisms.24–27For example, non-volatile magnetiza-
tion switching with remarkable modulation of magneticanisotropy was realized using electric-field-induced piezo-
strain at the interface between ferromagnetic and ferroelectric
phases.
28–31
On the other hand, a better understanding of the processes
responsible for magnetic relaxation, especially at variousstrain states, is required for electric-field-assisted MRAM or
tunable magnetic microwave devices. Recent studies suggest
that electric-field-induced changes of magnetic relaxation arecorrelated to the piezo-strain state or effective magnetic ani-
sotropy.
32–36A similar modulation of magnetic relaxation has
also been observed in a charge-mediated magnetoelectric het-erostructure with ultra-thin ferromagnets.
37In general, the
contributions to magnetic relaxation include intrinsic Gilbert
damping due to spin-orbit coupling and extrinsic linewidthbroadening due to inhomogeneity in the ferromagnet. So far,the understanding of how a piezo-strain modifies these intrin-
sic and extrinsic contributions has been limited.
33
In this work, we quantify electric-field-induced modifi-
cations of both intrinsic Gilbert damping and inhomogeneouslinewidth broadening in two ferromagnet/ferroelectric heter-ostructures: Fe
7Ga2B1/Pb(Mg 1=3Nb2=3)O3-PbTiO 3(FeGaB/
PMN-PT) with a strong strain-mediated magnetoelectric(magnetostrictive) coupling and Ni
80Fe20/Pb(Mg 1=3Nb2=3)O3-
PbTiO 3with a negligible magnetoelectric coupling. The
rhombohedral (011) oriented PMN-PT substrate provides twodistinct strain states through an electric-field-induced phasetransformation.
38,39We conduct ferromagnetic resonance
(FMR) measurements at several applied electric field values todisentangle the intrinsic and extr insic contributions to magnetic
relaxation. FeGaB/PMN-PT exhib its pronounced electric-field-
induced modifications of the resonance field and intrinsicGilbert damping, whereas these parameters remain mostlyunchanged for NiFe/PMN-PT. These findings show that mag-netic relaxation can be tuned through a strain-mediated modifi-cation of spin-orbit coupling in a highly magnetostrictiveferromagnet. We also observe in both multiferroic heterostruc-
tures a small electric-field-in duced change in extrinsic line-
width broadening, which we attribute to the ferroelectric
domain state in the PMN-PT substrate.
30-nm thick films of FeGaB and NiFe were sputter-
deposited on (011) oriented PMN-PT single crystal sub-strates buffered with 5-nm thick Ta seed layers. The FeGaBthin film was co-sputtered from Fe
80Ga20(DC sputtered) and
B (RF sputtered) targets. Both FeGaB and NiFe films werecapped with 2 nm of Al to prevent oxidation. All films werea)Electronic mail: mingliu@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
b)Electronic mail: n.sun@neu.edu
0003-6951/2016/108(1)/012406/5/$30.00 VC2016 AIP Publishing LLC 108, 012406-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 108, 012406 (2016)
deposited in 3 mTorr Ar atmosphere with a base pressure of
/C201/C210/C07Torr. The thicknesses of deposited films were
calibrated by X-ray reflectivity. The magnetic hysteresis
loop measurements were carried out by using a vibrating
sample magnetometry (Lakeshore 7400) at different electricfields. FMR spectra were measured using a Bruker EMX
EPR spectrometer with a TE
102cavity operated at a micro-
wave frequency of 9.5 GHz. Gilbert damping constant andinhomogeneous linewidth were carried out using a home-
built broadband FMR system. The polarization domain phase
images with various applied voltages were measured by apiezo-force microscope.
The amorphous FeGaB thin film was selected for its
high saturation magnetostriction coefficient of up to 70 ppm(Ref. 40) and large magnetoelectric effect when interfaced
with ferroelectric materials.
19NiFe was chosen as the control
sample with near zero magnetostriction; the thickness of30 nm is far above the thickness regime that shows high sur-
face magnetostricion.
41Fig. 1shows magnetic hysteresis
loops of FeGaB/PMN-PT and NiFe/PMN-PT, measured byvibrating sample magnetometry with an in-plane magneticfield applied along the [100] direction of PMN-PT. An elec-
tric field was applied in the thickness direction of the PMN-PT substrate. Due to the anisotropic piezoelectric coefficient
of PMN-PT, an in-plane compressive strain is induced along
the [100] direction, which results in uniaxial magnetic ani-sotropy along the same axis. In FeGaB/PMN-PT, the electric
field ( E¼8 kV/cm) increases the saturation field by /C2540 mT,
whereas only a small change is observed in NiFe/PMN-PT,confirming the significantly different strengths of strain-
mediated magnetoelectric coupling for the two multiferroic
heterostructures.
Both ferromagnetic thin films exhibit comparatively nar-
row resonant linewidths, allowing for sensitive detection of
the electric-field modification of spin relaxation. Electric-fielddependent FMR spectra of FeGaB/PMN-PT and NiFe/PMN-
PT were measured using a Bruker EMX electron paramagnetic
resonance (EPR) spectrometer with a TE
102cavity operated at
a microwave frequency of 9.5 GHz. The external magnetic
field was applied along the [100] direction of the PMN-PT sin-
gle crystal. These spectra, shown in Figs. 2(a)and2(b),w e r e
fitted to the derivative of a modified Lorentzian function42to
FIG. 2. (a) and (b) FMR (fixed at
9.5 GHz) spectra at various electric
fields with the magnetic field appliedalong the [100] direction for FeGaB/
PMN-PT (a) and NiFe/PMN-PT (b). (c)
and (d) Resonance field HFMR as a
function of the applied electric field for
FeGaB/PMN-PT (c) and NiFe/PMN-PT
(d). Inset of (c) shows the piezo-strain
as a function of electric field for PMN-PT substrate along the [100] direction.FIG. 1. (a) and (b) Electric-field de-pendent magnetic hysteresis loops with
the magnetic field applied along the
[100] direction for FeGaB/PMN-PT (a)
and NiFe/PMN-PT (b).012406-2 Nan et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 108, 012406 (2016)
extract the resonance field HFMRand resonance linewidth W.
In FeGaB/PMN-PT, upon applying E¼2k V / c m a l o n g t h e
thickness direction of PMN-PT, a slight increase of HFMRby
10 mT is observed. A larger shift of 35 mT in HFMRis induced
atE¼8 kV/cm. In comparison, NiFe/PMN-PT exhibits a
much smaller HFMRshift of 1.5 mT at E¼8k V / c m ,a s s h o w n
in Fig. 2(b).
The shift of HFMRin FeGaB/PMN-PT and NiFe/PMN-
PT as a function of E is summarized in Figs. 2(c) and2(d).
Both samples show hysteric behavior that follows thepiezo-strain curve of PMN-PT (inset of Fig. 2(c)) measured
with a photonic sensor. This can be understood by thestrain-mediated magnetoelectric coupling with the electric-field-induced change of magnetic anisotropy field ( DH
k)
expressed by
DHk¼3kr 100/C0r0/C011 ðÞ
l0Ms; (1)
where r100and r0/C011are the in-plane piezo-stress and k
andMsare the magnetostriction constant and the saturation
magnetization, respectively. Considering an in-plane com-
pressive strain along the [100] direction and a positive mag-netostriction coefficient of both FeGaB and NiFe, a decreaseof the magnetic anisotropy field H
kis expected with a posi-
tive electric field. The drop of Hkresults in an increase of
HFMRdescribed by the Kittel equation
f¼c
2pl0ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
HFMRþHk ðÞ HFMRþHkþMef f ðÞq
; (2)
where c=2p¼28 GHz =Ta n d Meffis the effective magnetiza-
tion. At E<4 kV/cm, HFMRincreases linearly, which corre-
sponds to the linear region of piezoelectric effect of PMN-PTwith a uniaxial compressive piezo-strain along [100] direction.The sudden change of H
FMR atE¼4 kV/cm is attributed
to the rhombohedral-to-orthorhombic (R-O) phase transitionof PMN-PT substrate.
39The PMN-PT substrate reverts to the
rhombohedral phase upon decreasing the electric field.Therefore, the R-O phase transformation with a large uniaxialin-plane strain induces two stable and reversible magneticstates at E¼0 and 8 kV/cm. This provides a reliable platform
for studying magnetization dynamics in a controlled manner
with the applied electric field.
The peak-to-peak FMR linewidth Wof FeGaB/PMN-PT
and NiFe/PMN-PT, extracted from the same FMR measure-ments in Fig. 2, also exhibits a strong dependence on theapplied electric field as shown in Fig. 3. For FeGaB/PMN-
PT,Wremains unchanged within experimental uncertainty
atE<4 kV/cm and abruptly increases from /C254.6 mT to
/C255.6 mT across the R-O phase transition. By removing the
applied electric field, Wdecreases to the original value with
the reversal to the rhombohedral phase. Comparing Figs.
2(c) and3(a), it is evident that the observed electric-field-
induced changes in H
FMRandWin FeGaB/PMN-PT are cor-
related, consistent with the recent studies.34–36The change in
Windicates a modulation in spin-orbit coupling in the ferro-
magnet; considering that spin-orbit coupling governs theintrinsic Gilbert damping, it is reasonable that we observesimultaneous modification of WandH
FMR by strain in the
magnetostrictive FeGaB film.
Given the same sign of the magne tostriction coefficient for
FeGaB and NiFe,40,43one would expect to also observe a small
increase in Wwith increasing electric field across the R-O
phase transition in NiFe/PMN-PT. However, NiFe/PMN-PT
exhibits a decrease in Wacross the phase transition. This obser-
vation indicates that the piezo-strain modifies a different mag-netic relaxation contribution in NiFe.
The FMR linewidth Wconsists of the intrinsic Gilbert
damping contribution (parameterized by the damping con-stant a) and the frequency-independent inhomogeneous line-
width broadening W
0
W¼W0þ4paffiffiffi
3p
cf; (3)
where fis the microwave excitation frequency. According to
Eq.(3),aandW0can be determined simply by measuring the
frequency dependence of W. For this purpose, we used a
home-built broadband FMR system44with a nominal micro-
wave power of /C05 dBm and f¼6–19 GHz. Just as in the
single-frequency measurement using the EPR system (Figs. 2
and3), the external magnetic field was applied along the
[100] direction of the PMN-PT substrate. By fitting the fre-
quency dependence of HFMRto Eq. (1)(Figs. 4(a)and4(b)),
we obtain anisotropy field shift Dl0Hk/C2546 mT for FeGaB/
PMN-PT and Dl0Hk/C251 mT for NiFe/PMN-PT across the R-
O phase transition, in agreement with the single-frequency
FMR measurement (Fig. 2), while l0Mef fremains unchanged.
Figs. 4(c)and4(d) plotWas a function of the frequency for
FeGaB/PMN-PT and NiFe/PMN-PT, respectively. From
the slope of the linear fit (Eq. (3)), we find that aof FeGaB/
PMN-PT increases from ð0:660:01Þ/C210/C02atE¼0t o
FIG. 3. (a) and (b) Resonance line-
width W at 9.5 GHz with the magnetic
field applied along the [100] direction
as a function of the applied electric
field for FeGaB/PMN-PT (a) and
NiFe/PMN-PT (b).012406-3 Nan et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 108, 012406 (2016)
ð1:0660:02Þ/C210/C02atE¼8 kV/cm, whereas ais unchanged
atð1:2960:16Þ/C210/C02for NiFe/PMN-PT within experimen-
tal uncertainty( a¼ð1:2760:2Þ/C210/C02atE¼8 kV/cm). The
large change in afor FeGaB and negligible change for NiFe
suggest a strong correlation between magnetostriction and theintrinsic Gilbert damping mechanism. In particular, a large in-
plane uniaxial strain generated by the R-O phase transforma-
tion induces an additional anisotropy field in FeGaB that
enhances the dephasing of the magnetization precession.
43
However, both FeGaB/PMN-PT and NiFe/PMN-PT
show a decreased W0upon applying E¼8 kV/cm. This could
be related to the ferroelectric domain state in the PMN-PT
substrate that significantly affects the homogeneity of the
magnetic film on top. The polarization domain phase images
with various applied voltages are shown in Fig. 5by using a
piezo-force microscope. For the unpoled state, as shown in
Fig.5(a), the polarization state of PMN-PT surface is inho-
mogenous, with polarization vectors oriented randomly
along the eight body diagonals of the pseudocubic cell. By
applying a voltage of 30 V within the gated area (dashed out-line in Figs. 5(b) and5(d)), the ferroelectric state becomes
saturated within this area with all the polarization vectors
pointing upward. This uniformly polarized state alters thesurface topology the PMN-PT substrate,
31thereby reducing
the inhomogeneous linewidth broadening W0of the ferro-
magnetic film.
We also measured frequency-dependent FMR spectra
with an external magnetic field applied along the ½0/C2211/C138direc-
tion to examine the anisotropy of magnetic relaxation. For
FeGaB/PMN-PT, aandW0are close to the [100] configura-
tion at E¼0. At E¼8 kV/cm, we observed a non-linear rela-
tion between Wand f, which might have resulted from a
highly non-uniform magnetization state at low fields due tothe large electric-field-induced Hk.45,46To extract areliably
in this case, we would need to conduct FMR measurementsat higher frequencies. For NiFe/PMN-PT, aand the electric-
field dependence of W
0are identical for the ½0/C2211/C138and [100]
directions. The parameters quantified in this study are sum-marized in Table I.
In summary, we have quantified electric-field-induced
modifications of magnetic anisotropy and magnetic relaxa-tion contributions, namely, intrinsic Gilbert damping and in-homogeneous linewidth broadening, in multiferroicheterostructures. A large modification of intrinsic dampingFIG. 4. (a) and (b) Frequency f as a
function of resonance field HFMR at
different electric fields for FeGaB/
PMN-PT (a) and NiFe/PMN-PT (b).
(c) and (d) Linewidth W as a function
of frequency f at different electric
fields for FeGaB/PMN-PT (c) and
NiFe/PMN-PT (d). The magnetic fieldwas applied along the [100] direction.
FIG. 5. (a) and (b) The out-of-plane vertical PFM (VPFM) phase imagesupon applying different voltages to the square area outlined by a red dashed
line. (c) and (d) Corresponding amplitude images at different voltage biases.012406-4 Nan et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 108, 012406 (2016)
arises from strain-induced tuning of spin-orbit coupling in
the ferromagnet and is correlated with the magnitude of mag-netostriction. A small change in the extrinsic linewidth con-tribution is attained by controlling the ferroelectric domainstates in the substrate. These findings are not only of technol-ogy importance for the application on low-power MRAMand magnetic microwave devices but also permit investiga-tion of the structural dependence of spin-orbit-derived phe-nomena in magnetic thin films.
This work was supported by the National Science
Foundation Award 1160504, NSF Nanosystems Engineering
Research Center for Translational Applications of NanoscaleMultiferroic Systems TANMS, the W.M. Keck Foundation,and the Air Force Research Laboratory through Contract No.FA8650-14-C-5706 and in part by FA8650-14-C-5705.
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FeGaB/PMN-PT NiFe/PMN-PT
E(kV/cm) 0 8 0 8
l0Mef fðTÞ 1.4860.01 1.46 60.01 0.96 60.04 0.96 60.04
l0HkðmTÞ½100/C138 5.860.5 /C041:360:3 1.67 60.2 0.27 60.2
að10/C02Þ½100/C138 0.660.01 1.06 60.02 1.29 60.16 1.27 60.2
W0ðmTÞ½100/C138 2.460.05 1.8 60.07 0.66 60.06 0.35 60.07
l0HkðmTÞ½0/C2211/C138 3.2460.4a1.5460.2 3.1 60.3
að10/C02Þ½0/C2211/C138 0.660.02 1.21 60.12 1.29 60.15
W0ðmTÞ½0/C2211/C138 2.860.05 5.9 60.08 2.9 60.05
aThe values were not obtained due to the frequency constraint and the field-
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|
1.4938549.pdf | Modeling of hysteresis loops by Monte Carlo simulation
Z. Nehme , Y. Labaye, , R. Sayed Hassan , N. Yaacoub , and J. M. Greneche
Citation: AIP Advances 5, 127124 (2015); doi: 10.1063/1.4938549
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4938549
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/adv/5/12
Published by the American Institute of PhysicsAIP ADV ANCES 5, 127124 (2015)
Modeling of hysteresis loops by Monte Carlo simulation
Z. Nehme,1Y. Labaye,1,aR. Sayed Hassan,1,2N. Yaacoub,1
and J. M. Greneche1
1Université du Maine, Institut des Molécules et Matériaux du Mans, IMMM, UMR CNRS
6283, F-72085, Le Mans, France
2MDPL, Université Libanaise, Faculté des Sciences Section I, Beyrouth, Liban
(Received 21 October 2015; accepted 9 December 2015; published online 18 December 2015)
Recent advances in MC simulations of magnetic properties are rather devoted to
non-interacting systems or ultrafast phenomena, while the modeling of quasi-static
hysteresis loops of an assembly of spins with strong internal exchange interactions
remains limited to specific cases. In the case of any assembly of magnetic moments,
we propose MC simulations on the basis of a three dimensional classical Heisenberg
model applied to an isolated magnetic slab involving first nearest neighbors exchange
interactions and uniaxial anisotropy. Three di fferent algorithms were successively
implemented in order to simulate hysteresis loops: the classical free algorithm, the
cone algorithm and a mixed one consisting of adding some global rotations. We focus
particularly our study on the impact of varying the anisotropic constant parameter on
the coercive field for di fferent temperatures and algorithms. A study of the angular
acceptation move distribution allows the dynamics of our simulations to be charac-
terized. The results reveal that the coercive field is linearly related to the anisotropy
providing that the algorithm and the numeric conditions are carefully chosen. In a
general tendency, it is found that the e fficiency of the simulation can be greatly
enhanced by using the mixed algorithm that mimic the physics of collective behavior.
Consequently, this study lead as to better quantified coercive fields measurements
resulting from physical phenomena of complex magnetic (nano)architectures with
different anisotropy contributions. C2015 Author(s). All article content, except where
otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
License. [http: //dx.doi.org /10.1063 /1.4938549]
I. INTRODUCTION
During the last decades, the study of magnetic nanostructures including as-prepared and func-
tionalized nanoparticles, multilayers and nanostructured powders has been the center of interest
among the scientific community because of their increasing number of applications in various fields
including catalysis, biotechnology,1biomedicine (Magnetic Resonance Imaging MRI2), recording
media.3,4The physical properties of these nanostructures are strongly a ffected by the enhanced role
of surfaces, symmetry breaking and finite size, etc. In addition to experimental approach, numerical
methods become an alternative route to study and to understand the influence of di fferent parame-
ters on the structural and magnetic properties of the nanostructures. The Monte Carlo (MC) method
seems to be a suitable numeric tool that allows a detailed microscopic description of an assembly
of spins which does correspond to a magnetic material.5In the MC simulation, the procedure
consists in first creating a model system and then modifying it through a variety of states randomly
chosen from initial thermodynamic conditions in order to reach the equilibrium state. The physical
quantities such as magnetization, susceptibility, magnetic energy, are estimated by averaging those
thermodynamic quantities over a sequence of states accepted according to the Boltzmann distri-
bution. The interest of the MC method is that it allows detailed interactions of systems and can
allow local homogeneities (frustration, non-collinear behavior) to be treated. As a second positive
aCorrespondence should be addressed to Y . Labaye (yvan.labaye@univ-lemans.fr).
2158-3226/2015/5(12)/127124/11 5, 127124-1 ©Author(s) 2015.
127124-2 Nehme et al. AIP Advances 5, 127124 (2015)
advantage, it gives rise to the thermal dependence of the magnetic properties of the system (critical
temperature, temperature dependence of magnetization).5,6Some properties as thermal activation
and switching behavior (from coherent rotation to nucleation) in systems with continuous degree of
freedom have been yet successfully investigated using the MC method.7,8
It is important to emphasize that the hysteresis loops have a major role in the understanding of
magnetic properties, the main characteristics of which is coercive field H C. It comes in the study of
various physical phenomena such magnetic anisotropy and exchange bias (EB) coupling.9Indeed,
it is well established that the EB coupling induces an additional anisotropy in some materials. The
main indicator of the EB is the shift of the hysteresis loop along the field axis and an increase of the
coercive field H C(probably in most nanostructures) after a field cooling procedure.10–13However,
as the hysteresis loop describes a series of metastable states, the MC method is not a priori the best
route to simulate it since it provides a way to find the equilibrium state of the system even if this
equilibrium is reached very slowly. The real system is generally blocked in a metastable region where
it may remain for a long time in a local energy minimum. The energy barrier between this metastable
state and the equilibrium state can be overwhelmed by the temperature e ffect and /or the presence of
an external magnetic field. Such features are, for example, observable in the case of ultrafine parti-
cles where the magnetization can fluctuate spontaneously from one direction to the opposite one at
temperature well below the critical temperature T c. This phenomenon known as superparamagnetism
can be modeled by MC, following the magnetization versus the simulation “time” (i.e. the Monte
Carlo Steps MCS, if the system contains N sspins, one MCS corresponds to N stries to change one
spin). But one should emphasize that algorithmic conditions strongly influence the characteristics of
the computed hysteresis loop. In addition to intrinsic physical parameters of the magnetic material,
the computed value of the coercive field is also a ffected by the simulation conditions: essentially the
algorithm and the field scan speed (FSS).14–17Consequently, it is necessary to discriminate the e ffects
due to the simulation conditions from those attributed to the physical parameters.
The classical MC method is a stochastic process having no physical time associated with
each MCS, thus the obtained dynamics depends on the algorithm. The detailed balance of the MC
procedure says that, at equilibrium, the transition probability between states is independent of time
(stationary state). Thus, the true time evolution of the system does not appear in any of the used
equations.18However, a significant contribution involving the Time Quantify Monte-Carlo (TQMC)
procedure was proposed by Nowak et al. 12 years ago.19This algorithm resembles the classical
one except in the way of choosing a new configuration from the initial one. The new state has to
be chosen within a cone around the initial spin direction. The time associated with one MCS is
then related to a real time and is proportional to R2, where R is the reduced cone radius. This cone
radius is expected to be ≪1 in order to fulfill the validity of the approximations made to establish
the relation between real time and R2. The TQMC results were successfully compared to those
obtained from Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert (LLG) dynamic calculations of switching times in the case
of non-interacting assembly of spins20,21and spin waves at finite temperatures. Extension to wider
range of damping factor was proposed in Refs. 22 and 23 by introducing a precessional term in the
choice of new spin state to be applied to 2D arrays of interacting spins of max size 40x40 as well as
to spin waves on linear chain of spins. In order to apply the TQMC to simulate superparamagnetic
phenomena of non-interacting magnetic moments with interesting anisotropy values (experimental
ones), Melenev et al.24propose first to modify the relation (R2∝∆t) established by Nowak et al.
in Ref. 19; then they successively apply their model to simulate dynamic hysteresis loops on a
randomly oriented ensemble of 106moments. But all those calculations are devoted to ultrafast (ns)
phenomena and can hardly be applied to quasi-static or static cases.
The idea to perform MC quasi-static calculations of hysteresis loops was proposed in Ref. 25.
Indeed, it results in the analysis of each energy landscape of the possible orientation change of mag-
netic moment belonging to a randomly oriented anisotropic assembly of non-interacting moments.
The flipping probability of one magnetic moment depends on the location of both the initial and
final states in the energy landscape as well as the value of the saddle point energy (assuming that
only two minima in the energy landscape are present).
One does conclude that the simulation of hysteresis loops in the case of interacting spins remains
somehow more di fficult by means of the methods listed above. The di fferent reasons are the following:127124-3 Nehme et al. AIP Advances 5, 127124 (2015)
- the first one is that the collective behavior of an assembly of interacting moments is not taken
into account (global rotation of the whole system with e ffective field) rather than by a huge number
of MCS in the case of single spin flip algorithm. The energy barrier seen by a magnetic moment in-
teracting with neighbors during single spin changes can be very high compared to k BT (high modi-
fication of exchange energy with small acceptation probability); but it can be very small or negative
if a global rotation is performed (no exchange energy needed in case of isotropic exchange). At low
temperature the critical slowing down will also lower this acceptation probability;
- the second constraint comes from the real time a ffected to 1 MCS (order of 10−12s) which is
too small to perform quasi-static simulations;
- the third problem is concerned by the idea of Du and Du25where a breakdown occurs if more
than two minima and /or saddle points are found in the energy landscape. The increased complexity
of such algorithm with number of minima /saddle points seems to be tricky to implement; in addition,
such an algorithm is not relevant for an assembly of magnetic moments interacting by exchange.
In this context, our objective is to investigate the di fferent algorithms available in order to find
the best compromise between physically sound results and e fficiency for simulations of hysteresis
loops. To perform such simulation one has first to choose dynamics, i.e. a rule for changing one
magnetic state into another.
The possible changes used in modeling spin systems can be divided into two main algorithms:
single spin flip (SSF) and cluster spin flip (CSF) algorithms.
*SSF algorithm consists in selecting randomly a new state for a single randomly selected spin.
This new state can be either restricted to a part of the space around the previous spin direction (cone
algorithms) or free to explore the whole space (free algorithm). Both have the advantage to be able
to keep metastable states but the last one shows poor e fficiency to reproduce the hysteresis loop.
The main explanation for this poor e fficiency is that, in the SSF method, the collective change of
the magnetization with applied external field is not assumed and can be reproduced only by a large,
nearly uncorrelated, number of trial moves.
*CSF algorithm (Swendsen-Wang algorithm or Wol ffalgorithm)26–28includes by essence those
collective behaviors preventing the metastable state to be reached. Those collective changes algo-
rithms simply wipe out metastable states and consequently are not a good choice to simulate
hysteresis loops. This fact justifies why the SSF algorithm, despite its low e fficiency, should be used
to reproduce hysteresis loop.
Consequently, the present computer modeling of hysteresis loop will be based on the SSF
algorithm but the validity of such an approach has to be carefully checked in order to be applied for
finite temperatures.
At zero temperature and for a coherent rotation reversal mechanism (the whole system be-
haves as a macro-spin), the magnetic field at which the reversal occurs is well described by the
Stoner-Wohlfarth model. It suggests that the relation between reversal field H rand e ffective anisot-
ropy constant K effis given by H r=2 K eff/Ms, where M sis the saturation magnetization. But a more
complex relationship could link H rto K effwhen the above conditions are not fulfilled (non-coherent
reversal, finite temperature, surface e ffects). For example, the e ffect of surface anisotropy on hyster-
esis loops of ferromagnetic particles was performed by MC simulations. It results a non-trivial
relation between the coercive field and surface anisotropy e ffects.
Simulating hysteresis loop by Monte Carlo at a given temperature consists in spending N (MCS)
(number of MCS) at a fixed field and then increasing (or decreasing) this field by an increment ∆H
and repeating those two steps for fields ranged in the scanning window [+Hmax,−Hmax,+Hmax]. The
results obtained are strongly dependent on field scan speed (FSS) defined as FSS =∆H
N(MCS ). It is
important to note that a fixed FSS can be obtained by changing ∆H and N (MCS) by the same factor
and gives rise to the same hysteresis loop. As in real systems, the coercive field depends strongly on
the speed at which the field is swept as illustrated in Fig. 1(a). Such results are perfectly consistent
with previous comments.
An example of the estimated H cfor di fferent N (MCS), is illustrated in Fig. 1(b) on a system
without anisotropy, H cshould be zero. The power law plotted in Fig. 1(c) shows that infinitely slow
sweeping field has to be used to reach the zero theoretical value of H c.127124-4 Nehme et al. AIP Advances 5, 127124 (2015)
FIG. 1. (a) Average (20 cycles) hysteresis loops calculated with Ku=0 and T/Tc=0.007 at di fferent N (MCS) using the
cone algorithm, (b) variation of Hc versus N (MCS) and (c) log plot of Hc versus N (MCS).
In the following calculations, we will use quite low N (MCS) (faster calculations) leading to
overestimate H cvalues but leading to correct behavior. The aim of the present study is to understand
the impact of the simulation dynamics on the estimation of the coercive field and try to figure out
its dependence on the e ffective anisotropic constant. This could be applied to the study of induced
anisotropies such as those coming from exchange bias coupling e ffects. Understanding the impact
of the e ffective anisotropy on the hysteresis loop can allow to predict variation of the coercive field
when the exchange bias coupling constants are modified.
II. MODELANDSIMULATION
The simulated structure consists of a ferromagnet composed of 2160 atoms forming a paral-
lelepiped box, where the [111] crystallographic direction of the BCC cell is pointing in the OZ
direction of the simulation box. The limits of the box are ±5√
2,±3√
6 and±3√
3 along x, y and z
directions, respectively. The implemented model is based on three-dimensional classical Heisenberg
Hamiltonian:
H=−1
2
<i,j>Jij⃗Si.⃗Sj−CH∗⃗Hext∗
i⃗Si+KU
i(1−(⃗ui⃗Si
Si)2)
Here, a classical vector spin Si=1µBis associated for each atom i. The first term is the exchange
energy between spins ⃗Siand⃗Sj, Jijis the coupling constant while index j is related to the first nearest
magnetic neighbors of atom i. The second term corresponds to the Zeeman energy, C His a unity
conversion factor equal to (µB
kB0.672) used to insure that the energy is given in Kelvin when ⃗Hext,
the external applied magnetic field, is given in Tesla. The third term deals with the uniaxial volume
anisotropy energy with K Uthe effective anisotropy constant, where ⃗uiis a unit vector along the easy127124-5 Nehme et al. AIP Advances 5, 127124 (2015)
magnetization axis. For the present work, neither internal dipolar interactions nor surface anisotropy
are taken into account since internal dipolar interactions of a 2160 µBisolated system are negligible.
We performed our simulation using Metropolis Monte Carlo algorithm with periodic bound-
ary conditions along x, y and z directions to avoid surface e ffects. Temperature T and exchange
coupling constant J ijare expressed in Kelvin per square Bohr magneton, field H extis in Tesla, the
magnetic moments are in µBand the anisotropic constant K Uis in K /atom. The exchange coupling
constant and the temperature are normalized to the transition temperature which is about 700 K.
In our simulations, J /Tcis equal to 0.65. The anisotropy is supposed to be uniaxial along the OZ
direction considered as the magnetization easy axis. The anisotropic constant varies as follows:
KU={0.024; 1; 5; 10; 15; 20 K /atom}.
Our numerical process starts from a random spin configuration at high temperature T i(above
Tc). The temperature of the system is slowly cooled obeying the law T N=αNTiwhere αis the
lowering coe fficient and N the number of temperature steps. The initial temperature is T i/Tc=2.14
withα=0.97 and N =380 to reach a final temperature around T f. We use 5000 MCS for each
temperature step and apply a small external magnetic field along the anisotropy direction to ensure
that the simulation parameters used converge to the lowest attainable energy state.
The resulting spin configuration is then used as an input for the hysteresis loop calculations.
The external field will be swept in the anisotropic direction (i.e. Z) and at fixed T =Tfof the
equilibrium state calculated before. The hysteresis loop will be recorded at a fix Field Scan Speed
and averaged over 20 cycles. The value of the coercive field is defined as H c=H+c−H−c
2where H+
cand
H−
care the points corresponding to the intersection of the hysteresis loop with the field axis.
III. RESULTSANDDISCUSSION
A. The“freealgorithm”
As mentioned below, the “free algorithm” (FA) is a sampling method of the Single Spin
Flip (SSF) dynamics where the new direction of the spin is randomly chosen without any space
constraint.
In order to check the dependence of the coercive field on the e ffective anisotropic constant,
hysteresis loops were collected after changing the value of K Uunder a maximum applied magnetic
field of 300 T. This unrealistic huge field is necessary to close the cycle due to the low (3000)
MCS value used for each field step. The study was done at di fferent temperatures T /Tcranged
from 0.007 to 0.43. Fig. 2(a) and 2(c) illustrates the simulated hysteresis loops at T /Tc=0.007 and
T/Tc=0.43. For each case, we plotted the variation of H cas function of K U: a linear dependence
can be thus expressed as H c=H0
c+αH∗KUwhere H0
cis the measured coercive field when K U
=0 K/atom and αHthe slope. The di fferent tests show that αHdepends slightly on the temperature,
whereas H0
cis strongly a ffected by the temperature. According to the Stoner-Wohlfarth model at
T=0 K, the reversal field should be proportional to the e ffective anisotropy with a slope equal to 2
(if Ms =1). The slope measured at T /Tc=0.007 is found to be 1.92, as shown in Fig. 2(b), close
to theoretical value of 2. For non-zero temperatures, the slope should decrease due to thermal e ffect
facilitating thus the crossing of the energy barrier. We found such decrease for T /Tc=0.43 where
αHis 1.05 as shown in Fig. 2(d). At fixed anisotropic constant value the coercive field decreases
with temperature as expected as seen in Fig. 3.
It is important to emphasize that η, the acceptance rate, defined as η=n∗100
N(MCS )∗Nswith n the
number of accepted flips and Ns the total number of sites, remains rather small at low temper-
ature and does not exceed 12 % at T /Tc=0.43 considered as high temperature. A large part of
the simulation time is wasted in considering configurations energetically improbable and conse-
quently rejecting most of them. According to the Metropolis algorithm, the probability of accepting
new configurations becomes very small at low temperatures. Therefore, the FA is ine fficient at
low temperatures and gives rise to non realistic values of coercive fields due to under-sampling
conditions.127124-6 Nehme et al. AIP Advances 5, 127124 (2015)
FIG. 2. Hysteresis loops at T/Tc=0.007 (a) and T/Tc=0.43 (c) for di fferent anisotropy constants. Relation between the
coercive field and the anisotropic constant at T/Tc=0.007 (b) and T/Tc=0.43 (d). The di fferent curves were obtained by
the “FA”.
B. TheAngularAcceptanceDistribution
As it is well established that the physical time is not included in classical MC simulation, the
present dynamics is mainly due to the algorithm used. So, we focused our interest in characterizing
the dynamics originating from our “free algorithm”. For this purpose, it is necessary to study the
probability of accepting new configurations P( θ) as a function of θ, the angle between initial and
accepted new spin direction.
The angular acceptance distribution is defined as P (θ)=Nacc(θ−δθ
2,θ+δθ
2)
MCS∗NSwhere N accrepresents
the number of accepted flips in the interval [θ−δθ
2,θ+δθ
2]. P(θ) allows to visualize the θ-space
FIG. 3. Variation of the coercive field as a function of temperature resulting from the “FA” where KU=0.024 K /atom.127124-7 Nehme et al. AIP Advances 5, 127124 (2015)
FIG. 4. Variation of probability distribution P (θ)as a function of the accepted angle at T/Tc=0.007 (a) and T/Tc=0.43
(b) for KU=20 K/atom by the “FA” with 3000 MCS.
region where our sampling gives non zero acceptance. It should be noted that the following proba-
bility distributions result from an average over all measured distribution probabilities obtained for
each field step of the hysteresis loop.
Fig. 4 shows how probability distribution P( θ) drops down to 0 for an angle close to 20◦at
T/Tc=0.007 (a), whereas it vanishes at a value close to 150◦at T/Tc=0.43 (b). The low temper-
ature P( θ) shape allows the small acceptance rate of the ”free algorithm” to be explained : we are
wasting time in scanning configuration space between 0◦and 180◦, while the dynamics is restricted
to much smaller angles contrarily to high temperature.
C. The“conealgorithm”
In order to accelerate the dynamics and to increase the acceptance rate of simulations, we modi-
fied the sampling method of the configuration space by implementing a restricted algorithm: the
“cone algorithm” (CA). This algorithm generates SSF dynamics within a fixed cone radius R cone. A
new state is obtained by adding a random vector of norm R coneto the initial direction of the spin and
then normalize. It is important to note that the cone radius is normalized to the spin modulus and is
dimensionless. R conevalue has a strong influence on the generated dynamics as previously proved in
TQMC method.19
The cone radius is related to a maximum angle θmaxwhich has to be chosen carefully in order to
provide a good sampling of the phase space. Consequently, the angle where the P (θ)freevanishes is the
optimum value of θmax. According to results reported in Fig. 4, at T /Tc=0.007, the optimum value
of R conemust lead to θmaxaround 20◦, giving R cone=0.4. Therefore, we run a simulation with a R cone
value of 0.4 and record the P (θ)restricted in order to check how our configuration space will be dependent127124-8 Nehme et al. AIP Advances 5, 127124 (2015)
FIG. 5. Variation of probability distribution P (θ)as a function of the accepted angle at T/Tc=0.007 for Rcone=0.4 and
KU=20 K/atom.
on those sampling conditions. The results are reported in Fig. 5: one observes that P (θ)restricted leads
to the same shape as P (θ)freebut an enhancement of the acceptance rate is well achieved.
The study is focused on the influence of the anisotropy constant variation on the coercive
field. The calculations were performed at di fferent values of K Uand for di fferent temperatures. The
FSS was kept constant (2 .10−3T/MCS) and equal to that used in “FA” calculations by applying a
maximum field of about 200 T. Indeed, this field is necessary to close the cycle due to the rather
low number of MCS used for each field step (here 2000 MCS). For all temperatures studied, a linear
dependence of the coercive field with the anisotropy constant was observed. An illustrative case is
given in Fig. 6 where the hysteresis loop (a) and the linear relationship (b) obtained by the cone
algorithm with a cone radius R coneof 0.4 at T/Tc=0.007 for di fferent K Uis shown. It should be
noted that the values of H care smaller than those of the FA, but still unrealistic (high FSS).
At low temperature, the CA is more e fficient than the FA as mentioned below. The determination
ofθmaxwith a FA is needed to check the validity of the calculation and this for the temperature used
for the simulation. It is important to emphasize that certain choice of θmax(i.e R cone) can lead to wrong
results. For example, a fixed R coneof 0.2 was used for simulations of the same system in a range of
T/Tcfrom 0.007 to 0.43. The dependence of H cwith K Uwas always linear but the variation of H c
versus T for a fixed value of K Uwas not physically realistic as shown in Fig. 7. The explanation of this
effect is provided by the TQMC relation R2∝T.∆t. It means that when we want to compare dynamic
properties the rule cited above has to be respected (i.e. R2has to be changed proportionally to T).
This algorithm can speed up calculations and gives better results only if parameters are chosen
with great care.
FIG. 6. Hysteresis loops for di fferent values of KU (a) and the relation between the coercive field and the anisotropy constant
(b) at T/Tc=0.007. The di fferent curves were obtained with the ”CA” for Rcone=0.4.127124-9 Nehme et al. AIP Advances 5, 127124 (2015)
FIG. 7. Relation between the coercive field and the anisotropy constant at T/Tc=0.43 obtained with the “CA” (a) and
variation of the coercive field as a function of temperature (b) for Rcone=0.2 and KU=0.024 K /atom.
D. The“GlobalRotationConeAlgorithm”
For low temperatures it is well established that SSF algorithms are of rather poor e fficiency.
When applying a magnetic field to the system this e fficiency drops down dramatically. This is due
to the fact that global rotation of the magnetization is only reproduced when a very large number
of SSF is achieved. The case of spin wave calculation with TQMC shows the ability of the algo-
rithm to treat collective behavior. In order to increase the e fficiency of the procedure one can think
about introducing an amount of global rotation to the system. This algorithm Global Rotation Cone
Algorithm (GRCA) will then be a mixture of restricted SSF moves and a small amount of restricted
global rotation. The global rotation had to be chosen using a cone algorithm method.
As mentioned in previous sections, the P (θ)has to be computed in order to reduce the angular
domain for the CA trial. For the global rotation step a cone radius RGRCA
cone has to be chosen. This
cone radius value is a ffected by the angular distance between the current global magnetization
direction of the system and that corresponding to the minimum of its total energy. When performing
hysteresis loops, the magnetic field usually increases by small steps leading to a narrow global P( θ)
distribution. In this case, a small cone radius for the GRCA has to be chosen. A random vector of
norm R coneis added to the unitary vector in the direction of the mean global magnetization ( ⃗Ui) and
then normalized. This procedure defines a new direction in space ⃗Ujand we rotate each spin by
an angle corresponding to the angle between ⃗Uiand ⃗Ujperpendicularly to the plane formed by the
two vectors. The acceptance rule will still be the Metropolis one and then only small rotation of the
global magnetization has a non-zero chance to be accepted.
As an example, we repeat the hysteresis loop simulations at T /Tc=0.007 for di fferent values
of effective anisotropy constant K U. The FSS was kept constant (2.10−3T/MCS) and equal to the
FIG. 8. Hysteresis loops for di fferent values of KUobtained with GRCA (a) and comparison between the relations of the
coercive field and the e ffective anisotropy constant obtained with di fferent algorithms (b) at T/Tc=0.007; in addition, the
theoretical curve (green line).127124-10 Nehme et al. AIP Advances 5, 127124 (2015)
FIG. 9. Log plot of Hc versus FSS obtained with three algorithms for KU=0 K/atom at T/Tc=0.007 (the error bars are
similar to the size of the dots).
one used in the previous simulations with a maximum field of 200 T. The ratio of SSF MCS to
the GRCA steps was chosen to be 1%. The GRCA radius (here RGRCA
cone =Rcone/20=0.4/20=0.02)
gives an acceptance of ½. Ideally if we move one magnetic moment µwithin a cone R cone, a
macro-magnetic moment of (N.µ)had to be moved within a radius cone RGRCA
cone =√
N.Rconein order
to keep the same reel time step for the dynamics.
Results obtained with this algorithm are illustrated in Fig. 8(a). The hysteresis loops remain
nearly square-shaped, as for the FA and CA, as typically expected for hysteresis measurements
in the easy anisotropy direction. The coercive fields are plotted against the e ffective anisotropy
constant K U. The linear dependence of the coercive field is still present with a slope of 1.92 (a
value of 2 is expected at T =0 K). In Fig. 8(b), we plot the variation of H cagainst K Uestimated
from the three algorithms cited before (FA, CA and GRCA). All simulations were done in the same
conditions of temperature (T /Tc=0.007) and FSS. One can see that the GRCA decreases the H0
c
values by a third compared to the CA and by 8 when compared to the FA.
The numerical cost of this global step is proportional to the SSF /GRCA ratio. In the present
case (1%) it is negligible. The GRCA allows hysteresis loops on a wide range of temperatures to be
simulated (when the temperature is quite high, the SSF cone algorithm had to be replaced by a free
SSF algorithm).
In order to compare the e fficiency of the three algorithms listed before, we simulate hysteresis
loops at the same conditions (K U=0 K/at, constant FSS) at T /Tc=0.007. The theoretical value of
H0
chas then to be zero (Stoner-Wohlfarth model), but as aforementioned the MC procedure requires
infinite N (MCS) to reach this value. Fig. 9 compares the di fferent coercive field values estimated
from the three algorithms and for di fferent values of FSS. As we can see, the three algorithms give
different values of H0
c. For the same FSS (i.e. calculation time) the log /log slope is nearly the same
for the FA and CA ( ≈0.52), however this value increases to 0.66 using the GRCA which accelerates
the simulations. In figure 8(b), are plotted the results of simulation performed using the GRCA
with a slower FSS (2.10−4T/MCS). As a reference, the theoretical evolution is also reported (green
line): the discrepancy between this theoretical curve and the results obtained with low FSS and
GRCA leads us to feel confident with quantitative measurements of Hc. Indeed, one can estimate
H0
C(Ku=0)with a better precision using appropriate simulation conditions leading to low FSS (i.e.
N(MCS) su fficiently large, reduced value of H max).
To highlight the behavior of the three algorithms, we report in Tab. I the values of calculation
time needed to reach the same H cvalue, assuming GRCA as reference.
TABLE I. Ratio of calculation time required to reach the same H cby the three algorithms, the GRCA is taken as reference.
Algorithm GRCA CA FA
calculation time ratio 1 ∼866 ∼10000127124-11 Nehme et al. AIP Advances 5, 127124 (2015)
IV. CONCLUSION
We investigated the dynamics of di fferent algorithms in order to simulate hysteresis loops using
Monte Carlo based method. We compared the coercive field (found at di fferent temperatures, at
constant field scan speed FSS) with an increase of the volume anisotropy. The comparison of “free”
and “restricted” single-spin flip algorithms allows us to validate the restricted condition (i.e. cone
radius) that gives the best acceleration of the calculation code while keeping the sampling accurate.
The results give clear evidence of a linear dependence of the coercive field with the e ffective anisot-
ropy constant for non-biased conditions (free or correctly adapted cone algorithms). As we have
demonstrated the values of the measured H cby Monte Carlo method are strongly dependent on the
FSS and the implemented algorithm. A high value of FSS leads to large /unphysical values of H c.
In addition, we show that at very low temperature (T /Tc≈0K) both the “free algorithm” and
“cone algorithm” become poorly e fficient when they are used for low field scan simulations. This
case (T /Tc≈0K with strong spins exchange interactions) remains the most di fficult situation for
MC algorithms. A small amount of global rotation strongly helps to reduce the part of the coercive
field due to the dynamics of the algorithm while keeping the H cversus K Uslope close to the
theoretical one (Fig. 8). To reach theoretical values of H cat low temperature a huge number of MCS
is needed, however our global rotation cone algorithm leads to an increased e fficiency compared
to that of the classical free algorithm. In the case of ideal coherent rotation of the magnetic mo-
ments, as one observe a linear dependence of H cversus K u(obtained by MC) providing the same
simulation conditions (algorithm and parameters), coercive field can be estimate by subtracting the
intrinsic contributions when K u=0.
The present study opens thus new opportunities to model quasi-static hysteresis mechanism
in nanoarchitectures (core /shell nanoparticles, hollow nanoparticles, multilayers) by the validation
of the numerical approach demonstrated here. It could be also applied to systems with direct or
indirect contributions to the e ffective anisotropy (volume and surface anisotropies, ... ), as well as
systems where exchange bias coupling induces supplementary anisotropy.
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1.5127262.pdf | J. Appl. Phys. 126, 214304 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5127262 126, 214304
© 2019 Author(s).On the micromagnetic behavior of dipolar-
coupled nanomagnets in defective square
artificial spin ice systems
Cite as: J. Appl. Phys. 126, 214304 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5127262
Submitted: 12 September 2019 . Accepted: 21 November 2019 . Published Online: 05 December 2019
Neeti Keswani
, and Pintu Das
On the micromagnetic behavior of dipolar-
coupled nanomagnets in defective square
artificial spin ice systems
Cite as: J. Appl. Phys. 126, 214304 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5127262
View Online
Export Citation
CrossMar k
Submitted: 12 September 2019 · Accepted: 21 November 2019 ·
Published Online: 5 December 2019
Neeti Keswani
and Pintu Dasa)
AFFILIATIONS
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India
a)Electronic mail: pintu@physics.iitd.ac.in
ABSTRACT
We report here the results of micromagnetic simulations of square arti ficial spin ice (ASI) systems with defects. The defects are introduced
by the misaligning of a nanomagnet at the vertex. In these defective systems, we are able to stabilize emergent monopolelike state byapplying a small external field. We observe a systematic change of dipolar energies of the systems with varying misalignment angle. The
fields at which the emergent monopoles are created vary linearly with the dipolar energies of the systems. Our results clearly show that the
magnetization reversal of the ASI systems is intricately related to the interplay of defects and dipolar interactions.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5127262
I. INTRODUCTION
Artificial spin ice (ASI) systems are lithographically patterned
arrangements of interacting magnetic nanostructures that were
introduced for investigating the e ffects of geometric frustration in a
controlled manner.
1In particular, nanomagnets in an arti ficial 2D
square and kagome array that mimic the spin ice behavior haveemerged as the subject for intensive investigation in recent years.
1–6
Square ASI can be considered as composed of two orthogonal sub-
lattices of identical nanomagnets owing to their easy axes alignedalong the [10] and [01] directions. The recent progress in nanoli-thography techniques enables us to tune various parameters suchas interaction strength between nanomagnets, their geometry, as
well as the introduction of arti ficial defects.
7–10In 2008, Castelnovo
et al. realized that excitations above the degenerate ground states in
spin ice systems, where ice rule is violated, could be interpreted asemergent magnetically charged quasiparticles that behave like mag-netic monopoles.
11An important aspect of vertex frustration is its
fascinating relation to the lattice topology and defects.3,12–16This
makes it possible to tune the complex dynamics of the magneticallycharged vertices.
10,12,17–22During the fabrication of a large array of
such nanostructures, it may be possible that a nanoisland whichcan be considered as a macrospin may be misaligned or it may lose
its magnetically single-domain character due to an unintentional
structural defect occurring during the fabrication steps. In arti ficialspin ice systems, the impact of such defects in the overall spin ice
behavior can be studied in a controlled way. Moreover, the creationor annihilation of excited states is connected to the magnetizationreversal of the nanostructures at the vertex. In order to understand
this aspect of ASI systems, we carried out detailed micromagnetic
simulation studies for individual square ASI vertices. In a recentpaper, we reported the observation of stable emergent monopole-like state in an even numbered vertex with vacancies at speci fic
square lattice sites at the edges.
23In this paper, we report the ener-
getics of individual vertices as defects are introduced in the form of
controlled misalignment of a vertex island. The magnetizationreversals of the magnetic nanostructures in the form of ellipticalshaped nanoislands of the vertices exhibit an angle dependentbehavior. An emergent monopolelike state was stabilized in these
structure with defects. Figure 1(a) shows the schematics of types of
possible vertices for macrospins arranged in square geometry inincreasing energy (E
typeI,/C1/C1/C1,EtypeIV ). The schematics of the
ASI structure used for the simulations is shown in Fig. 1(c) .
II. METHODS
Elliptical nanomagnets of Ni 80Fe20of aspect ratio 3 with
dimensions of 300 /C2100/C225 nm3were used in square ASI geom-
etry. The lattice constant for the lattice consisting of these elliptical
nanomagnets is de fined as the separation between edge-to-edge ofJournal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 126, 214304 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5127262 126, 214304-1
Published under license by AIP Publishing.the nanomagnets. The lattice constant is 150 nm [see Fig. 1(a) ]. For
micromagnetic simulations of the individual vertices, finite di ffer-
ence based three-dimensional solver of the Object Oriented Micro
Magnetic Framework (OOMMF), which is an openware software
from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is used.24
The time dependent magnetization dynamics in the nanoisland isgoverned by the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation,
dm
dt¼/C0j γjm/C2Heffþαm/C2dm
dt/C18/C19
,
where γis the gyromagnetic ratio and αis the Gilbert damping
constant. The e ffective magnetic field is given by Heff¼/C01
μo(δW/δm),
where μois the vacuum permeability and W is the magnetic
energy of the system, which consists of exchange, anisotropy, anddipolar energy. For simulations, the nanoislands are discretizedinto cubic cells with each side of dimension 5 nm, which is less
than the exchange length ( /difference5:3 nm). For the calculations, typical
experimentally reported values of saturation magnetizationM
s¼8:6/C2105A/m, the exchange sti ffness constant A¼13 pJ/m,
and the damping constant of 0.5 for Ni 80Fe20are used.25The
anisotropy is dominated by the shape ( Kshape/C257:3/C2104Jm/C03)o f
the nanomagnets, and, therefore, the magnetocrystalline anisotropy
is neglected in the computation. For these dimensions, the nano-magnets are magnetically in single-domain state, which was veri fied
from simulations as well as experiments (not shown). Starting from
a randomized state, the system was allowed to reach its minimum
energy. Thereafter, the state was saturated by applying a magneticfield of 200 mT along the [10] direction. The magnetization reversal
was studied while sweeping the field between +200 mT at T¼0K .
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In the earlier work of magnetization reversal behavior of a
regular vertex with closed edges, it was observed that the remanentstate follows a two-in/two-out spin ice state.
23Detailed analysis of
the micromagnetic behavior showed the speci fic way in which the
reversal of the vertex magnetization proceeds. Here, a deformity is
introduced by misaligning the easy axis of one of the vertex nanois-lands in a sublattice with respect to the applied magnetic field
direction. We de fine the angle between the misaligned easy
axis and the applied field direction as misalignment angle θ
[see Fig. 1(b) ]. If such a misalignment (defect) exists in a large
array of the square ASI system, the defect may have a signi ficant
role in overall behavior of the array. Therefore, primarily in thiswork, we simulate such individual defective vertex structures andcarry out systematic investigations of their micromagnetic behavior
for varying misalignment angle θ, where 20
/C14/C20θ/C2085/C14.F o r
the nanomagnet under consideration, θ¼90/C14corresponds to the
applied field direction oriented along its hard axis. Thus, for
smaller values of θ, the orientation of the field approaches toward
the easy direction of the nanomagnet. Initially at θ¼85/C14, the
system is saturated by applying a positive magnetic field of 200 mT
along the [10] direction as indicated in Fig. 2(a) . Thereafter, while
sweeping the field between +200 mT, the micromagnetic calcula-
tions are carried out at di fferent external fields. The static equilib-
rium magnetization at remanence evolves into a two-in/two-out
magnetic state as depicted in Fig. 2(c) . The edge magnetic
FIG. 1. Illustration of 16 possible spin
states at a vertex of the two-
dimensional square arti ficial spin ice
system. Degenerate states are groupedinto four different types of increasinglyhigher energies. The different colors
represent the net magnetic charge at
the vertex (a). Schematics of a regular(without defect) vertex in square ASIgeometry (b) and a defective vertex
with misaligned nanoisland (c).Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 126, 214304 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5127262 126, 214304-2
Published under license by AIP Publishing.configurations at remanence and beyond are identi fied as consisting
of two onion and two horse-shoe type chiral states as illustrated inFigs. 2(c) and2(d), respectively. The onion state refers to two sub-
lattices of nanoislands with parallelly aligned magnetizationwhereas horse-shoe state corresponds to parallelly aligned magneti-
zation of one sublattice and antiparallelly aligned magnetization of
the other sublattice as illustrated in Figs. 2(b)(i) and 2(b)(ii) .O n
the other hand, the microvortex state consists of sublattices ofnanoislands with opposite magnetizations
23,26[see Fig. 2(b)(iii) ].
Considering the macrospin model27for these single-domain nano-
magnetic islands, four head-to-tail magnetic con figurations form amicrovortex loop whereas both onion and horse-shoe states have
two head-to-tail, one head-to-head, and one tail-to-tail con figura-
tions [see Fig. 2(b) ]. Calculations based on the macrospin model
show that the energy hierarchy of these states followsE
microvortex ,Ehorse/C0shoe,Eonion.23As shown in Fig. 2(a) , the mag-
netization of the system is found to reverse in four distinct steps
where sharp jumps are observed within a small field range of
124–140 mT. To understand the origin of these sharp jumps, we
investigated the exact micromagnetic states of the system at every2 mT during the reversal. Figure 2(d) shows the magnetic con figu-
ration just before the first jump (hereafter switching), showing
two-in/two-out magnetic con figuration at the vertex. It is observed
that the first sharp jump at μ
oH¼/C0124 mT corresponds to the
simultaneous reversals (switching) of magnetization of two nano-magnets 1 and 2 situated at the diagonally opposite positions at 1stand 3rd quadrants [see Fig. 2(e) ]. These reversals convert the two
horse-shoe type loops to two lower-energy microvortex loops. The
next jump in hysteresis occurs at μ
oH¼/C0126 mT, where the other
diagonally opposite nanomagnets 3 and 4 switch simultaneously,thereby converting two onion states to two lower-energy horse-shoestates as shown in Fig. 2(f) . As the field is further increased in
the negative direction, the nanomagnets 5 and 6 in two di fferent
sublattices switch simultaneously [see Fig. 2(g) ]. Interestingly, we
observe that due to the misalignment angle of 85
/C14, a small compo-
nent of the field ( μoHcosθ) along the easy axis direction of the
nanomagnet assists the switching of magnetization of the nano-
magnet to one of its minimum energy states. Such a switching inthe similarly positioned nanomagnets (i.e., easy axis orthogonal tothe applied field) in the nondefective ASI vertices was not observed
before.
23This clearly demonstrates the tunability of the switching
behavior by introducing such defects in ASI vertices. This
also leads to the creation of a type I state at the vertex. Withfurther increase in field, the nanomagnet 7 finally reverses at
μ
oH¼/C0140 mT. As shown in Fig. 2(h) , this final reversal changes
the vertex from two-in/two-out state to three-in/one-out state.
According to the dumbbell model proposed by Castelnovo et al. ,11
a magnetic dipole (macrospin) can be assumed to represent mag-
netic charges of þQmand/C0Qm. Thus, the vertex as shown in
Fig. 2(h) has charge þ2Qmmagnetic state, which is an emergent
magnetic monopole state. Remarkably, the emergent monopolelike
state during reversal has not been observed for a regular vertex
(without defects) with closed edges23so far. Though the misaligned
defect does not modify the remanent state of the vertex, it leads toa drastic change in the reversal mechanism with the creation of
emergent monopolelike (type III state) from the lowest energy type
I state. Interestingly, the edge loops now change to two onion andtwo horse-shoe type loops.
As the misalignment angle is changed from 85
/C14to 80/C14,w e
observe again a two-in/two-out (type II) spin ice state at remanence
as shown in Fig. 3(b) . After saturation, the first sharp jump in the
hysteresis is observed at μoH¼/C0124 mT as shown in Fig. 3(a) .
Simulation results show that this corresponds to the simultaneousreversal of nanomagnets 1 and 2 of di fferent sublattices [see
Fig. 3(d) ]. In this case, the field has a stronger component along the
easy axis direction of the misaligned nanomagnet. Thus, this nano-
magnet switches at a relatively smaller field. This reversal converts
one horse-shoe loop to one microvortex and the other horse-shoe to
FIG. 2. (a) Hysteresis loop for a vertex with closed edges for misaligned angle
θ¼85/C14. (b) Schematics of (i) onion state (ii) horse-shoe state, and (iii) micro-
vortex state. (c) –(h) Magnetic states at intermediate fields showing magnetic
switchings as shown in (a). The external field direction is shown in (c).Journal of
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J. Appl. Phys. 126, 214304 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5127262 126, 214304-3
Published under license by AIP Publishing.an onion type edge loops. Furthermore, the vertex now turns to an
emergent monopolelike state with magnetic charge þ2Qm. With
further increase in Zeeman energy, the magnetization of nanomag-net 3 reverses so that a higher energy onion state is converted to alower-energy horse-shoe state at μ
oH¼/C0126 mT [see Fig. 3(e) ].
The next jump is observed at μoH¼/C0128 mT, which corresponds
to the simultaneous switchings of nanomagnets 4 and 5, thereby
converting the two onion loops to two horse-shoe type loops. Thefinal switching takes place at μ
oH¼/C0132 mT, where the two nano-
magnets at the vertex, indicated by 6 and 7, reverse simultaneously
as shown in Fig. 3(g) . It is remarkable that the vertex remains at
theþ2Qmcharged state during the entire reversal process. Thus, astable emergent magnetic monopole state is generated for this defect
configuration.
With further reduction of the misalignment angle by 5/C14, i.e.,
forθ¼75/C14, interesting changes are observed in the micromagnetic
behavior of the nanomagnets. The hysteresis shows five distinct
jumps for θ¼75/C14as seen in Fig. 4(a) . The remanent state still
follows type II spin ice state as for the other cases [see Fig. 4(b) ].
Thefirst jump in the hysteresis loop —which takes place at lower
fieldμoH¼/C0116 mT —corresponds to a change in the detailed
micromagnetic pattern in the misaligned nanomagnet 1 fromsingle domain to magnetic vortex state. The core of the magnetic
vortex lies at the edge of the elliptical nanomagnet, which is close
to the ASI vertex as shown in Fig. 4(d) . The chirality of magnetic
FIG. 3. (a) Hysteresis loop for a system with misaligned angle θ¼80/C14. (b)–(g)
Corresponding magnetic states at intermediate fields showing magnetic switch-
ings as shown in (a).
FIG. 4. (a) Hysteresis loop for a vertex with a closed edge with misalignment
angle of 75/C14. (b)–(h) Magnetic states after corresponding magnetic switchings of
individual nanomagnets as shown in (a).Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 126, 214304 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5127262 126, 214304-4
Published under license by AIP Publishing.vortex in this nanomagnet appears to depend on the direction of
thefield sweep. Vortex of clockwise chirality was observed while
downsweeping the field from 200 mT to −200 mT as shown in
Fig. 4(d) –4(f). Vortex of opposite chirality is observed while
upsweeping the field (not shown). Such a magnetic vortex structure
is purely due to the energy minimization as a result of a complex
interplay of the defect, dipolar interactions, and the magnetic field.
The change of single-domain state to a magnetic vortex state is asignificant result, which clearly underlines the role of the defect in
creating new states in the nanomagnets. As a result of this magneticvortex-type magnetic structure, the two-in/two-out spin ice rule at
the vertex is violated, thereby converting the vertex to an anoma-
lous state where the nanomagnet does not retain the single-domainbehavior. Considering the magnetic vortex in the nanomagnet asmagnetically chargeless, the net charge at this vertex is + Q
m. As the
negative field is further increased, the second jump is observed at
μoH¼/C0124 mT, which corresponds to switching of nanomagnet 2
[see Fig. 4(e) ]. The next jump is observed at μoH¼/C0126 mT,
where the magnetization of the two nanomagnets 3 and 4 reversessimultaneously. This is shown in Fig. 4(f) . The fourth and fifth
jumps occur at μ
oH¼/C0128 mT and μoH¼/C0130 mT, respec-
tively. The jump at μoH¼/C0128 mT is due to the reversal of mag-
netization of nanomagnet 5 as shown in Fig. 4(g) . With the
reversal of nanomagnet 5, the charge of 3 Qmis generated at vertex.
This additional magnetic charge observed at the vertex is due to
the creation of a magnetic vortex in the misaligned nanomagnet.
The jump at μoH¼/C0130 mT corresponds to the simultaneous
reversals of magnetizations of nanomagnets 6 and 7, respectively,as illustrated in Fig. 4(h) .
With the final reversals, the magnetic state of the misaligned
nanomagnet again changes back to a single-domain state, thereby
creating a charge of þ2Q
m, i.e., an emergent monopolelike state
at the vertex. After the complete reversal of nanomagnets, themagnetic state constitutes one horse-shoe and three onion states[see Fig. 4(h) ]. Thus, for θ¼75
/C14, we observe the creation of an
emergent monopolelike state with three-in/one-out magnetic orien-
tation at the vertex via an anomalous state (of charges Qmand
3Qm). When carefully calculated, we find that such a vortex-type
structure in the misaligned nanomagnet appears for angle at leastuntil θ¼73/C14; however, it disappears for θ/C2070/C14. The calculations
are performed for various angles until θ¼20/C14. In general,
forθ/C2070/C14, the reversal mechanism exhibits similar behavior
as described for misalignment angle θ¼80/C14. The emergence of
monopolelike state appears for all the misalignment angles studied
in this work. Thus, we observe that such emergent monopolelikemagnetically charged states can be predictably created at the verti-ces due to the interplay of defects and dipolar interactions. Thecorresponding magnetic states for all the misalignment angles
studied in this work are summarized in Table I . In order to clearly
demonstrate the role of such defects in stabilizing the observedmagnetic states, we plot the fields ( μ
oHmp) at which emergent
monopoles are observed against the dipolar energies ( Edip) of the
respective defective structures (see Fig. 5 ). The results as obtained
from the micromagnetic simulations are used for the plots. Asshown in the inset of Fig. 5 , we observe that the e ffective dipolar
energy of the vertex system increases linearly as a function of themisalignment angle of a vertex island. Thus, these results underline
the role of the interplay of defects and dipolar interactions in
stabilizing the charged emergent monopolelike states. The resultsindicate that a misalignment may be used to predictably create acharged vertex state at a desired field in a square ASI system.
IV. CONCLUSION
In summary, we investigated in detail the micromagnetic
behavior of ASI vertices with defects in the form of a misalignednanomagnet in the vertex. Systematic studies of the switching
behavior exhibit sharp jumps in the hysteresis loops. Detailed
investigations of the jumps show that they correspond to switchingTABLE I. T able summarizes the magnetic states at intermediate fields correspond-
ing to different misalignment angles. The numbers in bracket indicate the fields at
which the corresponding magnetic states are observed.
Misalignment
angle ( θ)Remanent
stateMagnetic states at
intermediate field
85° Type II state Type I (136 mT) and Type III
(140 mT)
80° Type II state Type III (124 mT)
75° Type II state Anomalous state (116 mT)
and Type III (128 mT)
50° Type II state Type III (92 mT)45° Type II state Type III (88 mT)30° Type II state Type III (90 mT)
20° Type II state Type III (98 mT)
FIG. 5. Field ( μoHmp) at which a monopole is generated vs the dipolar energy
(Edip) of the system. Error bars indicate the field separation at which magnetic
states are calculated. The inset shows the variation of dipolar energy ( Edip)a sa
function of the angle of misalignment ( θ) in the misaligned vertex.Journal of
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J. Appl. Phys. 126, 214304 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5127262 126, 214304-5
Published under license by AIP Publishing.of individual nanomagnets or simultaneous switchings of two
nanomagnets in the ASI system. While switching, indirect cou-
plings of two nanomagnets are observed in certain cases due to thestrong dipolar interaction among the involved nanomagnets. Forthe misalignment angle of 75
/C14, an interesting change of the mag-
netic state of the misaligned nanomagnet from single domain to
magnetic vortex state is observed. The dipolar energy of the system
is observed to increase linearly with the misalignment. The fields at
which emergent monopolelike states are observed exhibit a linearrelationship with the dipolar energy. Thus, we find a clear role of
defects and dipolar interactions in stabilizing an emergent mono-
polelike state in such systems. We note here that these results
show the behavior of nanomagnets in individual vertex systems.It will be interesting to study the e ffects of such vertices placed in
a large array. Our results may allow design of arti ficial structures
where defects and dipolar interactions can be used for speci fic
device utilities.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We acknowledge the High Performance Computing facilities
(HPC) of IIT Delhi for the micromagnetic calculations. N.K.acknowledges the University Grants Commission (UGC),
Government of India, for providing research fellowship.
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J. Appl. Phys. 126, 214304 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5127262 126, 214304-6
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1.367726.pdf | Magnetic ordering in Co films on stepped Cu(100) surfaces
S. T. Coyle and M. R. Scheinfein
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 83, 7040 (1998); doi: 10.1063/1.367726
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.367726
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136.165.238.131 On: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 19:59:29Magnetic ordering in Co films on stepped Cu 100surfaces
S. T. Coyle and M. R. Scheinfein
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, PSF 470 Box 871504, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287
Ultrathin films of Co were grown on Cu ~100!and characterized by nanometer resolution secondary
electron microscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, and the surface magneto-optic Kerr effect. Anunexpected out-of-plane remanence was detected in many films. The anisotropy of atoms neardefects along the Co/vacuum interface calculated via the Ne ´el model indicates that atoms at the
bottom corner of a step edge are canted out-of-plane. Full three-dimensional micromagneticssimulations which incorporate site specific anisotropy ~including step edges, kinks, and voids !have
been performed. Simulations with unidirectional arrays of
@11I0#steps, such as vicinal surfaces, do
not exhibit out-of-plane remanence. Simulations with facets consisting of connected @110#and
@11I0#steps exhibit out-of-plane remanence of 0.03. This is lower than the experimental value of
0.11. © 1998 American Institute of Physics. @S0021-8979 ~98!37911-6 #
I. INTRODUCTION
Magnetic surface anisotropies play a key role in deter-
mining the magnetic properties of thin films andmultilayers.
1Recently the anisotropy of steps has been found
to be important in understanding the magnetic behavior ofsome systems.
2–4Since the roughness of the Co/Cu interface
plays a key role in determining GMR properties,5character-
izing the Co/Cu interface including the effect of defects isimportant. Ultrathin films of Co were grown on Cu ~100!in
order to study the morphology and the resulting magneticproperties at early stages of growth. The films were charac-terized by nanometer resolution secondary electron micros-copy, Auger electron spectroscopy, and the surface magneto-optic Kerr effect ~SMOKE !.
6An unexpected out-of-plane
remanence was detected in many films.
The cause of this out-of-plane component of the magne-
tization could be related to film morphology at the earlystages of growth. One possible mechanism which may pro-duce out-of-plane magnetization is defect related anisotropyon imperfect surfaces. The anisotropy of atoms near defectsalong the Co/vacuum interface has been calculated. Atomsalong the bottom corner of a ^110&step which have strong
uniaxial anisotropy canted out-of-plane, may couple to thespins of nearby atoms. A significant out-of-plane componentto the magnetization may occur for some critical density ofthese sites. This short article will address the feasibility ofthis mechanism for the origin of the perpendicular compo-nent to the observed magnetization.
Co grown on substrates with high defect densities re-
sulted in dramatic faceting of step edges and the creation ofrectangular pits.
6The anisotropy of atoms of low coordina-
tion created by this morphology may significantly affect themagnetization of the film, and may thus affect the GMRproperties of multilayers. To evaluate the equilibrium mag-netic microstructure in such films, and to determine if the
anisotropy at sites with low symmetry may be responsiblefor the observed out-of-plane remanence, full three-dimensional micromagnetics simulations were performed in-corporating the calculated site specific anisotropies.II. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Morphological characterization with concurrent magne-
tization measurements was obtained from Co grown on bulksingle crystal Cu ~100!samples.
6Cu substrates were cleaned
by repeated Ar1ion sputter and anneal ~600 C !cycles. Co
was grown by electron-beam evaporation at rates between0.05 ML/min and 0.2 ML/min at pressures ,5310
210
mbar (1 ML 51.5331015atoms/cm2). Samples were trans-
ferredin situinto the SMOKE chamber for magnetic char-
acterization, then transferred in situinto an ultrahigh vacuum
scanning transmission electron microscope for nanometerresolution secondary electron ~SE!imaging.
7SE micro-
graphs revealed complex growth morphologies which variedbetween different films. Many films contained high densitiesof steps, kinks, and facets.
Co/Cu ~100!films in this study became ferromagnetic at
room temperature at about 1.7 ML. Zero field susceptibilityin the paramagnetic regime and remanence in the ferromag-netic regime generally increased with coverage. In manyfilms a second magnetic phase was detected with out-of-plane remanence and a coercivity 5–10 times the in-planevalue which increased with Co coverage. Figure 1 containssuch Kerr hysteresis loops taken in the longitudinal @Fig.
1~a!#and polar @Fig. 1 ~b!#geometries
7f r o ma2M L thick
film. As a result of the 45° incident scattering angle, polarsignals were five times stronger than the longitudinalsignals.
8The out-of-plane component of the magnetization in
the film in Fig. 1 is therefore ;0.11.
FIG. 1. Kerr hysteresis loops from a sample exhibiting out-of-plane rema-
nence. Part ~a!was taken in the longitudinal geometry and ~b!was taken in
the polar geometry. The Kerr signal is given in arbitrary units, and the scalesin~a!and~b!are the same.JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS VOLUME 83, NUMBER 11 1 JUNE 1998
7040 0021-8979/98/83(11)/7040/3/$15.00 © 1998 American Institute of Physics
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
136.165.238.131 On: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 19:59:29III. MICROMAGNETICS SIMULATIONS
The anisotropy of face centered cubic atoms has been
calculated for reduced symmetry structures such as steps andkinks following the Ne ´el model of anisotropy,
9and including
the effects of strain.10In agreement with Chuang et al.,11the
anisotropy of atoms along the bottom corner of a step edge~step corner !was found to be uniaxial and canted out-of-
plane, while the anisotropy of atoms along the top corner ofa step ~step edge !was uniaxial in-plane along the step direc-
tion. The anisotropy of bulk atoms and surface atoms wasbiaxial in-plane along ^110&. The anisotropy of kink edge
atoms was biaxial in-plane along ^110&and that of kink cor-
ner atoms was uniaxial in-plane along the kink direction. Asummary of these results is given in Table I, and a schematicof a Co surface identifying individual sites is presented inFig. 2. Strain due to the misfit of face-centered-cubic ~fcc!
Co and fcc Cu has been included in all anisotropy calcula-tions except when noted.
The anisotropy terms ~Table I !proportional to cos
2u
extract a high penalty for magnetization out of the plane. Of
the remaining terms, those proportional to L(r0) are larger
by a factor of 102than terms containing e0orQ(r). The step
corner, kink-in corner and kink-out corner sites hold promisefor out-of-plane magnetization due to the term proportionalto sin
ucosu. The step corner has an energy minimum which
is out-of-plane, while the kink-in corner and kink-out cornersites have energy minima which are in-plane.
These atomic, site specific anisotropy energies have been
incorporated into micromagnetics simulations
12of Co on
stepped Cu ~100!. The simulation searches for solutions to the
Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation. The following energieswere included: exchange energy, site-specific anisotropy en-ergy, magnetostatic self-energy, and external magnetostaticfield energy. The saturation magnetization, exchange stiff-ness, gyromagnetic frequency gamma, and damping con-stant alpha were set to the bulk values for Co. This is a
continuum model which has been discretized at atomiclength scales.
The micromagnetic structure of two monolayer ~ML!
films has been simulated where the top layer consists of aterrace one half the width of the bottom layer. The two step
edges in the top layer were aligned along
@11I0#or@100#.I n
some simulations kinks were inserted into the step edges atregular intervals and the terrace widths were varied. Thesimulations used periodic boundary conditions in both in-plane directions. The system was discretized into cells withsides of length a
0/A2 on a simple cubic lattice, where a0is
0.361 nm. This insured that the volume of the region with
FIG. 2. Schematic representation of atomic sites in the vicinity of a kinked
^110&step. The anisotropy of these sites is given in Table I.
TABLE I. Anisotropy energies for fcc ~100!sites described in the text and shown schematically in Fig. 2.
DerivationsofanisotropyenergyandthevalueoftheconstantshavebeengiveninRef.9.Note r,u,and fhave
been defined in the usual way. The step direction is @11I0#. For @110#steps, change wtot2w.
Site/constant Anisotropy energy
Bulk unstrained ( Ebu) Q(r)/4(sin22u1sin22wsin4u)
Bulk strained ( 26e0L(r0)2e0]L/]rr0)cos2u1Ebu
Surface ( 21/2L(r0)23e0L(r0)2e0]L/]rr0)cos2u1Ebu
Step edge ( 21/4L(r0)23e0L(r0)23/4e0]L/]rr0)cos2u
1(21/2L(r0)21/2e0]L/]rr0)sin2usinwcosw1Ebu
Step corner ( 21/4L(r0)29/2e0L(r0)2e0]L/]rr0)cos2u
21/2L(r0)sinucosu(sinw1cosw)1Ebu
Kink-in edge ( 21/2L(r0)23e0L(r0)2e0]L/]rr0)cos2u1Ebu
Kink-out edge ( 23e0L(r0)21/2e0]L/]rr0)cos2u1Ebu
Kink-in corner ( 21/4L(r0)211/2e0L(r0)2e0]L/]rr0)cos2u
1(21/4L(r0)21/2e0L(r0))sin2ucos2w
21/2L(r0)sinucosucosw1Ebu
Kink-out corner ( 21/4L(r0)27/2e0L(r0)2e0]L/]rr0)cos2u
1(1/4L(r0)11/2e0L(r0))sin2ucos2w
21/2L(r0)sinucosucosw1Ebu
Q(r0) 21.23106erg/cm3
L(r0) 21.53108erg/cm3
]L/]rr0 5.53108erg/cm3
e0 0.0197041 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 83, No. 11, 1 June 1998 S. T. Coyle and M. R. Scheinfein
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136.165.238.131 On: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 19:59:29step anisotropy matched the volume occupied by a step ori-
ented along ^110&. The system was allowed to relax with no
applied field in order to determine the equilibrium magneti-zation distribution in the film.
No significant out-of-plane (
^Mz&.0.01) component of
the magnetization was present in the equilibrium magnetiza-tion distribution. The spins of the step corner atoms wereexpected to couple to the spins in the terraces and perhapscause them to be somewhat canted out-of-plane. This did notoccur as a result of the balance between the anisotropy en-ergies of neighboring atoms and the exchange energy whichcouples them. The out-of-plane anisotropy of the step cornersite occurs via the term proportional to cos
u~sinusinw
1sinucosw!@i.e.,mz(mx1my)#. The minimum energy oc-
curs when 2mz5mx1my. This equals zero for w53p/4
(@11I0#), which is the uniaxial anisotropy axis for the step
edge site. Although the anisotropy energy of the step edgeand step corner sites are about equal, the coupling via ex-change to nearby surface and bulk sites ~biaxial ^110&!en-
sures that the step edge site is dominant. For any initial con-dition on the magnetization the final minimized energyconfiguration has the spins aligned along the step direction,and the out-of-plane component vanishes with ~sin
w
1cosw!.
The magnetization configuration is somewhat different
for faceted steps and square islands. At the corner joining a@110#step to a
@11I0#step, the magnetization of each step
will be forced away from ^110&by the field due to the other
step, resulting in a nonzero out-of-plane component. If thedensity of facets is large enough or the size of islands smallenough a significant out-of-plane remanence will exist. Thisconfiguration has been simulated via a square island~3n m 33n m !o na5n m 35 nm square layer with periodic
boundary conditions. The length of the sides of the islandwas chosen to approximate the length of facets observed infilms which exhibited out-of-plane remanence. The out-of-plane component of the calculated average equilibrium mag-netization was ;0.03. This was significantly less than the
results from Kerr loops shown in Fig. 1.
IV. CONCLUSION
It is apparent from these micromagnetics simulations
that the anisotropy of step atoms can not be responsible forthe out-of-plane remanence we observed experimentally. For
surfaces with a high density of ^110&facets, this anisotropy
may be a contributing factor. This micromagnetics resultfrom semi-infinite parallel ^110&steps agrees with the experi-
mental results from Co deposits on vicinal Cu ~111 3 !
surfaces.
4The anisotropy switches to biaxial in-plane at in-
creased temperatures.13This may be due to Cu atoms deco-
rating the step edges,14or to restructuring of the step edges
with rectangular protrusions perpendicular to the originalstep.
15In the latter case, micromagnetics simulations re-
ported here predict a small ~;3%!out-of-plane component
to the magnetization.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. G. G. Hem-
bree for collaboration in the experimental work. This work issupported by ONR under Grant No. N00014-93-1-0099.
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1.2829775.pdf | Current-induced motion of narrow domain walls and dissipation in ferromagnetic
metals
M. Benakli, J. Hohlfeld, and A. Rebei
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 103, 023701 (2008); doi: 10.1063/1.2829775
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2829775
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128.114.34.22 On: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 00:38:51Current-induced motion of narrow domain walls and dissipation
in ferromagnetic metals
M. Benakli, J. Hohlfeld, and A. Rebeia/H20850
Seagate Research Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222, USA
/H20849Received 17 August 2007; accepted 4 November 2007; published online 16 January 2008 /H20850
Spin transport equations in a nonhomogeneous ferromagnet are derived in the limit where the sd
exchange coupling between the electrons in the conduction band and those in the dband is
dominant. It is shown that spin diffusion in ferromagnets assumes a tensor form. The diagonal termsare renormalized with respect to that in normal metals and enhance the dissipation in the magneticsystem while the off-diagonal terms renormalize the precessional frequency of the conductionelectrons and enhance the nonadiabatic spin torque. To demonstrate what additional physics isincluded in the theory, we show that self-consistent solutions of the spin diffusion equations and theLandau-Lifshitz equations in the presence of a current lead to an increase in the terminal velocity ofa domain wall which becomes strongly dependent on its width. We also provide a simplifiedequation that predicts damping due to the conduction electrons. © 2008 American Institute of
Physics ./H20851DOI: 10.1063/1.2829775 /H20852
I. INTRODUCTION
Dynamics of magnetic domain walls /H20849DWs /H20850is a classic
topic1–3that recently received a lot of attention due to new
fabrication and characterization techniques that permit theirstudy at the nanometer scale. Moreover, the subject of spindynamics in the presence of large inhomogeneities is cur-rently of great interest experimentally and theoretically dueto the potential applications in various nanodevices, espe-cially magnetic storage.
4One particular area that is still not
well understood is the interaction of DWs with polarizedcurrents. The question here is how best to represent the con-tribution of the spin torque to the dynamics of themagnetization.
5–15So far attention has been focused on wide
DWs where it was shown that terminal velocities are inde-pendent of the DW width.
9,14
This paper extends previous treatments to the case of
thin, less than 100 nm, DWs. One of the main objectives ofour work is to expose the interplay between linear momen-
tum relaxation and spin relaxation as the conduction elec-trons traverse a thin DW. This interplay originates from thestrong exchange interaction between the conduction selec-
trons and the localized dmoments, and makes the terminal
velocities as well as the transport parameters of the conduc-tion electrons dependent on the configuration of the localmagnetization. This leads to an enhancement of the nonadia-batic contribution of the spin torque to the DW motion andopens the way to study spin torque-induced magnetizationdynamics in thin DWs in greater depth by measurement ofDW velocities. Moreover, we show that the interaction of theconduction electrons and the dmoments is also relevant for
homogeneously magnetized metallic systems, where it is atthe origin of intrinsic damping. Our work can be easilyadapted to magnetic multilayer structures and hence theequations derived here are capable to treat noncollinear mag-netization geometries as opposed to that in Ref. 16, which
deal only with collinear configurations. Narrow DWs canexist either naturally
17,18or artificially19,20and we hope the
results discussed here show the potential benefits of studyingdissipation in DW-like structures.
II. GENERAL THEORY: OFF-DIAGONAL
CONTRIBUTION
To derive the spin coupling of the selectrons to the
magnetization, we adopt the sdpicture which has been the
basis for most of the studies in DW motion.9In the follow-
ing, we use /H20849l,m,n/H20850for moment indices and /H20849i,j,k/H20850for space
indices. In addition, the transverse domain wall is assumed to
extend in the xdirection, with magnetization pointing in the
zdirection. We start from the Boltzmann equation satisfied
by the 2 /H110032 distribution function of the conduction electrons,
f=fe+fs·/H9268, where /H9268l/H20849l=1,2,3 /H20850are Pauli matrices, in the
presence of the magnetization Mof the system and an exter-
nal electric field E:
/H11509tf+v·/H11612f+e/H20849E+v/H11003H/H20850·/H11612pf+i/H20851/H9262B/H9268·Hsd,f/H20852
=−fe−f0e
/H9270p−f−f0s
/H9270sf. /H208491/H20850
The sdexchange field is Hsd/H20849x,t/H20850=JM/H20849x,t/H20850//H9262Bwith J
/H110150.2 eV, and /H9270p,/H9270sfare the momentum and spin relaxation
times, respectively.15,21,22The variables v,e, and/H9262Bare the
velocity, the charge, and the magnetic moment of the selec-
trons, respectively. fe0andfs0are the equilibrium charge and
spin distribution.
The conduction electrons have a polarization m
=/H9262B/H20848dp//H208492/H9266/H208503Tr/H9268fand carry a charge current jc
=e/H20848dp//H208492/H9266/H208503vTrf, as well as a spin current
js=/H20885dp
/H208492/H9266/H208503vTr/H9268f. /H208492/H20850a/H20850Electronic mail: arebei@mailaps.org.JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 103, 023701 /H208492008 /H20850
0021-8979/2008/103 /H208492/H20850/023701/4/$23.00 © 2008 American Institute of Physics 103 , 023701-1
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128.114.34.22 On: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 00:38:51In the following, we use normalized definitions of the
moments, i.e., /H20648M/H20648=/H20648m/H20648=1. The delectrons will be assumed
to satisfy a Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert /H20849LLG /H20850equation
dM
dt=−M/H11003/H20873/H9253Heff+1
/H9270exm/H20874+/H9251pdM/H11003dM
dt, /H208493/H20850
where /H9270exis the inverse of the precessional frequency, /H9275c
=J//H6036, of the conduction electrons due to the exchange field.
Heffis the total field acting on the magnetization which in-
cludes the exchange field between the dmoments, the de-
magnetization field, and the anisotropy field. In metals, themain source of dissipation is believed to be due to the con-duction electrons which in our theory is accounted for ex-plicitly within the limitations of the sdmodel.
23Hence, the
damping constant /H9251pdis assumed to be due to dissipation
caused by channels other than the conduction electrons suchas phonons or defects.In inhomogeneous magnetic media, the sdexchange
term becomes comparable to that of the Weiss molecularfield and hence the effect of the conduction electrons on themagnetization should be taken beyond the linear responseapproach. Going beyond the linear theory will allow us tosee how the presence of the background magnetization af-fects the transport properties of the conduction electrons. Webelieve this is especially true in transition metal nanomag-netic devices where the hybridization of the sanddelectrons
is strong. Using standard many-body methods,
15the diffu-
sion contribution to the spin current can be found
jsli/H20849t,x/H20850=−Dln/H20849t,x/H20850/H11612imn/H20849t,x/H20850, /H208494/H20850
where Dis a diffusion tensor with effective relaxation time /H9270
which will be assumed equal to the momentum relaxation
/H20849/H9270/H11015/H9270p/H20850. The Dtensor obeys the reduced symmetry of the
ferromagnetic state and is15
D=D/H11036/H209001+/H92702/H9024x2/H9270/H9024z+/H92702/H9024x/H9024y−/H9270/H9024y+/H92702/H9024z/H9024x
−/H9270/H9024z+/H92702/H9024y/H9024x 1+/H92702/H9024y2/H9270/H9024x+/H92702/H9024y/H9024z
/H9270/H9024y+/H92702/H9024z/H9024x−/H9270/H9024x+/H92702/H9024y/H9024z 1+/H92702/H9024z2/H20901, /H208495/H20850
where /H9024=JM //H6036,D/H11036=D0/1+/H20849/H9270/H9275c/H208502with D0=1
3vF2/H9270pbeing
the diffusion constant of the electron gas with Fermi velocity
vF. It should be observed that in the presence of spin-orbit
coupling, the symmetry of the diffusion tensor will be thesame as given here but the separation of the relaxation timesin independent channels of momentum and spin relaxationwill not be valid. In the following, the effect of the electricfield is taken only to first order.
The symmetry of the spin current is best revealed by
going to a local frame where the magnetization lies in the z
direction. In this frame, one obtains for E=0,
j
/H11036=−Deffdm
dx,jz=−D0dmz
dx, /H208496/H20850
where m/H20849x/H20850=mx/H20849x/H20850−imy/H20849x/H20850, and Deff=D/H11036+iDxyis an effec-
tive diffusion coefficient with Dxy=D/H11036/H9270/H9275c. From the diver-
gence of the spin current we get the steady-state equation forthe spin accumulation,
d
2m
dx2=m
/H9261eff2,d2mz
dx2=mz−m0
/H9261sdl2, /H208497/H20850
where /H9261eff2=/H9270effDeffwith/H9270eff=1 //H20851/H208491//H9270sf/H20850−i/H9275c/H20852,m0is the equi-
librium spin density, and /H9261sdlis the longitudinal spin diffu-
sion length typically in the range of 5–100 nm. The generalsolutions for the complex accumulation are of the formm/H20849x/H20850=Aexp /H20851−x//H9261
eff/H20852+Bexp /H20851x//H9261eff/H20852, i.e., they show an ex-
ponential decrease /H20849or increase /H20850and oscillations from a local
inhomogeneity in M. In the limit of a large sdexchange field
the period of the oscillations is vf//H9275cwhich corresponds tothe coherence length 1 //H20841k↑−k↓/H20841in the ballistic approach,
where k↑is the spin-up momentum.
Our expressions for the spin current generalize those
used currently in the literature.9We find that the diffusion
constant D0is now renormalized by 1 //H208511+/H20849/H9270/H9275c/H208502/H20852which
means that precession in the exchange field reduces diffu-
sion. Moreover, the precession gives rise to off-diagonalterms in the diffusion tensor which reflect the local two-dimensional /H208492D/H20850rotational symmetry around M.
The origin of the off-diagonal term D
xycan be under-
stood qualitatively in terms of flux. First, we rewrite it in thefollowing form:
D
xy=/H208731
3vF2/H9270p/H20874/H9270p/H9275c
1+ /H20849/H9270p/H9275c/H208502=1
3vF2/H9275c
/H92632+/H9275c2, /H208498/H20850
where /H9263=1 //H9270p. In the limit of fast precession, /H9263/H11270/H9275c,w e
have Dxy=1
3vF2//H9275c. Next, if we set vF//H9275c=Lm, then Lmis the
distance a spin typically goes before it “converts” into thespin at 90° to that which it started with. The correspondingcontribution to the flux has an obvious interpretation—thesource of spin x,m
x, is particles coming from a distance Lm
away where they had spin y,my. The flux can be derived
from a simple “kinetic” argument. A distance Lmupstream,
the density is my=my0+Lmdmy/dxand a distance Lmdown-
stream, my=my0−Lmdmy/dx. The flux of particles with spin x,
mx, crossing a point, coming from upstream, is my↑vF/3 and
from downstream it is my↓vF/3. The difference is then /H20849my↑
−my↓/H20850vF/3=2Lmdmy/dxvF/3 which, within a factor of 2, is
our off-diagonal flux. In short, the off-diagonal terms are the
corrections induced by precession on the diffusion process.023701-2 Benakli, Hohlfeld, and Rebei J. Appl. Phys. 103 , 023701 /H208492008 /H20850
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128.114.34.22 On: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 00:38:51To get the effective equation for M, we use Eq. /H208493/H20850to
express min terms of the magnetization M, then use the
implicit solution back into the equation for m, Eq. /H208491/H20850.W e
find that the equation of motion for the magnetization be-comes
/H9252dM
dt=−/H9253M/H11003Heff+a·/H11612M+/H20849/H9251pd−/H9264/H20850M/H11003dM
dt
−/H9264/H9253M/H11003/H20849M/H11003Heff/H20850+/H11612·D/H11612m, /H208499/H20850
where a=P/H20849/H9262B/e/H20850Trj,/H9252=1+ m0+/H9251pd/H9264,/H9264=/H9270ex//H9270sfis the ratio
of the precessional time to the spin relaxation time of the
conduction electrons, and Pis the spin current polarization
which we set to 0.4.9The equilibrium polarization is taken
m0=0.01 M. The second term on the right is the adiabatic
spin torque while the last term is the diffusion contribution.The third and the fourth terms are equivalent to the nonadia-batic spin torque with the original damping
/H9251pdfrom Eq. /H208493/H20850
added to the third term. For uniform magnetization, /H11612M
=/H11612m=0, and damping constant /H9251pd=0, Eq. /H208499/H20850reduces to
dM
dt=−/H9253/H92642+/H9252
/H92642+/H92522M/H11003Heff−/H9253/H9264m0
/H92522+/H92642M/H11003/H20849M/H11003Heff/H20850.
/H2084910/H20850
Hence, we are able to predict damping due to conduction
electrons, quantify the corresponding damping constant /H9251el
=/H9253/H9264m0//H20849/H92522+/H92642/H20850, and identify its origin as the spin torque
contribution of the conduction electrons. We have written
Eq. /H2084910/H20850in the LL form, but it equally can be written in the
LLG form. We have already shown in Ref. 15that the mag-
netization dynamics of a thin film embedded between twonormal conductors and subjected to an electric field is notwell described by closed LL /H20849or LLG /H20850equations.
Next we discuss qualitatively the effect of the diagonal
and off-diagonal terms of the diffusion tensor on the velocityof a domain wall, of width /H9261. If we ignore the spatial depen-
dence of the diffusion tensor elements and replace the La-placian in the diffusion equation by 1 //H9261
2, then we recover
equations similar to those discussed by Zhang and Li9but
with renormalized spin flip scattering rate, 1 //H9270sf→1//H9270sfN
=1 //H9270sf+D0//H92612, and renormalized precessional frequency,
1//H9270ex→1//H9270exN=1 //H9270ex−Dxy//H92612. Therefore, the velocity and
the effective damping of the DW are dependent on the size ofthe inhomogeneities in the magnetization. This can be under-stood qualitatively from the results in Ref. 9which showed
that the DW velocity
vfor a wide DW, i.e., /H11612m/H110150, is in-
versely proportional to the damping /H9251el/H20849in the case /H9251pd=0/H20850,
v/H11015/H20849Pj/H9262B/e/H20850/H20851/H208491+/H92642/H20850//H20849/H9264m0/H20850/H20852. Then, ignoring the renormal-
ization of the diffusion coefficient D0, the velocity is ex-
pected to take a similar form as in the case which does notaccount for the diffusion but with
/H9264replaced by /H9264N=/H9270exN//H9270sfN.
The damping /H9251will be also affected by this renormalization
as is expected, since broadening due to inhomogeneities iswell known to occur in ferromagnetic resonance measure-ments.III. APPLICATION: 1D CASE
Now, we turn to the discussion of the results of the
above theory for a one-dimensional /H208491D/H20850DW configuration.
We solve numerically the coupled equations of motion forthe conduction electrons and that of the magnetization. Weinclude the d-dexchange between the local moments, the
anisotropy along the direction of the current, and the dipolefield. Pinning is neglected but can be easily included in thesimulations. Besides varying the width of the DW, we alsovary the other parameters in the sdmodel since there is no
universal agreement on their exact values. For example, it isgenerally believed that spin relaxation times are about twoorders of magnitude longer than momentum relaxation times.While this may be true in paramagnets, we already know thatin Ni
80Fe20they are comparable.24In Permalloy, the spin
diffusion length, ls=vF/H20881/H9270sf/H9270p, is of the order of 5 nm which
is of the same order as the mean free path, lp=3 nm.
Figure 1shows the effect of introducing the /H20849unnormal-
ized /H20850diffusion term D0in the equations of motion of the
magnetization. For DW width larger than 100 nm our resultrecovers that of Ref. 9. The variations of the domain wall
velocity
vwith/H9261are found to depend strongly on D0. This is
expected since vis, to first order, a function of D0//H92612/H20849see
inset /H20850. Moreover, the velocity peaks when the mean free path
of the conduction electrons, lp, is of the same order as the
DW width, since for lp/H11271/H9261 there is almost no scattering
while for lp/H11270/H9261there is only slow diffusion.
In Fig. 2, we show the effect of the corrections intro-
duced by the off-diagonal terms in the diffusion tensor. Thisnonadiabatic effect actually appears to suppress the DW ve-locity or the effect of diffusion as we explained earlier. Oth-erwise, the functional behavior of the velocity remains simi-lar to the one discussed in Fig. 1.
Finally, in Fig. 3, we extract the contribution of the con-
duction electrons to the effective damping of the magnetiza-tion. First, we observe that the off-diagonal diffusion termshave little effect on the relaxation of Mwhich is mainly
determined by the spin relaxation time
/H9270sf. These results are
FIG. 1. Domain wall velocity as a function of domain wall width for jc
=108A/cm2,/H9270sf=1.10 /H1100310−13s,/H9251pd=0.01, and three different diffusion co-
efficients, D=D0I, given in the figure in units of m2/s. A value of D0
=10−2m2/s corresponds to /H9270p/H1101510−14s. The solid thick line is that of Zhang
and Li /H20849Ref. 9/H20850. The inset shows the DW velocity vs D0//H92612.023701-3 Benakli, Hohlfeld, and Rebei J. Appl. Phys. 103 , 023701 /H208492008 /H20850
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128.114.34.22 On: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 00:38:51also not strongly dependent on the DW width and the ex-
tracted electronic damping has the correct order of magni-tude for metals.
IV. CONCLUSION
In summary, we have solved the conduction electron-
magnetization problem in the presence of a current self-consistently. We found that the diffusion term provides alarger contribution to the drive torque than to the dampingprocess, leading to an overall increase of domain wall veloc-ity. We also showed that the additional off-diagonal terms ofthe diffusion tensor enhance the DW velocities which be-come at least one order of magnitude larger than previouslyfound. Moreover, the dependence of the DW velocity on the
width of the DW was found to be nonlinear and stronglydependent on the nonadiabatic behavior of the conductionelectrons through the nondiagonal corrections of the diffu-sion tensor. We have been also able to determine the contri-bution of the conduction electrons to the damping in ferro-magnetic metals with domain wall configuartions which wefound to be of the same order as the typical measured valuesof
/H9251. Therefore, our treatment allows us to include electronic
damping in micromagnetic calculations in a more rigorousway than is currently done by simply accounting for it by asimple
/H9251parameter.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are very grateful to W. N. G. Hitchon and E. Si-
manek for important early discussions related to this work.We also thank P. Asselin for useful comments. M.B. thanksL. Berger for discussions.
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20A. Aziz, S. J. Bending, H. G. Roberts, S. Crampin, P. J. Heard, and C. H.
Marrows, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 206602 /H208492006 /H20850.
21L. L. Hirst, Phys. Rev. 141, 503 /H208491966 /H20850.
22J. I. Kaplan, Phys. Rev. 143, 351 /H208491966 /H20850.
23A. Rebei and J. Hohlfeld, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 117601 /H208492006 /H20850.
24S. Dubois, L. Piraux, J. M. George, K. Ounadjela, J. L. Duvail, and
A. Fert, Phys. Rev. B 60,4 7 7 /H208491999 /H20850.
FIG. 2. Domain wall velocity as a function of domain wall width with the
correct diffusion tensor taken into account. The solid /H20849open /H20850symbols are
without /H20849with /H20850off-diagonal corrections of the diffusion tensor. Parameters
are identical to those in Fig. 1.
FIG. 3. The electronic damping /H9251elas a function of spin flip scattering /H9270sf
for a 10 nm domain wall. The solid /H20849open /H20850symbols are for off-diagonal
terms included /H20849not included /H20850. The diffusion constant is D0=10−2m2/s and
/H9251pd=0.023701-4 Benakli, Hohlfeld, and Rebei J. Appl. Phys. 103 , 023701 /H208492008 /H20850
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1.1663819.pdf | Theory of magnetic domain dynamics in uniaxial materials
J. A. Cape, W. F. Hall, and G. W. Lehman
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 45, 3572 (1974); doi: 10.1063/1.1663819
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1663819
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130.63.180.147 On: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 20:36:48Theory of magnetic domain· dynamics in uniaxial materials
J. A. Cape and W. F. Hall
Science Center, Rockwell International, Thousand Oaks, California 91360
G. W. Lehman
University of Kentucky, Lexington. Kentucky 40506
(Received 10 December 1973; in final form II March 1974)
We have calculated the total Lagrangian and Rayleigh dissipation functions for an isolated domain of
arbitrary cross section in an infinite plate with perpendicular anisotropy. Variation of these functions
yields a set of coupled equations describing the motion of the center of mass and the boundary
R (<1» (in general noncircular) of the domain. We neglect z dependence and assume aiR 0(1 where a
is the wall "thickness". The theory is applicable for applied field variations of arbitrary speed and
magnitude. For uniform field pulses, the equations reduce to the Callen-Josephs theory in the
weak-pulse limit. For pulses > 27rM, la, where a is the Gilbert parameter, the behavior again tends
to be linear with, generally, a greatly reduced apparent mobility, while in the transition region
27r M, a < Hp < 27r M, I a, the predicted behavior is highly nonlinear with an oscillatory substructure
which causes an alternating sequence of collapse-noncollapse regions in the conventional plot of
inverse pulse length vs pulse height. Translatory motion of the domain in a field gradient is also
highly nonlinear reducing to "effective mass" behavior only when R H' <47r M a. An approximate
prediction of the theory is that regardless of the magnitude of the pulse gradient (i) the net
displacement is given by x 0 '" {twR (dHldx)t 0' where {tw is the wall mobility and (ii) the minimum
elapsed time for a displacement is "" T A = (M ,12K )(R l/al)(yar' , where K is the anisotropy constant
and y the gyromagnetic ratio. Finally, the theory predicts a finite displacement in a direction
transverse to the sense of the field gradient.
I. INTRODUCTION
Since the discovery and elucidation of most of the
static properties of "bubble domains", their dynamical
properties have been discussed largely within the
framework of two distinct models. The simplest, yet
in many ways most successful, has been what might be
called the quasistatic wall-energy model or simply
wall model (WM) for short. Here the domains are
assumed to consist of regions uniformly magnetized to
saturation, separated by dimensionsless "walls" from
their oppositely magnetized surroundings, also uniform
ly saturated. The walls are assigned a surface energy
density to account for exchange energy which must ac
company the magnetization reversal. The WM has been
eminently successful in explaining the static properties
of domains including sizes, shapes, critical points of
stability; 1-9 and even much of the complex many-domain
structures which arise from interaction. 9.10 WM theory
has been adapted to describe the dynamics of isolated
domains, essentially by associating a wall-dissipation
mechanism with time variation of the "static" WM
energy. 11-13 That is, if UwM(R,xo,He) is the total energy
(including surface energy, external field, and demag
netization field terms) of a domain of dimensions R at
rest at the point Xo in a static external field He' the time
rate of change of U WM accompanying a time variation in
R or Xo is assumed to be dissipated (neglecting coercive
effects) according tol3
dU 1 ~ =- <l!oV~ dA, dt wall area (1)
where v n is the component of the wall velocity along the
normal to the wall.
The phenomological constant <l!o is related to the
"wall mobility" Ilw by <l!o=2Ms/llw, and coercive effects
may be included, if desired. Employing the assumption
embodied in Eq. (1), Thiele11 first considered the
3572 Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 45, No.8, August 1974 motion of a rigid cylindrical bubble domain in an exter
nal field gradient and obtained the result
5-_ P dH., dt -Ilw,o dx (2)
where Ro is a constant radius. In a similar vein, Callen
and Josephs12 derived an equation of motion for an iso
lated bubble domain subjected to a time-varying uniform
external bias field. Their result can be expressed in
the form
where FWM(R) is an "effective field" deriving from the
magnetostatic energy and the wall energy. (3)
The common hypothesis underlying Eqs. (2) and (3)
was pointed out by Cape13 who also derived a formula,
similar to Eq. (2), for strip domains in the course of an
experimental study of the motion of bubbles and strips
in garnet films subjected to oscillatory and pulsed
gradient fields. In what follows, we shall see that Eq.
(1) can be obtained as a very crude approximation to a
complete Lagrangian-Rayleigh dissipation theory from
which all kinetic effects have been omitted.
The second popular theoretical approach to domain
dynamics is that based on what Brown14 has called
"micromagnetics". For our purpose this means the
equations of motion are derived from variational
principles applied to the energy of a system in which
the local magnetization vector M(r) is considered to
have constant magnitude Ms while itsdirection cosines
are continuous func;tions of the coordinates r. The do
main walls are now not imaginary dimensionless
boundaries but finite regions across which the magneti
zation reorientation is accomplished in a continuous
fashion. The application of micromagnetics thus far,
totaling a rather large number of papers, has been
Copyright © 1974 American Institute of Physics 3572
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directed almost entirely towards the dynamics of an
isolated domain-wall segment, 15-20 i. e., the wall does
not enclose a finite region of spin reversal (for example,
a bubble domain) nor is there a pair of walls so as to
clearly define a striplike domain. The static limit of an
open single-wall configuration is not a stable state of
any homogeneous medium, except in the unusual cir
cumstance that the imposed external field is strongly
graded from large negative values to large positive
values. A single wall may then form along the line of
zero field. 21
Our principal criticism of the micromagnetics wall
dynamics formulations to date is that they are funda
mentally incomplete insofar as they do not describe the
actual ground or excited states of the system [contrast
with Eq. (3), the solution of which for dR/dt=O gives
precisely the equilibrium static bubble diameter]. In
particular these calculations have not treated adequately
the magneto static self-energy (the demagnetization field)
which depends specifically on the actual configuration of
the domain. On the other hand, the wall model must be
faulted at a more fundamental level. Having structure
less walls, it cannot provide for changes in the wall
structure with varying velocity (and cannot, therefore,
account for complex metastable structures such as
"hard" bubbles). Moreover, the wall model is an es
sentially linear theory inasmuch as it assigns a strict
proportionality to the viscous drag (dissipative) force
and therefore cannot provide for nonlinear high-velocity
effects.
On the positive side, the wall model treats correctly
the magneto static effects and yields the correct gross
features in the static limit. Not surprisingly, the wall
model is in good agreement with experiment as long as
the wall velocities are not too great. In this connection
may be cited the low-field bubble-collapse experiments
originated by Bobeck et al. 22 The low-field reciprocal
collapse times are linear in the collapse field amplitude
as predicted by Callen and Josephs12 on the basis of
their analYSis of Eq. (3). Similarly, Cape13 has shown
that the response of a bubble and a strip domain to an
oscillatory gradient field is consistent with Eq. (2) if
reasonable values for the mobility are assumed, and if
an allowance is made for the coercivity. On the other
hand, bubble-collapse experiments carried to high
pulsed field values exhibit a strong nonlinear saturation
with, in some instances, a region of negative differ
ential mobility. 23 This is not explained by the wall
model and presumably the explanation must be sought
in micromagnetics. As already mentioned, the micro
magnetics problem has not been solved for a finite
domain, but a great deal of insight has been gained by
the studies performed thus far. Doring's16 early calcu
lation ascribed an effective mass to a moving wall.
More recently, Lehman24 has calculated the first-order
correction term to Eq. (2), i. e., an additional term in
x reminiscent of the effective mass result. Walker's17
well-known result predicts an upper velocity limit for
uniform wall mption. Slonczewski's20 extensive calcu
lations have brought out the possibilities of nonuniform
motion, oscillatory behavior, and negative differential
mobility. His results, as well as those of Walker and
Doring, apply to isolated domain walls and as such can-
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 45, No.8, August 1974 3573
not be compared with the experiment. What is needed is
a complete micromagnetics theory formulated for an
idealized "true" domain structure and reducing-in
the limit of small velocities-to Eqs. (2) and (3). This
is what we set out to achieve in the following. Some of
our results, specialized to the case of stationary circu
lar "normal" bubble domains, have been presented
previousl y25 in connection with the bubble-collapse
problem.
II. LAGRANGIAN FORMULATION
Consider a uniaxial ferromagnet of saturation moment
lVIs in the form of a flat plate of thickness h and of in
plane cross-sectional area OJ>' The magnetization at
the point r and time t is given in cartesian and cylindri
cal coordinates, respectively, by (see Fig. 1)
lVI x=lVI. sinU cos V, lVIp=lVIs sinU cos(V -cp),
lVIy=lVI. sinU sinV, lVIq, =Ms sinU sin(V -cp), (4)
M .=lVI. cosU, lVI.=Ms cosU,
where in general U and V are functions of p, z, and t in
a cylindrical coordinate system fixed in the plate and
R(cp, z, t) is the locus [defined by MI/(r, t)=O] of the do
main wall in the body coordinate system moving with
the domain and centered at Po(t) [defined by lVI .(Po' z, t)
=lVI.]. Our prescription for calculating the equations of
motion follows the concepts evolved by Gilbert26 and
elaborated in detail by Brown14 in his books and papers.
The starting point is the Lagrangian density14
L(r, t) = T(r, t) -G(r, f), (5)
where the kinetic function
) lVI. a T(r, f :; -y' V(r, t) at cosU(r, t) (6)
contains the inertial properties of the spin system (y is
the gyromagnetic ratio) and the potential function G, for
a z-uniaxial medium, can be written
G(r, t) =A[(VU)2 + sin2U(VV)2] + K sin2U
-~M· Hm -M· He' (7)
where A and K are, respectively, the exchange and
anisotropy constants, H. is an externally applied field,
and Hm(r, t), the "demagnetization" field, is given by
Hm=-VCP;
where the integration extends over the entire plate
volume OJ>. If damping of the spin system is ignored,
variation of the time-averaged total Lagrangian
1t2 r . L = dt Jo dp [T(U, V, U) -G(U, V, VU, VV, t, p)]
tl P
leads to the equations of niotion (8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
It is straightforward to show that Eqs. (10) and (11) are
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FIG. 1. Schematic of a magnetic domain viewed along the uni
axial direction. A cylindrical coordinate system (p, </», the
"bubble" coordinates. moves with the domain following the
trajectory PoW in the laboratory (plate) coordinate system.
The domain boundary presented by the dashed curve is given
by P = R(</>, t), and the domain wall is of "thickness" 6 (r!> , t).
equivalent to the familiar torque equation
(12)
where Heff is the variational derivative of G with respect
to M.14 Dissipative effects are incorporated by intro
ducing the Rayleigh dissipation !unction14.26
(13)
where a is the "Gilbert damping parameter". The
equations of motion are then modified by the addition of
(a/aiT)j(r, I) to the right-hand side of Eq. (10) and a
similar term from a/af to Eq. (11).
While in principle the domain configuration can be
determined from the Euler equations, we proceed by
assuming suitable analytic forms for sinU(r, t) and
cosU(r, t). A great simplification is achieved by as
suming M to be independent of z. We shall make this
approximation for the remainder of the present dis
cussion, leaving such matters as "twisted" walls27 to a
subsequent discussion. By analogy with the familiar
structure for long planar Bloch walls, we assume
sinU = sech[A(r, cp, t)], (14)
where
A", [p -R(cp, l)]ja(cp, f). (15)
For simplicity, we further assume V to be independent
of p for fixed cp. The "radius" R( cp, t) defines the
boundary, i. e., the locus of the domain wall, in general
noncircular, and a(cp, f) measures the wall "thickness".
Equation (15) leads to an unphysical singularity in the
exchange energy at p = O. De Bonte28 has discussed how
this singularity may be removed for circular domains.
For more general domain structures, the success of
such a procedure requires the existence of a point Po( t)
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 45, No.8, August 1974 3574
in the (x, y) plane where Mq"Mp=O and M.=Ms' The
point Poll) we take to be the origin (see Fig. 1) of a co
ordinate system moving with the domain.
Inasmuch as R, a, and V are functions only of cp and
t, we will make use throughout of the convenient notation
oR and R' ",-(jcp (16)
with similar notation for the derivatives of a(cp, t) and
V(cp, t).
A. The demagnetization energy
The demagnetization field Hm is given by
Hm=-Vr<I>=-vri dr' M(r',t)· V" Ir-r' 1-1. (17)
Since M = M(p) by assumption, we may write
<I> = inp dp' M .(p' , t)
x {[(z .... W + (p + p')2]-1/2 _ [Z2 + (p _ p' )2]-1/2}
+ ~ dp' ML(p', t)· VL t dz' [(z -Z,)2 + (p _p,)2]-I/2.
p
utilizing Eq. (18), one may show that
-t i dr M· Hm = W. + WL,
where
Wz'" I-dp J, dp' M.(p, f)Mz(p', t)
rip rip
x[lp_p' I-I_(lp-p' 12+h2)-I/2], (18)
(19)
(20)
which reduces to the demagnetization energy as calcu
lated in the wall model9 when Mz=M., and
WL "'t J dp f, dp' [ML(p, t)· vJ
rip rip (21)
x [ML(p', t). V~lK( Ip -p' I),
which derives from the in-plane magnetization and is,
therefore, absent in the wall model. In Eq. (21),
K(p) '" 2{h 10gJh/p + (h2 + p2)1 /2/p] + p _ (h2 + p2)1/2}
(22)
and
o V =
L -op' a V'",-· LOp'
For circular bubbles with R »a, we show in the
Appendix that
WL = 21Th in dp [M/ cp, f)]2 + O{[(a/R)2lnR la-I}.
p
utilizing Eqs. (14) and (15), from which Mp
=M. sechA cos( V -cp) we obtain for circular bubbles (23)
(24)
WL = 41TM;hR tv dcp a( cp, t) sin2</J( cp, f), (25) o
where, for convenience, we have introduced the
variable 1]J '" cp -V + t1T (see Fig. 2).
A more general, but less rigorous derivation of WL,
valid presumably for noncircular as well as circular
bubbles, can be obtained by the following argument. If
the magnetization varies slowly along the domain wall
over a region large compared to a but small compared
to the wall curvature, it is intuitive that only the in-
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130.63.180.147 On: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 20:36:483575 Cape, Hall and Lehman: Magnetic domain dynamics
plane component normal to the wall, M~(p, </>, t), con
tributes to the demagnetization field, and that the
contribution is Hm:" -41TM~(p, </>, t). To put it another
way, all "poles" due to Ml tend to cancel except those
associated with the magnetization component normal to
the wall. Accordingly, we take
W1 = -t f dp f dz M1• Hml :::::21Th f dpM~. (26)
To evaluate M~, we note that~, the unit vector nor
mal to the domain boundary at p = R( </>, t), is given by
il = [1 + (R' /R)2]-1/2 lip -(R' /R)iq,], (27)
where ip and i0 are the radial and azimuthal unit vectors
in circular cylindrical coordinates. We then obtain
M,=il·{ioM p +~M(!>}
with Mo and M(!> given by Eq. (4). Performing the in
dicated operations we obtain the result
W1 = 41ThM! f~ d</> o( </>, t)R( </>, t)
x [1 + (R' /R)2]-1 [sinlji -(R' /R) cosl/J)2
which reduces to Eq. (25) for circular bubbles. (28)
B. Exchange and anisotropy terms
To evaluate the second term in the exchange energy
and the anisotropy term, we make use of
('1U)2 = sech2 A('1A)2
= 0-2 sech2A[1 + (R' + M,)2 (R + Mt2], (29)
hence,
.( dp p('1U)2::::: 0-1 I: dAsech2 A(R + M +Wl(R' + M')2].
(30)
In writing Eq. (30) we have extended the lower limit of
integration from -R/o to -00 and set p =R in the co
efficient of the term (R' + ... )2. The reason for doing this
is not simply because R/o is assumed to be large,
though we do assume this, but because of the recognition
that the "true" function for Mp (which we approximate
by Mp ==Ms sechA), must vanish at p== -0 (A == -R/o) as
was pointed out above. In fact, it can be seen that the
function must vanish at least as fast as p2 = (R + AO)2.
De Bonte28 has shown that an appropriate behavior is
obtained if we redefine A == (p -R)/o + lnp/R. The
resulting corrections to the energy terms are negligible,
however, when exp(R/o)>> 1. Taking this inequality (as
assumed), we obtain to first order in o/R
r dp p('1U)2::::: 2(R/o){[1 + (R' /R)2]}. (31) o
Similarly, the exchange and anisotropy terms give
C. Kinetic terms
We must evaluate
i Mh£ a dp T(p, t) == -~ dp V(p, t) at cosU(p, t).
Op Y flp
Noting that (see Fig. 1)
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 45, No.8, August 1974 3575
a I (0' ) I -cosU = --po' V cosU at plate of P bubble' (33)
where the derivatives on the left-and right-hand side
are with respect to the fixed (plate) and moving (bubble)
coordinate systems, respectively, we obtain
a I ...] atcosu I = -sech2 A{[o + p-l(xo sin</> -Yo cos</>W M-1
plate " • •
+ o-I[R + Xo cos</> + Yo Sin</> + p-l(yo cos</>
-Xo sin</»R ]}. (34)
Avoiding the singularity at p == 0 as discussed above,
the integration is straightforward and yields
f dp T(p, t) = (2M .. hjy) t" d</> V( </>, t)[R( </>, t)(Rp
~ 0
+ Xo cos</> + Yo sin</»]
+0(1j2/R2)+O[exp(-R/o)], (35)
where
Rp ==R + WI R'(xo sin</> -Yo cos</»
is our abbreviated notation for the derivative in the
plate coordinates.
D. Dissipative terms
Utilizing Eq. (15) and noting that
(aU)2 2 (a )2 at =csc U at cosU ,
we obtain as above (36)
(37)
1 (OU)2 f2' [R.. . ] dp at = h d</> 2 a (Rp + Xo cos</> + Yo sin</»2
op 0
+ ° [(iYl (38)
Similarly
i (aV)2 fh . dp sin2U at = 2h d<pR(</>, t)o(</>, t)y;,
Up 0 (39)
where
Vp:; V + Wl V'(XO sin</> -Yo cos</» (40)
is the time derivative of V in plate coordinates. Com
bining the quantities derived above, we obtain finally
f drG(r, t)
== 2h ir
d</>R(</>, t) {[K +A('1V)2]O(</>, t) o
+ [A/o( <p, t)] [1 + (R'/R)2]
+ 21TM~o(</>, t) [1 + (R' /R)2]-1 [sinlji -(R' /R) coslji]21
( 41)
where we have put W H = -f dr M· He' The kinetic
energy is given by Eq.e (35), and the Rayleigh diSSipation
function is
f dr J (r, t) = (aMsh/y) fo2. d</> ([R( </>, t)/o( </>, t))
x [Rp( </>. t) + Xo cos</> + Yo sin </>]2
+R(cp, t)O(</>, t)Y;(<p, t)}+O[(o/Rj21. (42)
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III. THE WALL-MODEL LIMIT
Since the wall model generally omits inertial effects,
we must restrict it to slow ("quasistatic") wall ve
locities_ We, therefore, assume that the spins at the
center of the domain wall, R(cf», are always tangent to
the wall, i. e., we put tall</!=R' /R [see Eq. (56b)J. This
makes the term Wi vanish. Similarly, the terms in K
and A are minimized by
0= {(A/K) [1 + (R' /R)2]y /2 (43)
with which the 0 terms combine to give
W wall = 4(AK)1 /2 h rr dcf> R( cf» [1 t (R' /R)2Jl/2
=4(AK)1/2S=O"wS, (44)
where S is the wall area of the domain and O"w=4(AK)1/2
is the wall-energy density. These terms thus give the
wall-energy term of the wall model. 9
The kinetic terms are normally completely absent in
the wall model and dissipative effects, as discussed in
Sec. I, are included only in the ad hoc fashion embodied
in Eq. (1). Note that Eq. (1) for a circular bubble
implies a dissipation function
f dr ]wM=(aMsh/r) t.r
dcf> (R/o)R2 (45)
Q
which is an obvious approximation to Eq. (42).
The quantities W. and W H diverge if evaluated for a
domain embedded in an infinite plate. One therefore
substracts the energy of the "saturated" (no domain)
plate to obtain a finite result as has been done previously
for the wall model. To accomplish this, we note that
M. can be written
M .=M. -M. [1-cosU(p, t)J
=M. -M.[l-tanhA(p, t»). (46)
Substituting into Eq. (20) and abbreviating
Q -={IP -p' 1-1_ [(p -p,)2 + h2J-l/2} we obtain
W.=M: 1 dp 1. dp' Q(p, p')
Op Op
-2M2 J dp (1 -cosU) 1 dp' Q(p, p')
& 1'1 OJ,
+M2 1 dp 1 dp' (1-cosU)(l- cosU')Q(p, p'), (47)
& 0 0'
where the first term is clearly W!,at the self-energy of
the uniformly magnetized plate. In the remaining terms,
since the factor 1 -cosU is zero outside of the domain
volume 0, the corresponding regions of integration are
reduced from Op and O~ to 0 and 0' .
Similarly, the external field energy can be written
f dpM.(p)H.(P)=M& fndpH,(P) -Ms 10 dp (1-cosU)H.(P),
(48)
where the first term on the right-hand side is ~at. e
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 45, No.8, August 1974 3576
The wall-model limit obtains as 0 -0, i. e., when
cosU=tanh[(p-R)/o]- ±1 for p~R, respectively, In
this limit, since fo dp' Q(p, p') = 2rrN o(p) is the
"demagnetization factor" of the volume 0, we find
(W. + WH )6-0= -8rrM! 1 dp [Np(p) -N Q(p)] e Q
which is the wall-model result obtained previously
[Ref. 9, Eq. (9)]. The wall-model limit of the remaining
terms in G obtains if we neglect 6(VV)2 compared to
0-1 and (20/acf»2 compared to (2R/acf»2.
If we denote the wall-model limit of W. by U M (to
agree with the notation used previously9,13,25) it is
straightforward to show that
W.= U M[1 + O(02/R2)]. (50)
To see this, we put l-cosU=2[1-I1(A)]+w (where 11 is
the step function) and find
W.=UM+2M!hf dtj>J dppw(p,cf»=UM+U l (51)
with w(p <R)= -(1 +tanhA) and w(p >R) =tanhA. The
integral on the right-hand side, Up is evaluated readily
giving
U1 =~h.r dcf>02(cf» [2 -exp(-R/o) + ... ] (52)
which is smaller than U M by a factor of -o2/R2.
We are therefore able to use the simpler form U M in
place of W. in the remainder of this discussion. In
particular, for circular bubbles, a convenient approxi
mate form for U M' given by Callen and Josephs, 12 is
quite useful. 25 In summary, we see that we obtain
precisely the energy function of the wall model9 if we
(i) ignore kinetic terms, (ii) retain terms to order o/R
only in the magnetostatic energy, and (iii) assume
tan1/!=R' /R, i. e., the magnetization has no normal
component at the center of the domain wall.
IV. EQUATIONS OF MOTION
The Euler equations are derived from Eqs. (41) and
(42) as described above from variation of the Lagrangian
and the dissipation function. We define
_ -1 auM· F u~ (4rrMshR) --aB' (53)
2.
()=(21T)-1 J dcf> ( ), (54)
Q
and
cose -= [1 + (R' /R)?)-1/2 (55)
and retain terms to first order only in olR (except when
this quantity is multiplied by potentially large quantities
such as V'). We are led to the set of equations
(56a)
(56b)
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;1T £ dP~~~~= -(a~ (v O~ (R sincp»)) -a(~ (1'~p + xocoscp + Yo sincp) oOcp (R sincp»),
~~ dp a~e =-(o~ (v a~ (RCOSCP»)) + (~(ilp+XoCOSCP+YoSincp) o~ (RCOSCP»), (56c)
(56d)
and
Equations (56a)-(56e) are the equations of motion for a
single domain of cross section n [enclosed by R(cp)]
and describe, in principle, both translatory and radial
motion. The equations are approximate mainly in the
respect that z dependence has been ignored and that
6/R is assumed small compared to unity.
V. QUALITATIVE FEATURES OF BUBBLE COLLAPSE
Equations (56a)-(56e) reduce to those presented
previously25.29 for bubble collapse in a uniform field, if
we take Rand <P independent of cp (normal circular
bubbles) and take the bubble center to be stationary
(x, y, VHe = 0). We obtain then two coupled first-order
differential equations which govern the time development
of Rand 1/J:
(1 + a2)~=y[He- F(R, 1/J)] -~41TMsya sin21/J, (57a)
(1 + a2)R = -y6a[He -F(R, 1/J)] -~41TMsy6 sin21/J. (57b)
Here 1/J defined by Fig. 2, is, for normal circular
bubbles, the angle by which the magnetization vector at
the domain wall tips away from the wall tangent and F is
the wall-model function of Eq. (3), plus a small term
proportional to sin21J!.25
In order for Eqs. (57a) and (57b) to have a time
independent solution, He must be smaller than the
maximum value of F. In that case, the bubble radius
and wall magnetization at which the system can rest
are determined by the conditions He-F(R, 1/J) = sin21/J = O.
In the interval 0 "" 1/J < 21T there are eight such solutions,
two at each multiple of ~1T. Only two of these are stable,
namely, the larger-radius solutions at ?/!=O and 1/J=1T,
corresponding to right-and left-handed bubbles,
respectively. These solutions are stable in the sense
that a small perturbation in R or 1/J from their stable
point values will die away in time. The smaller-radius
solutions at 1/J = 0 and 1T and the larger-radius solutions
at 1/J = ~1T and ~1T are saddle points. If the values of Rand
1/J for a particular bubble lie in the vicinity of such a
point, these values may evolve initially either toward
the saddle-point values or away from them, but their
further development eventually takes them away from
SA, unless the initial values lie on one of the two
exceptional trajectories which end upon the saddle point.
The remaining two solutions, which lie at 1/J = ~1T and
~7T, are source points: small perturbations from
equilibrium grow in all directions. Finally, F turns
negative at suffiCiently small R, with the consequence
that bubbles of smaller radii will collapse spontaneously.
These properties of the motion of the bubble radius
R and the wall magnetization angle 1J! can be conveniently
summarized by plotting the bounds of all possible
trajectories R(1/J) allowed by Eqs. (57a) and (57b), using
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 45, No.8, August 1974 (56e)
IR as the radius and 21J! as the azimuth angle [we use 21/J
rather than 1J! because the right-hand sides of Eqs.
(57a) and (57b) have period 1T in 1/J]. This has been done
in Fig. 3 (from Ref. 25) for the particular case
a = 0.02, 6 = 5X 10-6 cm, 41TMsY = 5. 6X 109 sec-I, and we
have taken the Callen-Josephs12 approximate form for
U M' We then obtain
F(R, 1/J) = 41TMs{(1 + ~R/h}l -(V2R)[1 + (21TM~/K) sin2(/J]1/2}
(58)
and we have taken ~ = 2. 5x 10-4 cm, K= 105 ergcm-3,
and h= 10-3 cm for Fig. 3. In this figure the usual
stable bubble configuration with 1J! = 0 (or 1T) is labelled
SI (for sink), and its radius is taken as unity for con
venience. Similarly, the saddle pOints (at R = 0.3,
1J!=0 and at R=O. 9, 1J!=t1T) are labelled SA, and the
source point at R =0.3, 1/J= ~1T is labelled SO. The solid
lines connecting these points are the trajectories in R
and 1/J which a bubble must follow to either start or end
upon a saddle point; these lines divide the plane into
four distinct regions, denoted II-V (I and II are ob
viously connected). Because solutions of Eqs. (57a) and
(57b) cannot cross, a trajectory beginning in one region
must eventually end in that region; for zones II-IV, this
""" """ '-... \
\
SPIN DIRECTION
AT WALL CENTER
\
\
WALL TANGENT
....... \
.p~ '-... " 8 -p
-------------+~,~~--~--L-------x
FIG. 2. The moving coordinate system (p,1» ("bubble coordi
nates") centered at (xo' yO> and the variables of the dynamical
theory. The angles V, ¢, and 9 measure, respectively, the
spin direction, at the wall center, relative to the positive x
axis, the inclination of the wall-center spins from the perpen
dicular to the radius vector, and the angle between the wall
tangent and the perpendicular to the radius vector.
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I
FIG. 3. Bounds of the possible R(~) trajectories following
termination of the field pulse. Cross-hatched area is the re
gion of bubble collapse. Note that the critical collapse radius
depends on the initial ~ value which is a high-frequency func
tion of the magnitude of the field pulse.
endpoint is the stable configuration SI, while for the
"whale"-shaped shaded region V, it is the origin, i. e. ,
trajectories within the zone V lead to bubble collapse.
The boundaries of this region of bubble collapse are
formed by the four solutions of Eqs. (57a) and (57b)
which start from the source point SO and end on the
inner saddle point SA. For typical values of the
material parameters, these solutions spiral outward
from the source point, so that trajectories converging
to the stable point SI are closely interwrapped with
those collapsing to the origin. Consequently, in the
vicinity of SO, zone V is interwrapped with the stable
zone, region III, forming a spiral "whale's tail" on
the collapse zone.
In the usual bubble-collapse experiments, an initially
stable bubble is made to contract by increasing the
field He beyond the maximum value of F. From Eq.
(57a), one sees that if the excess field Hp is small com
pared to WMOI/2y (= 27TM 01), l/! will remain near its
initial value (0 or 7T) and ~ can be neglected, with the
result that R decreases according to Eq. (3). If the
excess field is removed before R has decreased below
the saddle point radius, which marks the boundary of
the collapse region at l/! = 0 and 7T, then the bubble will
simply return to its original size. For this range of
excess field, there appears to be a well-defined critical
radius for bubble collapse, and a straightforward
analysis of Eq. (3) confirms that the time required to
reach this radius is inversely proportional to the
magnitude of the excess field. 12 However, for excess
fields of the order of 27TM 01 or larger the situation be
comes complicated because l/! no longer can remain
near its initial value.
Under the influence of a large excess field, l/! will
necessarily be large. In fact, from Eqs. (57a) and
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 45, No.8, August 1974 3578
(57b) one can show that i/J will rotate through 27T radians
for a decrease in R of only 27T00I. Thus, in a cylindrical
coordinate plot such as Fig. 3, the point representing
the bubble will spiral inward, cirCling the origin many
times before its trajectory crosses into the region of
bubble collapse, an intersection which may now occur
anywhere along the collapse boundary, the whale of Fig.
3. Furthermore, because this boundary is not Circular,
and because the term in sin2l/! in Eq. (57b) imposes an
oscillation on R, continued application of the excess
field will carry the bubble back out of the collapse re
gion, and then into it again, and so on, until the bubble
radius has finally decreased far enough below the
smallest radius on the boundary that the oscillation in
R cannot take it out again.
The consequences of this behavior for the usual plot
of inverse pulse length against the magnitude of the
excess field pulse required for bubble collapse are as
follows: At any excess field magnitude greater than
27TM 01 there will be several distinct bands of inverse
pulse length corresponding to bubble collapse, separated
by bands in which the bubble returns to its original
radius, with a final collapse interval extending from
some value below the inverse pulse length required to
pass inside the smallest critical radius, downward to
zero. At very high fields, such that Hp»27TM/0I, the
oscillation in R can be neglected and the boundaries of
these bands become straight lines on the plot of inverse
pulse length versus pulse magnitude. At fields H p
between 27TM 01 and 27TM / 01 the oscillations in R will
cause the bands to oscillate up and down with a period
H given roughly by AH/H"'27T00l/t:.R, where R is the
difference between the initial bubble radius and the
radius at which the path of the bubble intersects the
boundary of the collapse region. In the light of the
foregoing qualitative predictions, it appears that the
results of Vella-Coleiro et al. , 30 in which a band of
reciprocal pulse lengths were observed, may be under
stood without invoking hard bubbles, though that
possibility is not ruled out.
For excess fields smaller than 27TM 01, >jJ no longer
rotates beyond 27T and the trajectory of the point
representing the bubble becomes nearly radial, with
the consequence that it generally intersects the bound
ary of the collapse region only once. (For an entry near
a source point, several intersections may still occur
because of the spiral shape of the boundary in that
vicinity. ) Thus, the bands eventually coalesce into a
Single interval whose boundary becomes linear at small
excess fields.
In the small i/J limit, (sin2i/J -2i/J) if a step increment in
He is applied at t=O, Eqs. (57a) and (57b) predict an
instantaneous increment in ~ at t = 0 damping quickly to
zero with the time constant TM "'(1 + 0I2)/2wMOI. In the
low-pulse-field bubble-collapse limit (Hp« 27TM 01) the
collapse time to is generally much greater than T M'
Hence, i/J is sensibly constant during collapse. It can be
seen that the approximation ~ = 0 reduces Eqs. (57a)
and (57b) to a single equation in k which is precisely the
Callen-Josephs equation12 if we identify iJ.w,=yO/Oi.
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VI. TRANSLATIONAL MOTION
If a gradient is superimposed on the external mag
netic field, a translational force will be exerted on the
domain. Taking the origin of plate coordinates at the
initial center of the bubble, a gradient in the x direction
can be represented by
dRe H =H +x-, e 0 dx (59)
where x=xo + p coscp, Ho is now understood to be con
stant and dR/dx may be turned on and off. If dR/dx is
sufficiently small, the equations of motion [Eqs. (56a)
(56e)], can be linearized by treating the departure from
R = Ro' IjJ = 0 as small and ignoring products of small
quantities such as (R -Ro)1jJ or IjJdH/dx. The linear
equations admit solutions of the form
R =Ro + ~ coscp + 1'/ sincp,
and
ljJ=u coscp + v sincp + w.
Defining
wM = 47TMsY' wA = 2yA/MsR~
Mw=ya/a, /: ~ [Mwe:;) R -~J1,
o
we find the steady-state solutions
w=O,
Ro=O,
~=MwRo(:e) (;J2/:WM(WM+WAt\
1'/ = (RO/aa)(wA/w M),
v=2Mwa :e (WM+WAt1 [1+(;J2 (;u:)]
which is generally very small compared to u,
• dHe xo= -MwRo fiX'
and (60)
(61)
(62a)
(62b)
(62d)
(62e)
(62f)
The steady state of ~,1'/, u, v, xo' and Yo is approached
approximately in proportion to the factor [1-exp(-tiT)],
where T=(l + a2)j(wM+wA)a is a characteristic time
for the system. Similarly, when the gradient pulse is
turned off, these quantities damp to zero exponentially
in the same fashion. An interesting prediction is that
during the period of the pulse, the bubble is displaced
along the y axis in a direction which may be rep
resented by mX VHe, where m is the magnetic moment
of the bubble. The physical cause of this very small
displacement is not clear except that it is a result of
the kinetic properties and not of V(M· H) forces.
Significantly, the displacement implies a transverse
velocity component during the application of the pulse.
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 45, No.8, August 1974 3579
Possibly this is the explanation of the transverse motion
reported earlier. 13.30
For small gradients, the time to required to displace
a bubble a reasonable distance-say one or more
radii-should substantially exceed the damping time T;
the net motion is given very nearly by
.uo '" -MwRo(dRe/dx)t o' which is in agreement with
Eq, (2).
When large pulse gradients are imposed, the non
linear behavior of the equations must be taken into
account. Qualitatively it is possible to argue that in the
high pulse limit, the translation of the bubble occurs
almost entirely after the pulse is over; i. e., the motion
is more analogous to impact and recoil. This con
clusion can be drawn from the following approximate
and highly speculative argument.
If we assume that, as in the weak-pulse limit, the
predominant term in IjJ is u coscp, and that R is again
sensibly adiabatic, we obtain the equation of motion for
u:
(1+a2}it
=YR: -aWm~1+(~)I2+e~a)I3+(::)ul (63)
where /1, 12, and 13 are dimensionless integrals of the
order of unity.
In response to a a-function pulse in dH/dx, u rises
"instantly" in time to the value uo=yR(dH/dx)t o(1 + a2)"1,
hence in general if W AyRo(dH/dx)to[wM(l + a2)]-1» 1, the
terms in II to 13 may be dropped and the resulting
equation is again linear. This approximation leads to
the result
(1 + a2)xo = -a2 M",R :~ -W A au
( dH a.) = -M",R-+-u (1+a2) dx a .
In response to a a-function pulse, we then obtain for
t <i; to
(1 2) 2 dHe + a Axo = -a M wRo -d to' < x (64)
(65)
After the pulse is over, u "unwinds" slowly according
to the linear equation (1 + a2)u = -W A au, which governs
the motion until (wA/wM)u-1 after which the damping is
accelerated (wM» wA). Consequently, the motion in xo'
after the pulse, is given approximately by
(1 + a2).:ho = -M",Ro dRd e to > x (66)
and the total displacement is
dRe Axo = -l.I.ufio ax to (67)
which is the same as the weak-pulse result. In the
strong-pulse limit, however, only a fraction 02/( 1 + a2)
of the motion occurs during the pulse, the rest of the
motion coming afterward is a result of inertia. If this
analysis, with the assumption 1]; "'u coscp (we have also
neglected Yo in the strong pulse case), is reasonably
accurate, an interesting conclusion is presented. That
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is, that in response to a pulsed gradient, no matter how
intense the pulse, the time of the motion is of the order
of TA which may be written TA = (M&/2K) (R2/052) (1/ya),
and is '" 10-2_10-4 sec for typical bubble materials. This
conclusion may in some sense indicate limiting transit
times in bubble propagation and, thereby, provide
guidance in the selection and design of materials with a
view to optimizing data rate in bubble-domain device
applications.
APPENDIX
Consider
where
K(p) = t dz .r: dz' [(z -Z,)2 + p2]-1 /2. (A2)
o 0
In cylindrical coordinates, S may be expressed as the
sum of three terms:
(A3)
(2r 100 Su =.10 dcp 0 dpMI/>(p, cp)
a [r 1" a Xacp 0 dcp' 0 dP'MI/>(P',CP')acp,K(P-P'), (A4)
(A5)
We shall see that the largest contribution to S for a
circular bubble with wall thickness 6 «R comes from
Spp, and is of the order of o5/R.
Rewrite
Spp = J dp M p(p, cp)
x a~ f dp' {M p(p', cp) + [M ip' , cp') -Mp(p', cp)]}
a x ap,K(P -p'); (A6)
the first term will be identified as S p' while the re
mainder, arising from the bracketed difference, will
be called IlS p' For S p' the cp' integration can now be
done analytically, using the Fourier trnasform ex
pression for K:
[00 a 100
Sp= dpMp(p, cp) ap dp' p'M/p', cp)
o 0
X [_ 41Th ioo
dk (1-[1-e~~(-hk)]) JO(k)J1(kP')}
(A7)
Making use of the identity31
.( dkJo(kp)Jl(kp')=O, P' <p
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 45, No.8, August 1974 3580
=l/p', P'>p, (A8)
one finds that
Sp= -41Th J dpM!M! -41T J dpMp(p, cp)
x J 00 dp' p'Mp(p', cp) Joo dk [1-exp( -hk)]Jj(kp)J1(kp').
(A9)
The first integral above may be evaluated using the
wall-model form [see Eq. (26) and the accompanying
discussion] Mp =M sech[(p -R)/o5] cos(V -cp), with the
result
-41Th J dpM~= -81TM2MR [j:r dcp cos2(V -cp) + O(o5/R)],
(AIO)
the terms of higher order arising from the departure
of (20)-1 sech2(x/o) from a Dirac 6 function. The re
mainder of S p' because of the two p integrations, is
easily shown to be proportional to (0/R)2 in the wall
model. However, the k integral in Eq. (A9) possesses a
logarithmic singularity at p' = p which, on integration,
multiplies (05/R)2 by In(R/o). This is the dominant cor
rection; its form can be deduced using the identity31 r dk exp(-hk)J1(kp)Jl(kp') o
_( 2 ,)-1/2Q (h2+p2+P'2) -1T PP 1/2 2pp' , (All)
where Ql/2 denotes the legender function of the second
kind of order~. For h = 0, the asymptotic form of
Eq. (All), as p' -p, contains the term (pp' )-lln I p -p' I.
The remaining term in Spp, namely, IlSp can be re
arranged to read
1 12< f2' 100 100
IlSp=-2 0 dcp 0 dcp' 0 dpp 0 dp' P'
xrMip, cp)-Mp(p, cp')]
a2
x [Mp(p', cp) -Mp(p', cp')] ap ap' K(p -p'). (A12)
In the wall model, each bracketed term is proportional
to cos [V( cp) -cp] -cos[V( cp') -cp'], which can be pre
sumed to vanish at least linearly in cp -cp' as cp' -cpo
A straightforward computation using the expression for
K in Eq. (A2) shows that the most singular term in
a2K/ap ap', ariSing from the In Ip -p' 1 in K, is
h{2R2 sin2[~(cp -cp,)]}-l at p=p' =R. Thus, the angular
integration is bounded, while the two p integrations
make IlSp proportional to (0/R)2.
The expression (A4) for Su may be rearranged in a
similar fashion, giving
Su = -~ Ia2
< dcp t'dCP 102< dp ;:' dp' [Mp(p, cp) -M I/>(p, cp')]
X [MI/>(p', cp)-MI/>(p', cp')] acp~2cp' K(p-p'). (A13)
Once again, in the wall model the bracketed terms
should vanish linearly in cp -cp' as cp' -cpo Also, the
most singular term in a2K/a cp a cp' is proportional to
hsin-2[~(cp-cp')]atp=p'=R, soSI/>I/>' justasllSp, will
be proportional to (0/R)2.
Finally, computation of a2K/ap acp' reveals that this
kernel posses no singularity as p' -p. Thus, SPI/> will
also be proportional to (O/R)2. This completes the dem-
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onstration that for circular bubbles in the wall model
S is given indeed to lowest order in (5/R) by Eq. (AIO).
IR.C. Sherwood. J.P. Remeika, andH.J. Williams, J. Appl.
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(1971) .
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(1970).
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44, 1759 (1973).
21Such a configuration has been utilized experimentally by
Kurtzig [A.J. Kurtzig, IEEE Trans. Magn. MAG-6, 497
(1970)] and suggested as a "gedanken" configuration by Cape
(Ref. 13) to provide a definition of the wall mobility.
22A. H. Bobeck, IEEE Trans. Magn. MAG-6, 445, (1970).
23A. H. Bobeck, I. Danylchuk, J. P. Remeika, L. G. Van
Uitert, and E. M. walters, in Proceedings of the Internation
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and M. Sugimoto (University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo, 1971).
24G. W. Lehman (unpublished).
25J.A. Cape, W.F. Hall, andG.W. Lehman, Phys. Rev. Lett.
30. 801 (1973).
26T. 'L. Gilbert, Armour Research Foundation Report No. 11,
1955 (unpublished).
27E. SchlOmann, Appl. Phys. Lett. 21, 227 (1972).
28W.J. De Bonte, J. Appl. Phys. 44, 1793 (1973).
29There are two errors in Eqs. (6)-(8) of Ref. 25. First, for
normal circular bubbles, R', 1// = 0, a derivation consistent
to first order in 6/R gives 62=A(R+ 21rM; sin2 1jJ) and not Eq.
(6) of Ref. 25. Accordingly, 6 = 0 in Eqs. (7) and (8) of Ref.
25. Second, the sin21jJ term of Eq. (8) of Ref. 25 should be
omitted as it is already incorporated by definition in F (R).
These errors do not appear in Eqs. (10) and (11) of Ref. 25
nor do they change any subsequent results or conclusions of
that paper.
30G.p. Vella-Coleiro, F.B. Hagedorn, Y.S. Chen, and S. L.
Blank, Appl. Phys. Lett. 22, 324 (1973).
3IG.N. Watson, Bessel Functions, 2nded. (Macmillan New
York, 1948), pp. 389-391. '
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1.2837494.pdf | Validity of thermal activation volume estimated by using Wohlfarth’s equation in
perpendicular recording hard disk media
Masukazu Igarashi , Fumiko Akagi , and Yutaka Sugita
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 103, 07F529 (2008); doi: 10.1063/1.2837494
View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2837494
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/jap/103/7
Published by the American Institute of PhysicsValidity of thermal activation volume estimated by using Wohlfarth’s
equation in perpendicular recording hard disk media
Masukazu Igarashi,1,a/H20850,b/H20850Fumiko Akagi,1,a/H20850,c/H20850and Yutaka Sugita2,d/H20850
1Hitachi, Ltd., Central Research Laboratory, 1-280 Higashi-Koigakubo Kokubunji, Tokyo 185-8601, Japan
2Tohoku Institute of Technology, Taihaku-ku, Sendai 982-8577, Japan
/H20849Presented on 6 November 2007; received 11 September 2007; accepted 12 November 2007;
published online 5 March 2008 /H20850
The physical volume of thermal switching unit, the activation volume for perpendicular recording
media, has been investigated using the Wohlfarth equation based on micromagnetic simulation. Itwas found that the activation volume obtained from the Wohlfarth equation V
ac-Wohlfarth exhibits
significant field dependence, which is very different from direct observation of thermal switchingprocess. This shows that V
ac-Wohlfarth is invalid for perpendicular recording media. The reason for that
was interpreted in terms of the narrow dispersion of the energy barrier for thermal switching,originating from the high degree of easy axes orientation along the direction perpendicular to thefilm plane. © 2008 American Institute of Physics ./H20851DOI: 10.1063/1.2837494 /H20852
I. INTRODUCTION
With increase in the storage density of hard disk drives,
it becomes more critical to design hard disk recording mediakeeping thermal stability. The thermal stability factor K
/H9252
/H20849=KuVac/kT, where Ku,Vac, and kTare the uniaxial aniso-
tropy energy, the activation volume, and the thermal energy,respectively /H20850is widely used to estimate the validity term of
magnetic information.
1Here, the activation volume Vacis
defined to be the physical volume of thermally switchingunit. Micromagnetic simulations of thermal switching haveshown that the activation volume obtained by using theWohlfarth equation V
ac-Wohlfarth /H20849Ref. 2/H20850in longitudinal re-
cording media is valid and depends only slightly on the re-verse field.
3On the other hand, in recording media with per-
pendicular anisotropy, large change of Vac-Wohlfarth as a
function of the reverse field has been observedexperimentally.
4However, direct observation of switching
units by computer simulation has shown that Vacof recording
media does not depend on the reverse field significantly.5,6
In this study, Vac-Wohlfarth is compared with directly ob-
served switching volume based on the micromagnetic simu-lation. A failure of the conventional Wohlfarth equation isinvestigated.
II. MODELING
Arrays of 250- and 1000-polygonal prism grains with
perfect mirror image for soft underlayer were used to simu-late sections of perpendicular recording media. The averagegrain size /H20855D/H20856of 7.1 nm with the thickness of magnetic layer
t
magof 12 nm /H20849the average grain volume Voof 480 nm3/H20850was
used. The standard deviation of the grain size /H9268D//H20855D/H20856was
set to be 20% in a log-normal dispersion by growth controlof Voronoi lattice. The easy axis of each grain was perpen-
dicular to the film with an angular dispersion of 3.0° in aGaussian dispersion. A medium with three-dimensional/H208493D /H20850-random easy axis orientation was also investigated. The
value of the uniaxial anisotropy energy K
uwas
2.8 Merg /cm3in a normal dispersions of /H1100615% or /H1100645%.
The saturation magnetization of each grain was830 emu /cm
3. The intergrain exchange areal energy density
wwas changed from 0 to 1.0 erg /cm2. The time evolution of
the magnetizations of the grains was calculated by solvingthe Langevin equation,
7,8based on Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert
equation as shown below
/H208491+/H92512/H20850dM
dt=−/H9253/H20849M/H11003H/H11032/H20850,H/H11032=Heff+/H9251M/H11003Heff
M.
/H208491/H20850
Here, Heffis the effective field consisting of five terms: the
applied field Hext, the uniaxial anisotropy field Ha, the mag-
netostatic field Hd, the exchange field from a neighboring
grain- i/H20841Hexc− i/H20841/H20849=wSi/MsV, where SiandVare boundary area
to the neighboring grain- iand the volume of the grain dis-
cussed, respectively /H20850. The thermal excitation field Hthermal
was calculated under thermally accelerated condition /H20849the ac-
celeration temperature Taccof 500–1500 K /H20850.9,10The gyro-
magnetic ratio /H9253of 1.93 /H11003107//H20849Oe s /H20850/H20851corresponding to the
gvalue of 2.19 /H20849Ref. 11/H20850/H20852and the Gilbert damping constant
/H9251of 0.05 were used.
From time-dependent magnetization under constant re-
verse fields, Vac-Wohlfarth was calculated using the Wohlfarth
equation,
Vac-wohlfarth =kT
MsHf,Hf=/H20873S
/H9273irr/H20874=/H20879dH
dln/H20849t/H20850/H20879
Mirr, /H208492/H20850
where Msand Hfare the saturation magnetization and the
fluctuation field, respectively. S,/H9273irr,t, and Mirrare the vis-
cosity coefficient, the irreversible susceptibility, the time, andthe irreversible /H20849remanence /H20850magnetization, respectively.
2,12a/H20850Tel.:/H1100181-42-323- 1111. FAX: /H1100181-42-327-7844.
b/H20850Electronic mail: mauskazu.igarashi.qu@hitachi.com.
c/H20850Electronic mail: fumiko.akagi@hitachi.com.
d/H20850Tel.: /H1100181-22-305-3226. FAX: /H1100181-22-305-3202. Electronic mail:
ysugita@tohtech.ac.jp.JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 103, 07F529 /H208492008 /H20850
0021-8979/2008/103 /H208497/H20850/07F529/3/$23.00 © 2008 American Institute of Physics 103 , 07F529-1The directly observed switching volume /H20849Vac/H20850was obtained
from the difference of the magnetization distributions in very
short time of around 1 ns after a long time had elapsed fromwhen the dc field reversed /H20849DM method /H20850.
3,5,6Vacis almost
constant in a wide elapse time region.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The DM method is explained briefly in Fig. 1showing
magnetization dispersion of demagnetized state by dc reversefield and switched grains in media with wof 0.4 erg /cm
2.
The dark cells in the figure on the left hand side are thegrains whose magnetizations have switched. The dark cellsin the figure on the right hand side show the switched grainsin 1 ns /H20849which corresponds to the elapse time of 10 ms at
T
accof 1000 K /H20850, approaching the magnetization dispersion in
the demagnetized state. It is seen that almost all the switchedgrains are single and isolated. To determine the value of V
ac,
averaging the data using 12 frames was used.
Figure 2shows average magnetization of grain at ther-
mal switching as a function of time for a medium with wof
0.4 erg /cm2. The average switching time tswis defined as the
time between /H1100690% of the saturation magnetization Ms. The
value of tswfor this medium is 0.13 ns and is independent of
the applied field, the magnetization, and the /H20849acceleration /H20850
temperature Tacc.Figure 3shows tswas a function of Taccfor media with w
of 0 and 1.0 erg /cm2.tswdoes not depend on Taccsignifi-
cantly. tswfor the medium with wof 0 is 0.13 ns, similar to
that for wof 0.4 erg /cm2, while tswforwof 1.0 erg /cm2is
0.17 s, a little higher and has larger deviation. This is be-cause sequential switching of the neighboring grains in-creases t
swin media with larger intergrain exchange cou-
pling. Those results show that once the dynamic switchingprocess is activated, the acceleration temperature does notinfluence the switching time. 1 ns is sufficient time to ob-serve the sequential switching of the neighboring grains be-cause 1 ns is several times larger than t
sw. This is the reason
why in the DM method we observe grains switched during1 ns. Thus, the difference of the magnetization dispersions in1 ns can give us the thermally switching unit.
Figure 4shows V
acas a function of the reverse field
obtained from the DM method with Taccof 1000 K. Vacdoes
not depend significantly on the reverse field irrespective ofthe values of w. This result is similar to that for longitudinal
recording media.
3
Figure 5shows Vac-Wohlfarth as a function of the reverse
field for various media with different wobtained from Eq
FIG. 1. Magnetization distribution of demagnetized state and the switched
grains for media with wof 0.4 erg /cm2,/H20849250-polygonal prism grains /H20850.
FIG. 2. Magnetization of grains at thermal switching as a function of time
/H20849w=0.4 erg /cm2/H20850. The average switching time tswis defined here as the time
between /H1100690% of the saturation magnetization Ms.
FIG. 3. /H20849Color online /H20850tswas function of Taccfor media with wof 0 and
1.0 erg /cm2.
FIG. 4. Vacas a function of the reverse field obtained from the DM method.07F529-2 Igarashi, Akagi, and Sugita J. Appl. Phys. 103 , 07F529 /H208492008 /H20850/H208492/H20850. For smaller w,Vac-Wohlfarth does not depend on the re-
verse field strongly. However, the values are a little higherthan the correct values of V
acobtained from the DM method.
For larger w,Vac-Wohlfarth has a large peak with increasing the
reverse field.
Those results mean that Wohlfarth equation is invalid. A
possible reason for this discrepancy is as follows. In perpen-dicular recording media, the energy barrier for thermalswitching has a narrow dispersion because the easy axes arealmost aligned. For smaller w, the dispersion of the energy
barrier is likely to be a little larger due to the different de-magnetizing fields, while in longitudinal media, the energybarrier has a wide dispersion because the easy axes are ran-domly oriented in the film plane.
Figure 6shows V
ac-Wohlfarth as a function of the reverse
field for media with wof 1.0 erg /cm2and larger /H9004Ku/Kuof
/H1100645% along with /H1100615%, and a 3D-random medium.
Vac-Wohlfarth for/H9004Ku/Kuof/H1100645% decreases drastically with
small peak and closes to the values of Vacfrom the DM
method. The activation volume as a function of Hfor the
medium with /H9004Ku/Kuof 45% is similar to that for 15%, as
shown in Fig. 4.Vac-Wohlfarth for the 3D-random medium does
not depend on the reverse field at all and the values are thesame as those from the DM ethod. V
ac-Wohlfarth is easily af-
fected by energy barrier dispersion. Those results are reason-able, since Wohlfarth
2and Street–Woolley–Smith12equa-
tions are based on a flat dispersion of energy barrier.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
The activation volume for perpendicular recording me-
dia was investigated using micromagnetic simulations, andthe following results were obtained:/H208491/H20850The activation volume obtained from the Wohlfarth
equation V
ac-Wohlfarth exhibits significant field depen-
dence, while the correct value obtained using the DMmethod does not. Thus, V
ac-Wohlfarth is invalid for perpen-
dicular recording media.
/H208492/H20850The reasons for the above results are explained as fol-
lows. The Wohlfarth2and Street–Woolley–Smith12equa-
tions are based on a flat dispersion of energy barrier. Inperpendicular recording media, the energy barrier forthermal switching has a narrow dispersion because theeasy axes are well aligned.
/H208493/H20850The validity of V
ac-Wohlfarth for longitudinal recording
media is explained in terms of the wide energy barrierdispersion, which originated from random easy-axes-orientation in the film plane.
1Y. Hosoe, I. Tamai, K. Tanahashi, T. Yamamoto, T. Kanbe, and Y. Yajima,
IEEE Trans. Magn. 33, 3028 /H208491997 /H20850.
2E. P. Wohlfarth, J. Phys. F: Met. Phys. 14, L155 /H208491984 /H20850.
3M. Igarashi, F. Akagi, and Y. Sugita, IEEE Trans. Magn. 37, 1386 /H208492001 /H20850.
4R. Sbiaa, M. Mochida, Y. Itoh, and T. Suzuki, IEEE Trans. Magn. 36,
2279 /H208492000 /H20850.
5M. Igarashi, F. Akagi, and Y. Sugita, IEEE Trans. Magn. 39, 1897 /H208492003 /H20850.
6M. Igarashi, F. Akagi, and Y. Sugita, IEEE Trans. Magn. 42, 2393 /H208492006 /H20850.
7R. W. Chantrell, J. D. Hannay, M. Wongsam, and A. Lyberatos, IEEE
Trans. Magn. 34,3 4 9 /H208491998 /H20850.
8H. N. Bertram and Q. Peng, IEEE Trans. Magn. 34, 1543 /H208491998 /H20850.
9J. Xue and R. H. Victora, Appl. Phys. Lett. 77, 3432 /H208492000 /H20850.
10M. Igarashi, M. Hara, Y. Suzuki, A. Nakamura, and Y. Sugita, IEEE Trans.
Magn. 39, 2303 /H208492003 /H20850.
11M. Igarashi, T. Kambe, K. Yoshida, Y. Hosoe, and Y. Sugita, J. Appl. Phys.
85, 4720 /H208491999 /H20850.
12R. Street, J. C. Woolley, and P. B. Smith, Proc. Phys. Soc. London, Sect.
B65, 679 /H208491952 /H20850.
FIG. 5. Vac-Wohlfarth as a function of the reverse field obtained from Eq. /H208492/H20850.
Here, wandVoare intergrain exchange areal energy density and grain vol-
ume, respectively /H20849/H9004Ku/Ku=/H1100615% /H20850.
FIG. 6. Vac-Wohlfarth as a function of the reverse field for media with /H9004Ku/Ku
of/H1100645% along with /H1100615%, and a 3D-random medium /H20849w=1.0 erg /cm2/H20850.07F529-3 Igarashi, Akagi, and Sugita J. Appl. Phys. 103 , 07F529 /H208492008 /H20850 |
1.5144691.pdf | J. Appl. Phys. 127, 183905 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5144691 127, 183905
© 2020 Author(s).Three terminal nano-oscillator based on
domain wall pinning by track defect and
anisotropy control
Cite as: J. Appl. Phys. 127, 183905 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5144691
Submitted: 09 January 2020 . Accepted: 17 April 2020 . Published Online: 13 May 2020
Oscar O. Toro
, Sidiney G. Alves
, Vagson L. Carvalho-Santos
, and Clodoaldo I. L. de Araújo
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View Online
Export Citation
CrossMar k
Submitted: 9 January 2020 · Accepted: 17 April 2020 ·
Published Online: 13 May 2020
Oscar O. Toro,1
Sidiney G. Alves,2
Vagson L. Carvalho-Santos,1,a)
and Clodoaldo I. L. de Araújo1
AFFILIATIONS
1Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, 36570-900 Minas Gerais, Brazil
2Departamento de Estatística, Física e Matemática, CAP, Universidade Federal de São João del Rei, 36420-000 Ouro Branco,
Minas Gerais, Brazil
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: vagson.santos@ufv.br
ABSTRACT
The proper understanding of the dynamical properties of magnetization collective modes is a cornerstone for future applications in spin-
tronic devices based on the domain wall (DW) motion. In this work, through micromagnetic simulations and analytical calculations, we
study the rotation of a DW pinned by a T-shaped defect on an anisotropic magnetic nanostripe. We show that the competition between the
torques produced by the magnetostatic field generated by the T-shaped defect and the applied electric current makes the DW stop at a spe-cific position along the track, and start to turn around the in-plane direction with a specific rotation frequency depending on anisotropyand current density. It is also shown that the distance between the DW position and the T-shaped structure position depends on the anisot-
ropy constant of the nanostripe. Finally, it is proposed as an experimental setting considering that the DW rotation mode can be used to
induce the rotation of magnetization of a magnetic nanodisc by a magnetic tunnel junction device. We have then shown that this experi-mental arrangement can be considered as a three-terminal nano-oscillator.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5144691
I. INTRODUCTION
The competition among different magnetic interactions can
yield different magnetization configurations in a ferromagnetic
nanoparticle. Among such configurations, we can highlight thedomain walls (DWs), which consist of collective modes of magneti-zation that can be controlled by magnetic fields and currents.
These collective modes can be included in technological devices
based on the prominent concepts of magnonics and spintronics. Inthis context, the knowledge on the generation, manipulation, anddetection of DWs is a cornerstone of research studies in magne-tism. Indeed, the proper control of the DW dynamics is crucial formaking possible the design of “racetrack ”memory devices.
1,2
Nano-oscillators are another up-and-coming concept for applica-
tions regarding the DW dynamical properties. Nano-oscillators aredevices generally based on a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ),
3
developed in nanometric stacks having two main features: the lowresistivity of the insulator and the magnetization of one of theferromagnetic layers pointing slightly perpendicular to the stack.
This second feature can be achieved by using materials with some
degree of out-of-plane anisotropy.
4Due to the low resistance of the
stack, the current density flowing through it does not present highpower consumption. In this case, the current is polarized by thein-plane orientation of the first ferromagnetic material and exert a
torque on the second misaligned layer. The spin-transfer torque
(STT)
5,6is then responsible for the oscillation of the second ferro-
magnetic layer, which can be read in the tunnel magnetoresistance(TMR) response.
From the available fabrication techniques, nano-oscillators can
reach tiny sizes
7in such a way that they have received much atten-
tion for possible applications in several and different contexts innanotechnology. Indeed, nano-oscillators are potential candidatesto be used in frequency signal generation
8and modulation,9micro-
wave generators for magnonic based devices,10and more recently
in neuromorphic, which utilizes in-phase or out-of-phase oscilla-
tions to mimetic brain network interactions.11Nevertheless, due toJournal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 127, 183905 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5144691 127, 183905-1
Published under license by AIP Publishing.high current needed in spin-transfer torque technology, these
devices operate in a regime very near the insulator threshold
voltage, decreasing its durability. Therefore, the development ofnew technologies allowing low voltage drop in the barrier shouldbe developed to circumvent such limitations.
Among the several and different settings that have been consid-
ered to compose nano-oscillator devices, one can highlight the
concept of three-terminal devices based on spin –orbit torque (SOT).
In those structures, heavy metal contacts are used just below the firstferromagnetic electrode in the tunnel junction. A high current flowsthrough the metal, and the interaction between electronic spins,
angular momentum, and angular orbital momentum generates a
spin current polarization.
12The polarized spins impose an STT in
the neighbor ferromagnetic contact, whose magnetization is alignedslightly perpendicular to the stack plane, providing a magnetizationoscillation, needed for STT technology nano-oscillators. Regarding
this concept, an experimental realization of nano-oscillators combin-
ing STT and SOT has been reported in a three-terminal device withsupport of spin splitting in tantalum.
13
Another handy magnetic system to be considered as a candi-
date in applications in three-terminal devices consists of a DW dis-
placing along a “racetrack, ”2which has the potential for application
in magnetic random access memory14and in magnonics.15The
proper control of DW pinning is essential for its application inpractical devices like racetrack memories
1or three-terminal
MRAM,14for instance. Several approaches have been proposed to
control the DW pinning, such as the insertion of a triangular notchin the track border,
16DW attraction and repulsion by a square
notch and anti-notch,17,18curvature-induced effective magnetic
interactions,19,20and the presence of magnetic defects changing
locally the track magnetic properties.21,22Nevertheless, the realiza-
tion of DW-based nano-oscillators demands not only the pinningof the DW along the nanostripe, but also the control of the DWrotation frequency. In this context, it was shown that a magneticanisotropy step,
24and the competition between the actions of dc
current and magnetic field25yield a DW pinning at a fixed position
along a nanostripe, and the current density control the rotation fre-quency. Additionally, a DW based three-terminal nano-oscillatorwas proposed with working frequencies of some few gigahertz,driven by non-uniform spin currents.
23
Based on the above and on the fact that modulation in a cylin-
drical magnetic nanowire can produce a magnetic field that pins aDW,
26we propose the analysis of the DW dynamics along a mag-
netic nanostripe with a T-shaped defect having an out-of-plane
anisotropy. Through micromagnetic simulation and analytical cal-
culations, it is shown that due to the competition between thecurrent density and an effective magnetostatic field (generated bythe track defect), the domain wall is pinned in a specific coordinatealong the track. Additionally, it is shown that the DW phase pre-
sents a rotation around the in-plane direction. The specific DW
pinning position and rotation frequency depend on both: thecurrent density and anisotropy of the track. From the obtainedresults, we propose the use of this set in a three-terminal nano-oscillator based on DW pinning by a defect in a magnetic nano-
stripe. Finally, we estimate the proportional magnetoresistive
response of the proposed three-terminal nano-oscillator as a func-tion of the anisotropy and the current density.This work is divided as follows: In Sec. II, we present the con-
sidered system and the theoretical model. Section IIIpresents the
results and discussions. In Sec. IV, we present our conclusions and
prospects.
II. THEORETICAL MODEL
The analyzed system, depicted in Fig. 1(a) , consists of a mag-
netic tunnel junction (MTJ) composed of (i) a thin magnetic nano-
stripe having perpendicular anisotropy and a T-shaped defect; (ii) a
thin insulator separator; and (iii) a magnetic nanodot presenting anin-plane single domain magnetization, which can be obtained bydesigning a specific shape or coupling with an antiferromagneticlayer. The nano-oscillator MTJ pillar could be developed by a con-
ventional top-down fabrication technique, while the thicker trans-
verse region would be developed afterward by the bottom-up(lift-off) technique.
The nano-oscillator operation is based on the dynamic proper-
ties of a DW displacing along the T-shape nanotrack. In this
context, our main focus is on describing the dynamics of local mag-
netization Minside a domain wall (DW). To reach our objectives,
we parametrize the DW in a spherical coordinate system lying on aCartesian basis, that is, M¼M
S(s i nθcosf,s i n θsinf,c o s θ).
Under this framework, the DW profile can be represented by
θ(y)¼2a r c t a n ey/C0y0
Δ/C16/C17
, (1)
where we have considered that the center of the DW is located at y0,
where θ¼π=2. In the above equation, Δis the domain wall width,
whose value depends on the anisotropy constant ( K), exchange stiff-
ness ( A), and the magnetostatic contribution, here characterized by
the demagnetizing terms of the demagnetizing tensor of a magneticrectangular body ( N
x,Ny,a n d Nz),27,28that is,
Δ¼ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ffi
A
Kþμ0M2
S
2N0s
, (2)
where we have used the definition in which the DW width is based
on the slope of the magnetization angle,29,30andN0;N0(f)
¼(Nxcos2fþNysin2f). The magnetization dynamics is deter-
mined by the Landau –Lifshitz –Gilbert equation (LLGe)31,32in the
presence of spin-torque terms,33,34written as
@M
@t¼γHeff/C2Mþα
MSM/C2@M
@t/C0u@M
@yþβ
MSM/C2@M
@y, (3)
where γis the gyromagnetic ratio, MSis the saturation magnetiza-
tion, αis the Gilbert damping coefficient, βis the phenomenological
non-adiabatic spin-transfer parameter, and Heffis the effective field
that the DW experiences when it displaces along the magnetic nano-
track. Additionally, u¼gJeμBP=2eMShas the dimension of velocity
and depends on the electrical current Je,gis the Landé factor, μBis
the Bohr magneton, eis the electron charge, and Pis the polarization
factor of the electric current. The effective field is composed of the
external magnetic field, and the effective fields generated by magne-
tocrystalline anisotropy, exchange, and dipolar interactions.Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 127, 183905 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5144691 127, 183905-2
Published under license by AIP Publishing.The DW equilibrium position and rotation frequency have
been obtained from micromagnetic simulations and analytical cal-culations. The micromagnetic simulations were performed withGPU-accelerated micromagnetic simulator MuMax
3,37which per-
forms iterations for transitions between spin configurations and
energy minimization based on the LLGe. The analytical calcula-tions have been developed following the ideas of Mougin et al. ,
35,36
in which the different torques acting on the DW can be written in
terms of a spherical basis ( ^ρ,^θ,^f). Therefore, from the general
kinetic momentum theorem, we can determine the torque compo-
nents ΓθandΓfin terms of their associated rotation velocities in
the following way:
_θ¼/C0γ
MSΓθand _f¼/C0γ
MSΓf: (4)
where the torques are given by
Γθ¼μ0M2
SN2þαMS
γ_fþMSu
γΔ/C20/C21
sinθ, (5)
Γf¼/C0 MSHþβMSu
γΔþcosθ(μ0M2
SN1þK)/C20/C21
sinθ/C0αMS
γ_θ, (6)
whereN1¼N0/C0Nz, andN2;N2(f)¼(Ny/C0Nx)sinfcosf.
The analyzed system is then divided into two parts. The first
one is the track in which the DW propagates under the action of
the current density. The second part is a thicker region, here calledT-shaped structure (TS). The track dimensions used in our simula-tions are 100 nm /C220 nm /C22 nm, while TS dimensions are
10 nm /C250 nm /C28 nm. The nanostripe was divided into cubic
cells of 2 nm /C22n m/C22 nm, lower than the exchange length of theconsidered material. For the track, we have considered CoPt param-
eters as saturation magnetization M
CoPt
S¼5/C2105Am/C01, exchange
stiffness ACoPt
ex¼1:5/C210/C011Jm/C01, and the Gilbert damping
α¼0:3. The adopted track dimensions allow us to obtain the
demagnetizing factors of the DW region by assuming that it lies in
a rectangular prism,27,28giving Nx/C250:0875, Ny/C250:149, and
Nz/C250:763. Due to state of the art in nanofabrication, the chosen
device dimensions aim to investigate smaller feature sizes possiblefor practical nano-oscillators.
The MTJ is simulated with a separation of 2 nm above the
track, representing the insulator thickness between the track andreference layer. The reference layer presents a single domain mag-netization state along the in-plane direction. Under spin-transfertorque, generated by spin-polarized current applied in the extremi-
ties track contacts, the DW can displace throughout it [ Fig. 1(b) ].
Due to the competition between the torques produced by the elec-tric current and the magnetostatic field generated by the TS, theDW is pinned in an equilibrium position along the track.
26Based
on this, we propose that by keeping currents below the critical
value, the described competition induces a stationary DW dynam-ics, in which the DW is at equilibrium near to TS, but rotatesaround the in-plane direction, transforming periodically from Néelto Bloch DW [see Fig. 1(c) ]. Under this assumption, an MTJ
put just above the pinning region could measure the rotational
frequency.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A. Static
Starting from a random magnetization configuration, we have
performed micromagnetic simulations to obtain the magnetization
ground state in the proposed structure. We have considered that
materials with different anisotropies compose the track region and
FIG. 1. (a) The proposed design to
the three-terminal nano-oscillator
based on DW pinning by a thickerregion forming a T-shape geometry. (b)The DW motion through the track with
magnetization rotation in the xy-plane.
(c) The magnetization oscillation beforeand after DW pinning.Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 127, 183905 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5144691 127, 183905-3
Published under license by AIP Publishing.the TS region. In this way, we have varied the perpendicular anisot-
ropy of the track from K1¼2/C2105Jm/C03toK1¼5/C2105Jm/C03,
while the anisotropy of the TS was kept constant, given byK
2¼5/C2105Jm/C03.F o r K1/C212/C2105Jm/C03, a Néel DW, separat-
ing regions in which the magnetization points along upward anddownward directions [see Fig. 2(a) ], has been obtained. It can be
observed that the increase in the anisotropy yields a reduction of
the distance between the DW center and TS. Indeed forK
1¼2/C2105Jm/C03, the DW distance from the TS region isdDW/difference57 nm, while for K1¼5/C2105Jm/C03, this distance is
reduced to dDW38 nm. The fitting of the results by an exponential
decay equation showed in the inset of Fig. 2(b) reveals that for
K1,1:23/C2105Jm/C03, the ground state magnetization configura-
tion of the nanotrack would consist of a single domain pointingalong the out-of-plane direction and the minimum DW distance
achieved for higher K
1would be dDW¼37 nm.
B. Dynamics
We now focus our analysis on the DW dynamics under the
action of a spin-polarized current. From adopting the previously
described anisotropy values, we have investigated the range of cur-
rents able to move the DW in the track by STT(J[[6/C210
7,6/C2108]A=cm2). One can observe that for
J/C202/C2108A=cm2, the DW is pinned in a specific position along
the track, near to the TS, and its phase rotates around the in-plane
direction, performing a non-harmonic oscillation, as depicted inFig. 1(b) . On the other hand, when J.6/C210
8A=cm2, spin waves
start to be pumped throughout the thicker region, similarly what asdemonstrated by Michele Voto and collaborators.
15The analysis of
the generation and propagation of these spin waves is not the focus
of this work. Therefore, we will give attention to the rotation of thepinned DW as a function of the anisotropy and current density.The main results are presented in Fig. 3(a) , in which one can see
that the DW rotation frequency depends on both the anisotropy of
the track and current density. From the Fourier transform of the
obtained results [see Fig. 3(b) ], it is possible to observe that by
tuning the applied electric current and anisotropy, a broad range offrequencies (up to 30 GHz) can be obtained. Figure 3(c) presents
the dependence of the frequency on the applied current for differ-
ent anisotropy values. In this case, it can be noticed an increase of
the DW precession frequency as a function of the current densityand anisotropy. Indeed, the frequency behavior as a function ofcurrent density is very similar for all the considered anisotropy
values. From the analysis of the inset of Fig. 3 , one can notice that
all curves collapse quite perfectly, with better results for higheranisotropies. This very good collapse indicates that the followingscaling Ansatz,
F/differencef(j)=κ
σ
u (7)
can be used to describe the DW frequency as a function of the
current density. Here, κu¼Ku(μ0M2
S)/C01is the dimensionless
anisotropy constant, the exponent σ/C250:35 is the scaling exponent,
and f(j) is a function of the dimensionless current density
j¼JS(eμ0MSγ)/C01, where Sis the area of the cross section of the
nanotrack.
The above-described results can be understood from assuming
that the TS structure acts as a modulation in the nanotrack,26
which can generate an effective dipolar field, HT, pointing along
thez-axis direction, competing with the torque produced by a
current density, J. Therefore, from Eqs. (4),(5), and (6), the veloc-
ity terms for the DW center ( θ¼π=2) are given by
_θ¼/C0γαHT
1þα2/C0μ0MSγN2
1þα2/C0u(1þαβ)
Δ(1þα2)(8)
FIG. 2. (a) Ground state obtained from the simulation showing different DW dis-
tances dDWand sizes, depending on the anisotropy of the track material. (b)
DW distance as a function of track anisotropy, evidencing that, below
K1¼1:23/C2105J=m3, the DW would be outside the track, which means the
presence of an out-of-plane single domain magnetization.Journal of
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J. Appl. Phys. 127, 183905 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5144691 127, 183905-4
Published under license by AIP Publishing.and
_f¼γHT/C0μ0MSγαN2
1þα2þu(β/C0α)
Δ(1þα2): (9)
Assuming that _θ¼0 when the DW is pinned, we can determine
the magnetic field that produces the pinning in the DW, evaluated
as
HTpin¼/C0μ0MSγN2þu
Δ(1þαβ)
γα: (10)
Due to the dependence of N2onf, the pinning field depends on
the DW phase, presenting its maximum and minimum values
when f¼π=4(f¼5π=4) and f¼3π=4(f¼7π=4), respec-
tively. Nevertheless, from considering that hsin 2fi¼0, the aver-
aged value of HTpindoes not depend on f. In this case, from the
analysis of Fig. 4 , one can observe that the averaged pinning field
increases with both current density and anisotropy constant. These
results are in good agreement with that obtained in the analysis ofa DW displacing under the action of electric current and magneticfield. Indeed, it was observed that for a current density of
J¼1/C210
8Ac m/C02, the pinning field is in the order of
10/difference100 mT.25The rotation velocity when the DW is pinned can be obtained
from the substitution of Eq. (10) in(9), resulting in
_fc¼/C0μ0MSγN2
α/C0u
Δα: (11)
Some main features can be highlighted at this point. The
velocity (and consequently the frequency) of the DW phase preces-sion does not depend on the non-adiabatic spin-transfer parameter
β. Additionally, because the DW width depends on the anisotropy,
Eq.(11) reveals that the rotation velocity is a function of both
current density and magnetocrystalline anisotropy (see Fig. 5 ).
These results are in good agreement with that obtained in micro-magnetic simulations. Nevertheless, from the micromagnetic simu-
lations, one can observe a small deviation from the linear behavior
of rotation frequency as a function of the current density. Thisdeviation is caused by the nonlinear effects in the presence of spinwaves and the variation in DW width when the DW rotates aroundthe in-plane direction, which induces small deviations in the previ-
ously obtained frequencies.
Aiming at obtaining a complete description of the influence of
the anisotropy on the DW frequency, we will determine the solu-tions of Eq. (11) numerically by considering the dependence of the
DW width on its phase. Therefore, assuming that the pinning field
is approximately constant, in Fig. 6 , we present a comparison of the
FIG. 3. (a) Variation of the in-plane magnetization dynamics in the pinning position of the DW as a function of different anisotropies and applied currents. ( b) Fourier trans-
formation of the magnetization dynamical behavior. A summary of the rotational frequency as a function of the applied current is presented in (c).Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 127, 183905 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5144691 127, 183905-5
Published under license by AIP Publishing.behavior of the DW phase for the cases where the DW presents a
fixed (black line) and variable (red-dashed line) width during itsrotation. It can be noticed that variations of the DW width during
its rotation can induce non-linear effects that generate differences
in the DW rotation frequency. The effects of the DW width in thephase rotation are more evidenced for smaller values of anisotropyand current density. Indeed, from the Fourier analysis presented inFig. 3(b) , it is difficult to identify the DW rotation frequencies for
smaller values of anisotropy. The differences in the DW frequencies
for fixed and variable widths diminishes when anisotropy andcurrent densities increase, evidencing that the appearance of spinwaves is the cause of the deviation from the linear behavior of
the rotation frequency as a function of the current density,
observed in Fig. 3(c) .C. Output
From the measurement of the magnetization properties pre-
sented above, an MTJ should be used as a nano-oscillator deviceapplication. Under this assumption, we have performed micromag-netic simulations of a ferromagnetic nanodisc of 10 nm diameter
and 2 nm thickness, separated from the nanostripe by a spacer of
2 nm in order to simulate the insulator, which would act as atunnel barrier in a real device. A magnetic nanodisc positioned5 nm before the TS can measure the DW rotation. The expected
tunnel magnetic conductance (TMG) is then calculated by the
scalar product of magnetization, for each adjacent simulationcell in the nanostripe and disc facing the separation region.
38In
Fig. 7(a) , we present an example of such a coherent result for
the calculated TMG in a nanotrack with an anisotropy of
K1¼2/C2105J=m3and a current of J¼2/C2108A=cm2.I nFig. 7(b) ,
we present the zoom view of a specific interval of time, in which eachpoint of the TMG curve is highlighted and attached to images repre-senting the scalar product results presented in Fig. 7(c) .
The dependence of the TMG as a function of anisotropy and
current density is presented in Fig. 7(d) , which depicts the frequen-
cies of signals that would be measured by a lock-in amplifier in theexperimental characterization of such a kind of device. The evolu-tion of TMG shows that the nano-oscillator sensitivity depends onthe anisotropy and current density. The higher values of TMG are
obtained for a low anisotropy and current density. The decrease in
the TMG as a function of anisotropy and current is related to theDW size decrease, which yields a misalignment with the referencelayer in the stack position. By increasing the current density, the
DW starts to be pressed to the TS, and then the magnetization
rotation effectively read by the MTJ lowers. Once lower anisotropy
FIG. 5. Averaged DW rotation frequency as a function of the current density for
different values of K1.
FIG. 6. DW phase as a function of time. Black lines represent the DW rotation
considering that the DW does not change its width during the rotation.
Red-dashed lines show the DW phase in the case in which the DW width is a
function of the phase.
FIG. 4. Averaged value for the pinning field as a function of the current density
for different anisotropy constants.Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 127, 183905 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5144691 127, 183905-6
Published under license by AIP Publishing.values lead to bigger DW widths, the misalignment does not affect
the signal much. Even with the losses caused by the positioning ofMTJ, all the sensitivity measured is reasonable for the applicationin nano-oscillators. In the low-frequency regime, reached forJ,1/C210
8A=cm2, the TMG signal is approximately constant.
The TMG signal is low but still possible to be measured in a real
device.
D. Influence of the temperature on the DW rotation
frequency
Investigations of nanotrack heating by current pulses have
been performed, and a temperature of T¼780 K was estimated for
permalloy nanotracks, under the current densities similar to those
utilized in this paper, and longer pulses of /difference4 ns.39In this context,
the high DW rotation frequency measured in this work allows theutilization of lower current pulse /difference1 ns. Additionally, the thick
cobalt utilized in the track is expected to have high T c. These prop-
erties prevent any damage or information loss in the proposeddevice by Joule heating.
Therefore, aiming at extending our observations for the
dependence of DW pinning and rotation behavior under external
current at higher temperatures, we have performed thermal depen-
dent simulations for a nanotrack with an anisotropy ofK
1¼5/C2105Jm/C03, under the applied current density of
J¼6/C2108A=cm2,a t T¼300 K and T¼700 K. For the itera-
tions, we have used the implemented Mumax3 second-order
Heun ’s solver with a fixed time step of 1 /C210/C015s.38The main
results are depicted in Fig. 8 , which evidences that the DW pinning
and rotation are still observed, but present an increase in the signalnoise and phase shift when compared with the previously obtained
FIG. 8. (a) Magnetization evolution in time for temperatures 0 K, 300 K, and
700 K for the track with K5¼5/C2105J=m3under J¼6/C2108A=cm2. (b)
Operating frequency shift in function of temperature.
FIG. 7. (a) Calculated TMG obtained from simulations performed with track anisot-
ropy of K1¼2/C2105J=m3. (b) Zoom of the calculated TMG under the action of a
current density of J¼2/C2108A=cm2. In (c), we present the evolution of TMG
measured by the MTJ stack for different track anisotropies from K1¼
2/C2105J=m3(hexagons) to K1¼5/C2105J=m3(circles) under different currents.Journal of
Applied PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jap
J. Appl. Phys. 127, 183905 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5144691 127, 183905-7
Published under license by AIP Publishing.results [ Fig. 8(a) ]. The Fourier transform of the magnetization pre-
sented in Fig. 8(b) shows a systematic decrease in frequency as a
function of the temperature, suggesting a possible deviation in thefrequency range in practical devices.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
In summary, we have analyzed the domain wall dynamics along
a magnetic nanostripe having a T-shaped geometrical defect andmagnetic anisotropy. We showed that the domain wall is pinned in
an equilibrium position along the nanostripe due to the action of an
effective magnetic field generated by the T-shaped structure. In thepinning position, the domain wall phase rotates around the in-planedirection with a well-defined frequency. The pinning field and theobtained frequencies are functions of the anisotropy of the stripe and
applied current density. Analytical results show that the dependence
of the rotation frequency on the domain wall width can be neglectedfor higher values of anisotropy and current density. Based on theobtained results, we propose a three-terminal nano-oscillator. It isshown that the DW width variation as a function of current can
affect the TMG signal and that the practical device frequency can
decrease as a function of temperature. Nevertheless, it remains highenough for practical applications in a nano-oscillator covering abroad range of frequencies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de
Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de N ıvel Superior - Brasil (CAPES) —
Finance Code 001. The authors would like to thank the Brazilianagencies CNPq and FAPEMIG. The authors are also grateful toA.P. Espejo and F. Tejo for fruitful discussions on the theoreticalmodel.
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Published under license by AIP Publishing. |
1.1555377.pdf | Effect of pole tip anisotropy on the recording performance of a high density
perpendicular head
Mohammed S. Patwari, Sharat Batra, and R. H. Victora
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 93, 6543 (2003); doi: 10.1063/1.1555377
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1555377
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/93/10?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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139.78.24.113 On: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 05:03:21Effect of pole tip anisotropy on the recording performance of a high
density perpendicular head
Mohammed S. Patwaria)
Seagate Research, Waterfront Place, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota,Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455-0154
Sharat Batra
Seagate Research, Waterfront Place, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
R. H. Victora
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota,Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455-0154
~Presented on 12 November 2002 !
Aperpendicular recording head for an areal density of 1 Tbit per square inches has been developed
using a self-consistent three-dimensional ~3D!micromagnetic model. The soft underlayer and the
recording layer have been included in the model. The head consists of a probe type tip protrudingfrom a collar. The tip has saturation magnetization ( M
s) of 24 kG while the collar has lower Msof
10 kG. The magnitude and orientation of anisotropy field ( Hk) in the tip is varied to obtain the best
recording performance. A perpendicularly oriented Hkin the tip reduces flux spreading, thereby
enhancing the recording field in the writing track while reducing the offtrack field. However,simulations show that the head’s performance suffers in terms of high remanent field and slowerfrequency response. Simulations show that a lower remanent field can be achieved by applying acdemag pulse to the tip. A detailed comparison has been made between two cases of perpendicularH
kof 1 kOe and longitudinal Hkof 10 Oe in the tip of the head. Results show a clear tradeoff in
terms of recording field and frequency response. Finally, simulations show that the designed head iscapable of recording areal density of 1 TBPSI on a recording layer of M
sof 700 emu/cc, thickness
of 20 nm, Hkof 18 kOe and average grain diameter of 6 nm. © 2003 American Institute of
Physics. @DOI: 10.1063/1.1555377 #
For the last decade or so, the areal density in magnetic
disk storage has been increasing at a rapid rate ~60% annual
growth rate !. For current longitudinal recording media,
physical limitations such as the superparamagnetic limitthreaten to stymie this growth rate.
1To avoid this problem
other recording schemes such as perpendicular recordinghave been proposed.
2To overcome superparamagnetism,
while maintaining a high growth rate in areal density, thetrend in technology is to use thin film media with small grainsize distribution and high anisotropy ( K
u) materials but the
scaling down of the media grains is limited by the write fieldcapabilities of the recording head. The field produced by thewrite pole is limited by the saturation magnetization(4
pMs). This work is concerned with the design of a per-
pendicular single-pole type head with double layer media for
an areal density of 1 Tbit/in.2
A self-consistent 3D micromagnetic model has been
used to analyze the new head.3The model includes both
magnetically soft and hard materials. The recording headpoles and the soft underlayer ~SUL!have been discretized
into cubic cells of dimension 10 nm 310 nm 310 nm. The
recording layer is represented by a grain configuration ofplanar Voronoi cells.
4The medium parameters such as aver-age grain diameter of 6 nm with a standard deviation of
about 30%, media thickness of 20 nm, and media magneti-zation of 400–700 emu/cc are chosen for an areal density of1 Tbit per square inches. The grains are magnetically decou-pled and the easy axis has a dispersion of 5° with respect tothe normal. The time for the media instability is calculatedusing the following formula:
5
a!Electronic mail: patwari@ece.umn.edu
FIG. 1. ~a!Design of the novel head ~b!cross section of lower part and ~c!
upper part.JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS VOLUME 93, NUMBER 10 15 MAY 2003
6543 0021-8979/2003/93(10)/6543/3/$20.00 © 2003 American Institute of Physics
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
139.78.24.113 On: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 05:03:21DE5KuVF12H
HkG2
5kBTln~2f0t!, ~1!
where,Kuis the anisotropy constant of the material, kBis the
Boltzmann constant, f0~attempt frequency !5109Hz and tis
the time scale for the magnetic reversal to occur. Now, forten years of storage time, K
uV/kBT>41. By putting Hk
5Hpeak~peak field !and calculating the average offtrack
field, tcan be computed.
The proposed head consists of a probe type tip protrud-
ing from a collar.6The tip has saturation magnetization ( Ms)
of 24 kG while the collar has lower Msof 10 kG.The tip has
a thickness of 150 and 50 nm in the downtrack andcrosstrack directions, respectively ~see Fig. 1 !. In the earlier
design,
6the anisotropy field ( Hk) of the tip was oriented
vertical. Although, the perpendicularly oriented and highvalue ofH
k~1000 Oe !was able to reduce the flux spreading
from the narrow tip, it could suffer from slower frequencyresponse and high remanent field.Also, the effect of the me-dia on the recording fields was not included. In this article,we attempt to address these pertinent issues and vary thedirection of H
kto optimize the recording performance.
In order to expedite the simulations, the recording layer
was omitted for the following analysis.The distance betweenbottom of the pole and SULis set to 25 nm.With 5 nm of airbearing surface and carbon coating, 20 nm of media can bedeposited. SUL is 50 nm thick. Figure 2 indicates the per-pendicular field profiles of three cases: perpendicular H
kof 1
and 4 kOe as well as longitudinal Hkof 10 Oe both along the
downtrack and crosstrack directions. For perpendicular Hkof
1 kOe, a peak field of 11.2 kOe was generated with peakfield gradients of 180 and 230 Oe/nm along the downtrackand crosstrack directions, respectively. When perpendicularH
kis 4 kOe, the peak field further improves to about 12 kOe
with the corresponding peak gradients of 183 and 253 Oe/nm. However, for longitudinal H
kof 10 Oe, the peak field is
10.7 kOe with field gradients of 175 Oe/nm along the down-track and 210 Oe/nm along the crosstrack directions. Notethe asymmetry of the field profile in the crosstrack direction,especially, when the pole tip anisotropy is in the horizontaldirection. This is due to the radically directed anisotropyfield~20 Oe !of soft underlayer. Such bending of flux is less
pronounced for the perpendicular H
kcases.
From the contour plot ~see Fig. 3 !the field along the
center line of the next adjacent track, averaging over a dis-tance of about 0.2
mm, is ;3.3 kOe. Therefore, based on
thermal relaxation calculations, the recorded bits in the adja-cent tracks would be erased in about 0.4 and 0.1 s for per-pendicular and longitudinal H
kcases, respectively. Consid-
ering that the head is moving at a linear velocity of 100 m/sover the same track again and again, the media in the neigh-boring tracks would become thermally unstable after about200 million pass lines for perpendicular H
kof 1 kOe and 45
million pass lines for longitudinal Hkcase. For perpendicular
Hkof 4 kOe, it takes about 1.2 s for the head to erase the
FIG. 2. Perpendicular field pattern ~a!along downtrack direction and ~b!
along crosstrack direction.
FIG. 3. Contour plot of perpendicular field at the recording plane.
FIG. 4. Perpendicular field profile along downtrack direction.
FIG. 5. Pulse applied to the pole tip.6544 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 93, No. 10, Part s2&3 ,1 5M a y 2003 Patwari, Batra, and Victora
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
139.78.24.113 On: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 05:03:21recorded bits in the next adjacent track, which corresponds to
about 550 million pass lines.
Micromagnetically it was found7that the recording layer
has nonunity permeability. Therefore, from the reluctanceviewpoint,
6magnetically the head would see a thinner media
than it is physically. Our simulations collaborate this conclu-sion. Simulations were run under different bias conditions ofthe recording layer ~ac erased, positive and negative dc
erased !. The bias condition of the recording layer does not
affect the recording field much, hence the permeability of therecording media. Figure 4 shows the intrack field profilewhen a recording layer of 20 nm thick, H
kof 18 kOe and
magnetization of 700 emu/cc is included. In this case, theanisotropy field of the tip is 10 Oe in the horizontal direction.According to Ref. 7, this corresponds to a relative permeabil-ity of about 1.4 for the recording layer.
Figure 4 illustrates the effect of the recording layer. Pres-
ence of the recording layer is found to reorient the magneticfluxes in the tip in the perpendicular direction, with a conse-quent increase in the recording field. For this particular case,the peak field is 13.1 kOe, about 22% more than the previouscase where the media was replaced by air of relative perme-ability of 1.0. The effect of the recording layer is found todepend on the magnetization and anisotropy field of the me-dia, consistent with other calculations.
7Similar results are
found for perpendicular Hkof the pole tip.
In the calculations of remanent field, the recording layer
is not included and the distance between the SULand bottomof the pole tip is set to 15 nm. When the applied field isturned off instantaneously, the peak remanent fields are 5.8,7, and 9 kOe for longitudinal H
kof 10 Oe, perpendicular Hk
of 1 and 4 kOe, respectively. Micromagnetic simulations
show that if an ac demag pulse such as the one in Fig. 5, isapplied to the tip, the peak remanent field reduces to 2.7, 3.5,and 2.4 kOe, respectively, for perpendicular H
kof 1 and 4
kOe as well as longitudinal Hkof 10 Oe. This particular
pulse has an initial full negative field of width 1 ns followedby shorter pulses of width 0.5 ns with amplitude decreasingwith a time constant of 2.5 ns.
The frequency responses of the heads are determined by
switching on the applied field instantaneously and then re-solving the recording fields at the trailing edge as a function
of time. The initial conditions are the ones in the remanentstates at the end of the pulses shown in Fig. 5. We havechosen a starting point ( t50) where the field at the trailing
edge is small at the end of ac demag pulses. The dampingconstant ~
a!is set to 0.1 in the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert
equation ~LLG!.3As indicated in Fig. 6, it takes about 0.9 ns
for the recording field to reach about 90% of the peak fieldwhen the H
kis in the longitudinal direction. However, for
the perpendicularly directed Hk~1 kOe !of the pole tip, the
temporal response is a bit slower, especially in the initialtimes. It takes about 1.4 ns to reach about 90% of the peakfield. However, for higher perpendicular H
kof 4 kOe, the
temporal response is even slower ~about 2.0 ns !.
Simulations show that a high perpendicular Hkreduces
the flux spreading from the narrow tip; therefore, it enhancesthe recording field. However, such a head suffers from higherremanent field and slower temporal response compared tothose when H
kof the pole tip is in the longitudinal direction.
The simulations show that remanent fields can be reduced byapplying an ac demag pulse such as shown in Fig. 5. Thedesigned head has a little head induced media erasure prob-lem. Figure 7 illustrates that the designed head with longitu-dinalH
kof 10 Oe in tip can write on a recording layer of Ms
of 700 emu/cc, thickness of 20 nm, Hkof 18 kOe and aver-
age grain diameter of 6 nm.
The authors wish to acknowledge J. Hannay for useful
discussions and J. Xue for providing the Voronoi media.
1S. H. Charap, P. L. Lu, and Y. He, IEEE Trans. Magn. 33,9 7 8 ~1997!.
2R. Wood, IEEE Trans. Magn. 36,3 6~2000!.
3R. H. Victora and M. Khan, IEEE Trans. Magn. 38, 181 ~2002!.
4J. Xue and R. H. Victora, J. Appl. Phys. 87, 6361 ~2002!.
5B. D. Cullity, Introduction to Magnetic Materials ~Addison-Wesley, Read-
ing, MA, 1972 !, pp. 413–414.
6R. H. Victora, J. Xue, and M. Patwari, IEEE Trans. Magn. 38,1 8 8 6
~2002!.
7K. Senanan and R. H. Victora, Appl. Phys. Lett. 81,3 8 2 2 ~2002!.
FIG. 6. Temporal response of the head.
FIG. 7. Recording a bit on a recording layer of Msof 700 emu/cc and Hkof
18 kOe.6545 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 93, No. 10, Part s2&3 ,1 5M a y 2003 Patwari, Batra, and Victora
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
139.78.24.113 On: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 05:03:21 |
1.5081665.pdf | J. Chem. Phys. 150, 174105 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5081665 150, 174105
© 2019 Author(s).Algebraic-diagrammatic construction
scheme for the polarization propagator
including ground-state coupled-cluster
amplitudes. II. Static polarizabilities
Cite as: J. Chem. Phys. 150, 174105 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5081665
Submitted: 15 November 2018 . Accepted: 07 April 2019 . Published Online: 01 May 2019
Manuel Hodecker
, Dirk R. Rehn
, Patrick Norman
, and Andreas Dreuw
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of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcp
Algebraic-diagrammatic construction scheme
for the polarization propagator including
ground-state coupled-cluster amplitudes.
II. Static polarizabilities
Cite as: J. Chem. Phys. 150, 174105 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5081665
Submitted: 15 November 2018 •Accepted: 7 April 2019 •
Published Online: 1 May 2019
Manuel Hodecker,1
Dirk R. Rehn,1,2
Patrick Norman,2
and Andreas Dreuw1,a)
AFFILIATIONS
1Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR), Ruprecht–Karls University Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 205,
D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
2Department of Theoretical Chemistry and Biology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Roslagstullsbacken 15,
S-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
a)Electronic mail: dreuw@uni-heidelberg.de
ABSTRACT
The modification of the algebraic-diagrammatic construction (ADC) scheme for the polarization propagator using ground-state coupled-
cluster (CC) instead of Møller–Plesset (MP) amplitudes, referred to as CC-ADC, is extended to the calculation of molecular properties, in
particular, dipole polarizabilities. Furthermore, in addition to CC with double excitations (CCD), CC with single and double excitations
(CCSD) amplitudes can be used, also in the second-order transition moments of the ADC(3/2) method. In the second-order CC-ADC(2)
variants, the MP correlation coefficients occurring in ADC are replaced by either CCD or CCSD amplitudes, while in the F/CC-ADC(2)
and F/CC-ADC(3/2) variants, they are replaced only in the second-order modified transition moments. These newly implemented variants
are used to calculate the static dipole polarizability of several small- to medium-sized molecules, and the results are compared to the ones
obtained by full configuration interaction or experiment. It is shown that the results are consistently improved by the use of CC amplitudes,
in particular, for aromatic systems such as benzene or pyridine, which have proven to be difficult cases for standard ADC approaches. In
this case, the second-order CC-ADC(2) and F/CC-ADC(2) variants yield significantly better results than the standard third-order ADC(3/2)
method, at a computational cost amounting to only about 1% of the latter.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5081665
I. INTRODUCTION
The algebraic-diagrammatic construction (ADC) scheme for
the polarization propagator1–4has become a versatile and reli-
able tool for the calculation of excitation energies and transition
moments1,5–10and has also been applied successfully to static and
dynamic polarizabilities,11,12X-ray absorption spectroscopy,13–15
two-photon absorption,16and C6dispersion coefficients,12partic-
ularly exploiting the formalism of the intermediate state represen-
tation (ISR).3,11In a recent work on static polarizabilities and C6
dispersion coefficients,12aromatic systems such as benzene have
proven to be a difficult case for standard ADC approaches, yieldingrather poor results compared to other theoretical approaches or
experiment. We extended the previous implementation of second-
order ADC with ground-state coupled-cluster (CC) amplitudes17in
a development version of the Q-C HEM program package18to the cal-
culation of molecular properties and tested its performance on static
polarizabilities of several small- to medium-sized molecules. This
approach has been inspired by similar works on the related second-
order polarization propagator approximation (SOPPA) method by
Geertsen, Oddershede, and Sauer.19,20Furthermore, a variant of the
implementation relevant for molecular properties has been made
by replacing the amplitudes in the transition moment vectors only,
but not in the ADC secular matrix itself. This variant has also been
J. Chem. Phys. 150, 174105 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5081665 150, 174105-1
Published under license by AIP PublishingThe Journal
of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcp
implemented for the ADC(3/2) method in which the eigenvectors
(and response vectors) of the third-order ADC matrix are used to
calculate properties with second-order dipole matrices. The cur-
rent implementation allows for the use of CC with double excita-
tions (CCD) as an underlying coupled-cluster model as well as CC
with single and double excitations (CCSD), where the singles ampli-
tudes replace a part of the second-order density-matrix correction as
described in Sec. II.
Experimentally, static polarizabilities can, for instance, be
obtained by considering the relative dielectric permittivity or the
refractive index.21Here, we would like to refer to the comprehensive
work of Hohm22in which experimental data for 174 molecules are
compiled. Alternatively, static polarizabilities and other properties
such as inelastic scattering cross sections of charged particles, Lamb
shifts, or dipole-dipole dispersion coefficients can be estimated using
the so-called dipole oscillator strength distribution (DOSD), which
is constructed using various pieces of experimental information such
as photoabsorption spectra, refractivity, and electron scattering as
well as constraints from quantum mechanics.12,23,24
As first example of the performance of the new CC-ADC vari-
ants on molecular properties, static dipole polarizabilities of sev-
eral small- to medium-sized atomic and molecular systems are
reinvestigated. In general, care has to be taken when comparing
with experiment, in particular, due to vibrational or environmen-
tal effects. For example, the compilation of Hohm22often includes
estimates of vibrational contributions to the static polarizability,
but such effects are not considered in the present computational
study.25,26DOSD estimates, on the other hand, often include zero-
point vibrational effects, and a previous study on methane reported
an increase in its static polarizability by about 5% when including
zero-point vibrational averaging (ZPVA).27While, in the static limit,
pure vibrational contributions can be of the same order of magni-
tude as the electronic contributions for some molecules, ZPVA has
been observed to change polarizabilities, in general, by only a few
percent.25,28
II. THEORETICAL METHODOLOGY
AND IMPLEMENTATION
The underlying theory and the ADC formalism for calculat-
ing polarizabilities has been discussed in detail elsewhere.11,12Here,
only a brief outline of the basic equations and principles for the
calculation of dipole polarizabilities within the intermediate state
representation shall be given.
Apart from the original derivation of the ADC equations with
the propagator approach,17an alternative exists via the so-called
intermediate state representation (ISR).3,4,29,30The ISR not only
gives direct access to excited states and transition properties but
also offers a straightforward way to transform expressions from
time-dependent response theory into closed-form matrix expres-
sions.11,16The components of the frequency-dependent molecu-
lar dipole polarizability αAB(ω) (with A,B∈{x,y,z}) are given
as
αAB(ω)=−/uni27E8Ψ0/divides.alt0ˆµA(/uni0335hω−ˆH+E0)−1ˆµB/divides.alt0Ψ0/uni27E9
+/uni27E8Ψ0/divides.alt0ˆµB(/uni0335hω+ˆH−E0)−1ˆµA/divides.alt0Ψ0/uni27E9, (1)with the electric dipole operator ˆµ=∑
pqµpqˆa†
pˆaq. The exact sum-
over-states expression is obtained by inserting the resolution of the
identity of exact states, 1=∑
n/divides.alt0Ψn/uni27E9/uni27E8Ψn/divides.alt0.11If instead the resolution
of the identity of intermediate states, 1=/divides.alt0Ψ0/uni27E9/uni27E8Ψ0/divides.alt0+∑
I/divides.alt0˜ΨI/uni27E9/uni27E8˜ΨI/divides.alt0is
inserted, one arrives at the ADC formulation of the polarizability.12
For a static perturbation ( ω= 0), it is given by
αAB(0)=F†
AM−1FB+F†
BM−1FA, (2)
where we introduced vectors of modified transition moments Fwith
elements
FI=/uni27E8˜ΨI/divides.alt0ˆµ/divides.alt0Ψ0/uni27E9=/summation.disp
pqµpq/uni27E8˜ΨI/divides.alt0ˆa†
pˆaq/divides.alt0Ψ0/uni27E9=/summation.disp
pqµpqfI
pq (3)
and used the definition of the modified transition amplitudes, fI
pq
=/uni27E8˜ΨI/divides.alt0ˆa†
pˆaq/divides.alt0Ψ0/uni27E9. In order to obtain ADC expressions, the interme-
diate states are constructed as described in the literature3,30and the
exact ground-state wave function and energy are replaced by the
Møller–Plesset (MP) perturbation series expansions31
/divides.alt0Ψ0/uni27E9=/divides.alt0Ψ(0)
0/uni27E9+/divides.alt0Ψ(1)
0/uni27E9+/divides.alt0Ψ(2)
0/uni27E9+: : :, (4)
E0=E(0)
0+E(1)
0+E(2)
0+: : :. (5)
Algebraic expressions are obtained by using the MP-
partitioning of the molecular Hamiltonian and by collecting terms
for the ADC matrix up to a given order n. When both the secular
matrix and the transition moments are described consistently up to
a certain order, this is then referred to as ADC( n).
The second-order scheme ADC(2) formally depends on the
MP wave-function and energy correction up to second order and
describes single excitations correct in second order of perturbation
theory. The ADC(3) scheme depends on the MP energy up to third
order and describes single excitations consistent in third order and
double excitations consistent in first order of perturbation theory.
However, for both ADC(2) and ADC(3), the excitation space is lim-
ited to single and double excitations, i.e., the ADC matrix Mis
of the same size as the configuration interaction singles and dou-
bles (CISD) matrix. Currently, the modified transition amplitudes
are only available up to second order. Combining the second-order
modified transition amplitudes with the third-order ADC matrix
yields the so-called ADC(3/2) model.16The first-order MP doubles
amplitudes which are defined as
tab
ij=/uni27E8ab/divides.alt0/divides.alt0ij/uni27E9
εa+εb−εi−εj, (6)
where/uni27E8ab||ij/uni27E9is an antisymmetrized two-electron integral and the
εpare HF orbital energies, occur for the first time in the second-
order contribution to the p-h/p-hblock of the ADC matrix.1
They have already been replaced here for the calculation of exci-
tation energies by CC doubles amplitudes,17which are calcu-
lated in an iterative manner according to the CC amplitude
equations32for the doubles
/uni27E8Φab
ij/divides.alt0e−ˆTˆHeˆT/divides.alt0Φ0/uni27E9=0, (7)
J. Chem. Phys. 150, 174105 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5081665 150, 174105-2
Published under license by AIP PublishingThe Journal
of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcp
where | Φ0/uni27E9is the Hartree–Fock reference determinant, ˆTis the
cluster operator that is either approximated as ˆT=ˆT2for CCD
orˆT=ˆT1+ˆT2for CCSD, and /divides.alt0Φab
ij/uni27E9is a doubly excited
determinant.
The MP amplitudes also occur in the first- and second-order
contribution to the modified transition amplitudes fI
pq,1where they
were replaced by CCD or CCSD doubles amplitudes as well. Fur-
thermore, in a similar spirit to the work of Sauer,20thep-hpart of
the second-order one-particle density matrix correction10
ρ(2)
ia=−1
2(εa−εi)/uni23A1/uni23A2/uni23A2/uni23A2/uni23A2/uni23A3/summation.disp
jbctbc
ij/uni27E8ja/divides.alt0/divides.alt0bc/uni27E9+/summation.disp
jkb/uni27E8jk/divides.alt0/divides.alt0ib/uni27E9tab
jk/uni23A4/uni23A5/uni23A5/uni23A5/uni23A5/uni23A6(8)
was replaced by the corresponding CCSD singles amplitudes. Since
Eq. (8) corresponds precisely to the second-order contribution of
ˆT1, i.e., the lowest order where the singles occur in the MP wave-
function expansion, CCSD was considered to an equal extent as
CCD here, in contrast to Paper I on excitation energies.17These
singles amplitudes are not replaced when CCD is chosen as the
coupled-cluster model, but ρ(2)
iais calculated instead with the CCD
T2amplitudes.
We would like to mention that the CC-ADC approach pre-
sented here is still size consistent (size intensive), since, on the one
hand, in the ISR, the ground state is completely decoupled from the
excited configurations, and, on the other hand, as described before,17
the form of the ADC equations is still the same in the CC-ADC
variants, which means that local and nonlocal excitations are exactly
decoupled as well.
The CCD and CCSD amplitudes were combined with ADC(2)
to yield the variants termed CCD-ADC(2) and CCSD-ADC(2). Fur-
thermore, in order to check for the importance of the amplitudes
in different parts of the calculation, more variants of ADC(2) as
well as ADC(3/2) have been implemented, in which the ampli-
tudes are replaced in the modified transition moments F, but not
in the ADC matrix M. These variants are then referred to as F/CC-
ADC(2) and F/CC-ADC(3/2), where CC stands for either CCD or
CCSD.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In the following, static dipole polarizabilities of a series of small
and medium-sized atomic and molecular systems are calculated
using different ADC and CC-ADC variants and the results are com-
pared to full configuration interaction (FCI), CC3, or experimental
values. In a previous study,11it was shown that double-zeta basis
sets are clearly insufficient for the calculation of polarizabilities at
the wave-function correlated level. Furthermore, one set of diffuse
functions is crucial, whereas adding further sets of diffuse functions
seemed to be of minor importance at the triple-zeta level. Thus, a
basis set like aug-cc-pVTZ represents a good compromise between
basis-set size and accuracy.11Since the purpose of this study is to
compare different CC-ADC variants with other methods, in partic-
ular, standard ADC, no attempt was made to optimize the employed
one-particle basis set. Instead, the basis sets of previous studies were
employed for comparability. Most of the geometries were taken from
the literature as well.11A. Comparison with FCI
1. The case of Li−
As a first step, we reinvestigate the case of the lithium anion,
Li−, which has been a prominent test case for the calculation of
dipole polarizabilities with many correlated methods.33–37Sauer
chose to investigate this anion first as an “ideal test case” for the
SOPPA variant referred to as SOPPA(CCSD),20where he replaced
MP by CCSD amplitudes, based on earlier works by Geertsen
et al.19,38Thus, it was chosen as the first test case for the CC-ADC
approaches using the same uncontracted (16 s12p4d) Gaussian one-
electron basis set.20
The values for the static dipole polarizability calculated with
different ADC- and SOPPA-based methods compared to FCI are
shown in Table I. A graphical representation of the relative error
defined asα(X)−α(FCI)
α(FCI), where Xis the corresponding method, is
depicted in Fig. 1. As can be seen, both standard second-order
methods, ADC(2) and SOPPA, show only a small improvement
compared to the first-order random-phase approximation (RPA)
which has a relative error of about 50% (corresponding to 400
a.u.). They still overestimate the static polarizability significantly by
more than 30% (about 250 a.u.). The use of coupled-cluster ampli-
tudes within these methods lowers the value of the polarizability
in all cases, but the magnitude of the effect varies strongly for the
different variants. While SOPPA(CCSD) yields better results than
Geertsen’s coupled-cluster polarization propagator approximation
(CCSDPPA) variant,20this also holds true for the ADC(2) variant
with CCD, but not for the one with CCSD amplitudes. In the lat-
ter case, the polarizability is underestimated by more than 40% or
350 a.u. With CCD amplitudes, the underestimation is less than
25% (200 a.u.). A further improvement can be observed for the vari-
ants in which the amplitudes are only substituted in the modified
transition moments F. While for the F/CCSD-ADC(2) the error is
still−30% (about 240 a.u.), the best result of all compared methods
could be obtained with F/CCD-ADC(2), where the underestima-
tion of 6% (50 a.u.) is even smaller than for SOPPA(CCSD) with
8% (65 a.u.). It can already be seen in this system that the ampli-
tudes in the Fvectors play a larger role than the ones in the sec-
ular matrix, since the change in going from standard ADC(2) to
F/CCD-ADC(2) is already almost 300 a.u., and when the amplitudes
TABLE I . Static dipole polarizability (in a.u.) of Li−calculated with different methods.
Method α
RPAa1198.39
SOPPAa1061.70
CCSDPPAa620.80
SOPPA(CCSD)a732.60
ADC(2) 1039.17
CCD-ADC(2) 601.66
F/CCD-ADC(2) 747.59
CCSD-ADC(2) 448.38
F/CCSD-ADC(2) 558.30
FCIa797.77
aTaken from Ref. 20.
J. Chem. Phys. 150, 174105 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5081665 150, 174105-3
Published under license by AIP PublishingThe Journal
of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcp
FIG. 1 . The relative error of the static dipole polarizability αfor Li−of results
presented in Table I with respect to FCI.
are additionally substituted in the secular matrix in CCD-ADC(2),
the polarizability decreases by another 145 a.u. For CCSD ampli-
tudes, this trend is even more pronounced: the difference between
ADC(2) and F/CCSD-ADC(2) amounts to 480 a.u., and between
F/CCSD-ADC(2) and “full” CCSD-ADC(2) only 110 a.u.
However, the results obtained with the different methods do
not appear to be very systematic, and especially, the best result
obtained with the F/CCD-ADC(2) variant seems rather fortuitous.
Since the lithium anion is a system with a diffuse charge cloud that
is easily polarizable, it is understandable that the computed polar-
izability is very sensitive to small changes in the parameters. This
makes it, however, questionable whether the Li−ion is really an ideal
test case and whether the observed improvements were obtained for
the right reasons and not fortuitously. Furthermore, Li−is isoelec-
tronic to the beryllium atom which, in turn, is known to be a strongly
correlated system, and therefore, perturbation theories at low order
and even single-reference coupled-cluster approaches may not be
appropriate such that in this case a real multireference treatment
would be needed.
In order to further investigate the CC-ADC methods and
deduce some general trends when using different t-amplitudes
within ADC, additional calculations on more standard chemical sys-
tems have been carried out and analyzed as shall be discussed in the
following.
2. Neon and hydrogen fluoride
We turn our attention to two more small systems, namely, neon
and hydrogen fluoride. The static dipole polarizabilities of Ne and
HF have been calculated with various ADC methods, and the results
are compared to FCI. The basis sets used here are only of double-
zeta quality, but since the reference FCI values were calculated in
the same one-particle basis, the deviations from FCI stem solely
from the approximations in the respective ADC method. Table II
shows the static dipole polarizability of the Ne atom calculated with
the d-aug-cc-pVDZ basis set,40,41and the relative error is depictedTABLE II . Static dipole polarizability (in a.u.) of Ne (d-aug-cc-pVDZ basis set) and
HF (aug-cc-pVDZ basis set) obtained with different variants of the ADC scheme
compared to FCI.
NeHF
Method α α xxαzz ¯α
ADC(2) 2.83 4.55 6.71 5.27
CCD-ADC(2) 2.78 4.43 6.47 5.11
F/CCD-ADC(2) 2.78 4.43 6.48 5.11
CCSD-ADC(2) 2.83 4.53 6.58 5.21
F/CCSD-ADC(2) 2.83 4.53 6.59 5.22
ADC(3/2) 2.70 4.29 6.32 4.97
F/CCD-ADC(3/2) 2.65 4.19 6.12 4.84
F/CCSD-ADC(3/2) 2.70 4.28 6.21 4.93
FCIa2.67 4.29 6.21 4.93
aTaken from Refs.11 and 39.
in Fig. 2. The deviation of the standard ADC(2) result from FCI
of 6% (0.16 a.u.) is improved by 0.05 a.u. when using CCD ampli-
tudes such that the deviation is only 4% or 0.11 a.u. When CCSD
doubles amplitudes are employed, the polarizability increases again
to the same value as standard ADC(2) and hence no improvement
is observed. We can see, however, that the results for both CCD-
ADC(2) and F/CCD-ADC(2) as well as for CCSD-ADC(2) and
F/CCSD-ADC(2) are the same, underlining the greater importance
of the amplitudes in the modified transition moments Fcompared
to the ones in the secular matrix Mfor the calculation of the polariz-
ability. The same trend as for ADC(2) is observed for the third-order
variants, where standard ADC(3/2) slightly overestimates the static
polarizability by 1.0% compared to FCI. The use of CCD amplitudes
within the second-order modified transition moments Flowers the
obtained value and improves it slightly with a relative error of −0.7%,
whereas with F/CCSD-ADC(3/2), the same value as for standard
ADC(3/2) is obtained.
The dipole polarizability of hydrogen fluoride was calculated
with the aug-cc-pVDZ basis set,42and the results can also be found
in Table II and Fig. 2. Again, the results for the CC-ADC and F/CC-
ADC variants are almost identical. Focusing first on the isotropic
polarizability of HF ¯α=1
3(αxx+αyy+αzz), withαxx=αyyfor sym-
metry reasons, standard ADC(2) overestimates its value by 6.9% or
0.34 a.u. As before, the use of CC amplitudes in ADC lowers the
static polarizability and thus improves its value compared to stan-
dard ADC. CCD amplitudes again yield a better result in ADC(2)
than CCSD ones, with the error of the former being only 3.7% (0.18
a.u.) compared to about 5.8% (0.28 a.u.) of the latter. So again,
when CCSD amplitudes are employed, the polarizability is raised
compared to CCD ones, making the result more similar to stan-
dard ADC(2). A similar trend is observed for the ADC(3/2) method.
Here, however, F/CCD-ADC(3/2) underestimates the polarizability
by 1.9% or 0.09 a.u. due to the already very good result of standard
ADC(3/2), having an error of only 0.8% or 0.04 a.u. The F/CCSD-
ADC(3/2) method again raises the value of the polarizability to some
extent compared to F/CCD-ADC(3/2) and is in this case in almost
perfect agreement (relative error <0.1%) with the FCI result of 4.93
a.u. for the isotropic polarizability.
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FIG. 2 . Relative error of the isotropic
polarizability ¯αfor Ne and HF of results
presented in Table II with respect to FCI.
Having a look at the individual values of the polarizability ten-
sor, all ADC(2) variants describe the components of the polarizabil-
ity perpendicular to the molecular axis (that is, αxxandαyy) better
than the component parallel to the axis, αzz. The relative improve-
ment when using CCD amplitudes, however, is larger for the parallel
zcomponent than for the perpendicular ones. A similar observation
holds for the ADC(3/2) method. Here, however, the standard ver-
sion is already in agreement with FCI for the diagonal xandycom-
ponents of the polarizability, whereas the error of the zcomponent
amounts to 0.11 a.u. When using CCSD amplitudes in the Fvectors,
the perpendicular components remain virtually unchanged, whereas
the parallel zcomponent is lowered to be in perfect agreement with
the FCI value as well.
B. Comparison with experiment
In the following, we will evaluate the accuracy of the CC-ADC
methods for molecular systems of increasing size and with larger
basis sets and compare the obtained results to the ones obtained inexperiments, often by means of the dipole oscillator strength dis-
tribution (DOSD).24Since no FCI results are available for these
systems, the results of the third-order approximate coupled clus-
ter (CC3) method43were taken as a theoretical reference when they
were available. Additionally, the polarizability anisotropy defined
as
∆α=/radical.alt4
(αxx−αyy)2+(αyy−αzz)2+(αzz−αxx)2
2(9)
is compared. Previous studies have shown that ADC(2) yields, in
general, rather large discrepancies in the anisotropies due to a poor
reproduction of longitudinal polarizability components.11,12
1. Water and carbon monoxide
Let us start with the investigation of the water molecule, using
the rather large d-aug-cc-pVTZ basis set41in order to allow for a
proper comparison of theory and experiment.11The results obtained
for H 2O are shown in Table III, and the relative error with respect to
TABLE III . Static dipole polarizability (in a.u.) of H 2O and CO calculated with different ADC variants (d-aug-cc-pVTZ basis
set) compared to CC3 and experiment.
H2O CO
Method αxxαyyαzz ¯α ∆α α xxαzz ¯α ∆α
ADC(2) 9.79 10.41 10.17 10.13 0.54 11.88 17.32 13.70 5.43
CCD-ADC(2) 9.48 9.97 9.83 9.76 0.44 11.45 16.92 13.27 5.47
F/CCD-ADC(2) 9.48 9.97 9.85 9.77 0.45 11.47 17.07 13.34 5.61
CCSD-ADC(2) 9.81 10.11 10.05 9.99 0.28 11.51 17.14 13.38 5.63
F/CCSD-ADC(2) 9.81 10.12 10.06 10.00 0.28 11.55 17.27 13.46 5.72
ADC(3/2) 9.30 10.09 9.71 9.70 0.69 12.07 16.35 13.50 4.29
F/CCD-ADC(3/2) 9.03 9.70 9.43 9.39 0.58 11.68 16.28 13.21 4.59
F/CCSD-ADC(3/2) 9.33 9.82 9.63 9.59 0.43 11.78 16.45 13.33 4.67
CC3a9.38 9.96 9.61 9.65 0.51 11.95 15.57 13.16 3.62
Experimenta9.83 0.67 13.08 3.59
aTaken from Refs. 11 and 44–48.
J. Chem. Phys. 150, 174105 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5081665 150, 174105-5
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CC3 is depicted in Fig. 3. Compared to CC3, the standard ADC(2)
variant overestimates the polarizability by almost 5%. This can be
significantly improved to almost 1% by using CCD amplitudes, inde-
pendent of whether they are used everywhere or only in the Fvec-
tors. When using CCSD amplitudes, the results are with a relative
error of about 3.5% worse, but still better than for the standard
ADC(2) variant. ADC(3/2), however, yields a result very similar to
CC3, having a relative error of only 0.5%. The trend of using CCD
or CCSD amplitudes within ADC(3/2) is the same as for the pure
second-order method. Here, however, this means a deterioration
in the case of CCD amplitudes, since the polarizability is underes-
timated by about 2.7%. F/CCSD-ADC(3/2) has roughly the same
relative error compared to CC3 as the standard variant, just with the
opposite sign.
When taking the experimental value as reference, which was
obtained using refractive index data,45,47similar trends are observed.
ADC(2) overestimates the polarizability by 3% or 0.3 a.u., and the
use of CC amplitudes again lowers the obtained values, thus gen-
erally improving the results. As for Ne and HF, CCD amplitudes
yield better results than CCSD ones and the difference between the
CC- and F/CC-ADC variants is negligible. CCSD-ADC(2), however,
still overestimates the static polarizability by about 1.6% (0.16 a.u.),
whereas the variants with CCD amplitudes now underestimate its
value by 0.06 a.u. Overall, (F/)CCD-ADC(2) yields the best results
of all compared methods with a relative error of only about −0.65%.
In fact, the result with CCD-ADC(2) agrees even better with exper-
iment than the CC3 one, which for the previously studied systems
yielded results almost identical to FCI, but here underestimates the
polarizability by 1.8% (0.18 a.u.) compared to experiment.11,39A
significant difference to previous results is observed for the third-
order ADC scheme. The effect of the CC amplitudes of lowering
the values is still the same, but since standard ADC(3/2) already
underestimates the polarizability compared to experiment by 1.3%
(0.13 a.u., thus being still more accurate than CC3); in this case,
the results deviate stronger when using CCD or CCSD amplitudes
within the second-order Fvectors. Deviations from experiment of
−0.44 and −0.24 a.u. corresponding to relative errors of −4.5% and−2.4% were obtained for F/CCD-ADC(3/2) and F/CCSD-ADC(3/2),
respectively.
Having a look at the polarizability anisotropy ∆α, standard
ADC(2) yields the best result of 0.54 a.u. with respect to CC3
or experiment compared to all other second-order methods. CCD
amplitudes lower this value only by 0.1 a.u., but with CCSD
amplitudes, the result is with 0.28 a.u. the worst of all. Standard
ADC(3/2) yields the best result of all with respect to experiment,
even better than CC3. Taking CC3 as a reference, on the other
hand, the ADC(3/2) value can be slightly improved by using CC
amplitudes.
Another molecular system under investigation here is carbon
monoxide, which was also calculated using the d-aug-cc-pVTZ basis
set. As can be seen from the results for the isotropic polarizabil-
ity shown in Table III and the relative error with respect to CC3
depicted in Fig. 3, standard ADC(2) overestimates its value signif-
icantly by 4.1% or 0.34 a.u. The use of CCD amplitudes in both the
Fvectors and the secular matrix Mof ADC(2) lowers this error sig-
nificantly to 0.11 a.u., yielding again the best result of all ADC(2)
variants compared to CC3 with a relative error of only about 0.9%.
With CCSD amplitudes, the deviation is 1.7% (0.22 a.u.), which is
still less than half as large as for standard ADC(2). The difference
between the CC-ADC(2) and F/CC-ADC(2) variants is for CO larger
than for Ne or HF, but the trend is the same as for Li−: employ-
ing CC amplitudes only in the modified transition moments has the
largest influence and lowers the value of the dipole polarizability sig-
nificantly, with F/CCD-ADC(2) and F/CCSD-ADC(2) resulting in
a relative error of about 1.3% and 2.3%, respectively, while the addi-
tional substitution in the secular matrix Mhas the same effect, but to
a smaller extent. Going to the third-order description in the secular
matrix only yields a small improvement compared to pure second-
order; the error of standard ADC(3/2) still amounts to 2.6% or 0.34
a.u. Replacing the MP amplitudes in the second-order transition
moment vectors by CC ones gives an improvement for both CCD
and CCSD doubles amplitudes. In this case, however, the variant
with CCD amplitudes yields better result than that with CCSD ones.
While F/CCSD-ADC(3/2) still deviates from experiment by 1.3%
FIG. 3 . Relative error of the isotropic
polarizability ¯αof H 2O and CO of results
presented in Table III with respect to
CC3.
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(0.17 a.u.), F/CCD-ADC(3/2) yields the best result of all presented
ADC variants with a deviation of only 0.05 a.u., corresponding to a
relative error of about 0.4%. It is also remarkable at this point that all
“hybrid” CC-ADC variants, even the pure second-order ones, yield
better results than the (third-order) standard ADC(3/2) method. For
example, the relative error of F/CCD-ADC(3/2) is only one third of
the standard ADC(3/2) one, and the relative error of CCD-ADC(2)
is about half as large as the one of standard ADC(3/2) and only
one third of the standard ADC(2) one. All observed trends and
results hold as well when taking experiment11,46as a reference for
the isotropic polarizability, just that the absolute deviation is 0.08
a.u. larger for all ADC variants.
A different picture is observed for the individual components
of the polarizability tensor. For the two components perpendicular
to the molecular axis, αxxandαyy, the standard ADC approaches
with MP amplitudes have a smaller deviation from the CC3 results
than the ones with CC amplitudes, the order of magnitude of the
deviation for the former being about 0.1 a.u., whereas for the latter,
it is up to 0.5 a.u. However, for the component along the molec-
ular axis,αzz, the largest difference can be observed between the
pure second-order ADC variants and the ADC(3/2) ones. The third-
order description of the secular matrix Msignificantly improves
the description of αzzby about 1.0 a.u. for the standard ADC
approaches. The influence of the chosen amplitudes in the Fvectors
on the ADC(3/2) results is rather negligible. At the ADC(2) level,
this influence is somewhat larger, and the largest improvement is
again obtained with CCD amplitudes replacing the MP ones every-
where, with the error of CCD-ADC(2) being 0.4 a.u. smaller than
the one of the standard ADC(2) variant. These differences, of course,
explain the changes in the polarizability anisotropy. While all ADC
variants overestimate its value compared to experiment11,48or also
CC3,44the use of CC amplitudes within ADC generally raises ∆α,
thus worsening the results. For CCSD amplitudes, the effect is more
pronounced than for CCD ones.
2. Aromatic systems
Finally, we turn our attention now to some larger chemical sys-
tems: aromatic and heteroaromatic compounds. Due to the lack ofCC3 or similar values in the literature for these systems, they are
compared to experimental values only. The prototype of aromatic
systems is, of course, the benzene molecule, which is considered
as a first example using the Sadlej-pVTZ basis set.52Experimental
values in the literature were obtained by applying ultraviolet Stark
spectroscopy49or through a series of experimental and theoretical
data using the DOSD technique.50For standard ADC methods, the
benzene molecule has proven to be a difficult case,12which can be
seen in the results shown in Table IV and Fig. 4 (left). Compared
to the DOSD value, standard ADC(2) overestimates the static polar-
izability significantly by 5.14 a.u., corresponding to a relative error
of 7.6%. Expanding the secular matrix Mto third order in standard
ADC(3/2) improves the result only slightly and still overestimates
¯αnotably by 6.1% or absolutely by 4.13 a.u. Using CC amplitudes
within ADC again improves the values for the polarizability sig-
nificantly by lowering the computed values. Here, the difference
between CCD and CCSD amplitudes is replacing the MP ones either
only in the Fvectors or both in Fand the secular matrix Mis
rather negligible, with the difference between the two correspond-
ing CC-ADC(2) and F/CC-ADC(2) variants being ≤0.1%. Using CC
amplitudes within ADC(2) in the modified transition moment vec-
tors only yields a deviation from experiment of about 3.2% (2.2
a.u.), whereas the error is about 2.9% (less than 2.0 a.u.) when the
amplitudes are replaced everywhere in CC-ADC(2). A significant
improvement is also observed when using CC amplitudes in the F
vectors of the ADC(3/2) variant, with the deviation from experiment
being merely about 2.2% (1.5 a.u.), thus yielding the best results
for all compared ADC variants. Hence, the improvement obtained
when using CC amplitudes within ADC for the calculation of the
static polarizability lies in the order of 63%, which is the most signif-
icant one of all systems compared so far. Again, all CC-ADC vari-
ants show a substantial improvement over the standard ones with
the relative error of CC-ADC(2) methods being only about half as
large as the one for standard ADC(3/2). A possible explanation for
the better performance of the CC-ADC variants compared to the
standard ADC ones is the better description of excitation energies,
especially for the lowest ones, as shown in Paper I.17Yet, the transi-
tion moments seem to be a more important factor. They are, how-
ever, hard to compare with the literature or especially experiment.
TABLE IV . Static dipole polarizability (in a.u.) of benzene, pyridine, and naphthalene calculated with different ADC variants (Sadlej-pVTZ basis set) compared to DOSD values.
Benzene Pyridine Naphthalene
Method αxxαzz ¯α ∆α α xxαyyαzz ¯α ∆α α xxαyyαzz ¯α ∆α
ADC(2) 86.32 46.14 72.93 40.18 82.64 42.21 78.49 67.78 38.53 182.3 134.4 69.2 128.6 98.3
CCD-ADC(2) 81.68 45.99 69.78 35.69 78.41 42.09 74.67 65.05 34.60 172.8 128.5 69.4 123.6 89.8
F/CCD-ADC(2) 81.90 46.08 69.96 35.82 78.51 42.14 74.88 65.18 34.69 171.0 128.7 69.6 123.1 88.2
CCSD-ADC(2) 81.79 45.57 69.72 36.22 78.70 41.83 75.20 65.24 35.26 172.9 129.0 68.9 123.6 90.4
F/CCSD-ADC(2) 82.14 45.75 70.01 36.39 78.96 41.97 75.54 65.49 35.41 171.6 129.5 69.3 123.4 89.1
ADC(3/2) 84.89 45.97 71.92 38.92 80.91 41.95 76.59 66.48 36.99 178.1 130.7 68.6 125.8 95.2
F/CCD-ADC(3/2) 80.91 46.08 69.30 34.82 77.27 42.07 73.46 64.27 33.46 168.3 126.0 69.3 121.2 86.1
F/CCSD-ADC(3/2) 81.12 45.75 69.33 35.37 77.67 41.87 74.05 64.53 34.13 168.8 126.6 68.9 121.4 86.8
Experimenta67.79 31.5 62.88 117.4 86.8
aTaken from Refs. 24 and 49–51.
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FIG. 4 . Relative error of the isotropic polarizability ¯αfor benzene, pyridine, and naphthalene of results presented in Table IV with respect to DOSD values.
In Ref. 9, only oscillator strengths were compared, but those also
depend linearly on the excitation energy.
Not only the isotropic polarizability but also its anisotropy is
improved significantly compared to the experimental value49when
using CC amplitudes in ADC. While it does not seem to play
a significant role whether they are employed both in the secular
matrix and the modified transition moments, CCD amplitudes again
yield slightly better results than the corresponding versions with
CCSD amplitudes. Other experimental results give the polarizabil-
ity anisotropy of benzene as 35.02 a.u.,51,53which is in almost per-
fect agreement with CCD-ADC(2) or F/CCSD-ADC(3/2) results, for
instance.
Another system closely related to benzene is the six-membered
heteroaromatic compound pyridine, the geometry of which has been
optimized using the Gaussian 09 program package54at the MP2/cc-
pVTZ level of theory. For the calculation of the static polarizability
again the Sadlej-pVTZ basis set was used, the results are shown
next to the ones for benzene in Table IV and the relative errors are
depicted in Fig. 4. The experimental value of its isotropic polariz-
ability was obtained using the DOSD method.24However, no value
for the individual components or its anisotropy could be found in
the literature. The deviation of the standard ADC(2) method from
the DOSD value is with 7.8% or 4.9 a.u., very similar to the one for
the benzene molecule, while the deviation of the standard ADC(3/2)
variant is with 5.7% (3.6 a.u.) slightly smaller (0.5 a.u. in absolute
numbers) for pyridine than for benzene. However, a clear improve-
ment is observed again for all ADC variants when using CC instead
of MP amplitudes. The difference between the individual variants
is slightly larger in this case than for benzene, though all variants
are still very similar. The best result for the pure second-order ADC
method is again obtained when CCD amplitudes are used through-
out, i.e., CCD-ADC(2). Here, the error amounts to 3.46% (2.17 a.u.),
as compared to 3.76% (2.36 a.u.) when CCSD amplitudes are used,
or 3.65% and 4.15% corresponding to 2.30 and 2.61 a.u. when CCD
or CCSD amplitudes are used in the Fvectors only, respectively.
This corresponds to an improvement of up to 55% compared tothe relative error of the standard ADC(2) method. Another signifi-
cant improvement is observed when F/CCD-ADC(3/2) is employed.
With a deviation from experiment of 2.21% (1.39 a.u.), the F/CCD-
ADC(3/2) variant again yields the best result, which corresponds to
an improvement of 61% as compared to the standard ADC(3/2) vari-
ant. The F/CCSD-ADC(3/2) variant yields a comparable result with
a relative error of 2.62%. Again, the results obtained with all hybrid
CC-ADC variants show a significant improvement over the standard
ones, even CC-ADC(2) over standard ADC(3/2), at a lower overall
computational cost.
The results for the last and largest system discussed here, the
naphthalene molecule, are summarized in Table IV and Fig. 4, as
well calculated with the Sadlej-pVTZ basis set. As noted by Mille-
fiori and Alparone,51experimental results of the polarizability and its
anisotropy were obtained from the Cotton–Mouton effect,55molar
Kerr constants, and refractions,56,57as well as from laser Stark spec-
troscopy.58,59Concerning the isotropic polarizability, the standard
ADC(2) variant has an even larger deviation from experiment than
for benzene and pyridine, the relative overestimation amounting to
9.6%, its absolute error being 11.22 a.u. As previously, significant
improvement is obtained when CC amplitudes are used. For CCD-
ADC(2), CCSD-ADC(2), and F/CCSD-ADC(2), the relative error
lies between 5.1% and 5.3%, with the absolute error between 6.0 and
6.2 a.u. In this case, the F/CCD-ADC(2) variant again stands some-
what out, having the smallest error of all compared methods with
4.9% or 5.72 a.u. Thus, the improvement obtained when using CC
amplitudes is up to almost 50% compared to the standard ADC(2)
variant. The standard third-order ADC(3/2) method again shows no
significant improvement compared to standard ADC(2) and has an
error of 7.2% corresponding to 8.4 a.u. The use of CC amplitudes
within the second-order Fvectors improves notably upon this value,
yielding the best result of all compared methods with 3.2% corre-
sponding to 3.8 a.u. As for the aromatic systems studied before,
all CC-ADC variants yield better results compared to experiment
than the standard ones, especially CC-ADC(2) yields better results
than standard ADC(3/2) while the computational cost remains
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significantly lower. On the other hand, an improvement in the rela-
tive error of more than 50% is obtained when going from standard
ADC(3/2) to F/CCD-ADC(3/2) at a computational cost increase that
only amounts to about 1% in this case. Again, a possible explanation
for the improved description of the polarizability is the improve-
ment in excitation energies.17Even more pronounced than for ben-
zene, significantly improved results for the polarizability anisotropy
∆αcompared to experiment are obtained when using CC amplitudes
within ADC, especially in the ADC(3/2) scheme where the F/CCSD-
ADC(3/2) variant is in perfect agreement with the experimental
value.
Two more related aromatic systems, quinoline and isoquino-
line, have been calculated as well (see the supplementary material
for the results), and the results show the same trends and improve-
ments for the CC-ADC methods, underlining the consistency of the
improvement for this class of molecules.
IV. SUMMARY
In this work, the existing implementation of the algebraic-
diagrammatic construction scheme for the polarization propagator
with coupled-cluster amplitudes17has been extended to molecu-
lar properties and in this special case tested for dipole polarizabil-
ities recently implemented for standard ADC using the damped
response formalism.12Furthermore, in addition to CCD, CCSD
amplitudes can be used as well, also in the second-order tran-
sition moments of the ADC(3/2) method. This new approach is
inspired by similar works done on the SOPPA method by Geert-
sen, Oddershede, and Sauer.19,20In the new CC-ADC(2) variants,
the Møller–Plesset correlation coefficients that occur in ADC are
replaced by either CCD or CCSD amplitudes; in the F/CC-ADC(2)
and F/CC-ADC(3/2) variants, they are replaced only in the second-
order modified transition moments F, but not in the secular matrix
M. In order to test the performance of the new CC-ADC variants,
the static dipole polarizabilities of several small- to medium-sized
chemical systems have been calculated and compared to FCI, CC3,
DOSD, or experimental reference values. As a first test case, the
Li−ion was chosen since it served previously as a reference.20In
our opinion, however, this is not a good test case since the results
are very sensitive with respect to the amplitudes employed in the
calculation, and hence, the values vary very strongly and unsys-
tematically. Although the result obtained with the F/CCD-ADC(2)
variant is very close to FCI, this seems to be rather fortuitous than
systematic and hence does not allow for many general conclusions
regarding the use of CC amplitudes within ADC, except that the
polarizability becomes smaller when using CC amplitudes. For the
ten-electron systems neon and hydrogen fluoride, the standard ADC
methods show a relatively large deviation from FCI that could be
improved when employing CCD amplitudes. Since, however, the
third-order ADC(3/2) scheme already provided very good results
with relative errors ≤1%, no significant improvement was obtained
with CC amplitudes in the Fvectors. A slightly different picture
is obtained when experimental values are used as reference. While
for the water molecule notable improvements, especially with CCD
amplitudes, could be observed for the second-order ADC method,
an increased deviation is observed for ADC(3/2) because the stan-
dard variant already underestimates the static polarizability by about
1%, and the use of CC amplitudes in the Fvectors generally lowersits absolute value even more. For carbon monoxide and, in par-
ticular, the aromatic systems benzene, pyridine, and naphthalene,
which have proven to be very problematic cases for standard ADC,12
very consistent improvements for all CC-ADC variants compared
to the standard schemes are obtained. The CCD-ADC(2) results,
for instance, even exhibit a notably smaller relative error than the
considerably more expensive ADC(3/2) method. For benzene, the
relative errors of both the CC-ADC(2) and F/CC-ADC(3/2) variants
amounted only to about 35%–50% compared to the one of standard
ADC(3/2).
Due to the less favorable scaling of CCD/CCSD compared to
MP2, the CC-ADC(2) variants are, of course, computationally some-
what more demanding than standard ADC(2), but still significantly
cheaper than the standard third-order ADC(3/2) or equation-of-
motion (EOM)-CC methods. At this point, it seems appropriate to
consider some computational efficiency aspects of the different stan-
dard ADC, CC-ADC, and standard (EOM-)CC approaches in terms
of their formal scaling with system size a bit more in detail. Both
MP2 and ADC(2) scale as O(N5)(the latter in an iterative man-
ner, however), whereas ADC(3) and both (EOM-)CCSD and CCD
scale as O(N6), where Nis the number of basis functions. The price
that has thus to be paid for the improvement of the results for the
static polarizability with CC-ADC(2) is the O(N6)iterative ground-
state calculation with CCD or CCSD instead of just the single O(N5)
MP2 one. The successive excited-state calculation, however, scales
more favorably for ADC(2) than for ADC(3) or CCSD. Thus, while
the ground-state calculation has become one order of magnitude
more expensive compared to MP2, the excited-state calculation still
scales as O(N5)and the results obtained with the CC-ADC(2) vari-
ants are notably better than the ones for standard ADC(3/2). In this
way, one obtains very good results at an overall lower cost than stan-
dard third-order ADC or CCSD methods which are sometimes even
comparable to the very accurate iterative CC3 method that, however,
scales very unfavorably as O(N7). As an example, in the ADC(2) and
CC-ADC(2) computations of the aromatic systems, the central pro-
cessing unit (CPU) time needed for the ADC (and CC) calculations
amounts to only about 1% compared to ADC(3/2). On the other
hand, the additional time needed for the CC calculation in F/CC-
ADC(3/2) also amounts to only about 1% of the total time, and the
improvement in the results is remarkable.
We thus believe that especially the CC-ADC(2) variants will
become useful and versatile alternatives to standard ADC in the
calculation of molecular properties such as polarizabilities since it
combines a reliable iterated CC ground state and retains the advan-
tageous features of ADC with its Hermitian eigenvalue problem and
low computational cost.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
See supplementary material for geometries of all considered
molecules as well as additional results for the static polarizabilities
of the quinoline and isoquinoline molecules.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
M.H. acknowledges financial support from the Heidelberg
Graduate School “Mathematical and Computational Methods for
the Sciences” (GSC 220) and many helpful discussions with Adrian
J. Chem. Phys. 150, 174105 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5081665 150, 174105-9
Published under license by AIP PublishingThe Journal
of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcp
L. Dempwolff. P.N. acknowledges financial support from the
Swedish Research Council (Grant No. 2014-4646) as well as a fel-
lowship from Heidelberg University to become a visiting Professor
at the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing.
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1.2713373.pdf | Spin transfer oscillators emitting microwave in zero applied magnetic field
T. Devolder, A. Meftah, K. Ito, J. A. Katine, P. Crozat, and C. Chappert
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 101, 063916 (2007); doi: 10.1063/1.2713373
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2713373
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/101/6?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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155.97.178.73 On: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 15:39:29Spin transfer oscillators emitting microwave in zero applied magnetic field
T . Devoldera/H20850and A. Meftah
Institut d’Electronique Fondamentale, CNRS UMR 8622, Université Paris Sud, Bâtiment 220,
91405 Orsay, France
K. Ito
Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory, Hitachi Europe, Ltd., Cavendish Laboratory, Madingley Road,Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom
J. A. Katine
Hitachi GST, San Jose Research Center, 650 Harry Road, San Jose, California 95120
P . Crozat and C. Chappert
Institut d’Electronique Fondamentale, CNRS UMR 8622, Université Paris Sud, Bâtiment 220,91405 Orsay, France
/H20849Received 7 November 2006; accepted 21 January 2007; published online 29 March 2007 /H20850
Using pillar-shaped spin valves with the magnetization of the reference layer being pinned
perpendicularly to the easy axis of the free layer, we show that spin-transfer-induced microwaveemission can be obtained at exactly zero applied magnetic field and in its vicinity. The frequencytunability /H20849typically 150 MHz/mA /H20850, the spectral purity /H20849quality factor up to 280 /H20850, and the power /H20849up
to 5 nV/Hz
1/2/H20850of the emission compares well with other spin-transfer oscillators based on
spin-valve nanopillars. This ability to get satisfactory microwave emission without needing bulkymagnetic field sources may arise from a small nonvanishing field-like term in the current-inducedtorque. It may be of interest for the design of submicron microwave sources. © 2007 American
Institute of Physics ./H20851DOI: 10.1063/1.2713373 /H20852
I. INTRODUCTION
A spin-polarized current flowing into a ferromagnet can
transfer spin angular momentum to the magnetization,thereby causing a so-called spin-transfer torque /H20849STT /H20850acting
on the magnetization.
1In spin valves, STT can be used to
switch the magnetization of the free layer.2When combined
with an applied field typically greater than the anisotropyfield of the free layer, a sufficiently high STT can set the freelayer magnetization into a stationary precessional motion.
3
Since the electrical resistance depends on the magnetizationof the free layer, this precessional motion generates a micro-wave voltage across the spin valve. Under optimized condi-tions, this emission can have a high spectral purity, togetherwith a large tunability by the current and the magnetic field,making it an interesting system to design compact micro-wave sources.
4However, several breakthrough are needed
before this concept can be efficiently used in applications;one of them is to get rid of the need for magnetic field sourcethat would be detrimental to both the fabrication cost of theoscillator and its compactness.
Following the early experimental demonstrations of mi-
crowave emission without applied field,
5,6several ideas have
been proposed. For instance Diény et al. have proposed a
spin transfer oscillator /H20849STO /H20850with a magnetic stack7com-
prising /H20849i/H20850a polarizer with its magnetization perpendicular to
the multilayer plane and /H20849ii/H20850a free layer and a readout layer
both with collinear in-plane magnetizations. Despite promis-ing predicted characteristics, the experimental demonstrationof such a device is still lacking. Another route to get zerofield microwave emission has been suggested by Barna śet
al.
8Using transport calculations, they have conjectured that
in some specific asymmetric nanopillars comprising two na-nomagnets, the STT can destabilize both the parallel and theantiparallel configurations. As a result, stationary preces-sional modes were predicted to occur at zero magnetic field.
9
The experimental proof of concept has been recently done10
but the technological potential of this concept still needs tobe assessed.
In this article, we report another route to obtain micro-
wave emission in zero applied field in STO. We start fromthe consensual idea that in spin valve systems, radio fre-quency /H20849rf/H20850emission requires two ingredients: a field and a
STT that favor different magnetization orientations and com-pete. While in most devices the field is simply an externalfield, Tularpurkar et al.
11have shown that at least in some
systems when the spin polarization pis perpendicular to the
magnetization mof the free layer, the current density Jin-
duces a torque that comprises not only a Slonczewski term,i.e.,m/H11003/H20849m/H11003p/H20850but also a significant build-in field-like
term, i.e., m/H11003p. We propose that this term be used to re-
place or complement the external field and show an experi-mental situation where this condition is likely realized. Weuse a nanopillar etched from a spin valve where the syntheticantiferromagnet reference layer is pinned in the sampleplane, at an orientation p
yperpendicular to the easy axis /H20849x/H20850
of the free layer. All layers are magnetized in-plane. With
this specific stack, microwave emission is obtained experi-mentally at zero applied field and for both current polarities.This ability to get satisfactory microwave emission without
a/H20850Electronic mail: thibaut.devolder@ief.u-psud.frJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 101, 063916 /H208492007 /H20850
0021-8979/2007/101 /H208496/H20850/063916/5/$23.00 © 2007 American Institute of Physics 101 , 063916-1
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
155.97.178.73 On: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 15:39:29needing bulky magnetic field sources may be of interest for
the design of submicron STO.
II. MODEL
Phenomenologically, we can decompose any torque act-
ing on the magnetization on the base of two orthogonal vec-tors. We will thus write the equation describing the magne-tization dynamics in our samples, by incorporating both aSlonczewski torque and a field-like term, i.e.,
dm
dt=⌊/H20873/H9262B
tMs/H20874/H20873/H9016J
/H20841e/H20841/H20874/H20849py/H11003m+/H9252py/H20850
+/H92530Heff−/H9251dm
dt⌋/H11003m, /H208491/H20850
where /H92530=221 kHz mA−1is the gyromagnetic ratio, /H9262Bis
the Bohr magneton, and eis the electron charge. The symbol
pyis a unit vector describing the magnetization of the refer-
ence layer. All through this article, it is assumed static along/H20849y/H20850./H9016is a dimensionless effective spin polarization. It is
assumed constant throughout this article, with no angular
dependence. We use the so-called sine approximation of thespin torque term. Jis the electronic current, which we will
hereafter write J
yto recall the fact that it should transport a
spin polarization that is directed along /H20849y/H20850./H9007effis the effec-
tive field of the free layer, including shape anisotropy and
applied field. /H9251is the Gilbert damping factor. The symbol t
stands for the free layer thickness. MSis its magnetization.
All along this article, we write /H20849z/H20850as the growth direction
and /H20849xy/H20850as the plane of the layers, /H20849x/H20850being the easy axis of
the free layer.
The dimensionless parameter /H9252describes the relative
strength of the field-like torque compared to theSlonczewski-like torque. There is some controversy in theliterature about the strength of
/H9252, which should depend on
the thickness tof the free layer and on the decay length of
the transverse component of the spin accumulation inside thefree layer. When this decay length is considered as zero,there no field-like torque. Stiles et al.
12and Waintal et al.13
support this view and consider /H9252to be negligible in most
metallic systems of interest. When the decay length is finite,the alignment of the spin of the conduction electron towardthe background magnetization of the free layer is not com-plete. As a result, the exchange field that these conductionelectrons apply on the background magnetization does notvectorially sum to zero, and the current creates both aSlonczewski-like spin torque, i.e., mÃ/H20849mÃp/H20850, and a field-
like spin torque, i.e.,
/H9252mÃp. Gmitra et al. consider for in-
stance /H9252to be negative and typically less than 0.1 /H20849Ref. 14/H20850
while Shpiro et al.15have predicted that the effective field
term can be as large as the spin-torque term provided that thefree layer thicknesses be in the range of 2 nm. For Shpiro et
al., the ratio
/H9252is near maximum when py/H11036mand its sign is
negative in the writing convention of Eq. /H208491/H20850.
In the standard configuration3where the reference layer
magnetization px, the applied field Hx, and the free layer easy
axis /H20849x/H20850are all collinear, the presence of a finite /H9252term
would not alter significantly the overall behavior. The phasediagram in the /H20853Hx,Jx/H20854plane comprises stable and bistable
states, together with dynamical precession modes; the fron-tiers between the area of existence of these modes are onlyslightly distorted by the presence of a finite
/H9252. Subtle extrac-
tion procedures16are needed to deduce /H9252from experimental
data. Dedicated experiments16on a free layer of 3 nm of Co
concluded that /H9252=−0.2.
Conversely, in the experimental situation that we have
chosen, i.e., with the spin polarization pyperpendicular to
the easy axis of the free layer, the nature of the expectedstability diagram /H20853H
x,Iy/H20854isqualitatively changed by the
presence of a finite /H9252, provided that /H9252is negative.
Let us recall the situation when /H9252=0, as calculated by
Morise et al. /H20849see Fig. 2 of Ref. 17/H20850. The stability diagram
comprises five zones, all of them having one or two staticstable magnetization states. When
/H9252=0, the magnetizations
are predicted17to be directed according to the dominant
torque: there is a field-dominated zone where mx/H11015sgn /H20849Hx/H20850
/H20849we will refer to these zones as Hand − H/H20850, a bistable, field-
history dependent zone /H20849zone HH /H20850, and a current-dominated
zone where my/H11015sgn /H20849Iy/H20850/H20849zones Iand − I/H20850. When /H9252=0, there
is no definite I−Hborder, since the magnetization rotates
continuously when we vary IyandHxfrom one region to the
other. Note that when /H9252=0 no precession mode ever occur in
the whole /H20853Hx,Jy/H20854plane. We have calculated that this is also
the case when /H9252is chosen positive /H20849not shown /H20850.
In contrast, the stability diagram comprises precession
states when /H9252/H110210, as exemplified for /H9252=−0.05 in Fig. 1. The
boundary between the regions IandHdivides itself into two
stationary precession zones. The narrowest one, labeled IPP,comprises modes that recall the in-plane precession modes ofthe standard configuration, with a shell-like trajectory of themagnetization vector.
3The amplitude of precession de-
creases continuously to zero as approaching the Hand − H
regions. At zero applied field, these IPP states precess aroundthe /H20849y/H20850axis. The precession axis rotates gradually from /H20849y/H20850to
/H20849x/H20850as the field H
xis increased /H20849not shown /H20850. The IPP modes
redshift when increasing the current, until they suddenly
transform into out-of-plane /H20849OPP /H20850precession modes with ap-
proximately twice lower frequency, and then blueshift. Atmuch larger currents, the magnetization finally freezes in theIregion. Note that the part of the OPP region near H
x=0
FIG. 1. /H20849Color online /H20850Calculated stability diagram of a thin uniaxial mac-
rospin submitted to both an easy axis field and a current carrying a spinpolarization along the hard axis. Calculation parameters are H
k/MS=0.01,
/H9251=0.02, /H92620MS=0.85 T, /H9016=0.37, and /H9252=−0.05.063916-2 Devolder et al. J. Appl. Phys. 101 , 063916 /H208492007 /H20850
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
155.97.178.73 On: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 15:39:29/H20849dotted bold line /H20850can sustain two different precession modes
with different precession frequencies. The appearance of onemode or the other depends on the initial conditions. Notealso that at zero applied field, a value of
/H9252as small as /H110020.02
/H20849not shown /H20850is sufficient to ensure the existence of precession
modes in a very wide interval of current.
In summary, setting the spin polarization orthogonal to
the easy axis of the free layer is a method to obtain steady-state precessions in zero applied field, provided that thecurrent-induced torque comprises a finite negative field-liketerm
/H9252and that the macrospin approximation is valid. Mi-
crowave emission should be then possible in the four quad-rants of the /H20853H
x,Jy/H20854. We have thus examined this situation
experimentally, in order to try and get rf emission in zeroapplied field.
III. EXPERIMENTS
Our experimental configuration consist of a pinned layer
magnetization along pyand an applied field Hxalong the
easy axis of the free layer. We use spin valves of compositionPtMn
17.5/CoFe 1.8/Ru 0.8/CoFe 2/Cu 3.5/CoFe 1/NiFe 1.8 /H20849thick-
ness in nanometers /H20850. The stack is etched into a pillar-shaped
elongated hexagon of size 50 /H11003100 nm2. The stacks are
identical to those used in Refs. 18and19, except that the
magnetization of the reference layer CoFe 2, hereafter quoted
aspyis along /H20849y/H20850, i.e., perpendicular to the shape-induced
easy axis /H20849x/H20850of the free layer CoFe 1/NiFe 1.8/H20851see inset, Fig.
2/H20849a/H20850/H20852. The shape of the resistance versus field loops is con-
sistent with this perpendicularity.20Stoner astroid measure-
ments /H20849not shown /H20850indicate that the anisotropy field of the
free layer was /H92620Hk=30 mT, with back and forth coercivitiesbeing/H1100219 and 18 mT. The hard axis loop were off-centered
by 4 mT along /H20849y/H20850, indicating the presence of stray field
radiated by the synthetic antiferromagnet layers magnetized
along /H20849±y/H20850.
We have performed resistance versus current R/H20849Iy/H20850loops
in a field Hxapplied along the easy axis /H20849x/H20850of the free layer
/H20851Fig.2/H20849a/H20850/H20852. All R/H20849Iy/H20850loops consists of three portions of pa-
rabola separated by reversible steps, subtracting an extra re-
sistance at high negative and positive currents. The steps arefor instance indicated by the two arrows in Fig. 2/H20849a/H20850.N o
hysteresis was ever measured in R/H20849I
y/H20850loops. Within our ex-
perimental accuracy, the step positions were independent of
the applied field in our studied field interval of −37 /H11021/H92620Hx
/H1102114 mT.
Steps in R/H20849I/H20850curves are often the signature of micro-
wave emission observed with an insufficient measurement
bandwidth. To confirm this point, we have measured the fre-quency spectrum of the voltage noise at constant appliedcurrent and field, meshed within the /H20853H
x,Iy/H20854plane. The
setup is similar to that of Ref. 5. Row data have been trans-
lated into absolute power spectral densities /H20849PSD /H20850after cali-
bration of the frequency-dependent gain of our amplificationchain.
The essential features of the experimental microwave
emission are reported in Figs. 3and4. They include some
features that recall the macrospin modeling and some addi-tional features. The main agreements with the macrospinmodeling are: /H20849i/H20850the possibility to emit at zero applied field
for currents higher than ±3 mA /H20849±7.8/H1100310
7A/cm2/H20850forboth
current polarities and /H20849ii/H20850the possibility to emit in the four
quadrants of the /H20853Hx,Iy/H20854plane, with threshold current that
does not vary much with the applied field. These two pointsare in qualitative agreement with the predicted stability dia-gram /H20849Fig.1/H20850for negative field-like term
/H9252.
However, the experimental microwave spectra have
many additional more complex features that were not pre-dicted in the above crude macrospin model. We review themain differences later.
Figure 4reports the noise power integrated in the fre-
quency interval between 5 and 10.5 GHz, where most of thenoticeable features in the experimental spectra appeared. Thehighest radiated power is found in the /H20853H
x/H110220,Iy/H110220/H20854quad-
rant, and the corresponding noise PSD goes up to5n V / H z
1/2.
In many portions within the /H20853Hx,Iy/H20854plane, the voltage
noise power spectrum is multiply peaked /H20851see Figs. 3/H20849b/H20850and
4/H20852, revealing that several distinct precession modes can either
coexist or can blink alternately during the measurement time.This recalls the modeling near H
x=0, when two distinct OPP
modes of differing frequencies could occur, except that inexperiments the coexistence of several modes in not re-stricted to the vicinity of H
x=0. We could follow the experi-
mental modes by continuity criteria within the /H20853Hx,Iy/H20854plane,
and we have thus labeled them accordingly. Our naming con-vention is depicted in Fig. 3. The modes named /H110011t o/H110015
were detected in positive current. The modes named –1 to –3were detected in negative current. The portions within the/H20853H
x,Iy/H20854plane where these modes exist are reported in the
experimental stability diagram Fig. 4/H20849b/H20850.
FIG. 2. /H20849Color online /H20850/H20849a/H20850Current-induced hysteresis loop. The arrows in-
dicate reversible changes in the differential resistance. Inset: sketch of ourgeometry. /H20849b/H20850Representative spectra of the microwave voltage emitted by
our nanopillars. The spectra are vertically offset for clarity. The labels recallthe naming of the different modes.063916-3 Devolder et al. J. Appl. Phys. 101 , 063916 /H208492007 /H20850
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155.97.178.73 On: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 15:39:29All modes exhibit a redshift with growing absolute cur-
rent, except mode –1 /H20851Fig. 2/H20849b/H20850/H20852that exhibits a blueshift.
This could indicate than we almost only excite in-plane pre-cession modes, recalling what has been formerly observed inthe standard configuration of collinear easy axis and refer-ence layer magnetization.
3,19
Among our redshift modes, the one labeled –2 is the sole
that can have a linear redshift /H20849/H11002150 MHz/mA /H20850for negative
applied field greater than /H1100225 mT. The other modes have a
vanishing df/dIyslope when they start growing from the
noise flow; the frequencies of modes /H110011t o/H110015 are then 6,
9.5, 8, 8.2, and 7.6 GHz. When the current is increased, those
redshifting modes have a finite, steadily growing df/dIywith
a nonlinear redshift /H20849see Fig. 2/H20850.
The linewidths are scattered from mode to mode. The
linewidth is generally in the range of 200 MHz, except formodes 5 and mode –2. The mode –2 has the smallest line-width, which goes go down to 25 MHz /H20849quality factor Q
=280 /H20850for an emission centered at 6.958 GHz requiring a
command of /H1100229 mT and /H110027.4 mA. In its range of exis-
tence, the mode 5 has a constant linewidth of 65 MHz, whichappears for instance with an emission centered at 7.620 MHzfor/H1100215 mT and 4.5 mA. These small linewidths compare
well with those previously reported in spin-valve nanopillars.
The frequent coexistence of several modes, the quasiab-
sence of blueshifting modes and the slight current asymme-try of the magnetic behaviors in positive and negative cur-rents could not be predicted by our crude modeling. Weshould thus reexamine the simplifying assumptions of ourmodel. The main assumptions are the macrospin approxima-tion, the trivial angular dependence of the Slonczewskitorque, the uniform current density, and the static magnetiza-tion of the synthetic antiferromagnet layers. Among theseassumptions, choosing a more elaborate angular dependence
of the Slonczewski torque is the only way to induce someasymmetry between the magnetic behaviors in positive andnegative currents. Obtaining coexistence of several preces-sion modes would require to lift the macrospin approxima-tion to obtain the nonuniform magnetization eigen oscillationmodes and to allow mode hopping through finite temperaturefluctuations. Lifting the macrospin approximation also re-quires to take into account the current nonuniformities thatwere washed out by our macrospin approximation. Thiscomplicated task is far beyond the scope our article, whose
FIG. 3. /H20849Color online /H20850Field and current dependence of
the spectra of the microwave voltage emitted by ournanopillars. The labels recall the naming of the differentmodes. The color scales with the logarithm of thepower spectral density.063916-4 Devolder et al. J. Appl. Phys. 101 , 063916 /H208492007 /H20850
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155.97.178.73 On: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 15:39:29main result is the observation of microwave emission in zero
applied magnetic field and the conjecture that this phenom-enon is rendered possible by the presence of finite nonvan-ishing field-like spin torque
/H9252.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
In summary, we have developed a spin-transfer oscillator
that works both with and without applied magnetic field. Thekey point is to use a nanopillar etched from a spin-valvewhere the synthetic antiferromagnet that polarizes the currentis pinned in the sample plane, at an orientation perpendicularto the easy axis /H20849x/H20850of the free layer. Macrospin modeling
indicates that if the spin torque includes a finite field-like
term, steady state precessional states should exist even zeroapplied magnetic field. Without this perpendicularity condi-tion between free layer easy axis and reference layer magne-
tization, previous work has indicated that rf emission re-quired fields of the order of a few times the anisotropy field.
The tunability, the emission frequencies and linewidths ofour present spin transfer oscillator compare well with otherspin transfer oscillators based on nanopillars. However, themicrowave emission spectra are much richer than anticipatedfrom macrospin modeling, with often coexistence of twomodes. Their understanding would require extensive micro-magnetic modeling that are beyond the scope of this article.Finally, we stress that this ability to get satisfactory micro-wave emission without needing bulky magnetic field sourcescould be of great interest for the design of submicron micro-wave sources.
1J. Slonczewski, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 159,L 1 /H208491996 /H20850; US Patent No.
5,695,864 /H208491997 /H20850.
2Y. Acremann et al. , Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 217202 /H208492006 /H20850.
3S. I. Kiselev, J. C. Sankey, I. N. Krivorotov, N. C. Emley, R. J. Schoe-
lkopf, R. A. Buhrman, and D. C. Ralph, Nature /H20849London /H20850425,3 8 0 /H208492003 /H20850.
4W. H. Rippard, M. R. Pufall, S. Kaka, S. E. Russek, and T. J. Silva, Phys.
Rev. Lett. 92, 027201 /H208492004 /H20850.
5T. Devolder, P. Crozat, C. Chappert, J. Miltat, A. Tulapurkar, Y. Suzuki,
and K. Yagami, Phys. Rev. B 71, 184401 /H208492005 /H20850.
6Q. Mistral et al. , Mater. Sci. Eng., C 126, 267 /H208492006 /H20850.
7K. J. Lee, O. Redon, and B. Dieny, Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 022505 /H208492005 /H20850.
8J. Barna ś, A. Fert, M. Gmitra, I. Weymann, and V. K. Dugaev, Phys. Rev.
B72, 024426 /H208492005 /H20850.
9M. Gmitra and J. Barnas, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 207205 /H208492006 /H20850.
10O. Boulle, J. Grollier, V. Cros, C. Deranlot, F. Petroff, A. Fert, and G.
Faini, International Workshop on Spin Transfer, Nancy, Oct. 3, 2006.
11A. A. Tulapurkar et al. , Nature /H20849London /H20850438, 339 /H208492005 /H20850.
12M. D. Stiles and A. Zangwill, Phys. Rev. B 66, 014407 /H208492002 /H20850.
13X. Waintal, E.B. Myers, P.W. Brouwer, and D.C. Ralph, Phys. Rev. B 62,
12317 /H208492000 /H20850.
14M. Gmitra and J. Barnas, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 207205 /H208492006 /H20850.
15A. Shpiro, P. M. Levy, and S. Zhang, Phys. Rev. B 67, 104430 /H208492003 /H20850.
16M. A. Zimmler, B. Özyilmaz, W. Chen, A. D. Kent, J. Z. Sun, M. J.
Rooks, and R. H. Koch, Phys. Rev. B 70, 184438 /H208492004 /H20850.
17H. Morise and S. Nakamura, Phys. Rev. B 71, 014439 /H208492005 /H20850.
18T. Devolder, P. Crozat, J.-V. Kim, C. Chappert, K. Ito, J. A. Katine, and M.
J. Carey, Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 152502 /H208492006 /H20850.
19Q. Mistral, J.-V. Kim, T. Devolder, P. Crozat, C. Chappert, J. A. Katine,
M. J. Carey, and K. Ito, Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 192507 /H208492006 /H20850.
20For instance, the remanent resistance was almost field-history indepen-
dent, with a value compatible with 0.5 /H11003/H20849RP+RAP/H20850, the resistance RPand
RAPof the parallel and antiparallel states having been measured previously
in other samples where pwas along /H20849x/H20850.
FIG. 4. /H20849Color online /H20850/H20849a/H20850Total emitted power versus easy axis field and
applied current /H20849a. u. /H20850./H20849b/H20850Experimental stability diagram and zones of ex-
istence /H20849or coexistence /H20850of the identified precession modes.063916-5 Devolder et al. J. Appl. Phys. 101 , 063916 /H208492007 /H20850
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155.97.178.73 On: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 15:39:29 |
1.1578063.pdf | Laser cooling and trapping visualized
E. J. D. Vredenbregt and K. A. H. van Leeuwen
Citation: American Journal of Physics 71, 760 (2003); doi: 10.1119/1.1578063
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.1578063
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aapt/journal/ajp/71/8?ver=pdfcov
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers
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165.123.34.86 On: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 11:05:44Laser cooling and trapping visualized
E. J. D. Vredenbregta)and K. A. H. van Leeuwen
Physics Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven,
The Netherlands
~Received 13 March 2002; accepted 1 April 2003 !
Laser cooling and trapping have become widely used in the atomic physics laboratory.Acomputer
program is presented that simulates some of the most important techniques employed, includingatomic beam collimation, Zeeman slowing, funneling, and magneto-optical trapping. Its applicationranges from experiment design to illustration of course material. ©
2003 American Association of Physics
Teachers.
@DOI: 10.1119/1.1578063 #
I. INTRODUCTION
Two recent Nobel prizes have celebrated advances in the
field of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics. The 1997prize recognized the importance of the development of lasercooling techniques.
1This technique paved the way for the
work leading to the 2001 prize which was given for achiev-ing Bose–Einstein Condensation
2,3in atomic gases, because
this achievement relied heavily on the newly developed abil-ity to trap and cool alkali-metal atoms with lasers. By now,laser cooling has become part of every modern atomic phys-ics laboratory and of many Modern Physics and advancedAtomic Physics courses. Some undergraduate laboratorycourses already demonstrate the magneto-optical atom trap.
4
Because of these developments, a tool to illustrate laser
cooling techniques for educational purposes as well as tosimulate or design experiments can be quite useful. In ourownlaboratorywehavehadsomesuccessinboththeseareaswith a computer code that we have gradually developed overa number of years. Originally meant to aid in designing andoptimizing experimental apparatus for producing high inten-sity, cold atomic beams
5–7and atom traps,8we have also
found it useful as a means of increasing students’ under-standing of lecture course material by building problem setsaround it. It is the purpose of this paper to make the programavailable to a wider audience.
To this end we very briefly review laser cooling in Sec. II
and the theory behind the radiation pressure force in Sec. III.The program itself is discussed in Sec. IV. Then we illustrateits use both for design ~Sec.V !and for instructional purposes
~Sec. VI !. Finally, we explain how the code can be obtained.
II. LASER COOLING TECHNIQUES
Cooling and trapping of atoms
1,9with light ~usually sup-
plied by lasers !invariably depends on the change in linear
momentum an atom undergoes by the absorption and subse-quent emission of a photon. Each photon carries momentum
\k5h/lwherekis the photon’s wave number and lthe
corresponding wavelength. Through the absorption-emission
process, the atom exchanges momentum and energy with thelight field, thereby changing its own velocity. When the netresult of a repeated application of this process is such that the
rms velocity
vrmsof a collection of atoms is reduced, the
atoms are said to have been ‘‘cooled’’by the light. They are
then assigned a temperature T5mvrms2/kB, wheremis the
atomic mass and kBis Boltzmann’s constant. ~It is under-stood that this is not a true temperature in the thermody-
namic sense of the word since thermal equilibrium is notimplied. !The temperatures that can be achieved with laser
cooling range from 1 mK to ’1 nK, depending on the de-
tails of the technique used.
These cooling techniques can be roughly divided into
three classes.
1All of these require the atom to return to its
original electronic energy level after an absorption-emissioncycle has been completed, so that repeated cycling is pos-sible. Many atoms, including all alkali-metal atoms andmetastable rare gas atoms, possess such closed transitions.The most common technique goes by the name of Dopplercooling
10because it relies on the dependence of the rate of
absorption of photons on the Doppler shift experienced by amoving atom. Doppler cooling can be shown to lead to a
lower limit on the temperature given by T
D5\G/2kB, where
Gis the linewidth of the atomic transition involved. Cooling
below this limit ~sub-Doppler cooling11!is possible when the
light field contains polarization gradients and the atom’slower energy state has a multi-level substructure, which oc-curs when its total electronic angular momentum quantum
numberfis greater than zero. As with Doppler cooling, po-
larization gradient cooling relies on spontaneous emission.
As a result, the temperature achievable in this way is limitedby the recoil resulting from the emission of a single photon,
T5\
2k2/mkB. Even deeper cooling is possible with so-
called sub-recoil techniques such as velocity-selective coher-
ent population trapping,12,13which are not limited by spon-
taneous emission.
The simulation program discussed in this paper treats only
Doppler cooling. Because sub-Doppler cooling leads tolower temperatures, it is often used as the final stage in lasercooling experiments. However, it is fair to say that Dopplercooling is the true workhorse of the atomic physics labora-tory, being the main technique used for atomic beam colli-mation, slowing, and focusing, as well as atom trapping. Infact, sub-Doppler cooling is normally only effective for at-oms that have already been cooled to the Doppler limit.Therefore, for much of the application of laser cooling to thedesign of experiments it is sufficient to consider only Dop-pler cooling. From an instructional point of view, Dopplercooling can be understood from the concepts of rate equa-tions and Brownian motion while understanding sub-Dopplercooling involves a rather advanced theoretical frameworkwhich may be beyond the level of an undergraduate physicscourse.
760 760 Am. J. Phys. 71~8!, August 2003 http://ojps.aip.org/ajp/ © 2003 American Association of Physics Teachers
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165.123.34.86 On: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 11:05:44III. RADIATION PRESSURE
Doppler cooling is mediated by radiation pressure. A sta-
tionary atom with an f50 ground state and an f51 excited
state, placed in a laser beam, scatters photons at a net rate1
R5sG
2~s1L!~1!
wheres5I/Isis the saturation parameter, given by the ratio
of the laser intensity Ito the saturation intensity Isof the
transition. The Lorentzian factor L511(2dl/G)2accounts
for the reduction in scattering rate when the laser’s frequency
vlis detuned from the transition frequency vaof the atom
(dl5vl2va). While the momenta of absorbed photons have
a common direction kˆ, spontaneously emitted photons are
directed randomly. As a result, absorption-emission cycles
lead to a net transfer of momentum to the atom resulting in aforce
F5R\k. ~2!
When the atom is moving with velocity vor located in a
region of nonzero magnetic field B, Eq. ~2!holds as well if
dlis replaced by d5dl2k"v1vzwhere vzis the Zeeman
shift of the atomic transition.
Cooling occurs if an atom is irradiated from two opposite
directions 6kˆwith identical laser beams of negative detun-
ing. To first order, the forces of the two beams may be added
and the resultant can be shown1to have an approximate lin-
ear behavior F52gvv’, with v’5kˆ"vthe transverse veloc-
ity and gvthe damping constant. This leads to a cooling rate
dEk/dt52gvvrms2withEk5(1
2mvrms2) the rms kinetic en-
ergy. In addition, due to the statistical nature of absorption
and the random character of spontaneous emission, an atomexecutes Brownian motion in velocity space, characterized
by a diffusion constant D5md E
k/dt. The temperature limit
is found by equating the diffusional heating with the rate of
cooling, from which T5D/gv.
In addition to cooling, trapping occurs if the atom is irra-
diated from opposite directions with laser light of opposite
circular @s(1)ands(2)] polarizations in a region of inho-
mogeneous magnetic field. For a fixed velocity, the net force
may now be shown1to have an approximate linear depen-
denceF52gsx~wherexis the transverse spatial coordi-
nate!if the field strength has a linear dependence on xand its
direction is assumed to coincide with the propagation direc-
tion of the laser beams. In this case gsis a spring constant.
For atoms with f.0 in the ground state, the approximate
linear dependence of the force holds as well. However, the
situation is complicated by optical pumping effects betweenthe ground state sublevels, which leads to dynamical varia-tions of the damping and spring constants when the velocityor spatial coordinates change. These are due to the variationof the transition strength Gwith the ground and excited state
magnetic quantum numbers. For a specific ( f,m)!(f
8,m8)
transition, Gis proportional to the squared Clebsch-Gordan
coefficient u(fm1euf8m8)u2where the quantum number e
50,61 denotes the polarization of the light.1IV. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAM
The program presented here does not make explicit use of
expressions for the damping, spring, and diffusion coeffi-cients. Instead, it simply keeps track of all velocity changesdue to absorption and emission of photons.
14Whether a pho-
ton is absorbed from any particular laser beam during a cer-tain time interval is determined by a Monte Carlo methodbased on the rate of absorption @Eq.~1!#from each laser
beam for the specific position and velocity of the atom at thestart of the interval. After absorption, Monte Carlo methodsare also used to treat optical pumping and to choose thedirection in which the emitted photon departs.
A simulation is built up from a number of laser cooling
stages, each of which has its own set of laser and magneticfields.Atoms are followed on their trajectories through thesestages. At each point on the trajectory, the rate of absorption
of photons for each laser field ~indexi!, is calculated for the
ground-state sublevel that the atom is in at this point.Atime
intervaldtis then chosen such that the probability dP
ifor
any photon to be absorbed in this interval is small. For each
laser field, a random pick from a Poisson distribution with
averagedPinow decides how many photons Niare actually
absorbed, which usually leads to Ni50, but there is a small
chance that Ni51 for one specific laser field, i. In that case,
the atom’s velocity is changed by the recoil due to this event
and it is now considered to be in the excited state. The prob-ability that this excited atom will emit a photon with a par-ticular polarization is proportional to the appropriate squaredClebsh-Gordan coefficient.Arandom pick, weighted accord-ingly, decides which type of photon is emitted, and thus towhat ground-state sublevel the atom returns. An appropriaterecoil, with direction picked randomly from an isotropicemission distribution is then added to the atom’s velocity,and the atom is returned to the ground state. Independent ofwhether an absorption-emission cycle has occurred or not,the atom is now propagated along its trajectory assuming
acceleration-free motion during dt. At the new point, the
evaluation of absorption rates starts again, and so on, until
the end of all stages is reached.
The description afforded by the program is limited to two-
dimensional situations, i.e., it treats transverse motion with asingle coordinate. In this case it is in practice always possibleto choose the quantization axes of laser and magnetic fieldssuch that a rate equation description remains valid, as is fur-ther explained in a manual for the program.
14True three-
dimensional calculations would need to account for the co-herence between magnetic sublevels, requiring a densitymatrix treatment that would make the program substantiallymore complex. In our experience, the lack of a full three-dimensional treatment is not a serious limitation to the pro-gram’s applicability.
The program allows the user to define a number of con-
secutive laser cooling stages with adjustable length, each ofwhich has its own laser beam configuration and magneticfield distribution. Several laser beams may be configured foreach stage. The trajectories of a number of atoms thattraverse these stages may then be calculated and visualizedon the computer screen. These visualizations are two-dimensional graphical representations of the transverse posi-tion, the transverse and the axial velocity of the atoms versustheir axial position. Colors are used to discern between themagnetic sublevels at each point. Binned, transverse position
761 761 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 71, No. 8, August 2003 E. J. D. Vredenbregt and K. A. H. van Leeuwen
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165.123.34.86 On: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 11:05:44and velocity profiles at the end of each stage are also avail-
able as well as a phase-space density plot of the transversecoordinates. In addition, numerical values of all position andvelocity variables at the end of each stage are available asnumerical output for further evaluation. For single atom tra-jectories, the entire trajectory can be output in numericalform.
Setting up the input to the simulations is controlled by
dialog boxes and the input can be saved to a configurationfile for later reuse or modification. The number of atomictrajectories to be calculated may be varied as well as thetime-step so that the user can increase the statistical and nu-merical accuracy of the results. Various types of atoms arepre-programmed and new ones can be quickly added. Thedistribution of initial transverse positions and velocities ofthe atoms can be evenly spaced or chosen randomly and theirwidths adjusted. To simulate the distribution of axial veloci-ties for various sources, this can be chosen to be a Gaussianof variable width centered around an adjustable average. On-line help and tooltips are also built in.
V. APPLICATION TO EXPERIMENTS
While it is quite possible to make reasonable analytical
estimates of the effects of laser cooling, experiment designand verification often need to go beyond the approximationsthat analytical treatments can provide, e.g., to describe theeffects of optical pumping in multi-level atoms. In such casesnumerical simulations can provide a closer approximation.Here we briefly discuss simulations of magneto-optic com-pression of an atomic beam.
Laser cooling of an atomic beam often involves slowing
down the beam with the Zeeman technique to bring its aver-age velocity down to the capture range of a trap or to narrowits longitudinal velocity distribution. This always leads to alarge increase in beam divergence, not only because the lon-gitudinal component of the velocity is reduced but also be-cause it requires tens of thousands of photons to be scattered,giving substantial diffusion in the transverse direction. Tocounteract the increased divergence with its correspondingreduction in atomic density, a funnel for atoms can be used tomold the beam back to a pencil shape. Such funnels or com-pressors have indeed been experimentally demonstrated.
15
They are basically two-dimensional versions of the magneto-optical trap, where the atoms are both forced back to thebeam axis as well as transversely cooled during its traversal,while on the other hand the axial motion of the atoms re-mains nearly unchanged.
The basic configuration of a compressor is a two-
dimensional quadrupole field with transverse components
B
x5G(z)xandBy5G(z)yin combination with four circu-
larly polarized laser beams, alternately s(1)ands(2)in
character, as illustrated in Fig. 1. The field gradient G(z)i s
an increasing function of the axial coordinate designed to
maximize the spatial capture range rcat the beginning of the
device (z50) while at the same time increasing the spatial
confinement toward its end ( z5L). Here,rcis given by the
radius at which the magnetic field tunes the atom into reso-
nance with the laser due to the Zeeman shift, and thus in-
versely proportional to G(0); the spatial confinement is
characterized by the derivative of the radiative force with
respect to the radial coordinate, which is proportional to
G(L). Optimizing such a device involves a trade-off be-
tween the beam velocity for which it remains effective, itslength ~limited by practical requirements such as the avail-
able laser power !, its spatial capture range, the laser param-
eters and the final beam diameter and divergence achieved.
In general, a near-linear dependence G(z)’gzwith a large
value for gis profitable. While an analytic limit to the value
ofgfollows from the maximum possible value of the scat-
tering force, in practice gmust be chosen lower to allow
efficient optical pumping between magnetic substates at the
crucial point where the action of the compressor changesfrom acceleration toward the axis to cooling of the transversevelocity component. In addition, experimental realizations of
G(z) in general have a more complicated shape than the
simple linear form and in particular do not conform to
G(0)50. For these and other reasons, simulations of atomic
trajectories are very helpful in dimensioning the parameters
of the device and in characterizing its effectiveness, and wehave used our code extensively for this purpose.
5,7
Figure 2 shows a calculation of atomic trajectories done
with the program presented here for a device that is close tothe one we actually implemented in our atomic beam
apparatus.
7Here we used metastable neon atoms with f52
andvi5100 m/s, appropriately polarized laser fields charac-
terized by d522Gands51 in a device with L50.1 m.
The magnetic field gradient used smoothly increases from
G(0)50.055 T/m to G(L)50.55 T/m and is input from a
data file that contains magnetic field measurements done in
the actual device. Under these conditions the trajectorieshave a clear funnel shape in real space, while in velocityspace we observe first a region of acceleration toward theaxis followed by transverse cooling. The final diameter anddivergence of the atomic beam can be obtained from thenumerical output of the program.
VI. INSTRUCTIONAL USE
In our department we teach an advanced undergraduate
course on laser cooling and trapping, based on material fromthe recent book by Metcalf andVan der Straten.
1While some
Fig. 1. Schematic view of a magneto-optical compressor.Atoms traveling in
thezdirection traverse a two-dimensional quadrupole magnetic field pro-
vided by four magnets. Laser beams of opposite circular polarization irra-diate the atomic beam from the transverse directions causing a dampedmotion of the atoms toward the beam axis. Positioning the magnets near the
end of the device creates a magnetic field gradient that increases with z.
762 762 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 71, No. 8, August 2003 E. J. D. Vredenbregt and K. A. H. van Leeuwen
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165.123.34.86 On: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 11:05:44of this material may be too extensive or too advanced for a
generalatomicphysicscourse,itillustratesthebasicsoflasercooling very well through a quite accessible treatment ofDoppler cooling theory. This involves such basic principlesas the linear and angular momentum of photons, excitationline shapes, Zeeman sublevels and Zeeman shift, rate of ab-sorption and emission, and Brownian motion.We have foundit useful to illustrate these with the program presented in thispaper. We create problem sets that require students to applythe theory treated in the lectures in order to find appropriateinput for the program, and to check the results of the theoryagainst self-executed simulations. In this way we try to in-crease involvement with the material by giving students akind of hands-on experience with the material. In this re-spect, we are much helped by the wide-spread use of laptopcomputers by undergraduate students at Eindhoven Univer-sity of Technology.
The problems treated can easily have different levels of
difficulty depending on how far the course has advanced.Anearly use of the program in our course is to set up a simula-tion from which the dependence of the radiation pressureforce on velocity can be derived. Through basic questions,students develop appropriate input ~such as the velocity
range to consider and the interval length !to enter in the
dialog boxes of the program and run the simulation. Thenumerical output of the program can then be used with anyspreadsheet program to produce the resulting velocity changeas a function of initial velocity, which can be compared tothe simple analytical expression @Eq.~2!#in both shape and
magnitude, and to find the velocity damping coefficient. Fig-ure 3 illustrates the result. Variation of the parameters is thenused to gain additional insight. Later problems build on thisone by, e.g., first changing the input to allow for a numericalcalculation of the velocity diffusion for initially stationaryatoms to be compared to theory, and then allowing the simu-
lation to run on until a stationary
vrmsis found. This value isthen compared to that derived from the damping and diffu-
sion constants. The influence of the polarization of light on
excitation of atoms becomes obvious when f.0-atoms are
introduced.Acondensed example of a problem set developed
along these lines is available from the EPAPS-depository.17
Slowing of a ~typical !beam of atoms with an average
axial velocity of 500 m/s and a rms spread of 50 m/s with theZeeman technique
1is the subject of a more advanced prob-
lem. Here we ask students to find input parameters for theprogram such as polarization of the light and the requiredmagnetic field, as found from the Doppler shift of atomsentering the device where the deceleration is effected ~the
Zeeman ‘‘slower’’ !. The answers are checked by running the
Fig. 2. Transverse position @~a!#and transverse velocity @~b!#as a function of axial coordinate during compression of an atomic beam of f52 atoms. In
position space, a clear funnel shape is observed while in velocity space acceleration toward the axis is followed by cooling. Vertical scales are ~a!20.02
,x(m),0.02~b!250,v’(m/s) ,50 while the horizontal scale is 0 ,z(m),0.1. Colors denote the magnetic quantum number mwith 2f<m<f. The plots
are screen shots of the graphical output of the program. Parameters are given in the text.
Fig. 3. Change in transverse velocity vs initial velocity. The points arenumerical calculations while the line represents the result of Eqs. ~1!and
~2!. Parameters were
d52G,s51, interaction time 6 ms,\k/m
516.1 mm/s and G5(2p)5.8 MHz ~mimicking metastable Ar !. The plot
was made with a spreadsheet program using the numerical output of theprogram.
763 763 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 71, No. 8, August 2003 E. J. D. Vredenbregt and K. A. H. van Leeuwen
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165.123.34.86 On: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 11:05:44simulation. We ask for explanations of the behavior seen in
the axial motion ~both deceleration and cooling !and in the
transverse motion ~diffusional heating due to spontaneous
emission !of the atoms, and for the influence of the laser
detuning ~which allows atoms to exit the slower with adjust-
able velocities !. Other considerations are the modifications
necessary to switch from a conventional slower, with maxi-mum field at the entrance and zero field at the exit, to onethat has fields of equal magnitude but opposite direction onboth sides, a solution that is popular in experimental labora-tories. Figure 4 shows a typical output of the program underthese conditions.
A further problem treats the character of motion in a
magneto-optical trap. A realistic field gradient is developedby considering the spatial capture range of the trap, whichfollows from a comparison of the Zeeman shift and laserdetuning. Students are asked to investigate and then explainthe influence of the polarization of the light on the trapping.
Depending on the laser and magnetic field parameters, vari-ous types of damped harmonic oscillator motion are ob-served in the graphical output of the program. Their fre-quency and damping rate are easily accessible theoretically.The equilibrium position distribution is calculated and com-
pared to what is to be expected from the equilibrium tem-perature and the theoretical spring constant.
VII. CONCLUSION
We have discussed the application of a graphically ori-
ented laser cooling simulation program to illustrate andclarify course material as well as to the design of experi-ments. It is our hope that others may find it useful as well.We therefore offer the complete code for download from ourwebsite
16as well as the EPAPS-depository17in two forms, a
C11source version that should be amenable to extension,
and a ready-to-run executable for the Windows platform.
Some examples have been included in the downloadable filesso as to aid in using the code; in addition we welcome in-quiries for clarification and comments.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are pleased to acknowledge contributions from many
students and colleagues to the ideas behind this program as
Fig. 4. Slowing of metastable neon atoms @\k/m530 mm/s, G5(2p)8.2 MHz] in a midfield-zero Zeeman slower. The magnetic field has the optimum B
52B0/21B0A(12z/L) shape with B0553 mT and L52m. Laser parameters are d5263Gands52. Under these conditions the atoms leave the slower
with vi’90m/s. The figures show ~a!transverse position, ~b!transverse velocity, ~c!axial velocity vs axial position. The plots are screen shots of the
graphical output of the program. Vertical scale: ~a!20.01<x(m)<0.01, ~b!210<v’(m/s) <10,~c!0<vi(m/s) <600; horizontal scale: 20.1<z(m)
<2.1.
764 764 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 71, No. 8, August 2003 E. J. D. Vredenbregt and K. A. H. van Leeuwen
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AAPT content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
165.123.34.86 On: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 11:05:44well as to the actual code. This work was sponsored by the
Netherlands Foundation for Fundamental Research on Mat-ter~FOM !.
a!Electronic mail: e.j.d.vredenbregt@tue.nl
1H. Metcalf and P. van der Straten, Laser Cooling and Trapping ~Springer,
New York, 1999 !.
2C. E. Wieman, ‘‘The Richtmyer Memorial Lecture: BoseEinstein Conden-
sation in an Ultracold Gas,’’Am. J. Phys. 64, 847–855 ~1996!.
3Ph. W. Courteille, V. S. Bagnato, and V. I. Yukalov, ‘‘Bose-Einstein Con-
densation of Trapped Atomic Gases,’’ Laser Phys. 11, 659–800 ~2001!.
4C. Wieman, G. Flowers, and S. Gilbert, ‘‘Inexpensive laser cooling and
trapping experiment for undergraduate laboratories,’’ Am. J. Phys. 63,
317–330 ~1995!.
5E. J. D. Vredenbregt, K. A. H. van Leeuwen, and H. C. W. Beijerinck,
‘‘Booster for ultra-fast loading of atom traps,’’ Opt. Commun. 147, 375–
381~1998!.
6M. D. Hoogerland, J. P. J. Driessen, E. J. D.Vredenbregt, H. J. L. Megens,
M. P. Schuwer, and H. C. W. Beijerinck, ‘‘Bright thermal beams by lasercooling: A 1400-fold gain in beam flux,’’Appl. Phys. B: Lasers Opt. 62,
323–327 ~1996!.
7J. Tempelaars, R. Stas, P. Sebel, H. Beijerinck, and E. Vredenbregt, ‘‘An
intense, slow and cold beam of metastable Ne(3 s)3P2atoms,’’Eur. Phys.
J. D18, 113–121 ~2002!.
8S. Kuppens, J. Tempelaars, V. Mogendorff, B. Claessens, H. Beijerinck,
and E. Vredenbregt, ‘‘Approaching Bose-Einstein condensation of meta-
stable neon: Over 109trapped atoms,’’ Phys. Rev. A 65, 023410 ~2002!.9P. Gould, ‘‘Laser Cooling of Atoms to the Doppler Limit,’’Am. J. Phys.
65, 1120 ~1997!.
10P. D. Lett, W. D. Phillips, S. L. Rolston, C. E. Tanner, R. N. Watts, and C.
I. Westbrook, ‘‘Optical Molasses,’’ J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 6, 2084–2107
~1989!.
11J. Dalibard and C. Cohen-Tannoudji, ‘‘Laser cooling below the Doppler
limit by polarization gradients: Simple theoretical models,’’ J. Opt. Soc.Am. B6, 2023–2045 ~1989!.
12A. Aspect, E. Arimondo, R. Kaiser, N. Vansteenkiste, and C. Cohen-
Tannoudji, ‘‘Laser Cooling below the One-Photon Recoil Energy byVelocity-Selective Coherent Population Trapping,’’ Phys. Rev. Lett. 61,
826–829 ~1988!.
13J. Lawall, S. Kulin, B. Saubamea, N. Bigelow, M. Leduc, and C. Cohen-
Tannoudji, ‘‘Three-Dimensional Laser Cooling of Helium Beyond theSingle-Photon Recoil Limit,’’ Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 4194–4197 ~1995!.
14The physics behind the program is explained in somewhat more detail in a
pdf-file that is available for download from the website. This is meant as aguide for the user, and has additional information about the inherent limi-tations of the description it offers.
15Reference 7 has a number of references discussing magneto-optic com-pressors.
16Web-link http://www.phys.tue.nl/aow/Pages/Downloads.htm
17See EPAPS Document No. E-AJPIAS-71-017307 for the simulation soft-ware, accompanying manual, and example problems. A direct link to thisdocument may be found in the online article’s HTML reference section.The document may also be reached via the EPAPS homepage ~http://
www.aip.org/pubservs/epaps.html !or from ftp.aip.org in the directory
/epaps. See the EPAPS homepage for more information.
MAYER’S ONE GOOD IDEA
In an age in which German science was rapidly becoming professionalized, Mayer remained a
thorough dilettante. He conducted almost no experiments, and although he had an exact, numericalturn of mind, he neither fully understood mathematical analysis nor ever employed it in his papers.His scientific style, his status as an outsider to the scientific community, and his lack of institu-tional affiliation were all factors that limited Mayer’s access to influential journals and publishersand hampered the acceptance of his ideas. Mayer was a conceptual thinker whose genius lay in theboldness of his hypotheses and in his ability to synthesize the work of others. Mayer actuallypossessed only one creative idea–his insight into the nature of force–but he tenaciously pursuedthat insight and lived to see it established in physics as the principle of the conservation of energy.
R. Steven Turner, Dictionary of Scientific Biography ~Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1974 !, p. 240.
Submitted by Herman Erlichson.
765 765 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 71, No. 8, August 2003 E. J. D. Vredenbregt and K. A. H. van Leeuwen
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165.123.34.86 On: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 11:05:44 |
1.3289588.pdf | Influence of multiple magnetic phases on the extrinsic damping of soft
magnetic films
Bailin Liu , Yi Yang , Dongming Tang , Jiangwei Chen , Huaixian Lu , Mu Lu , and Yi Shi
Citation: J. Appl. Phys. 107, 033911 (2010); doi: 10.1063/1.3289588
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3289588
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/jap/107/3
Published by the American Institute of Physics
Influence of multiple magnetic phases on the extrinsic damping of
FeCo–SiO 2soft magnetic films
Bailin Liu, Yi Yang,a/H20850Dongming T ang, Jiangwei Chen, Huaixian Lu, Mu Lu, and Yi Shi
Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China
/H20849Received 4 November 2009; accepted 10 December 2009; published online 9 February 2010 /H20850
In order to investigate the high-frequency damping properties of the ferromagnetic film for the
electromagnetic shielding applications, a series of /H20849FeCo /H208502x//H20849Fe/H20850x//H20849SiO 2/H208501−3xnanogranular films
with various volume fractions /H20849x/H20850were fabricated by alternate triple-target magnetron sputtering.
The /H20849FeCo /H208500.50 /Fe0.25 //H20849SiO 2/H208500.25 film shows excellent soft magnetic properties /H208494/H9266Ms
/H110111.48 T, Hce/H110114.3 Oe, /H9267/H110114.3/H9262/H9024m/H20850. In both ferromagnetic resonance /H20849FMR /H20850and
frequency-dependent permeability spectra measurements, two resonance peaks of the permeability
for this film are obtained, which can be attributed to the complicated magnetic structure of FeCo andFe phases in the film. This multiphase system makes an additional contribution to the extrinsicdamping. As a result, the higher natural resonance frequency ffor the film is up to 2.75 GHz with
full width at half maximum of about 2.5 GHz for the imaginary part
/H9262/H20648; meanwhile, the real part /H9262/
is as high as 650 while f/H110211.3 GHz. These films could be novel candidates for the electromagnetic
shielding applications. © 2010 American Institute of Physics ./H20851doi:10.1063/1.3289588 /H20852
I. INTRODUCTION
With the development of telecommunication technology
and highly integrated electronic devices, electromagneticshielding has been intensively studied in the past years tosatisfy the requirements of reducing undesirable electromag-netic radiation and protecting delicate components from pos-sible electromagnetic interference. Meanwhile, these re-searches have been motivated by persisting concerns aboutthe possible impact of electromagnetic energy on people’shealth while using mobile phones and computers.
1,2Different
from conventional bulk magnetic materials, magnetic thinfilms show more interesting physical phenomena and poten-tial values for electromagnetic applications. Two importantparameters are responsible for the shielding properties of themagnetic films in gigahertz regime. The first is the real partof permeability /H20849
/H9262//H20850in the high frequency range, which de-
termines the impedance properties of films. High value /H9262/
could make the incident microwave penetrate into the films
easily and turn into another energy form. Soft magneticgranular thin films, which contain FeCo crystal phase andinsulators /H20849such as SiO
2,A l 2O3, Hf–O, etc. /H20850, have a promis-
ing potential application of the electromagnetic shielding be-cause of their combined properties of high saturation magne-tization and suitable in-plane anisotropy field, which canprovide a high permeability in gigahertz range.
3–5
The second factor for the shielding application is the
damping performance in the high frequency range. Accord-ing to its origins, the damping can be decomposed into in-trinsic and extrinsic parts. Both the two-magnon scatteringand the local anisotropy dispersion contribute significantly tothe extrinsic part of the damping, which could be representedby line broadening of the frequency-dependant permeabilityspectrum for the imaginary part.
6According to the results inRefs. 7and8, for the larger grain inhomogeneities in the
film, local anisotropies make more important contributions tothe line broadening of permeability spectrum than the two-magnon scattering. In order to obtain the larger extrinsicdamping, the enhancement of local anisotropy in the ferro-magnetic films is very important and promising. More atten-tions have been paid to the local anisotropy in the singlemagnetic phase film;
9however, the combined impact on the
extrinsic damping brought by the magnetic multiphase sys-tem of the ferromagnetic film has been less considered andreported recently. The controllable magnetic multiphase sys-tem can make a new additional contribution to the extrinsicdamping, and the excellent soft magnetic properties of thefilms can be successfully maintained at the same time.
In the present work, our efforts have been devoted to the
microstructure and dynamic performance of /H20849FeCo /H20850
2x/
/H20849Fe/H20850x//H20849SiO 2/H208501−3xnanogranular thin films with various vol-
ume fractions /H20849x/H20850, which were fabricated by designed alter-
nate triple-target magnetron sputtering and contained sepa-
rate FeCo and Fe magnetic phases. Two resonance peaks,appeared in both ferromagnetic resonance /H20849FMR /H20850and
frequency-dependent permeability spectra measurements,could be fitted very well by the Landau–Lifschitz–Gilbertequation. Due to the complicated system of FeCo and Femagnetic phases, these films exhibit more attractive micro-wave absorption performance for high-frequency shieldingapplications.
II. EXPERIMENTS
The /H20849FeCo /H208502x//H20849Fe/H20850x//H20849SiO 2/H208501−3xdiscontinuous multilayer
nanogranular thin films with various volume fractions /H20849x/H20850
and the thickness of about 120 nm were prepared by a dc/rf
magnetron sputtering method on a rotating glass substratewith a buffering Ta layer /H20849about 100 nm /H20850. Three separate
targets, Fe
50Co50/H20849dc/H20850,F e /H20849rf/H20850, and SiO 2/H20849rf/H20850, were set to sputter
alternately with the same power of 40 W. The base pressurea/H20850Author to correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 86-25-83593011.
FAX: 86-25-83593011. Electronic mail: malab@nju.edu.cn.JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 107, 033911 /H208492010 /H20850
0021-8979/2010/107 /H208493/H20850/033911/4/$30.00 © 2010 American Institute of Physics 107 , 033911-1
was lower than 10−5Pa. Sputtering was carried out in highly
pure Ar gas with the pressure of 0.5 Pa. The chemical com-position of the film was controlled by the time of the sub-strate staying on each target, and the composition of FeCoand Fe was kept at the same proportion. The volume ratio ofcomponents in the film was estimated by the deposition rateof each target. During sputtering, an external static magneticfield of about 150 mT was applied to induce a uniaxial mag-netic anisotropy. The static magnet properties were measuredusing a vibrating sample magnetometer /H20849VSM /H20850. The compo-
sition and microstructure of the films was, respectively, de-termined by the x-ray fluorescence spectrometer and the highresolution transmission electronic microscopy /H20849HRTEM /H20850.
Microwave magnetic properties were characterized by theFMR measurement using a shorted waveguide at 9.78 GHz.The permeability frequency spectra were measured by abroadband one-port line permeameter in combination withthe Agilent network analyzer from 200 MHz to 8 GHz.
10A
four-point probe was served for the determination of theelectrical resistivity. All measurements were carried out atroom temperature.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Figure 1displays the bright-field HRTEM images for the
/H20849FeCo /H208500.50 /Fe0.25 //H20849SiO 2/H208500.25film. It can be seen that the FeCo
and Fe grains were embedded uniformly in the amorphous
SiO 2matrix. According to the electron diffraction patterns,
the nanocrystalline of the FeCo and Fe is of bcc polycrystal-line structure. In Fig. 2, FeCo and Fe nanocrystalline grains
exhibit clearly a random orientation with average size Dlower than 5 nm, and the thickness of SiO
2layer is not more
than 10 nm. The ultrafine metal-insulating nanogranularstructure of the film should be responsible for the magneticsoftness.Magnetization curves for the /H20849FeCo /H20850
0.50 /Fe0.25 //H20849SiO 2/H208500.25
thin film are shown in Fig. 3. The hysteresis loop along the
easy axis, which is parallel to the applied magnetic fieldduring deposition, is nearly rectangular. The coercivity H
cof
the easy and hard axis is as small as 4.3 and 5.0 Oe, respec-tively. The saturation magnetization 4
/H9266Msis up to 1.48 T.
The static in-plane anisotropy field Hk-statis about 23 Oe,
which is calculated from11
Hk-stat=2/H20885
0Hup
/H20851mea/H20849H/H20850−mha/H20849H/H20850/H20852dH, /H208491/H20850
where meaandmhaare the reduced magnetization of the easy
axis and hard axis measured by VSM, respectively. The up-per integration boundary H
upis much higher than Hk-stat. All
static magnetic measurement results mentioned above provethat the film possesses excellent soft magnetic properties.
As mentioned above, the scales of both metal grains and
SiO
2insulation layers are in nano-order and below exchange
interaction length. The magnetization will not follow the ran-domly oriented easy axis of the individual grains, but is in-creasingly forced to align parallel by exchange interaction.Consequently, the local magneto-anisotropies of grains andthe demagnetization effect are averaged out over an increas-ing number of grains, such that an in-plane uniaxial aniso-tropy can be induced by an external field.
12
Figure 4shows the relationship between electrical resis-
tivity /H9267and the volume ratio V of metal grains including
FeCo and Fe. The /H9267decreases very rapidly with increasing V
and then decreases slowly when V is lager than 0.59. It issuggested that the percolation threshold is around 0.59 forthese films. The
/H9267of the /H20849FeCo /H208500.50 /Fe0.25 //H20849SiO 2/H208500.25sample
reaches 4.3 /H9262/H9024m, which could improve the impedance
characteristic of the magnetic film.
The experimental and calculated FMR spectra of the
/H20849FeCo /H208500.50 /Fe0.25 //H20849SiO 2/H208500.25film are plotted in Fig. 5. The
swept field Hand microwave magnetic field were parallel to
the film plane and perpendicular to each other during theFMR measurement. It is very interesting that two resonancepeaks appear when Hwas parallel and perpendicular to the
FIG. 1. Top-view HRTEM image and electron diffraction pattern for
/H20849FeCo /H208500.50 /Fe0.25 //H20849SiO2/H208500.25film.
FIG. 2. The crystal orientation for FeCo or Fe nanocrystal grains in
/H20849FeCo /H208500.50 /Fe0.25 //H20849SiO2/H208500.25film.-140 -120 -100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140-1.0-0.50.00.51.0M/MS
H(Oe)Hard axis
Easy axis(FeCo)0.50/Fe0.25/(SiO2)0.25
Hk-stat=23Oe
4/s61552Ms=1.48T
Hce=4.3Oe
Hch=5.0Oe
FIG. 3. /H20849Color online /H20850Magnetization curves while magnetic field H paral-
lels to the easy axis and hard axis of the /H20849FeCo /H208500.50 /Fe0.25 //H20849SiO2/H208500.25thin
film.033911-2 Liu et al. J. Appl. Phys. 107 , 033911 /H208492010 /H20850
easy axis of the film, respectively. Considering that the film
was prepared by the alternate sputtering of two metal targets,
we conclude that two distinct types of magnetic nanocrystal-line phases exist in this film, i.e., FeCo and Fe. The phenom-enon of two resonance peaks reflects that the magnetic mo-ments in FeCo and Fe grains present, respectively, anindependent precession to a certain extent, although the ex-
change interaction exists between two phases and leads totheir magnetic softness.
In order to further argue that the film is composed of
FeCo and Fe phases, the results of the FMR measurementhave been fitted by using d
/H9273/H20648/dHrelation obtained from the
formula /H208492/H20850in Ref. 13. As depicted in Fig. 5/H20849a/H20850and5/H20849b/H20850, the
calculated curves are in good correspondence with themeasurement curves. From the fitting results, we estimatethe respective resonance fields H
resand saturation magneti-
zations 4 /H9266Msof FeCo and Fe phases. The results are shown
as following: Hres/H20849FeCo /H20850=647 Oe, Hres/H20849Fe/H20850=569 Oe,
4/H9266Ms/H20849FeCo /H20850=18210 Gs, and 4 /H9266Ms/H20849Fe/H20850=20870 Gs. An-
other interesting point is that the in-plane anisotropy Hkof
21 Oe, estimated by the last equation in the appendix of Ref.14, is very close to the static anisotropy field H
k-stat. This
suggests that the swept field His powerful enough to force
the magnetic moments in both FeCo and Fe grains to alignparallel and be saturately magnetized nearly in the same wayas the static magnetization.
The complex frequency-dependent permeability
/H9262
=/H9262/-i/H9262/H20648of the film is shown in Fig. 6. There are also two
resonance peaks at about 1.75 and 2.75 GHz, respectively.As reported in Ref. 15, the film was fabricated by similar
materials and triple-target sputtering method, but there isonly one resonance peak emerging in the permeability spec-tra measurement. The different result could be mainly attrib-uted to a different interval while the substrate rotates fromone target to another. The longer interval of rotating betweensputtering targets in our experiments, which is long enoughfor the crystallization process of Fe and FeCo, provides com-pletely different microstructure evolution of magnetic nano-crystalline phases. Obviously, this is an effective approach totailor the combination and growth of sputtered FeCo and Feclusters by controlling the rotation rate of the substrates.
The
/H9262/H11011fcurve is perfectly fitted by the formula /H208491/H20850in
Ref. 16and shown in Fig. 6. The 4 /H9266Msof FeCo and Fe from
the FMR fitting results are used in calculation. The dynamicanisotropy fields H
k-dynand damping factors /H9251are used as
fitting parameters, because we presume that the different dy-0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0. 9010203040ρ(µΩ*m)
V(Metal)
FIG. 4. The relationship between electrical resistivity /H9267and the total volume
ratio 3 /H11003of metal grains /H20849FeCo and Fe /H20850.
FIG. 5. /H20849Color online /H20850The experimental and fitted FMR curves while swept
field H parallels to /H20849a/H20850the easy axis and /H20849b/H20850hard axis of the
/H20849FeCo /H208500.50 /Fe0.25 //H20849SiO2/H208500.25thin film.11 0-400-2000200400600800
α(Fe)=0.017
α(FeCo)=0.027µ',µ"
f(GHz)µ' Experimental
µ" Experimental
µ' Calculated
µ" Calculated
2 48 6
FIG. 6. /H20849Color online /H20850The experimental and fitted complex permeability
dependence of frequency for the /H20849FeCo /H208500.50 /Fe0.25 //H20849SiO2/H208500.25thin film.033911-3 Liu et al. J. Appl. Phys. 107 , 033911 /H208492010 /H20850
namic anisotropies for two phases have a dominant effect for
the existence of two resonance peaks in the /H9262/H11011fcurve. The
dynamic anisotropy fields Hk-dynof FeCo and Fe phases are
estimated about 21 and 46 Oe, respectively. Compared withthe anisotropy fields obtained from the static and FMR mea-surements, there is significant difference in H
k-dynbetween
the FeCo and Fe grains in the /H9262/H11011fcurve measurement. This
difference can be qualitatively interpreted as the result of thecompetition between uniaxial anisotropy constant K
uand lo-
cal average anisotropy constant /H20855K/H20856during dynamic magne-
tization.
It is well known that the growth of magnetic grains
weakens the exchange couple interaction among them andenhance intensively the /H20855K/H20856of the individual grains.
17Ac-
cording to the theoretical results shown in Ref. 18, a lower
ratio of Ku//H20855K/H20856reflects the larger angular dispersion between
Kuand the easiest axis of the individual grains. As a result,
the magnetic moments in FeCo grains will orient to theuniaxial anisotropy field H
uwith a considerable deviation
angle /H9258, which is schematically illustrated in Fig. 7. In this
case, the resonance frequency of the FeCo grains are deter-mined by
14
f=/H9253/H20881/H20849Hu+HLoccos 2/H9258/H20850/H20849Hu+4/H9266Ms+HLoccos2/H9258/H20850,
/H208492/H20850
where HLoc=2/H20855K/H20856//H92620Msis the average local anisotropy of
FeCo grains. In comparison, the local magnetic moments in
Fe grains are rotated to the macroscopic uniaxial anisotropyaxis with a vanishing angular dispersion, which will enhancethe contribution of the uniaxial anisotropy and herewith thedynamic anisotropy field H
k-dyn. However, it is still difficult
to quantitatively explain these amazing but not-accidentallarge dynamic anisotropy fields using the theory in Ref. 18,
Hoffmann’s ripple theory
19and Acher’s DM theory;20more
details of the mechanism of the exchange interaction in themagnetic multiphase system are still under investigation.
It should be especially mentioned that, compared with
the published results in the corresponding researchfields,
4,5,15the full width at half maximum /H20849FWHM /H20850of/H9262/H20648is
up to about 2.5 GHz, meanwhile, the real part /H9262/is as high as
650 while f/H110211.3 GHz. This high performance of electro-
magnetic shielding applications at the high-frequency hasbeen rarely obtained before. This realization of high perme-ability with large FWHM should be attributed to the complexmagnetic structure, which consists of two magnetic nano-
crystalline phases. The coexistence of FeCo and Fe nano-crystalline grains brings more abundant interfaces and in-creases grain inhomogeneities in the film, makes anadditional and considerable contribution to extrinsic damp-ing beyond two-magnon scattering, and results in more de-sirable line broadening of the permeability. Introducing mag-netic multiphase system is a feasible and valuable approachto the improvement on the effectiveness of materials for theelectromagnetic shielding applications in a wide band and atthe high frequency.
IV. CONCLUSION
The /H20849FeCo /H208502x//H20849Fe/H20850x//H20849SiO 2/H208501−3xnanogranular thin films
deposited by alternate triple-target magnetron sputtering
were investigated in this paper. The FeCo and Fe nanocrys-talline grains were embedded uniformly in the amorphousSiO
2matrix. The /H20849FeCo /H208500.50 /Fe0.25 //H20849SiO 2/H208500.25thin film ex-
hibited excellent soft magnetic properties, such as high
4/H9266Msof 1.48 T, low coercivity Hcof 4.3/5.0 Oe for the
easy/hard axis, respectively, and high electrical resistivity of4.3
/H9262/H9024m. In particular, in both FMR and /H9262/H11011fcurve mea-
surements, two resonance peaks were found. The origin ofthe two peaks was attributed to the different dynamic re-sponse of the FeCo and Fe phases. As a result, the highernatural resonance frequency fof/H20849FeCo /H20850
0.50 /Fe0.25 //H20849SiO 2/H208500.25
film is up to 2.75 GHz with the FWHM about 2.5 GHz of /H9262/H20648;
meanwhile, the real part /H9262/is as high as 650 for f
/H110211.3 GHz. Such a novel property reflects a great potential
of the magnetic multiphase film for high-frequency electro-magnetic shielding applications.
1S. W. Kim, Y. W. Yoon, S. J. Lee, G. Y. Kim, Y. B. Kim, Y. Y. Chun, and
K. S. Lee, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 316, 472 /H208492007 /H20850.
2S. M. Yang, Y. Y. Chang, Y. C. Hsieh, and Y. J. Lee, J. Appl. Polym. Sci.
110, 1403 /H208492008 /H20850.
3N. D. Ha, A.-T. Le, M.-H Phan, H. Lee, and C. Kim, Mater. Sci. Eng., B
139,3 7 /H208492007 /H20850.
4S. Ge, D. Yao, M. Yamaguchi, X. Yang, H. Zuo, T. Ishii, D. Zhou, and F.
Li,J. Phys. D 40, 3660 /H208492007 /H20850.
5F. Xu, X. Zhang, N. N. Phuoc, Y. Ma, and C. K. Ong, J. Appl. Phys. 105,
043902 /H208492009 /H20850.
6K. Seemann, H. Leiste, and A. Kovàcs, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 320, 1952
/H208492008 /H20850.
7B. K. Kuanr, R. E. Camley, and Z. Celinski, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 286,
276 /H208492005 /H20850.
8R. D. McMichael, D. J. Twisselmann, and A. Kunz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90,
227601 /H208492003 /H20850.
9J. B. Youssef and C. Brosseau, Phys. Rev. B 74, 214413 /H208492006 /H20850.
10V. Bekker, K. Seemann, and H. Leiste, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 270,3 2 7
/H208492004 /H20850.
11A. Neudert, J. Mccord, R. Schäfer, and L. Schultz, J. Appl. Phys. 95, 6595
/H208492004 /H20850.
12G. Herzer, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 157–158 , 133 /H208491996 /H20850.
13N. X. Sun, S. X. Wang, T. J. Silva, and A. B. Kos, IEEE Trans. Magn. 38,
146 /H208492002 /H20850.
14K. Ounadjela, G. Suran, and F. Machizaud, Phys. Rev. B 40,5 7 8 /H208491989 /H20850.
15S.-I. Aoqui and M. Munakata, Mater. Sci. Eng., A 413–414 ,5 5 0 /H208492005 /H20850.
16J. B. Youssef, P. M. Jacquart, N. Vukadinovic, and H. Le Gall, IEEE
Trans. Magn. 38, 3141 /H208492002 /H20850.
17K. Seemann and H. Leiste, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 321, 742 /H208492009 /H20850.
18G. Herzer, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 294,9 9 /H208492005 /H20850.
19H. Hoffmann, Thin Solid Films 58, 223 /H208491979 /H20850.
20O. Acher, C. Boscher, B. Brulé, G. Perrin, N. Vukadinovic, G. Suran, and
H. Joisten, J. Appl. Phys. 81, 4057 /H208491997 /H20850.
FIG. 7. The schematic illustration of distribution and dispersion of the mag-
netic moments in Fe and FeCo grains under the competition betweenuniaxial anisotropy and local average anisotropy.033911-4 Liu et al. J. Appl. Phys. 107 , 033911 /H208492010 /H20850
|
1.4975693.pdf | Non-volatile spin wave majority gate at the nanoscale
O. Zografos , S. Dutta , M. Manfrini , A. Vaysset , B. Sorée , A. Naeemi , P. Raghavan , R. Lauwereins , and I. P.
Radu
Citation: AIP Advances 7, 056020 (2017); doi: 10.1063/1.4975693
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4975693
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/adv/7/5
Published by the American Institute of Physics
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Non-volatile spin wave majority gate at the nanoscale
O. Zografos,1,2,aS. Dutta,3M. Manfrini,1A. Vaysset,1B. Sor ´ee,1,2,4
A. Naeemi,3P . Raghavan,1R. Lauwereins,1,2and I. P . Radu1
1IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
2ESAT, KU Leuven, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
3Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta,
Georgia 30332, USA
4Physics Department, Universiteit Antwerpen, B-2020 Antwerpen, Belgium
(Presented 1 November 2016; received 23 September 2016; accepted 1 November 2016;
published online 6 February 2017)
A spin wave majority fork-like structure with feature size of 40 nm, is presented
and investigated, through micromagnetic simulations. The structure consists of three
merging out-of-plane magnetization spin wave buses and four magneto-electric cells
serving as three inputs and an output. The information of the logic signals is encoded
in the phase of the transmitted spin waves and subsequently stored as direction of
magnetization of the magneto-electric cells upon detection. The minimum dimen-
sions of the structure that produce an operational majority gate are identified. For all
input combinations, the detection scheme employed manages to capture the majority
phase result of the spin wave interference and ignore all reflection effects induced
by the geometry of the structure. © 2017 Author(s). All article content, except where
otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4975693]
The exploration and study of novel non-charge-based logic devices has been a main research focus
for over a decade.1The purpose is to identify concepts that can extend the semiconductor industry
roadmap beyond the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology.2Since CMOS
scaling, dictated by Moore’s Law,3will reach its limits,1there is a need for logic components that can
operate at high frequencies, be extremely compact and also consume ultra-low power.4A variety of
magnetic devices have been benchmarked as promising candidates for low power applications.4Spin
wave devices hold the promise of ultra-low power per computing throughput.4Additionally, utilizing
spin waves, majority-based logic can be constructed and has been proven to be advantageous for
beyond-CMOS technologies.5,6These devices have been extensively studied through experiments
and micromagnetic simulations at large dimensions (down to tens of microns),7,8however the study
of spin wave dynamics and interference at the nanoscale are still lacking.
In this work, we investigate through micromagnetic simulations, a fork-like spin wave majority
structure with feature size of 40 nm. We aim at designing a nanometer scale structure where excitation
of higher-order width modes8can be avoided. The proposed design incorporates the advantages of
non-volatile data storage in the ME cell, non-reciprocity via a three-phase clocking scheme9,10and
robustness to thermal fluctuations missing in the earlier prior designs.7,8,11The structure consists of
three merging perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) spin wave buses and four magneto-electric
(ME) cells serving as three inputs and an output. The geometry of the spin wave majority gate is
shown in Fig. 1, where the spacing between each arm is S=88 nm.
We employed micromagnetic simulations to investigate this structure, using the micromagnetic
solver OOMMF.12The mesh cell size is 2 nm 2 nm12 nm and all the PMA spin wave bus regions
are extended before and after the ME cell regions with increased damping to allow for magnetization
relaxation and avoid edge reflections. Thus, the simulated structure represents an spin wave majority
aElectronic mail: Odysseas.Zografos@imec.be
2158-3226/2017/7(5)/056020/6 7, 056020-1 ©Author(s) 2017
056020-2 Zografos et al. AIP Advances 7, 056020 (2017)
FIG. 1. Geometry of the spin wave majority gate. Spin waves are excited by the three input ME cells (Inputs 1,2,3) and the
majority result of the spin wave interference is detected by the ‘Output’ ME cell. The spacing between each arm is S=88 nm.
gate arrangement on infinitely long buses. The extended regions of the structure are not shown in
Fig. 1 for ease of representation.
The basic computational block of a spin wave logic device is the ME cell that acts as a spin
wave transmitter, detector and also serves as a non-volatile memory element.9The ME cells are
embedded in the bus and have in-plane magnetization (along ˆx). They are heterostructures consisting
of a ferroelectric or piezoelectric material intelayered between two metallic electrodes and a top
magnetostrictive ferromagnetic layer.
We consider a 80 nm 40 nm12 nm Co 60Fe40/(001) PMN-PT (30 nm thick) as the ME cell het-
erostructure (with magnetization saturation M S=800 kA/m, exchange constant A=20 pJ/m, Gilbert
damping =0.027, magnetostrictive coefficient =200 ppm, Young’s modulus Y=200 GPa, and piezo-
electric coefficient d31=-1000 pm/V). (001) PMN-PT is chosen as the piezoelectric layer due to its high
piezoelectric coefficient while Co 60Fe40displays a large magnetostrictive coefficient of 2 104,13and
is also compatible with PMN-PT. The spin wave bus material is to be considered a [Co(0.4)/Ni(0.8)] 10
multilayer (with M S=790 kA/m, A=16 pJ/m, =0.01, and anisotropy field HK=16.78 kA/m). It is
selected as the spin wave bus material due to its inherent interface anisotropy, thus providing a
bias-free out-of-plane magnetic configuration. The working principle is based on voltage-controlled
strain-induced magnetization switching that excites spin waves and a phase dependent determinis-
tic detection scheme, where information is encoded in the phase of the transmitted spin wave and
subsequently stored as direction of magnetization of the ME cell (+ ˆxor -ˆx).9,10
An applied voltage across the piezoelectric layer causes an isotropic biaxial strain that gets
coupled to the top ferromagnet causing an out-of-plane anisotropy. Above a critical strain, the mag-
netization switches from an in-plane to out-of-plane configuration exciting spin waves with the
information encoded in the phase of the waves. Meanwhile, the detector ME cell is held out-of-plane
via application of voltage until the spin waves arrive. Upon arrival, the voltage is turned off causing
a phase-dependent deterministic switching of the magnetization.
The temporal m xprofile of the spin wave generated by an ME cell is shown in FIG. 2a. We
observe that the spin wave created has a wave packet-like form, with multiple frequency components
(as shown in the inset of FIG. 2a) and duration shorter than 2 ns. The structure simulated to generate
the spin wave in FIG. 2a is depicted in FIG. 2b. An ME cell is activated and generates a spin wave that
propagates along a spin wave bus. The magnetization dynamics are monitored after 120 nm. FIG. 2b
also shows the spatial m xprofile at three different timepoints ( t1,t2,t3). At time t1=0.065 ns, the ME
cell has not switched out-of-plane and the spin wave is not formed yet. At time t2=0.77 ns, the spin
wave is formed and has propagated at least 120 nm but is almost completely dispersed after t3=1.3
ns. Due to the complex nature of the spin wave, it’s impossible to extract an accurate wavelength but
from the m xprofile at t2, we can extract its wavelength at the largest amplitude is =210 nm.056020-3 Zografos et al. AIP Advances 7, 056020 (2017)
FIG. 2. Spin wave generated by ME cell. a) Temporal m xprofile. Inset: Frequency components of propagated spin wave.
b) Spatial m xprofile of the spin wave bus at three different timepoints as denoted in a).
For the initial study of the spin wave majority gate’s performance, we conducted single-arm
excitation simulations and monitored the spin wave transmission in the complete structure. FIG. 3,
presents the spin wave amplitude (defined asq
m2x+m2y) averaged over time (i.e. 3 ns) in logarithmic
scale. The amplitude transmission from ‘Input 1’ to ‘Output’ is '93%, defined as the ratio of the
average intensity of the output to the average intensity of the input. This efficient transmission is
due to the nanoscale dimensions of the structure in combination with the low damping values of the
materials assumed. The downside of the efficient transmission is that there is significant reflections
and back-propagations (i.e. '89%, denoted by dashed arrows in FIG. 3). This is due to the geometrical
symmetry of the structure (unlike Klinger et al8).
The back-propagations increase the complexity of the spin wave dynamics and interference but
will not affect the states of ME cells that can be interconnected before the majority gate. The ME cell
concept applied in this work ensures logical non-reciprocity14due to a three-phase clocking scheme.9
In order to have a functional spin wave majority gate, we need to ensure: (a) the input ME cells
switch from in-plane to out-of-plane correctly and in a similar fashion; (b) the spin waves that arrive
at the output region are as close to identical as possible (unbiased inputs); (c) that the output ME
cell’s detection operation is launched at the appropriate timepoint. The first requirement is satisfied056020-4 Zografos et al. AIP Advances 7, 056020 (2017)
FIG. 3. Spin wave amplitude transmission for single arm excitation of ‘Input 1’, plotted in a logarithmic scale. Dashed arrows
demonstrate the flow of back-propagated spin waves into the other input arms.
since, when designing structure, we used the analytical expressions in Engel-Herbert et al15and Kani
et al16to calculate the minimum arm spacing that also minimizes their dipolar coupling. This coupling
would impede the ME cells to completely switch out-of-plane, thus not work properly. The minimum
spacing of the arms is 56 nm and is verified by simulations. To investigate the second requirement, we
study the input signals by the means of the out-of-plane angle ( ) as the angle between magnetization
(M) and ˆz.
The fork-like structure we employ has a mirror symmetry. However, the signals created by
‘Input 1’ and ‘Input 3’ do not follow that symmetry. The spin wave propagation and dispersion
depends on the shape anisotropy variation that the Sparameter induces. This dependence is non-
linear as demonstrated in inset (i) of FIG. 4, where the maximum out-of-plane angle of the output
magnetization (for each single arm excitation) is plotted over different values of S. FIG. 4(i) shows
that, by changing the geometry of the majority gate structure, the spin wave behavior changes. This
means that, for each spacing value selected, the structure would have to be fine-tuned (in terms
of material parameters and input ME cell positioning) to operate correctly. The latter hinders the
robustness of the current geometry and needs to be evaluated further, including different geometry
options. However, an accurate robustness evaluation is considered outside the scope of this work. We
note that the spacing value Swhere all three input signals have the most similar contributions to the
output angle is at S=88 nm. Hence these values were selected for a functional majority gate as they
lead towards satisfying the second aforementioned requirement of unbiased inputs.
To further optimize the performance of the majority gate, through more micromagnetic sim-
ulations, we have defined the length of the spin wave bus that connects ‘Input 2’ to ‘Output’ at
FIG. 4. Average out-of-plane angle of the output magnetization when excited by individual single arm excitations in
a structure with S=88 nm. Based on for each spin wave signal, we select detection timepoint at tdet=0.8 ns. Inset
(i): Maximum of the output magnetization when excited by individual single arm excitations, shows that the selection
ofS=88 nm as the arm spacing is the best one for the explored values. Inset (ii): definition of .056020-5 Zografos et al. AIP Advances 7, 056020 (2017)
FIG. 5. Spatial profile of mx magnetization of the majority gate at different timepoints of operation. a) At t=0 ns, the inputs
are set to ‘110’. b) At t=0.8 ns before the detection of the output ME cell is enabled, most of the magnetization oscillations
are centered around the merging/output region. c) At t=3.2 ns the output magnetization is stabilized to its non-volatile state
‘1’ correctly detecting the majority result.
92 nm and a slightly increased damping of =0.016. Such local engineering of magnetic damping
has been extensively studied17and it could be implemented in the spin wave bus by controlled ion
bean irradiation. This method ensures the PMA could be preserved whereas the magnetic damping
diminishes due to increase surface roughness. With this configuration the requirement of the unbiased
inputs is satisfied, as FIG. 4 shows that the spin wave signals from each input have almost identical
contribution to the output magnetization.
The third requirement is satisfied by the detection timepoint of tdet=0.8 ns, extracted from FIG. 4
where all three spin wave signals induce equal out-of-plane angle . To verify the operation of the
majority gate we need to excite all three inputs simultaneously and monitor the detected result. We
define the logic ‘0’ of the majority gate as the spin wave generated by an ME cell initially set along
+ˆx(mx=1) and the logic ‘1’ as the as the spin wave generated by an ME cell set along - ˆx(mx=-1).
This definition is arbitrary.
FIG. 5 illustrates an example operation of the spin wave majority gate, where the input are set to
‘110’ (FIG. 5a). After the three inputs are activated, the generated spin waves propagate towards the
output and interfere. At time t=0.8 ns (FIG. 5b), the detection is enabled which results in the output
ME cell to stabilize at the correct majority result ‘1’ (m x=-1 - FIG. 5c).
Finally, to verify the complete logic behavior of the spin wave majority gate we simulate all
possible input states. The results of these simulations are summarized in FIG. 6, where we observe
that all inputs that have majority of ‘0’ set the output ME cell magnetization along + ˆxand all inputs
that have majority of ‘1’ set the output ME cell magnetization along - ˆx. This proves the operation of the
proposed design. Another interesting fact depicted in FIG. 6 is that the output magnetization switching
behavior is symmetric for symmetric inputs (e.g. for inputs ‘010’ and ‘101’), which enhances the
validity of the design as one that enables symmetrical and unbiased inputs.
FIG. 6. Average m xof the output for all possible input combinations resulting in the correct majority computation.056020-6 Zografos et al. AIP Advances 7, 056020 (2017)
The choice of as spin wave generators and detectors is not limited to ME cells, other effects such
as V oltage-Controlled Magnetic Anisotropy (VCMA)18could be used. However, the fact that the
proposed majority gate utilizes the ME cell concept,9not only makes it non-volatile (characteristic
of critical importance for low-energy applications) but also it provides the necessary means for
cascading. Having detected and stored the majority result, the output ME cell could be easily triggered
and generate the corresponding spin wave which will be detected by a cascaded ME cell interconnected
with the spin wave bus. Additionally, having an ME cell operating voltage of 0.1 V , results in an
ultra-low intrinsic energy dissipation per ME cell of 4.5 aJ.19
In conclusion, a fully functional, nanoscale, symmetric, non-volatile spin wave majority gate
design utilizing ME cells as inputs and outputs, has been presented. The design was optimized for the
correct detection of the majority result, without being disturbed by parasitic spin wave reflections and
back propagations. The feature size of the design is 40 nm and has a total area of 0.074 m2, making it
the smallest reported majority spin wave design to be functionally verified. Also, the proposed design
operates in a3 ns timeframe which is fast compared to other spin-based technologies.4Finally,
the combination of the proposed majority gate along with the ME cell inverter9and majority-based
logic synthesis,6can enable integrated circuit possibilities that exhibit ultra low-energy and small
area characteristics.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
See supplementary material for an example of input-output operation utilizing ME cells and
more information on the mesh cell size and the frequency components of the propagated spin wave.
1V . Zhirnov, R. Cavin, J. Hutchby, and G. Bourianoff, Proc. IEEE 9, 1934 (2003).
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NANOARCH (2014), pp. 25–30.
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Y . Ando, and Y . Suzuki, Nat. Nano. 4(2009).
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(2016), p. accepted for publication. |
1.2955831.pdf | Spin-torque oscillator with tilted fixed layer magnetization
Yan Zhou, C. L. Zha, S. Bonetti, J. Persson, and Johan Åkerman
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 262508 (2008); doi: 10.1063/1.2955831
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2955831
View Table of Contents: http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/APPLAB/v92/i26
Published by the American Institute of Physics.
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Downloaded 02 Jul 2012 to 152.3.102.242. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsSpin-torque oscillator with tilted fixed layer magnetization
Yan Zhou,a/H20850C. L. Zha, S. Bonetti, J. Persson, and Johan Åkermanb/H20850
Department of Microelectronics and Applied Physics, Royal Institute of Technology, Electrum 229,
164 40 Kista, Sweden
/H20849Received 24 February 2008; accepted 17 June 2008; published online 3 July 2008 /H20850
A spin-torque oscillator with a fixed layer magnetization tilted out of the film plane is capable of
strong microwave signal generation in zero magnetic field. Through numerical simulations, westudy the microwave signal generation as a function of drive current for two realistic tilt angles. Thetilted magnetization of the fixed layer can be achieved by using a material with high out-of-planemagnetocrystalline anisotropy, such as L1
0FePt. © 2008 American Institute of Physics .
/H20851DOI: 10.1063/1.2955831 /H20852
Broadband microwave oscillators, such as the yttrium
iron garnet /H20849YIG /H20850oscillator, play an important role in com-
munications, radar applications, and high-precision instru-mentation. Two drawbacks of the YIG oscillator is its bulknature, which foils any attempt of monolithic integration,and its magnetic tuning, which is both complicated and con-sumes high power. A modern nanoscopic analog of the YIGoscillator is the spin-torque oscillator /H20849STO /H20850:
1–8It is ex-
tremely broad band /H20849multioctave /H20850, can achieve high spectral
purity, and is magnetically tunable with a similar transferfunction related to ferromagnetic resonance. The STO cur-rently receives a rapidly growing interest thanks to its sig-nificant advantages, such as easy on-chip integration and cur-rent tunability instead of only field tunability.
However, STOs still typically require a large, static,
magnetic field for operation; removing the need for this field
is currently an intensely researched topic. As suggested byRedon et al. ,
9,10a perpendicularly polarized fixed layer may
drive an in-plane magnetization into an out-of-plane preces-sional state even in the absence of an applied field, whichwas recently experimentally demonstrated
11using a perpen-
dicularly polarized Co /Pt multilayer as fixed layer. However,
due to the axial symmetry of the fixed layer magnetizationand the precession, an additional read-out layer was requiredto break the symmetry and generate any signal, which com-plicates the structure and its fabrication; the signal quality isso far also quite limited compared to conventional STOs. Adifferent solution, suggested by Xiao et al.
12and developed
in detail by Barnas et al. ,13is based on a wavy angular de-
pendence of the spin torque, obtained by judicially choosingfree and fixed layer materials with different spin diffusionlengths. Boulle et al. recently fabricated such a “wavy
torque” STO and demonstrated current tunable microwavegeneration in zero field,
14the output signal is again quite
limited, partly caused by the associated asymmetric magne-toresistance /H20849MR /H20850. A radically different approach was taken
by Pribiag et al. , who introduced a magnetic vortex in a thick
free layer and excited zero-field gyromagnetic precession ofthe vortex core through the spin torque from a conventionalfixed layer.
15While the signal quality of this vortex STO is
excellent, its frequency range is quite limited, so far onlydemonstrated below 3 GHz.
In this letter, a tilted-polarizer STO /H20849TP-STO /H20850has beenstudied where the fixed layer magnetization /H20849M/H20850is tilted out
of the film plane. The spin polarization hence has both in-
plane components /H20849p
x,py/H20850and a component along the out-of-
plane direction /H20849pz/H20850. We show that pzcan drive the free layer
into precession without the need for an applied field, while
the in-plane component Mxof the fixed layer magnetization
generates a large MR, i.e., a rf output without the need for anadditional read-out layer. While Mmay have any out-of-
plane direction in the general situation, we limit our discus-sion to the x−zplane, M=/H20849M
x,0,Mz/H20850=/H20841M/H20841/H20849cos/H9252,0,sin /H9252/H20850,
and/H9252=36° and 45° /H20849Fig.1/H20850, since these two particular angles
can be achieved using different crystallographic orientationsof FePt.
The time evolution of the free layer magnetization
mˆis found using the standard Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert–
Slonczewski equation,
dmˆ
dt=−/H9253mˆ/H11003Heff+/H9251mˆ/H11003dmˆ
dt+/H9253
/H92620Ms,free/H9270, /H208491/H20850
where mˆis the unit vector of the free layer magnetization,
Ms,freeits saturation magnetization, /H9253the gyromagnetic ratio,
/H9251the Gilbert damping parameter, and /H92620the magnetic
vacuum permeability. Setting the applied field to zero andseparating the effect of the demagnetizing tensor into a posi-tive anisotropy field along xand a negative out-of-plane de-
magnetizing field we get H
eff=/H20849Hkeˆxmx−Hdeˆzmz/H20850//H20841m/H20841.W e
define positive current as flowing from the fixed layer to the
free layer. In this study, the lateral dimension of the NiFe
a/H20850Electronic mail: zhouyan@kth.se.
b/H20850Electronic mail: akerman1@kth.se.
FIG. 1. /H20849Color online /H20850/H20849a/H20850Schematic of a TP-STO. Mis the tilted fixed layer
magnetization. The free layer magnetization mis separated from the fixed
layer by a nonmagnetic /H20849NM /H20850layer; /H20849b/H20850the coordinate system used in this
work. Mlies in the x-zplane with angle /H9252with respect to the x-axis.APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 92, 262508 /H208492008 /H20850
0003-6951/2008/92 /H2084926/H20850/262508/3/$23.00 © 2008 American Institute of Physics 92, 262508-1
Downloaded 02 Jul 2012 to 152.3.102.242. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsthin film free layer is assumed to be an elliptical shape of
130/H1100370 nm2, with a thickness of 3 nm. The thickness of the
fixed layer FePt is 20 nm. The values of some parametersused in the calculation are listed as follows:16/H9251=0.01, /H20841/H9253/H20841
=1.76 /H110031011Hz /T,Ms=860 kA /m, and Hk=0.01 T, and
Hd=1 T.
The quantity /H9270in Eq. /H208491/H20850is the Slonczewski spin transfer
torque density,
/H9270=/H9257/H20849/H9272/H20850/H6036J
2edmˆ/H11003/H20849mˆ/H11003Mˆ/H20850, /H208492/H20850
where /H9272is the angle between mˆandMˆ,dis the free layer
thickness, and
/H9257/H20849/H9272/H20850=q+
A+Bcos/H20849/H9272/H20850+q−
A−Bcos/H20849/H9272/H20850, /H208493/H20850
where q+,q−,A, and Bare all material dependent
parameters.16In our simulations below we use Cu as spacer,
Permalloy /H20849Py/H20850as the free layer, and FePt as the fixed layer.
Due to the lack of available parameters for the Cu /FePt in-
terface, we approximate /H9257/H20849/H9272/H20850in our Py /Cu /FePt stack using
literature values for Py /Cu /Co.12,13,16,17This approximation
may be justified if a thin polarizing layer of Co is used at theCu /FePt interface. The following parameters are adopted for
calculating the spin transfer torque coefficient
/H9257/H20849/H9272/H20850based on
the asymmetric Slonczewski model:12,18Py, bulk resistivity
/H9267bulk=16/H9262/H9024cm, spin asymmetry factor /H9252=0.77, and spin-
flip length lsf=5.5 nm; Cu, /H9267bulk=0.5/H9262/H9024cm and lsf
=450 nm; and Co, /H9267bulk=5.1/H9262/H9024cm, /H9252=0.51, and lsf
=60 nm. For the Py/Cu interface we assume the interfacial
resistance per unit square 0.5 /H1100310−15/H9024m2, interface spin
asymmetry factor 0.72, and for the Co /Cu interface we as-
sume the interfacial resistance per unit square 0.52/H1100310
−15/H9024m2, interface spin asymmetry factor 0.76. Using
the above parameters, we can calculate the coefficients q+,
q−,A,B, and the angular dependence of spin transfer torque
/H9257/H20849/H9272/H20850based on Eq. /H208497/H20850in Ref. 12.
We use the following generalized form for describing the
angular dependence of MR:19,20
r=R/H20849/H9272/H20850−RP
RAP−RP=1 − cos2/H20849/H9272/2/H20850
1+/H9273cos2/H20849/H9272/2/H20850, /H208494/H20850
where ris the reduced MR, /H9273is an asymmetry parameter
describing the deviation from sinusoidal angular dependence,and R
Pand RAPdenotes the resistance in the parallel and
antiparallel configurations, respectively.
The asymmetric torque and the asymmetric MR are de-
rived for in-plane spin polarizations and magnetizations, andshould still hold as long as spin-orbit coupling is weak.While this is true for Py, it might be questionable for FePtdue to its large magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Any deviationdue to strong spin-orbit coupling will not change the generalresult of our study and is likely further weakened by the thinpolarizing layer of Co on top of FePt.
Figure 2/H20849a/H20850shows the precession frequency versus drive
current density for the two selected angles. We observe pre-cession at both positive and negative currents and the fre-quency increases with the magnitude of the current density,similar to perpendicularly polarized STOs.
10,21,22The preces-
sion starts along the equator and continues to follow increas-ing latitudes of the unit sphere throughout the entirefrequency range /H20849fincreases due to the increasing demagne-tizing field /H20850until it reaches a static state at the north /H20849south /H20850
pole for large negative /H20849positive /H20850current /H20851Fig. 2/H20849c/H20850/H20852.W e
highlight six orbits /H20849A–F /H20850, which correspond to points in
Figs. 2/H20849a/H20850and2/H20849b/H20850.mprecesses in the north hemisphere for
negative Jand in the south hemisphere for positive Jin an
attempt to align/antialign with M. We hence conclude that
the precession is largely dominated by the perpendicularcomponent p
zof the spin polarized current and virtually in-
dependent of pxand py. The asymmetry of the dependence
for different current polarity is due to the asymmetric spintorque form, as shown in the inset of Fig. 2/H20849a/H20850.
Figure 2/H20849b/H20850shows the effective MR /H20849MR
eff/H20850as a func-
tion of current density for the two tilt angles and different
choices of /H9273.M R effJ2is a measure of the expected rf output
where MR effis the difference between the maximum and
minimum resistance values along the orbit normalized by thefullR
AP−RP. As the precession orbit contracts with increas-
ing /H20841J/H20841, one may expect MR effto be maximum at the equator
and exhibit a monotonic decrease with increasing /H20841J/H20841. While
symmetric MR /H20849/H9273=0/H20850indeed yields a maximum MR effat the
onset of precession, the higher the MR asymmetry, the more
FIG. 2. /H20849Color online /H20850/H20849a/H20850Precession frequency vs drive current for
/H9252=36° /H20849solid line /H20850and/H9252=45° /H20849dashed dot line /H20850. Inset: Normalized spin
torque /H9270*=4ed/H9270//H6036Jvs/H9272./H20849b/H20850Effective MR vs Jfor/H9252=36° /H20849solid line /H20850and
/H9252=45° /H20849dashed line /H20850. Inset: Reduced MR vs /H9272./H20849c/H20850Precession orbits on the
unit sphere for different Jand/H9252=36°.262508-2 Zhou et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 262508 /H208492008 /H20850
Downloaded 02 Jul 2012 to 152.3.102.242. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsthe MR effpeak gets shifted to higher positive current. For
asymmetric angular dependence of MR, it is hence favorableto precess at a finite latitude with a larger average angle withrespect to M. For optimal output it is consequently desirable
to use positive currents and tailor
/H9273as to position MR effin
the middle of the operating frequency range. While there areno
/H9273values reported for NiFe /Cu /FePt, /H9273may range from
0 to 4 in other trilayers involving NiFe.20,23
Despite the large in-plane component of the spin polar-
ization, the initial static states are virtually identical to thenorth and south poles where the spin torque and the torquefrom the demagnetizing field balance each other. If we fur-ther increase /H20841J/H20841we expect this equilibrium point to move
toward /H20849anti /H20850alignment with Mˆ. As shown in Fig. 3,mˆstarts
out at
/H9258/H110151/H11568and 177° and then gradually follows a curved
trajectory to align with Mˆat very large negative current and
antialign at very large positive current. The resistance willchange accordingly and at very large currents reach R
Pand
RAP, respectively.
There are several experimental ways to achieve easy-
axis tilted hard magnets.24–28For example, an easy-axis ori-
entation of 36° can be achieved by growing L10/H20849111/H20850FePt
on conventional Si /H20849001 /H20850substrate27or on MgO /H20849111/H20850
underlayer.28The 45° orientation can be achieved by epitaxi-
ally growing an L10/H20849101 /H20850FePt thin film on a suitable seed
layer /H20851e.g., CrW /H20849110/H20850with bcc lattice /H20852at a temperature
above T=350/H11568C.24L10FePt has high magnetocrystalline an-
isotropy /H20849Ku=7/H11003107ergs /cm3/H20850, high saturation magnetiza-
tion /H20849Ms=1140 emu /cm3/H20850, and a high Curie temperature/H20849TC=750 K /H20850. In both cases, a thin Co layer may be deposited
on top of the fixed layer to promote a high degree of spin
polarization.
In summary, the TP-STO yields the combined advantage
of zero-field operation and high output signal. Both the pre-cession and effective MR dependence on the driving currentand the equilibrium states can be well understood by inves-tigating the precession orbits of the free layer. TP-STOs withtilt angles
/H9252=36° and 45° should be possible to fabricate
using FePt with high anisotropy and tilted easy axis.
We thank M. Stiles for useful discussions. Support from
The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research /H20849SSF /H20850, The
Swedish Research Council /H20849VR/H20850, and the Göran Gustafsson
Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.
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FIG. 3. /H20849Color online /H20850MR as a function of current density. Inset: The
equilibrium states of mˆat different current densities when /H9252=36°.
/H208491/H20850J=−0.5 /H11003108A/cm2, /H208492/H20850J=−1/H110031011A/cm2, /H208493/H20850J=0.75
/H11003108A/cm2,/H208494/H20850J=7/H11003108A/cm2,/H208495/H20850J=1/H11003109A/cm2, and /H208496/H20850J=1
/H110031011A/cm2.262508-3 Zhou et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 262508 /H208492008 /H20850
Downloaded 02 Jul 2012 to 152.3.102.242. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions |
1.5025691.pdf | Reversal time of jump-noise magnetization dynamics in nanomagnets via Monte Carlo
simulations
Arun Parthasarathy , and Shaloo Rakheja
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 123, 223901 (2018); doi: 10.1063/1.5025691
View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5025691
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/jap/123/22
Published by the American Institute of Physics
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Journal of Applied Physics 123, 225301 (2018); 10.1063/1.5030557Reversal time of jump-noise magnetization dynamics in nanomagnets
via Monte Carlo simulations
Arun Parthasarathya)and Shaloo Rakheja
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, New York University, Brooklyn, New York 11201, USA
(Received 12 February 2018; accepted 8 May 2018; published online 8 June 2018)
The jump-noise is a nonhomogeneous Poisson process which models thermal effects in magnetiza-
tion dynamics, with special applications in low temperature escape rate phenomena. In this work,we develop improved numerical methods for Monte Carlo simulation of the jump-noise dynamics
and validate the method by comparing the stationary distribution obtained empirically against the
Boltzmann distribution. In accordance with the N /C19eel-Brown theory, the jump-noise dynamics dis-
play an exponential relaxation toward equilibrium with a characteristic reversal time, which we
extract for nanomagnets with uniaxial and cubic anisotropy. We relate the jump-noise dynamics to
the equivalent Landau-Lifshitz dynamics up to second order correction for a general energy land-scape and obtain the analogous N /C19eel-Brown theory’s solution of the reversal time. We find that the
reversal time of jump-noise dynamics is characterized by N /C19eel-Brown theory’s solution at the
energy saddle point for small noise. For large noise, the magnetization reversal due to jump-noisedynamics phenomenologically represents macroscopic tunneling of magnetization. Published by
AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5025691
I. INTRODUCTION
Thermal fluctuation of magnetization in nanomagnets is
important in the context of superparamagnetism, which is ana-lyzed profoundly in Brown’s seminal work,
1,2and more
recently reviewed by Coffey3to estimate the reversal time of
magnetization. Thermal fluctuation is more prominent insmaller magnetic volumes, which leads to spontaneous jumps
from one stable state to another. From a practical perspective,
this hinders the steady miniaturization of patterned spintronicdevice elements such as magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ)
based magnetic random access memories (MRAMs).
4,5
The conventional way of modeling magnetization
dynamics with thermal effects is by including two distinct
and disjoint terms in the effective field of the macroscopic
equation of motion:1(a) a dissipative field and (b) a random
thermal field. For a uniformly magnetized particle with mag-
netization Mof magnitude Ms, the classical equation of
motion is given as6,7
dM
dt¼/C0c0M/C2Heff/C0a
MsdM
dtþHT/C18/C19
; (1)
where c0is the gyromagnetic constant, ais the damping con-
stant, and HTdenotes an isotropic white Gaussian thermal
field. The effective field Heffincludes the applied field and
contributions from exchange, anisotropy, and magnetoelasticeffects.
8The damping term, introduced by Gilbert,7accounts
for rapid relaxation toward the equilibrium state, while the
thermal field is responsible for the Brownian motion.
However, there is an important assumption in modeling
the dynamics classically: the time scale of the thermal field1
and the relaxation of angular momentum associated with
magnetic moment9should be much shorter than the responsetimes of the system. Simply put, the internal equilibrium of a
magnetization orientation should occur much faster than the
thermodynamic equilibrium of the ensemble.2The time scale
associated with the thermal field is of the order of kT/
h¼10/C013s at room temperature ( kTis the thermal energy
andhis Planck’s constant), that of the angular momentum
relaxation is of the order of 10–15s, and that of the preces-
sional motion of magnetization is around 10/C010s.1,9
Therefore, the assumption and the model are reasonable at
nominal temperatures. However, the conventional model of
magnetization relaxation becomes inadequate for explaining
low temperature (10 m K–10 K) phenomena, such as macro-
scopic tunneling of magnetization,10,11in which the transi-
tion rate between two magnetic states is independent of
temperature.
By modeling the dynamics due to thermal effects using
a single random process composed of discontinuous transi-
tions (jumps) with Poisson arrivals, called the jump-
noise,12,13a unified model applicable over a broad range of
temperatures is obtained. The jump-noise provides a justifi-
cation for quantum tunneling of magnetization without
invoking quantum mechanics.11For small noise, the classical
Gilbert damping term emerges from average effects of the
jump-noise.13,14
The reversal time of magnetization extracted from
jump-noise dynamics requires primarily the knowledge of
the energy landscape of the magnetic body. As an applica-
tion, it can be used to study the retention time and stability
of emerging magnetic memories. An example is magneto-
electric antiferromagnetic (AFM) memory using (0001)
Cr2O3(chromia) thin film. In chromia thin films, the energy
landscape strongly depends on the product of the applied
longitudinal electric field and magnetic field.15–17However,
experimental measurements of retention time of AFM
domain state are elusive due to the absence of a neta)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: arun.parth@nyu.edu
0021-8979/2018/123(22)/223901/6/$30.00 Published by AIP Publishing. 123, 223901-1JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 123, 223901 (2018)
macroscopic magnetic moment in AFMs. The results
obtained here can provide useful insight into the design andoptimization of such memory systems.
The direct approach to realize jump-noise dynamics is
to solve the Kolmogorov-Fokker-Planck equation for thetransition probability density of the stochastic process usinga specialized finite element and finite difference method. Forsmall noise, this equation can be reduced to a stochastic pro-cess on energy graphs and can be set up and solved muchfaster.
18This paper focuses on the algorithmic approach to
simulate jump-noise and extract the statistics empirically viaMonte Carlo simulations. While Monte Carlo simulationsare computationally expensive, they are fairly easy to imple-ment and can be executed in parallel on a multi-core proces-sor for significant speedup.
19,20
The goal of this paper is twofold. First, we present a
complete methodology for numerical modeling of jump-
noise statistics (Sec. III). Here, we contrast our work against
prior works21,22in which simulations are performed using a
sub-optimal global mesh. Second, we empirically extract themagnetization reversal time in nanomagnets (Sec. IV) with
uniaxial and cubic anisotropy and compare the data withN/C19eel-Brown theory’s solution to analogous classical dynam-
ics (Secs. VandVI). While Ref. 11discusses the thermal
switching rate, the reversal time of magnetization of jump-noise dynamics is analyzed in our work.
II. THE JUMP-NOISE
The magnetization dynamics driven by jump-noise is
described by the equation12
dm
dt¼/C0m/C2heffþX
iDmidðt/C0tiÞ/H20687kmk¼1;(2)
where m¼M=Ms;heff¼Heff=Ms;t¼ðc0MsÞtare dimen-
sionless quantities. If the total magnetic free energy densitygis known as a function of the state m, then
h
eff¼/C0 r mgðmÞ. The jump-noise is represented by the
weighted Dirac comb which expresses random jumps Dmi
on the unit sphere kmk¼1 occurring at random time
instants ti.
The jump-noise is formulated as a Poisson process char-
acterized by a transition probability rate function Sbetween
state pairs ðm1;m2Þin the phase space kmk¼1. The transi-
tion probability rate is given as13
Sðm1;m2Þ¼Bexp/C01
2r2km1/C0m2k2/C20
þeb0
2gðm1Þ/C0gðm2Þ/C8/C9/C21
;eb0¼l0M2
sV
kT;(3)
where Bandrare the jump-noise parameters, l0is the vac-
uum permeability, Vis the volume of the nanomagnet, and
eb0is the energy barrier parameter. The parameters Bandr
can be determined experimentally by measuring the escape
rate of the magnetization as a function of temperature. From
Eq.(3), the scattering rate kfrom a state mfollows:kðmÞ¼þ
km0k¼1Sðm;m0Þd2m0: (4)
The probability density function fof a jump Dmito occur at
time tigiven the state mifollows:
fðDmijmiÞ¼Sðmi;miþDmiÞ
kðmiÞ: (5)
The statistic of the jump instants tiis given by the inter-
arrival times in a nonhomogeneous Poisson process
Prðtiþ1/C0ti>sÞ¼exp/C0ðtiþs
tikðmðtÞÞdt !
: (6)
III. NUMERICAL METHOD
To simulate the jump-noise, we need to generate the cor-
rect statistics of the jumps Dmiand the instants Dtifrom
Eqs. (4)–(6)and evolve Eq. (2)in time.
The first step is to realize a discrete state space of
kmk¼1. It is convenient to use spherical coordinates ðh;/Þto
represent the components of the state msuch that
mx¼sinhcos/;my¼sinhsin/;mz¼cosh. By uniformly
sampling h2½0;p/C138and/2½0;2p/C138, we can form a finite ele-
ment mesh on the unit sphere. In Ref. 22, the spherical mesh
forms a global state space, which remains fixed regardless of thestate from where jump occurs. Discretizing the space this way isnot ideal, especially when r
2/C281, because majority of the
jumps would occur in a small solid angle centered at the currentstate. Moreover, the error due to discretization depends on thestate as the mesh points are unevenly distributed [see Fig. 1(a)].
A better approach, adopted in this work, is to form a local
spherical mesh with half angle Has shown in Fig. 1(b). Such
mesh inherently keeps the density of states high near the localstate and less far away, which is beneficial because the proba-bility density (5)behaves alike. Tessellation of the sphere by
a regular convex polyhedron
23does not exhibit this property.
Hcan be estimated by first finding an upper bound on the
transition probability rate (3)forkDmk¼2 sinðH=2Þas
lnSðm;mþDmÞ
Sðm;mÞ/C20/C21
/C20eb0
2kDmkkrgkmax/C02
r2kDmk2;(7)
FIG. 1. Discrete state space formed on the unit sphere using (a) global mesh
and (b) local mesh. Red dots in the middle of each mesh element represent
the states, while the size of the mesh element determines the weight
associated.223901-2 A. Parthasarathy and S. Rakheja J. Appl. Phys. 123, 223901 (2018)then setting the right-hand-side to logarithm of the desired
suppression. Hmeasures the strength of jump-noise given
the parameters randeb0.
The random samples from the probability density func-
tion in Eq. (5)are generated by a fundamental method called
inverse transform sampling. First, label the state space by asingle index jsuch that S¼f ðh
j;/jÞ:j¼1;2;…;Mgis the
collection of states, where Mis the total number of states.
Now, find the cumulative distribution function Fas
Fj¼Xj
k¼1fksinðhkÞdhd/ ; (8)
where ddenotes the sample spacing. Generate a random
number vfrom the uniform distribution between 0 and 1, and
compute the value of jsatisfying
Fj’v/C17min jjFj/C0vj: (9)
The state mj¼:ðhj;/jÞis the random jump destination.
The jump statistic given by Eq. (6)cannot be numeri-
cally realized in its current implicit form. This is resolved byhomogenizing the scattering on the state space via a self-scattering (nil jump) process k
0.21The total scattering rate
after homogenization is given by
kðmÞþk0ðmÞ¼C¼max mkðmÞ: (10)
From Eqs. (6)and(10), the time between scattering scan be
explicitly expressed as
s¼/C01
Cln Prðtiþ1/C0ti>sÞ ½/C138 : (11)
By replacing the probability with a uniform random number
between 0 and 1, the random duration between the jumps is
generated. But, the probability of a non-zero jump is onlykðmÞ=C, which can be discerned by generating another uni-
form random number ubetween 0 and 1, and checking if
u/C20kðmÞ=C.
Lastly, the state mis evolved in time according to Eq.
(2)by repeating the following steps: (a) integrate the deter-
ministic term in the scattering-free duration t2½t
i;tiþ1Þ
using a finite difference method, (b) at t¼tiþ1perform the
jump to mjand generate a new duration ssuch that the next
jump occurs at tiþ2¼tiþ1þs.
IV. EQUILIBRIUM DISTRIBUTION AND REVERSAL
TIME EXTRACTION
To corroborate the numerical method to emulate jump-
noise dynamics, we perform Monte Carlo simulations tostudy the equilibrium distribution of magnetization for nano-magnets possessing magnetocrystalline anisotropy only,under no applied field. We consider 1000 samples alignedalong the same lowest energy state m
z¼/C01, without loss of
generality, at time t¼0, and let the ensemble evolve with
time until the absolute ensemble mean jmzj<¼0:001. The
simulation is implemented in MATLAB with the help of
Parallel Computing Toolbox on a server with 20-core CPU@ 2.3 GHz and 512 GB memory. The time step is 0.05, the
angular spacing of mesh is 0 :72/C14, and the suppression factor
forHis 10/C08. The computation time for these specifications
scales /C240:1/C2ss, where sis the reversal time (16).
Analytically from statistical mechanics, the probability
density function of the states min thermal equilibrium is
given by the Boltzmann distribution
weqðmÞ¼weqðh;/Þ¼1
Zexpð/C0eb0gðh;/ÞÞ; (12)
where Zis the normalization constant given by
Z¼ð2p
0ðp
0expð/C0eb0gðh;/ÞÞsinhdhd/: (13)
From Eq. (12), the equilibrium distribution of mzfollows:
weqðmzÞ¼ð2p
0weqðarccos ðmzÞ;/Þd/: (14)
For uniaxial anisotropy, gðh;/Þ¼1
2sin2h. For cubic anisot-
ropy, gðh;/Þ¼1
2ðsin4hsin22/þsin22hÞ.
The simulation results for the equilibrium distribution of
mzfor the uniaxial and cubic anisotropy are shown in Fig. 2.
The Monte Carlo simulations replicate the Boltzmann distri-bution correctly for both the energy landscapes. This is
expected because the transition probability rate in Eq. (3)
satisfies the detailed balance
Sðm
1;m2Þweqðm1Þ¼Sðm2;m1Þweqðm2Þ; (15)
for all ðm1;m2Þ2kmk¼1. The small yet notable error in
the simulations is affected by one or more of the sample size
and mesh spacing.
In N /C19eel-Brown theory,1the reversal time of magnetiza-
tionscharacterizes the longitudinal relaxation of ensemble
magnetization as
FIG. 2. Equilibrium distribution of mzfor (a) uniaxial anisotropy and (b)
cubic anisotropy. The parameters are eb0¼10,B¼1, and r¼0:2.223901-3 A. Parthasarathy and S. Rakheja J. Appl. Phys. 123, 223901 (2018)jmzjðtÞ/C25e/C0t=s;t/C29s: (16)
Even for jump-noise dynamics, Eq. (16) holds true
because the Markov chain represented by it satisfies thedetailed balance condition, and therefore has an exponentialrate of convergence to the stationary distribution (12).
24So,
scan be estimated from the asymptotic value of sðtÞ
¼/C0t=ln½jmzj/C138from simulations as featured in Fig. 3, by fol-
lowing the same procedure mentioned for extracting theequilibrium distribution.
V. EQUIVALENT CLASSICAL DYNAMICS
It is essential to see how the reversal time of magnetiza-
tion extracted from jump-noise dynamics compares with thereversal time obtained from N /C19eel-Brown theory. This
requires establishing an equivalence between the jump-noiseand classical magnetization dynamics.
Equation (1)can be rewritten in the dimensionless
Landau-Lifshitz form,
2excluding the thermal field, as
dm
dt¼/C01
1þa2m/C2heffþam/C2ðm/C2heffÞ ½/C138 : (17)
In the absence of applied field, heff¼/C0 r gðh;/Þis orthogo-
nal to the radial direction m,s o
m/C2ðm/C2heffÞ¼ðm/C1heffÞm/C0kmk2heff¼r g:(18)
From Eqs. (17) and(18), the component of d m=dtalong rg,
in the absence of applied field, gives the damping terma=ð1þa
2Þ. Indeed for the jump-noise dynamics (2), the
average component of jump-noise along rggives rise to an
equivalent damping term locally.
The expected value of jump-noise at a given state mis
expressed as
EdDm
dt/C12/C12/C12/C12m"#
¼ð
Dm0Sðm;mþDm0Þd2Dm0: (19)
For small noise H/C281, the phase space of jumps Dm0can be
approximated by the local tangent plane. The energy differ-ence gðmþDm
0Þ/C0gðmÞin Eq. (3)can be truncated up to
second order of Taylor series, which then can be used to eval-uate the integral in Eq. (19) definitely by forming a bivariate
Gaussian function. The derivation is similar to that for firstorder approximation of the energy difference in Ref. 14.T h einclusion of second-order term is important because the term
kDm
0k2=r2in Eq. (3)is quadratic. The final expression of the
expected jump-noise is obtained as
EdDm
dt/C12/C12/C12/C12m"#
¼/C01
2r2eb0kðmÞW/C01rg; (20)
kðmÞ¼B2pr2
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
detWp exp1
8ðreb0Þ2rgTW/C01rg/C20/C21
; (21)
W¼I 2þ1
2r2eb0Hg; (22)
where I2is the 2 /C22 identity matrix and His the Hessian
operator. In local coordinates of the tangent space ofmðh;/Þ, the gradient and Hessian of gare written as
rg¼g
hcschg//C2/C3T; (23)
Hg¼ghh gh//C0cothg/
gh//C0cothg/g//þcoshsinhgh/C20/C21
; (24)
where each letter of subscript denotes partial derivative with
respect to that variable.
The equivalent damping term for jump-noise can now
be determined as
aðh;/Þ
1þaðh;/Þ2’aðh;/Þ¼/C0rgT
krgk2EdDm
dt/C12/C12/C12/C12m"#
¼1
2r2eb0kðh;/ÞrgTW/C01rg
krgk2: (25)
Unless Wequals identity, the expected value of jump-
noise would also yield an orthogonal component along
m/C2rg¼½/C0cschg/gh/C138T, which is the precessional
motion. The physical significance of this component is a smallcorrection to the gyromagnetic ratio [see Eq. (1)]b yaf a c t o ro f
c
cðh;/Þ¼1/C01
2r2eb0kðh;/Þðm/C2rgÞTW/C01rg
km/C2rgk2:(26)
VI. REVERSAL TIME: N /C19EEL-BROWN THEORY VERSUS
JUMP-NOISE DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS
In N /C19eel-Brown theory, the reversal time in the high
energy barrier limit eb0/C291 is approximated by inverse of
the smallest non-vanishing longitudinal eigenmode of theFokker-Planck equation of the Landau-Lifshitz dynamics.
2,3
The expressions of reversal time for the uniaxial and cubic
anisotropy, suniandscub, respectively, in dimensionless units
are reproduced from Ref. 3as
suni¼ffiffiffippðaþa/C01Þ
ccffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2eb0p 1þ2
eb0þ7
e2
b0/C20/C21
expeb0
2/C18/C19
; (27)
scub¼pðaþa/C01Þ
ffiffiffi
2p
ccffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
9þ8
a2r
þ1 !
A4ffiffiffi
2p
9aeb0/C18/C19 expeb0
2/C18/C19
;
AðKÞ¼exp1
pð1
0lnf1/C0exp/C0Kðg2þ1=4Þ/C2/C3
g
g2þ1=4dg"#
:
(28)FIG. 3. Existence of an asymptotic time constant for the longitudinal relaxa-
tion of magnetization for (a) uniaxial anisotropy, and (b) cubic anisotropy.
The parameters are eb0¼10,B¼1, and r¼0:05 to 0.25 in steps of 0.05
from topmost to bottom-most plot.223901-4 A. Parthasarathy and S. Rakheja J. Appl. Phys. 123, 223901 (2018)The expression of scubhere is multiplied by 2 because
the reversal time for cubic anisotropy in the literature2,3,25
corresponds to the relaxation associated with surmounting
one energy barrier from mz¼1t o mx;my¼61 (see Fig. 4).
Since the energy landscape is symmetric about mz¼0 and
the barriers are high, the longitudinal relaxation from mz¼1
tomz¼/C01 is associated with overcoming two successive
energy barriers with intermediate orientations at
mx;my¼61.
The equivalent damping term aand the gyromag-
netic correction factor ccfor jump-noise dynamics are
not constants but depend on the state mðh;/Þ. To obtain
the corresponding N /C19eel-Brown theory’s solution of the
reversal time, we calculate the numerical bounds of suni
(27) andscub(28) by varying a(25) andcc(26) on the
phase space. Upon inspection, when the noise is small,the lower bound occurs close to energy maximum(h¼p=2) for s
uniand close to energy saddle points
(h¼p=4;3p=4;/¼0;p=2;p;3p=2) for scub.F o rl a r g e
energy barrier, the internal equilibrium within an energywell occurs much faster than the equilibrium between
energy wells, leaving the “flow” across energy barrier to
be concentrated near the point of least height,
2thereby
giving the lower bound. The upper bound occurs close toenergy minima for both s
uniandscubbecause the damp-
ing is minimum around it.
The reversal time extracted from Monte Carlo simula-
tions of jump-noise dynamics and the numerical bounds ofthe reversal time obtained from N /C19eel-Brown theory’s solu-
tion to equivalent Landau-Lifshitz dynamics are shown inFig.5. For both uniaxial and cubic anisotropy, the simulation
points coincide with the lower bound for smaller values of r
and deviate from it for larger values while remaining withinthe bounds. Thus, the reversal time of jump-noise dynamics
for small noise is characterized by saddle point values of the
equivalent classical dynamics parameters aand c
c. The
reversal time of jump of dynamics is also always smallerthan that of equivalent classical dynamics characterized byenergy minima values of aandc
c. The qualitative explana-
tion for this is that jump-noise phenomenologically accountsfor tunneling unlike classical dynamics, and so yields alower reversal time.For large noise, the second order approximation of the
energy difference breaks down, and consequently the expres-
sions of aand c
ccould yield unphysical results.
Additionally, the expected value of jump-noise would pro-
duce component along the radial direction which cannot be
modeled by the Landau-Lifshitz equation. For large scatter-
ing rate, the right hand side of Eq. (25) could exceed unity,
thereby giving a complex damping parameter.
The magnitude of noise for desired suppression of prob-
ability is determined from the noise strength Husing Eq. (7).
Alternatively, from Eqs. (5) and (20), the value of
r2eb0kW/C01rgkgives a good measure of noise. However,
when comparing different energy landscapes, the magnitude
of noise must be measured relative to the distance between
the energy minima and maxima. When the noise is large
enough to cross the barrier in few jumps rather than gradu-
ally, the equilibrium occurs as a simultaneous process within
and in between energy wells; therefore, N /C19eel-Brown theory
is not valid. Since the angular distance between the energy
minima and maxima is larger in uniaxial (90/C14) than in cubic
(55/C14) anisotropy, for a r2eb0product say, 0 :252/C210¼36/C14,
evidently the reversal time of jump-noise dynamics for cubic
anisotropy shows larger deviation from N /C19eel-Brown theory’s
solution in Fig. 5.
VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we develop numerical methods to extract
the reversal time of magnetization of jump-noise dynamics
in nanomagnets with uniaxial and cubic anisotropy via
Monte Carlo simulations. The reversal time of nanomagnets
due to thermal fluctuation predicted from jump-noise dynam-
ics is more accurate because it accounts for tunneling effects
by its very formulation. Modeling of the jump-noise requires
primarily the knowledge of the energy landscape of theFIG. 4. Cubic anisotropy energy landscape. Both radial distance and bright-
ness of color-map indicate the energy. There are six equivalent energy min-
ima along mx;my;mz¼61.FIG. 5. Reversal time of magnetization for (a) uniaxial anisotropy, and (b)
cubic anisotropy. Solid lines are numerical bounds of N /C19eel-Brown theory’s
solutions (27) and(28) to equivalent Landau-Lifshitz dynamics specified by
Eqs. (25) and(26). The parameters are eb0¼10 and B¼1.223901-5 A. Parthasarathy and S. Rakheja J. Appl. Phys. 123, 223901 (2018)system and not the microscopic origin of the underlying phe-
nomena. Results show that the reversal time gathered from
N/C19eel-Brown theory’s solution to analogous classical dynam-
ics (a) at the energy saddle point characterizes the reversal
time of jump-noise dynamics for small noise, (b) at theenergy minima is always larger than the reversal time of
jump-noise dynamics. For large noise, the magnetization
reversal due to jump-noise dynamics has no classical ana-
logue and phenomenologically represents macroscopic
tunneling of magnetization.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported in part by the Semiconductor
Research Corporation (SRC) and the National ScienceFoundation (NSF) through ECCS 1740136. S. Rakheja also
acknowledges the funding support from the MRSEC
Program of the National Science Foundation under Award
No. DMR-1420073.
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1.4763544.pdf | REVIEWS OF ACOUSTICAL PATENTS
Sean A. Fulop
Dept. of Linguistics, PB92
California State University Fresno
5245 N. Backer Avenue, Fresno, California 93740-8001
Lloyd Rice
11222 Flatiron Drive, Lafayette, Colorado 80026
The purpose of these acoustical patent reviews is to provide enough information for a Journal reader to
decide whether to seek more information from the patent itself. Any opinions expressed here are those ofthe reviewers as individuals and are not legal opinions. Printed copies of United States Patents may be
ordered at $3.00 each from the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, Washington, DC 20231.
Patents are available via the Internet at http://www.uspto.gov .
Reviewers for this issue:
GEORGE L. AUGSPURGER, Perception, Incorporated, Box 39536, Los Angeles, California 90039
SEAN A. FULOP , California State University, Fresno, 5245 N. Backer Avenue M/S PB92, Fresno, California 93740-8001
JEROME A. HELFFRICH, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas 78228
DAVID PREVES, Starkey Laboratories, 6600 Washington Ave. S., Eden Prairie, Minnesota 55344
CARL J. ROSENBERG, Acentech Incorporated, 33 Moulton Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
NEIL A. SHAW, Menlo Scientific Acoustics, Inc., Post Office Box 1610, Topanga, California 90290
ERIC E. UNGAR, Acentech, Incorporated, 33 Moulton Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
ROBERT C. WAAG, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627
8,162,076
43.35.Zc SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REDUCING
THE BOREHOLE GAP FOR DOWNHOLEFORMATION TESTING SENSORS
Ruben Martinez et al ., assignors to Schlumberger Technology
Corporation
24 April 2012 (Class 175/40); filed 2 June 2006
This patent teaches about using hydraulically actuated pads for plac-
ing various sensors in contact with a borehole during oil well drillingoperations. Specifically, the authors target so-called ‘‘Measurement While
Drilling’’ operations, in which the sensors are actually operated while the
drill is rotating and mud is being pumped past the sensors. Thus, a large
part of the patent is devoted to maintaining pressure against the borehole
wall without creating too much pressure, which will lead to extensive
transducer wear. In this design, the sensors are mounted on hinged pads
that swing out from the body of the drill, as shown in the figure, which isa cross-sectional view of the sensor part of a drill string. The patent also
teaches the use of reamers around the sensors to scrape away the mud
cake while a measurement is being made.—JAH
8,179,020
43.35.Zc VIBRATORY ACTUATOR AND DRIVE
DEVICE USING THE SAME
Yusuke Adachi et al., assignors to Panasonic Corporation
15 May 2012 (Class 310/323.16); filed in Japan 14 June 2007
This patent discloses the design of a piezoelectrically driven linear
translation motor. In such a motor, the piezoelectric actuator typically is
driven so as to execute an elliptical motion where the actuator contacts
the part to be translated. The actuator contacts the part being translated
for a small part of a cycle, translates it longitudinally, and then pulls
away and resets for another cycle. The authors claim that one shortcomingof the standard approach is that grooves are worn into the translated part
where the actuator contacts it (the contacts are labeled 8a and 8b in the
figure, where the part being translated is not shown). Their solution is to
stagger the distribution of the contact points, as shown in the figure. The
authors claim that if the separation of the staggered contacts 8a and 8b is
large enough this not only reduces groove depth but increases the stability
of the actuator, helping to prevent it from rotating or tipping.—JAH
4086 J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 132(6), December 2012 0001-4966/2012/132(6)/4086/16/$30.00 VC2012 Acoustical Society of America8,189,811
43.38.Ew SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR
PROCESSING AUDIO SIGNALS
Roy R. Tillis, Columbus, OH
29 May 2012 (Class 381/96); filed 16 July 2010
One of the requirements for a U.S. patent is that the invention be
non-obvious. This patent exceeds that requirement by a wide margin—it
defies rational explanation. Block 12 actually contains a second loudspeaker
14 with voice coil connections 3 and 4. The function of the hidden loud-
speaker is not to produce sound but rather to drive a pickup coil, whoseoutput appears at terminals 1 and 2. That’s right—motional feedback is
derived not from the loudspeaker but from a kind of doppelganger speaker.
The patent argues that, since a moving sound source generates Doppler dis-
tortion, the output of full-range loudspeaker 8 must include Doppler distor-
tion. (Pay close attention now.) It follows that the electrical output from
the second loudspeaker’s pickup coil must be an accurate representation of
the acoustic output from the main speaker, including Doppler distortion.‘‘The difference between the original audio signal and the processed signal
is Doppler distortion. This difference is subtracted from the original audio
signal to produce an output with minimized or cancelled Doppler distor-
tion.’’ Electronic Doppler distortion? Wishful wizardry remains alive and
well in the ranks of amateur loudspeaker designers.—GLA
8,194,868
43.38.Hz LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM FOR VIRTUAL
SOUND SYNTHESIS
Ulrich Horbach and Etienne Corteel, assignors to Harman
International Industries, Incorporated
5 June 2012 (Class 381/59); filed 3 January 2008Those who have heard demonstrations of surround sound via wave
field synthesis know that some effects are uncannily realistic. However,
even a small installation (less than 360 degrees) requires many, many sig-
nal channels and an equal number of identical loudspeakers. Some simpli-
fication can be realized by using larger panel-type loudspeakers driven by
multiple, closely spaced exciters. Unfortunately, frequency response char-
acteristics produced by individual exciters in the same panel can varywidely, and room effects add further contamination. This patent describes
an equalization method that is said to counteract both effects. Multiple
impulse responses are derived from measurements at multiple microphone
locations. These are compared with ideal impulse responses and then,
using an iterative algorithm, finite impulse response filters are created to
provide the required corrections. High frequency and low frequency
ranges are equalized separately, then combined.—GLA
8,160,285
43.38.Ja WAVEGUIDE UNIT
Michael Gjedbo Kragelund, assignor to Mike Thomas ApS
17 April 2012 (Class 381/338); filed in Denmark 13 September
2005
Diffraction edge 8, one of three such edges as shown in the figure,
but which can vary between 2 and 7 edges, diffracts the sound emanating
from dome unit 10. The scattering of sound from the diffraction edges,
the number of which and location of such edges (from f¼c/(AþB/C0C)),
improves the ‘‘harmonization of the emitted sound’’ since ‘‘the improved
sound reproduction is due to the fact that the diffraction edges will deflect
the sound so that the on-axis sound pressure will have a maximum damp-
ening without dampening the off-axis level.’’ The on-axis level is attenu-ated due to path length differences from the diffraction edges. How this
affects the level at angles off-axis is not described, or ‘‘these geometric
dimensions for the waveguide provides an improved sound distribution
that is substantially linear effect characteristic of a high frequency dome
transducer is provided.’’ Many commercially available loudspeaker enclo-
sures use a device similar to the invention, except they have a smooth
profile.—NAS
8,189,841
43.38.Ja ACOUSTIC PASSIVE RADIATING
Roman N. Litovsky and Faruk Halil Bursal, assignors to Bose
Corporation
29 May 2012 (Class 381/349); filed 27 March 2008
In comparison with a conventional ducted vent, a passive radiator
introduces all sorts of problems. However, when a very small box must be
tuned to a very low frequency, the passive radiator is much more efficient
in its use of available box volume. Therefore, it would seem to be a goodchoice for loudspeakers in small, hand-held devices. But such devices not
only have limited internal volume, they have limited surface area available
4087 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 4087for sound radiation. Well, when the passive radiator produces maximum
output at resonance the loudspeaker cone hardly moves at all, and higher
frequencies are reproduced mostly by the loudspeaker with very little con-
tribution from the passive radiator. Could the operation of the two cones
somehow be combined? Possibly yes, and that is what Bose has patented
here. A lightweight, miniature loudspeaker 32A is mounted in the center
of passive radiator 16A. Near the resonance frequency the entire assembly
moves, as indicated by (exaggerated) dotted lines 16X, 16Y. The patentdoes not seem to cover the limiting case in which the loudspeaker and the
passive radiator are one and the same.—GLA
8,191,674
43.38.Ja ACOUSTIC LOADING DEVICE FOR
LOUDSPEAKERS
Ambrose Thompson, assignor to Martin Audio Limited
5 June 2012 (Class 181/186); filed in United Kingdom 21 April
2005
This patent is a rarity. It describes an actual, working device rather
than a half-formed preliminary concept. The invention is a high frequency
horn whose directional response can be steered in the field by adjusting
pivoting vane 26. The idea seems simple, but numerous trade-offs are
involved, and the patent goes into optimum geometry in some detail.
Comparative frequency response curves show that lateral off-axis response
can be substantially increased by setting the vane appropriately.—GLA
8,194,905
43.38.Ja COHERENT WAVE FULL SPECTRUM
ACOUSTIC HORN
Gordon Alfred Vinther, Sr., Provincetown, MA
5 June 2012 (Class 381/342); filed 13 February 2008
This is an invention 50 years behind its time. Like the 1934 Voigt
corner horn, it is a vertical horn with a large reflector to direct high fre-
quencies into the listening area. It features coherent high-frequency and
low-frequency sound sources, but so did the Voigt design. Unlike theVoigt horn, it uses a ‘‘Y’’ throat with individual high-frequency and low-
frequency drivers, but that idea is no longer new either.—GLA
8,199,961
43.38.Ja SPEAKER DEVICE, INSTALLATION BODY
FOR SPEAKER DEVICE, AND MOBILE BODY
HAVING SPEAKER DEVICE MOUNTED THEREON
Manabu Omoda and Masahiro Watanabe, assignors to JVC
Kenwood Corporation
12 June 2012 (Class 381/389); filed in Japan 15 July 2005
The diagram is a horizontal section through the right speaker of a
motorcycle stereo system. The speakers are attached to both sides of a
4088 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 4088storage compartment behind the rider. The angle of the speaker baffle, the
shape of cowling 3, the geometry of sound exit opening 30, and additional
air vent 19 are all designed to minimize air turbulence and deliver reason-
ably smooth high frequency response while the motorcycle is moving.
The patent describes numerous variants and includes air flow diagrams at
various wind velocities.—GLA
8,204,266
43.38.Ja AUDIO DEVICES
Jordi Frigola Munoz et al., assignors to SFX Technologies Limited
19 June 2012 (Class 381/335); filed in United Kingdom 21 October
2005
Like many others, this patent is mostly doubletalk. We begin with
an electronic device in some kind of housing. It probably is a cellular
phone or other small device, but the patent Claims do not limit the size or
usage. One surface is driven so that it functions as a planar loudspeaker,
‘‘a first acoustic radiator.’’ This is all well known prior art. However, a
portable device is not always hand-held—it may be operated while lying
on a desk or table. The illustration shows a cellular phone 10 lying on
such a horizontal surface 12. Back panel 16 is the loudspeaker. Two little
spacers 20 allow the panel to vibrate freely and radiate sound into theshallow cavity below. To prevent buzzes and rattles, the spacers should be
resilient. (Let’s make it sound scientific and specify an elastomeric mate-
rial with a Shore A hardness of less than 20.) We now have a practical
design, but how can it be patented? By asserting that the acoustically
coupled support surface also radiates sound. The surface may be, ‘‘…a
wall surface, desktop, ceiling…’’—doesn’t matter; we say it radiates
sound and that is that. Congratulations to the patent attorneys.—GLA
8,204,241
43.38.Lc SOUND OUTPUTTING APPARATUS,
SOUND OUTPUTTING METHOD, SOUND OUTPUTPROCESSING PROGRAM AND SOUND
OUTPUTTING SYSTEM
Kohei Asada and Goro Shiraishi, assignors to Sony Corporation
19 June 2012 (Class 381/71.1); filed in Japan 27 December 2006
This patent is written in Pidgin English, which does no credit to
Sony. Even allowing for that, the text is discursive and hard to follow.
The area of interest is the operation of small, portable music devices.
Such a device may be used under layers of clothing or in a deep pocket,
in which case the operation of simple controls becomes difficult. (Or, as
the patent would say, ‘‘cumbersome.’’) Prior art includes a method that
allows the user to execute basic commands by tapping on one headphone,using a simple code. Obviously, special headphones are required and,
since the overall playback system will be fairly expensive, these may well
provide noise cancellation. Aha! Since a noise-cancelling headphone al-
ready includes a microphone, the same microphone can be used to pick
up the coded taps. And that is where this patent takes over. Using more
than 50 illustrations and two dozen pages of text, the patent explains how
such dual functionality might be implemented.—GLA8,189,847
43.38.Si DUAL-FREQUENCY COAXIAL
EARPHONES WITH SHARED MAGNET
Fred Huang, assignor to Jetvox Acoustic Corporation
29 May 2012 (Class 381/380); filed in Taiwan 21 August 2008
This patent describes a variant of an earlier coaxial earphone design.
In this case a single magnet 110 energizes both voice coil gaps. All the
parts fit together quite nicely, but the scheme for high frequency reproduc-
tion is based on a serious misconception. Energy from small diaphragm
32 is conducted through short horn 251 to impinge upon the rear surfaceof low frequency diaphragm 241 (not identified), ‘‘…so as to energize
the central diaphragm 241 of the low frequency speaker part 2 and to
form a same phase as, and to output frequency synchronously with, the
low frequency speaker part 2.’’ In the real world, instead of being ener-
gized the low frequency diaphragm will simply block high frequencies.
The arrangement might be described as a self-defeating coaxial trans-
ducer.—GLA
4089 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 40898,190,217
43.38.Si DUAL MODE ELECTRONIC HEADSET WITH
LOCAL AND REMOTE FOCUSED MICROPHONES
Richard S. Slevin, Los Altos Hills, CA
29 May 2012 (Class 455/575.2); filed 4 January 2010
A headset can be worn to screen out exterior noise while carrying
on a telephone conversation. Such a headset includes a microphone ori-
ented to pick up the user’s voice. (It might even be a noise-cancelling
microphone, although the patent does not mention that possibility.) The
patent suggests that, during lulls in the conversation or between calls, theuser may want to hear outside sounds clearly. The problem is solved by
adding a second microphone and an automatic mode control to switch
between the two.—GLA8,194,875
43.38.Si COMMUNICATION APPARATUS AND
HELMET
Stephen Alfred Miranda, assignor to Innotech Pty Limited
5 June 2012 (Class 381/74); filed in Australia 11 September 2002
Several existing patents describe communications equipment incor-
porated into, or attached to, a safety helmet that might be worn by a rac-
ing car driver or motorcyclist. This patent is concerned mainly with fire-
fighters. A bone conduction microphone 36 and a loudspeaker 38 are
mounted toward the back of the user’s head. The loudspeaker is primarily
a bone conduction transducer, but may also radiate airborn sound.—GLA
8,199,942
43.38.Si TARGETED SOUND DETECTION AND
GENERATION FOR AUDIO HEADSET
Xiadong Mao, assignor to Sony Computer Entertainment
Incorporated
12 June 2012 (Class 381/309); filed 7 April 2008
Some modern video games generate full-bodied surround sound through
headphones. Even if the particular headphones allow some outside sound to
enter, chances are the user will not hear a knock on the door or a telephone
ring tone. The earphones described in this patent include one or more micro-phones to pick up external sounds. Those signals can then be combined with
the multi-channel program material. The patent includes two little tricks to
(hopefully) avoid conflicts with prior art. First, the direction of an external
sound source can be estimated and replicated in the amplified surround sound
field. Second, external sounds are not reproduced in real time—they are
briefly stored (‘‘recorded’’) during processing.—GLA
4090 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 40908,199,950
43.38.Si EARPHONE AND A METHOD FOR
PROVIDING AN IMPROVED SOUND
EXPERIENCE
Andrej Petef and Gunnar Klinghult, assignors to Sony Ericsson
Mobile Communications AB
12 June 2012 (Class 381/322); filed 22 October 2007
Numerous devices have been designed to provide tactile stimulation
synchronized with a musical beat. We have seen vibrating dance floors,
chairs, headrests, and saunas. Are you ready for earphones that literally
tickle your ears? By including an electro-active polymer in the sealing
cushion of an insertable earbud, the inventors have created just such a
gadget.—GLA
8,190,425
43.38.Vk COMPLEX CROSS-CORRELATION
PARAMETERS FOR MULTI-CHANNEL AUDIO
Sanjeev Mehrotra and Wei-Ge Chen, assignors to Microsoft
Corporation
29 May 2012 (Class 704/203); filed 20 January 2006
The invention described in this patent is actually a catalog of possi-
ble techniques for encoding and decoding multi-channel audio. The one
common feature in all the patent Claims seems to be a cross-correlation
parameter in which the cross-correlation ratio between channels can be
represented by an imaginary number component plus a real number com-
ponent.—GLA8,194,898
43.38.Vk SOUND REPRODUCING SYSTEM AND
SOUND REPRODUCING METHOD
Teppei Yokota, assignor to Sony Corporation
5 June 2012 (Class 381/310); filed in Japan 22 September 2006
The goal of this patent is set forth as, ‘‘…sound image localization
of sound of a channel in which a sound image is localized in a position in
a front direction of a listener, such as a center channel where the sound
image localization is difficult to obtain, can be improved even when sound
of a plurality of channels is reproduced by using the virtual sound pro-cess.’’ Roughly translated, it says: Front speakers should be used to repro-
duce front sound sources. In this hybrid setup, however, surround channels
are reproduced by ‘‘nearphones.’’ For example, speakers 14FL and 14FR
might be located conventionally in the dashboard of an automobile while
surround speakers 11SW1 and 11SW2 would be attached to a headrest.
Various transfer functions are calculated and used to create phantom sur-
round sound sources.—GLA
4091 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 40918,199,941
43.38.Vk METHOD OF IDENTIFYING SPEAKERS IN
A HOME THEATER SYSTEM
Michael D. Hudson et al., assignors to Summit Semiconductor
LLC
12 June 2012 (Class 381/303); filed 22 June 2009
Setting up a pair of stereo speakers would seem to be foolproof, yet
the channels are reversed in many home installations. Now consider the
daunting prospect of setting up a 7.1 surround sound system. Seven speak-
ers must be correctly identified and connected. Moreover, the location ofeach speaker must be accurately measured so the processing unit can com-
pensate for non-ideal azimuth and distance. This patent describes a well
thought-out method for automating the entire process. Only the center
speaker must be identified in advance. Its cabinet houses two ultrasonic
transducers in addition to loudspeaker components. If desired, the remain-
ing six speakers can be identical and interchangeable; each cabinet
contains a single ultrasonic transducer plus loudspeaker components. Byemitting and receiving ‘‘pings’’ from various pairs of ultrasonic transducers,
the locations of all six speakers can be mapped in relation to the center
speaker. The distance from the listener to the center speaker is then meas-
ured by emitting a ping from the hand-held remote control and receiving
the ping at the center speaker. The patent describes the entire process in
great detail.—GLA
8,204,235
43.38.Vk CENTER CHANNEL POSITIONING
APPARATUS
Yoshiki Ohta, assignor to Pioneer Corporation
19 June 2012 (Class 381/27); filed 30 November 2007
When listening to a pair of loudspeakers reproducing a phantom cen-
ter channel, interaural crosstalk becomes a significant factor. A seldom-
mentioned artifact is a frequency response dip centered near 2 kHz. It
might seem desirable to make electronic correction by equalizing program
content that is highly correlated between left and right channels. At least
one existing patent takes that approach. Well and good, but suppose thelistener (this patent assumes there is only one listener) is not equidistant
from left and right loudspeakers. The patent teaches that the two acoustic
signals can be synchronized by adding a little delay to one channel. To be
on the safe side, the signal level is also trimmed to allow for inverse-
square loss. This is novel? Perhaps your reviewer missed something, but
surely anyone involved with commercial surround sound systems knows
that a typical setup routine includes delay and level matching of all chan-nels. Apart from that, attempting to equalize the 2 kHz dip may not be a
good idea because it assumes that all multi-channel program material was
originally mixed for discreet left, center, and right loudspeakers. Actually,
the de facto working standard in the U.S. for non-cinema sound is two-channel stereo; other formats are upmixed or downmixed as required. (At
least 90% of all popular music recordings, in any format, are mixed with
a phantom center channel.) So, chances are, the mix is already optimized
for two-loudspeaker reproduction.—GLA
8,180,607
43.40.At ACOUSTIC MODELING METHOD
Mostafa Rassaian and David William Twigg, assignors to The
Boeing Company
15 May 2012 (Class 703/2); filed 15 October 2009
A method is described for use in computing a response of a structure
to a known acoustic field acting on the structure. The method in essence
consists of a means for developing finite-element models that are computa-
tionally less intensive than the use of conventional finite element methods.
A composite of two elements is developed, its centroid is determined, andthe cross-spectral correlation function between the elements is assigned to
be the autocorrelation function of the composite centroid.—EEU
8,152,651
43.40.Kd IRON GOLF CLUB WITH IMPROVED MASS
PROPERTIES AND VIBRATION DAMPING
Ryan L. Roach, assignor to Cobra Golf Incorporated
10 April 2012 (Class 473/329); filed 25 April 2011
As disclosed in U.S. Patent 7,938,738 [reviewed in J. Acoust. Soc.
Am. 131, 643 (2012) with which it shares the same drawings], the current
patent describes a very similar means for lowering the center of gravityof, and providing for vibration reduction in, an iron type club by using a
variable density mix of viscoelastic material and fillers, such as tungsten
powder and micro-spheres, in channels behind the club face, which ‘‘pro-
vides improved feel, improved weight distribution, and enhanced club per-
formance.’’—NAS
8,171,796
43.40.Le ACOUSTIC EMISSION DETECTOR AND
CONTROLLER
Hiroshi Ueno et al., assignors to JTEKT Corporation
8 May 2012 (Class 73/587); filed in Japan 24 May 2006
An acoustic emission sensor system intended for warning of the
destruction of a bearing is based on measurement of a number of acoustic
emission signal parameters and on correlations between these. The patent
discusses various means for determining the signal parameters and theircorrelations.—EEU
4092 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 40928,171,789
43.40.Tm DYNAMIC BALANCING APPARATUS AND
METHOD USING SIMPLE HARMONIC ANGULAR
MOTION
Wan Sup Cheung et al., assignors to Korea Research Institute of
Standards and Science
8 May 2012 (Class 73/462); filed in Republic of Korea 25 March
2008
This patent describes an approach to determining the balance require-
ments of rotors by subjecting these to simple harmonic motion rather thanspinning them. The approach is particularly useful for large and massive
rotors.—EEU
8,186,490
43.40.Tm PUSHING FORCE DEVIATING INTERFACE
FOR DAMPING MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS
Tobias Melz et al ., assignors to Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur
Forderung der Angewadten Forschung E.V
29 May 2012 (Class 188/266.7); filed in Germany 16 April 2004
This patent pertains to a device for attenuating mechanical vibrations
by means of energy conversion systems. The basic design is illustrated in
the accompanying figure, which shows a section of a cylindrical arrange-
ment along a diameter. Between the base disk 110 and the load-carrying
disk 112 are connected piezoelectric systems 114 and 116. In order to pro-
tect these systems from lateral motions without affecting vertical motions
there is provided a laterally stiff arrangement consisting of a flexible dia-phragm 122 between a ring 124 and tube or rod 126. A tubular element
118 of polyvinyl chloride is intended to preload the piezoelectric elements
to optimize their performance. Addition of an accelerometer 128, control
electronics 130, and amplifier 132 can provide active control.—EEU
8,191,690
43.40.Tm SHIM STRUCTURE FOR BRAKE SQUEAL
ATTENUATION
Ramana Kappagantu and Eric Denys, assignors to Material
Sciences Corporation
5 June 2012 (Class 188/73.37); filed 15 April 2008
A shim, to be interposed in a brake system, is configured with tabs
or extensions that are designed to vibrate out of phase with the part of thebrake pad that vibrates so as to cause brake squeal. Appropriate tuning of
the vibrating portions of the shim may be obtained by use of added
masses, protrusions, or localized cutouts.—EEU
8,201,365
43.40.Tm VIBRATION RESISTANT
REINFORCEMENT FOR BUILDINGS
Osama J. Aldraihem, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
19 June 2012 (Class 52/167.1); filed 20 April 2010
Energy-absorbing reinforcements to be included (presumably in the con-
crete) in buildings, such as those that are to house sensitive equipment, are
intended to increase the structural damping. The reinforcements described in
this patent consist of piezoelectric rods, conductive fibers, and a plastic ma-
trix.—EEU
8,156,793
43.40.Yq GOLF CLUB HEAD COMPRISING A
PIEZOELECTRIC SENSOR
Charles Edward Golden and Peter J. Gilbert, assignors to
Acushnet Company
17 April 2012 (Class 73/65.03); filed 10 March 2009
As disclosed in U.S. Patent 8,117,903 [reviewed in J. Acoust. Soc.
Am. (in press) with which it shares the same drawings] piezoelectric ac-
celerometer 14 is again mounted within the volume of club head 12
towards the rear of the center of gravity and on the back of the face of
the golf club head. As before, the accelerometer and associated electronics
may be used to determine swing velocity, velocity at impact, vibration
during impact, and the linear and rotational acceleration and deceleration
of the club head.—NAS
8,166,826
43.40.Yq VIBRATION CHARACTERISTIC
MEASURING DEVICE
Hajime Tada and Mikio Arai, assignors to NHK Spring Company,
Limited
1 May 2012 (Class 73/663); filed in Japan 7 March 2008
A disc drive suspension or similar device whose vibration character-
istics are to be measured, is mounted cantilever-like on a block that is
attached to a shaker. The shaker’s axial motion and the motion of the tipof the cantilever in the same direction are detected by laser Doppler vibr-
ometers, and the resulting signals are subjected to fast Fourier transform
and further automated processing.—EEU
8,193,262
43.55.Ev FINISHING COMPOUND SUITABLE FOR
ACOUSTIC SUPPORTS
Florence Serre et al., assignors to Lafarge Gypsum International
5 June 2012 (Class 524/12); filed in France 22 April 2008
This sprayed-on application offers a monolithic coating that preserves
the sound absorptive properties of the substrate to which it is applied.
It contains a foaming agent and can also be troweled or rolled on.—CJR
4093 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 40938,166,621
43.58.Kr METHOD OF STABILIZING A FREQUENCY
OF A PIEZOELECTRIC VIBRATION ELEMENT
Tsuyoshi Ohshima et al., assignors to Seiko Epson Corporation
1 May 2012 (Class 29/25.35); filed in Japan 3 February 2005
This patent teaches a method of stabilizing the oscillation frequency
of a ‘‘piezoelectric vibration element.’’ It looks as though the authors are
really targeting quartz crystal oscillators, although the references to quartz
are not consistent throughout the text. They are concerned about frequency
drifts over periods of months to years in quartz crystals mounted using
silicone-based adhesives. They present some data on the frequency drift of
quartz oscillators in hermetically sealed enclosures that have beenmounted this way, and make the claim that the drift is due to poly-
dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) migrating from the adhesive where the quartz
element is bonded to the support, and ending up on the surface of the
quartz resonant element. The authors’ data shows a temperature depend-
ence to the rate and saturation of the drift phenomenon, which they attrib-
ute to the establishment of a monolayer of the PDMS. They then propose
a scheme by which the drift can be saturated all at once—by intentionallyplacing a small amount of PDMS on the quartz to begin with! This would
seem to be an effective way of reducing the drift in the near term, but one
suspects that there may be undesirable residual effects from the film’s
migration in the future. No ‘‘before and after’’ data are given on the effi-
cacy of this treatment.—JAH
8,166,816
43.58.Wc BULK ACOUSTIC WAVE GYROSCOPE
Farrokh Ayazi and Houri Johari, assignors to Georgia Tech
Research Corporation
1 May 2012 (Class 73/504.12); filed 4 May 2009
This patent discloses the use of a disk resonator vibrating in a bulk
acoustic wave mode as a gyroscope. Most acoustic resonator gyroscopes
have used the flexural mode of either a disk, cylinder, or hemisphere, so
this is a relatively novel approach to sensing rotation. The authors claim
that it is desirable to use a bulk acoustic wave mode because of the higherQ (lower damping) that it affords, compared to flexural modes. They
claim Q’s of 50,000–100,000 for their invention (in vacuum). The devices
are fabricated from silicon-on-insulator wafers using a process which is
not explained, but would probably be costly to reproduce in a regular sili-
con fabrication process line, as these wafers are relatively costly. Never-
theless, the authors claim very good performance of the test devices pro-
duced this way, with noise levels and random walk typical of goodthumb-sized tactical grade gyros using spinning masses. It won’t be long
before devices like this take over all but the very highest end of the gyro
market.—JAH
8,176,786
43.60.Ac METHODS, APPARATUSES, AND
SYSTEMS FOR DAMAGE DETECTION
Hoon Sohn and Seungbum Kim, assignors to Carnegie Mellon
University
15 May 2012 (Class 73/602); filed 29 June 2007
This patent, while aimed at non-destructive testing (NDT), tells a lot
about the efforts to take the technique of time-reversal focusing into the
industrial world of practical devices. The authors’ aim is to make an NDT
measurement device that can be operated autonomously (say by an indus-
trial robot or pipeline pig) so as to locate and mark places where flawsexist in the material being inspected. The device consists of a pair of pie-
zoelectric transducers for transmitting ultrasonic tone bursts, a time rever-
sal digitizer/equalizer/transmitter, and a signal processor/classifier. The
system they have devised is aimed at the nondestructive testing of metal
and composite parts via the measurement of the time of arrival of Lamb
waves, and screening for mode conversion to other Lamb modes. The pro-
cess involves: (a) Creating a narrowband toneburst acoustic signal andapplying it to a first transducer; (b) receiving the signal at a second trans-
ducer; (c) truncating (windowing) the signal in time and equalizing it; (d)
transmitting the time-reversed, equalized signal back to the first trans-
ducer; and (e) applying damage classification algorithms. Their analysis of
the problem is exemplary, and includes a lot of data from experiments
that indicate the benefits of what they are doing.—JAH
8,187,202
43.64.Ha METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR
ACOUSTICAL OUTER EAR CHARACTERIZATION
Antonius Hermanus Maria Akkermans et al ., assignors to
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V
29 May 2012 (Class 600/559); filed in the European Patent Office
22 September 2005
The acoustical properties of an outer ear are characterized by analyz-
ing an acoustic signal received from the outer ear in response to a trans-
mitted acoustic signal toward the outer ear comprising at least one of
music and speech. The acoustic properties are used in a remote terminal
which is part of a telecommunication system that authenticates persons
based on alleged identity, characterized acoustical properties, and a data-
base of enrolled acoustic properties.—DAP
8,189,830
43.66.Ts LIMITED USE HEARING AID
Zezheng Hou, assignor to Apherma, LLC
29 May 2012 (Class 381/312); filed 28 August 2007
A hearing aid with configurable use time is described. The perform-
ance of a digital hearing aid amplifier purposely degrades by a predefined
amount each time the hearing aid is restarted or rebooted. Degradation
4094 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 4094comprises reducing gain or narrowing frequency range by predefined
amounts. Unimpeded amplification may return when the hearing aid is
subsequently provided with additional use time.—DAP
8,189,833
43.66.Ts HEARING AID AND A METHOD OF
PROCESSING INPUT SIGNALS IN A HEARING AID
Kristian Tjalfe Klinkby et al., assignors to Widex A/S
29 May 2012 (Class 381/313); filed 10 April 2008
The outputs of two microphones are combined to form a spatial sig-
nal, whose low frequencies are boosted for equalization. The acoustic feed-
back path is estimated to form a feedback compensation signal, which iscombined with the equalized spatial signal to form a hearing loss compen-
sation signal. The spatial signal is adapted to control directional processing.
Another independent claim is the same except two equalized spatial signals
are formed from the two microphone outputs and are combined with the
feedback compensation signal to form a beamformer.—DAP
8,189,836
43.66.Ts EAR MOLD WITH VENT OPENING
THROUGH OUTER EAR AND CORRESPONDINGVENTILATION METHOD
Wai Kit David Ho and Wee Haw Koo, assignors to Siemens
Medical Instruments Pte. Limited
29 May 2012 (Class 381/318); filed in Germany 1 October 2007
To ventilate the ear without acoustic feedback problems, an in-the-
ear or concha hearing aid ear shell comprises a first portion that inserts
into the ear canal, a second portion that projects into the wearer’s concha,
and a vent enclosed with a titanium ring that connects the two segments.
A vent opening in the second segment is directed toward the outer ear of
the wearer. The titanium ring may project from the surface of the earshell. Mentioned in the specification of the patent, but not in the claims, is
that an opening is surgically created in the outer ear to mate with the tita-
nium ring.—DAP8,194,870
43.66.Ts TEST COUPLER FOR HEARING
INSTRUMENTS EMPLOYING OPEN-FIT EAR
CANAL TIPS
Oleg Saltykov et al., assignors to Siemens Hearing Instruments,
Incorporated
5 June 2012 (Class 381/60); filed 8 December 2008
The goal is to block the leakage from the vented hearing aid ear-
piece from reaching the hearing aid microphone during testing with vent
open on an ear simulator or coupler. An acoustic shield is placed around
the open fit receiver/earpiece which is attached to an ear extension
coupled with the ear simulator coupler. The shield may be cylindrical andhave a removable cover. A measurement unit may be connected by a
cable passing through the shield to an ear simulator coupler inside.—DAP
8,194,899
43.66.Ts METHOD FOR IMPROVING THE FITTING
OF HEARING AIDS AND DEVICE FOR
IMPLEMENTING THE METHOD
Graham Naylor, assignor to Oticon A/S
5 June 2012 (Class 381/312); filed in Denmark 21 January 2000
Environmental data experienced by the hearing aid wearer is col-
lected, including sound levels over time and spectral distributions of sound
over time. The hearing aid is adjusted based on this data either automati-
cally or by a hearing health care dispensing professional. The data may
include at least one of light levels, ambient temperature, body tempera-
ture, amount of movement, cardiovascular activity, psychological stress
and long-term statistical values.—DAP
4095 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 40958,194,900
43.66.Ts METHOD FOR OPERATING A HEARING
AID, AND HEARING AID
Eghart Fischer et al., assignors to Siemens Audiologische Technik
GmbH
5 June 2012 (Class 381/313); filed in Germany 10 October 2006
The hearing aid signal processor tracks and selects an acoustic
speaker source present in an ambient sound via comparison to a database
of the speech profiles of preferred speakers. The sounds of the selected
sound source are made prominent in the hearing aid output in relation tothose from unselected sound sources. During the comparison, the probabil-
ity of an acoustic signal containing a speaker may be determined. The
stored speech profiles may be ranked by the hearing aid wearer. A
selected speaker may be tracked regardless of position of the hearing aid
wearer.—DAP8,194,901
43.66.Ts CONTROL DEVICE AND METHOD FOR
WIRELESS AUDIO SIGNAL TRANSMISSION WITHIN
THE CONTEXT OF HEARING DEVICEPROGRAMMING
Daniel Alber et al., assignors to Siemens Audiologische Technik
GmbH
5 June 2012 (Class 381/314); filed in Germany 28 July 2006
Audio and programming data are combined within the packets of a
single channel wireless transmission. The audio and data may be transmit-ted in different packets. The audio data may be transmitted in the payload
block and the control data may be transmitted in a packet header. The ra-
dio may be digital and a short range inductive link.—DAP
8,199,943
43.66.Ts HEARING APPARATUS WITH AUTOMATIC
SWITCH-OFF AND CORRESPONDING METHOD
Robert Ba ¨uml and Ulrich Kornagel, assignors to Siemens
Audiologische Technik GmbH
12 June 2012 (Class 381/312); filed in the European Patent Office
23 November 2006
To automatically switch the hearing aid off when it is not being
worn, a first acoustic signal is generated by a hearing aid transducer and
sensed by another hearing aid transducer. A matched filter tuned to the
switch-off signal feeds the signal processor, which then automatically
switches off at least a part of the hearing aid. A second acoustic signalmay be generated when the hearing aid is put on the wearer, which auto-
matically turns the hearing aid on. The acoustic signals may be ultrasonic
or infrasonic so as to not be heard. The signals may be generated by pre-
determined temporal or spectral events.—DAP
8,199,945
43.66.Ts HEARING INSTRUMENT WITH SOURCE
SEPARATION AND CORRESPONDING METHOD
Ulrich Kornagel, assignor to Siemens Audiologische Technik
GmbH
12 June 2012 (Class 381/313); filed in Germany 21 April 2006
A hearing aid system provides receive angles associated with source-
specific signals and presents these sources for selecting one source. The
selection device is a directional microphone that aligns the hearing aid
with the selected sound source. The selection device may be integrated
into a remote control and may be wirelessly connected to the presentationdevice. Source selection may be made by a user pressing a button on the
selection device or knocking on the hearing aid. Source signals may be
presented sequentially. The selection device may graphically display the
source signals and their receive angles. Source selection may be automatic
if the user looks at a source longer than a predetermined time.—DAP
4096 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 40968,199,946
43.66.Ts HEARING AID WITH RADIO FREQUENCY
IDENTIFICATION RECEIVER FOR SWITCHING A
TRANSMISSION CHARACTERISTIC
Hartmut Ritter and Tom Weidner, assignors to Siemens
Audiologische Technik GmbH
12 June 2012 (Class 381/314); filed in Germany 28 July 2006
The transfer function of a hearing aid is altered via a radio frequency
(RF) tag signal, sent by an RF tag within a spatial detection zone, and
received by an RFID receiver in the hearing aid. One of at least two trans-
fer functions is selected based on the tag signal, wherein the first and sec-
ond transfer functions are assigned to a predefined class and to an individ-
ual item, respectively, of tag data items in the RF tags. The hearing aid
switches between the first transfer function for all telephones and the sec-
ond transfer function for an individual adaptation to a particular telephone
type. The hearing aid may evaluate the tag signal and select the associateddataset from memory.—DAP
8,199,948
43.66.Ts ENTRAINMENT AVOIDANCE WITH POLE
STABILIZATION
Lalin Theverapperuma, assignor to Starkey Laboratories,
Incorporated
12 June 2012 (Class 381/318); filed 23 October 2007
An adaptive filter in an apparatus is used to estimate an acoustic
feedback path from receiver to microphone and at least one estimated
future pole position of the adaptive filter transfer function is analyzed forstability to indicate whether entrainment is present. The adaptation rate of
the filter is adjusted using the estimated future pole positions. A Schur–
Cohn stability test may be used to derive reflection coefficients of the
adaptive filter using the estimated future pole positions and these reflec-
tion coefficients are monitored to indicate entrainment. The apparatus may
include various styles of hearing aids.—DAP
8,199,951
43.66.Ts HEARING AID DEVICE
Markus Heerlein and Wai Kit Ho, assignors to Siemens
Audiologische Technik GmbH
12 June 2012 (Class 381/323); filed 25 June 2005
When a switch that opens and closes an electric circuit in a hearing
aid device is closed, the battery drawer inhibits battery removal from
breaking contact with the electric circuit. The switch is an on/off cover
that rotates about an axle to move between on and off. The switch com-
prises male and female conductive contacts attached to the on/off cover
and circuit, respectively. The battery may be removed when the switch is
open. The on/off cover may be mechanically coupled to the battery
drawer.—DAP
8,199,952
43.66.Ts METHOD FOR ADAPTIVE CONSTRUCTION
OF A SMALL CIC HEARING INSTRUMENT
Artem Boltyenkov et al ., assignors to Siemens Hearing
Instruments, Incorporated
12 June 2012 (Class 381/328); filed 31 July 2008
The size of a completely in-the-canal hearing aid is made deliber-
ately smaller than the ear canal to create more slit leak so as to reduce
4097 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 4097occlusion. The hearing aid shell is shrunk from tightly fitting in the ear
canal to a shape more closely surrounding the internal components. The
outer periphery of a mounting element having at least one vent contacts
the ear canal walls near the eardrum to secure the hearing aid. The mount-
ing element may be a dome-shaped cap with several vents. The initial
shell image, internal components, and shrunken shell may be displayed on
a computer screen.—DAP
8,204,263
43.66.Ts METHOD OF ESTIMATING WEIGHTING
FUNCTION OF AUDIO SIGNALS IN A HEARING AID
Michael Syskind Pedersen et al., assignors to Oticon A/S
19 June 2012 (Class 381/313); filed in the European Patent Office 7
February 2008
Using a weighted sum of at least two microphone outputs, one front-
aiming and one rear-aiming, a direction-dependent time-frequency (T-F)
gain is calculated from at least two directional signals, one front-aiming
and one rear-aiming, formed from the microphone outputs, each containing
a T-F representation of a target signal and a noise signal. T-F representa-
tions of the target and noise signals are used to estimate a time-frequency
mask, denoting whether target or noise is present, which then determines
the direction-dependent T-F gain. T-F coefficients are determined based onwhether the ratio of the envelopes of the T-F representations of the target-
direction to the noise-direction directional signal is greater or less than a
predetermined threshold.—DAP
8,194,864
43.66.Vt EARHEALTH MONITORING SYSTEM AND
METHOD I
Steven W. Goldstein et al ., assignors to Personics Holdings
Incorporated
5 June 2012 (Class 381/56); filed 30 October 2007
An insertable earbud includes a microphone to measure the actual
sound level in the ear canal. The signal from such a microphone might beanalyzed in any number of ways to predict and then counteract potential
hearing damage. The patent envisions an elaborate, ongoing process that
allows for cumulative exposure, recovery periods, etc. However, any long-term electronic log will include periods when the earbud is not worn. The
patent Claims are slippery on this point, but it appears that ‘‘ambient’’ ex-
posure is somehow estimated and included in the analysis.—GLA
8,050,934
43.72.-p LOCAL PITCH CONTROL BASED ON
SEAMLESS TIME SCALE MODIFICATION AND
SYNCHRONIZED SAMPLING RATE CONVERSION
Atsuhiro Sakurai et al ., assignors to Texas Instruments
Incorporated
1 November 2011 (Class 704/503); filed 29 November 2007
This patent claims an extension of ‘‘seamless time-scale modifica-
tion.’’ The prior technique for pitch shifting is said to have been applied
only by shifting the entire signal at once. Here it is extended to allow
local continuous and seamless pitch shifting over small frames throughout
a signal.—SAF
8,073,686
43.72.Ar APPARATUS, METHOD AND COMPUTER
PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR FEATURE EXTRACTION
Yusuke Kida and Takashi Masuko, assignors to Kabushiki Kaisha
Toshiba
6 December 2011 (Class 704/207); filed in Japan 29 February 2008
The objective here is to determine a pitch difference between succes-
sive speech signal frames, as a part of pitch tracking methods. The method
involves computing the cross-correlation between log frequency spectra of
successive signal frames.—SAF
4098 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 40988,086,449
43.72.Ar VOCAL FRY DETECTING APPARATUS
Carlos Toshinori Ishii et al ., assignors to Advanced
Telecommunications Research Institute International
27 December 2011 (Class 704/207); filed in Japan 31 August 2005
This patent describes a very basic method of detecting ‘‘vocal fry,’’
also known as creaky voice, in a speech signal. The method involves find-ing a power peak (glottal pulse) in a frame, then hunting for the next
power peak in a subsequent frame, then determining the instantaneous pe-
riod as the distance between power peaks. It is hard to believe that no one
has done this before, or that it is not sufficiently obvious from existing
voice processing methods.—SAF
8,078,474
43.72.Gy SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND APPARATUS
FOR HIGHBAND TIME WARPING
Koen Bernard Vos and Ananthapadmanabhan Aasanipalai
Kandhadai, assignors to QUALCOMM Incorporated
13 December 2011 (Class 704/500); filed 3 April 2006
Speech transmission engineers are constantly hunting for their own
‘‘perpetual motion machine,’’ which in their business means sending a
wideband coded speech signal over a narrowband channel. As this is, onits face, oxymoronic, ingenious tricks are often dreamt up to approximate
the desired outcome. Here we find proposals to harness the properties of
time-warping, to extract a highband excitation signal from an encoded nar-
rowband excitation signal.—SAF
8,200,478
43.72.Ne VOICE RECOGNITION DEVICE WHICH
RECOGNIZES CONTENTS OF SPEECH
Takashi Ebihara et al ., assignors to Mitsubishi Electric
Corporation
12 June 2012 (Class 704/10); filed in Japan 30 January 2009
A speech recognition system is described for use in computer plat-
forms having limited memory space. The entire point of this patent is a
listing of techniques by which a recognition training algorithm can be set
up so as to restrict the maximum sentence or word length without severelydegrading the recognizer’s usefulness.—DLR
8,195,460
43.72.Pf SPEAKER CHARACTERIZATION
THROUGH SPEECH ANALYSIS
Yoav Degani and Yishai Zamir, assignors to Voicesense Limited
5 June 2012 (Class 704/243); filed 17 June 2008
This patent proposes a system for extracting speaker mood and psy-
chological characteristics from F0 (pitch) and other prosodic information
extracted from the speech signal. The technology for extracting F0 is
assumed. There is no mention of this. There is some discussion with list-
ings of the relevant prosodic structures assumed to be of interest, such as
pause durations, utterance length, etc. The patent assumes that all messagecontent information is contained exclusively in the segment (phonemic)
content, that is, that there will be no ‘‘contamination’’ of the speaker char-
acterization by segmental content. The patent proposes speech data collec-
tion and hand labeling of the relevant speaker information prior to a train-
ing phase. Some speech data libraries do exist containing some such
information. Finally, the patent says very little about the actual classifica-
tion techniques. There is some mention of a scoring system by whichspeaker behavior patterns would be rated according to their presence in
the speech signal.—DLR8,204,747
43.72.Pf EMOTION RECOGNITION APPARATUS
Yumiko Kato et al., assignors to Panasonic Corporation
19 June 2012 (Class 704/254); filed in Japan 23 June 2006
This patent describes a system for estimating a speaker’s emotional
state based on an analysis of the acoustical content of the speech signal.
An F0 (fundamental frequency) analysis is performed to extract pitch andother prosodic content, such as timing information, from the speech signal.
The classification system then looks for two specific voicing characteris-
tics known as ‘‘husky’’ voice and ‘‘pressed’’ voice, determined by meas-
urements of the voicing spectrum in the speech signal. The speaker’s emo-
tional state is estimated based on the timing and rate of occurrence of
these voice patterns. The patent text makes the explicit argument that
these extracted speaker state indicators will be valid regardless of the lan-guage or culture.—DLR
8,148,623
43.75.St APPARATUS FOR ASSISTING IN PLAYING
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT
Hideyuki Masuda et al., assignors to Yamaha Corporation
3 April 2012 (Class 84/723); filed in Japan 30 August 2005
‘‘An apparatus is to assist an unskilled player in playing a musical
instrument by detecting the quantity of the player’s manipulation against
the instrument, modifying the detected manipulation quantity with reference
to a recommended manipulation to a degree according to a given assistancecoefficient, and actuating the instrument with the modified manipulation
quantity. For a brass instrument, the apparatus comprises an embouchure
sensor (11) and a breath pressure sensor (12) to detect the embouchure and
the breath pressure of the player as he/she plays the brass instrument. The
detected embouchure and breath pressure are then modified with reference
to a recommended embouchure and breath pressure weighted by a given as-
sistance coefficient. The apparatus actuates the brass instrument based onthe modified embouchure and breath pressure.’’ Another embodiment repla-
ces the player with a set of artificial lips and compressed gas to enable a
surrogate play of the musical instrument.—NAS
8,152,590
43.80.Pe ACOUSTIC SENSOR FOR BEEHIVE
MONITORING
Trenton J. Brundage, Sherwood, OR
10 April 2012 (Class 449/2); filed 3 September 2009
‘‘A method of and system for using sounds produced by bees flying
near a beehive entrance enable a beekeeper to assess the operational pro-
ductivity of the beehive. In a preferred embodiment, the method entails
4099 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 4099positioning an acoustic pickup device, such as a microphone, at a location
to pick up and provide an audio signal representing sounds produced bybees flying around the beehive entrance. The flying bees produce the
sounds either while hovering in the vicinity of the beehive or while launch-
ing from locations around the beehive entrance to forage for pollen and
nectar. The audio signal is analyzed to distinguish the sound of launching
flying bees from the sound of ambient background noise.’’—NAS
8,152,734
43.80.Vj SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DIAGNOSIS
OF BOVINE DISEASES USING AUSCULTATION
ANALYSIS
Thomas H. Noffsinger et al ., assignors to Pierson Precision
Auscultation
10 April 2012 (Class 600/529); filed 7 November 2008
‘‘A system and method are provided for diagnosis of bovine (30) respira-
tory diseases using auscultation techniques. Acoustic characteristics of a
recorded spectrogram are compared with existing data enabling a diagnosis to
be made for a diseased animal. Lung (32) sounds are obtained by use of an
electronic stethoscope, and the sounds are stored as digital data. Signal condi-
tioning is used to place the data in a desired format and to remove undesirable
noise associated with the recorded sounds. An algorithm is applied to the data,
and lung scores are calculated. The lung scores are then categorized into vari-
ous levels of perceived pathology based upon baseline data that categorizesthe lung scores. From the lung scores, a caregiver can associate a diagnosis,
prognosis, and a recommended treatment. Analysis software generates the
lung scores from the recorded sounds, and may also provide a visual display of
presumptive diagnoses as well as recommended treatments.’’ The apical lobe
34, which is partially covered by the fourth rib 36, is the preferred location for
auscultation. Circle 38 is the preferred location where the stethoscope should
be placed, a spot approximately three inches above the right elbow 39.—NAS
8,187,186
43.80.Vj ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSIS OF
MYOCARDIAL SYNCHRONIZATION
Ivan Salgo et al., assignors to Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V
29 May 2012 (Class 600/438); filed 2 November 2006
Points on opposite sides of a heart chamber are identified in an ultra-
sound image and then tracked through a portion of the heart cycle. Thechanging positions of lines extending between pairs of the points are accu-
mulated and displayed. The display uses color to show the location of a
line at a particular point in the cardiac cycle.—RCW
8,187,187
43.80.Vj SHEAR WAVE IMAGING
Liexiang Fan et al., assignors to Siemens Medical Solutions USA,
Incorporated
29 May 2012 (Class 600/438); filed 16 July 2008
Shear wave velocity is estimated in a region of an ultrasound image
that is used to guide the selection of the region. The estimate is validated
by other calculations of shear wave velocity, for example, by dividing the
initial set of data into subsets from which shear wave velocity is also esti-
mated. The estimated shear wave velocity is displayed on a scale of veloc-
ities associated with a type of tissue.—RCW
8,187,190
43.80.Vj METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR
CONFIGURATION OF A PACEMAKER AND FORPLACEMENT OF PACEMAKER ELECTRODES
Praveen Dala-Krishna, assignor to St. Jude Medical, Atrial
Fibrillation Division, Incorporated
29 May 2012 (Class 600/443); filed 14 December 2006
A function that evaluates electrode sites and pacemaker configura-
tions uses the volume of blood ejected from the heart as determined byultrasound imaging and uses other parameters such as the activation volt-
age of the pacemaker to facilitate configuration of the pacemaker and the
placement of the pacemaker electrodes in a patient.—RCW
8,187,192
43.80.Vj METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SCAN
CONVERSION AND INTERPOLATION OF
ULTRASONIC LINEAR ARRAY STEERING IMAGING
Bin Yao et al ., assignors to Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical
Electronics Company, Limited
29 May 2012 (Class 600/447); filed in China 29 November 2007
Points depending on the steering angle of an ultrasound beam are
calculated for use in interpolating points accurately in the principal direc-
tion of the imaging system point-spread function.—RCW
8,187,193
43.80.Vj MINIATURE ACTUATOR MECHANISM FOR
INTRAVASCULAR IMAGING
Byong-Ho Park and Stephen M. Rudy, assignors to Volcano
Corporation
29 May 2012 (Class 600/463); filed 13 January 2010
An actuator mechanism inside the bore of an intravascular ultrasound
imaging probe is made with a so-called shape-memory alloy. Ultrasound
images are obtained by using the mechanism to move a transducer. Themechanism can be fabricated in a small size that enables the distal end of
the probe to have a small diameter.—RCW
4100 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 41008,189,427
43.80.Vj CLUTTER SIGNAL FILTERING FOR
DOPPLER SIGNAL
Kwang Ju Lee and Jong Sik Kim, assignors to Medison Company,
Limited
29 May 2012 (Class 367/87); filed in Republic of Korea 17
December 2008
Two highpass filters are used. The first filter provides reduced clutter
signals that are used with information from the unfiltered Doppler signal
to compute an input signal power to filtered input signal power ratio
(IFR). The IFR is then used by a controller to define a second highpassfilter and parameters in a processing sequence that modulates, filters, and
demodulates the Doppler signal.—RCW
8,200,313
43.80.Vj APPLICATION OF IMAGE-BASED DYNAMIC
ULTRASOUND SPECTROGRAPHY IN ASSISTINGTHREE DIMENSIONAL INTRA-BODY NAVIGATION
OF DIAGNOSTIC AND THERAPEUTIC DEVICES
Edmond Rambod and Daniel Weihs, assignors to Bioquantetics,
Incorporated
12 June 2012 (Class 600/424); filed 1 October 2008
A micron-sized wire made from a polymer is coupled to a catheter.
At the tip of the wire, a 100 to 500 micron diameter metallic cylinder is
attached. An area of interest containing the catheter and the cylinder isimaged. Amplitude-modulated ultrasound is used to stimulate the cylinder
that then emits a unique acoustic response. The signals from the cylinder
are used to determine the location of the catheter.—RCW
8,202,222
43.80.Vj EQUAL PHASE TWO-DIMENSIONAL
ARRAY PROBE
Jinzhong Yao et al., assignors to Sonoscape, Incorporated
19 June 2012 (Class 600/459); filed 16 October 2007
Received signals in one dimension of a two-dimensional array are
summed and signals in the other direction of the array are multiplexed to
channels in the front-end of an imaging system.—RCW
4101 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 132, No. 6, December 2012 4101Copyright of Journal of the Acoustical Society of America is the property of American Institute of Physics and
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1.4955455.pdf | Magnetoplasmonic RF mixing and nonlinear frequency generation
C. J. Firby and A. Y. Elezzabi
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 011101 (2016); doi: 10.1063/1.4955455
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4955455
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apl/109/1
Published by the American Institute of Physics
Articles you may be interested in
A magnetoplasmonic electrical-to-optical clock multiplier
Appl. Phys. Lett. 108, 051111051111 (2016); 10.1063/1.4941417Magnetoplasmonic RF mixing and nonlinear frequency generation
C. J. Firbya)and A. Y . Elezzabi
Ultrafast Optics and Nanophotonics Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 1H9, Canada
(Received 3 May 2016; accepted 24 June 2016; published online 6 July 2016)
We present the design of a magnetoplasmonic Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) modulator
facilitating radio-frequency (RF) mixing and nonlinear frequency generation. This is achieved by
forming the MZI arms from long-range dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguides containingbismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet (Bi:YIG). The magnetization of the Bi:YIG can be driven
in the nonlinear regime by RF magnetic fields produced around adjacent transmission lines.
Correspondingly, the nonlinear temporal dynamics of the transverse magnetization component aremapped onto the nonreciprocal phase shift in the MZI arms, and onto the output optical intensity
signal. We show that this tunable mechanism can generate harmonics, frequency splitting, and
frequency down-conversion with a single RF excitation, as well as RF mixing when driven by twoRF signals. This magnetoplasmonic component can reduce the number of electrical sources
required to generate distinct optical modulation frequencies and is anticipated to satisfy important
applications in integrated optics. Published by AIP Publishing.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4955455 ]
In the pursuit of developing integrated nanoplasmonic
circuitry for optical computing applications, high frequencymodulators for encoding and transferring data are crucialcomponents. Electrical control of optical signals is desirablefor integrating both complementary-metal-oxide-semicon-ductor (CMOS) and optical components into a singleplatform. In recent years, a vast array of device architectures,
achieved by altering the properties of a nanoplasmonic
waveguide’s constituent materials, have been developed tomeet this demand.
1These include the modification of refrac-
tive indices via the thermo-optic effect,2electro-optic
effect,3or free carrier effects.4However, these mechanisms
present a fundamental limitation: within the response band-width of the material, only the driving source frequency is
mapped onto the optical mode. For on-chip applications, this
implies that optical modulation at multiple distinct frequen-cies requires numerous single frequency sources, or a widelytunable on-chip electrical source. These solutions are unin-viting, as the footprint consumed by such electrical compo-nents is large. Thus, one requires a tunable mechanism ofgenerating optical modulation at many distinct frequencies
while employing only one or two electrical sources.
This limitation can be surpassed by considering a nano-
plasmonic modulator composed of magnetic materials, andhence employing nonreciprocal magneto-optic phenomenon.
Magneto-optic effects are related to the magnetization
vector, M¼hM
x;My;Mzi, within the material.5Under the
application of a time-varying magnetic field, the temporaldynamics of Mevolve in accordance with the highly nonlin-
ear Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation.
6,7Previous
studies examining ferromagnetic response in the microwaveregime have shown that the nonlinear behaviour of M
can facilitate harmonic generation when driven by a radio-
frequency (RF) signal.
8,9As well, the nonlinearity of theresponse can induce frequency mixing when Mis driven
with two RF signals.9,10Furthermore, nonlinear frequency
generation can be enhanced through parametric excitation ofthe Suhl instability.
11Thus, the use of these materials in
plasmonics is attractive for attaining optical modulation at
unique frequencies other than the driving frequency.
For integration with plasmonics, bismuth-substituted
yttrium iron garnet (Bi:YIG) is an ideal material, as it dis-
plays significantly lower losses than ferromagnetic metals
(Fe, Ni, Co, etc.) at k¼1550 nm,12and has been shown to
exhibit a temporal response on a picosecond timescale.13If
the Bi:YIG waveguide is magnetized transverse to the propa-
gation direction of a guided optical mode, then the Lorentz
reciprocity condition is broken, and the mode’s wavevectorbecomes nonreciprocal. The wavevectors for forward ( b
fwd)
and backward ( bbwd) directed modes are no longer equivalent
(i.e., bfwd6¼bbwd).5Thus, a nonreciprocal phase shift (NRPS)
can be observed between two counter-propagating opticalmodes, Db¼b
fwd/C0bbwd.5This NRPS is a strong function
of the transverse magnetization. Application of a sinusoidal
magnetic field will nonlinearly drive M, and thus the NRPS,
as prescribed by the LLG equation. Embedding this nonreci-procal wavevector modulation into an interferometric struc-
ture, such as a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI)
14,15or
a slit-groove interferometer,16,17allows the dynamic and
nonlinear transverse component of Mto be mapped onto the
optical intensity at the output port of the MZI. As such, the
extreme nonlinearity of the magnetization dynamics will
generate additional spectral components in the transmittedintensity signal.
In this letter, we present the conceptual design of a mag-
netoplasmonic MZI modulator that facilitates nonlinear
frequency generation and RF mixing. Long-range dielectric-loaded magnetoplasmonic waveguides (LRDLMPWs) con-
sisting of a Bi:YIG core form the basis of such a modulator.
The magnetization of the Bi:YIG is driven by RF magnetic
a)Electronic mail: firby@ualberta.ca
0003-6951/2016/109(1)/011101/5/$30.00 Published by AIP Publishing. 109, 011101-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 109, 011101 (2016)
fields, and the nonlinear magnetization dynamics are
transcribed onto the transmitted intensity waveform via the
NRPS. This platform is shown to be versatile, tunable, and
capable of providing modulation at a number of distinctfrequencies by varying either the applied magnetic fields or
the driving frequency.
To employ such nonlinear frequency mixing, we con-
sider the modulator geometry depicted in Fig. 1, modeled
after Ref. 18. The constituent LRDLMPW arms consist of a
Bi:YIG core with an Ag guiding strip, thin films of Si
3N4
and Al 2O3, and a SiO 2substrate, as illustrated in the insets of
Fig.1. The dimensions (width wiand height di) and refrac-
tive indices ( ni) of each material are presented in Table I.
The Si 3N4and Al 2O3layers provide the required field sym-
metry around the Ag for long-range plasmon formation.Practically, the considered 15 nm Ag film is the thinnest con-
tinuous film attainable via sputtering,
19and the Bi:YIG MZI
can be realized with the use of pulsed laser deposition orsputtering and precise ion beam milling. Note that in order
to reduce optical losses, the Ag strip is removed from
the input and output Y-junctions. The 55 lm long photonic
Y-couplers adiabatically taper to a LRDLMPW separation of
10lm. Furthermore, the input and output Y-junctions are
designed to be slightly asymmetric, such that the total opticalpath length of one MZI branch provides a phase bias of p/2.
Correspondingly, the length of the LRDLMPW arms is then
set to L
p=2¼p/(2Db) to offer a NRPS of p/2. This versatile
device architecture has recently been implemented in the
design of an optical isolator24and an electrical-to-optical
clock multiplier.18
Fully vectorial finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD)
simulations were employed to determine both the NRPS and
optical transmission within this MZI geometry. Note that thepredominantly z-polarized TM plasmonic mode, shown in
the right inset of Fig. 1, is launched into the MZI. Here, the
Bi:YIG core was modeled with the following magnetic prop-erties: a specific Faraday rotation of h
F¼0.25/C14/lm,20a satu-
ration magnetization of l0MS¼9 mT,20a Gilbert damping
parameter of a¼10/C04,25and a gyromagnetic ratio of c0.
Correspondingly, permittivity tensor of the Bi:YIG is12
erMðÞ ¼n2
YIG iknYIG
pMz
MShF/C0iknYIG
pMy
MShF
/C0iknYIG
pMz
MShF n2
YIG iknYIG
pMx
MShF
iknYIG
pMy
MShF/C0iknYIG
pMx
MShF n2
YIG2
666666643
77777775:
(1)
With Msaturated in the transverse direction, i.e.,
M¼h þ M
S;0;0i, the NRPS is calculated as Db¼–1.77 rad/
mm for the TM mode. This implies that the arm length is
Lp=2¼886.1 lm, which is considerably less than the magne-
toplasmonic mode’s long propagation length ofL
prop¼3.0 mm. Additionally, with this arm length, driving
the magnetization between Mx/MS¼61 will modulate the
transmission of the MZI between its minimum and maxi-mum values.
As depicted in Fig. 1, the RF driving fields are induced
by means of two parallel transmission lines, 16 lm apart,
running adjacent to the LRDLMPW arms.
18These transmis-
sion lines are made of Ag and have dimensions of 2 lm
/C22lm/C2Lp=2. Propagating a sinusoidal RF current signal
I(t) through such transmission lines generates sinusoidally
varying magnetic fields, hðtÞ¼h 0;0;6hzðtÞi, that nonli-
nearly drive Min the Bi:YIG LRDLMPWs. The initial
magnetization state, M¼h0;þMS;0i, is fixed by an exter-
nally applied magnetic field oriented in the þy-direction,
Hstatic ¼h0;þHy;0i. As such, the nonlinear magnetization
dynamics can be determined from the LLG formalism6,7
dM
dt¼/C0l0c0
1þa2M/C2HstaticþhtðÞ ðÞ ½/C138
/C0l0c0a
MS1þa2 ðÞM/C2M/C2HstaticþhtðÞ ðÞ ½/C138 :(2)
Note that although the applied magnetic fields are not ori-
ented transverse to the waveguide, the nonlinear dynamics
induce a transverse magnetization component ( Mx), which
generates the NRPS within the MZI arms. Mis approxi-
mated as uniform over the MZI arm due to the low magnetic
field variation over the Bi:YIG core cross section, uniformity
of the structure in the propagation direction, and short length
FIG. 1. Schematic illustration of the magnetoplasmonic MZI geometry for
RF mixing and nonlinear frequency generation. The left inset shows a cross
section of the LRDLMPW arm structure, while the right inset shows thejE
zj2profile, where 26% of the optical power is contained within the
Bi:YIG.TABLE I. Material dimensions and refractive indices.
Material wi(nm) di(nm) ni
Bi:YIG 320 400 2.3 (Ref. 20)
Ag 160 15 0.145 þ11.438i (Ref. 21)
Si3N4 … 175 1.977 (Ref. 22)
Al2O3 … 175 1.746 (Ref. 23)
SiO 2 … … 1.444 (Ref. 23)011101-2 C. J. Firby and A. Y . Elezzabi Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 011101 (2016)of the arms relative to the driving RF wavelengths of
interest.
In the present calculations, the dynamic magnetization
model of Eq. (2)was combined with FDTD simulations of
the MZI, and the resultant temporal variations in the trans-mitted intensity were determined. The frequency spectrumof the signal depicts the nonlinear modulation frequencygeneration provided by the LLG dynamics.
To demonstrate the versatile range of applications of
nonlinear frequency generation in the magnetoplasmonicMZI, we consider several exemplary parameter sets. Eachcase is statically biased at l
0Hy¼10 mT and is driven at a
single frequency: fd¼280 MHz (case 1), fd¼420 MHz (case
2), and fd¼1 GHz (case 3). Here, hz(t) takes the form,
hzðtÞ¼hzsinð2pfdtÞ. The frequency spectra of the modulated
intensity at the MZI output port are plotted as a function of
driving field amplitude, l0hz, in Figs. 2(a)–2(c) . In all spectra
presented in Fig. 2, the DC frequency component, arising
from the nonzero transmission occurring when Mx/MS¼0i n
the MZI arms, has been removed for clarity. Two additionalspectral features are worth noting. For low amplitude drivingsignals, there exists a spectral component at the driving fre-quency, f
d, with sidebands occurring at the ferromagnetic
resonance (FMR) frequency, /C23¼c0l0Hy/(2p) (the Larmor
frequency),6and at f¼2fd/C0/C23. Note that /C23¼280 MHz in
cases 1–3. As the amplitude of the driving signal at fdis
increased, the frequency of the sidebands begin to shift in anonlinear manner. This is followed by the appearance of oddharmonics of f
d. Since the Bi:YIG is driven by a transverse
linearly polarized magnetic field, the even order mixingeffects are only present in the longitudinal component, M
y,
while odd order mixing effects are present in the transverse
MxandMzcomponents. As such, this harmonic behaviour is
observed in the intensity signal, as the NRPS in the MZIonly maps the temporal variations in M
xonto the optical
waveform. These features arise from the highly nonlineartrajectory of Munder RF excitation.The frequency spectrum for case 1 is shown in Fig. 2(a).
Of particular interest in this situation is the frequency spec-trum with a driving amplitude of l
0hz¼36 mT, which is
plotted in Fig. 2(d). Notably, this configuration suppresses
the driving frequency, fd¼/C23¼280 MHz, and the largest
spectral component is in fact the third harmonic of fdat
840 MHz. The spectral amplitude of the 3 fdfrequency is 40
times greater than that of the driving frequency spectralamplitude at f
d. Other sizable spectral components are pro-
duced at 112 MHz, 448 MHz, 671 MHz, 1 GHz, 1.231 GHz,and 1.4 GHz; however, filtering schemes can be employed to
isolate just the sought after frequency component. Thus, this
platform provides an efficient means of generating the thirdharmonic of the input RF signal.
In a similar manner, the frequency spectrum for case 2
is displayed in Fig. 2(b). At an amplitude of l
0hz¼18 mT,
the driving frequency ( fd¼420 MHz in this case) is again
suppressed in the spectrum, as shown in Fig. 2(e). However,
with these parameters, the most prominent spectral compo-nents are the two peaks at 158 MHz and 682 MHz, eachspaced a distance of 262 MHz from f
d. These peaks are
excited with nearly equal amplitude, and are the result of thenonlinear sideband formation within the spectrum. Note thatthe spectral separation is a function of both driving fre-quency and amplitude. All other spectral components have
amplitudes less than 10% of the 158 MHz peak. Clearly, the
device can be driven at a single frequency, but the outputmodulation is split between two different and distinctfrequency components.
In case 3, we consider driving the device at a higher fre-
quency of f
d¼1 GHz. The resultant spectra as functions of
driving amplitude are shown in Fig. 2(c). Specifically, the
spectrum of the transmission signal driven with a peak fieldmagnitude of l
0hz¼21 mT is displayed in Fig. 2(f). In this
case, two primary spectral peaks are observed: one at fdand
the other at 255 MHz, each with equal amplitude. Note thatthe 255 MHz peak represents only a small deviation from the
FIG. 2. Plots of the frequency spectra of the modulated intensity signal at the MZI output versus l0hzforl0Hy¼10 mT and (a) fd¼280 MHz, (b)
fd¼420 MHz, and (c) fd¼1 GHz. (d) depicts the spectral profile denoted by the dashed line in (a), for l0hz¼36 mT. Note that the 3 fdcomponent is enhanced.
(e) shows the spectrum marked by the dashed line in (b), when l0hz¼18 mT. Note that the dominant spectral components are those at 158 MHz and 682 MHz,
due to the nonlinear sideband formation. (f) illustrates the spectrum indicated by the dashed line in (c), for l0hz¼21 mT. Note that the fdand the downcon-
verted frequency of 255 MHz are excited with nearly equal amplitude.011101-3 C. J. Firby and A. Y . Elezzabi Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 011101 (2016)FMR frequency at /C23¼280 MHz. Thus, by driving the device
at high frequency, the nonlinear response generates a compo-nent near the significantly lower FMR frequency. Such
down-conversion behaviour is desirable in complex comput-
ing architectures, where the various subsystems operate at
different speeds.
Driving the MZI with two or more RF signals simultane-
ously presents a much more complex situation. Here, we
observe similar sideband and harmonic generation for each
of the two individual frequencies, but the nonlinear mixing
process gives rise to numerous additional spectral compo-
nents. Two example spectra are displayed in Figs. 3(a) and
3(b) as functions of the driving field amplitude. Again, the
DC frequency component has been removed for clarity. Both
spectra are taken under a static field bias of l
0Hy¼25 mT
(i.e., /C23¼700 MHz) and are driven by two frequencies, fd1
andfd2, such that hzðtÞ¼hz½sinð2pfd1tÞþsinð2pfd2tÞ/C138. The
two exemplary cases consider fd1¼275 MHz and fd2
¼420 MHz (case 4), and fd1¼700 MHz and fd2¼1G H z
(case 5).
Case 4 is depicted in Fig. 3(a). To illustrate the fre-
quency content obtained by driving the MZI with two RF
signals, the spectrum obtained at a driving field amplitude of
l0hz¼20 mT is expanded in Fig. 3(c). Notably, as stated
earlier, the transverse magnetization component, and hence
the intensity transmission from output port of the device,
exhibits odd ordered mixing effects. This behaviour is con-
firmed by a perturbation expansion of the LLG equation, pre-
dicting the presence of eight first- and third-order mixedfrequencies due to the nonlinear mixing.
10Each of these fre-
quencies are present in Fig. 3(c), as shown by the peaks at
fd1¼275 MHz, fd2¼420 MHz, 3 fd1¼825 MHz, 3 fd2
¼1.26 GHz, 2 fd1þfd2¼970 MHz, 2 fd1–fd2¼130 MHz, 2 fd2
þfd1¼1.115 GHz, and 2 fd2/C0fd1¼565 MHz. Employing
appropriate filtering techniques at the output port can then
separate these distinct frequency components of the modu-lated signal, for routing to different optical devices.
Furthermore, adjusting the operating parameters can
enhance or suppress some of these components, increasing
the power contained in a particular frequency of interest.
Case 5, shown in Fig. 3(b), illustrates this. Here, we considerthe device driven at f
d1¼700 MHz and fd2¼1 GHz, with an
amplitude of l0hz¼19 mT. The resulting spectrum is illus-
trated in Fig. 3(d). Markedly, this configuration enhances the
third-order mixed frequencies at 2 fd1/C0fd2¼400 MHz and
2fd2/C0fd1¼1.3 GHz, as these spectral peaks are the domi-
nant features of the spectrum. Thus, power is transferredmore efficiently to these two components than to the others.
In conclusion, we have presented a platform for transfer-
ring nonlinear magnetization dynamics into the opticalregime. By employing a magnetoplasmonic MZI driven byRF current signals, the response of the magnetization in
the Bi:YIG waveguide core evolves in a highly nonlinear
manner, mapping itself onto the output optical intensity viathe NRPS. Driving the device with a single RF input gener-
ates harmonics, frequency splitting, and frequency down-
conversion, while the application of two RF frequenciesresults in mixing of the signals. By providing a tunablemechanism of generating many distinct modulation frequen-
cies, such a device is envisioned to reduce the number of
electrical driving sources required on chip and constitutes avaluable building block for integrated nanoplasmonics.
This work was funded by the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council of Canada.
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1.3271827.pdf | Relation between critical current of domain wall motion and wire dimension in
perpendicularly magnetized Co/Ni nanowires
S. Fukami, Y. Nakatani, T. Suzuki, K. Nagahara, N. Ohshima, and N. Ishiwata
Citation: Applied Physics Letters 95, 232504 (2009); doi: 10.1063/1.3271827
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3271827
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/95/23?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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147.143.2.5 On: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 11:23:09Relation between critical current of domain wall motion and wire
dimension in perpendicularly magnetized Co/Ni nanowires
S. Fukami,1,a/H20850Y . Nakatani,2T . Suzuki,1K. Nagahara,1N. Ohshima,1and N. Ishiwata1
1NEC Corporation, 1120, Shimokuzawa, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229-1198, Japan
2University of Electro-Communications, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan
/H20849Received 11 September 2009; accepted 16 November 2009; published online 7 December 2009 /H20850
We investigated the relation between critical current of domain wall motion and wire dimension by
using perpendicularly magnetized Co/Ni nanowires with different widths and thicknesses. Thecritical current, I
c, became less than 0.2 mA when w/H11021100 nm, suggesting that magnetic random
access memory with domain wall motion can replace conventional embedded memories. Inaddition, in agreement with theory, the critical current density, j
c, decreased as wire width decreased
and became much less than 5 /H11003107A/cm2when w/H11021100 nm. We also performed a micromagnetic
simulation and obtained good agreement between the experiment and simulation, although a fewdiscrepancies were found. © 2009 American Institute of Physics ./H20851doi:10.1063/1.3271827 /H20852
Current-induced domain wall /H20849DW /H20850motion, first pre-
dicted by Berger,
1has recently attracted much attention not
only from fundamental interests2–22but also from industrial
viewpoints.23–25A number of experimental2–13and theoreti-
cal works14–22have been reported. Here, although most of
the works have dealt with in-plane magnetized systems2–7
such as NiFe, perpendicularly magnetized systems8–13,19–22
draw increasing attention now. This is mainly because, in
theory, the critical current density of DW motion becomesmuch lower in nanowires with perpendicular magnetic aniso-tropy /H20849PMA /H20850than with in-plane magnetic anisotropy.
19,20
Theoretical studies have also indicated that the critical
current density of DW motion in PMA nanowires signifi-cantly depends on their width and thickness; this fact origi-nates from a variation in the magnitude of the hard-axis an-isotropy of DW.
19,20,22Tanigawa et al.12reported that, by
using Co/Ni nanowires, the critical current density decreasesas the wire width decreases. However, detailed studies on therelation between the critical current density and nanowiredimension, and comparison with theoretical calculation havenot been reported to date.
In addition to the above fundamental standpoints, it is of
great interest from an aspect of device applications to inves-tigate the dependence of critical current density on the nano-wire dimension. The authors have proposed a magnetic ran-dom access memory /H20849MRAM /H20850with current-induced DW
motion for high-speed scalable memory.
25In this device, the
value of write current, Ic, was an important criterion to re-
place conventional embedded memories, such as embeddedstatic RAM /H20849eSRAM /H20850and embedded dynamic RAM
/H20849eDRAM /H20850, and reducing the write current to less than 0.2
mA was crucial. Therefore, investigating the dependence ofthe critical current, I
c, on the nanowire dimension is signifi-
cant for practical application. In this study, we fabricatedCo/Ni nanowires with different width and thickness, andevaluated their critical currents, I
c, and critical current den-
sities, jc, of DW motion. Furthermore, the obtained results
were compared with micromagnetic simulations.
Samples were fabricated through dc-magnetron sputter-
ing, KrF lithography, and ion beam etching. The scanningelectron micrograph /H20849SEM /H20850of the element and schematic
diagram of the measurement system are shown in Figs. 1/H20849a/H20850
and1/H20849b/H20850, respectively. The magnetic nanowire consisted of
three regions: two fixed regions comprised of a free layer/H20849FL/H20850/pinning layer /H20849PL/H20850at each end and one free region
comprised of only a FL in the center. The free region wasapproximately rectangular. Both ends of the nanowire wereconnected to a measurement circuit through two viacontacts. The stack structure of the FL and PLwere /H20851Co/H208490.3 nm /H20850/Ni/H208490.6 nm /H20850/H20852
N/H20849=4 or 5 /H20850/Co/H208490.3 nm /H20850and
/H20851Pt/H208491.2 nm /H20850/Co/H208490.4 nm /H20850/H208525, respectively. Typical magnetiza-
tion curves of the Co/Ni FL are shown in Figs. 1/H20849c/H20850and1/H20849d/H20850.
Its saturation magnetization, Ms, and PMA constant, Ku,
were 710 emu /cm3and 4.9 /H11003106erg /cm3, respectively.
Also, its coercive field, which corresponds to a DW motion
a/H20850Electronic mail: s-fukami@bu.jp.nec.com.
FIG. 1. /H20849Color online /H20850Structure and magnetic property of the sample. /H20849a/H20850
Plan-view SEM image of the sample. /H20849b/H20850Cross-sectional diagram of the
sample with the measurement circuit used in this study. Out-of-plane /H20849c/H20850and
in-plane /H20849d/H20850magnetization curves of the Co/Ni continuous film.APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 95, 232504 /H208492009 /H20850
0003-6951/2009/95 /H2084923/H20850/232504/3/$25.00 © 2009 American Institute of Physics 95, 232504-1
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
147.143.2.5 On: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 11:23:09field originated from an intrinsic pinning of Co/Ni film, was
150 Oe. We formed the widths of the free region into 60–220nm by using a double exposure and slimming technique with280–400 nm photomask patterns.
DW motion characteristics induced by current pulses
were evaluated by measuring DW resistance.
13The measure-
ment sequence consisted of two steps: /H208491/H20850initializing and /H208492/H20850
applying current pulses. In the initializing step, a strong posi-tive field followed by a weak negative field was applied,and two DWs were formed at both ends of the free region. Inthis stage, the resistance of the nanowire, R
tot, became R0
+2RDW, where R0is base resistance of the nanowire and RDW
is the resistance of the DW. After the injection of DWs,
current pulses of 100 ns duration were applied. If the currentdensity of the pulse was higher than the critical current den-sity, one of the two DWs was moved and was annihilatedwith the other DW, accordingly resulting in R
tot=R0. The
DW motion characteristics were evaluated by repeating theabove two steps with sequential measurement of the nanow-ire’s resistance. In addition, we found that the magnetic fieldrequired to depin these DWs was 150–200 Oe, and this de-pinning field was not dependent on the thickness of the Co/PtPLs. The fact that the depinning field in the nanowire iscomparable to the DW motion field of continuous film sug-gests that a dominant mechanism of DW-pinning in the fab-ricated nanowire is an intrinsic pinning of the film. The de-tailed measurement scheme and the validity of this methodwere verified in our previous study.
13
Figure 2shows the measured critical current, Ic,a sa
function of nanowire width. It is clear that the critical currentdecreased as the wire width decreased for both samples withdifferent thicknesses. In particular, the critical current wasless than 0.2 mA at widths of less than 100 nm. This indi-cates that MRAM with DW motion can replace the conven-tional embedded memories. In addition, the dependence ofthe critical current on the wire width appears to have anx-intercept in the graph. This suggests that the critical current
density, j
c, decreased with the decrease of wire width.
To analyze the relation between the critical current
density and nanowire dimension in more detail, wetranslated the unit of the vertical axis of Fig. 2into critical
current density, j
c/H20849A/cm2/H20850, as shown in Fig. 3/H20849closed
squares /H20850. The critical current density clearly decreased as the
wire width decreased in the whole range. The jcis about1/H11003108A/cm2when w/H11011200 nm and much less than
5/H11003107A/cm2when w/H11021100 nm.
Next, we performed a micromagnetic simulation and
compared the experimental results with the calculation. Weused the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation with spin-transfertorque terms
15,16in the simulation. Here, we assumed, in-
stead of the Co/Ni multilayer, a single magnetic materialwith the following magnetic parameters: saturation magneti-zation, M
s, magnetic anisotropy constant, Ku, exchange con-
stant, A, damping constant, /H9251, and nonadiabatic constant, /H9252,
were 710 emu /cm3, 4.9/H11003106erg /cm3, 1.0/H1100310−6erg /cm,
0.02, and 0, respectively. Here, we have confirmed that /H9251and
/H9252does not affect on the simulation results. This fact is con-
sistent with a theory based on adiabatic spin-transfer torquemodel.
20,21Also, we assumed the spin polarization, P,t ob e
0.6 because the calculation results of DW motion velocityusing this value agree well with experimental results forCo/Ni wire.
26In this study, we carried out the simulation on
two different patterns: perfect wire, which had no defects,and anisotropy-distribution wire, in which the magnitude ofthe magnetic anisotropy was distributed locally.
27Here, the
degree of anisotropy-distribution was tuned to reproduce theintrinsic pinning field of 150 Oe.
The obtained calculation results are also plotted in Fig. 3
/H20849open symbols /H20850. The approximate magnitude of the critical
current density and the tendency of a decrease with a de-crease of wire width are the same for both the calculationand experiment. In particular, the simulation usinganisotropy-distribution wire agrees well with the experiment.However, investigating carefully, we saw a difference in re-lation between j
candw. For example, in the calculation, the
variation in jcis relatively small when w/H11022100 nm; on the
other hand, in the experiment, the dependence of jconwis
strong even when w/H11022100 nm. The dependence of jcon the
thickness, t, is also different. The calculated critical current
densities for t=4.8 nm /H20851Fig.3/H20849a/H20850/H20852are about 20% higher than
that for t=3.9 nm /H20851Fig.3/H20849b/H20850/H20852, whereas the measured critical
current densities are almost the same between t=4.8 and 3.9
nm. We fabricated similar samples with t=3.0 nm /H20849N=3 /H20850,
but the measured critical current densities were almost the
same as the values shown in Figs. 3/H20849a/H20850and3/H20849b/H20850. For ap-
proaching these discrepancies between experiments and cal-culations, we have to develop more accurate models, inwhich the fine structure of samples and experimental condi-
FIG. 2. /H20849Color online /H20850Critical current of DW motion with /H20851Co /Ni/H20852Nwire
width where N=5 /H20849/H17039/H20850and N=4 /H20849/H17009/H20850.
FIG. 3. /H20849Color online /H20850Experimental and simulation results of critical cur-
rent density as a function of wire width for N=5 /H20849a/H20850and N=4 /H20849b/H20850.I nt h e
micromagnetic simulation, we used two kinds of pattern: perfect wire /H20849/H17005/H20850
and anisotropy-distribution wire /H20849/H12331/H20850.232504-2 Fukami et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 232504 /H208492009 /H20850
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147.143.2.5 On: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 11:23:09tions are included more precisely, which will be addressed in
the future.
Finally, we discuss the validity of the experimental re-
sults and the simulation model. First, the effect of thermalassist originated from Joule heating may be negligibly smallbecause temperature increase in the measurement, which wasestimated by monitoring the resistance of nanowire, was assmall as less than 50 K. Next, the driving force of DW-motion may not be
/H9252-term but adiabatic spin-transfer torque
because measured critical current did not depend on the ex-ternal magnetic field. Therefore, we can consider that theorigin of the observed DW motion is a pure adiabatic spin-transfer torque and the micromagnetic simulation model isvalid.
In conclusion, we fabricated Co/Ni nanowires with dif-
ferent widths and thicknesses and evaluated their critical cur-rents, I
c, and critical current densities, jc. We confirmed that
theIcbecame less than 0.2 mA when w/H11021100 nm, suggest-
ing that MRAM with DW motion can replace conventionalembedded memories. Also, in agreement with theory, thecritical current density clearly decreased as the wire widthdecreased and became much less than 5 /H1100310
7A/cm2when
w/H11021100 nm. Furthermore, these experimental results agreed
well with a micromagnetic simulation, although a few dis-crepancies were found.
The authors would like to thank Professor T. Ono and
Dr. D. Chiba of Kyoto University for thoughtful discussion.A portion of this work was supported by New Energy andIndustrial Technology Development Organization Spintron-ics nonvolatile project.
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1.4896951.pdf | The peculiarities of magnetization reversal process in magnetic nanotube with helical
anisotropy
N. A. Usov and O. N. Serebryakova
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 116, 133902 (2014); doi: 10.1063/1.4896951
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4896951
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131.156.157.31 On: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 04:10:18The peculiarities of magnetization reversal process in magnetic nanotube
with helical anisotropy
N. A. Usov and O. N. Serebryakova
Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation RAS, 142190 Troitsk,
Moscow, Russia
(Received 8 July 2014; accepted 21 September 2014; published online 2 October 2014)
The magnetization reversal process in a soft magnetic nanotube with a weak helical magnetic
anisotropy is studied by means of numerical simulation. The origin of a helical anisotropy is a
small off-diagonal correction to the magneto-elastic energy density. The change of the externalmagnetic field parallel to the nanotube axis is shown to initiate a magnetic hysteresis associated
with the jumps of the circular magnetization component of the nanotube at a critical magnetic field
H
s. For a uniform nanotube, the critical magnetic field Hsis investigated as a function of geometri-
cal and magnetic parameters of the nanotube. Using 2D micromagnetic simulation, we study the
behavior of a nanotube having magnetic defects in its middle part. In this case, the jump of the cir-
cular magnetization component starts at the defect. As a result, two bamboo domain walls appearnear the defect and propagate to the nanotube ends. Similar effect may explain the appearance of
the bamboo domain walls in a slightly non uniform amorphous ferromagnetic microwire with nega-
tive magnetostriction during magnetization reversal process.
VC2014 AIP Publishing LLC .
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4896951 ]
I. INTRODUCTION
It is well known1–4that the magnetic properties of amor-
phous glass-coated microwires with typical diameter of the
metallic nucleus d¼5–30 lm depend on the sign of the satu-
ration magnetostriction constant ksof a ferromagnet.
Actually, for a Fe-rich microwire with ks>0, the easy ani-
sotropy axis is parallel to the wire axis, whereas for a Co-
rich microwire with ks<0, the easy anisotropy axis has azi-
muthal direction.4,5However, in a Co-rich microwire with
negative magnetostriction, the easy anisotropy axis usuallydeviates slightly from strict azimuthal direction. Therefore,
most Co-rich wires show a weak helical anisotropy. It has
been shown recently
6,7that an adequate description of heli-
cal anisotropy can be obtained on the basis of a model, which
takes into account the actual distribution of the residual
quenching stresses over the wire cross section. The influenceof a relatively small off-diagonal component of the wire re-
sidual stress tensor leads to the deviation of the easy anisot-
ropy axis from azimuthal direction. In our opinion, thisnaturally explains the existence of weak helical anisotropy in
most Co-rich microwires.
Interestingly, the presence of the off-diagonal correction
to the tensor of the residual quenching stress also leads to
important peculiarities of the wire magnetization reversal
process in a longitudinal external magnetic field. In fact, in awire with helical anisotropy two possible directions of rota-
tion of the circular component of the unit magnetization vec-
tor,a
u>0 and au<0, become nonequivalent. As a result,
when the longitudinal magnetic field changes from large pos-
itive to negative values, there is a jump of the circular mag-
netization component at some critical magnetic field Hs.I n
turn, this feature of the magnetization reversal process leads
to the characteristic jumps of the off-diagonal component ofthe wire magneto-impedance tensor. The latter effect has
been observed6experimentally.
It is easy to see that the experimental observation of the
jumps of the off-diagonal component of the magneto-
impedance tensor of Co-rich microwire is possible only ifthere are no bamboo domain walls separating circularly mag-
netized domains in the whole range of variation of the external
magnetic field from large positive values, up to the instabilityfield H
s. In other words, the aucomponent of the unit magnet-
ization vector does not change sign as a function of the zcoor-
dinate along the wire axis at least at distances comparablewith the length of the receiving pick-up coil. Note that in the
experiment
6the length of the receiving pick-up coil was Lc/C25
0.5 mm, i.e., significantly larger than the diameter of the me-tallic nucleus of the microwire, d¼10.7lm. If there are bam-
boo domain walls of appreciable density in the microwire, the
electromotive force proportional to the off-diagonal compo-nent of the magneto-impedance tensor will be close to zero.
This is because of the averaging of the electromotive force
signal over the pick-up coil length.
On the other hand, the formation of the bamboo domain
walls is very likely during the jump of the circular compo-
nent of the wire magnetization at the critical field, H¼H
s,
especially in the presence of the defects or non uniformities
distributed along the microwire length. The bamboo domain
walls were apparently observed8in amorphous Co-rich
microwires, although the reason for this is still not clear.
From a theoretical point of view,9the existence of the bam-
boo domain walls in Co-rich microwires is energeticallyunfavorable.
The behavior of a uniform microwire with helical ani-
sotropy has been theoretically studied in detail
6using one-
dimensional micromagnetic calculations. In particular, the
critical field Hsfor the jump of the circular magnetization
0021-8979/2014/116(13)/133902/8/$30.00 VC2014 AIP Publishing LLC 116, 133902-1JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 116, 133902 (2014)
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131.156.157.31 On: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 04:10:18component has been investigated,7depending on the material
parameters of the microwire. However, one-dimensional cal-
culation cannot reveal the details of the magnetization rever-sal process and describe possible formation of the bamboo
domain walls as the result of the instability of the circular
magnetization. Unfortunately, it is difficult to carry out two-dimensional micromagnetic simulation for a microwire
because of its huge diameter, d/C2410lm. Indeed, in micro-
magnetic simulation the size of the numerical cell cannotexceed the exchange length, R
ex¼ffiffiffi ffi
Cp
=Ms, where Cis the
exchange constant and Msis the saturation magnetization.
For typical values of the wire magnetic parameters, C/C25
10/C06erg/cm, Ms¼500–800 emu/cm3, the exchange length is
given by Rex/C2520 nm. Therefore, it is about three orders of
magnitude smaller than the diameter of the microwire.
To study the role of the bamboo domain walls in the
wire magnetization reversal process, we carry out two-
dimensional numerical simulation for ferromagnetic nano-tube of a submicron diameter having a weak helical anisot-
ropy. This approach helps us reduce significantly the amount
of computation and investigate the influence of defects onthe magnetization reversal process of ferromagnetic nano-
tube in axially applied magnetic field. It is known
4,6that in
Co-rich microwire, there is an exchange core in a smallregion of the order of R
exnear the wire center, which elimi-
nates the singularity in the radial distribution of the wire
magnetization. However, the magnetization reversal of theexchange core has almost no effect
6on the processes occur-
ring in the bulk of the wire due to its very small volume.
Therefore, to obtain a qualitative picture of the magnetiza-tion reversal in a Co-rich microwire, it is sufficient to con-
sider only the phenomena occurring in a certain range of
radii near its surface. Consequently, the details of magnetiza-tion reversal process can be studied considering the proper-
ties of a magnetic tube.
The properties of ferromagnetic nanowires and nano-
tubes of nearly circular cross section were studied both the-
oretically and experimentally in Refs. 10–24, but the
nanotubes with helical anisotropy have not been consideredin detail yet. Meanwhile, it has been realized recently
6that
strictly circumferential anisotropy is a rear possibility, as it
corresponds to the easy anisotropy axis pointing exactly inazimuthal direction. In this paper, using two-dimensional
numerical simulation we observe the jump of the circular
magnetization component in a uniform magnetic nanotubewith helical anisotropy, where the exchange core is com-
pletely absent. This fact confirms again that the jump of
the circular magnetization component in Co-rich micro-wires is due to the presence of helical anisotropy, but not
due to the interaction of the core and the outer shell of the
wire. In addition, we investigate the role of magneticdefects in the magnetization reversal process of the nano-
tube in applied axial magnetic field. It is shown that the
presence of magnetic defects distributed along the nanotubeaxis leads to the formation of the bamboo domain walls
near the magnetic defects during the magnetization reversal
process. This fact may explain the appearance of bamboodomain walls in amorphous Co-rich microwires in a certain
range of external magnetic field.II. HELICAL MAGNETIC ANISOTROPY
For the numerical simulation of the magnetization rever-
sal process in magnetic nanotubes with helical anisotropy in
this paper, we use the same expression for the magneto-elastic energy density, which was used previously
6to calcu-
late the properties of microwires with a weak helical
anisotropy
wm/C0el¼Ke½~rqqa2
qþ~ruua2
uþ~rzza2
zþ2~ruzauaz/C138:(1)
Here, Keis the effective magnetic anisotropy constant, which
is assumed to vary within Ke¼104–105erg/cm3,ðaq;au;azÞ
are the components of the unit magnetization vector in thecylindrical coordinates with the zaxis along the axis of the
nanotube. The reduced diagonal components of the residual
stress tensor are of the order of unity, ~r
qq;~ruu;~rzz/C241. The
reduced off-diagonal stress component is considered as a
small correction, j~ruzj/C281. Under the condition ~rqq;~ruu
<~rzz,~ruz¼0, the easy anisotropy axis of the nanotube is
strictly parallel to the azimuthal direction.4However, for
non-zero values of ~ruzthe nanotube has a weak helical ani-
sotropy, as the easy anisotropy axis deviates6by a certain
angle from strictly azimuthal direction.
The magneto-elastic energy density, Eq. (1), can be con-
sidered as a model expression that describes magnetic anisot-ropy of a thin magnetic nanotube. This model is rather
general. It can describe axial, circumferential, and helical
types of magnetic anisotropy of magnetic nanotube on acommon ground. The helical type of magnetic anisotropy
can be modeled assuming nonzero value of the off-diagonal
term, proportional to the product of a
uandazcomponents of
the unit magnetization vector. The calculations presented
below show that even small off diagonal correction to the
magneto-elastic energy density leads to interesting peculiar-ities of the axial magnetization reversal process in a mag-
netic nanotube.
III. MAGNETIZATION REVERSAL OF A UNIFORM
NANOTUBE
As we noted in the Introduction, a Co-rich microwire
with negative magnetostriction is magnetized in a circulardirection in the bulk. However, near the center of the wire, at
small distances of the order of the exchange length, q/C24R
ex,
the exchange core exists to avoid magnetization singularityatq¼0. Within the exchange core, the a
zcomponent of the
unit magnetization vector decreases rapidly from unity at
q¼0, to zero at q>Rex. In the range of radii q/C29Rex, the
exchange interaction is small and its influence on the proper-
ties of a microwire of diameter d¼5–30 lm can be
neglected. At the same time, for a magnetic nanotube withan outer radius of the order of hundreds of nanometers the
exchange interaction should be taken into account.
Let a thin nanotube has outer and inner radii Rand
R
1¼R/C0DR, respectively, the tube thickness being DR/C28R.
To get the exchange energy of the nanotube in this approxi-
mation, one can set au(q)¼sinh(q),az(q)¼cosh(q), where
h(q) is the angle between the directions of the z-axis and the
unit magnetization vector. For a nanotube of length Lz,133902-2 N. A. Usov and O. N. Serebryakova J. Appl. Phys. 116, 133902 (2014)
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131.156.157.31 On: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 04:10:18neglecting the radial dependence of the tube magnetization,
the exchange energy of the nanotube is given by
Wexc¼2pLzðR
R1qdqC
2dh
dq/C18/C19
þsin2h
q2"#()
/C25pLzCa2
uðR
R1dq
q¼pLzCa2
ulnR
R1: (2)
Then, for the exchange energy density of the nanotube one
obtains
wex¼Wexc
V¼pLzCa2
u
2pRDRLzlnR
R1/C25C
2R2a2
u; (3)
where V¼2pRDRLzis the nanotube volume. Let external
uniform magnetic field H0is applied along the nanotube
axis. Then, the total energy density of a long homogeneous
nanotube is given by
wtot¼C
2R2a2
uþKe~rqqa2
qþ~ruua2
uþ~rzza2
zþ2~ruzauazhi
/C0MsH0az: (4)
The necessary condition for a nanotube to be magnetized in
the azimuthal direction in the ground state, in the absence of
the external magnetic field is given by
C
2R2<Ke~rzz/C0~ruu ðÞ : (5)
For Ke¼5/C2104–105erg/cm3,C¼(0.5–1.0) /C210/C06erg/cm,
Eq.(5)holds for the tube radius of the order of hundreds of
nanometers, R/C2110/C05cm. It is also assumed that the satura-
tion magnetization of the tube is large enough,
Ms¼500–800 emu/cm3. Then, the deviation of the unit mag-
netization vector in the radial direction is energeticallyunfavorable, a
q/C250, due to large demagnetizing factor of a
thin nanotube in the radial direction. Consequently, the mag-
netostatic energy of a long nanotube can be neglected.Magnetization reversal of a thin nanotube in axial uni-
form magnetic field occurs by the process of uniform rotation.
Minimizing the total energy of the nanotube, Eq. (4), one can
obtain the components of the unit magnetization vector au
andazas the functions of H0and to determine the instability
field Hs,w h e nt h e aucomponent changes sign abruptly. Fig. 1
shows the behavior of the components of the unit magnetiza-
tion vector for a homogeneous nanotube with magnetic pa-
rameters Ke¼5/C2104erg/cm3,C¼0.5/C210/C06erg/cm, and
Ms¼500 emu/cm3. The outer radius of the nanotube equals
R¼100 nm. The reduced diagonal components of the residual
stress tensor are given by ~rqq¼0:9,~ruu¼0:8, and
~rzz¼1:3. The external magnetic field decreases from a large
positive value, H0¼250 Oe, where the tube is uniformly mag-
netized along its axis, to a negative value, H0¼/C0250 Oe. The
calculations were performed for different values of the
reduced off-diagonal component of the residual stress tensor,
~ruz¼0:02 and 0.1. As Fig. 1shows, the jumps of the circular
magnetization component for these cases occur at close values
of the external magnetic field, Hs/C25/C0 56 Oe, and Hs/C25
/C049 Oe, respectively.
Evidently, in a sufficiently large positive magnetic field
the longitudinal component of the unit magnetization vector is
positive, az>0. Suppose, for definiteness, that the off-
diagonal correction to the residual stress tensor is also posi-
tive, ~ruz>0. Then, the off-diagonal term Ke~ruzauaz
decreases the total energy of the nanotube, Eq. (4),w h e nt h e
circular magnetization component is negative, au<0.
Moreover, investigating the behavior of the minima of Eq. (4)
one can prove that there exists a critical field Hssuch that for
H0>Hs, the positive values of aucomponent are unstable.
Both signs of the aucomponent are possible only in the range
of fields jH0j<Hs. When the external magnetic field decreases
up to H0</C0Hs, only positive values of the circular magnet-
ization component are stable, au>0, since in this interval of
the magnetic field the azcomponent is negative, az<0.
Consequently, by decreasing the axial magnetic field from
H0¼250 Oe to a sufficiently large negative values, in the criti-
cal magnetic field H0¼/C0Hstheaucomponent experiences a
jump from negative to a positive value. These considerations
explain the dependencies az(H0)a n d au(H0) shown in Fig. 1.
Putting au¼sinh,az¼cosh, one obtains the total energy
of the nanotube, Eq. (4), as a function of the angle h. Fig. 2(a)
shows the angular dependence of the reduced total energy of
the nanotube wtot(h)/Kefor some characteristic values of the
external magnetic field. The outer radius of the nanotube and
the tube magnetic parameters in Fig. 2are the same as in
Fig.1. The value of the off-diagonal component of the resid-
ual stress tensor is given by ~ruz¼0:05. For these values of
the magnetic parameters, the instability of circular magnetiza-
tion component of the nanotube occurs at Hs¼54.2 Oe.
Therefore, as curve 1 in Fig. 2(a)shows, in the magnetic field
H0¼68 Oe >Hs, there is only left minimum hmin1for the
function wtot(h). For the values of H0¼46, 0 and /C042 Oe (see
curves 2, 3, and 4 in Fig. 2(a)), the total energy wtot(h)h a s
two different minima, hmin1andhmin2, because these magnetic
field values are within the interval jH0j<Hs. Finally, for the
magnetic field H0¼/C064 Oe </C0Hs(curve 5 in Fig. 2(a)), the
total energy of the nanotube has only the right minimum,
FIG. 1. The magnetization reversal process in homogeneous nanotube in
axial magnetic field for different values of the off-diagonal component of
the residual stress tensor: (1) ~r/z¼0.02; (2) ~r/z¼0.1. The external mag-
netic field decreases from H0¼250 Oe to H0¼/C0250 Oe.133902-3 N. A. Usov and O. N. Serebryakova J. Appl. Phys. 116, 133902 (2014)
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131.156.157.31 On: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 04:10:18hmin2. Note that the values of hmin1,2(H0) determine the stable
directions of the unit magnetization vector for each value of
the external magnetic field H0. In Fig. 2(b), the dependencies
az(H0)a n d au(H0) are shown with the indication of the corre-
sponding minima of the total energy wtot(h). In accordance
with the above discussion, the minimum hmin1exists only in
the range of fields /C0Hs<H0,w h i l et h em i n i m u m hmin2exists
forH0<Hs. Both minima exist simultaneously within the
interval jH0j<Hs. This leads to the dependence of the nano-
tube magnetization on the magnetic field prehistory, i.e., tothe magnetic hysteresis. The symbols in Fig. 2(b) show the
actual evolution of the unit magnetization vector components
when external magnetic field decreases from H
0¼100 Oe up
toH0¼/C0100 Oe. One can see clearly that the jump of the cir-
cular magnetization component at H0/C25/C054 Oe is associated
with the disappearance of the minimum hmin1atH0</C0Hs.
The evolution of the total energy minima shown in Fig.
2(a)is similar to the behavior of the total energy minima of a
single-domain magnetic nanoparticle in external uniformmagnetic field.
25Interestingly, however, in the given case
the magnetic hysteresis is associated with the jumps of thecircular magnetization component. The latter is initiated by
the change of the external magnetic field parallel to the nano-
tube axis. It is also interesting to note that as Fig. 2(b) shows,
in weak magnetic fields, H0/C250, the inequality azau<0i s
possible. Consequently, if the component az>0, the negative
value for the circular magnetization component is preferable,a
u<0, and vice versa.
In Fig. 3, the instability field Hsis shown depending on
the reduced off-diagonal component of the residual stresstensor for different values of the nanotube effective anisot-
ropy constant K
e. One can see that the instability field shows
only a weak dependence on the off-diagonal component ~ruz
and is mainly determined by the effective anisotropy con-
stant Ke.
IV. INFLUENCE OF MAGNETIC DEFECTS
The non uniform magnetization reversal process in a
magnetic nanotube can be studied only by means of two-
dimensional numerical simulation.5,13,26It is assumed that
the distribution of the magnetization in a nanotube has a cy-lindrical symmetry, so that the unit magnetization vector in
cylindrical coordinates is given by
~a¼ða
qðq;zÞ;auðq;zÞ;azðq;zÞÞ: (6)
It can be shown that in this case the demagnetizing field of
the nanotube ~H0arising due to the presence of surface and
bulk magnetic charges does not depend on the coordinate u,
and moreover, the circular component of the demagnetizingfield is zero, H
0u/C170. For the exchange energy density of a
nanotube, instead of Eq. (3), one can use well-known general
expression.25,27For the density of the magnetic anisotropy
energy in the present two-dimensional micromagnetic simu-
lation, we use the same Eq. (1). With these remarks, the
components of effective magnetic field of a nanotube in cy-lindrical coordinates are as follows:
M
sHeff;q¼C1
q@
@qq@aq
@q/C18/C19
/C0aq
q2þ@2aq
@z2()
/C02Ke~rqqaqþMsH0
q; (7)
FIG. 2. (a) The reduced total energy of the nanotube as a function of the
angle h¼arctan ða/=azÞfor some characteristic values of axially applied
magnetic field: (1) H0¼68 Oe, (2) H0¼46 Oe, (3) H0¼0, (4) H0¼/C042 Oe,
and (5) H0¼/C064 Oe. (b) The components of the unit magnetization vectors
corresponding to different minima of the total energy of the nanotube.Symbols show the actual evolution of the unit magnetization vector compo-
nents when external magnetic field decreases from H
0¼100 Oe to
H0¼/C0100 Oe.
FIG. 3. The critical magnetic field for instability of the circular magnetiza-
tion component of the nanotube as a function of the off-diagonal component
of the residual stress tensor.133902-4 N. A. Usov and O. N. Serebryakova J. Appl. Phys. 116, 133902 (2014)
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131.156.157.31 On: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 04:10:18MsHeff;u¼C1
q@
@qq@au
@q/C18/C19
/C0au
q2þ@2au
@z2()
/C02Ke~ruuauþ~ruzaz ðÞ ; (8)
MsHeff;z¼C1
q@
@qq@az
@q/C18/C19
þ@2az
@z2()
/C02Ke~rzzazþ~ruzau ðÞ þMsH0þH0
z ðÞ :(9)
The demagnetizing field components H0qandH0zcan be cal-
culated using the scalar magnetic potential28
H0
q¼/C0@U
@q;H0
z¼/C0@U
@z;
Uq;zðÞ ¼Msð
Vdvaqq1;z1ðÞ@
@q1þazq1;z1ðÞ@
@z1/C26/C271
j~r/C0~r1j:
(10)
Note that the aucomponent does not contribute to the mag-
netic potential (10) due to assumed axial symmetry of the
magnetization distribution, Eq. (6).
To determine stationary magnetization distribution in a
nanotube, we solve the dynamic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert
equation13
@~a
@t¼/C0c~a;~Hefhi
þj~a;@~a
@t/C20/C21
; (11)
where cis the gyromagnetic ratio, and jis the phenomeno-
logical damping constant. The unit magnetization vector on
the external and internal surfaces of the nanotube satisfies
the boundary condition, @~a=@n¼0, where ~nis a unit vector
normal to the surface of the nanotube. The external magnetic
field is changed in a small increment, dH0¼1 Oe, ranging
from H0¼200 Oe up to H0¼/C0200 Oe. For a given value of
the external magnetic field, the temporal evolution of the
magnetization distribution in a nanotube is calculated
according to Eq. (11) until this distribution approaches close
enough to a stationary state that satisfies the equilibrium
equation ½~a;~Hef/C138¼0.
To calculate numerically the effective magnetic field
components (7)–(9), a sufficiently long nanotube is subdi-
vided into a set of Nq/C2Nztoroidal numerical elements. The
dimensions of the numerical cells, dz¼dq¼2.5 nm, are cho-
sen sufficiently small with respect to the exchange length,
Rex/C2520 nm. This ensures the accuracy of the numerical cal-
culations performed. Magnetostatic interactions as well asself-energies of the torus-shaped elements are calculated pre-
liminarily for a given array in a manner similar to the usual
case of small cubic elements.
29The calculations of two-
dimensional magnetization distributions in nanotubes were
carried out on two-dimensional grids with Nq¼40–60 cells
along the radius and Nz¼1600–6000 cells along the nano-
tube axis. For the sizes of the toroidal numerical cells men-
tioned, the outer nanotube radius varies between
R¼100–150 nm, the nanotube length being Lz¼4–15 lm.
The thickness of the thin nanotube is given by
DR¼10–20 nm.First, we calculated the magnetization reversal process
in a homogeneous nanotube in a longitudinal external mag-
netic field. For the case of homogeneous nanotube, theresults of two-dimensional calculation practically coincide
with that of one-dimensional one shown in Fig. 1. The jump
of the circular magnetization component in a uniform nano-tube occurs uniformly over its entire length in a fixed mag-
netic field H
s. The only difference in the 1D and 2D
calculations is that in the two-dimensional simulation the in-homogeneous transition regions appear near the nanotube
ends under the influence of strong demagnetizing field. The
characteristic size of these transition regions is of the orderof the nanotube diameter. Therefore, for a sufficiently long
nanotube the non uniform magnetization distributions
formed near the nanotube ends do not make a significantcontribution to the total magnetic moment of the nanotube.
Then, using 2D modeling we investigated the magnet-
ization reversal process in magnetic nanotube with an iso-lated defect. The magnetic defect is modeled assuming that
the small off-diagonal component of the residual stress ten-
sor in some region z
1<z<z2inside the nanotube has the
value ~rð1Þ
uz, different from its value ~rð0Þ
uzin the main part of
the nanotube. Due to the presence of the defect, the jump of
the circular magnetization component occurs nonuniformlyalong the nanotube length, as the instability field H
shas dif-
ferent values in the defect, and in the main part of the
nanotube.
Figs. 4–6show the magnetization reversal process in the
magnetic nanotube with the isolated defect located near the
nanotube center. The magnetic parameters of the nanotubeare given by K
e¼5/C2104erg/cm3,C¼0.5/C210/C06erg/cm,
and Ms¼500 emu/cm3. The outer tube radius is equal to
R¼100 nm, the thickness of the nanotube is in the range
DR¼10–20 nm, the nanotube length Lz¼15 000 nm. The
reduced diagonal components of the residual stress tensor
are assumed to be ~rqq¼0:9,~ruu¼0:8, and ~rzz¼1:3. The
tube is subdivided into Nz¼6000 numerical cells along the
nanotube axis. Also, there are 4 or 8 numerical cells along
the nanotube radius for the tube thickness of 10 and 20 nm,respectively. The magnetic defect is located in the range of
5000 <z<7500 nm. In the defect area, the reduced value of
the off-diagonal component of the residual stress tensor isassumed to be ~r
ð1Þ
uz¼0:1, whereas it is given by ~rð0Þ
uz¼0:02
in the main part of the nanotube. Because of the small thick-
ness of the nanotube, the radial dependence of the tube mag-netization is virtually absent. Also, due to the small
thickness of the nanotube, the radial component of the nano-
tube unit magnetization vector was close to zero, a
q/C250.
This component is not shown in Figs. 4–6. For clarity, in
Figs. 4–6the arrangement of the isolated magnetic defect is
marked by vertical lines.
As Fig. 4(a)shows, when axial magnetic field decreases
from H0¼100 Oe to zero, appreciable deviations of the unit
magnetization vector components exist within and near themagnetic defect. Nevertheless, the circular magnetization
component remains negative, because under the conditions
a
z>0, and ~ruz>0, the total nanotube energy has a mini-
mum at au<0. In Fig. 4(a), one can see also narrow regions
near the ends of the nanotube. Here, the demagnetizing field133902-5 N. A. Usov and O. N. Serebryakova J. Appl. Phys. 116, 133902 (2014)
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131.156.157.31 On: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 04:10:18has appreciable value and the magnetization distribution is
nonuniform. Of course, the demagnetizing field is also sig-
nificantly involved in the formation of an inhomogeneousmagnetization distribution near the magnetic defect. The
magnetization distribution in the nanotube at negative values
of the external magnetic field, but larger than the instabilityfield H
s, is shown in Fig. 4(b). One can see that in negative
magnetic fields the azcomponent changes the sign and
becomes negative, az<0. However, aucomponent in the
interval of moderate magnetic fields, H0>/C034 Oe, is stable
and remains negative.
As Fig. 5shows, a further reduction of the magnetic
field to H0¼/C035 Oe leads to instability of the nanotube
magnetization. The jump of aucomponent arises near the
magnetic defect. The transient pictures in Fig. 5(a)show that
near the magnetic defect the aucomponent changes the sign
from negative to positive. Simultaneously, at the edges of
the defect the bamboo domain walls appear. Then, the mag-netization distribution gradually spreads out to the nanotube
ends. During the jump of the a
ucomponent, the azcompo-
nent is also greatly perturbed, but it does not change sign.
Note that Fig. 5shows the transition process occurring at
the instability field Hs¼/C035 Oe. The stationary state of thenanotube just after the magnetization jump is shown in Fig. 6
in a magnetic field H0¼/C035.1 Oe. Fig. 6shows also further
evolution of the nanotube magnetization distribution. When
axial magnetic field decreases up to H0¼/C0100 Oe, the longi-
tudinal magnetization component gradually approaches thevalue a
z/C25/C0 1, while aucomponent approaches to zero.
FIG. 5. Evolution of (a) circular and (b) longitudinal magnetization compo-
nents in the nanotube with isolated magnetic defect at the instability field,H
s¼/C035 Oe.
FIG. 6. The behavior of the unit magnetization vector components in the
nanotube with isolated magnetic defect in the range of axial magnetic fields
H0</C0Hs: (1) H0¼/C035.1 Oe; (2) H0¼/C050 Oe; (3) H0¼/C0100 Oe.
FIG. 4. The components of the unit magnetization vector in the magnetic
nanotube with isolated defect, (a) in the range of positive magnetic fields:(1)H
0¼100 Oe; (2) H0¼50 Oe; (3) H0¼0; and (b) in the negative mag-
netic fields before the jump of the aucomponent: (1) H0¼/C020 Oe; (2)
H0¼/C030 Oe; and (3) H0¼/C034 Oe.133902-6 N. A. Usov and O. N. Serebryakova J. Appl. Phys. 116, 133902 (2014)
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131.156.157.31 On: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 04:10:18Within the defect and at the nanotube edges, there are still sig-
nificant perturbations of the nanotube magnetization.
Fig. 7shows the transient jump of the circular magnet-
ization component in the nanotube with two isolated mag-
netic defects. Magnetic and geometric parameters of the
nanotube are the same as in Figs. 4–6, but in this case there
are two magnetic defect, located in the areas
3000 <z<5000 nm and 10 000 <z<12 000 nm, respec-
tively. For the first defect, the reduced value of the off-diagonal component of the residual stress tensor is assumed
to be ~r
ð1Þ
uz¼0:04, for the second defect ~rð2Þ
uz¼0:1. In the
main area of the nanotube, ~rð0Þ
uz¼0:02. For this nanotube,
the jump of the circular magnetization component begins on
the second, stronger magnetic defect, in the same magnetic
field H0¼/C035 Oe. During the jump, the bamboo domain
walls originate on both defects, but the final steady state of
the nanotube is virtually the same as that for the nanotube
with a single defect.
The appearance of the bamboo domain walls at the
defect boundaries explains probably a reason why the bam-
boo domain walls can be observed in experiment8with
amorphous Co-rich microwires. However, in this numerical
simulation the arising bamboo domain walls propagate to
the nanotube ends, where they merge with the non-uniformmagnetization distributions existing at the nanotube ends.
This behavior of the bamboo domain walls is consistent
with a theoretical conclusion
9that the bamboo domain
walls are energetically unfavorable in a perfect cylindrical
microwire. However, in the experiment8the stationary
bamboo domain walls are observed in a certain range ofexternal magnetic fields. It seems reasonable to assume that
after nucleation, the bamboo domain walls may stationary
exist in a range of external magnetic fields in a wire havingmagnetic defects that can impede the free domain wall
movement.
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, it is proved that in a magnetic nanotube
with a weak helical anisotropy in applied magnetic fieldtwo possible directions of rotation of the circular magnet-
ization component are not equivalent, because they corre-
spond to different total energies of the nanotube. As aconsequence, during the magnetization reversal of a homo-
geneous nanotube in axially applied external magnetic
field, the jump of the circular magnetization component ofthe nanotube occurs at the critical field H
0¼Hs. The insta-
bility field Hsis studied in this paper for a homogeneous
nanotube depending on the effective magnetic anisotropyconstant and for small values of the off-diagonal compo-
nent of the residual stress tensor.
By means of two-dimensional numerical simulation, we
investigate also the magnetization reversal process in a non
uniform nanotube, where a small off-diagonal component of
the residual stress tensor varies as a function of the coordi-nate zalong the nanotube axis. It is shown that the presence
of magnetic defects leads to a smearing of the instability
field H
s, in accordance with experimental observations.6,7At
the instability field, the bamboo domain walls arise in the vi-
cinity of the localized defect boundaries. In our calculations,
the bamboo domain walls propagate to the nanotube ends,where they merge with the ending magnetic structures. It
seems reasonable to assume, however, that in a sufficiently
long nanotube the bamboo domain walls may be stuck on theneighboring defects of a different nature, and exist perma-
nently in a certain region of the external magnetic field.
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(2007).
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FIG. 7. Transient magnetization process for circular magnetization compo-
nent in the nanotube with two isolated magnetic defects at the instability
field, Hs¼/C035 Oe.133902-7 N. A. Usov and O. N. Serebryakova J. Appl. Phys. 116, 133902 (2014)
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131.156.157.31 On: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 04:10:18 |
1.1626123.pdf | Transient energy growth for the Lamb–Oseen vortex
Arnaud Antkowiaka)and Pierre Brancher
Institut de Me ´canique des Fluides de Toulouse, Alle ´e du Professeur Camille Soula, 31400 Toulouse, France
~Received 14 May 2003; accepted 22 September 2003; published online 13 November 2003 !
The transient evolution of infinitesimal flow disturbances which optimally induce algebraic growth
in the Lamb–Oseen ~Gaussian !vortex is studied using a direct-adjoint technique. This optimal
perturbationanalysisrevealsthattheLamb–Oseenvortexallowsforintenseamplificationofkineticenergyfortwo-dimensionalandthree-dimensionalperturbationsofazimuthalwavenumber m51.In
both cases, the disturbances experiencing the most growth initially take the form of concentratedspirals at the outer periphery of the vortex which rapidly excite bending waves within the vortexcore.Inthelimitoflargewavelengths,theoptimalperturbationleadstoarbitrarilylargegrowthsviaan original scenario combining the Orr mechanism with vortex induction. © 2004 American
Institute of Physics. @DOI: 10.1063/1.1626123 #
The stability properties of vortices have received consid-
erable attention in recent years partly because of a renewedinterest in the dynamics of trailing vortices behind aircrafts.More specifically, the strong and persistent counter-rotatingvortex pair generated at the trailing edge of airplane wingsrepresent a potential hazard to forthcoming planes thus lim-iting take-off and landing cadences in airports. It has beenshown in the last decades that these vortices are unstable tolong-
1and short-wave instabilities2due to the underlying
strain field induced by the companion vortex. Moreover, thepresence of an axial flow is at the origin of other instabilitymechanisms.
3
By contrast, an isolated vortex with no axial flow and
monotonically decreasing positive vorticity, hereafter calledan axisymmetric monopole, is linearly stable with respect totwo-dimensional ~2D!and three-dimensional ~3D!perturba-
tions ~see, for instance, the temporal stability analysis of
Fabre and Jacquin
4!. In particular, it is stable with regard to
both the centrifugal and inflection-point Rayleigh criteria.Stability analyses of this kind of vortex generally focus on2D perturbations. In the inviscid case, a deformed vortexrelaxes toward an axisymmetric state after an exponential~Landau !damping followed by algebraic decay at long times
of the initial asymmetric perturbations.
5,6At large but finite
Reynolds numbers, asymmetric perturbations asymptoticallydecay on a Re
1/3time scale via a shear–diffusion
mechanism.7,8
Interesting algebraic evolution of 2D disturbances has
also been reported in the case of inviscid hollow hurricane-like vortices:
9,10long time asymptotics has revealed the pos-
sibility for linear growth of the perturbation kinetic energyeven if the flow is exponentially stable. But this mechanism
is only active under the necessary condition that the basicflow angular velocity has a local maximum other than at thevortex axis, which is not the case for the axisymmetricmonopole. Yet a generalized stability analysis of monopolarvortices maintained by radial inflow has also revealed tran-
sient growth for 2D spiral-shaped perturbations.
11Moreover,
the same authors have found that the linear response of theseflows to random forcing involved a similar spiral-shapeddominant structure.
12Finally, recent theoretical studies13
have suggested that interactions between a vortex and 3Dexternal turbulence could excite bending waves, via a domi-nant linear process that may eventually destroy the vortexafter about 10 rotation times in the nonlinear regime.
In that context our objective in this Letter is to present
preliminary results revealing the potential for intense tran-sient amplification of kinetic energy for specific perturba-tions ~optimal perturbation !in the linear regime. It is argued
that this transient growth could eventually trigger a nonlineartransition in an otherwise linearly stable vortex.
The present work analyzes the temporal evolution of in-
finitesimal 3D perturbations with velocity components in cy-lindrical coordinates u(r,
u,z,t)5(ur,uu,uz)Tin a steady in-
compressible axisymmetric vortex flow U(r)5(0,rV,0)T.
The basic flow under consideration here is the Lamb–Oseenmodel, with angular velocity V(r)5
@12exp(2r2)#/r2and
associated axial vorticity Z(r)52exp( 2r2). Here space and
time have been respectively nondimensionalized by the vor-tex radius r
0and the ~maximum !angular velocity at the axis
V0. The Reynolds number based on these characteristic
scales is Re 5V0r02/n, where ndenotes the kinematic viscos-
ity. Linearizing the Navier–Stokes equations around this ba-sic flow, it is possible to eliminate the perturbation pressure
a!Electronic mail: antko@imft.frPHYSICS OF FLUIDS VOLUME 16, NUMBER 1 JANUARY 2004
LETTERS
The purpose of this Letters section is to provide rapid dissemination of important new results in the fields regularly covered by
Physics of Fluids. Results of extended research should not be presented as a series of letters in place of comprehensive articles.Letters cannot exceed four printed pages in length, including space allowed for title, figures, tables, references and an abstractlimitedtoabout100words. Ordinarily,thereisathree-monthtimelimit,fromdateofreceipttoacceptance,forprocessingLetter
manuscripts. Authors must also submit a brief statement justifying rapid publication in the Letters section.
L1 1070-6631/2004/16(1)/1/4/$22.00 © 2004 American Institute of Physics
and axial velocity to get a complete description of the per-
turbation in terms of v˜5(ur,uu)T. Then, injecting a classical
normal modes decomposition, v˜(r,u,z,t)5v(r,t)
3exp@i(kz1mu)#, wherek~real!andm~integer !are, respec-
tively, the axial and azimuthal wavenumbers, yields the fol-lowing system for v, rewritten in compact form:
F
~v!5L]v
]t1Cv21
ReDv50, ~1!
with the associated boundary conditions that the perturbation
is regular at r50 and tends to 0 at infinity. Derivation of ~1!
is straightforward.4Dis a viscous diffusion operator and the
operatorLresults from the elimination of pressure and axial
velocity from the original linearized Navier–Stokes equa-tions. Disturbance and basic flow are coupled through theadvection operator C.
Classical linear stability theory focuses on the long time
behavior of the normal modes by assuming exponential timedependence of the form v(r,t)5v(r)e
2ivt. The analysis
then reduces to an eigenvalue problem for the complex pul-sations
v, which are all stable for the Lamb–Oseen vortex.4
Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that the advection operator C
is highly non-normal, except in the trivial case k5m50o r
in the special case of solid-body rotation. This property, heredue to differential rotation, implies that short time transientamplification can be anticipated.
14
This conjecture can be addressed by computing the op-
timal perturbation, i.e., the initial condition which maximizesthe energy gain G(
t)5Et/E0during a finite time interval
@0,t#, where the perturbation energy at time tis given by
Et51
2E
0‘
~u¯rur1u¯uuu1u¯zuz!rdrU
t.
Here the overbars indicate transpose conjugate quantities.
Different techniques can be used to determine the opti-
mal initial conditions.15–18The formalism employed in the
present work comes from optimal control theory. It has beensuccessfully used to compute the optimal perturbation inswept boundary layers.
19Since we follow closely the proto-
col described in Corbett and Bottaro,19we only give a syn-
thetic presentation of this approach in the following.
The optimization problem lies in maximizing the energy
growthG(t)~theobjective !at a given time tunder the con-
straintsof respecting ~1!and the associated boundary condi-
tions. The initial condition v0is used as a controlto be ad-
justed in order to meet the objective. This constrainedoptimization problem can be solved by considering theequivalent unconstrained problem for the Lagrangian func-tional:
L
~v,v0,a,c!5G~t!2^F~v!,a&2~H~v,v0!,c!,
introducing the adjoint variables a(r,t)5(a,b)Tandc(r)
5(c,d)Twhich play the ro ˆle of Lagrange multipliers. Here
H(v,v0)5v(r,0)2v0(r) corresponds to the constraint that
the initial condition v(r,0) matches the control v0(r). The
inner products appearing in the functional are~p,q!5E
0‘
p¯"qrdr1complex conjugate,
^p,q&5E
0t
~p,q!dt.
The task is then to determine v,v0,aandcwhich render L
stationary, i.e., corresponding to a local extremum. Setting tozero variations of Lwith respect to these variables yields
boundary conditions and the following ~adjoint !system for
the variable a:
F
1~a!52L]a
]t1C1a21
ReDa50, ~2!
whereC1is the adjoint operator of C. It also yields transfer
relations between the direct and adjoint variables at times t
50 andt5tas well as the expression of the optimal pertur-
bation. The reader is referred to the paper by Corbett andBottaro
19for the details of the derivation. The computation
of the optimal perturbation is carried out via the followingiterative algorithm: from an initial guess ~random noise !v
0
the direct system ~1!is integrated to t5t; transfer relations
are then applied to provide initial conditions for thebackward-in-time integration of the adjoint system ~2!until
t50 thus providing improved initial conditions for the next
iteration. In practice this procedure converges within 4 to 6iterations ~i.e.,G(
t) varies less than 1022).
The spatial treatment of the direct and adjoint systems is
based on a pseudospectral Chebyshev method.20The equa-
tions are discretized on the Gauss–Lobatto grid algebraicallymapped on the semi-infinite physical domain.
20All compu-
tations are done using MATLABand the DMSuite package de-
veloped by Weideman and Reddy.21A special trick of the
method has been to take advantage of the variables paritythus allowing to reduce the number of collocation points fora given accuracy.
4Convergence tests have been performed
FIG. 1. Optimal energy growth and corresponding optimal time ~in rotation
periods !versus axial wavenumber.L2 Phys. Fluids, Vol. 16, No. 1, January 2004 A. Antkowiak and P. Brancherby varying the stretching of the mapping and the number of
collocation points from 40 to 120 without any dramaticchanges in the results.
We next discuss preliminary results obtained for the par-
ticular case m51. The evolution of the optimal growth with
respect to the axial wavenumber kis reported in Fig. 1, to-
gether with the corresponding time
toptat which it occurs. It
can be seen that considerable growth can be reached, even atmoderate Reynolds numbers. A remarkable feature is thepresence of a relative maximum in energy near k.1.4 inde-
pendently of the Reynolds number, indicating some threedimensional core sized mechanism efficient in redirectingenergy from the mean flow to the perturbation. The energyvalue at this peak scales with the Reynolds number. Figure 2shows the optimal disturbance structure corresponding to thismaximum. This perturbation is at t50 composed of a set of
spiraling vorticity sheets with a left-handed orientation thatevolve so as to produce a strong bending wave within thevortex core. Due to three-dimensionality, the dynamics ofsuch a perturbation is quite intricate ~stretching and tilting !
and is not yet fully understood. Nevertheless, this dynamicsmight involve an analog of the 3D mechanism analyzed byFarrell and Ioannou.
22These authors present a generalization
of the so-called Orr and lift-up mechanisms in plane shearflows which could constitute an interesting basis for the de-tailed analysis of the present results.
Though stretching and tilting vanish as large wave-
lengths are approached, the potential for substantial transientgrowth still exists. More specifically, the 2D limit exhibits astriking feature: the growth increases linearly
24with terminal
timet~Fig. 3 !. Figure 4 depicts the evolution of a typical 2D
optimal perturbation. The associated vorticity field initiallytakes the form of spirals that tend to thicken and to lie furtherfrom the vortex core as
tis increased ~data not shown !. Thisfield satisfied the linearized vorticity equation:
~3!
where three parts have been underbraced: an advection part
which materially advects the vorticity perturbation, an induc-tion part corresponding to redirection of vorticity from themean flow to the disturbance ~both parts coming from the
linearization of the advection term in the complete equation !
and a diffusion term. Let us examine how these terms inter-act as time evolves. The initial structure of the optimal per-turbation is a set of vorticity sheets in the form of leading
spirals ~by opposition to trailingspirals, as for the advection
of a passive scalar spot !. This initial condition is located at
the limb of the vortex, where the induction term is negli-gible. As time flows ~middle of Fig. 4 !, the initial leading
spirals are advected and unfolded via an analog of the Orrmechanism. This process results in a local reorganization ofthe external perturbation vorticity that promotes vortex in-duction on the vortex axis as the spirals unroll. This originalglobal sequel of the Orr mechanism initiated at the outerperiphery of the vortex thus eventually leads to a contamina-tion of the vortex core by exciting translational ~bending !
modes: quickly, an inner bipolar vortical structure grows, andat larger times most of the kinetic energy is associated withthis ‘‘translation.’’ Maximum growth is reached at terminaltime, before the resulting unblended spirals are stirred backinto trailing spirals. Though the whole process is clearly in-viscid, viscosity plays a ro ˆle in the selection of the initial
characteristic radial scale of the optimal disturbance ~the
greater the Reynolds number, the thinner the vorticitysheets !.
We now present a simple model intended to mimic the
combined effects of advection and induction, and to illustratethe initial destructive interference between vorticity spirals.In this model, the evolution of points vortices advected by a1/rflow initially organized along spirals is examined, and
the resulting induced velocity at the center is evaluated.Starting with two filaments rolled up in spiral form, the ac-tion of the mean external shear flow ( .1/r) is to materially
advect the vorticity and to concentrate the spiral. Figure 5represents the evolution of resulting radial velocity at thecenter, which is a measure of the induction term. Its action isnegligible at initial time, due to destructive interference ofintertwined spirals. But, as time evolves, the spirals become
FIG. 2. Isosurfaces of axial vorticity for the optimal 3D case. The levels
correspond to 680% of maximum vorticity, at initial time ~left!and optimal
time ~right!.
FIG. 3. Evolution of growth with terminal time ~in rotation periods !in the
2D case at Re 51000.
FIG. 4. Cross section of axial vorticity in the 2D case. The contour plot
levels are 660% of maximum absolute vorticity.L3 Phys. Fluids, Vol. 16, No. 1, January 2004 Transient energy growth for the Lamb –Oseen vortexunwound.As a consequence, their action focuses on the cen-
ter and redirects vorticity from the mean flow to the distur-bance.
The important point of the present Letter is that m51
disturbances injected in a vortex are subject to transient am-plification. The physical mechanism feeding the transientgrowth is not restricted to a local Orr mechanism, but in-cludes also a global effect of vortex induction. It is notewor-thy that these two mechanisms are not specific to the Lamb–Oseen vortex, or even to vortices, but are generic to freeflows with the two hydrodynamic ingredients: shear and ro-tation. Nevertheless, several questions remain unanswered.First, in the linear regime, what are the respective roles ofstretching and tilting in the 3D case? Is the peak in Fig. 1 theresult of a resonance phenomenon? Moreover, the nonlinearregime of the optimal perturbation will be investigated viadirect numerical simulations in order to address the rel-evance of a ‘‘bypass’’
14transition scenario in such a flow.
Back to aircraft vortices, the similarity between the result ofoptimal evolution ~a core contamination by external distur-
bance leading to a translation !and the long-wave erratic dis-
placements of experimental vortices, a phenomenon knownasvortex meandering ,
23also encountered in tornado- and
hurricane-like flows,11appears puzzling and worthy of fur-
ther investigation. Finally, an exhaustive parametric study iscurrently under way in order to investigate other azimuthalwavenumbers and the influence of base flow diffusion.
25
1S. C. Crow, ‘‘Stability theory for a pair of trailing vortices,’’AIAA J. 8,
2172 ~1970!.
2T. Leweke and C. H. K. Williamson, ‘‘Cooperative elliptic instability of a
vortex pair,’’ J. Fluid Mech. 360,8 5~1998!.
3E. W. Mayer and K. G. Powell, ‘‘Viscous and inviscid instabilities of a
trailing line vortex,’’ J. Fluid Mech. 245,9 1~1992!.4D. Fabre and L. Jacquin, ’’Viscous instabilities in trailing vortices at large
swirl numbers,’’ J. Fluid Mech. ~to be published !.
5R. J. Briggs, J. D. Daugherty, and R. H. Levy, ‘‘Role of Landau damping
in cross-field electron beams and inviscid shear flow,’’ Phys. Fluids 13,
421~1970!.
6D. A. Schecter, D. H. E. Dubin, A. C. Cass, C. F. Driscoll, I. M. Lansky,
and T. M. O’Neill, ‘‘Inviscid damping of asymmetries on a two-dimensional vortex,’’ Phys. Fluids 12, 2397 ~2000!.
7A. J. Bernoff and J. F. Lingevitch, ‘‘Rapid relaxation of an axisymmetric
vortex,’’ Phys. Fluids 6, 3717 ~1994!.
8K. Bajer, A. P. Bassom, and A. D. Gilbert, ‘‘Accelerated diffusion in the
centre of a vortex,’’ J. Fluid Mech. 437,3 9 5 ~2001!.
9R. A. Smith and M. N. Rosenbluth, ‘‘Algebraic instability of hollow elec-
tron columns and clylindrical vortices,’’ Phys. Rev. Lett. 64,6 4 9 ~1990!.
10D. S. Nolan and M. T. Montgomery, ‘‘The algebraic growth of wavenum-
ber one disturbances in hurricane-like vortices,’’ J. Atmos. Sci. 57, 3514
~2000!.
11D. S. Nolan and B. F. Farrell, ‘‘Generalized stability analyses of asymmet-
ric disturbances in one- and two-celled vortices maintained by radial in-flow,’’ J. Atmos. Sci. 56, 1282 ~1999!.
12D. S. Nolan and B. F. Farrell, ‘‘The intensification of two-dimensional
swirling flows by stochastic asymmetric forcing,’’J.Atmos. Sci. 56, 3937
~1999!.
13T. Miyazaki and J. C. R. Hunt, ‘‘Linear and nonlinear interactions between
a columnar vortex and external turbulence,’’ J. Fluid Mech. 402,3 4 9
~2000!.
14L. N. Trefethen, A. E. Trefethen, S. C. Reddy, and T. A. Driscoll, ‘‘Hy-
drodynamic stability without eigenvalues,’’ Science 261,5 7 8 ~1993!.
15K. M. Butler and B. F. Farrell, ‘‘Three-dimensional optimal perturbations
in viscous shear flow,’’ Phys. Fluids A 4,1 6 3 7 ~1992!.
16D. G. Lasseigne, R. D. Joslin, T. L. Jackson, and W. O. Criminale, ‘‘The
transient period for boundary layer disturbances,’’ J. Fluid Mech. 381,8 9
~1999!.
17P. Luchini, ‘‘Reynolds-number-independent instability of the boundary
layer over a flat surface: Optimal perturbations,’’J. Fluid Mech. 404,2 8 9
~2000!.
18P. Luchini andA. Bottaro, ‘‘Go ¨rtler vortices:Abackward-in-time approach
to the receptivity problem,’’ J. Fluid Mech. 363,1~1998!.
19P. Corbett and A. Bottaro, ‘‘Optimal linear growth in swept boundary
layers,’’ J. Fluid Mech. 435,1~2001!.
20B. Fornberg, A Practical Guide to Pseudospectral Methods ~Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 1995 !.
21J. A. C. Weideman and S. C. Reddy, ‘‘A MATLABdifferentiation matrix
suite,’’ACM Trans. Math. Softw. 26,4 6 5 ~2000!.
22B. F. Farrell and P. J. Ioannou, ‘‘Optimal excitation of three-dimensional
perturbations in viscous constant shear flow,’’ Phys. Fluids A 5, 1390
~1993!.
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24At least within the numerical limits.
25Preliminary results reveal that this influence is marginal, at least for the
range of Reynolds numbers considered here.
FIG. 5. Illustration of the initial destructive interference of vorticity spirals.L4 Phys. Fluids, Vol. 16, No. 1, January 2004 A. Antkowiak and P. Brancher |
1.5123469.pdf | Appl. Phys. Lett. 115, 182408 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5123469 115, 182408
© 2019 Author(s).Magnetic domain size tuning in asymmetric
Pd/Co/W/Pd multilayers with perpendicular
magnetic anisotropy
Cite as: Appl. Phys. Lett. 115, 182408 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5123469
Submitted: 06 August 2019 . Accepted: 20 October 2019 . Published Online: 30 October 2019
D. A. Dugato , J. Brandão , R. L. Seeger , F. Béron
, J. C. Cezar
, L. S. Dorneles
, and T. J. A. Mori
Magnetic domain size tuning in asymmetric
Pd/Co/W/Pd multilayers with perpendicular
magnetic anisotropy
Cite as: Appl. Phys. Lett. 115, 182408 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5123469
Submitted: 6 August 2019 .Accepted: 20 October 2019 .
Published Online: 30 October 2019
D. A. Dugato,1,2J.Brand ~ao,2R. L. Seeger,1F.B/C19eron,3
J. C.Cezar,2
L. S.Dorneles,1
and T. J. A. Mori2,a)
AFFILIATIONS
1Departamento de F /C19ısica, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), 97105-900 Santa Maria RS, Brazil
2Laborat /C19orio Nacional de Luz S /C19ıncrotron (LNLS), Centro Nacional de Pesquisa em Energia e Materiais (CNPEM),
13083-970 Campinas SP, Brazil
3Instituto de F /C19ısica Gleb Wataghin (IFGW), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), 13083-859 Campinas SP, Brazil
a)Electronic mail: thiago.mori@lnls.br
ABSTRACT
Magnetic multilayers presenting perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) have great potential for technological applications. On the path to
develop further magnetic devices, one can adjust the physical properties of multilayered thin films by modifying their interfaces, thusdetermining the magnetic domain type, chirality, and size. Here, we demonstrate the tailoring of the domain pattern by tuning theperpendicular anisotropy, the saturation magnetization, and the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (iDMI) in Pd/Co/Pd multilayerswith the insertion of an ultrathin tungsten layer at the top interface. The average domain size decreases around 60% when a 0.2 nm thick
W layer is added to the Co/Pd interface. Magnetic force microscopy images and micromagnetic simulations were contrasted to elucidate the
mechanisms that determine the domain textures and sizes. Our results indicate that both iDMI and PMA can be tuned by carefully changingthe interfaces of originally symmetric multilayers, leading to magnetic domain patterns promising for high density magnetic memories.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5123469
The precise control of the nucleation processes of magnetic
domain patterns is essential to achieve adequate functionality and per-formance for modern technologies. Much progress has been achieved
recently as the stabilization of chiral structures such as skyrmions has
been demonstrated either in nanostructures or in multilayer thin filmspresenting perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), even at room
temperature and zero magnetic field.
1–4Mainly being observed in sys-
tems with ferromagnetic/heavy metal (FM/HM) interfaces, which caneasily be integrated in current technologies, these achievements have
opened an avenue toward the use of PMA multilayers in future spin-
tronics devices.
5Indeed, PMA multilayers are a very fertile ground for
studying magnetic interactions, since several physical properties of
the FM/HM interface can be tuned in order to tailor the magnetic
domain pattern. However, the role of these magnetic interactions indetermining the domain’s properties must be well understood before
f u r t h e rm a g n e t i cd e v i c ed e v e l o p m e n t .
6–8
Magnetic anisotropy ( K), saturation magnetization ( Ms), and
exchange stiffness ( Aex) determine the magnetic domain wall type (N /C19eel
or Bloch), chirality, and size. Their role in the magnetic configurationestablishment in PMA multilayers has been studied for years.9–14More
recently, the observation that magnetic skyrmions may be stabilized byDzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI), arising from broken inver-sion symmetry
15and spin orbit coupling (SOC) in the case of FM/HM
interfaces,16has given the DMI a major role in the study of domain wall
patterns.17,18
In this sense, several combinations of FM and HM have been
tried to fabricate asymmetric PMA multilayers (HM A/FM/HM B)
searching for specific conditions to host chiral skyrmions preferably
stabilized at room temperature and small magnetic fields.12,16,19–21On
the other hand, small asymmetries introduced to originally symmetricmultilayers have also been demonstrated to be a good strategy to tunethe DMI in PMA multilayers.
22–24
Here, we tune the magnetic properties of originally symmetric
Pd/Co/Pd multilayers by inserting an ultrathin W layer in the systemtop interface (Pd/Co/W/Pd). The PMA presents a minimum when anultrathin W layer is inserted. Using magnetic force microscopy(MFM) images acquired at the as-grown state, alongside with micro-magnetic simulations, we show that the respective interfacial DMI
Appl. Phys. Lett. 115, 182408 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5123469 115, 182408-1
Published under license by AIP PublishingApplied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl(iDMI) is around three times higher than that observed for thicker W
layers or the reference symmetric Pd/Co/Pd. This strategy allows us to
obtain a 60% decrease in the average domain size at room tempera-
ture, demonstrating an important route to tune magnetic multilayersfor high density magnetic memory devices.
To study the magnetic domain pattern evolution with a varying
asymmetry at the Co/Pd top interface, we grew multilayers based on a
Pd(1 nm)/Co(0.5 nm)/W(t)/Pd(1 nm) structure, with a nominal thick-ness t¼0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, or 1.0 nm. The multilayers were deposited on
silicon substrates by magnetron sputtering from metallic targets, atroom temperature and 3 mTorr of argon atmosphere, and repeated 15
times [ Fig. 1(a) ].
Saturation magnetization and anisotropy field ( H
k)w e r e
extracted from magnetic hysteresis curves measured in a LakeShorevibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), yielding the perpendicularanisotropy constant value, K
eff¼MsHk/2.10Magnetic domain pattern
images of the as-grown multilayers were acquired by magnetic force
microscopy (MFM) with a NanoSurf Flex scanning probe microscopeoperating in the dynamic force mode. We used Multi75-G MFM(75 kHz) tips from Budget Sensors, which are coated by a cobalt alloypresenting magnetic moment and coercivity of roughly 10
–16Am2and
0.03 T, respectively. The images were acquired at room temperature
and zero magnetic field, with the tip-surface distance about 60 nm.The magnetic domain homogeneity was confirmed through theobservation of 5 images over distances of 1 mm between them. In
addition, the experimental MFM images were compared with those
obtained by micromagnetic simulations.
For the modeling, we used the Mumax3 GPU-accelerated pro-
gram to solve the time-dependent Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG)
equation to obtain the relaxation of the magnetization distribution.
25
The micromagnetic simulations were performed on an area of
5/C25lm2discretized in cells of 3 /C23/C27.5 nm3and using an effective
medium approach to model the multilayer film as a single uniform
layer.26TheMsandKeffvalues extracted from the VSM measurements
served as input, while we varied the iDMI contribution to understand
its influence on the domain pattern formation without the applied
magnetic field. Starting with a random initial magnetization, the equi-
librium condition was obtained by minimizing the LLG energy terms
with a relaxation time of 100 ns. The magnetic ground state represents
the domain stability for each set of magnetic parameters. The energy
of the effective iDMI was evaluated by comparing the simulated
ground states with the corresponding MFM images using a methodol-
ogy similar to what has been reported in the recent literature.4,16,19,27,28
Both out-of-plane and in-plane magnetic hysteresis loops
indicate that all the multilayers present perpendicular magnetic
anisotropy [ Figs. 1(b) and1(c)]. The extracted experimental values
Ms/C24545 kAm–1and Keff/C240.2 MJm–3, observed for the reference
sample, are in accordance with the values found in the literature for
Pd/Co/Pd multilayers.29While the reference sample exhibits out-of-
plane remanence very close to Ms, the remanence decreases for a very
thin (0.1–0.2 nm thick) W layer and increases again, recovering a loop
with nearly full remanence for the sample with a 1 nm W layer.
The W layer insertion leads to a saturation magnetization
decrease, estimated by considering the entire Co volume [ Fig. 1(d) ].
The decline of the total magnetic moment may arise mainly from two
coexisting mechanisms: (1) the formation of a magnetic dead layer
due to alloying or interdiffusion at the interface30and (2) the reduction
of magnetic proximity effect contribution to magnetization since, con-
trary to Pd, the spin and orbital magnetic moments of W may couple
antiparallel to 3d metals.31Besides, both Hkand Keffexhibit a mini-
mum value for t ¼0.2 nm [ Fig. 1(e) ] even though Msdecreases for
thicker W layers. This PMA reduction with ultrathin W layer insertion
can arise from an irregular Co/W-Pd interface, since such a thin
layer should not percolate and can generate roughness instead. A
rough Co/Pd interface is known to lessen the interface anisotropy
and, consequently, the PMA.32At the same time, such a discontinuous
W-Pd layer may lead to competing interfacial effects as Co/W and Co/
Pd interfaces should behave differently. This scenario can also contrib-
ute to lower the PMA since the CoPd alloying, which is known to
contribute to the strong anisotropy in Co/Pd multilayers,33is restricted
by the coexistence of W along the interface.
Without the W layer, the MFM image shows a pattern of stripes
and skyrmion-like circular domains that are normally observed in Co/
Pd multilayers with thin Co thicknesses [ Fig. 2(a) ].34,35However, small
labyrinth domains arise and the domain density increases significantly
for t¼0.2 nm, reaching a magnetic domain periodicity ( k) of about
280 nm [ Figs. 2(b) and1(c)]. Hereafter, we define kas the distance
between two adjacent peaks in the magnetization profile and domain
size as the full width at half maximum of a peak. While this system
presents the lowest Keffvalue along with an Msaverage value, increas-
ing to the 0.3 nm W layer yields a slightly larger Keffcombined to a Ms
FIG. 1. Multilayer structure and magnetic properties. (a) Structure schematic. (b)
and (c) Hysteresis loops recorded with the magnetic field applied along the out-of-
plane and in-plane directions, respectively. (d) Saturation magnetization; (e) blacksquares: anisotropy field and open blue circles: anisotropy constant as a function ofthe W layer thickness.Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl
Appl. Phys. Lett. 115, 182408 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5123469 115, 182408-2
Published under license by AIP Publishingdecrease of around 25%, resulting in both the domain size and period-
icity enlargement [ Fig. 2(d) ] .T h ed o m a i ns i z ec o n t i n u e st oi n c r e a s e
for t¼1 nm, as the saturation magnetization continues decreasing
[Figs. 2(e) and2(f)]. In this case, the domain shape is similar to the
reference sample, with a large periodicity of 670 nm and a domaindensity of /C2460% lower than with the 0.2 nm W layer.
In order to verify the role of the magnetic parameter in the mag-
netic domain pattern formation, we carried out micromagnetic simu-lations using the Mumax3 code. In a first attempt, we only used theexperimental values extracted from the magnetization curves for K
eff
andMs, a fixed exchange stiffness A ¼12/C210–12Jm–1, and damping
a¼0.3. These preliminary simulated domain patterns exhibited dis-
tinct ground states compared to the ones observed in the measuredMFM images, mainly for the samples with the ultrathin (0.1 and0.2 nm) W layer. To reproduce the main features of the experimental
images, a non-null interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction—
within 0.3 and 1.3 mJm
–2—had to be added to the simulated system.
Very good agreement with the experimental images is achieved
with the additive iDMI, even for the nominally symmetric Pd/Co/Pdsample ( Fig. 3 ). Although it should have a null iDMI in the ideal
case, where the bottom and top interfaces contribute with the same
amplitude but opposite sign, as represented in Fig. 4(a) , the different
qualities between the Pd/Co and Co/Pd interfaces may lead to smallvalues of iDMI.
4,36,37On the other hand, the combination of a bottom
Pd/Co with a top Co/W interface is expected to yield a resulting nega-
tive iDMI [ Fig. 4(b) ]. This situation is similar to the iDMI reported for
the Ru/Co/W system,24since both Co/Pd and Co/Ru interfaces pre-
sent the same signal and similar amplitudes of iDMI.38Indeed, in the
case of Ru/Co/W/Ru with varying W thicknesses, an iDMI peak hasalso been reported when the W thickness is about 0.2 nm.
24In Ref. 24,
the authors studied quasisymmetric multilayers with non-null iDMI
focused on the isolated skyrmion nucleation and its behavior in thepresence of an out-of-plane magnetic field. Here, we show thatthe interface engineering strategy of adding a “dusting” interlayer atthe FM/HM interface can also be used to tune the magnetic domain
size of worm-like patterns at zero magnetic field.
According to our micromagnetic simulations, the small iDMI
observed for the symmetric sample rises about 3 times with the
FIG. 2. Experimental magnetic force microscopy images acquired with zero mag-
netic field. (a), (b), (d), and (e) Pd/Co/Pd reference sample and multilayers with 0.2,0.3, and 1.0 nm of W at the Co/Pd interface, respectively. (c) and (f) MFM profilemeasured along the straight lines highlighted on the MFM images in (b) and (e),
respectively, where the periodicity kis defined as the distance between two
adjacent peaks. The scale bar in the images is 1 lm, and the color scale ranges
from blue (amplitude /C01, magnetization downward) to red (amplitude þ1, magneti-
zation upward).
FIG. 3. Zero magnetic field micromagnetic simulated domain patterns with Msand
Kefftaken from VSM and non-null iDMI. (a), (b), (d), and (e) Pd/Co/Pd reference
sample and multilayers with 0.2, 0.3, and 1.0 nm of W at the Co/Pd interface,
respectively. (c) and (f) MFM profile measured along the straight lines highlighted
on the MFM images in (b) and (e), respectively. The scale bar in the images is1lm, and the color scale ranges from blue (amplitude /C01, magnetization down-
ward) to red (amplitude þ1, magnetization upward).Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl
Appl. Phys. Lett. 115, 182408 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5123469 115, 182408-3
Published under license by AIP Publishinginsertion of an ultrathin layer of W (0.1–0.2 nm) at the top interface,
as it is shown in Fig. 4(c) . It is very interesting that a further minor
increase in the W layer thickness (0.3 nm) leads to an iDMI almost as
small as for the reference sample value. Note that this iDMI peak
occurs for the same W thickness as the observed anisotropy minimum[seeFig. 1(e) ]. The iDMI decline for thicker W layers is suggested to
be due to the magnetic dead layer present when the W forms a contin-uous layer, which leads to the ferromagnetic layer degradation.
24,30
The thicker dead layer diminishes the orbital hybridization and conse-
quently the SOC and magnetic exchange in both interfaces, which are
important ingredients required for a strong iDMI.39Notwithstanding,
the formation of very distinct domain patterns in the 0.1–0.2 nm rangeof W occurs due to atypically low K
effvalues and an additive iDMI.
Indeed, the geometric properties such as domain size and periodicity
also present discrepant values in this range [ Figs. 4(d) and 4(g)].
Similar to the results reported in Ref. 30,h e r ei ti sa l s ol i k e l yt h a tt h e
small ratios between PMA and iDMI lead to smaller domain sizes as aresult of the reduced energy of domain walls.
40
In conclusion, we investigated the influence of a W layer, inserted
at the top interface of a nominally symmetric Pd/Co/Pd multilayer, on
the physical properties of the ferromagnetic Co layer as a function ofits thickness. From hysteresis loops, we extracted the saturation mag-
netization Ms, anisotropy field Hk, and hence the perpendicular
magnetic anisotropy Keff.B o t h MsandKeffdecay for thicker W layers.
Most notably, a minimum of the anisotropy is observed with the inser-
tion of an ultrathin 0.2 nm thick W layer.
MFM images were acquired to obtain the magnetic domain pat-
terns at zero field and room temperature. Labyrinth domains were
imaged, revealing a strong dependence of the size and periodicity onthe W thickness. In particular, a domain size decrease of around 60%was obtained at 0.2 nm W, which coincides with the minimum per-pendicular anisotropy, indicating that the physical properties of the
multilayers play a direct role in the features of the magnetic domains.
To understand the magnetic domain formation, micromagnetic
simulations were carried out and the results were compared with the
experimental findings. By adjusting the physical parameters obtainedfor each W thickness in the modeling, the experimental observationswere reproduced by taking into account the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. The iDMI reaches a peak at 0.2 nm W and is
remarkably reduced for thicker W layers. Very importantly, the small
ratio between PMA and iDMI within the W thickness range0.1–0.2 nm leads to very small domain sizes, which can be interestingfor applications such as high density hard disk drives. The strategy oftuning magnetic domains by changing the interfaces of originally
symmetric multilayers is promising on the path to develop devices
based on skyrmions and chiral domain walls.
This study was financed in part by the Coordenac ¸~ao de
Aperfeic ¸oamento de Pessoal de N /C19ıvel Superior-Brasil (CAPES)-Finance
Code 001, by the Fundac ¸~ao de Amparo /C18aP e s q u i s ad oE s t a d od eS ~ao
Paulo-S ~ao Paulo, Brasil (FAPESP)-Project No. 2012/51198-2, and by
the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient /C19ıfico e Tecnol /C19ogico-
Brasil (CNPq). J.C.C., L.S.D., and F.B. acknowledge grants provided byCNPq: Project Nos. 309354/2015-3, 302950/2017-6, and 436573/2018-0, respectively. F.B. acknowledges grant by FAPESP: No. 2017/10581-1.
The samples were grown at the Microfabrication Laboratory-Brazilian
Nanotechnology National Laboratory (LNNano). The micromagneticsimulations were carried out at the high performance computingfacilities of the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) underProject No. 20180577.
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Appl. Phys. Lett. 115, 182408 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5123469 115, 182408-5
Published under license by AIP Publishing |
1.3143042.pdf | Tuning magnetization dynamic properties of Fe – SiO 2 multilayers by oblique
deposition
Nguyen N. Phuoc, Feng Xu, and C. K. Ong
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 105, 113926 (2009); doi: 10.1063/1.3143042
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3143042
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/105/11?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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130.39.62.90 On: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 09:29:11Tuning magnetization dynamic properties of Fe–SiO 2multilayers
by oblique deposition
Nguyen N. Phuoc,1,a/H20850Feng Xu,1and C. K. Ong2
1Temasek Laboratories, National University of Singapore, 5A Engineering Drive 2,
Singapore 117411, Singapore
2Department of Physics, Center for Superconducting and Magnetic Materials,
National University of Singapore, 2 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117542, Singapore
/H20849Received 16 February 2009; accepted 4 May 2009; published online 10 June 2009 /H20850
The static and dynamic magnetic properties of Fe–SiO 2multilayers fabricated onto Si /H20849100 /H20850
substrates by a radio frequency sputter-deposition system are investigated as functions of depositionangle and Fe thickness. By changing the oblique deposition angle, one can effectively tune theferromagnetic resonance frequency from 1.7 to 3.5 GHz. In addition, the frequency linewidth issignificantly changed with the oblique deposition angle when the Fe layer is thick, but it is almostconstant in the case of small Fe thickness. © 2009 American Institute of Physics .
/H20851DOI: 10.1063/1.3143042 /H20852
I. INTRODUCTION
High frequency soft magnetic thin films, which were
widely used in many electromagnetic devices such as mag-netic recording heads, wireless inductor cores, microwavenoise filters and absorbers, have recently been studiedextensively.
1–14In many modern devices, the operating fre-
quencies have reached gigahertz bands. Hence, the magneticthin films are required to have a broadband at very highfrequencies to be used as microwave noise filters for futureapplications. For such a purpose, the ferromagnetic reso-nance /H20849FMR /H20850frequency of magnetic thin films should be in
the gigahertz range. It is well known that for in-plane mag-netized films without external applied field, the FMR fre-quency is strongly dependent on the uniaxial magnetic aniso-tropy field /H20849H
K/H20850and the saturation magnetization /H20849MS/H20850
according to Kittel’s equation as follows:15
fFMR=/H9253
2/H9266/H20881HK/H20849HK+4/H9266MS/H20850, /H208491/H20850
where /H9253is the gyromagnetic ratio /H20849/H9253=1.76 /H11003107Hz /Oe/H20850.
To obtain high FMR frequency, one should increase the satu-
ration magnetization and/or the uniaxial anisotropy field.Therefore, among many studies on soft magnetic thin filmsfor high frequency application, considerable effort has beenfocused on controlling the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy ofthe films.
3–14In the literature, there are several methods to
increase the uniaxial anisotropy field such as patterning thinfilms to create shape anisotropy,
3,4using a magnetic field
application during deposition,5–8field annealing,9and using
exchange bias coupling between a ferromagnet and an anti-ferromagnet to induce magnetic anisotropy.
10–14
Uniaxial magnetic anisotropy induced in magnetic thin
films by oblique deposition was discovered in 1959 by Knorrand Hoffman
16and Smith et al. ,17,18who showed that mag-
netic anisotropy /H20849even at zero applied field /H20850can be inducedin iron and Permalloy films by making the metal vapor to hit
the substrate at an oblique deposition angle. Using this tech-nique, one can in principle tune the uniaxial magnetic aniso-tropy by changing the oblique deposition angle
16–22and thus
change the dynamic properties of the thin films. However,there is still little work reporting about the employment ofoblique deposition to tune the high frequency characteristicsof thin films. In this work, we therefore investigate the influ-ence of the oblique deposition angle on the high frequencymagnetic characteristics of Fe–SiO
2multilayered thin films.
II. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
Samples with the stacks of /H20851Fe–SiO 2/H208525were fabricated
onto Si /H20849100 /H20850substrates at ambient temperature using the re-
active rf magnetron sputter-deposition system with the basepressure better than 7 /H1100310
−7Torr. The thickness of SiO 2
layer was fixed at 5 nm while the thickness of Fe was
changed from 10 to 20 nm. No magnetic field was appliedduring the deposition process. The argon pressure was keptat 10
−3Torr during the deposition process by introducing
a/H20850Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel./FAX: 65-
65162816/65-67776126. Electronic mail: tslnnp@nus.edu.sg.
FIG. 1. Schematic view of the oblique sputtering deposition system.JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 105, 113926 /H208492009 /H20850
0021-8979/2009/105 /H2084911/H20850/113926/4/$25.00 © 2009 American Institute of Physics 105 , 113926-1
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
130.39.62.90 On: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 09:29:11argon gas at the flow rate of 16 SCCM /H20849SCCM denotes cubic
centimeter per minute at STP /H20850. The deposition arrangement
is shown in Fig. 1, where the substrates were put at different
positions so that the thin film can be fabricated at an obliquedeposition angle ranging from 0° to 30° as shown in Fig. 1.
The magnetic properties of the films were measured by a
M-Hloop tracer at room temperature. The permeability
spectra over the frequency range from 0.05 to 5 GHz wereobtained by a shorted microstrip transmission-line perturba-tion method using a fixture developed in our laboratory. Fur-ther details of this method can be found in a previouspaper.
23
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 2shows the in-plane hysteresis loops of
/H20851Fe/H2084920 nm /H20850/SiO 2/H208495n m /H20850/H208525multilayers deposited onto
Si/H20849100 /H20850substrates at various oblique deposition angles. The
direction of the in-plane easy axis /H20849EA /H20850was found to be
perpendicular to the deposition direction, while the hard axis/H20849HA /H20850is along the deposition direction as indicated in Fig. 1.
With increasing the oblique deposition angle the HA M-H
loops become sheerer, which is a clear evidence of the effectof induced uniaxial magnetic anisotropy by oblique deposi-tion. The behaviors of the oblique angular dependence of thecoercivity /H20849in both easy and hard axes, H
CEAandHCHA/H20850, the
saturation field /H20849HS/H20850and the uniaxial anisotropy field /H20849HK/H20850for different thicknesses of Fe layers are summarized in Fig.
3. Here, the uniaxial anisotropy field /H20849HK/H20850was extracted
from the slope of rotational-like magnetization curve on the
HA.8,12It is clearly observed in Fig. 3that for all the thick-
nesses of Fe layers, both the coercivity and the uniaxial an-isotropy field are increased with the oblique depositionangle. The change in the uniaxial anisotropy field with theoblique deposition angle was previously explained within theframework of a so-called self-shadowing model.
18According
to this mechanism, the region of the substrate behind a grow-ing crystallite is prevented from receiving metal vapor be-cause this region is in the “shadow” of the crystallite and asa result, the crystallites agglomerate into two-dimensionalarray of chains whose long axis tends to be perpendicular tothe beam direction. According to Smith et al. ,
18the aniso-
tropy induced by applying a magnetic field during depositionis only an M-induced anisotropy and in the case of oblique-
incident films, the direction of Mis defined by the crystallite
chains so that an M-induced anisotropy should exist even in
the absence of an applied field. Thus the uniaxial anisotropycan be induced by oblique deposition technique.
The real /H20849
/H9262/H11032/H20850and imaginary /H20849/H9262/H11033/H20850permeability spectra of
/H20851Fe/H2084920 nm /H20850/SiO 2/H208495n m /H20850/H208525multilayers deposited at various
oblique deposition angles are presented in Fig. 4.A si so b -
FIG. 2. /H20849Color online /H20850Hysteresis loops of /H20851Fe/H2084920 nm /H20850–SiO2/H208495n m /H20850/H208525mul-
tilayers deposited at various oblique deposition angles.
FIG. 3. /H20849Color online /H20850Variation of coercivity measured along easy /H20849HCEA/H20850
and hard /H20849HCHA/H20850axes /H20851/H20849a/H20850and /H20849b/H20850/H20852saturation field /H20849HS/H20850/H20849c/H20850and uniaxial
anisotropy field /H20849HK/H20850/H20849 d/H20850on oblique deposition angle for
/H20851Fe/H20849xnm/H20850–SiO2/H208495n m /H20850/H208525multilayers with various Fe thicknesses /H20849x/H20850.T h e
open symbol in /H20849c/H20850is the value obtained from LLG fitting.113926-2 Phuoc, Xu, and Ong J. Appl. Phys. 105 , 113926 /H208492009 /H20850
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130.39.62.90 On: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 09:29:11served, the peak of the imaginary permeability /H20849/H9262/H11033/H20850is shifted
to the higher frequency range indicating that the FMR fre-
quency is increased with the oblique deposition angle. Also,the FMR peak gets broader as the oblique deposition angleincreases. For a more quantitative examination of the effectof oblique deposition onto the dynamic properties of the thinfilms, an analysis based on the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert/H20849LLG /H20850equation was employed.
As is well known, the dynamic magnetization behavior
of the thin film can be described by the LLG equation,
24dM/H6023
dt=−/H9253/H20849M/H6023/H11003H/H6023/H20850+/H9251eff
MM/H6023/H11003dM/H6023
dt, /H208492/H20850
where Mrepresents the magnetic moment, His the magnetic
field,/H9251effis the dimensionless effective damping coefficient
/H20849/H9251effis not intrinsic but takes into account all possible effects
of damping /H20850, and/H9253is the gyromagnetic ratio.
Solving the LLG equation, one can readily obtain the
complex permeability as follows:7,10
/H9262/H11032=1+4 /H9266MS/H92532/H208494/H9266MS+HK/H20850/H208491+/H9251eff2/H20850/H20851/H9275R2/H208491+/H9251eff2/H20850−/H92752/H20852+/H208494/H9266MS+2HK/H20850/H20849/H9251eff/H9275/H208502
/H20851/H9275R2/H208491+/H9251eff2/H20850−/H92752/H208522+/H20851/H9251eff/H9275/H9253/H208494/H9266MS+2HK/H20850/H208522, /H208493/H20850
/H9262/H11033=4/H9266MS/H9253/H9275/H9251eff/H208494/H9266MS+HK/H208502/H208491+/H9251eff2/H20850+/H92752
/H20851/H9275R2/H208491+/H9251eff2/H20850−/H92752/H208522+/H20851/H9251eff/H9275/H9253/H208494/H9266MS+2HK/H20850/H208522. /H208494/H20850
Here, MS,HK, and/H9275R/H20849/H9275R=2/H9266fFMR /H20850are the saturation
magnetization, uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, and FMR fre-
quency, respectively. Considering 4 /H9266MS=21 kG for Fe lay-
ers estimated from the hysteresis loops and taking HKand
/H9251effas fitting parameters, one can fit the experimental curves
in Fig. 4with formulas /H208493/H20850and /H208494/H20850quite well. The uniaxial
anisotropy field HKderived from the fitting is presented in
Fig. 3/H20849c/H20850/H20849open symbols /H20850in comparison with HKobtained
from the M-Hloops. It is noticed that there is a discrepancy
between HKderived from dynamic curves and HKobtained
from the static curves. This discrepancy was similarly ob-served in various soft magnetic thin films,
25,26which may be
interpreted in term of the Hoffmann’s ripple theory.27Ac-
cording to this theory, there is an additional effective isotro-pic field that contributes to the anisotropy field obtained frompermeability spectra beside the static intrinsic anisotropyfield. This additional effective field dependent on a so-calledripple constant may originate from the local randomanisotropies, which are in isotropic distribution
25,26and con-
sequently it is not included in HKfrom the static measure-
ment as that from the dynamic measurement. As a result,there is a discrepancy between two H
Kvalues obtained from
two methods.
Figure 5shows the dependences of the effective damp-
ing coefficient /H9251eff, the frequency linewidth /H9004f, and the FMR
frequency fFMRon the deposition angle. All the parameters
were derived from the fitting of the curves in Fig. 4for three
series of /H20851Fe/H20849xnm/H20850/SiO 2/H208495n m /H20850/H208525multilayers /H20849x=10, 15,
and 20 nm /H20850. The frequency linewidth /H9004fis obtained from the
following formula:8
/H9004f=/H9253/H9251eff/H208494/H9266MS+2HK/H20850
2/H9266. /H208495/H20850
As seen in Figs. 5/H20849a/H20850and 5/H20849b/H20850, the effective damping
coefficient /H9251effand the frequency linewidth /H9004fare increased
significantly with the oblique deposition angle for the casetFe=20 nm, while they are not changed much when Fe thick-
ness is thinner /H20849tFe=10 nm, 15 nm /H20850. This behavior is some-
FIG. 4. /H20849Color online /H20850Experimental and calculated permeability spectra for
/H20851Fe/H2084920 nm /H20850–SiO2/H208495n m /H20850/H208525multilayers deposited at various oblique depo-
sition angles.113926-3 Phuoc, Xu, and Ong J. Appl. Phys. 105 , 113926 /H208492009 /H20850
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130.39.62.90 On: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 09:29:11what similar to the trend of variations of the saturation field
/H20849HS/H20850and the uniaxial anisotropy field /H20849HK/H20850with oblique
deposition angle in Fig. 3/H20849c/H20850suggesting that there may pos-
sibly be a correlation between the frequency linewidth andthe static magnetic properties. Despite the difficulty in eluci-dating such a correlation, one may presumably ascribe thebroadening of the frequency linewidth to the dispersion ofthe magnetic anisotropy, which may be influenced by thechange of the uniaxial anisotropy field as well as the satura-tion field. However, other possibilities may also be the rea-son and should not be excluded.
As in Fig. 5/H20849c/H20850, the FMR frequency can be tuned from
1.7 to 3.5 GHz by changing the oblique deposition angle.The variation of FMR frequency with the oblique depositionangle calculated from Eq. /H208491/H20850using the H
Kobtained from
static measurement is also presented in Fig. 5/H20849c/H20850with the
open symbols. It is clearly observed that the experimentalbehavior of FMR position is similar to the theory althoughthere are small discrepancies, which were interpreted asabove within the framework of ripple theory.
27The result
that the FMR positions can be tuned with the oblique depo-sition angle opens up a possibility to use oblique depositiontechnique to fabricate magnetic thin films for microwave ap-plications besides the other traditional methods. However,more effort is needed to extend the FMR frequency to higherfrequency range.IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
In summary, we show in the present work that the mag-
netization dynamics of Fe–SiO 2multilayers can be effec-
tively tuned by oblique deposition technique. The FMR fre-quency can be changed from 1.7 to 3.5 GHz implying thatoblique deposition technique is a promising method to in-duce magnetic anisotropy for high frequency application.Also, the frequency linewidth is significantly changed withthe oblique deposition angle when t
Fe=20 nm, while they
are not much affected by the oblique deposition angle varia-tion for the case t
Fe=10 and 15 nm.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors acknowledge the financial support from the
Defense Science and Technology Agency /H20849DSTA /H20850of Sin-
gapore.
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1.3687909.pdf | Sub-nanosecond switching of vortex cores using a resonant perpendicular
magnetic field
Ruifang Wang and Xinwei Dong
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 082402 (2012); doi: 10.1063/1.3687909
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3687909
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Downloaded 11 Nov 2012 to 130.63.180.147. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsSub-nanosecond switching of vortex cores using a resonant perpendicular
magnetic field
Ruifang Wanga)and Xinwei Dong
Department of Physics and Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, Xiamen University,
Xiamen 361005, China
(Received 22 November 2011; accepted 30 January 2012; published online 21 February 2012)
We performed micromagnetic numerical studies on ultrafast switching of magnetic vortex cores
(VCs) using a perpendicular magnetic field that oscillates at the eigenfrequency of a permalloy
nanodisk. Our calculations show that a resonant magnetic field with amplitude of 30 mT stimulates
strong axially symmetric magnetization oscillation and forces the vortex core to stay at the centerof the nanodisk. The compression of the vortex core by spin wave leads to core reversal at 602 ps.
This switching process is mediated by the propagation of a Neel wall across the sample thickness.
VC2012 American Institute of Physics . [doi: 10.1063/1.3687909 ]
Magnetic vortex1,2is a typical ground state of nanoscale
magnetic thin-film structures, in which the in-plane magnet-ization curls around a core with diameter of only 10 to 20
nanometers.
3–5Inside the core, magnetization rotates out of
the plane, either up or down, characterizing the two possiblecore polarities of a magnetic vortex, which can be coded as
“0” and “1” in data storage devices. However, the large
energy density in the core presents a large barrier for corepolarity reversal. Recent studies on fast switching of a vortex
core (VC) under an in-plane oscillating magnetic field (or
spin polarized current),
6–11through large amplitude gyration
of the VC, have significantly promoted the use of the mag-
netic vortex in practical applications for magnetic data stor-
age devices.12,13Using this approach, the switching speed
depends on both the amplitude and frequency of the in-plane
oscillating field.6,9,10,14,15A magnetic field of 50 mT in am-
plitude and oscillating at the gyration eigenfrequency of theVC can reverse the core polarity within 100 ps.
14However,
under an in-plane magnetic field, the VC moves along a spi-
ral path from the disk center and accelerates to a criticalspeed of a few hundred meters per second, until the core re-
versal occurs through the creation and annihilation of a
vortex-antivortex pair.
15,16
While switching the VC using the oscillating in-plane
field is energy efficient and fast, the large core movement
creates a severe obstacle for bit reading in magnetic datastorage devices. Applying a magnetic field perpendicular to
the nanodisk is a way to switch the VC in-situ . However, a
static perpendicular field of the order of 500 mT is requiredto flip the core polarity.
17,18In this letter, we demonstrate by
numerical calculations that an oscillating perpendicular mag-
netic field of only 30 mT can not only reverse the core polar-ity within a sub-nanosecond time frame but also force the
core to stay at the center of the vortex, when the external
field is tuned to the magnetization eigenfrequency of thenanodisk.
Our numerical 3D micromagnetic simulations
19are car-
ried out using the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation, which issuitable for calculating the magnetization dynamics on a 10
ps temporal scale.14In the modeling, we choose a diameter
of 300 nm and a thickness of 20 nm for the Permalloy nano-
disk ( Ms¼800 KA =m, exchange constant A¼13 pJ=m,
Gilbert damping constant a¼0:01, and anisotropy constant
k¼0). The mesh cell size is 2.5 /C22.5/C22.5 nm. To study
the vortex frequency mode numerically, a square wave pulse
of 100 ps in duration and 30 mT in strength is applied per-pendicular to the nanodisk. The temporal evolution of the
perpendicular magnetization component averaged over the
whole nanodisk ( hM
zi=Ms) is given in Fig. 1. Damped peri-
odic oscillations are observed for the transient excitation per-
pendicular to the disk, with an early response that also
reflects the pulse profile. Subsequent Fourier transformation(FT)
20–24onhMzi=Msis given in the inset of Fig. 1, where
we identify two eigenfrequencies at 10.4 GHz and 14.3 GHz.
The eigenmode images in Fig. 1are obtained by Fourier
transforming the time domain signal recorded at each loca-
tion into the frequency domain. The FT data are reassembled
to display spatially resolved maps of the amplitude. The twoeigenmodes in Fig. 1can be classified as being in radial
mode, which is governed principally by magnetostatic
interactions.
21,24–27The eightfold symmetry of the eigen-
mode at 10.4 GHz can be attributed to mode coupling27and
the deviation from cylindrical symmetry caused by con-
structing the disk out of small cubes.26
To excite magnetization oscillation of the nanodisk, we
apply a sinusoidal magnetic field along the zdirection,
namely ~HextðtÞ¼/C0 30sin ð2pftÞ^zmT, where f¼10:4 GHz.
The dynamic processes leading to the core reversal can be
clearly identified by the temporal evolution of the zcompo-
nent of the magnetization ( mz¼Mz=Ms) of the sample as
displayed in Fig. 2. In the static state, the magnetic vortex
has positive polarization ( mzis 0.99 at the apex of the VC),
and its magnetization shows clear circular symmetry [seeFig. 2(a)]. After applying the resonant perpendicular mag-
netic field, the magnetic vortex undergoes significant oscilla-
tion of magnetization, which can be seen in Figs. 2(b)–2(h).
The stimulated spin wave reflects between the VC and the
edge of the nanodisk, and as a result leads to considerable
expansion and compression of the VC [see Figs. 2(b)–2(h)].a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:
wangrf@xmu.edu.cn.
0003-6951/2012/100(8)/082402/3/$30.00 VC2012 American Institute of Physics 100, 082402-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 100, 082402 (2012)
Downloaded 11 Nov 2012 to 130.63.180.147. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsThe vortex forms a highly compressed core surrounded by a
deep annular dip, where mz</C00:6, at 591.5 ps [see Fig.
2(d)], then the core quickly diminishes until mzat the apex
of the VC ( mzavc) reduces to /C01.0 at 602 ps, which marks
the accomplishment of the VC switching process. Mean-
while, a burst of high frequency spin waves is emitted fromthe core region immediately after the core reversal, because
a large amount of exchange energy is released in this pro-
cess.28Under the resonant perpendicular magnetic field, the
VC reverses its polarity again at 637 ps, through a core com-
pression process similar to the previous core reversal [see
Figs. 2(g) and2(h)]. It is noticeable in Fig. 2that, during the
switching process, the spin wave shows good axial symme-
try. This axially symmetric spin wave forces the VC to stay
at the center of the sample, and the whole system keeps ingood circular symmetry throughout the switching process.
To quantitatively study the variation of core size with
time, we define the size of the VC in such a way that theedge and apex of the core has a 30% difference in m
z,
namely mzcore edge ¼0:7mzavc.29This definition gives a core
diameter of 11.8 nm30in the static state, which agrees well
with previous studies on the size of the VC.3,4,31The varia-
tion of core size with time is plotted in Fig. 3(a). The core
size oscillates nearly in phase with the external field beforethe first switching of the VC. The higher oscillation rate
afterwards can be attributed to the high frequency spin wave
emitted from the VC after its switching. Fig. 3(b) also dis-
plays the variation of m
zavcand the zcomponent of the
exchange field at the apex of VC ( Hexzavc) with time. Within
588 ps after applying the resonant magnetic field, the spinwave stimulated by external field drives the size of the VC to
fluctuate over a wide range between 4.5 nm and 18.8 nm.
However, in this period of time, the VC is able to generate aH
exzavcof over 20 T at the apex of the VC, therefore, mzavc
is kept in a narrow range of 0.98 to 0.99. After 588 ps, the
continuous compression of the VC by the spin wave leads toan abrupt decline in H
exzavc, which in turn gives rise to a
sharp fall in mzavc. At 602 ps, Hexzavcdrops to /C025 T and
mzavcis reduced to /C01.0, which indicates a complete
switching of the VC.
While the discussion above has shown the dynamics of
vortex switching using the temporal evolution of mz, another
interesting question is how the VC switching progresses
along the disk thickness. In Fig. 4, we present cross-sectional
views of the central region of the vortex from 595 ps to 602
FIG. 1. (Color online) Variation of hMzi=Mswith time, after applying a
small pulsed perpendicular magnetic field to the permalloy nanodisk. The
inset shows its Fourier transform and two eigenmode images at eigenfre-
quencies of 10.4 GHz and 14.3 GHz.
FIG. 2. (Color) Dynamics of the vortex reversal process. In (a)-(h), a visual-
ization with topography of mzhas been used. The insets on the upper right dis-
play a cutline along the diameter through the VC. The insets on the lowerright show the xcomponent of magnetization (red: m
x¼1 and blue:
mx¼/C01). (enhanced online) [URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3687909.1 ].
FIG. 3. (Color) (a) Variation of the vortex core diameter (black circles) and
external magnetic field (blue line) with time. (b) Variation of Hexzavc(black
circle) and mzavc(red circle) with time.082402-2 R. Wang and X. Dong Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 082402 (2012)
Downloaded 11 Nov 2012 to 130.63.180.147. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsps. This plot clearly shows that the VC reversal starts from
the top plane [see Fig. 4(b)]. Furthermore, in the VC, spins
in the 8 planes form a Neel wall. The core reversal is accom-plished when the Neel wall propagates vertically through the
sample [see Figs. 4(b)–4(d)]. Such a switching process by
Neel wall propagation is in contrast to Bloch point mediatedswitching under a static perpendicular field.
18In the core
region, the axial symmetry of magnetization is broken when
the Neel wall propagates through the sample thickness. Thislocal break of axial symmetry is necessary for realizing an
in-situ VC switching. However, in the region outside the
VC, the vortex is still in good circular symmetry during theswitching process.
In summary, by employing a perpendicular magnetic
field that oscillates at the eigenfrequency of the vortex, thecore polarity can be reversed within 602 ps. The resonant
perpendicular magnetic field stimulates axially symmetric
magnetization oscillation which in turn changes the size ofthe VC and keeps the core at the center of the sample. The
continuous compression of the VC eventually leads to a
quick decline of H
exzavc, from over 20 T to under /C025 T,
and, therefore, drives the VC to reverse its polarity. The
switching process is mediated by a Neel wall that travels ver-
tically through the sample. This study is of fundamental in-terest and may be relevant for possible applications of the
magnetic vortex in data storage devices.
This work is financially supported by the National Natu-
ral Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 10974163and 11174238 and the Specialized Research Fund for theDoctoral Program of Higher Education in China under Grant
No. 20090121120029.
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FIG. 4. (Color online) Transient images (cross-section) showing displace-
ment of a Neel wall during the VC reversal process. The images were taken
at times t¼595 ps (a), 599 :2 ps (b), 600 :6 ps (c), and 602 ps (d). The gray
scale reflects the zcomponent of magnetization.082402-3 R. Wang and X. Dong Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 082402 (2012)
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1.4876128.pdf | Spin-orbit interaction tuning of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in L10 FePdPt films
X. Ma, P. He, L. Ma, G. Y. Guo, H. B. Zhao, S. M. Zhou, and G. Lüpke
Citation: Applied Physics Letters 104, 192402 (2014); doi: 10.1063/1.4876128
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4876128
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/104/19?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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On: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:01:53Spin-orbit interaction tuning of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
in L1 0FePdPt films
X. Ma,1P . He,2L. Ma,2G. Y . Guo,3,a)H. B. Zhao,4,a)S. M. Zhou,2and G. L €upke1,a)
1Department of Applied Science, College of William and Mary, 251 Jamestown Road, Williamsburg,
Virginia 23187, USA
2Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, School of Physics
Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
3Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
4Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433,
China
(Received 2 April 2014; accepted 30 April 2014; published online 12 May 2014)
The dependence of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy Kuon spin-orbit coupling strength nis
investigated in L10ordered FePd 1/C0xPtxfilms by time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect
measurements and ab initio density functional calculations. Continuous tuning of Kuover a wide
range of magnitude is realized by changing the Pt/Pd concentration ratio, which strongly modifies
nbut keeps other leading parameters affecting Kunearly unchanged. Ab initio calculations predict
a nearly quadratic dependence of Kuonn, consistent with experimental data. Kuincreases with
increasing chemical order and decreasing thermal spin fluctuations, which becomes more
significant for samples with higher Pt concentration. The results demonstrate an effective methodto tune K
uutilizing its sensitivity on n, which will help fabricate magnetic systems with desirable
magnetic anisotropy. VC2014 AIP Publishing LLC .[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4876128 ]
Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) defines the
low-energy orientation of the magnetization M(easy axis)
normal to the film plane, as well as the stability of Mwith
respect to external fields, electric currents, and temperature-
induced fluctuations, which is of great interest in magnetoe-lectronics. Materials with large PMA are good candidates for
high density memory and spintronics devices,
1–3as they
exhibit promising thermal stability and allow going beyondthe superparamagnetic effect, giving access to magnetic
media with smaller magnetic domains.
4,5Moreover, PMA-
based magnetic tunnel junctions provide high tunnelingmagneto-resistance ratio,
6–8and low critical current for spin-
transfer-torque switching,9which are potential candidates
for next-generation persistent memory. Considering theseadvantages, tailoring the PMA of magnetic materials as well
as elucidating its physical origin becomes important for
further technological advancements.
PMA can be related to the spin-orbit-coupling (SOC)-
induced splitting and shifting of electronic states that depend
on the magnetization direction, which results from the simul-taneous occurrence of the spin polarization and SOC.
10–12
An effective method to achieve significant PMA utilizes
appropriate combinations of 3 dand heavier 4 d,5delements,
which merge the large magnetic moment and magnetic sta-
bility of 3 dtransition metals (TMs) with the strong SOC of
4d,5dTMs.13–17L10ordered FePt material is one prominent
example.18–22TheL10ordered structure consists of alternate
stacking of Fe and Pt atomic planes along the face-centered
tetragonal (fct) [001] direction. The enlarged Fe-Fe distance,compared with their bulk phase, narrows the bandwidths and
enhances the exchange splitting of band structure.
18Inaddition, Pt acquires a sizable spin polarization in contact
with Fe and contributes significantly to the PMA, due to itslarge SOC.
In principle, the tunability of PMA by SOC strength ( n)
is significant as predicted by various theoretical models.
18–22
However, an experimental method to continuously tailor
PMA by exploiting its dependence on nhas not been well
demonstrated, and a systematic analysis is still lacking. Thechallenge lies in the fact that PMA is also affected by other
physical parameters, such as magnetic moment, lattice con-
stant, and bandwidth,
18,20,23,24in addition to n, which may
change significantly when nis altered by using various
metals and alloys.25–29It is difficult to deconvolute the under-
lying mechanisms of spin-orbit interaction tuning of PMA inthose systems. L1
0ordered FePd (1/C0x)Ptxalloy is one promis-
ing candidate for such purpose of systematic study.30,31The
element Pt falls into the same group as Pd in the periodictable, and n
(Pt)is stronger than n(Pd). Continuous substitution
of Pd by Pt leads to a gradual increase of ninL10ordered
FePd (1/C0x)Ptxalloy, while the magnetic moment and lattice
structure remains almost the same. In this paper, we demon-
strate tailoring PMA through spin-orbit interaction tuning in
L10ordered FePd (1/C0x)Ptxternary alloy films. We investigate
uniform magnetization precession in the frequency range of
14–340 GHz for various samples by time-resolved magneto-
optical Kerr effect (TRMOKE) experiments. The measuredPMA increases by almost an order of magnitude from 0.8 to
6.0 (10
7erg/cm3) and the coercivity field increases from
almost zero to 4.4 kOe, when Pd atoms are completelyreplaced by Pt. Ab initio calculations predict a nearly quad-
ratic dependence of PMA ( K
u)o n n, consistent with experi-
ment. Structure characterization and ab initio calculations
show that other physical parameters affecting PMA remain
nearly unchanged. The spin-orbit interaction tuning of PMAa)Electronic addresses: gyguo@phys.ntu.edu.tw; hbzhao@fudan.edu.cn; and
gxluep@wm.edu.
0003-6951/2014/104(19)/192402/5/$30.00 VC2014 AIP Publishing LLC 104, 192402-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 104, 192402 (2014)
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On: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:01:53is further enhanced by reducing the chemical disorder and
thermal spin fluctuations.
A series of L10FePd (1/C0x)Ptxternary alloy films with
0/C20x/C201 are deposited on single crystal MgO (001) sub-
strates by magnetron sputtering. The FePd (1/C0x)Ptxcompos-
ite target is fabricated by placing small Pt and Pd pieces on
a Fe target. The base pressure of the deposition system is1.0/C210
/C05Pa and the Ar pressure is 0.35 Pa. During deposi-
tion, the substrates are kept at 620/C14C and the rate of deposi-
tion is about 0.1 nm/s. After deposition, the samples are
annealed in situ at the same temperature for 2 h. The film
thickness is determined by x-ray reflectivity to be1761 nm. The microstructure analysis is performed by
using X-ray diffraction (XRD), with Cu Karadiation. In
order to measure the PMA, TRMOKE measurements areperformed, in which the equilibrium state is perturbed dur-
ing laser pulse excitation, and the resulting magnetization
precession dynamics allows us to derive the PMA from pre-cession motion simulated with the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert
(LLG) equation.
31–36TRMOKE measurements are per-
formed in a pump-probe setup using pulsed Ti:sapphire laserwith a pulse duration of 200 fs and a repetition rate of
250 kHz.
31The wavelength of pump (probe) pulses is
400 nm (800 nm). The intensity ratio of the pump to probepulses is set to be about 6:1. A variable magnetic field Hup
to 6.5 T is applied at an angle of h
H¼45/C14with respect to the
film normal direction using a superconducting magnet. Thegeometry of external magnetic field application and magnet-
ization precession is depicted in Fig. 1(a). Static magnetiza-
tion hysteresis loops are measured by vibrating samplemagnetometer at room temperature.Structure characterization of FePd
(1/C0x)Ptxsamples is
performed with XRD measurement, as presented in Fig 1(b).
Only fct (001) and (002) peaks of FePtPd are observed in the
spectrum along with other peaks from MgO substrate, whichindicates the L1
0ordering in the FePtPd alloys. The chemical
ordering parameter ( S) is defined as
S2¼I001
I002/C16/C17
meas
I001
I002/C16/C17
calc¼rFeþrPt PdðÞ/C01; (1)
where I001andI002are integrated intensity of fct (001) and
(002) peaks in such superlattice systems,37–39andrFe,rPt(Pd)
is the probability of the correct site occupation for Fe and
Pt(Pd) atoms. ( I001/I002)calcis calculated to be 2.0 for the film
thickness ranging from 11 to 49 nm.37Thus, Sis about 0.8,
indicating a good suppression of disordering defects in these
films and about 90% of atoms stay at the correct sites. Asdepicted in Fig. 1(b), the peak positions do not shift as x
varies from 0 to 1, which indicates that the lattice constant
varies by less than 1.0% for different x. It is shown in Ref.
18that tetragonal distortion of the lattice can lift the degen-
eracy of the orbital occupancy for delectrons and affect
PMA, and the lattice constant c/aratio varies only about
1.4% between FePt and FePd alloys. This is consistent with
our characterization results that tetragonal distortion of the
lattice for FePtPd alloys is not affected by doping.
Figures 1(c)–1(e) display the out-of-plane and in-plane
magnetization hysteresis loops for x¼1.0, 0.5, and 0,
respectively. As shown in Fig. 1(c),f o r x¼1(L1
0FePt) the
out-of-plane hysteresis loop is almost square-shaped with
FIG. 1. Schematic of TRMOKE mea-
surement geometry (a) and structure
characterization results by XRD (b).
Static magnetic hysteresis loops meas-
ured by vibrating sample magnetometer(VSM) (c)–(e) and TRMOKE data with
different doping level of FePtxPd(1 /C0x)
under magnetic field H¼5 T (f). The
solid lines are fitted curves.192402-2 Ma et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 104, 192402 (2014)
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On: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:01:53coercivity Hc¼0.44 T; but it is hard to reach the saturated
magnetization with in-plane ma gnetic field, indicating the
establishment of high PMA. With decreasing x,Hc
decreases due to the reduced PMA. For x¼0i nF i g . 1(e),
Hcapproaches zero and the out-of-plane and in-plane hys-
teresis loops almost overlap wi th each other, indicating
weak PMA. The PMA therefore i ncreases with increasing
c o n c e n t r a t i o no fP ti nF e P d (1/C0x)Ptxa l l o yt h i nfi l m s .F r o m
the experiments, the saturation magnetization Msfor all
samples is determined to be 1100 emu/cm3within 10% rela-
tive error, close to the bulk value of L10FePt.40
Figure 1(f) shows TRMOKE results of FePd (1/C0x)Ptx
films with various xatH¼5 T. A uniform magnetization
precession is excited as manifested by the oscillatory Kerr
signal hk, while the magnetic damping is indicated by the
decaying precession amplitude as the time delay increases.
As shown in Fig. 1(f), the measured Kerr signal can be well
fitted by the following equation: hk¼aþb* exp(/C0t/t0)
þA*exp(/C0t/s)sin(2 pftþu), where parameters A,s,f, and u
are the amplitude, magnetic relaxation time, frequency, and
initial phase of the magnetization precession, respectively.Here, a,b, and t
0are related to the background signal owing
to the slow recovery process after fast demagnetization by
laser pulse heating. It is well-demonstrated in Fig. 1(f)that
the spin precession frequency and magnetic damping effect
become larger and stronger for higher doping level xwith
the same magnetic field H.
In order to derive the PMA for FePd 1/C0xPtxsamples at
different doping levels, magnetic field-dependent TRMOKE
measurements are performed. As shown by the TRMOKEresults of x¼0.82 and x¼0.5 samples in Figs. 2(a)and2(b),
spin precession frequency increases as Hincreases. The
field dependence of frequency can be understood by theenhancement of the effective field due to larger H. The Hdependences of the precession frequency ffor some typical
samples are displayed in Fig. 2(c). We note that fcan be
widely tuned from 15 GHz to 340 GHz by varying the mag-
netic field and doping level. From the LLG equation withGilbert damping parameter a/C281.0, one can obtain the fol-
lowing dispersion equation:
2pf¼cH
1H2ðÞ1=2; (2)
where H1¼Hcos(hH/C0h)þHKcos2handH2¼Hcos(hH/C0h)
þHKcos 2 h,HK¼2Ku/MS/C04pMSwith uniaxial magnetic
anisotropy constant Ku, gyromagnetic ratio c,a n d hH¼45/C14.
The equilibrium angular position hof the magnetization satis-
fies the following equation: sin 2 h¼(2H/HK)sin(hH/C0h). The
measured field dependence of fcan be well fitted by Eq. (2),a s
shown in Fig. 2(c). With the measured MSof 1100 emu/cm3,
and the gfactor fitted to be 2.1 60.05 for samples with differ-
entx,Kuis derived from the dispersion and displayed in
Fig. 2(d) as a function of doping level x.T h em e a s u r e d Ku
exhibits a sensitive dependence on the chemical substitution in
Fig.2(d).
To investigate the physics of spin-orbit interaction tun-
ing in FePd 1/C0xPtxdoping system, ab initio density functional
calculations is performed to quantitatively determine the key
physical parameters (see supplementary material43for calcu-
lation details). The calculated n, bandwidth W, and magnetic
moment m sat Fe or Pd/Pt site as a function of doping level x
is derived and depicted in Figs. 3(a)–3(c). Figure 3(a)shows
that nat Pd/Pt site changes from 0.19 to 0.57 eV when x
varies from 0 to 1.0. For Pt, Pd, and Fe atoms, nis 0.6, 0.20,
and 0.06 eV,30,31respectively, and therefore the effect of Fe
atoms is negligible compared with those of Pd and Pt atoms.The change of spin moment and bandwidth are negligible
when xis tuned from 0 to 1, as shown in Figs. 3(b) and3(c).
FIG. 2. TRMOKE results of
FePt0.82Pd0.18 (a) and FePt0.5Pd0.5(b) under different magnetic fields H.
The dependence of precession fre-
quency (c) on Hfor samples with
x¼0, 0.5, 0.75, 0.9, and 1. The solid
lines refer to fitted results. PMA as a
function of doping level xof
FePt
xPd(1/C0x)(d).192402-3 Ma et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 104, 192402 (2014)
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On: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:01:53The Pt/Pd atom acquires spin polarization around 0.27
(lB/atom) due to the proximity effect. Moreover, the lattice
constant remains unchanged for different xfrom both XRD
results and theoretical structure analysis of L10FePdPt
alloys,18andc/aratio is around 0.94 as shown in Fig. 3(d).
Thus, the variation of PMA is mainly controlled by SOC
strength through different doping level x.
The ndependence of PMA derived from TRMOKE
measurements (black squares) is plotted in Fig. 3(e). In our
previous work,31we pointed out that the magnetic anisotropy
arises from second-order energy correction of SOC in theperturbation treatment. Therefore, the PMA is roughly pro-
portional to both nand orbital magnetic moment when nis
smaller than the exchange splitting.
10Since the orbital
moment is also proportional to nwithin perturbation
theory;41the enhanced PMA at higher xis attributed to a
larger nof Pt atoms compared with that of Pd atoms and a
quadratic scaling law of PMA with nis expected.31
However, in our previous work, the measured Ku was inves-
tigated without theoretical calculations and was fitted empiri-cally as a quadratic function of n.
31In this study, the key
physical parameters affecting Ku other than n, such as spin
moment, are investigated by first-principle calculations andstructure characterizations, which indicate that the control of
PMA in these ternary alloys is governed by spin-orbit
interaction tuning. Moreover, the calculated values of PMA(red spots in Fig. 3(e)) are larger than the measured ones at
higher x. Several reasons exist for the discrepancy, such as
slight differences in the lattice structure between experimentand theory, and thermal fluctuations and chemical disorder
are not accounted for in the theoretical calculations. Hence,
there is potential for further enhancing PMA by SOC tuning.
One approach to enhance the spin-orbit coupling de-
pendence of PMA is increasing the chemical order of
FePd
1/C0xPtxalloys, as the large PMA values in the theoretical
study are based on an ideally ordered lattice. To estimate the
influence of disorder, we perform TRMOKE experiments on
the samples with higher chemical ordering S¼0.85, where
the correct site occupation of atoms is increased to 92% from
rFe¼rPt(Pd)¼90% ( S¼0.8). The measured PMA values,
indicated by the blue rhombus symbols in Fig. 3(e), show a
slight increase for x¼0.5 ( n¼0.26) and a noticeable
enhancement for x¼1(n¼0.57). This indicates that the
chemical ordering of FePd 1/C0xPtxalloys has a strong effecton the tunability of PMA by spin-orbit interaction, as the dis-
ordering can affect the electronic band structure.42Also at
lower temperature (20 K) the PMA values of FePd 1/C0xPtx
alloys can be more enhanced by SOC strength due to the sup-
pression of spin thermal fluctuation, as shown in the supple-mentary material.
43Furthermore, other approaches such as
modulation of tetragonal distortion and chemical substitution
of 3d transition metal in alloys may also be utilized for SOCtuning of PMA.
In summary, we demonstrate that PMA in L1
0
FePd (1/C0x)Ptx ternary alloy films can be continuously tuned
by SOC tuning with appropriate Pt/Pd concentration. In par-
ticular, PMA is found to be nearly proportional to n2from ab
initio density functional calculations, which is consistent
with experimental results. The tunability of PMA is
enhanced by increasing chemical order in FePd 1/C0xPtxalloys
and by lowering the temperature. The present experimentalresults provide deeper insight into the correlation between
PMA and nin magnetic metallic materials and are helpful to
explore ideal ferromagnets with desirable PMA for applica-tions of magnetic devices.
The TR-MOKE experiments, data analysis, and discus-
sions performed at the College of William and Mary were
sponsored by DOE through Grant No. DE-FG02-04ER46127.
H.Z. acknowledges financial support from National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61222407 and51371052) and NCET (No. 11-0119). G.Y.G. thanks the
National Science Council of Taiwan for financial supports.
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more details on theoretical calculation and low temperature
measurements.192402-5 Ma et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 104, 192402 (2014)
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On: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:01:53 |
1.4813488.pdf | Spin-transfer torque magnetization reversal in uniaxial nanomagnets with
thermal noise
D. Pinna, A. D. Kent, and D. L. Stein
Citation: J. Appl. Phys. 114, 033901 (2013); doi: 10.1063/1.4813488
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4813488
View Table of Contents: http://jap.aip.org/resource/1/JAPIAU/v114/i3
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Downloaded 22 Jul 2013 to 143.88.66.66. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsSpin-transfer torque magnetization reversal in uniaxial nanomagnets
with thermal noise
D. Pinna,1,a)A. D. Kent,1and D. L. Stein1,2
1Department of Physics, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
2Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York, New York 10012, USA
(Received 10 March 2013; accepted 23 June 2013; published online 15 July 2013)
We consider the general Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) dynamical theory underlying the
magnetization switching rates of a thin film uniaxial magnet subject to spin-torque effects andthermal fluctuations. After discussing the various dynamical regimes governing the switching
phenomena, we present analytical results for the mean switching time behavior. Our approach,
based on explicitly solving the first passage time problem, allows for a straightforward analysis ofthe thermally assisted, low spin-torque, switching asymptotics of thin film magnets. To verify our
theory, we have developed an efficient Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-based micromagnetic
code to simulate the stochastic LLG dynamics out to millisecond timescales. We explore theeffects of geometrical tilts between the spin-current and uniaxial anisotropy axes on the thermally
assisted dynamics. We find that even in the absence of axial symmetry, the switching times can be
functionally described in a form virtually identical to the collinear case.
VC2013 AIP Publishing
LLC.[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4813488 ]
I. INTRODUCTION
More than a decade has passed since spin-torque effects
were demonstrated experimentally by the switching of the
magnetization of a thin ferromagnetic film when current is
passed between it and a pinned ferromagnetic layer.1–4A
spin-polarized current passing through a small magnetic
conductor will deposit spin-angular momentum into the
magnetic system. This in turn causes the magnetic momentto precess and in some cases even switch direction. This has
led to sweeping advances in the field of spintronics through
the development and study of spin-valves and magnetic tun-nel junctions (see, for example, Ref. 6). The theoretical
approach to such a problem has conventionally been to treat
the thin ferromagnetic film as a single macrospin in the spiritof Brown.
5Spin-torque effects are taken into account
phenomenologically by modifying the macrospin’s Landau-
Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) dynamical equation.1A thorough
understanding of the phenomena, however, cannot proceed
without taking into account the effect of thermal fluctuations.
This is of particular experimental relevance since spin-transfer effects on nanomagnets are often conducted at low
currents, where noise is expected to dominate. Recent debate
in the literature over the proper exponential scaling behaviorbetween mean switching time and current shows how the
thermally assisted properties of even the simplest magnetic
setups leave much to be understood.
7–12The interplay
between spin-torque and thermal effects determine the
dynamical properties of recent experimental studies on
nanopillar devices.13Except at very high currents where the
dynamics are predominantly deterministic, the switching
appears to be thermal in nature. Fitting to experimental data
requires accurate knowledge of the energetics, which, in therealm of spin-torque, are hard to come by due to the inher-
ently non-conservative nature of the spin-torque term.
Theoretical progress has been hindered by the computa-
tional power needed to run numerical simulations to thedesired degree of accuracy. The LLG equation modified into
its set of coupled stochastic equations can be studied in one
of two ways: either by concentrating on the associatedFocker-Planck equation or by constructing a stochastic
Langevin integrator to be used enough times to gather suffi-
cient statistics on the phenomena.
14The latter approach,
however, has been unable to extrapolate to long enough
times to capture the dynamical extent of the thermal regime.
Recent papers by Taniguchi and Imamura15and Butler,16
following arguments first made by Suzuki,17suggest that
previous analytics of the thermally assisted dynamics should
be revisited. Nonetheless, no numerical simulation has yetbeen able to fully evaluate the accuracy of the Taniguchi and
Imamura results without resorting to comparison with the
field switching model.
18In fact, as will be apparent in what
follows, the applied current in the spin-torque model cannot
always be interpreted mathematically as an applied magnetic
field. In our paper, we will show that simulations run har-nessing the vast computational parallelization capabilities
intrinsic in Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) technology for
numerical modeling can allow a deeper probing of such athermally activated regime.
II. GENERAL FORMALISM
A simple model of a ferromagnet uses a Stoner-
Wohlfarth monodomain magnetic body with magnetizationM. The body is assumed to have a size l
malong the eydirec-
tion, and size ain both the exandezdirections. The total
volume of the object is then V¼a2lm. The energy landscape
experienced by Mis generally described by three terms: an
applied field H, a uniaxial anisotropy energy UKwith easya)Electronic address: daniele.pinna@nyu.edu
0021-8979/2013/114(3)/033901/9/$30.00 VC2013 AIP Publishing LLC 114, 033901-1JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 114, 033901 (2013)
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axis, and an easy-plane anisotropy Upin the ey/C0ezplane,
with normal direction ^nDperpendicular to ^nK. The magnet-
ization Mis assumed to be constant in magnitude and for
simplicity normalized into a unit direction vector
m¼M=jMj. A spin-polarized current Jenters the magnetic
body in the /C0eydirection, with spin polarization factor gand
spin direction along ez. The current exits in the same direc-
tion, but with its average spin direction aligned to that of M.
The self-induced magnetic field of the current is ignored
here as the dimension ais considered to be smaller than
100nm, where the spin-current effects are expected tobecome dominant over the current induced magnetic field.
The standard LLG equation used to describe the dynamics is
then written as
_m¼/C0 c
0m/C2Heff/C0ac0m/C2ðm/C2HeffÞ
/C0c0jm/C2ðm/C2^npÞþc0ajm/C2^np; (1)
where c0¼c=ð1þa2Þis the Gilbert ratio, cis the usual
gyromagnetic ratio 1 :76/C1/C21011ðrad
T/C1sÞ, and j¼ð/C22h=2eÞgJis
the spin-angular momentum deposited per unit time with
g¼ðJ"/C0J#Þ=ðJ"þJ#Þthe spin-polarization factor of inci-
dent current J. The last two terms describe a vector torque
generated by current polarized in the direction ^np. These are
obtained by assuming that the macrospin absorbs angularmomentum from the spin-polarized current only in the direc-
tion perpendicular to m.
1
To write Heffexplicitly, we must construct a proper
energy landscape for the magnetic body. There are three
main components that need to be considered: a uniaxial
anisotropy energy UK, an easy-plane anisotropy UP, and
an external field interaction UH. These are written as
follows:
UK¼/C0KVð^nK/C1mÞ2;
UP¼KPVð^nD/C1mÞ2;
UH¼/C0MSVm/C1Hext:
In these equations, MSis the saturation magnetization, KPis
the easy-plane anisotropy, K¼ð1=2ÞMSHK, and HKis the
Stoner-Wohlfarth switching field (in units of Teslas). In what
follows, we will consider a simplified model in which theeffects of easy-plane anisotropy are ignored and all external
magnetic fields are absent. However, we retain contributions
due to magnetic fields in our derivations for reasons whichwill be apparent in Sec. III. The full energy landscape then
becomes UðmÞ¼U
KþUHand reads
UðmÞ¼/C0 KV½ð^nK/C1mÞ2þ2h/C1m/C138; (2)
where h¼Hext=HK;^nKis the unit vector pointing in the ori-
entation of the uniaxial anisotropy axis. Such an energy land-
scape generally selects stable magnetic configurations
parallel and anti-parallel to ^nK. The effective interaction
fieldHeffis then given by
Heff¼/C01
MSVrmUðmÞ¼HK½ð^nK/C1mÞ^nKþh/C138:(3)The symmetries of the problem lead to slightly simplified
equations and the deterministic LLG dynamics can then be
expressed as
_m¼/C0m/C2½ ð ^nK/C1mÞ^nKþh/C138/C0am
/C2½m/C2ð ð ^nK/C1mÞ^nKþhÞ/C138
/C0aIm/C2ðm/C2^kÞþa2Im/C2^k; (4)
where we have defined I¼j=ðaHKÞ, conveniently chose ^np
as the orientation of our z-axis ( ^k) and introduced the natural
timescale s¼c0HKt:
III. THERMAL EFFECTS
Thermal effects are included by considering uncorre-
lated fluctuations in the effective interaction field: Heff
!HeffþHth. These transform the LLG equation into its
Langevin form upon performing the substitution h!Hthin
(4). We model the stochastic contribution Hthby specifying
its correlation properties, namely
hHthi¼0;
hHth;iðtÞHth;kðt0Þi ¼ 2Ddi;kdðt/C0t0Þ: (5)
The effect of the random torque Hthis to produce a diffusive ran-
dom walk on the surface of the M-sphere. An associated Focker-
Planck equation describing such dynamics was constructed by
Brown.5At long times, the system attains thermal equilibrium;
and by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, we have
D¼akBT
2KVð1þa2Þ¼a
2ð1þa2Þn: (6)
It is convenient to introduce the notation KV=kBT¼n, repre-
senting the natural barrier height of the uniaxial anisotropy
energy.
Considering only thermal fluctuations, the stochastic
LLG equation reads
_mi¼AiðmÞþBikðmÞ/H17034Hth;k; (7)
where
AðmÞ¼aI½am/C2^k/C0m/C2ðm/C2^kÞ/C138
/C0ð^nK/C1mÞ½m/C2^nK/C0að^nK/C0ð^nK/C1mÞmÞ/C138;
BikðmÞ¼/C0 /C15ijkmj/C0aðmimk/C0dikÞ;
and “/C14Hth;k” means to interpret our stochastic dynamics in
the sense of Stratonovich33calculus in treating the multipli-
cative noise terms.19
We numerically solve the above Langevin equations by
using a standard second order Heun scheme to ensure proper
convergence to the Stratonovich calculus. At each time step,
the strength of the random kicks is given by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Statistics were gathered from an ensem-
ble of 5000 events with a natural integration stepsize of 0.01.
For concreteness, we set the Landau damping constanta¼0:04. A magnetic ensemble was considered “switched”
when half the members of the ensemble have reversed their033901-2 Pinna, Kent, and Stein J. Appl. Phys. 114, 033901 (2013)
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explored although the main results in this paper are shown
for a barrier height of n¼80. To explore the simulations for
long time regimes, the necessary events were simulated in
parallel on an NVidia Tesla C2050 graphics card. To gener-
ate the large number of necessary random numbers, we chosea proven combination
20of the three-component combined
Tausworthe “taus88”21and the 32-bit “Quick and Dirty”
Linear Congruential Generator (LCG).22The hybrid genera-
tor provides an overall period of around 2121.
IV. SWITCHING DYNAMICS
In experiments, one is generally interested in under-
standing how the interplay between thermal noise and spin
torque effects switch an initial magnetic orientation from
parallel to anti-parallel and vice versa. The role of spin-torque can be clarified by considering how energy is pumped
in the system, from an energy landscape point of view. As in
Sec. III, the magnetic energy of the monodomain is
UðmÞ¼/C0 KVð^n
K/C1mÞ2: (8)
The change in energy over time can be obtained after some
straightforward algebra and is found to be
1
MsVH K_U¼/C0 ½ am/C2Heff/C0Iða^k/C0m/C2^kÞ/C138/C1ðm/C2HeffÞ:(9)
This expression shows how current pumps energy into the
system. In the absence of current, the damping dissipatesenergy and, as one would expect, the dynamical flow is
toward the minimum energy configuration. The sign pre-
ceeding the current term allows the expression to becomepositive in certain regions of magnetic configuration space.
Furthermore, by averaging over constant energy trajectories,
one can construct an equivalent dynamical flow equation inenergy space. This kind of approach has already been used
in the literature
9and can lead to the appearance of stable
limit cycles at currents less than the critical current as can beintuitively inferred by considering which constant energy
trajectories lead to a canceling of the flow in (9).
Starting from an initially stable magnetic state, spin-
torque effects will tend to drive the magnetization toward the
current’s polarization axis. Once the current is turned off, the
projection of the magnetization vector along the uniaxialanisotropy axis will almost surely determine which stable
energy state (parallel or anti-parallel) the magnetic system
will relax to as long as the energy barrier nis large enough.
As such, switching dynamics are best studied by projecting
Eq.(7)along the uniaxial anisotropy axis ^n
K. One then
obtains a stochastic differential equation describing thedynamics of such a projection
_q¼a½ðn
zIþqÞð1/C0q2ÞþnxIqp/C138
þa2Inxmyþffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffia
nð1/C0q2Þr
/H17034_W: (10)
In the above equation, we have defined q/C17m/C1^nK,pthe
analogous projection onto an axis perpendicular to ^nK.Furthermore, ^nKis taken to lie in the x-z plane (such that we
are projecting mon axes rotated about the y-axis); nzandnx
are the projections of the uniaxial anisotropy axis, respec-
tively, on the zand xaxes. Furthermore, the multiple
stochastic contributions are assumed to be Gaussian random
variables with identical average and space dependentvariance. _Wis a standard mean zero, variance 1, Wiener pro-
cess, and its prefactor explicitly expresses the strength of the
stochastic contribution.
19As will be shown in the following
Subsections, (10) is a convenient analytical tool in specific
scenarios. In general, it is not useful as it explicitly depends
on the dynamics of both the mzandmycomponents of the
magnetization.
Numerically, we can solve (7)directly. In all our simula-
tions, the initial ensemble of magnetizations was taken to beBoltzmann-distributed along the anti-parallel orientation. We
assume that the energy barrier height is so large that, before
current effects are activated, thermalization has only beenachieved within the antiparallel energy well and no states
have had time to thermally switch to the parallel orientation
on their own. A typical histogram of magnetic orientations ata given time is shown in Figure 1.
We now turn on a current and allow the system to
evolve for a fixed amount of time. Once this time has passed,we use the projection rule expressed above to evaluate what
fraction of the ensemble has effectively switched from the
anti-parallel to the parallel state.
V. COLLINEAR SPIN-TORQUE MODEL
Having derived the necessary expressions for our macro-
spin model dynamics, it is useful to consider the following
simplification. Let us take the uniaxial anisotropy and spin-current axes to be collinear, namely, ^n
K/C17^np/C17^k. In such a
scenario, the stochastic LLG equation simplifies signifi-
cantly. In particular, (10)reduces to the simplified form
FIG. 1. Histogram distribution of mzafter letting the magnetic system relax
to thermal equilibrium (103natural time units). The overlayed red dashed
line is the theoretical equilibrium Boltzmann distribution. In the inset, we
show a semilog-plot of the probability vs. m2
zdependency. As expected, the
data scale linearly.033901-3 Pinna, Kent, and Stein J. Appl. Phys. 114, 033901 (2013)
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nð1/C0q2Þr
/H17034_W: (11)
In this symmetric scenario, qcoincides with mzand magnet-
ization reversal has been reduced to a straightforward 1-D
problem. For a general value of I<1, the evolution of qhas
two local minima and a saddle. The two stable configurations
are at q¼/C01 and q¼1, while the saddle is located at
q¼/C0I. For currents I>Ic¼1, there is only one stable
minimum. Above critical current, spin torque pushes all
magnetic configurations toward the parallel q¼1 state. This
regime is particularly important not just for its simplicity butalso for its similarity to the pure field switching model. The
collinear spin-torque model is, in fact, mathematically identi-
cal to a field switching model with applied field of intensityIapplied parallel to the uniaxial anisotropy axis of the
magnetic system.
17
A. Collinear high current regime
In the high current regime I/C29Ic, we expect the deter-
ministic dynamics to dominate over thermal effects. We
refer to this also as ballistic evolution interchangeably. Thedeterministic contribution of (11) can then be solved analyti-
cally given an initial configuration q/C17m
z¼/C0m0. The
switching time sswill simply be the time taken to get from
some mz¼/C0m0<0t omz¼0 and reads
ssðm0Þ¼1
að0
/C0m0dm
ðIþmÞð1/C0m2Þ
¼1
2aðI2/C01ÞIlog1þm0
1/C0m0/C20/C21
/C0log½1/C0m2
0/C138/C26
/C02 logI
I/C0m0/C20/C21 /C27
: (12)
Since the magnetic states are considered to be in thermal
equilibrium before the current is turned on, one should aver-
age the above result over the equilibrium Boltzmann distri-bution in the starting well to obtain the average switching
timehs
siB. For nlarge enough, such an initial distribution
will be
qBðmÞ¼ffiffiffinpexp½/C0n/C138
F½ffiffiffinp/C138exp½nm2/C138; (13)
where F½x/C138¼expð/C0x2ÞÐx
0expðy2Þdyis Dawson’s integral.
This expression can be used to compute the average switch-
ing time numerically.
As the intensity of spin-currents becomes closer to Ic,
thermal effects increasingly contribute. Moreover, diffusion
gradients add to the deterministic drift, which can be shown
explicitly by writing (11)in its equivalent ^Ito form. Doing so
leads us to a first correction of the ballistic dynamics due to
thermal influences. The z-component behavior then reads
_mz¼aðIþmzÞð1/C0m2
zÞ/C0a
2nmzþffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffia
nð1/C0m2
zÞr
_W:(14)
The first term on the right hand side is still the ballistic flow
that we have just discussed. The second term is the desireddiffusion-gradient drift term. The contribution of such a term
generates a net motion away from the stable minima of the
ballistic equations as one expects to see under the influenceof thermal effects. Again, we can solve the drift dominated
flow analytically to compute the switching time. Considering
diffusion-gradient drift, this reads
s
sðm0Þ¼1
að0
/C0m0dm
ðIþmÞð1/C0m2Þ/C0ð m=2nÞ
¼1
aX
jlog½1þðm0=wjÞ/C138
3w2
jþ2Iwj/C01/C01
2n/C18/C19 ; (15)
where the wjare the three zeros of the cubic equation
w3þIw2/C0ð1/C01
2nÞw/C0I¼0. As before, the average
switching hssiBtime will simply be given by averaging
numerically over the Boltzmann distribution qB. In Figure 2,
the reader can see how well these two limiting results fit thesimulation data. As expected, both expressions coincide in
the limit of high currents.
VI. UNIAXIAL TILT
In the high current regime ( I/C29Ic), where ^nK¼^k(i.e.,
the uniaxial axis is aligned with the z-axis), the ballistic equa-tion for m
zwas shown to decouple from the other components,
and the dynamics became one dimensional and deterministic.
For the more general case where the uniaxial anisotropy axismay have any tilt with respect to the z-axis, such a critical cur-
rent is not as intuitively defined. Unlike the collinear limit, a
critical current, above which all magnetic states perceive a netflow towards an increasing projection, does not exist. One can
plot _q/C17_m/C1^n
Kover the unit sphere to see what regions allow
for an increasing and decreasing projection as the current ischanged. An example of this is shown in Figure 3.
Unfortunately, regions characterizing negative projec-
tion flow can be shown to persist at all currents. The
FIG. 2. Blue line shows the fit of the ballistic limit to the numerical data (in
blue crosses). Red line shows the improvement obtained by including diffu-
sion gradient terms. Times are shown in units of ( T/C1s) where Tstands for
Tesla: real time is obtained upon division by HK.033901-4 Pinna, Kent, and Stein J. Appl. Phys. 114, 033901 (2013)
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constant-energy precessional trajectories, the flow is towardthe positive uniaxial anisotropy axis: h_m/C1^n
Ki>0.8Such
trajectories are found by solving the flow equations with
I¼a¼0. Solutions correspond to circular libations about
the uniaxial anisotropy axis. The critical current is then rede-
fined to be the minimum current at which the average projec-
tional flow is positive at all possible precessional energies.This is easily done and results in
I/C21max
/C15/C0/C15
cosx/C20/C21
¼1
cosðxÞ¼Icrit; (16)
thus allowing for a direct comparison of dynamical switch-
ing results between different angular configurations of uniax-
ial tilt. In our discussion of (10), we mentioned how, in the
general case, presenting uniaxial tilt, there is no way to
reduce the dimensionality of the full dynamical equations. In
fact, in the presence of tilt, precessional trajectories mightallow for a magnetization state to temporarily transit through
aq>0, “switched” configuration, even though it might
spend the majority of its orbit in a q<0, “unswitched” con-
figuration. This allows for a much richer mean switching
time behavior, especially for currents greater than the critical
current, as shown in Figure 4and discussed more in depth
later.
VII. THERMALLYACTIVATED REGIME
For currents I<Ic, the switching relies on thermal
effects to stochastically push the magnetization from oneenergy minimum to the other. It is of interest to understand
how switching probabilities and switching times depend on
temperature and applied current. This is easily done in sto-chastic systems with gradient flow. In such cases, an energy
landscape exists and a steady state probability distributioncan be constructed to be used via Kramer’s theory in deriv-
ing approximate low-noise switching probabilities.
Unfortunately, spin-torque effects introduce a non-
gradient term, and the resulting LLG equation does not admit
an energy landscape in the presence of applied current. Thecollinear simplification, however, is an exception. As already
described, in the absence of uniaxial tilt, the dynamics
become effectively one dimensional since the m
zcomponent
decouples from the other magnetization components.
Consider then (11): because it is decoupled from the other
degrees of freedom, we can construct a corresponding one-component Focker-Planck equation. The evolution in time of
the distribution of qis then
@
tqðq;tÞ¼ ^L½q/C138ðq;tÞ; (17)
where
^L½f/C138¼/C0 a@qðqþIÞð1/C0q2Þ/C01
2nð1/C0q2Þ@q/C20/C21
f:(18)
For high energy barriers and low currents, the switching
events from one basin to the other are expected to be rare.The probability of a double reversal should be even smaller.
We therefore model the magnetization reversal as a mean
first passage time (MFPT) problem with absorbing bounda-ries at the saddle point. The MFPT will then be given by the
solution of the adjoint equation ( ^L
†hsiðqÞ¼/C0 1)23
a
2nexpð/C0nðqþIÞ2Þ@q½ð1/C0q2ÞexpðnðqþIÞ2Þ/C138@qsðqÞ¼/C0 1
(19)
subject to the boundary condition hsið0Þ¼0. This can be
solved to give
hsiðqÞ¼2n
að0
qduexpð/C0nðuþIÞ2Þ
1/C0u2ðu
/C01dsexpðnðsþIÞ2Þ:(20)
FIG. 3. _q: green >0, red <0 for applied current I¼5. The plane dissecting
the sphere is perpendicular to the uniaxial anistropy axis. Its intersection
with the sphere selects the regions with highest uniaxial anisotropy energy.
FIG. 4. Mean switching time behavior for various angular tilts above critical
current obtained by numerically solving (7). Each set of data is rescaled by
its critical current such that all data plotted has Ic¼1. Angular tilts are
shown in the legend in units of p=36 such that the smallest angular tilt is 0
and the largest is p=4. Times are shown in units of ( T/C1s) where Tstands for
Tesla: real time is obtained upon division by HK.033901-5 Pinna, Kent, and Stein J. Appl. Phys. 114, 033901 (2013)
Downloaded 22 Jul 2013 to 143.88.66.66. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsThe rightmost integral can be computed explicitly. Retaining
only dominant terms, the final integral can be computed by
saddlepoint approximation to give
hsi’2ffiffiffipp
aexpðnð1/C0IÞ2ÞFðffiffiffinpð1/C0IÞÞ
1/C0I2: (21)
Such a square exponential dependence has recently been
derived by Taniguchi and Imamura15,24as well as Butler
et al. ,16although a s/expðnð1/C0IÞÞdependence, proposed
elsewhere in the literature,7,9,10has also been successfully
used to fit experimental data.13,34
To decide between these experimental dependences, we
fit the scaling behaviors in Figure 5, along with the theoretical
prediction from (24). The square exponential dependence fits
the data better, confirming analytical results. Furthermore,
comparison of the asymptotic expression (21)to the full theo-
retical prediction obtained by solving (20) numerically dem-
onstrates that even for mean switching times of the order
10/C01T/C1ms, asymptotically still is not fully achieved.
All that remains is to consider the effects of angular tilt
on the switching properties in the thermally activated
regime. Insight into this problem can be obtained by invok-
ing(12) again. For small values of a, the term in square
brackets is of leading order over the second ballistic term
depending on my. This allows us, in the small aregime, to
neglect the second ballistic term altogether.
We now concentrate on the behavior of the term in
square brackets. For low sub-critical currents, switching will
depend on thermal activation for the most part. We expect aninitially anti-parallel configuration to not diffuse very far
away from its local energy minima. It will remain that way
until a strong enough thermal kick manages to drive it acrossthe energy barrier. Because of this, the second term appear-
ing in the square brackets will generally be close to zero as
the particle awaits thermal switching. To make the statementmore precise, one can imagine the magnetic state precessing
many times before actually making it over the saddle. The
second term can then be averaged over a constant energytrajectory where pwill vanish identically. Hence, in the
subcritical regime, (12) can be rewritten in the following
approximate form:
_q’aðn
zIþqÞð1/C0q2Þþffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffia
nð1/C0q2Þr
/H17034_W: (22)
This is reminiscent of the 1D projectional dynamics dis-
cussed in relation to the collinear limit and shown explicitlyin(11). The only difference between the two is the substitu-
tion I!n
zI; recall because nz¼cosðxÞ;nzI¼I=Ic.I n
other words, the thermally activated dynamics are the samefor all angular separations up to a rescaling by the critical
current. We then expect that the mean switching time
dependences remain functionally identical to the collinearcase for all uniaxial tilts. We have confirmed this by compar-
ison with data from our simulations, and the results are
shown in Figure 6. As predicted, all mean switching time
data from different uniaxial tilts collapses on top of each
other after a rescaling by each tilt’s proper critical current.
As already hinted in the introduction to the collinear
model, a strong mathematical analogy exists with the field
switching model studied in the literature.
25–31By consider-
ing a macrospin model with external magnetic field appliedin the direction of the uniaxial anisotropy axis, one obtains a
dynamical equation for the magnetization vector analogous
to(11) with the field strength in place of the applied current.
In fact, one can think of writing an effective energy land-
scape Uðm
zÞ¼/C0 Kðm2
z/C02ImzÞ, in terms of which the equi-
librium Boltzmann distribution has precisely the same formas that given by Brown.
5The thermally activated behavior
discussed in the literature also reproduces an exponent 2
FIG. 5. Mean switching time behavior in the sub-critical low current regime
obtained by numerically solving (7). Times are shown in units of ( T/C1s)w h e r e
Tstands for Tesla: real time is obtained upon division by HK. The red
and green lines are born by fitting to the data the functional form
hsi¼Cexpð/C0nð1/C0IÞlÞ,w h e r e lis the debated exponent (either 1 or 2) and
Cis deduced numerically. The red curve fits the numerical data asymptoti-
cally better the green curve. The difference between the red line and (21) is
that our theoretical prediction includes a current dependent prefactor, which
was not fitted numerically. The differences between numerical data and (20)
are due to numerical inaccuracies out to such long time regimes. The differen-
ces between (20)and(21)quantify the reach of the crossover regime.
FIG. 6. Mean switching time behavior in the sub-critical low current regime
obtained by numerically solving (7). Various uniaxial tilts are compared by
rescaling all data by the appropriate critical current value. Times are shown
in units of ( T/C1s) where Tstands for Tesla: real time is obtained upon
division by HK.033901-6 Pinna, Kent, and Stein J. Appl. Phys. 114, 033901 (2013)
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must understand, that spin torque effects are generally non
conservative and it is only in this collinear scenario that theymay be interpreted in this way. Upon introducing an angular
tilt between uniaxial and spin-polarization axes, the analogy
with the field switching model will generally break (see(10)). It is interesting, to quantify the crossover between the
spin torque and field switched macrospin model. Coffey
25,26
has already discussed the effect of angular tilt between ani-
sotropy and applied switching field axes. We introduced
noise in the macrospin model by considering a random
applied magnetic field. In (7), we showed the full form of the
dynamical equations. To write the dynamical equations for
the field switched model, we need to suppress current effects
and simply introduce a term identical to the stochastic contri-bution with the exception that now the applied field will not
be random but fixed at a specific angular separation from the
uniaxial anisotropy axis. Writing the dynamical equationsfor the field switched model is straightforward
_q¼a½ðn
zhþqÞð1/C0q2Þþnxhðmy/C0aqpÞ/C138þffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffia
nð1/C0q2Þr
/H17034_W;
(23)
where instead of an applied current I, the dynamics depend
on an applied field with strength h. Comparison with (10)
shows how, in general, the two evolution equations are verydifferent from each other. In the thermally activated regime,
however, where one is able to average over constant energy
trajectories due to their timescales being much smaller thanthose required for actual diffusion or magnetic torque
(h/C28h
crit), the second term in square brackets will be aver-
aged away and one is left with a stochastic evolution equa-tion identical to (22). All thermally activated switching will
then again be functionally identical for all angular tilts up to
a trivial rescaling of the applied field.
In comparing our scaling relationships between current
and mean switching time with the previous literature, a subtle
issue must be addressed. Results obtained by Apalkov andVisscher
9rely upon an initial averaging of the dynamics in
energy space over constant energy trajectories (limit for small
damping) and only subsequently applying weak noise meth-ods to extrapolate switching time dependences. The small
damping and weak noise limits are singular and the order in
which they are taken is important. Both limits radically alterthe form of the equations: whereas both limits suppress ther-
mal effects, the first also severely restrains the deterministic
evolution of the magnetic system. Our approach considers theweak noise limit and, only in discussing the effects of an
angular tilt between polarization and easy axes do we employ
the small damping averaging technique to obtain functionalforms for the mean switching time. The switching time data
shown seem to justify, in this particular case, an interchange-
ability between these two limits. More generally, however,one should not expect the two limits to commute.
VIII. SWITCHING TIME PROBABILITY CURVES
Up until now, we have analyzed the main properties of
spin-torque induced switching dynamics by concentratingsolely on the mean switching times. In experiments, one gen-
erally constructs full probability curves. The probability that
a given magnetic particle has a switching time ss/C20scan be
explicitely written as
P½ss/C20s/C138¼ðmðsÞ
0dxqBðxÞ
¼exp½/C0nð1/C0mðsÞ2Þ/C138F½ffiffiffinpmðsÞ/C138
F½ffiffiffinp/C138; (24)
where mðsÞis the initial magnetization that is switched deter-
ministically in time s. Once one has evaluated mðsÞ, the prob-
ability curve follows. Ideally, in the ballistic regime, one
would like to invert the ballistic equations. Unfortunately, thesolutions of such ballistic equations are generally transcenden-
tal and cannot be inverted analytically. Even in the simpler
collinear case, as can be seen from Eqs. (12)and(15), no ana-
lytical inversion is possible. One must instead compute the
inversion numerically.
35Nonetheless, one can construct
appropriate analytical approximations by inverting the domi-nant terms in the expressions. In the case of (12),f o re x a m p l e ,
one has that for currents much larger than the critical current,
sðmÞ’I
2aðI2/C01Þlog1þm
1/C0m/C20/C21
; (25)
which can be inverted to give
mðsÞ¼tanh asI2/C01
I/C20/C21
: (26)
Plugging into expression (24)for the sprobability curve, one
has
P½ss/C20s/C138¼exp/C0n
cosh2asI2/C01
I/C20/C212
643
75Fffiffiffinptanh asI2/C01
I/C20/C21 /C20/C21
F½ffiffiffinp/C138:
(27)
This expression can be truncated to a simpler form by noting
that the leading exponential term dominates over the ratio ofDawson functions. Furthermore, if one considers the limit of
large values for s(or, analogously, I/C291), the “cosh” can be
also approximated by its leading exponential term. We arefinally left with
P½s
s/C20s/C138’exp/C0n
cosh2asI2/C01
I/C20/C212
643
75
/C24exp/C04nexp/C02asI2/C01
I/C20/C21 /C20/C21
; (28)
which is very similar in form to what has already been
reported and used for fitting in the literature.8,13
In the low current regime, one constructs probability
curves by considering the mean switching time and modelinga purely thermal reversal as a decay process with rate given by
Eq.(21). The fraction of switched states then vary in time as033901-7 Pinna, Kent, and Stein J. Appl. Phys. 114, 033901 (2013)
Downloaded 22 Jul 2013 to 143.88.66.66. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsPðmz>0Þ¼1/C0expð/C0t=hsiÞ: (29)
Upon introducing uniaxial tilt, precessional effects can be
witnessed directly on the switching probability curves in thesuper-critical regime. One expects that in the initial phases
of switching, the fraction of switched states is sensitive to
the time at which the current is turned off. One may acciden-tally turn off the current during a moment of transient pas-
sage through the switched region along the precessional
orbit. This was checked and verified from our numerical sim-ulations (see Figure 7). More generally, effects similar to the
“waviness” seen in the mean switching time curves can be
seen in the probability curves as well as the angle of uniaxialtilt is allowed to vary (see Figure 8). Only a numerical solu-
tion of the LLG equation can bring such subtleties to light.IX. CONCLUSION
We have constructed the theory underlying the dynamics
of a uniaxial macrospin subject to both thermal fluctuationand spin-torque effects. We then studied the subtle interplaybetween these two effects in aiding magnetization reversalbetween energy minima in a magnetically bistable system.Two regimes stand out in such a theory: a ballistic regime
dominated by the deterministic flow and a thermally activated
regime where reversal is dominated by noise. In the ballisticregime, we discussed how to approximate the mean switchingtime behavior and found that corrections due to the diffusion-gradient term, arising from the stochastic equations, allow
one to model the dynamics more accurately.
In the thermally activated regime, we solved the relevant
mean first passage time problem and obtained an expressionfor the dependence of mean switching time on appliedcurrent. In doing so, the correct scaling was shown to behsi/expð/C0nð1/C0IÞ
2Þ, in contrast to the prevailing view
thathsi/expð/C0nð1/C0IÞÞ. Analytical results were then
compared with detailed numerical simulations of the sto-chastic LLG equation. The massively parallel capabilities ofour GPU devices have allowed us to explore the behavior ofmacrospin dynamics over six orders of temporal magnitude.Comparing to our analytical results, we suggest that thethermal asymptotic behavior is achieved fairly slowly incomparison to the switching timescales that have beenprobed experimentally.
Different geometrical configurations of the uniaxial ani-
sotropy axis with respect to the spin-current axis were shownto influence the thermally activated regime very minimally
inasmuch as the currents were rescaled by the proper critical
current of the angular setup. Only in the super-critical regimewere distinctions shown to exist due to complex precessionaland transient switching behavior.
These results have important implications for the analy-
sis of experimental data in which measurements of theswitching time versus current pulse amplitude are used todetermine the energy barrier to magnetization reversal.Clearly, use of the correct asymptotic scaling form is essen-tial to properly determine the energy barrier to reversal. Theenergy barrier, in turn, is very important in assessing thethermal stability of magnetic states of thin film elements thatare being developed for long term data storage in STT-MRAM. Further work should address how these resultsextend to systems with easy plane anisotropy and situationsin which the nanomagnet has internal degrees of freedom,leading to a break down of the macrospin approximation.
We also note that current flow is a source of shot noise,
which at low frequencies acts like a white-noise source in
much the same way as thermal noise. It is therefore interest-ing to understand when this additional source of noise plays
a role. For a magnetic layer coupled to unpolarized leads, the
current induced noise on the magnetization dynamics was
found to be
CL=CR
ð1þCL=CRÞ2V,32where Vis the voltage drop across
the magnetic layer, while CL=CRis a dimensionless ratio
characterizing the coupling strength of the magnetic layer tothe left (L) and right (R) leads. Thus, the noise is maximal
FIG. 7. Influence of precessional orbits on transient switching as seen from
the switching time probability curve in the supercritical current regime. The
case shown is that of an angular tilt of p=3 subject to a current intensity of
2.0 times the critical current. Data were gathered by numerically solving (7).
The non-monotonicity in the probability curve shows the existence of tran-
sient switching. Times are shown in units of ( T/C1s) where Tstands for Tesla:
real time is obtained upon division by HK.
FIG. 8. Spin-torque induced switching time probability curves for various
angular configurations of uniaxial tilt (a sample normalized current of 10
was used) obtained by numerically solving (7). A log-log y-axis is used
following (28)to make the tails of the probability distributions visible.033901-8 Pinna, Kent, and Stein J. Appl. Phys. 114, 033901 (2013)
Downloaded 22 Jul 2013 to 143.88.66.66. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions(V=4) for perfectly symmetrical couplings, and is smaller in
the limit of highly asymmetric contacts. This basic behavior,
and the order of magnitude of the effect, is not likely to bemodified by polarized leads. We argue that the temperatures
at which the experiments have been performed current noise
effects are not important. The experiments are performed atroom temperature where T¼300 K. For an all-metallic de-
vice, such as a spin-valve nanopillar, the couplings are nearly
symmetrical; and at the critical current, a typical voltagedrop across the magnetic layer is less than 10 lV or, equiva-
lently, 1 K. For a magnetic tunnel junction device, Vcan be
/C241 V. However, in this case, the coupling is asymmetric.
One lead (L) forms a magnetic tunnel junction with the
nanomagnet, while the other (R) a metallic contact. This
gives C
R=CL>104and a relevant energy /C241 K, again far
lower than room temperature. It appears that current induced
noise can only be important at room temperature for a nano-magnet coupled symmetrically between two tunnel barriers.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge A. MacFadyen,
Aditi Mitra, and J. Z. Sun for many useful discussions and
comments leading to this paper. This research was supported
by NSF-DMR-100657 and PHY0965015.
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35Easily achieved thanks to the monotonicity of their form.033901-9 Pinna, Kent, and Stein J. Appl. Phys. 114, 033901 (2013)
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1.364877.pdf | Microwave permeability of ferromagnetic thin films with stripe domain structure
O. Acher, C. Boscher, B. Brulé, G. Perrin, N. Vukadinovic, G. Suran, and H. Joisten
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 81, 4057 (1997); doi: 10.1063/1.364877
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.364877
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/81/8?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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137.189.170.231 On: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 05:15:34Microwave permeability of ferromagnetic thin films with stripe
domain structure
O. Acher, C. Boscher, B. Brule ´, and G. Perrin
CEA-DMAT, BP12 F-91680, Bruye `res le Cha ˆtel, France
N. Vukadinovic
Dassault Aviation, F-92552 St Cloud Cedex, France
G. Suran
CNRS, Laboratoire Louis Ne ´el, F-38000 Grenoble, France
H. Joisten
CEA-LETI, F-38054 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
We report the observation of multiple permeability peaks for thin ferromagnetic films, in the 10
MHz to 6 GHz range. This behavior is correlated with the presence of perpendicular anisotropy andstripe domains. Because the perpendicular anisotropy is much smaller than the saturationmagnetization of the layer, we propose an adaptation of the classical domain mode resonance modelto the configuration with oblique magnetization in the stripes. © 1997 American Institute of
Physics. @S0021-8979 ~97!30408-3 #
I. INTRODUCTION
Extensive ferromagnetic resonance ~FMR !studies have
been performed on ferromagnetic thin films. The uniformmodes and spin wave modes are quite well understood. Incontrast, the gyromagnetic resonance of ferromagnetic thinfilms in the absence of magnetic field has seldom been stud-ied. Recently, several observations of multiple narrow reso-nance modes on ferromagnetic thin films have beenreported.
1,2The aim of this article is to give new experimen-
tal results related to this phenomenon, and to show that thesemodes should be attributed to domain modes and spin waves.
II. EXPERIMENT
Amorphous ferromagnetic CoFeZr thin films have been
manufactured by ion beam sputtering. Thickness was in the0.25–0.6
mm range. The measurement of magnetic proper-
ties of CoFeZr using a B–H plotter is described elsewhere.2
The fine domain structure was investigated using an atomicforce microscope with magnetic force microscopy ability~AFM-MFM !. The permeability up to several GHz was mea-
sured using a permeameter.
3The samples exhibited a hyster-
esis loop typical of films with biaxial anisotropy. The in-plane component of the anisotropy K
iand the out-of-plane
component K'were determined using FMR measurements.2
K'was found to be in the 4 3104–2.33105erg cm23range.
This corresponds to out of plane anisotropy fields in the120–500 Oe range, much smaller than 4
pMs. The samples
also exhibited rotatable anisotropy. The AFM-MFM pictureshown in Fig. 1 clearly reveals a stripe domain pattern. It iswell known that stripe domain structure and rotatable anisot-ropy are often associated.
4The typical frequency permeabil-
ity behavior is illustrated in Fig. 2 for two different samples.In contrast with previous work,
1,2we have investigated the
in-plane permeability both along the in-plane hard axis yand
along the easy axis x. Some striking features of these spectra
are the multiplicity of the peaks, the sharpness of the reso-nances, and the significant levels of permeability in the di-rection parallel to the stripes, along the easy axis @Fig. 2 ~b!#.
This contrasts with the behavior usually observed on ferro-magnetic films, corresponding to conventional uniform FMRmodes.
5In many cases @see Figs. 2 ~a!and 2 ~b!, and also, to
some extent, Figs. 4 and 5 in Ref. 1 #, the frequency spacing
between the peaks seems to be nearly constant. In Fig. 2 ~a!,
the frequency spacing between the three peaks along the hardaxis is nearly 1.4 GHz. In Fig. 2 ~b!, the frequency spacing
between the pair of peaks along the easy and hard axes isclose to 1.9 GHz.
III. THEORETICAL APPROACH AND DISCUSSION
The peaks are observed at frequencies too high to be due
to domain wall movements, so they must correspond to gy-romagnetic resonance. The presence of a gyromagnetic re-sponse along the stripe axis can be clearly related to the factthat the local magnetization has an out-of-plane component.The case where the spins are normal to the film plane, alter-natively up and down in the stripes, has been investigatedboth theoretically and experimentally.
6,7It has been shown
that this stripe configuration led to two so-called domainmodes ~DM!. In particular, the lower frequency DM is ex-
FIG. 1. AFM–MFM images of the stripe domains of a 0.5 mm CoFeZr layer
ferromagnetic film.
4057 J. Appl. Phys. 81(8), 15 April 1997 0021-8979/97/81(8)/4057/3/$10.00 © 1997 American Institute of Physics
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137.189.170.231 On: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 05:15:34cited by a field along y~Fig. 3 !, and the higher frequency
mode by a driving field along x, parallel to the stripes. This
is in qualitative agreement with our observations. However,quantitative calculations for CoFeZr samples using the val-ues ofK
iandK'obtained from FMR measurement suggest
that if the resonance frequency for an excitation along yFy
has the right order of magnitude, the calculated Fxis much
higher than the experimental value. In addition, the presenceof more than two excitation modes seems difficult to accountusing DM theory. The presence of spinwaves ~SW!with
definite boundary conditions can be suggested. In Ref. 1, SWwith magnetization and wave vector normal to the film planewere shown to be a plausible but not completely satisfactoryway to fit experimental results. It predicts a variation of F
ny
orFny2F0yasn2, which is clearly not what we observe. Be-
sides, the anisotropy K'seems not large enough to lead to
stripes with up and down magnetization, but rather with ob-lique magnetization
2~Fig. 3 !.
We suggest that our observations may be accounted by
DM in stripes with oblique magnetization, and SW in thestripe structure. To demonstrate this quantitatively we haveto establish the resonance frequencies of the system. This canbe done using the Smit and Beljers method,
6by differentiat-
ing the energy function of the system. One has to consider asystem with two populations of stripes, the magnetization ineach population being represented in spherical coordinatesby
u1,f1,u2, and f2as sketched in Fig. 3. It has been
shown that in the absence of an external field, if the ex-change energy is not taken into account, the equilibrium po-sitions correspond to
u150 and u25p.6,7Since we want toconsider not only stripes with magnetization normal to the
film plane, but also weaker stripes, we have to introduce anexchange term. Since no exchange term can be associatedwith a discontinuous magnetization profile, we take the ex-change term reported in Ref. 4 that approximates the mag-netization profile in weak stripes as a sawtooth profile. Then,the energy function may be written
G5K
'
2~sin2u11sin2u2!1Ki
2~sin2u1sin2f1
1sin2u2sin2f2!1p
2NzzMs2~cosu12cosu2!2
1p
2NyyMs2~sinu1sinf12sinu2sinf2!2
1p
2Ms2~cosu11cosu2!21AS4
DD2Su22u1
2D2
,
~1!
whereDis the stripe period. The equilibrium position is
obtained by imposing that the first derivative of Gis null. It
yields
f15f250u15p2u25u, ~2a!
sin 2u~H'24pNzzMs!52A
MsS4
DD2
~p22u!. ~2b!
FIG. 2. Complex permeability of two ferromagnetic films, measured along the hard axis y, and along the easy axis x:~a!0.5mm CoFeZr layer ~similar to layer
of Fig. 1 !,~b!CoFeZr layer deposited under different condition.
4058 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 81, No. 8, 15 April 1997 Acheret al.
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137.189.170.231 On: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 05:15:34The equation of motion for magnetization is linearized for
small variations of uiandfi, which excludes the analysis of
the case where ui50. One finds that the resonance frequen-
cies are
Fy5AV2V82andFx5AV1V81with ~3a!
V2
g5H'cos 2u14pMssin2u
24pMsNzzcos2u;V82
g5Hi, ~3b!
V1
g5Hi14pMsNyy, ~3c!
V81
g52A
MsS4
DD2F12p22u
tan~p22u!G, ~3d!
where 2K'5MsH'and 2Ki5MsHi.
Fyis excited by a driving field along y, andFxis excited
by a driving field along x. It is clear that Fxwill be very
weakly excited if the magnetization makes an angle p/22ui
small with the xaxis. This may account for the fact that, in
several cases, the susceptibility along xaxis seems to be near
unity through all the frequency range @Fig. 2 ~a!#. One can
check that Fyyields the classical value of FMR frequency in
the case the magnetization lies in the plane. The precessionof the two magnetization vectors is in phase for the F
ymode,
and in opposition of phase for the Fxmode.
In a further approach, it is possible to linearize the equa-
tion of motion including a damping term.7We choose to use
the Gilbert damping term. This allows the determination ofthe full width at half maximum ~FWHM !DFof the
m9peak.
With the approximations a!1 and DF!F, it can be shown
that
DFx/y'2a~V61V86!'2aV6~4!
in the regime with V6@V86. For the conventional uniform
resonance mode, this yields DFy'2a(g4pMs). For
the DM, DFyis much smaller because V2is smaller thang4pMs. As a consequence, the model can account for the
very small FWHM observed on CoFeZr ~typically 100–200
MHz for DFyandDFx!compared to the same kind of
sample after annealing, showing a conventional uniformresonance mode with 600 MHz linewidth.
In addition, we suggest that SW directed in the film
plane along ymay be excited. They should match the peri-
odicity conditions along y, so the wave vector should take
the form
k5p2
p/D. ~5!
A simplified analysis of the coupling between the driving
field and the excitation modes suggests that a field along y
excites the modes with even p, and a field along xexcites the
modes with odd p. A detailed study of these spin modes with
the stripe magnetization configuration would clearly requireextensive calculations, but here we propose a more intuitiveand qualitative approach. It has been shown that, in manycases, the presence of spin waves could be accounted
9for by
adding a term Hexeffto the anisotropy field Hi
Hexeff52A
Ms4p2
D2p21Hex0. ~6!
The point is that if Hexeff@Hex01Hi, which will be true for p2
large enough, then it is possible to approximate
Fy
g'p2p
DA2A
MsAV2. ~7!
This corresponds to a linear variation of Fywithp, when the
approximation is valid. It accounts for the fact that the fre-quency spacing between the modes excited by a field along y
is constant. In addition, it has been checked that, using rea-sonable values for N
zzandu, Eqs. ~3!and~7!can account for
the observed resonance frequencies. The indexing of the Fx
modes is not clear at the moment.
It should be mentioned that one cannot rule out the pos-
sibility that the high order peaks correspond to SW with awave vector normal to the film plane rather than along y.I n
this case, the characteristic frequencies would be related notto the stripe period but to the layer thickness.
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FIG. 3. Sketch of the magnetization configuration in the domain modes
resonance model.
4059 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 81, No. 8, 15 April 1997 Acheret al.
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1.2837665.pdf | Spin-polarized currents in exchange spring systems
Matteo Franchin, Giuliano Bordignon, Thomas Fischbacher, Guido Meier, Jürgen Zimmermann et al.
Citation: J. Appl. Phys. 103, 07A504 (2008); doi: 10.1063/1.2837665
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2837665
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Downloaded 28 Apr 2013 to 142.51.1.212. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsSpin-polarized currents in exchange spring systems
Matteo Franchin,1,2,a/H20850Giuliano Bordignon,1,2Thomas Fischbacher,2Guido Meier,3
Jürgen Zimmermann,2Peter de Groot,1and Hans Fangohr2
1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ Southampton, United Kingdom
2School of Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ Southampton,
United Kingdom
3Institut für Angewandte Physik und Zentrum für Mikrostrukturforschung, Universität Hamburg,
Jungiusstrasse 11, 20355 Hamburg, Germany
/H20849Presented on 9 November 2007; received 12 September 2007; accepted 15 November 2007;
published online 6 March 2008 /H20850
We present a computational study of the magnetization dynamics of a trilayer exchange spring
system in the form of a cylindrical nanopillar in the presence of an electric current. Athree-dimensional micromagnetic model is used, where the interaction between the current and thelocal magnetization is taken into account following a recent model by Zhang and Li /H20851Phys. Rev.
Lett. 93, 127204 /H208492004 /H20850/H20852We obtain a stationary rotation of the magnetization of the system around
its axis, accompanied by a compression of the artificial domain wall in the direction of the electronflow. © 2008 American Institute of Physics ./H20851DOI: 10.1063/1.2837665 /H20852
INTRODUCTION
The effects of spin-polarized currents on the magnetiza-
tion of a ferromagnet have received considerable interest inrecent times
1–3after being proposed and studied in earlier
works.4Spin-polarized currents may be used to generate mi-
crowave oscillations in the magnetization of a ferromagnet5
or to switch the magnetization of a memory element.6The
limit to these applications is currently found in the magni-tude of the current density required to obtain significant ef-fects, which is of the order of 10
10–1012A/m2. Conse-
quently, there is a strong interest in finding novel deviceswhere spin-torque effects are enhanced and require lowercurrent density. The recent discovery of significant giantmagnetoresistance in exchange spring multilayers
7suggests
that spin-transfer torque may play a role in these systems. Afurther reason, which makes exchange spring systems attrac-tive, is the possibility of creating “artificial” domain walls.Their length and shape—whose importance has been re-cently emphasized
8—can be controlled, first during the engi-
neering phase, then by applying a suitable magnetic field.7
THE SYSTEM
Consider a system whose ground state energy is degen-
erate. It has infinitely many different equilibrium configura-tions, which all have the same minimal energy and form acontinuous curve in the phase space. This system can be“dragged” through this curve, changing its configurationfrom one equilibrium state to another and this can beachieved “easily,” because there is no energy barrier betweenthem. In such a system, an electric current may find a veryfavorable situation to fully manifest its effects.
The idea is very simple but can serve as a guideline to
develop micromagnetic systems where spin-transfer-torqueeffects are maximized. In this paper, we discuss a possibleexample of such a system. We study a trilayer exchange
spring system in the form of a cylindrical nanopillar, where acentral magnetically soft layer is sandwiched between twomagnetically hard layers, as shown in Fig. 1. The system
materials are chosen in the following way: YFe
2for the soft
layer and DyFe 2for the two hard layers. This choice allows
us to study the system with a model similar to the one usedin our previous work.
9Regarding the geometry, the diameter
of the cylindrical nanopillar is 10 nm, while the thicknessesof the hard and soft layers are 5 and 40 nm, respectively.
Yttrium has negligible magnetic moment and only two
species of atoms contribute to the magnetization of the sys-tem. The first one, iron /H20849Fe/H20850, is present in all the three layers
and the second one, dysprosium /H20849Dy/H20850, is present only in the
two hard layers. Neighboring iron moments are exchangecoupled, throughout all the hard and soft layers and acrossthe hard-soft interfaces. This coupling favors the alignmentof the magnetization of iron throughout the entire nanopillar.This alignment is, however, broken, because the magnetiza-tion of iron in the two hard layers is pinned along oppositedirections, as shown in Fig. 1. The pinning of the iron mo-
ments is the result of the joint actions of two strong interac-tions: the cubic anisotropy of DyFe
2, which pins the dyspro-
sium moments along an easy axis direction, and theantiferromagnetic coupling Dy–Fe, which transmits this pin-ning to the iron moments of the hard layers.
a/H20850Electronic mail: franchin@soton.ac.uk.
FIG. 1. /H20849Color online /H20850A sketch of the nanopillar which is studied in the
paper /H20849not to scale /H20850. Dysprosium moments /H20849white arrows /H20850pin the iron mo-
ments /H20849black arrows /H20850at the borders of the soft layer.JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 103, 07A504 /H208492008 /H20850
0021-8979/2008/103 /H208497/H20850/07A504/3/$23.00 © 2008 American Institute of Physics 103, 07A504-1
Downloaded 28 Apr 2013 to 142.51.1.212. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsAmong all the interactions which we take into account,
the cubic anisotropy of DyFe 2is the only one which is not
symmetric under rotations around the axis of the nanopillar.However, in the case we are considering, where there is noapplied field and the soft layer is relatively thick, the dyspro-sium moments keep their direction well aligned with the onethey initially have and the degeneracy of the ground state iswell preserved, as we will see from the results of the com-puter simulations. This means that configurations which dif-fer by a rotation around the xaxis have almost the same
energy. Then if the applied current wants to rotate the wholemagnetization around the xaxis, nothing will oppose to its
action.
THE MODEL
Since the density of iron atoms and their position in the
lattice structure is the same for DyFe 2and YFe 2/H20849they both
crystallize in laves phase structures /H20850, we use a single magne-
tization vector MFeto describe the magnetic configuration of
iron in all the three layers. The configuration of dysprosiumis modeled by another magnetization field M
Dywhich is de-
fined over the hard layers only. The model is similar to theone-dimensional model used in Ref. 9, extended to three
dimensions /H20849the stray field is calculated using the hybrid fi-
nite element method /H20849FEM /H20850/boundary element method
10,11/H20850.
We also consider the same temperature /H20849100 K /H20850and the same
material parameters. The moment densities of iron /H20849in both
DyFe 2and YFe 2/H20850and dysprosium are /H20648MFe/H20648=0.55
/H11003106A/m and /H20648MDy/H20648=1.73/H11003106A/m, respectively. The
easy axes for the anisotropy are u1=/H208490,1,1 /H20850//H208812,u2=/H208490,
−1,1 /H20850//H208812, and u3=/H208491,0,0 /H20850. The coefficients are K1=33.9
/H11003106J/m3, K2=−16.2 /H11003106J/m3, and K3=16.4
/H11003106J/m3. The effects of the electric current are modelled
using the Zhang–Li correction to the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation.
12We assume that only the iron moments
interact with the spin of the conduction electrons. The mag-netic electrons in the 4 forbitals of dysprosium are strongly
localized at the ion core and their interaction with the con-duction electrons should be negligible. In the simulation thedamping parameter is chosen to be
/H9251=0.02, the current den-
sity is assumed to be fully polarized /H20849P=1/H20850and/H9264, the ratio
between the exchange relaxation time, and the spin-flip re-
laxation time, is taken to be /H9264=0.01. The Oersted field and
the effects of Joule heating are ignored in the present study.
RESULTS
The simulations are performed by NMAG ,13a FEM-based
micromagnetic simulation package. The cylindrical nanopil-lar is modeled by a three-dimensional unstructured mesh andfirst order FEM is used to discretize the space. In this case,FEM is preferable with respect to finite differences becauseit allows a better representation of the cylindrical geometry.Finite differences would introduce artifacts in the discretiza-tion of the rounded surface of the nanopillar.
The initial magnetizations M
FeandMDyare obtained by
letting the system relax to one of its degenerate equilibriumconfigurations. The system then evolves from this configura-tion /H20849t=0/H20850up to t=10.5 ns. The dynamics of /H20855M
Fe/H20856, the ironmagnetization averaged over all the nanopillar, is studied in
Fig. 2. For simplicity we identify four points on the time
axis: A at 0 ns, B at 3.5 ns, C at 7 ns, and D at 10.5 ns. Thetime axis is then subdivided into three regions AB, BC, andCD. The applied current density jis uniform and constant in
each of these three time intervals. In particular, it is directedalong the axis of the cylinder: j=jx, with j=10
11A/m2in
AB, j=0 in BC, and j=−1011A/m2in CD. We remind the
reader that the applied field is always zero, throughout all thesimulation.
The graph in Fig. 2shows the behavior of the compo-
nents of /H20855M
Fe/H20856. In region AB, the current produces a preces-
sion of the whole magnetization of the system around the x
axis. This precession is accompanied by a movement—andconsequent compression—of the artificial domain wall in thedirection of the electron flow /H20849negative xdirection /H20850, which
reflects in an increase of the xcomponent of /H20855M
Fe/H20856. Such an
effect may be explained with a current-induced motion of the
artificial domain wall. Current-induced motion is a wellknown effect for domain walls in nano-wires: it has beenobserved experimentally and has been provedanalytically.
14–16
In the time interval AB, the current pumps energy into
the system, which is stored in the compression of the domainwall. In the time interval BC, the current is switched off andthis energy is gradually released. The domain wall decom-presses, restoring the configuration it had at time t=0. Fi-
nally, during the time interval CD the system behaves in away which is symmetrical to the one observed in AB. /H20855M
Fe,x/H20856
rotates in the opposite direction and the wall is compressed
in the positive xdirection, leading to negative values for
/H20855MFe,x/H20856.
Expressing /H20855MFe/H20856in spherical coordinates with xchosen
as the polar axis, we obtained the precession angle /H9278/H20849t/H20850of
/H20855MFe/H20856around the xaxis as a function of time t. We computed
the time derivative /H9275/H20849t/H20850=/H9278/H11032/H20849t/H20850to obtain the precession fre-
quency as a function of time. The result is shown in Fig. 3.
FIG. 2. /H20849Color online /H20850The evolution in time of the three components of
/H20855mFe/H20856=/H20855MFe//H20648MFe/H20648/H20856, the normalized magnetization of iron averaged over
all the nano-pillar. The three boxes above the graph show the configuration
ofMFeatt=0,t=3.5 ns and t=10.5 ns.07A504-2 Franchin et al. J. Appl. Phys. 103, 07A504 /H208492008 /H20850
Downloaded 28 Apr 2013 to 142.51.1.212. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissionsThe sign of /H9275/H20849t/H20850depends on the sense of rotation around the
xaxis. This graph shows that the applied current j
=/H110061011A/m2, produces a precession motion with fre-
quency around 14 GHz, in the microwave frequency range.The frequency seems to be related to the compression of thedomain wall. It increases rapidly when /H20855M
Fe,x/H20856increases and
stabilizes when also /H20855MFe,x/H20856does.
The accuracy of the discretization of space has been
verified by increasing the number of mesh elements /H20849from
4129 to 19251 /H20850, obtaining differences in the precession fre-
quency at 3.5 ns lower than 1.2%.
DISCUSSION
The model we presented does not take into account a
number of effects which complicate the physics of real sys-tems. The imperfections of the geometry and the impuritiesin the materials can break the cylindrical symmetry. The ef-fect of such imperfections is difficult to predict.
The size of the sample was chosen to speed up the simu-
lation. However, we expect a similar precessional dynamicsin nanopillars with greater radii. Also, the materials couldhave been chosen differently and the DyFe
2anisotropy could
have been well approximated by an infinite pinning on theiron moments, resulting in a simplification of the model.However, this approximation would have removed the onlysource of symmetry breaking, besides the irregularity of theunstructured mesh.Other simulations should be carried out to understand
how the precession frequency depends on the current densityand what the role of the system geometry is.
To conclude, we remark that a symmetry breaking could
be introduced on purpose to obtain bistable systems, wherethe current may be used to switch the magnetization betweentwo states.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work has been funded by the Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council /H20849EPSRC /H20850in the United
Kingdom /H20849GR/T09156 and GR/S95824 /H20850.
G.M. acknowledges financial support by the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft via SFB 668 and GK 1286.
1J. C. Slonczewski, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 159,L 1 /H208491996 /H20850.
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Bland, L. J. Heyderman, S. Cherifi, A. Locatelli, T. O. Mentes, and L.Aballe, Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 232507 /H208492006 /H20850.
9M. Franchin, J. Zimmermann, T. Fischbacher, G. Bordignon, P. de Groot,
and H. Fangohr, IEEE Trans. Magn. 43, 2887 /H208492007 /H20850.
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FIG. 3. /H20849Color online /H20850The time dependence of the frequency /H9275for the
precession of /H20855MFe/H20856around the xaxis. The sign of /H9275is related to the sense
of rotation.07A504-3 Franchin et al. J. Appl. Phys. 103, 07A504 /H208492008 /H20850
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1.1560703.pdf | Influence of domain wall structure on pinning characteristics with self-induced
anisotropy
H. Asada, Y. Wasada, J. Yamasaki, M. Takezawa, and T. Koyanagi
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 93, 7447 (2003); doi: 10.1063/1.1560703
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1560703
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/93/10?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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128.59.226.54 On: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 15:04:43Micromagnetics and Field Computation Michael Donahue, Chairman
Influence of domain wall structure on pinning characteristics
with self-induced anisotropy
H. Asadaa)and Y. Wasada
Department of Symbiotic Environmental Systems Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering,
Yamaguchi University, 2-16-1 Tokiwadai, Ube 755-8611, Japan
J. Yamasaki and M. Takezawa
Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology,1-1 Sensui-cho, Tobata-ku, Kitakyushu 804-8550, Japan
T. Koyanagi
Department of Symbiotic Environmental Systems Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering,Yamaguchi University, 2-16-1 Tokiwadai, Ube 755-8611, Japan
~Presented on 13 November 2002 !
Wall pinning effects with self-induced spatially varying uniaxial anisotropy in various thick films
have been studied using micromagnetic simulation based on the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation.In the simulation, the discretization region is in the cross section normal to the film plane. It isclarified that the wall structure is strongly related to pinning characteristics. Depinning fields of thewall having a flux-closure asymmetric vortex ~C-shaped wall !are different in the wall movement
directions due to the asymmetric wall structure. On the other hand, depinning fields of the wall withtwovortices ~S-shapedwall !whichhaveasymmetricstructuredonotdependonthewallmovement
direction. Depinning fields for the S-shaped wall are different from both depinning fields for theC-shaped wall. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. @DOI: 10.1063/1.1560703 #
I. INTRODUCTION
It is well known that amorphous ribbons annealed in a
demagnetized state exhibit magnetization reversal with largeBarkhausen discontinuities due to the domain wall pinning.The mechanism for the wall pinning is self-induced anisot-ropy during annealing by the domain wall itself.
1Kerr mi-
croscope observation revealed the pinned wall broadeningand magnetization reversal process in a Perminvar-type
loop.
2,3Theoretical analysis and micromagnetic simulation
on self-induced anisotropy effects on domain wall within aone-dimensional approximation was also performed.
4,5How-
ever, the domain wall behaviors with self-induced aniso-tropy, which plays an important role for magnetic properties,has not been clarified well since the domain wall containsNe´el caps and Bloch wall in thin films.
6Magnetization
within the wall, therefore, rotates along the film thicknessdirection as well as the direction normal to the wall plane.We have done the micromagnetic simulation based on theLandau–Lifshitz–Gilbert ~LLG!equation assuming the cross
section normal to the film plane and studied on domain wallbehaviors such as wall broadening and wall pinning withspatially varying uniaxial anisotropy.
7In this article, we in-vestigate the influence of domain wall structures on wall
pinning characteristics with spatially varying uniaxial anisot-ropy in various thick films.
II. SIMULATION MODEL
Numerical simulations were carried out by integrating
the LLG equation.8The cross section normal to the film
plane was discretized into a two-dimensional array. Self-induced anisotropy was modeled as follows: first, with theuniform easy axis set normal to the calculation region, thedomain wall profile was calculated. Next, after relaxation,with the easy axis direction set to be the same as the mag-netization direction, the domain wall profile was recalcu-lated. This procedure was iterated when wall broadening wasinvestigated. The material parameters used in the simulationwere as follows: saturation induction 4
pMs58000 Gauss,
uniaxial anisotropy constant Ku53800 erg/cm3, exchange
constant A51026erg/cm, and gyromagnetic ratio g51.76
3107erg/(sOe). The damping constant a51.0 was chosen
to speed up the computation.The grid element spacings were50 Å for the film thickness h50.15
mm, 100 Å for h50.3
and 0.5 mm, and 150 Å for h50.8mm, respectively.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 1 shows magnetic configuration and energy
curves of a domain wall part of the calculation region, hav-a!Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; electronic mail:
asada@aem.eee.yamaguchi-u.ac.jpJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS VOLUME 93, NUMBER 10 15 MAY 2003
7447 0021-8979/2003/93(10)/7447/3/$20.00 © 2003 American Institute of Physics
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128.59.226.54 On: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 15:04:43ing a flux-closure asymmetric vortex ~C-shaped wall !,i na
0.8mm thick film ~a!with the uniform easy axis set normal
to the calculation region ( x-direction !;~b!with the easy axis
profile set to the domain wall profile. The arrows in the fig-ures represent the magnetization directions for every fourth(434) grid element. Energies are averaged through the film
thickness and normalized by the peak of the wall energy inFig. 1 ~a!. The magnetization rotation in Fig. 1 ~b!becomes
more gradual not only along the direction normal to the wallplane (y-direction !but also along the film thickness direction
(z-direction !. Reflecting the magnetization configuration, the
wall energy curves show an asymmetric shape. The slope ofthe energy curves are steeper at the left side of the Blochwall in the center of film thickness, that is, the vortex side.Comparing the wall energy components in Figs. 1 ~a!and
1~b!, the anisotropy energy drastically dropped, which oc-
curred at the first iteration of an easy axis profile set to thedomain wall profile. The exchange energy also decreasedmonotonically with the repeated iteration, while the demag-netization energy variation was small.
7Positive and negative
magnetic fields were applied along the magnetic domain toinvestigate the pinning characteristics. When the positivemagnetic fields were applied, the wall moved to the right-hand side of Fig. 1. The time transient of the orthogonalcomponent of an effective field is used for determining thedepinning field.
9Depinning fields as a function of film thick-
ness are shown in Fig. 2. It was confirmed that, in the 0.15mm thick film, depinning fields for a51.0 were the same as
those for a50.1. As shown in Fig. 2, depinning fields are
different in the wall movement direction for various thickfilms due to the asymmetric wall structure, which causes theasymmetric energy profile as shown in Fig. 1. The depinningfields for both the positive and negative applied fields de-crease with increasing film thickness and tend to saturate.The depinning fields for h50.8
mm are 0.54 Hkand 0.57 Hk
(Hk52Ku/Ms) for the positive and negative applied fields,
respectively. These values are similar to the numerically ob-tained depinning field of 0.55 H
kwithin the one-dimensional
approximation.5On the other hand, the difference of depin-
ning fields in wall movement directions are almost the samefor the various thick films.
Next, we investigated the depinning field for the differ-
ent types of wall which has two vortices ~S-shaped wall !.
Figure 3 shows the magnetic configuration ~every 4 34 grid
elements !and normalized energy curves of a domain wall
part of calculation region, having an S-shaped wall, in a 0.15
mm thick film with the easy axis profile set to the domain
wall profile. As shown in the figure, the wall energy curvefor the S-shaped wall shows the symmetric shape having twopeaks near each vortex where the magnetization rapidly ro-tates along the yandzdirections. Simulated wall energies of
the S-shaped wall (1.7 erg/cm
2forh50.15mm and
0.45 erg/cm2forh50.8mm) is higher than those for the
C-shaped wall (1.3 erg/cm2forh50.15mm and
0.32 erg/cm2forh50.8mm). The depinning fields are also
examined by applying positive and negative magnetic fields.Figure 4 shows depinning fields of the S-shaped wall as afunction of film thickness. The depinning field decreases
FIG. 1. Simulation results of magnetization configuration and wall energy
curve ~solid line !for an asymmetric Bloch wall ~C-shaped wall !in a 0.8 mm
thick film ~a!easy axis along x;~b!with the easy axis profile set to the
domain wall profile. The wall energy components of anisotropy ~dotted !,
demagnetization ~dashed !, and exchange ~dotted–dashed !are also indicated.
FIG. 2. Depinning fields of the C-shaped wall as a function of film thickness
for positive and negative magnetic fields.
FIG. 3. Magnetization configuration and wall energy curve for an S-shapedwall in a 0.15
mm thick film. The easy axis profile is set to the wall profile.
The wall energy components of anisotropy ~dotted !, demagnetization
~dashed !, and exchange ~dotted–dashed !are also indicated.7448 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 93, No. 10, Part s2&3 ,1 5M a y 2003 Asada et al.
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128.59.226.54 On: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 15:04:43with increasing film thickness. In contrast to the C-shaped
wall, the depinning fields for the S-shaped wall do not de-pend on the wall movement direction due to the symmetricstructure. It is also found that the depinning field for theS-shaped wall is different from both depinning fields for theC-shaped wall.
Finally, pinning effects of spatially varying uniaxial an-
isotropy on domain walls having different kinds of profilesfrom an easy axis profile as shown in Fig. 5 are investigated.The easy axis direction of spatially varying uniaxial anisot-ropy @Fig. 5 ~a!#is set to the same kind of C-shaped wall
profile as Fig. 1. The assumed film thickness is 0.15
mm. In
this simulation, the domain walls having the Bloch wall inwhich the magnetization rotates in the same direction of theeasy axis profile are chosen. First, the interaction for theS-shaped wall is examined. The simulated magnetic configu-
ration ~every 4 34 grid elements !of the domain wall part
without the applied field is indicated in Fig. 5 ~b!. This type
of domain wall would correspond to the experimentally ob-served ‘‘unstable wall’’ having the black-and-white contrastusing the Kerr magneto-optical effect,
2which means that the
domain wall at the film surface consists of the two magneti-zation regions having 1yand2ycomponents. Obviously,
the wall energy for the S-shaped wall is higher than that forthe C-shaped wall energy with the same spatially varyinguniaxial anisotropy. The depinning fields are 5.0 Oe for boththe positive and negative applied fields and the dependenceof the wall movement directions on depinning fields is notobserved. Second, the interaction for different types ofC-shaped walls having the Ne ´el caps where magnetization
rotates in the opposite direction of the easy axis profile asdepicted schematically in Fig. 6 is investigated. In this case,there are two pinning sites as shown in Figs. 5 ~c!and 5 ~d!.
The pinning site as Fig. 5 ~d!is more stable compared to Fig.
5~c!. The obtained depinning fields of 3.3 Oe for the positive
applied field and 1.1 Oe for the negative applied fields areconsiderably smaller.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
Numerical simulation shows that the wall structure is
strongly related to pinning characteristics with self-inducedspatially varying uniaxial anisotropy. Different wall struc-tures yield different pinning characteristics due to the differ-ent self-induced anisotropy. Depinning fields of the C-shapedwall are different in the wall movement directions due tothe asymmetric wall structure, while depinning fields of theS-shaped wall do not depend on the wall movementdirection.
1H. Fujimori, H. Yoshimoto, T. Masumoto, and T. Mitera, J. Appl. Phys.
52, 1893 ~1981!.
2R. Schafer, W. K. Ho, J. Yamasaki,A. Hubert, and F. B. Humphrey, IEEE
Trans. Magn. 27, 3678 ~1991!.
3J. Yamasaki, T. Chuman, M. Yagi, and M. Yamaoka, IEEE Trans. Magn.
33, 3775 ~1997!.
4C. Aroca, P. Sanchez, and E. Lopez, Phys. Rev. B 34, 490 ~1986!.
5B. B. Pant, K. Matsuyama, J.Yamasaki, and F. B. Humphrey, Jpn. J.Appl.
Phys., Part 1 34, 4779 ~1995!.
6A. Hubert, Phys. Status Solidi 32,1 5 9 ~1969!.
7H. Asada, Y. Wasada, J. Yamasaki, M. Takezawa, and T. Koyanagi, J.
Magn. Soc. Jpn. 26,3 9 2 ~2002!.
8S. Konishi, K. Matsuyama, N. Yoshimatsu, and K. Sakai, IEEE Trans.
Magn.24, 3036 ~1988!.
9H. Asada, K. Matsuyama, M. Gamachi, and K. Taniguchi, J. Appl. Phys.
75, 6089 ~1994!.
FIG. 4. Depinning fields of the S-shaped wall as a function of film thickness
for positive and negative magnetic fields.
FIG. 6. Schematic drawing of easy axis @Fig. 5 ~a!#and magnetization of the
C-shaped wall @Figs. 5 ~c!and 5 ~d!#at the top of the film surface.
FIG. 5. ~a!Easy axis directions and magnetization configurations for ~b!
S-shaped and ~c!and~d!C-shaped walls having different kinds of profiles
from an easy axis profile.7449 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 93, No. 10, Part s2&3 ,1 5M a y 2003 Asada et al.
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5.0041233.pdf | J. Chem. Phys. 154, 124106 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0041233 154, 124106
© 2021 Author(s).Reliable transition properties from excited-
state mean-field calculations
Cite as: J. Chem. Phys. 154, 124106 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0041233
Submitted: 21 December 2020 . Accepted: 11 February 2021 . Published Online: 22 March 2021
Susannah Bourne Worster ,
Oliver Feighan , and
Frederick R. Manby
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Reliable transition properties from excited-state
mean-field calculations
Cite as: J. Chem. Phys. 154, 124106 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0041233
Submitted: 21 December 2020 •Accepted: 11 February 2021 •
Published Online: 22 March 2021
Susannah Bourne Worster,a)
Oliver Feighan,
and Frederick R. Manbyb)
AFFILIATIONS
Centre for Computational Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, United Kingdom
a)susannah.bourne-worster@bristol.ac.uk
b)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: fred.manby@bristol.ac.uk. Present address: Entos, Inc.,
4470 W Sunset Blvd, Suite 107 PMB 94758, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA.
ABSTRACT
Delta-self-consistent field ( ΔSCF) theory is a conceptually simple and computationally inexpensive method for finding excited states. Using
the maximum overlap method to guide optimization of the excited state, ΔSCF has been shown to predict excitation energies with a level of
accuracy that is competitive with, and sometimes better than, that of time-dependent density functional theory. Here, we benchmark ΔSCF on
a larger set of molecules than has previously been considered, and, in particular, we examine the performance of ΔSCF in predicting transition
dipole moments, the essential quantity for spectral intensities. A potential downfall for ΔSCF transition dipoles is origin dependence induced
by the nonorthogonality of ΔSCF ground and excited states. We propose and test a simple correction for this problem, based on symmetric
orthogonalization of the states, and demonstrate its use on bacteriochlorophyll structures sampled from the photosynthetic antenna in purple
bacteria.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0041233 .,s
I. INTRODUCTION
The matrix element of the electric dipole operator ˆμbetween
two quantum states, commonly known as a transition dipole
moment μ, is a crucial quantity in simulating spectra and describ-
ing excited-state dynamics of molecular systems. The magnitude of
the transition dipole moment | μ| defines the strength with which
a transition between the two states can couple to the electro-
magnetic field to absorb (or emit) light, while the dipole–dipole
interaction between transition dipole moments provides the sim-
plest model for the coupling between excited states on different
chromophores.
An important application of this second property is in describ-
ing the transport of excitons through a network of chromophores,
as is seen in the early stages of photosynthesis, as well as synthetic
analogs, such as organic polymer light-emitting diodes1and chro-
mophores hosted on DNA scaffolds.2–4These systems are often
simulated using a Frenkel exciton Hamiltonian,5–8
ˆH=∑
iEi∣i⟩⟨i∣+∑
i≠jVij∣i⟩⟨j∣, (1)whose off-diagonal elements, Vij, are the coulomb interaction
between the transition dipole moments of the relevant excitation on
each chromophore. The light-harvesting antenna in photosynthetic
organisms typically contains large numbers of chromophores, which
are, themselves, relatively large conjugated organic molecules. For
example, the antenna in purple photosynthetic bacteria consists of
3–10 light-harvesting II (LHII) complexes (and one LHI complex)
per reaction center,9,10each containing 27 (32) bacteriochlorophyll-
a (BChla) chromophores of around 140 atoms.11,12Furthermore,
the transition dipole moment of each chromophore, and hence
the coupling elements of the Hamiltonian, fluctuates constantly
with the vibrations of the molecules. To capture the full time-
dependent Hamiltonian, even approximately, calculation of the
transition dipole moments should, therefore, ideally be computa-
tionally cheap as well as reasonably accurate. Current models of
exciton dynamics in these systems rely on parameterizing the cou-
pling elements Vijfrom experiment5,13–17or use time-dependent
density functional theory (TDDFT) to generate representative tran-
sition dipole moments from a small handful of chromophores.18,19
On-the-fly TDDFT has been used in this context for a single LHII
J. Chem. Phys. 154, 124106 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0041233 154, 124106-1
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complex,20and the present work forms part of a wider effort to scale
and refine the approach reported there.
TDDFT21–23is a widely popular method for obtaining the
properties, including transition dipole moments, of excited
states.24,25With the right choice of exchange–correlation functional
and basis set, it yields good accuracy compared to correlated wave-
function methods, such as second-order coupled cluster (CC2)26
or equation of motion coupled cluster singles and doubles (EOM-
CCSD),25,27at a much lower computational cost.
In TDDFT, excitation energies emerge as the eigenvalues of the
Casida equations.22,28The transition vectors (which arise as eigen-
vectors) are expressed in a basis of excitations i→aand corre-
sponding de-excitations. Each one can be reshaped into a transition
density matrix, with columns iand rows a, from which the transition
properties of the excited state can easily be calculated. The transi-
tion dipole moment, for example, is found by tracing the transition
density matrix with the dipole operator ˆμ.
However, TDDFT is still too costly to perform dynamics cal-
culations involving large numbers of BChla chromophores, and this
paper amounts to an investigation into how feasible it would be to
use the cheaper delta-self-consistent field ( ΔSCF) method. Crucially,
ΔSCF is not only simpler for the energy evaluation; the excited-state
gradient is also available very cheaply because it can be computed
using standard ground-state mean-field gradient theory.
ΔSCF is conceptually simple. Excited states are found by pro-
moting an electron from an occupied orbital in the ground state to
one of the unoccupied virtual orbitals. The orbitals are then reop-
timized for the excited electron configuration using a normal SCF
iterative procedure.29–33Unlike TDDFT, therefore, ΔSCF produces
a distinct set of molecular orbitals for the excited state. The transi-
tion dipole moment can be calculated as a matrix element between
the ground-state and excited determinants.
Initial attempts to locate excited states via an SCF procedure
rigidly maintained the orthogonality of the ground and excited
states by relaxing the excited state particle (and hole) orbitals within
the ground-state virtual space29,30(or in the virtual and occupied
spaces, respectively32). In addition to the convenience of dealing
with orthogonal states, these procedures also ensure that relaxing
the orbitals does not collapse the excited state wavefunction back
down to the ground state. Gilbert et al.33later argued that imposing
orthogonality in this way led to wavefunctions that were no longer
solutions of the full SCF equations and propagated errors and
approximations in the ground state. They relaxed the orthogonal-
ity condition and searched for high energy solutions to the SCF
equations by minimizing the energy of the excited state with the
added condition that the occupied orbitals at each step of the itera-
tive cycle should overlap as much as possible with their counterparts
in the previous iteration. This is known as the maximum overlap
method (MOM) and has been shown to be highly successful in find-
ing excited state energies.33–36The sizable test set that we consider
in this paper adds to this body of evidence, as well as benchmarking
the technique for transition dipole moments.
However, as Gilbert et al. acknowledge in their original paper,
allowing non-zero overlap between the ground and excited states
can artificially enhance the size of the transition dipole moment
(and other transition properties). Nonorthogonality of the states
introduces a non-zero transition charge, equal to the size of the
overlap. Transition dipole moments calculated from the chargedtransition density are origin-dependent and, therefore, have a com-
pletely arbitrary magnitude. When the state overlap is very small
and the molecule is positioned with its center of mass on, or close
to, the origin, the error associated with the charged transition
density is small, or even negligible. Conversely, if the molecule is
positioned far away from the origin, as might be the case for a
chromophore located within a larger complex or aggregate centered
collectively on the origin, the error associated with this additional
charge can quickly escalate. Here, we propose and test a simple
correction that can be applied to the transition density matrix after
the SCF cycle, to restore the orthogonality of the ground and excited
states.
II. THEORY
The transition dipole for an excitation from an initial state | Ψ1⟩
to a final state | Ψ2⟩is defined in the standard length gauge as
μ1→2=⟨Ψ2∣ˆμ∣Ψ1⟩, (2)
where ˆμis the three-component dipole operator.
InΔSCF, the states | Ψn⟩are Slater determinants constructed
from spin orbitals {∣ϕ(n)
j⟩}with n= 1, 2. The orbitals are orthonor-
mal within each state, but, in general, nonorthogonal between states,
with inner products S21
jk=⟨ϕ(2)
j∣ϕ(1)
k⟩. The inner product of the two
determinants is the determinant of the orbital inner products,
⟨Ψ2∣Ψ1⟩=∣S21∣. (3)
Following the normal rules for nonorthogonal determinants
laid down by Löwdin,37the transition dipole can be written as
⟨Ψ2∣ˆμ∣Ψ1⟩=∑
jkμ21
jkadj(S21)jk, (4)
where μ21
jk=⟨ϕ(2)
j∣ˆμ∣ϕ(1)
k⟩and adj denotes matrix adjugate.
Alternatively, the value of the transition dipole can be com-
puted from the reduced one-particle transition density matrix,
⟨Ψ2∣ˆμ∣Ψ1⟩=tr(ˆμ∣Ψ1⟩⟨Ψ2∣)=tr(μD21). (5)
Here, D21is the one-particle reduced transition density matrix in the
atomic-orbital basis, given by
D21=C(2)adj(S21)C(1)†, (6)
where C(n)are the molecular-orbital coefficients for state n. For
unrestricted calculations, the spin summation for the reduced den-
sity matrix has additional factors that would be 1 or 0 if a common
set of orthonormal orbitals were being used, but here have to be
considered explicitly,
D21=D21,α∣S21,β∣+D21,β∣S21,α∣, (7)
where D21,σis the analog of D21for theσspin channel.
J. Chem. Phys. 154, 124106 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0041233 154, 124106-2
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As noted above, in ΔSCF, the sets of orbitals {ϕ(1)
j}and{ϕ(2)
k}
for the ground and excited states are optimized independently, so
that the resulting states | Ψ1⟩and |Ψ2⟩are not necessarily orthogo-
nal. As previously recognized in the literature,33non-zero overlap
between these two states leads to errors in the calculated transition
dipole moment. In particular, when states are not exactly orthog-
onal, there is a non-zero transition charge equal to the value of
the overlap: q21=⟨Ψ2|Ψ1⟩. This breaks the origin-independence of
the transition dipole moment, making the calculated values virtually
meaningless. While the transition charge is sometimes exactly zero
(when the ground and excited states are of different symmetries) or
very small, any violation of translational invariance is certain to pre-
vent widespread use of transition properties from ΔSCF and needs
to be fixed.
ForΔSCF calculations using Hartree–Fock theory, one can
clearly proceed by performing nonorthogonal configuration interac-
tion,38,39not only fixing the transition dipoles but also (presumably)
generally improving the quality of the description. On the other
hand, for ΔSCF based on DFT, such a procedure is not well defined
because the underlying Slater determinants are understood not to
be “the” wavefunctions, nor the Hamiltonian to be “the” Hamil-
tonian.40It would be possible to build on the approach developed
by Wu et al. in the context of constrained DFT,40but that also
introduces other choices and approximations.
Another possibility is to correct the transition dipole moment
by adding in the dipole of the nuclear charges, weighted by the over-
lap of the ground and excited states. This is equivalent to reposition-
ing the molecule before calculating the transition dipole moment,
such that its center of charge sits at the origin. This approach has
been used successfully in simulations of absorption spectra,41,42and
we will briefly comment on its effectiveness for calculating the abso-
lute magnitudes of transition dipoles. However, while this correc-
tion does, by definition, ensure translational invariance of the calcu-
lated transition dipole moment, it does not address the underlying
cause of the problem and neither does it eliminate the transition
charge.
Here, we instead focus on the simple expedient of using sym-
metric orthogonalization to ensure exact orthogonality. Recall that
symmetric orthogonalization mixes the two states to make a pair
of states that are orthogonal while being as close as possible to the
original states and is defined by the transformation
∣Ψ˜ν⟩=∑
ν∣Ψν⟩[S−1/2]ν˜ν, (8)
where S=(1S
S1)andS=⟨Ψ2|Ψ1⟩. Based on this transformation, the
transition density between the orthogonalized states is given by
˜D21=1
4(1 +S)[(1−a2)(D11+D22)+(1 +a)2D21+(1−a)2D12],
(9)
where a=√
1 +S/√
1−S; this parameter is equal to 1 when S= 0,
recovering the expected result ˜D21=D21in this limit. In this work,
we explore the quality of ΔSCF transition dipoles based on the
symmetrically orthogonalized transition density.III. COMPUTATIONAL DETAILS
Calculations were performed on a set of 109 small closed-shell
molecules containing H, C, N, O, and F. These structures are a subset
of the benchmark set used in Ref. 43, with molecules of 12 atoms or
fewer.
Reference energies and transition dipole moments (reported
in atomic units) were calculated for the three lowest energy singlet
excited states of each molecule using EOM-CCSD with an aug-cc-
pVTZ basis set.44–46The same quantities were also calculated for the
six lowest energy singlet excited states using TDDFT with the CAM-
B3LYP functional47and aug-cc-pVTZ basis set. CAM-B3LYP has
consistently been shown to perform well for the prediction of the
optical properties of both small molecules26,27and a large number of
conjugated chromophores of various sizes.48–50
Both EOM-CCSD and TDDFT calculations were performed
using Gaussian 16.51Excited states were cross-referenced between
the two methods using the symmetry labels provided by Gaussian.
In a small number of cases, the symmetry labeling was unsuccess-
ful or defaulted to a different choice (non-Abelian or highest order
Abelian) of point group between the two methods. In these cases, the
excited states were matched by hand based on descent in symmetry
and their composition, energy, and transition dipole moment. A full
list of symmetries and indices of the selected transitions can be found
in the supplementary material.
These data were used to benchmark the performance of ΔSCF
in predicting transition properties, both with and without the sym-
metric orthogonalization correction proposed in Eq. (9). ΔSCF cal-
culations were performed in the Entos Qcore package,52with the
CAM-B3LYP functional and aug-cc-pVTZ basis set.
We investigated only the HOMO–LUMO singlet transition.
Using ΔSCF, we calculated the properties of the state correspond-
ing to the spin-conserving excitation of a HOMO electron into the
lowest energy virtual orbital. This does not correspond to a true
singlet excitation, which would contain a superposition of αandβ
excitations. The spin-purification formula,
ΔES=2ΔEi,α→a,α−ΔEi,α→a,β, (10)
was applied to more accurately estimate the true singlet excitation
energy.53–55However, this correction is applied at the end of the SCF
cycle and does not affect the composition of the molecular orbitals,
which are used to calculate the transition dipole moment.55
SinceΔSCF uses a variational principle to optimize the excited
state orbitals, a known weakness is that the calculation can converge
on the ground state rather than the desired excited state. In most
cases, this can be prevented using MOM,33which selects orbitals to
be occupied based on maximum overlap with each occupied molec-
ular orbital in the previous iteration. This stops the orbitals from
changing significantly in any particular step of the optimization and
helps stabilize the calculation around the excited state stationary
points, rather than the global minimum (ground state). However,
in a small number of cases, additional help was needed to converge
the SCF cycle to the correct excited state. There are a number of
well-established techniques to address this issue. We used a com-
bination of Fock-damping, modifying the direct inversion of itera-
tive subspace (DIIS) protocol,56–58and starting from an initial guess
corresponding to excitation of half an electron.
J. Chem. Phys. 154, 124106 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0041233 154, 124106-3
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The properties of the ΔSCF transition were compared to those
of the TDDFT transition with the largest coefficient for HOMO–
LUMO excitation (based on the orbital indexing in the TDDFT
calculation), along with the corresponding EOM-CCSD transition.
For a few molecules, this was not an appropriate comparison to
make, either because of a reordering of orbitals with very simi-
lar energies or because there was no single state dominated by the
HOMO–LUMO transition. In these cases, we either selected the cor-
rect TDDFT transition by hand or calculated the ΔSCF transition
corresponding to the lowest energy TDDFT transition. Full details
of these choices can be found in the supplementary material.
IV. RESULTS
First, we test the effect of applying the symmetric orthogo-
nalization correction, proposed above, to overlapping ground and
excited states. Figure 1 shows the error relative to EOM-CCSD in
the magnitude of the transition dipole moment, as a function of the
ground–excited state overlap for each molecule in the test set using
ΔSCF with or without the correction. In panel (a), the coordinates of
the entire molecule have been translated by 100 Å in each Cartesian
direction. Physical properties, such as excitation energy and tran-
sition dipole moment, should be invariant under this translation;
but when there is non-zero overlap between the ground and excited
states, the calculation of the transition dipole moment becomes
origin-dependent, and this coordinate shift introduces an error into
the calculated values of | μ|.
Although the ground–excited state overlaps are small ( <0.02)
for every molecule in the test set, when the molecule is displaced far
away from the origin, it is sufficient to produce highly unphysical
transition dipoles. Using the symmetric orthogonalization correc-
tion, the origin dependence is completely removed and these errors
do not arise.
An important consideration is whether applying the correc-
tion degrades the accuracy of the ΔSCF calculation in any way. This
is difficult to see since the origin-dependence of the uncorrected
transition dipole moments means that they cannot be taken as a
reliable indication of the “correct” ΔSCF transition dipole. However,
we note that, by construction, the amount of ground and excitedstate dipole that are mixed into the transition density (the amount
that the correction “changes the answer”) scales roughly linearly
with the size of the overlap for small overlaps. When the overlap
is zero (and the uncorrected ΔSCF transition dipole is, therefore,
already “correct”), the symmetric orthogonalization procedure does
not change the states, transition density, or transition dipole at all.
At the largest overlaps present in this test set, the change in the
transition dipole that comes from applying the symmetric orthog-
onalization correction is still very small, as illustrated in panel (b) of
Fig. 1.
Note that we do not attach any significance to whether the
corrected or uncorrected transition dipole magnitude is closer to
the reference value since the uncorrected magnitude can be made
to have any value by shifting the coordinates of the molecule. The
molecules in this test set are small, with average atomic positions
(not the center of mass) defining the origin, so we do not expect the
uncorrected transition dipole moments to be wildly wrong. How-
ever, even shifting the molecule so that its center-of-mass lies on the
origin is sufficient to account for the difference in values seen on
the right-hand side of Fig. 1. For the larger molecules in the test set,
the transition dipole may not span the whole molecule and the con-
cept of the “correct” position or transition dipole for the molecule
becomes even less clear.
Correcting the transition dipole by including a weighted
amount of the nuclear dipole produces near-identical results to
the symmetric orthogonalization correction. This is illustrated in
Fig. S1 of the supplementary material. It would, therefore, be rea-
sonable to choose either of these corrections based on convenience
or suitability for a particular application.
For the remainder of this paper, the symmetric orthogonal-
ization correction will be applied for all reported ΔSCF transition
dipoles.
Figure 2 compares the excitation energy of each molecule cal-
culated using TDDFT and ΔSCF with the value predicted by EOM-
CCSD. The energies predicted by ΔSCF are at least as accurate
as those predicted using TDDFT, if not slightly more so. TDDFT
with CAM-B3LYP has a tendency to slightly underpredict the
excitation energy, which is slightly less pronounced in ΔSCF. The
exception is one very noticeable outlier, highlighted with a circle in
Fig. 2.
FIG. 1 . Absolute error in the magnitude of the transition dipole moment calculated using ΔSCF vs EOM-CCSD, as a function of the overlap between the ground and excited
states. The coordinates of the molecules have been translated by [100, 100, 100] Å in panel (a) compared to (b). Without any correction (red dots), the coordinate shift results
in unphysically large transition dipoles. This can be avoided by using the symmetric orthogonalization correction (black dots). All calculations used the aug-cc-pVTZ basis
set.ΔSCF calculations were performed using the CAM-B3LYP functional.
J. Chem. Phys. 154, 124106 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0041233 154, 124106-4
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FIG. 2 . Excitation energies calculated using TDDFT (black cross) or ΔSCF
(red dot) compared to the EOM-CCSD reference values. The target values are
given by the solid black line y=x. The inset in the lower right-hand corner
shows the probability distribution for the error in each method compared to
the EOM-CCSD reference. The outlier circled in green is excluded from this
error analysis (see also Table I). All calculations used the aug-cc-pVTZ basis
set.ΔSCF and TDDFT calculations were performed using the CAM-B3LYP
functional.
This outlier is a perpendicular ethene dimer, and it serves to
illustrate a key situation where ΔSCF may not be an appropriate
choice of method. The two highest occupied molecular orbitals in
the ground state of the ethene dimer are degenerate, representing
theπ-bonding orbital on each monomer. The two lowest unoccu-
pied molecular orbitals are similarly very close in energy and are in-
phase and out-of-phase combinations of the π-antibonding orbitals
on each molecule. Both EOM-CCSD and TDDFT predict that the
two lowest energy excitations of the ethene dimer are degenerate lin-
ear combinations of the local excitations with an excitation energy of
7.5 eV and transition dipole moments in the xandydirections (the
principal axis being z).ΔSCF, by construction, cannot capture the
mixed nature of these excitations59and instead predicts excitations
with energies around 7 and 10 eV (shown) and transition dipoles in
thexyplane.
Excluding the outlier, the mean error in the ΔSCF excitation
energies compared to EOM-CCSD is 0.35 eV, with a standard devi-
ation of 0.25 eV (Table I). For TDDFT, the mean error is 0.41 eV,
with a standard deviation of 0.27 eV. For excitation energies, ΔSCF
is, therefore, clearly worth considering as a cheap and accurate alter-
native to TDDFT. This is in good agreement with earlier studies
benchmarking ΔSCF excitation energies for large organic dyes.36,60
Figure 3 shows the same comparison for | μ|. By eye, ΔSCF
produces slightly more scatter around the EOM-CCSD reference
than TDDFT but has a broadly similar accuracy. This is borne out in
a more detailed numerical analysis. The mean error in | μ| forΔSCF
compared to EOM-CCSD is 0.07 a.u. (atomic units for transition
dipoles = ea0), with a standard deviation of 0.08 a.u. (Table I). For
TDDFT, the mean error is 0.03 a.u., with a standard deviation of
0.06 a.u.TABLE I . Error in excitation energies and transition dipole magnitudes calculated
usingΔSCF and TDDFT at the CAM-B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory. Errors
are calculated relative to an EOM-CCSD reference value. The outliers highlighted
in Figs. 2 and 3 are excluded from the error analysis for the energies and dipole
moment, respectively.
Error in ΔE(eV) Error in | μ| (ea0)
ΔSCF TDDFT ΔSCF TDDFT
Mean 0.35 0.41 0.07 0.03
Standard deviation 0.25 0.27 0.08 0.06
Min. 0.01 0.02 0.00 0.00
Max. 1.63 1.24 0.52 0.34
There is, again, a single obvious outlier where ΔSCF appar-
ently performs far worse than TDDFT. This outlier corresponds to
a stretched version of the benzene molecule. Like the ethene dimer
described above, the lowest energy excitation of this structure is a
roughly equal mix of HOMO to LUMO and HOMO −1 to LUMO
+ 1 transitions. In this case, however, both HOMO and HOMO −
1 and LUMO and LUMO + 1 are exactly degenerate and this cre-
ates some flexibility in the definition of the transition and its dipole
moment. The transition dipole moment found by ΔSCF agrees very
well with that for an excitation that is an equal mix of HOMO to
LUMO + 1 and HOMO −1 to LUMO, which, given the degeneracy
of the states, is an equally valid choice. This outlier should, there-
fore, be viewed not as a failure of ΔSCF but as a reminder that there
is no one correct transition dipole moment when degenerate states
are involved.
FIG. 3 . Transition dipole magnitudes (| μ|) calculated using TDDFT (crosses) or
ΔSCF (dots) compared to the EOM-CCSD reference values. The target values are
given by the solid black line y=x. The inset in the lower right-hand corner shows
the probability distribution for the error in each method compared to the EOM-
CCSD reference. The outlier circled in green is excluded from this error analysis
(see also Table I). All calculations used the aug-cc-pVTZ basis set. ΔSCF and
TDDFT calculations were performed using the CAM-B3LYP functional.
J. Chem. Phys. 154, 124106 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0041233 154, 124106-5
Published under license by AIP PublishingThe Journal
of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcp
This test set contains two other structures for benzene, with
slightly different bond lengths. For these variations, coupled clus-
ter and TDDFT find nearly pure, degenerate HOMO to LUMO and
HOMO −1 to LUMO + 1 transitions, for which ΔSCF predicts very
accurate transition dipoles.
SinceΔSCF was unable to capture the true nature of the tran-
sition in the ethene dimer discussed above, we might expect this
to account for one of the larger errors in Fig. 3. However, it hap-
pens that the magnitude of the dipole moment for the combined
transition is very similar to that of the single-determinant transi-
tion predicted by ΔSCF (although their directions are different). In
general, there does not appear to be a strong correlation between
error in the ΔSCF excitation energy and the ΔSCF transition dipole
magnitudes.
Having established the performance of ΔSCF vs TDDFT, we
move on to look at the performance of ΔSCF in calculating the tran-
sition properties of the 27 BChla in the LHII complex of purple bac-
teria. As before, we focus on the HOMO–LUMO transition, which,
in this case, is the Q ytransition between two sets of π-bonding
molecular orbitals spread over the conjugated ring system. The cor-
responding transition dipole lies approximately along an axis con-
necting opposing nitrogen atoms on the tetrapyrrole ring. We take
the structures of the chromophores from a single snapshot of the
molecular dynamics simulation by Stross et al.18This chromophore
is too large to treat with EOM-CCSD, so we use TDDFT as our ref-
erence, bearing in mind its performance on the test set of smaller
molecules. We use the PBE0 functional61,62and Def2-SVP basis set,63
in line with Ref. 18.
As shown in Fig. 2, the excitation energies calculated using
ΔSCF correlate extremely well with those predicted by TDDFT and
lie well within the range of error of TDDFT. This suggests both that
theΔSCF excitation energies are accurate and that small variations
in the energy between the different chromophores are physically
meaningful.
By contrast, there is a significant difference between the mag-
nitude of the transition dipoles predicted by TDDFT and ΔSCF,
withΔSCF predicting magnitudes that are, on average, 0.42 a.u.
larger. This is larger than the average error expected for TDDFT and
ΔSCF compared to EOM-CCSD but within the full range of errors
observed for the test set of small molecules. We note that the differ-
ence between TDDFT and ΔSCF will have contributions from the
error in both methods and it is not clear from Fig. 4, which will be
the largest contribution. However, while it appears that the errorin the ΔSCF transition dipole moment is toward the higher end of
what we might expect, it is reassuring that the values remain well-
correlated with those from TDDFT. This suggests that ΔSCF could
be used to create a valid picture of how the transition dipoles of
each chromophore change over the course of a molecular dynamics
simulation.
One chromophore is missing from Fig. 4, as the ΔSCF calcula-
tion collapsed back to the ground state. This is a hazard of the ΔSCF
method, and we plan to keep working on robustness, including, for
example, by implementing the initial maximum overlap method34
(IMOM) based on orbitals from an initial averaged calculation.
V. DISCUSSION
We have benchmarked the excitation energies and transition
dipole magnitudes predicted by ΔSCF for a large set of small organic
molecules. In line with previous work on larger, organic chro-
mophores, we have shown that ΔSCF predicts excitation energies
with very similar accuracy to TDDFT, compared to a highly accurate
EOM-CCSD reference. TDDFT still outperforms ΔSCF in predict-
ing the magnitudes of transition dipoles, but the error in the ΔSCF
predictions are sufficiently small that it can still be considered a use-
ful alternative when TDDFT is too computationally demanding or
when speed is of greater importance than higher precision. In con-
trast to earlier studies, we have focused on testing a large number
of different molecules, rather than a range of functionals and basis
sets.
A potential downside of many excited state SCF methods,
including the MOM, used here, is that the excited state molecular
orbitals are optimized independently of the ground state orbitals and
there is consequently no guarantee that the ground and excited states
will be orthogonal. In their paper first introducing the MOM, Gilbert
et al. argue that orthogonality is not an expected property of SCF
states, which are approximations of the exact quantum states.33They
further demonstrate that the MOM tends to converge on excited
states that only overlap with the ground state by a small amount.
Nevertheless, even a small overlap can introduce a problematic
origin dependence into the calculation of the transition dipole
moment, particularly when the relevant part of the molecule is not
close to the origin of the coordinate axis. We have demonstrated
that performing a symmetric orthogonalization of the ground and
excited states produced by the SCF optimization is a simple way to
FIG. 4 . (a) Excitation energies and (b)
transition dipole magnitudes of the 27
BChla molecules in the LHII complex of
purple bacteria, calculated using ΔSCF
vs TDDFT. All calculations used the
PBE0 functional and Def2-SVP basis
set. To highlight the correlation between
the methods, we plot the lines y=x+C
on each subplot. The interpretation of the
intercept Cis discussed in the text.
J. Chem. Phys. 154, 124106 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0041233 154, 124106-6
Published under license by AIP PublishingThe Journal
of Chemical PhysicsARTICLE scitation.org/journal/jcp
remove these small overlaps without introducing error into the
calculation of the excitation energy or significantly changing the
identity of the states. We have demonstrated the use of this
correction in the context of simulating photosynthetic antenna
complexes, which consist of multiple chromophores arranged into
a larger aggregate structure. In a molecular dynamics simulation,
for example, these complexes would typically be centered globally
on the origin, with each individual chromophore, therefore, being
displaced well away from the origin. Applying our simple correc-
tion to the transition density matrix is significantly more straight-
forward than recentering every single chromophore (while also
keeping track of its original position relative to all the other chro-
mophores). We anticipate that this trick will be extremely useful in
the application of cheaper excited-state SCF methods to biological
systems.
We have seen that the greatest potential for ΔSCF to fail occurs
when the transition of interest is highly mixed in nature. This is
not surprising, since ΔSCF is constructed to deal with transitions
between a single occupied ground state orbital and a single (relaxed)
virtual orbital. Highly mixed transitions usually occur when there
are low-lying virtual orbitals of the same symmetry with very sim-
ilar energies. By calculating the energies and symmetries of the
molecular orbitals (programs like Gaussian provide an option to do
this automatically), a simple inspection would identify molecules
with a greater risk of highly mixed transitions, helping to deter-
mine whether ΔSCF could be appropriately used. Furthermore, large
molecules, for which TDDFT may become prohibitively expen-
sive, typically have much lower symmetry than the small molecules
considered here, greatly reducing the chances that near-degenerate
molecular orbitals of the same symmetry will exist.
Looking forward, we suggest that there is potential to further
improve the ability of ΔSCF to predict accurate transition dipole
moments. Previous work by Kowalczyk et al.36demonstrates that
much of the error in ΔSCF excitation energies arise from spin
contamination and that this effect is more pronounced for function-
als with a smaller amount of exact exchange. While excitation ener-
gies can be, at least partially, corrected for spin contamination using
the spin purification formula described above, this correction does
not extend to the molecular orbitals used to calculate the transition
density and related properties. We hypothesize that the performance
ofΔSCF for transition dipoles could be improved by incorporating
spin purification into the calculation of the molecular orbitals. This
could be done, for example, by minimizing the spin-purified energy
in the SCF cycle, rather than applying the correction at the end of the
energy calculation. Trialing such a procedure is, however, beyond
the scope of the current study.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
See the supplementary material for all numerical data presented
in this paper, and xyz structure files for the chlorophyll geometries.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We gratefully acknowledge the funding agencies that supported
this work: O.F. was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy(Grant No. DE-FOA-0001912). S.B.W. was supported by a research
fellowship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.
We are grateful for a comment from Diptarka Hait pointing out that
the transition dipole can alternatively be evaluated by aligning the
molecular center of charge with the origin. F.R.M. is the co-founder
and CTO of Entos, Inc. The other authors declare no conflict of
interest.
DATA AVAILABILITY
The data that support the findings of this study are available
within the article and its supplementary material.
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Published under license by AIP Publishing |
5.0014487.pdf | J. Math. Phys. 61, 103304 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0014487 61, 103304
© 2020 Author(s).Statistical mechanics with non-integrable
topological constraints: Self-organization in
knotted phase space
Cite as: J. Math. Phys. 61, 103304 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0014487
Submitted: 19 May 2020 . Accepted: 19 September 2020 . Published Online: 08 October 2020
Naoki Sato
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Statistical mechanics with non-integrable
topological constraints: Self-organization
in knotted phase space
Cite as: J. Math. Phys. 61, 103304 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0014487
Submitted: 19 May 2020 •Accepted: 19 September 2020 •
Published Online: 8 October 2020
Naoki Satoa)
AFFILIATIONS
Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8561, Japan
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: sato@ppl.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp
ABSTRACT
The object of this study is the statistical mechanics of dynamical systems lacking a Hamiltonian structure due to the presence of
non-integrable topological constraints that limit the accessible regions of the phase space. Focusing on the simplest three dimen-
sional case, we develop a procedure (Poissonization) that assigns to any three dimensional non-Hamiltonian system an equivalent
four dimensional Hamiltonian system endowed with a proper time. The statistical distribution is then constructed in the recovered
four dimensional canonical phase space. Projecting in the original reference frame, we show that the statistical distribution departs
from standard Maxwell–Boltzmann statistics. The deviation is a function of the knottedness of the phase space, which is measured
by the helicity density of the topological constraint. The theory is then generalized to a class of non-Hamiltonian systems in higher
dimensions.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0014487
I. INTRODUCTION
Self-organizing phenomena can be divided into two main categories depending on their thermodynamic properties. On one hand, there
are systems, often observed in chemistry and biological sciences, which sustain complex internal structures by exchanging energy and matter
with the surrounding environment. These are thermodynamically open systems that are described by non-equilibrium thermodynamics.1,2
On the other hand, certain systems occurring in physics and astrophysics, typically involving fluids and plasmas, exhibit ordered structures
that persist even at thermodynamic equilibrium and in a thermodynamically isolated environment. The driving principle for this second type
of self-organization is the existence of constraints affecting the phase space, the so called topological constraints.3Topological constraints
are intrinsically different from those thermodynamic constraints on the inflow/outflow of energy and matter that enable the formation of
stationary non-equilibrium structures in open systems. Indeed, they are purely geometrical in nature. Of course, one type of self-organization
does not preclude the other.
To understand the physical origin of topological constraints, it is useful to consider a simple example, the motion of a rigid body. Among
all the degrees of freedom (positions and momenta) of its microscopic constituents, only the three components of the angular velocity of the
rigid body are needed for the description of the dynamics. Redundant degrees of freedom effectively behave as topological constraints that
force the system to a small portion of the original phase space.
In general, on the spatial and time scales where topological constraints hold, macroscopic structures may arise. Indeed, while the realiza-
tion of the totality of microstates eventually results in the disappearance of order by the second law of thermodynamics, reduction of degrees
of freedom is synonymous with inhomogeneity.
The formulation of statistical mechanics in a topologically constrained phase space represents a major mathematical challenge that must
reconcile the emergence of organized structures with the thermodynamic principle of entropy growth. The center of the problem is that a
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constrained phase space does not possess, in general, an invariant measure. Furthermore, when available, it is usually “hidden” by a non-
trivial change of coordinates. While this difficulty shakes the classical construction of statistical mechanics at its foundation, it also enables
us to push the limits of the theory and to address open questions pertaining to the notion of entropy4,5and the applicability of the ergodic
ansatz6,7in a generalized framework.
There are two types of topological constraints: integrable and non-integrable. Here, integrability is defined in the differential geomet-
ric sense of the Frobenius theorem of differential forms.8In essence, the effect of an integrable constraint is to restrict the dynamics to
a Casimir leaf, i.e., a smooth submanifold embedded in the phase space, whereas the region of phase space allowed by a non-integrable
constraint fails to define a smooth surface.9This situation can be visualized in a three dimensional setting. Here, a topological constraint
is represented by a vector field to which the tangent direction of any orbit must be orthogonal. For an integrable constraint, the vec-
tor field defines the normal of a surface, and we, therefore, speak of a foliated phase space. For a non-integrable constraint, there is no
surface because the vector field is locally “knotted” (it has a non-vanishing helicity density). In this case, the phase space is knotted (see
Fig. 1).
Statistical mechanics in the presence of integrable constraints has been formulated successfully. Here, the key point is that the con-
strained dynamics takes the form of a noncanonical Hamiltonian system.9,10The Casimir leaves are identified by solving for the center
(kernel) of the Poisson operator that is associated with the Hamiltonian structure. Then, the Lie–Darboux theorem11–13of differential
geometry assigns a set of canonically conjugated variables that define an invariant volume element on the Casimir leaf. The proper (ther-
modynamically consistent) entropy measure is thus defined with respect to this measure, and self-organization of heterogeneous struc-
tures is explained by the mismatch between the metric tensor of the original unconstrained phase space and that of the foliated phase
space.14,15
While the Lie–Darboux theorem is a local result that holds in a finite number of dimensions, the construction described above can
be generalized to infinite dimensional noncanonical Hamiltonian systems, such as ideal fluids and magnetohydrodynamic plasmas.10,16,17In
this case, the invariant measure is obtained by expanding the phase space variables, which are elements of a Hilbert space, with respect to a
discrete basis of orthogonal functions, e.g., a Fourier basis. Then, the statistical distribution is defined for the coefficients of the expansion,
which represent a countable number of canonically conjugated variables.18,19
The situation is different when the topological constraints are non-integrable. Indeed, it is known that non-integrable constraints destroy
the Hamiltonian structure. More precisely, the antisymmetric operator generating the constrained dynamics fails to satisfy the Jacobi iden-
tity,20implying that the associated bracket, while consistent with conservation of energy, does not define a Poisson algebra.21Several physical
systems possess non-integrable constraints, usually representing special types of rigidity. Examples of this kind of non-Hamiltonian structure
are nonholonomic mechanical systems,22certain charged particle motions in plasmas, such as pure ExB drift dynamics,23the Nosé–Hoover
thermostat equations of molecular dynamics,24,25or the Landau–Lifshitz equation for the magnetization in a ferromagnet.26,27These systems
do not possess, in general, a time-independent invariant measure.28,29Therefore, the construction of statistical mechanics requires a funda-
mentally different approach. Indeed, while ergodicity (the property by which the time spent by a particle with a given energy in an accessible
region of the phase space is proportional to the volume of that region) cannot hold in the presence of an integrable constraint, in the inte-
grable case, the problem can be solved by enforcing the ergodic property on the smaller phase space defined by Casimir leaves. However,
non-integrability does not dictate a reduced phase space, and the applicability of the ergodic hypothesis becomes a major challenge. In this
regard, in Ref. 30, it is shown that if a system subject to non-integrable constraints is perturbed with homogeneous fluctuations, the result-
ing equilibrium distribution function departs from standard Maxwell–Boltzmann statistics. The discrepancy is measured by the field charge,
a quantity that corresponds to the divergence of the Lorentz force in the electromagnetic analogy and that mathematically expresses the
FIG. 1. (a) Foliated phase space: the motion of a point particle is restricted to a smooth surface (Casimir leaf). (b) Knotted phase space: the constraint does not define a
surface. The orbits tend to diverge due to the missing invariant measure.
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departure of the antisymmetric operator from a Beltrami field (in three dimensions, Beltrami fields are vector fields aligned with their own
curl that arise as steady solutions of fluid and magnetofluid equations). The connection between the equilibrium properties of statistical
ensembles with non-integrable constraints under the effect of homogeneous fluctuations and the geometric properties of stationary solutions
of the ideal Euler equations is investigated in Ref. 31.
In this paper, we are concerned with the construction of statistical mechanics in the presence of non-integrable constraints. Our
strategy is to recover a Hamiltonian phase space structure by introducing fictitious degrees of freedom that compensate the phase space
compressibility of the system and to rescale the time variable so that the Jacobi identity is satisfied again. The possibility of reconstruct-
ing an invariant measure by increasing the number of variables was already observed in Ref. 30, while the definition of a proper time to
elevate an antisymmetric operator to a Poisson operator finds its roots in the work of Chaplygin32concerning the rolling of a symmetri-
cal sphere on a horizontal plane and is discussed in the context of the Hamiltonization of nonholonomic systems through reduction by
symmetry.33,34
Here, we show that the “Poissonization” procedure described above always holds in three dimensions. In higher dimensional spaces, the
method works for a specific class of non-Hamiltonian systems spanned by coupled variables that define two dimensional invariant volume
elements. Thanks to the recovered Hamiltonian structure, the standard construction of statistical mechanics is readily applicable. In partic-
ular, the relaxation process driving the system toward thermodynamic equilibrium can now be derived in a systematic fashion,35–37and the
equilibrium distribution function can be calculated by means of an H-theorem.38We find that once projected into the original phase space,
the resulting equilibrium distribution function departs from the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution. The deviation is a function of the helicity
density of the constraint, which measures the knottedness of the phase space. The Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution is recovered in the limit
of vanishing helicity density.
This paper is organized as follows: In Sec. II, we introduce the mathematical notation and the dynamical systems of interest. In Sec. III,
we discuss two examples of non-Hamiltonian systems subject to non-integrable constraints in three dimensions. In Sec. IV, we show how
to assign a Poisson structure to an arbitrary three dimensional non-Hamiltonian system. In Sec. V, we apply the Poissonization procedure
to an example pertaining to plasma physics. In Sec. VI, we calculate the equilibrium distribution function and determine its dependence on
the helicity density of the constraint. The generalization of the theory to higher dimensional spaces is discussed in Sec. VII. Conclusions are
drawn in Sec. VIII.
II. PRELIMINARIES
For the purpose of this paper, we are concerned with a finite number of dimensions n. Let(x1,...,xn)denote a coordinate system in a
domain U⊂Rn. In the following, Einstein’s summation convention on repeated indices is used. Lower indices applied to functions denote
partial derivatives, e.g., Hj=∂H/∂xj, and we assume that all quantities possess the regularity needed for differentiations.
The equations of motion of a system with topological constraints take the form
˙xi=JijHj,i=1,...,n. (1)
Here,Jij=−Jji,i,j=1,...,n, is an antisymmetric matrix (antisymmetric operator) whose entries are functions of the variables xi.His the
Hamiltonian function, which usually represents the energy of the system. The antisymmetry of the operator Jguarantees conservation of
energy,
˙H=HiJijHj=0. (2)
Equation (1) defines a noncanonical Hamiltonian system whenever the antisymmetric operator Jsatisfies the Jacobi identity
JimJjk
m+JjmJki
m+JkmJij
m=0, i,j,k=1,...,n. (3)
Recall that for the case of non-integrable constraints, the Jacobi identity (3) is never satisfied. Hence, the corresponding dynamics is
not Hamiltonian. Conversely, it can be shown that all constraints in a noncanonical Hamiltonian system are integrable (Lie–Darboux
theorem11–13).
Topological constraints are encapsulated in the kernel of the operator J. More precisely, we say that a covector ξ=(ξ1,...,ξn)Tis a
topological constraint whenever
Jijξj=0, i=1,...,n. (4)
Equation (4) implies that the velocity ˙xis always orthogonal to the constraint ξ, regardless of the choice of H,
˙x⋅ξ=JijHjξi=0,∀H. (5)
The covector ξdefines a direction in phase space that is not accessible to the dynamics. Furthermore, this direction does not depend on the
properties of matter (the energy H), but it represents an intrinsic property of the phase space (which is characterized by J).
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Since the number mof topological constraints corresponds to the dimension of the kernel ker (J)of the operator J, we always have
m=n−2r≤n. Here, 2 ris the rank of J, which is always even due to antisymmetry. The constraints (ξ1,...,ξm)are integrable if one can
findmfunctions (C1,...,Cm)whose gradients ∇C=Ci∇xispan ker (J), i.e.,
ker(J)=span{ξ1,...,ξm}=span{∇C1,...,∇Cm}. (6)
The functions Ciare the anticipated Casimir invariants, which define madditional conservation laws,
˙Ci=Ci
jJjkHk=0, i=1,...,m. (7)
The integrability conditions on the constraints ξfor Eq. (6) to hold are provided by the Frobenius theorem.8Since in this paper we are
concerned with non-integrable constraints, these conditions are always violated, meaning that there is no Casimir foliation of the phase space
and the resulting dynamics is not Hamiltonian.
Finally, we remark that while, for physical reasons, our focus is oriented toward the role of constraints in self-organization, the theory
applies to the limiting case m=0 of an empty kernel. Indeed, the mathematical discriminant for the validity of theory is the violation of the
Jacobi identity (3).
III. SYSTEMS WITH NON-INTEGRABLE TOPOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS
In this section, we consider two examples of dynamical systems with non-integrable constraints in R3. Taking Cartesian coordinates
(x1,x2,x3)=(x,y,z), the action of the antisymmetric operator Jon the Hamiltonian Hcan be represented by the cross product with a vector
fieldw,
˙x=J∇H=w×∇H. (8)
Here,w=(wx,wy,wz)T=(J32,J13,J21)T. Now, the Jacobi identity (3) reads
w⋅∇×w=0. (9)
Hence, system (8) is Hamiltonian whenever whas a vanishing helicity density. In the following, we shall denote the helicity density of the
vector field wash=w⋅∇×w.
The topological constraint is given by ξ=w. Indeed,
˙x⋅w=0,∀H, (10)
implying that the velocity ˙xis always orthogonal to the constraining vector field w. The Frobenius integrability condition for the constraint
wis again h=0. Intuitively, this is because the vector field wdefines the normal of a surface C=constant whenever w=λ∇Cfor some
appropriate choice of functions λandCso that h=λ∇C⋅∇λ×∇C=0. The Frobenius theorem guarantees that the functions λandCalways
exist locally, provided that h=0.
It is also useful to elucidate the conditions under which system (8) admits an invariant measure μdV=μdxdydz for any choice of the
Hamiltonian H. In formulas, one must find a non-vanishing function μsuch that
∇⋅(μ˙x)=∇H⋅∇×(μw)=0,∀H. (11)
This condition is satisfied whenever w=μ−1∇νfor some potential ν. For an integrable constraint, μ−1=λandν=C. We, therefore, conclude
that, in three dimensions, the validity of the Jacobi identity, the integrability of the constraint w, and the existence of an invariant measure for
any choice of the Hamiltonian function are locally equivalent. However, note that when n>3, this equivalence does not hold anymore because
the Frobenius integrability condition and the existence of an invariant measure independent of Honly represent the necessary conditions for
the validity of the Jacobi identity. For further details on the cases n≠3, we refer the reader to Ref. 30.
A. The non-Hamiltonian plasma particle
A prototypical example of three dimensional dynamics with a non-integrable constraint is the so called E×Bdrift motion of charged
particles. Consider a charged particle of mass mand charge Zmoving in a static magnetic field Band a static electric field E=−∇ϕ. The
equation of motion is
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m¨x=Z(˙x×B+E). (12)
Suppose that the mass mis sufficiently small so that the left-hand side of Eq. (12) can be neglected. Taking the cross product of both sides
withB, we obtain
˙x/⊙◇⊞=E×B
B2, (13)
where ˙x/⊙◇⊞is the component of the velocity in the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field. We further demand that the particle does not
move along the magnetic field, i.e., ˙x∥=˙x−˙x/⊙◇⊞=0. Then, we obtain the reduced system of equations of motion
˙x=E×B
B2=B
B2×∇ϕ. (14)
Equation (14) has the form of Eq. (8) with w=B/B2andH=ϕ. Furthermore, Eq. (14) is Hamiltonian if and only if the Jacobi identity (9)
is satisfied. In light of the previous discussion, this occurs when one can find two locally defined functions λandCsuch that B=B2λ∇C. An
example is the case in which the magnetic field is a harmonic vector field, i.e., B=∇ξwith∇⋅B=0 so thatλ=B−2andC=ξ. However, the
Jacobi identity does not hold in the presence of a magnetic field with a non-vanishing helicity density because h=B−4B⋅∇× B. Therefore,
E×Bdrift motion (14) is not a Hamiltonian system in general.
Below, we compare two examples that highlight the difference between the Hamiltonian and the non-Hamiltonian dynamical settings.
First, consider the motion of a rigid body with angular momentum xand momenta of inertia Ix,Iy, and Iz. We have
w=x, (15a)
H=1
2(x2
Ix+y2
Iy+z2
Iz), (15b)
This system is Hamiltonian because the Jacobi identity is satisfied: h=x⋅∇× x=0. The constraining vector field wdefines the normal to the
spherical surface x2/2=constant. Hence, C=x2/2 is a Casimir invariant physically representing conservation of total angular momentum.
The equations of motion can be expressed as
˙x=∇x2
2×∇H=yz(1
Iz−1
Iy)∂x+
xz(1
Ix−1
Iz)∂y+xy(1
Iy−1
Ix)∂z.(16)
Here,(∂x,∂y,∂z)denotes the standard vector basis of R3.
Next, consider the E×Bdrift motion of a charged particle with
w=(cosz+ sin z)∂x+(cosz−sinz)∂y, (17a)
H=1
2(x2+y2+z2). (17b)
Note that the magnetic field and the electric field are given by B=w/w2andE=−∇H, respectively. This system is not Hamiltonian because
the Jacobi identity is violated: h=2≠0. The equation of motion is
˙x=(cosz−sinz)z∂x−(cosz+ sin z)z∂y
+[(cosz+ sin z)y−(cosz−sinz)x]∂z.(18)
Figure 2(a) shows the trajectory of the rigid body, and Fig. 2(b) shows the trajectory of the charged particle. Both trajectories lie on the
surface of constant energy H=constant. However, while the orbit of the rigid body is a closed curve resulting from the intersection of the
level sets of energy Hand Casimir invariant C, the charged particle spirals toward a “sink” and delineates an open path characterized by the
non-vanishing divergence of the velocity (18).
This example shows that there is a relationship between the existence of an invariant measure and the Hamiltonian nature of the system.
The absence of an invariant measure may be interpreted as the consequence of missing degrees of freedom that would compensate the
compressibility of the system. This is why we will need to “extend” the system in order to recover a Hamiltonian structure.
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FIG. 2. (a) Numerical integration of Eq. (16). (b) Numerical integration of Eq. (18).
B. The Landau–Lifshitz equation of ferromagnetism
A second example of three dimensional dynamics subject to a non-integrable constraint is the motion of the magnetization xof a
ferromagnetic material as described by the Landau–Lifshitz equation,30,39
˙x=−γx×H+σx×(H×x)
x2. (19)
Here,γis a physical constant, σis the damping parameter, and His the effective magnetic field, which includes any external magnetic field
and the magnetic field caused by the magnetization. The first term of (19) describes the precessional motion of the magnetization around the
effective magnetic field H. The second term of (19) is a damping (dissipative) effect that tends to align the magnetization with the effective
magnetic field H.
Equation (19) conserves the total magnetization H=x2/2, which we identify with the Hamiltonian function. Then, the constraining
vector field whas the expression
w=γH+σ
x2x×H. (20)
In general, the effective magnetic field His a function of the magnetization x. For example, we may choose H=(c, 0,z)T, with cbeing a
constant external magnetic field. One can verify that the corresponding Jacobi identity is violated. Indeed,
h=cγσ
x4[σyz
γ−2cx2−2z4
c+x(x2+y2−3z2)]. (21)
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FIG. 3. Superpositions of solutions of the equation ˙x=w×(∇H+Γ), wherewis given by (20), H=x2/2, and Γis a Gaussian white noise process mimicking fluctuations
in the magnetization of the ferromagnetic material. Observe how the magnetization describes a damped precessional motion around the zaxis, which represents the direction
of easiest magnetization of the ferromagnet.
Figure 3 shows the qualitative evolution of magnetization.
IV. RECONSTRUCTION OF PHASE SPACE
The purpose of this section is to develop a systematic procedure (Poissonization) to “repair” an arbitrary three dimensional antisymmet-
ric operator and obtain an equivalent Hamiltonian system describing the same dynamics. As anticipated in the Introduction, the procedure
consists of two steps: an extension to four dimensions through the introduction of a fictitious degree of freedom sand a time reparameteriza-
tiont→τ. The physical interpretation of the variable sand the proper time τwill be discussed in Sec. V when we apply the procedure to the
E×Bdrift motion of charged particles.
To embed the system in four dimensions n=4 with(x1,x2,x3,x4)=(x,y,z,s), it is convenient to return to the matrix representation J
of the three dimensional antisymmetric operator. The embedding is performed by extending Jto a four dimensional antisymmetric operator
Jin the following way:
J=⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣0−wzwya
wz 0−wxb
−wywx 0 c
−a−b−c0⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦. (22)
Here, the coefficients a,b, and chave to be determined by demanding that the extended equations of motion
˙xi=JijHj,i=1,...,n, (23)
are a Hamiltonian system up to a time reparameterization. Note that the Hamiltonian His unchanged, implying that ∂H/∂x4=0. Therefore,
the new terms a,b, and cdo not alter the original equations of motion, which are given by ˙x1,˙x2, and ˙x3. The time reparameterization is
defined by the differential equation
dτ
dt=r, (24)
where r=r(x1,...,x4)is a non-vanishing function called conformal factor that will be determined when enforcing the Jacobi identity on the
time-reparameterized extended system. In proper time, the equations of motion read
dxi
dτ=r−1JijHj,i=1,...,n. (25)
Now our task is to choose a,b,c, and rso that the antisymmetric operator r−1Jsatisfies the Jacobi identity (3). Suppose that the antisymmetric
matrix with components r−1Jijis invertible with inverse Ωij. Then, the Jacobi identity (3) is equivalent to the condition that
∂Ωij
∂xk+∂Ωjk
∂xi+∂Ωki
∂xj=0, i,j,k=1,...,n. (26)
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Mathematically, Eq. (26) expresses the closure of Ωijwhen intended as a differential two form. The equivalence can be verified by multiplying
each side of the equation by r−3JliJmjJnkand by summing over i,j,k. The inverse matrix can be calculated to be
Ω=r
awx+bwy+cwz⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣0 c−b−wx
−c 0 a−wy
b−a 0−wz
wxwywz 0⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦. (27)
Equation (26) can be satisfied by assuming that
r=awx+bwy+cwz, (28a)
a=∂
∂y(Az+swz)−∂
∂z(Ay+swy), (28b)
b=∂
∂z(Ax+swx)−∂
∂x(Az+swz), (28c)
c=∂
∂x(Ay+swy)−∂
∂y(Ax+swx), (28d)
where A=(Ax,Ay,Az)Tis an arbitrary vector field whose components Ax,Ay, and Azare functions of x,y, and zonly. We conclude
that the antisymmetric operator r−1Jresulting from substitution of (28) is a four dimensional Poisson operator satisfying the Jacobi
identity (3).
The vector field Amust be specified by requiring that the conformal factor rhas a definite sign and that it converges to unity when the
helicity density htends to zero. The first condition ensures that the proper time τis monotonic with respect to changes in time t, while the
second condition implies that proper time τcoincides with twhen the original three dimensional dynamics is a Hamiltonian system. Observe
that, from (28),
r=w⋅∇× (A+sw)=w⋅∇× A+sh. (29)
To enforce the conditions above, we choose Ato be a solution of the first order partial differential equation
w⋅∇× A=1 (30)
and restrict the domain of the fictitious degree of freedom sso that sh≠−1. For example, we may demand that sis a periodic variable,
s∈[0,1
M),M=2 sup
Ω∣h∣. (31)
Note that with this choice,
r=1 +sh≥1
2>0. (32)
We have thus shown that an arbitrary three dimensional non-Hamiltonian system can be transformed to an equivalent four dimensional
Hamiltonian system with a proper time. The effect of the extension to four dimensions is to restore an Hamiltonian independent invariant
measure. Indeed, the extended equations of motion in time tcan be written in vector notation as
˙x=w×∇H, (33a)
˙s=−∇× (A+sw)⋅∇H. (33b)
Hence, the divergence of the vector field V=(˙x,˙y,˙z,˙s)Tis given by
div(V)=∇⋅(w×∇H)−∇×w⋅∇H=0,∀H. (34)
Once the incompressibility is recovered, a Hamiltonian structure can be obtained through a time reparameterization (32) that absorbs the
effect of a non-vanishing helicity density hon the dynamics.
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V. POISSONIZATION of E×BDYNAMICS
Here, we apply the procedure developed in Sec. IV to Poissonize the E×Bdrift motion studied in Sec. III A. This exercise will help us
understand the physical meaning of the new degree of freedom sand the proper time τ.
First, recall that the constraining vector field wis given by Eq. (17a). Furthermore, wis related to the magnetic field Bbyw=B/B2[see
Eq. (14)]. Since w⋅B=1, Eq. (30) can be satisfied by identifying Awith the vector potential associated with the magnetic field, i.e., B=∇×A.
Then, the equation of motion (33b) for shas the expression
˙s=−(B+sB
B2)⋅∇H=−(1√
2+s√
2)∂H
∂ℓ. (35)
Here, we used the fact that ∇×w=wandB2=1/2. Furthermore, we introduced the variable ℓthat measures the length along a field line
and has the tangent vector ∂ℓ=B/B. Next, performing the change of variables
˜v∥=log(1 + 2 s)
m√
2, (36)
we have
md˜v∥
dt=−∂H
∂ℓ. (37)
From this equation, we see that the variable ˜ v∥can be interpreted as a velocity in the direction parallel to the magnetic field B, i.e., ˜v∥=˙ℓ.
Thus, the missing degree of freedom sdescribes a fictitious dynamics along the magnetic field. We remark again that, however, the dynamics
associated with sdoes not correspond to a real orbit in R3because the parallel component of the velocity was removed in the derivation of
Eq. (14).
Since the helicity density takes the value h=2, the conformal factor is
dτ
dt=r=1 + 2 s=e√
2m˜v∥. (38)
Note that dτ/dt=1 when s=˜v∥=0. Recalling that, by hypothesis, the mass of the particle is small, and the exponential on the right-hand side
of (38) can be expanded in powers of√
2m˜v∥,
dτ
dt=1 +√
2m˜v∥+o(2m2˜v2
∥). (39)
Neglecting the second order terms and using ˜ v∥=˙ℓ, one obtains
τ≃t+√
2mℓ. (40)
Hence, the discrepancy between proper time τand time tis proportional to the fictitious length traveled by the particle along the magnetic
field. This shows that we can think of log (1 + 2 s)/√
2 and (τ−t)/√
2mas coupled momentum and position coordinates.
The Poisson operator r−1Jnow has the expression
r−1J=⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣0 02By
1 + 2 sBx
0 0 −2Bx
1 + 2 sBy
−2By
1 + 2 s2Bx
1 + 2 s0 0
−Bx−By 0 0⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦, (41)
with Bx=(cosz+ sin z)/2 and By=(cosz−sinz)/2. In order to write the equations of motion in Hamilton’s canonical form, we must find a
change of coordinates that transforms (41) into a symplectic matrix. This can be accomplished by the transformation
qx=(1 + 2 s)Bx, (42a)
px=−x, (42b)
qy=(1 + 2 s)By, (42c)
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py=−y. (42d)
The transformation above can be derived in a straightforward manner by invoking the exactness of the inverse matrix Ωwhen intended as a
differential two-form. These technical aspects will be discussed in Sec. VII. In terms of new variables, the following relationships hold:
z=arcsin⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣qx−qy√
2(q2x+q2y)⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦, (43a)
s=−1
2+√
q2x+q2y, (43b)
H=1
2⎛
⎜
⎝p2
x+p2
y+ arcsin2⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣qx−qy√
2(q2x+q2y)⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦⎞
⎟
⎠. (43c)
Hamilton’s canonical equations have the expressions
dqx
dτ=∂H
∂px=px, (44a)
dpx
dτ=−∂H
∂qx=−qy
q2x+q2yarcsin⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣qx−qy√
2(q2x+q2y)⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦, (44b)
FIG. 4. Numerical integration of system (44). (a) Evolution of px,qx/τ,py, and qy/τwith respect to the proper time τ. (b) Evolution of s+ 1/2 and zwith respect to the proper
timeτ.
J. Math. Phys. 61, 103304 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0014487 61, 103304-10
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dqy
dτ=∂H
∂py=py, (44c)
dpy
dτ=−∂H
∂qy=qx
q2x+q2yarcsin⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣qx−qy√
2(q2x+q2y)⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦. (44d)
Figure 4 shows a numerical integration of the canonical Hamiltonian system (44). Note that the solution progressively approaches a two
dimensional uniform rectilinear motion. This orbit should be compared with the original orbit in R3[Fig. 2(b)].
Finally, observe that in time t, the equations of motion for the variables px,qx,py, and qytake the form
˙qx=r−1Hpx, (45a)
˙px=−r−1Hqx, (45b)
˙qy=r−1Hpy, (45c)
˙py=−r−1Hqy. (45d)
These equations, which are not Hamiltonian, imply that the “force” acting on the particle is only proportional to the gradient of the Hamil-
tonian with the proportionality factor r−1. Therefore, the same energy gradient produces different forces depending on the position in
space. Such behavior departs from the standard laws of physics and signals the importance of the Jacobi identity in determining the struc-
ture of the equations of motion. This inhomogeneity is also the reason why Hamiltonian equations can be restored by rescaling the time
variable.
VI. STATISTICAL MECHANICS IN KNOTTED PHASE SPACE: THERMODYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM
The purpose of this section is to exploit the reconstructed canonical phase space to derive the distribution function of thermody-
namic equilibrium for an ensemble of particles with equations of motion (8) by following the classical formulation of statistical mechan-
ics. To this end, we must identify the invariant measure of the system. As already shown in Eq. (34), in time t, the preserved volume
element is
dV=dxdydzds . (46)
However, this measure is different from the preserved volume element associated with proper time τ. Indeed, by Liouville’s theorem, the
canonical phase space measure is
dΠ=dpxdqxdpydqy, (47)
where px,qx,py, and qyare the canonical variables obtained by application of the Poissonization procedure (recall that, once a Poisson operator
is obtained, canonical variables can always be constructed locally in accordance with the Lie–Darboux theorem). In general, given two vector
fields dx/dtanddy/dτ, with x=(x1,...,xn)Tandy=(y1,...,yn)Tand such that
∂
∂xi(dxi
dt)=∂
∂yi(∂yi
∂τ)=0, (48)
it can be shown that the Jacobian gof the coordinate change dx1...dxn=gdy1...dynis given by
g=dt
dτ. (49)
Indeed, using (48), we have
∂
∂xi(dxi
dt)=1
g∂
∂yi(gdτ
dtdyi
dτ)
=1
gdyi
dτ∂
∂yi(gdτ
dt)
=1
gd
dτ(gdτ
dt).(50)
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This quantity vanishes when gdτ/dtis constant in proper time τ. By a rescaling of t, we may assume this constant to be unity and therefore
obtain (49) (for the sake of simplicity, we do not discuss the case in which non-integrable constraints and Casimir invariants coexist; in such
a case, both the invariant measure and distribution function will depend on the Casimir invariants, but the derivations are essentially the
same).
Applying this result to the four dimensional case x=(x,y,z,s)Tandy=(px,qx,py,qy)T, we conclude that the Jacobian gof the coordinate
change is
g=dt
dτ=r−1=1
1 +sh. (51)
This formula for the Jacobian can be verified explicitly for the example studied in Sec. V [Eq. (42)].
LetP=P(y) be the distribution function of an ensemble of particles in the canonical phase space with the volume element dΠat ther-
modynamic equilibrium τ→∞. We want to know how the distribution function Pis seen in the coordinates with the volume element dV.
Using Eq. (51), we have
PdΠ=PrdV , (52)
which implies that the distribution function f(x)ondVis related to Pas
f=Pr=P(1 +sh). (53)
From the result above, we see that the discrepancy between Pand fis controlled by the helicity density h. Furthermore, by integrating over
the variable s, we can calculate the shape of the distribution F(x,y,z)in the original coordinates ( x,y,z),
F=∫s1
s0f ds=∫s1
s0Pds+h∫s1
s0Psds . (54)
Here,[s0,s1]is the domain of the variable s. Let us now calculate the form of the distributions at thermodynamic equilibrium. Since dΠis
the preserved volume element of a symplectic manifold spanned by canonical variables, we can exploit the usual formulation of statistical
mechanics and define the differential entropy Σof the distribution function Pas follows:
Σ=−∫ΠPlogP dΠ. (55)
Here, the integral is performed on the whole phase space Π. The total number of particles and the total energy Eof the ensemble are given by
N=∫ΠP dΠandE=∫ΠHP dΠ, respectively. The form of the distribution function at equilibrium is calculated my maximizing the entropy Σ
under the constraints NandEaccording to the variational principle,
δ(Σ−αN−βE)=0. (56)
Here,αandβare the Lagrange multipliers associated with NandE. The result of the variation is
P=1
Ze−βH. (57)
In the above equation, Z=e1+αis the normalization constant. Thus, recalling Eqs. (53) and (54), we arrive at the following formulas for fand
Fat thermodynamic equilibrium:
f=1
Z(1 +sh)e−βH, (58a)
F=s1−s0
Z(1 +s1+s0
2h)e−βH. (58b)
The conclusion is that the thermodynamic equilibrium of a three dimensional ensemble governed by an antisymmetric operator departs from
the standard Boltzmann distribution of homogeneous probability density on constant energy surfaces. The distortion is controlled by the
helicity density h, i.e., by the failure of the Jacobi identity.
As an example, consider an ensemble of magnetized particles moving by E×Bdrift according to Eq. (14). The magnetic field Bis assumed
to be of the form
J. Math. Phys. 61, 103304 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0014487 61, 103304-12
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FIG. 5. Thermal equilibrium F(x,y)byE×Bdrift in the magnetic field (59). The inhomogeneous distribution is caused by the knottedness of the phase space, which is
quantified by the helicity density hof the topological constraint.
B=∂x+(y−sinycosy
2−sinx)∂z. (59)
Note that∇⋅B=0. Recalling that the constraining vector field is w=B/B2, we have
w=∂x+(y−sinycosy
2−sinx)∂z
1 +(y−sinycosy
2−sinx)2(60)
and also
h=sin2y
[1 +(y−sinycosy
2−sinx)2]2. (61)
A typical scenario encountered in magnetized plasmas is quasi-neutrality. In such a situation, the electric potential ϕis, on average, zero.
Therefore, the Hamiltonian of each “massless” particle is itself zero, H=ϕ=0. However, electrostatic fluctuations δϕgenerated by random
interactions among charged particles drive the ensemble toward equilibrium, which according to (58b) is
F=s1−s0
Z⎧⎪⎪⎪⎪⎨⎪⎪⎪⎪⎩1 +(s1+s0)sin2y
2[1 +(y−sinycosy
2−sinx)2]2⎫⎪⎪⎪⎪⎬⎪⎪⎪⎪⎭. (62)
Here, we used Eq. (61). Figure 5 shows a plot of the predicted thermal equilibrium. The shape of the distribution departs from the flat
profile one would expect by a naïve application of the entropy principle in the initial (non-Hamiltonian) coordinates. This discrepancy is a
consequence of the failure of the Jacobi identity, i.e., the knottedness of the phase space.
VII. GENERALIZATION TO HIGHER DIMENSIONS
In this section, we consider the case in which the dimension of the starting space is n>3. The discussion unavoidably requires the wedge
notation of differential geometry, but it provides insight into the mechanism allowing a non-Hamiltonian system to be transformed in a
Hamiltonian one by the procedure developed in this study. This section is therefore not essential to convey the message of this paper and is
given for the interested reader who is familiar with differential geometry.
The wedge product is convenient to represent antisymmetric tensors. Denoting by (∂1,...,∂n)the basis of tangent vectors associated
with a coordinate system (x1,...,xn)in a domain U⊂Rn, and with (dx1,...,dxn)the basis of cotangent vectors for the dual space, the wedge
product on pairs of tangent or cotangent vectors consists of the tensor products
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∂i∧∂j=∂i⊗∂j−∂j⊗∂i, (63a)
dxi∧dxj=dxi⊗dxj−dxj⊗dxi. (63b)
Using this notation, a twice contravariant antisymmetric tensor Jand a twice covariant antisymmetric tensor Ωcan be expressed as
J=1
2Jij∂i∧∂j, (64a)
Ω=1
2Ωijdxi∧dxj. (64b)
The closure condition (26) ensuring that the equations of motion define a Hamiltonian system now reads
dΩ=1
2∂Ωij
∂xkdxi∧dxj∧dxk=0. (65)
Note that, here, the wedge product is used to represent a three times covariant antisymmetric tensor. Equation (27) is equivalent to
Ω=r
awx+bwy+cwz
{[a−s(∂w z
∂y−∂w y
∂z)]dy∧dz
+[b−s(∂w x
∂z−∂w z
∂x)]dz∧dx
+[c−s(∂w y
∂x−∂w x
∂y)]dx∧dy
+d(wxs)∧dx+d(wys)∧dy+d(wzs)∧dz}.(66)
From this expression, it is now clear why by enforcing the conditions of Eq. (28), the two-form Ωsatisfies Eq. (26). Indeed, if we associate
with the constraining vector field wand the vector field Athe differential one forms θandAdefined by
θ=wxdx+wydy+wzdz, (67a)
A=Axdx+Aydy+Azdz, (67b)
one can verify that the two-form Ωbecomes
Ω=d(A+sθ). (68)
It immediately follows that dΩ=0.
Consider again the plasma particle of Sec. III A. In this case, θ=2A=(sinz+ cos z)dx+(cosz−sinz)dyso that
Ω=d[(s+1
2)θ]
=−d{xd[(s+1
2)(cosz+ sin z)]
+yd[(s+1
2)(cosz−sinz)]}
=dpx∧dqx+dpy∧dqy.(69)
From this equation one sees that the canonically conjugated variables are those of Eq. (42).
Suppose that we are given a dynamical system in the form (1), with n>3. By adding the new degrees of freedom, we can always make
the dimension of the system even. Furthermore, as shown in Ref. 30, the extension can be carried out so that the extended system pos-
sesses an invariant measure for any choice of the Hamiltonian function: given an antisymmetric operator J, the extended antisymmetric
operator is
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J=J+xn+1∂Jij
∂xi∂j∧∂n+1, (70)
where xn+1is the new variable. The existence of the Hamiltonian independent invariant measure is expressed by the property
∂Jij
∂xi=0, j=1,...,n+ 1. (71)
If the starting system has an even number of dimensions, but it does not possess an Hamiltonian independent invariant measure, the invari-
ant measure can be recovered by first extending the system so that it has an odd number of dimensions and then by extending it again
according to Eq. (70). Therefore, from this point on, we shall assume that n=2mfor some positive integer m≥2, and that the opera-
torJhas been obtained from an extension such that the volume element dx1∧⋅⋅⋅∧ dx2mis an invariant measure for any choice of the
Hamiltonian H.
Now consider a 2 mdimensional antisymmetric matrix Mwith constant entries Mij=−Mji∈R. By application of an orthogonal
transformation, the matrix Mcan be cast in the block diagonal form
M=m
∑
i=1λi∂i∧∂m+i,λi∈R, (72)
where±iλiare the complex eigenvalues of M. Provided that the antisymmetric operator Jis sufficiently regular, we expect a representation
analogous to (72) to hold upon performing a suitable change of coordinates x=(x1,...,x2m)T→y=(y1,...,y2m)T,
J=m
∑
i=1λi˜∂i∧˜∂m+i, (73)
where ( ˜∂1,...,˜∂2m) is the basis of tangent vectors associated with the new coordinate system. Note that the λi=λi(y)are now functions of y.
IfJadmits an inverse ˜Ω, it, therefore, has the expression
˜Ω=m
∑
i=1λ−1
idym+i∧dyi. (74)
Note that d˜Ω≠0, in general, since the λiare not constants. Hence, the equations of motion generated by Jdo not define a Hamiltonian
system, although they possess an invariant measure. We want to show that if the functions λican be factorized as
λ−1
i=α1...αi−1αi+1...αm, (75)
for some functions αi=αi(yi,ym+i)≠0,i=1,...,m, then the equations of motion
˙xi=JijHj,i=1,..., 2m (76)
can be Poissonized by introducing the time reparameterization
dt=r−1dτ=α1...α2mdτ. (77)
To see this, it is sufficient to show that the two-form Ω=r˜Ω, which represents the inverse of the antisymmetric operator r−1Jarising from
the time reparameterization, is closed. By construction, we have
dΩ=dm
∑
i=1dym+i∧dyi
αi(yi,ym+i)=0. (78)
The class of dynamical systems that admit the factorization (75) can be characterized by the property
∂˙yi
∂yi+∂˙ym+i
∂ym+i=λi(∂2H
∂yi∂ym+i−∂2H
∂ym+i∂yi)=0, (79)
i.e., each pair (yi,ym+i)defines a two dimensional incompressible flow.
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VIII. CONCLUDING REMARKS
In this paper, we investigated the formulation of statistical mechanics for dynamical systems that are governed by non-Hamiltonian
equations of motion due to the presence of non-integrable topological constraints. These systems occur, for example, in plasma physics, fer-
romagnetism, molecular dynamics, and nonholonomic dynamics. We showed that, given a three dimensional non-Hamiltonian system, it is
always possible to construct an equivalent Hamiltonian system by introducing a new fictitious degree of freedom that compensates for the
compressibility of the system and a proper time that absorbs the knottedness of the phase space (the helicity density of the constraining vector
field). This procedure applies to non-Hamiltonian systems in higher dimensions when the antisymmetric operator satisfies the conditions
discussed in Sec. VII. Once the Hamiltonian structure is recovered, the statistical distribution can be defined in the classical way on the invari-
ant measure assigned by Liouville’s theorem. We found that, at thermodynamic equilibrium, the system self-organizes into a heterogeneous
state and that the statistical distribution seen in the original reference system departs from the standard Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution, the
discrepancy being measured by the helicity density of the constraining vector field.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
N.S. was partially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Nos. 18J01729 and 17H01177. The author is grateful to Professor Z. Yoshida for
useful discussion on the statistical mechanics of constrained systems.
DATA AVAILABILITY
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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1.2390668.pdf | Quasistatic nonlinear characteristics of double-reed instruments
André Almeidaa/H20850
IRCAM–Centre Georges Pompidou–CNRS UMR9912, 1 Place Igor Stravinsky, 75004 Paris, France
Christophe Vergezb/H20850
Laboratoire de Mécanique et Acoustique–CNRS UPR7051, 31 Ch. Joseph Aiguier, 13402 Marseille
Cedex 20, France
René Causséc/H20850
IRCAM–Centre Georges Pompidou–CNRS UMR9912, 1 Place Igor Stravinsky, 75004 Paris, France
/H20849Received 15 June 2006; revised 12 October 2006; accepted 15 October 2006 /H20850
This article proposes a characterization of the double reed in quasistatic regimes. The nonlinear
relation between the pressure drop, /H9004p, in the double reed and the volume flow crossing it, q,i s
measured for slow variations of these variables. The volume flow is determined from the pressuredrop in a diaphragm replacing the instrument’s bore. Measurements are compared to otherexperimental results on reed instrument exciters and to physical models, revealing that clarinet,oboe, and bassoon quasistatic behavior relies on similar working principles. Differences in theexperimental results are interpreted in terms of pressure recovery due to the conical diffuser role ofthe downstream part of double-reed mouthpieces /H20849the staple /H20850.© 2007 Acoustical Society of
America. /H20851DOI: 10.1121/1.2390668 /H20852
PACS number /H20849s/H20850: 43.75.Ef /H20851NHF /H20852 Pages: 536–546
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Context
The usual method for studying and simulating the be-
havior of self-sustained instruments is to separate them intotwo functional parts that interact through a set of linked vari-ables: the resonator, typically described by linear acoustics,and the exciter, a nonlinear element. Although this separationmay be artificial because of the difficulty in establishing aprecise boundary between the two systems, it is usually asimplified view that allows one to describe the basic func-tioning principles of the instrument. In reed instruments, forinstance, the resonator is assimilated to an air column insidethe bore, and the exciter to the reed, which acts as a valve.
In the resonator of reed instruments, the relation be-
tween the acoustic variables, pressure /H20849p/H20850and volume flow
/H20849q/H20850, can be described by a linear approximation to the acous-
tic propagation which has no perceptive consequences in
sound simulations /H20851Gilbert et al. /H208492005 /H20850/H20852. On the other hand,
the exciter is necessarily a nonlinear component, so that thecontinuous source of energy supplied by the pressure insidethe musician’s mouth can be transformed into an oscillatingone /H20851Helmholtz /H208491954 /H20850; Fletcher and Rossing /H208491998 /H20850/H20852. The
characterization of the exciter thus requires the knowledge ofthe relation between variables pandqat the reed output /H20849the
coupling region /H20850. In principle this relation is noninstanta-
neous, because of inertial effects in the reed oscillation andthe fluid dynamics. Nevertheless, a first insight /H20849and com-
parison to theoretical models /H20850can be achieved by restricting
the measurement of the characteristics to a case where de-layed dependencies /H20849or, equivalently, time derivatives in the
mathematical description of the exciter /H20850can be neglected.
This paper aims at measuring the relation between the
pressure drop across the reed and volume flow at the double-reed output in a quasistatic case, that is, when the time varia-tions of pandqare sufficiently small so that all time deriva-
tives can be neglected in the nonlinear characteristic relation,and proposing a model to explain the measured relation.
B. Elementary reed model
In quasistatic conditions, a simple model can be used to
describe the reed behavior /H20851Wilson and Beavers /H208491974 /H20850;
Backus /H208491963 /H20850/H20852. The reed opening area /H20849S/H20850is controlled by
the difference between the pressure inside the reed /H20849pr/H20850and
the pressure inside the mouth /H20849pm/H20850. In the simplest model, the
relation between pressure and reed opening area is consid-
ered to be linear and related through a stiffness constant /H20849ks/H20850,
/H20849/H9004p/H20850r=pm−pr=kS/H20849S0−S/H20850. /H208491/H20850
In this formula, S0is the reed opening area at rest, when the
pressure is the same on both sides of the reed. In most in-struments /H20849such as clarinets, oboes, or bassoons /H20850the reed is
said to be blown-closed /H20849orinward-striking /H20850/H20851Helmholtz
/H208491954 /H20850/H20852, because when the mouth pressure /H20849p
m/H20850is increased,
the reed opening area decreases.
The role of the reed is to control and modulate the vol-
ume flow /H20849q/H20850entering the instrument. The Bernoulli theorem
applied between the mouth and the reed duct determines the
velocity of the flow inside the reed /H20849ur/H20850independently of the
reed opening area,a/H20850Electronic mail: andre.almeida@ircam.fr
b/H20850Electronic mail: vergez@lma.cnrs-mrs.fr
c/H20850Electronic mail: rene.causse@ircam.fr
536 J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 121 /H208491/H20850, January 2007 © 2007 Acoustical Society of America 0001-4966/2007/121 /H208491/H20850/536/11/$23.00
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/termspm+1
2/H9267um2=pr+1
2/H9267ur2. /H208492/H20850
In this equation, /H9267is the air density. Usually, the flow veloc-
ityumis neglected inside the mouth, because of volume flow
conservation: inside the mouth the flow is distributed along amuch wider cross section than inside the reed duct.
The volume flow /H20849q/H20850is the integrated flow velocity /H20849u
r/H20850
over a cross section of the reed duct. For the sake of sim-
plicity, the flow velocity is considered to be constant over thewhole opening area, so that q=Su
r. Using Eq. /H208492/H20850, the flow is
given by
q=S/H208812/H20849pm−pr/H20850
/H9267. /H208493/H20850
Combining Eq. /H208493/H20850and Eq. /H208491/H20850, it is possible to find the
relation between the variables that establish the couplingwith the resonator /H20849p
randq/H20850,
q=pM−/H20849/H9004p/H20850r
ks/H9267/H208812/H20849/H9004p/H20850r
/H9267. /H208494/H20850
The relation defined by Eq. /H208494/H20850is plotted in Fig. 1, con-
stituting what will be called in this article the elementarymodel for the reed.
The static reed beating pressure /H20851Dalmont et al. /H208492005 /H20850/H20852
p
M=ksS0/H20849minimum pressure for which the reed channel is
closed /H20850is an alternative parameter to S0, and can be used as
a magnitude for proposing a dimensionless pressure,
p˜=/H20849/H9004p/H20850r/pM. /H208495/H20850
Similarly a magnitude can be found for q, leading to the
definition of the dimensionless volume flow,
q˜=ks
pM3/2/H20881/H9267
2q. /H208496/H20850
Equation /H208494/H20850can then be rewritten in terms of these dimen-
sionless quantities,
q˜=/H208491−p˜/H20850p˜1/2. /H208497/H20850
This formula shows that the shape of the nonlinear char-
acteristic curve of the elementary model is independent ofthe reed and blowing parameters, although the curve isscaled along the pressure pand volume flow qaxis both by
the stiffness k
sand the beating pressure pM=ksS0.
C. Generalization to double reeds
For reed instruments, the quasistatic nonlinear character-
istic curve has been measured in a clarinet mouthpiece/H20851Backus /H208491963 /H20850; Dalmont et al. /H208492003 /H20850/H20852, and the elementary
mathematical model described above can explain the ob-tained curve remarkably well almost until the reed beatingpressure /H20849p
M/H20850.
For double-reed instruments it was not verified that the
same model can be applied. In fact, there are some geometri-cal differences in the flow path that can considerably changethe theoretical relation of Eq. /H208497/H20850. Local minima of the reed
duct cross section may cause the separation of the flow fromthe walls and an additional loss of head of the flow/H20851Wijnands and Hirschberg /H208491995 /H20850/H20852, and in that case the char-
acteristics curve could change from single-valued to multi-valued in a limited pressure range. This kind of change couldhave significant consequences on the reed oscillations.
However, the nonlinear characteristic relation was never
measured before for double reeds, justifying the work that ispresented below.
II. PRINCIPLES OF MEASUREMENT AND PRACTICAL
ISSUES
The characteristic curve requires the synchronized mea-
surement of two quantities: the pressure drop across the reed/H20849/H9004p/H20850
rand the induced volume flow q.
A. Volume flow measurements
One of the main difficulties in the measurement of the
reed characteristics lies in the measurement of the volumeflow. There are instruments which can accurately measurethe flow velocity in an isolated point /H20849LDA, hot-wire probes /H20850
or in a region of a plane /H20849PIV /H20850, but it can be difficult to
calculate the corresponding flow by integrating the velocityfield. In fact, it is difficult to do a sampling of a completecross section of the reed because a large number of pointswould have to be registered. Supposing that the flow is axi-symmetric at the reed output /H20851which is confirmed by experi-
mental results in Almeida /H208492006 /H20850/H20852, the measurement along a
diameter of the reed would be sufficient, but regions close tothe wall are inaccessible.
On the other hand, commercial flow meters usually have
the disadvantage of requiring a direct reading, which wouldhave been impractical for a complete characteristic measure-ment /H20849large number of readings in a short time interval /H20850.
An indirect way of measuring the flow was then pre-
ferred to the above-mentioned methods. It consists of intro-ducing a flow resistance in series with the reed, for which thepressure can be accurately related to the flow runningthrough it /H20849see Fig. 2 /H20850.
The diaphragm method, used successfully by Ollivier
/H208492002 /H20850to measure the nonlinear characteristic of single
reeds, is based on this principle. The resistance is simply aperforated metal disk which covers the reed output.
FIG. 1. A theoretical nonlinear characteristic curve for a reed of dimensions
similar to an oboe reed, given by Eq. /H208494/H20850using pM=20 kPa and ks=5
/H11003109kg m−3s−2.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 121, No. 1, January 2007 Almeida et al. : Quasistatic double-reed characteristics 537
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/termsFor such a resistance, and assuming laminar, inviscid
flow, the pressure drop /H20849/H9004p/H20850d=pr−patmacross the diaphragm
can be approximated by the Bernoulli law, because the flow
velocity at the reed output is neglected when compared to thevelocity inside the diaphragm /H20849S
d/lessmuchSoutput /H20850,
/H20849/H9004p/H20850d=pr−patm=1
2/H9267/H20873q
Sd/H208742
, /H208498/H20850
where qis the flow crossing the diaphragm, Sdthe cross
section of the hole, and /H9267the density of air. In our experi-
ment, pressure patmis the pressure downstream of the dia-
phragm /H20849usually the atmospheric pressure, because the
flow opens directly into free air /H20850. The volume flow qis
then determined using a single pressure measurement pr.
B. Practical issues and solutions
1. Issues
The realization of the characteristic measurement ex-
periments encountered two main problems.
a. Diaphragm reduces the range of /H20849/H9004p/H20850rfor which the
measurement is possible . The addition of a resistance to the
air flow circuit of the reed changes the overall nonlinearcharacteristic of the reed plus diaphragm system /H20851corre-
sponding to /H20849/H9004p/H20850
sin Fig. 2 and to the dashed line in Fig. 3 /H20852.
The solid line plots the flow against /H20849/H9004p/H20850r, the pressure dropneeded to plot the nonlinear characteristics. When the resis-
tance is increased, the maximum value of the system’s char-acteristic is displaced towards higher pressures /H20851Wijnands
and Hirschberg /H208491995 /H20850/H20852, whereas the static beating pressure
/H20849p
M/H20850value does not change /H20851because when the reed closes
there is no flow and the pressure drop in the diaphragm
/H20849/H20849/H9004p/H20850d/H20850is zero /H20852.
Therefore, if the diaphragm is too small /H20849i.e., the resis-
tance is too high /H20850, part of the decreasing region /H20849B’C/H20850of the
system’s characteristics becomes vertical, or even multival-
ued, so that there is a quick transition between two distantflow values, preventing the measurement of this part of thecharacteristic curve /H20851Dalmont et al. /H208492003 /H20850/H20852as illustrated in
Fig. 3. A critical diaphragm size /H20849S
d,crit=0.58 S0/H20850can be found
below which the characteristic curve becomes multivalued
/H20849see the Appendix /H20850.
b. Reed auto-oscillations . Auto-oscillations have to be
prevented here to stay consistent with the quasistatic mea-surement /H20849slow variations of pressure and flow /H20850. This proved
to be difficult to achieve in practice. In fact, auto-oscillationsbecome possible when the reed ceases to act as a passiveresistance /H20849a positive
/H11509q//H11509p, which absorbs energy from the
standing wave inside the reed channel /H20850to become an active
supply of energy /H20849/H11509q//H11509p/H110210/H20850. All real acoustic resonators are
slightly resistive /H20849the input admittance Yinhas a positive real
part /H20850. This can compensate in part the negative resistance of
the reed in its active region, but only below a threshold pres-sure, where the slope of the characteristic curve is smallerthan the real part of Y
infor the resonator as shown by Debut
and Kergomard /H208492004 /H20850.
One way to avoid auto-oscillations is thus to increase the
real part of Yin, which is the acoustic resistance of the reso-
nator. It is known that an orifice in an acoustical duct with asteady flow works as an acoustic resistance /H20851Durrieu et al.
/H208492001 /H20850/H20852, so that if the diaphragm used to measure the flow
/H20849see Sec. II A /H20850is correctly dimensioned, the acoustic admit-
tance seen by the reed Y
incan become sufficiently resistive to
avoid oscillations.
2. Solutions proposed to address these issues
a. Size of the diaphragm . The volume flow is determined
from the pressure drop across the diaphragm placed down-stream of the reed. In practice, there is a trade-off that deter-mines the ideal size of the diaphragm. If it is too wide, thepressure drop is too small to be measured accurately, andreed oscillations are likely to occur. If the diaphragm is toosmall, the system-wide characteristic can become too steep,making part of the /H20849/H20849/H9004p/H20850
r/H20850range inaccessible.
The ideal diaphragm cross section is then found empiri-
cally, by trying out several resistance values until one com-plete measurement can be done without oscillations or sud-den closings of the reed. The optimal diaphragm diameter issought using a medical flow regulator with continuously ad-justable cross section as a replacement for the diaphragm.
b. Finer control of the mouth pressure p
m. During the
attempts to find an optimal diaphragm, it was found thatsudden closures were correlated to sudden increases in themouth pressure. A part of the problem is that the mouthpressure depends both on the reducer setting and on the
FIG. 2. /H20849Color online /H20850Use of a diaphragm to measure flow and pressure
difference in the reed. Labeled rectangles correspond to the pressure probesused in the measurement.
FIG. 3. Comparison of the theoretical reed characteristics /H20849solid line /H20850with
the model of the overall characteristics of the reed associated with a dia-phragm /H20849dashed /H20850—mathematical models, based on the Bernoulli theorem:
Based on Wijnands and Hirschberg /H208491995 /H20850.
538 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 121, No. 1, January 2007 Almeida et al. : Quasistatic double-reed characteristics
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/termsdownstream resistance. By introducing a leak upstream of
the experimental apparatus /H20849thus not altering the experi-
ment /H20850, it is possible to improve measurements in the decreas-
ing region of the characteristic /H20849BC/H20850, at least when the
system-wide characteristic is not multivalued /H20849see Sec.
I IB1a /H20850.
c. Increase the reed mass . One other way to reduce the
oscillations is thus to prevent the appearance of instabilities,or to reduce their effects. An increase in the reed dampingwould certainly be a good method to avoid oscillations, be-cause it cancels out the active role of the reed /H20849which can be
seen as a negative damping /H20850, Debut /H208492004 /H20850.
It is difficult to increase the damping of the reed without
altering its opening or stiffness properties. The simplest wayfound to prevent reed oscillations was thus an increase in thereed mass.
This mass increase was implemented by attaching small
masses of Blu-Tack /H20849a plastic sticking material usually used
to stick paper to a wall /H20850to one or both blades of the reed
/H20849Fig. 4 /H20850. During measurements on previously soaked reeds it
was difficult to keep the masses attached to the reed, so thatan additional portion of Blu-Tack is used to connect the two
masses together, wrapping around the reed. This wrapping isnot expected to have a great effect on the measured elasticproperties, because it does not pull the masses together; itsobjective is to avoid the main masses from falling due to theeffect of gravity. A comparison of the results using differentmasses showed that their effect on the quasistatic character-istics can be neglected /H20849effects are weaker than variations for
experiments in the same reed /H20850/H20851Almeida /H208492006 /H20850/H20852.C. Experimental setup and calibrations
The experimental device is shown in Fig. 5. An artificial
mouth /H20851Almeida et al. /H208492004 /H20850/H20852was used as a blowing mecha-
nism and support for the reed. The window in front of thereed allows the capture of frontal pictures of the reed open-ing. Artificial lips, allowing adjustment of the initial openingarea of the reed, were not used here, to avoid modificationsin some of the elastic properties of the reed, possibly in adifferent way from what happens with real lips.
As stated before, the plot of the characteristic curve re-
quires two coordinated measurements: the pressure differ-ence /H20849/H9004p/H20850
racross the reed and the induced volume flow q,
determined from the presure drop /H20849/H9004p/H20850dacross a calibrated
diaphragm /H20849Sec. II A /H20850.
In practice thus, the experiment requires two pressure
measurements pmandpr, as shown in Fig. 5.
1. Pressure measurements
The pressure is measured in the mouth and in the reed
using Honeywell SCX series, silicon-membrane differentialpressure sensors whose range is from −50 to 50 kPa.
These sensors are not mounted directly on the measure-
ment points, but one of the terminals in each sensor is con-nected to the measurement point using a short flexible tube/H20849about 20 cm in length /H20850. Therefore, one tube opens in the
inside wall of the artificial mouth, 4 cm upstream from thereed, and the other tube crosses the rubber socket attachingthe diaphragm to the reed output. The use of these tubes doesnot influence the measured pressures as long as their varia-tions are slow.
The signal from these sensors is amplified before enter-
ing the digital acquisition card. The gain is adjusted for eachtype of reed. The system consisting of the sensor connectedto the amplifier is calibrated as a whole in order to find thevoltage at the amplifier output corresponding to each pres-sure difference in the probe terminals: the stable pressuredrop applied to the probe is also measured using a digitalmanometer connected to the same volumes, and compared tothe probe tension read using a digital voltmeter. Voltage isfound to vary linearly with the applied pressure within themeasuring range of the sensor.
FIG. 4. /H20849Color online /H20850Front view of the reed /H20849sketch /H20850with attached masses,
at left in dry conditions, at right in soaked conditions /H20849to prevent the masses
from slipping /H20850.
FIG. 5. /H20849Color online /H20850Device used for
characteristics measurements.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 121, No. 1, January 2007 Almeida et al. : Quasistatic double-reed characteristics 539
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/terms2. Diaphragm calibration
The curve relating volume flow qto the pressure differ-
ence through diaphragms /H20849/H9004p/H20850dcan be approximated by the
Bernoulli theorem. In fact, diaphragms are constructed so as
to minimize friction effects /H20849by reducing the length of the
diaphragm channel /H20850and jet contraction—the upstream edges
are smoothed by chamfering at 45° /H20849Fig. 6 /H20850. The chamfer
height /H20849c/H20850is approximately 0.5 mm. The diaphragm channel
is 3 mm long /H20849L/H20850.
Nevertheless, this ideal characteristics was checked in
stationary conditions for each diaphragm /H20849see Fig. 7 /H20850using a
gas volume meter, which would not be usable for variablevolume flows. It was found that the effective cross section isslightly smaller than the actual cross section /H20849about 10% /H20850,
which is probably due to some Vena Contracta effect in the
entrance of the diaphragm. Moreover, above a given pressuredrop the volume flow increase is lower than what is pre-dicted by Bernoulli’s theorem /H20849corresponding to a lower ex-
ponent than 1/2 predicted by Bernoulli /H20850. This difference is
probably due to turbulence generated for high Reynoldsnumbers. In Fig. 7 the dashed line corresponding to the criti-cal value of the Reynolds number /H20849Re
c=ud//H9263=2000 /H20850is
shown. It is calculated using the following formulas for u
/H20849the average flow velocity in the diaphragm /H20850andd/H20849the dia-
phragm diameter /H20850:d=/H208732
/H9266q
u/H208741/2
/H208499/H20850
u=/H208732/H20849/H9004p/H20850d
/H9267/H208741/2
, /H2084910/H20850
so that the constant Reynolds relation is given by
Q1/2/H9004p1/4=R e c/H9263/H20873/H9266
2/H208741/2/H20873/H9267
2/H208741/4
, /H2084911/H20850
where the right-hand side should be a constant based on the
diaphragm geometry.
Since a suitable model was not found for the data dis-
played in Fig. 7, we chose to interpolate the experimentalcalibrations in order to find the flow corresponding to eachpressure drop in the diaphragm. Linear interpolation wasused in the /H20849p,q
2/H20850space.
3. Typical run
In a typical run, the mouth pressure pmis balanced with
the atmospheric pressure in the room at the beginning of theexperiment. Both p
mand prare recorded in the computer
through a digital acquisition device at a sampling rate of4000 Hz. Pressure p
mis increased until slightly above the
pressure at which the reed closes, left for some secondsabove this value, and then decreased back to the atmosphericpressure. The whole procedure lasts for about 3 min, and isdepicted in Fig. 8.
D. Double reeds used in this study and operating
conditions
Among the great variety of double reeds that are used in
musical instruments, we chose as a first target for these mea-surements a natural cane oboe reed fabricated using standardprocedures /H20849byGlotin /H20850, and sold to the oboist /H20849usually a
beginner oboist /H20850as a final product /H20849i.e., ready to be played /H20850.
The choice of a ready-to-use cane reed was mainly re-
tained because it can be considered as an average reed. Thisavoids considering a particular scraping technique amongmany used by musicians and reed makers. Of course, this
FIG. 6. Detail of the diaphragm dimensions.
FIG. 7. Calibration of diaphragms used in characteristic measurements /H20849dots
are experimental data and lines are Bernoulli predictions using the measureddiaphragm diameters /H20850. The dashed black line represents the pressure/flow
relation corresponding to the expected transition between laminar and tur-bulent flows /H20849Re
c=2000 /H20850, parametrized by the diaphragm diameter d.
FIG. 8. Time variation of the mouth pressure /H20849pm/H20850and the pressure inside
the reed /H20849pr/H20850during a successful characteristics measurement.
540 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 121, No. 1, January 2007 Almeida et al. : Quasistatic double-reed characteristics
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/termsdoes not greatly facilitate the task of the reed measurement,
because natural reeds are very sensitive to environment con-ditions, age, or time of usage.
Other reeds were also tested, as a term of comparison
with the natural reeds used in most of the experiments. How-ever, none of these reeds was produced by a professionaloboist or reed maker, although it would be an interestingproject to investigate the variations in reeds produced bydifferent professionals.
To conclude, the results presented in the next section
may depend to a certain extent on the reed chosen for theexperiments, and a larger sample of reeds embracing the bigdiversity of scraping techniques needs to be tested beforeclaiming for the generality of the results that will be pre-sented.
Another remark has to be made on the conditions during
the experiments. The kind of reeds used in most experimentsare always blown with highly moisturized air. In fact, in reallife, reeds are often soaked before they are used, and con-stantly maintained wet by saliva and water vapor condensa-tion. These conditions were sought throughout most of theexperiments, although the sensitivity of the reed to environ-mental conditions was also investigated. For instance, theadded masses were found to have no practical influence onthe nonlinear characteristics, whereas the humidity increasesthe hysteresis in the complete measurement cycle /H20849increasing
followed by decreasing pressures /H20850, while reducing the reed
opening at rest /H20851Almeida /H208492006 /H20850/H20852.
In our measurements, humidification is achieved by let-
ting the air flow through a plastic bottle half-filled with hotwater at 40° /H20849see Fig. 5 /H20850, recovering it from the top. Air
arriving in the artificial mouth has a lower temperature, be-cause its temperature is approximately 10° when entering thebottle. This causes the temperature and humidity to decreasegradually along the experiments. Future measurementsshould include a thermostat for the water temperature in or-der to ensure stable humidification.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Typical pressure vs flow characteristics
Using the formula of Eq. /H208498/H20850, and the calibrations carried
out for the diaphragm used in the measurement, the volumeflow /H20849q/H20850is determined from the pressure inside the reed /H20849p
r/H20850.
The pressure drop in the reed corresponds to the difference
between the mouth and reed pressures /H20849/H20849/H9004p/H20850r=pm−pr/H20850. Vol-
ume flow is then plotted against the pressure difference
/H20849/H20849/H9004p/H20850r/H20850, yielding a curve shown in Fig. 9.
In this figure, the flow is seen to increase until a certain
maximum value /H20849/H20849/H9004p/H20850r/H112296 kPa /H20850. When the pressure is in-
creased further, flow decreases due to the closing of the reed.
Instead of completely vanishing for /H20849/H9004p/H20850r=pM, as predicted
by the elementary model shown in Sec. I B, the volume flow
first stabilizes at a certain minimum value and then slightlyincreases when the pressure is increased further, indicatingthat it is very hard to completely close the reed.
The flow remaining after the two blades are in contact
suggests that, despite the closed appearance of the doublereed, some narrow channels remaining between the twoblades are impossible to close, behaving like rigid capillary
ducts, which is corroborated by the slight increase in theresidual flow for high pressures. Since the logarthmic plot ofthe nonlinear characteristics /H20849Fig. 10 /H20850shows a 1/2 power
dependence on the residual volume flow, this suggests thatthe residual flow is controlled by inertia rather than viscosity.
When reducing the pressure back to zero, the reed fol-
lows a different path in the p/qspace than the path for in-
creasing pressures. This hysteresis is due to memory effectsof the reed material which have been investigated experi-mentally for single-reed /H20851Dalmont et al. /H208492003 /H20850/H20852and double-
reed instruments /H20851Almeida et al. /H208492006 /H20850/H20852.
B. Comparison with other instruments
1. Bassoon
Since oboes are not the only double-reed instruments, it
is interesting to compare the nonlinear characteristic curvesfrom different instruments. The bassoon is also played usinga double reed, but its dimensions are different: its opening
FIG. 9. A typical result for the measurement of the volume flow vs pressure
characteristic of a natural cane oboe reed.
FIG. 10. Double-logarithmic plot of the characteristic curve of Fig. 9 toshow the 1/2 power dependence when the reed is almost shut. Inset showsthe whole range of data, from which the part corresponding to the closedreed is magnified in the main graph.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 121, No. 1, January 2007 Almeida et al. : Quasistatic double-reed characteristics 541
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/termsarea at rest is typically 7 mm2/H20849against around 2 mm2for the
oboe /H20850and the cross-section profile varies slightly from oboe
reeds.
Figure 11 compares two characteristic curves for natural
cane oboe and bassoon reeds. Both were measured undersimilar experimental conditions, as far as possible. The reedwas introduced dry in the artificial mouth, but the suppliedair is moisturized at nearly 100% humidity, and masses wereadded to both reeds to prevent auto-oscillations. The dia-phragms used in each measurement are different, however,and this is because the opening area of the reed at rest ismuch larger in the case of the bassoon, so that a smallerresistance /H20849a larger diaphragm /H20850is needed to avoid the reed
closing suddenly in the decreasing side of the characteristiccurve /H20851see Sec. II C and Eq. /H20849A10 /H20850/H20852. This should not have
any consequences in the measured characteristic curve.
In the qaxis, the bassoon reed reaches higher values,
and this is probably a consequence of its larger opening areaat rest, although the surface stiffness is likely to change aswell from the oboe to the bassoon reed. In the paxis, the
bassoon reed extends over a smaller range of pressures sothat the reed beating pressure is about 17 kPa in the case ofthe bassoon reed, whereas it is near 33 kPa for the oboe reed.
Apart from these scaling considerations, the shapes of
the curves are similar and this can be better observed if flowand pressure are normalized using the maximum flow pointof each curve /H20849Fig. 12 /H20850.
2. Clarinet
The excitation mechanism of clarinets and saxophones
share the same principle of functioning with double reeds.However, there are several geometric and mechanical differ-ences between single reeds and double reeds. For instance,flow in a clarinet mouthpiece encounters an abrupt expansionafter the first 2 or 3 mm of the channel between the reed andthe rigid mouthpiece, and the single reed is subject to fewermechanical constraints than any double reed. These differ-ences suggest that the characteristic curve of single-reed in-struments might present some qualitative differences withrespect to the double reed /H20851Vergez et al. /H208492003 /H20850./H20852The nonlinear characteristic curve of clarinet mouth-
pieces displayed in Figs. 11 and 12 was measured by Dal-mont et al. /H208492003 /H20850using similar methods as the ones we used
for the double reed. A comparison between the curves forboth kinds of exciters /H20849in Fig. 11 /H20850shows that the overall
behavior of the excitation mechanism is similar in bothcases. Similarly to when comparing oboe to bassoon reeds,the scalings of the characteristic curves of single reeds aredifferent from those of oboe reeds, although closer to thoseof the bassoon. This is probably a question of the dimensionsof the opening area.
A different issue is the relation between reference pres-
sure values in the curve /H20849shown in the adimensionalized rep-
resentation of Fig. 12 /H20850. As predicted by the elementary model
described in Sec. I B, in the single reed the pressure at maxi-mum flow is about 1/3 of the beating pressure of the reed,whereas in double-reed measurements, the relation seems tobe closer to 1/4. This deviation from the model is shown inSec. IV to be linked with the diffuser effect of the conicalstaple in double reeds.
Figure 12 also shows that in the clarinet mouthpiece
used by Dalmont et al. /H208492003 /H20850the hysteresis is relatively less
important than in both kinds of double reeds. In fact,whereas the measurements for double reeds were performedin wet conditions, the PlastiCover® reed used for the clarinetwas especially chosen because of its smaller sensitivity toenvironment conditions.
IV. ANALYSIS
A. Comparison with the elementary model
The measured nonlinear characteristic curve of Fig. 9
can be compared to the model described in Sec. I B. In thismodel, two parameters /H20849k
sandS0/H20850control the scaling of the
curve along the pandqaxis. They are used to adjust two key
points in the theoretical curve to the experimental one: thereed beating pressure p
Mand the maximum volume flow
qmax.
Once qmaxis determined through a direct reading, the
stiffness ksis calculated using the following relation:
FIG. 11. Comparison of the characteristic curves of different reed exciters
for different instruments. Clarinet data were obtained by Dalmont et al.
/H208492003 /H20850for a PlastiCover® reed. Oboe and bassoon reeds are blown using
moisturized air.
FIG. 12. Data from Fig. 11, normalized along qby the maximum flow for
increasing pressures, and along pby the corresponding pressure.
542 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 121, No. 1, January 2007 Almeida et al. : Quasistatic double-reed characteristics
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/termsks=qmax−1/H208732
3pM/H208743/2
/H9267−1/2. /H2084912/H20850
This allows adjustment of a theoretical characteristic curve
/H20851corresponding to the elementary model of Eq. /H208494/H20850/H20852to each
of the branches of the measured characteristic curve, for in-creasing and decreasing pressures /H20849Fig. 13 /H20850.
When compared to the elementary model of Sec. I B, the
characteristic curve associated with double reeds shows adeviation of the pressure at which the flow reaches its maxi-mum value. In fact, it can be easily shown that for the el-ementary model this value is 1/3 of the reed beating pressure
p
M, which is also verified in the clarinet /H20849Sec. III B 2 /H20850.I nt h e
measured curves however, this value is usually situated be-tween 1/4 p
Mand 1/5 pM. Nevertheless, the shapes of the
curves are qualitatively similar to the theoretical ones.
B. Conical diffuser
The former observations about the displacement of the
maximum value can be analyzed in terms of the pressurerecoveries due to flow decelerations inside the reed duct.Variations in the flow velocity are induced by the increasingcross section of the reed towards the reed output /H20849Fig. 14 /H20850.
This can be understood simply by considering energy andmass conservation between two different sections of thereed,
p
in+1
2/H9267/H20873q
Sin/H208742
=pout+1
2/H9267/H20873q
Sout/H208742
, /H2084913/H20850
where qis the total volume flow that can be calculated either
at the input or the output of the conical diffuser by integrat-ing the flow velocity over the cross section S
inorSout, re-
spectively.
In practice, however, energy is not expected to be com-
pletely conserved along the flow because of its turbulent na-ture. In fact, for instance at the reed output /H20849diameter d/H20850, the
Reynolds number of the flow /H20851Re=ud/
/H9263=4/H20849q//H9266d/H9263/H20850/H20852can be
estimated using data from Fig. 9 to reach a maximum value
of 5000. Given that this number is inversely proportional tothe diameter of the duct d, the Reynolds number increases
upstream, inside the reed duct, so that the flow is expected tobe turbulent also for lower volume flows.
For turbulent flows, no theoretical model can be applied
to calculate the pressure recovery due to the tapering of thereed duct. However, phenomenological models are availablein engineering literature, where similar duct geometries areknown as “conical diffusers.” Unlike in clarinet mouth-pieces, where the sudden expansion of the profile is likely tocause a turbulent mixing without pressure recovery /H20851Hirsch-
berg /H208491995 /H20850/H20852, this effect must be considered in conical dif-
fusers. The pressure recovery is usually quantified in termsof a recovery coefficient C
pstating the relation between the
pressure difference between both ends of the diffuser and theideal pressure recovery which would be achieved if the flowwas stopped without losses,
C
P=pout−pin
1
2/H9267uin2. /H2084914/H20850
CPvalues range from 0 /H20849no recovery /H20850to 1 /H20849complete recov-
ery, never achieved in practice /H20850.
According to Eq. /H2084914/H20850, pressure recovery is proportional
to the square of the flow velocity at the entrance of the coni-cal diffuser, and consequently to the squared volume flowinside the reed. The overall pressure difference across thereed /H20849p
m−pout/H20850is deduced from the corresponding pressure
difference without pressure recovery /H20849pm−pin/H20850according to
the formula
/H20849pm−pout/H20850=/H20849pm−pin/H20850−/H9251q2, /H2084915/H20850
where /H9251=1
2/H9267/H20849Cp/Sin2/H20850is a constant. This explains why the
curve q=f/H20849pm−pout/H20850in Fig. 13 is more shifted to the left
compared to the curve q=f/H20849pm−pin/H20850at the top, where qis
higher.
FIG. 13. Comparison of the experimental nonlinear characteristics curve
with the elementary model shown in Fig. 1. Two models are fitted, forincreasing /H20849p
M=35 kPa, ks=1.04 /H110031010kg m−3s−2/H20850and decreasing /H20849pM
=27 kPa, ks=8.86 /H11003109kg m−3s−2/H20850mouth pressures.
FIG. 14. /H20849Color online /H20850Cross-section profiles /H20849axis and area /H20850of an oboe
reed, measured on a mold of the reed channel, and indexes used in Sec.IV B: mouth, constriction, and reed output.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 121, No. 1, January 2007 Almeida et al. : Quasistatic double-reed characteristics 543
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/terms1. Reed model with pressure recovery
In order to take into account the pressure recovery be-
fore the reed output, the flow is divided into two sections, theupstream, until the constriction at 28 mm /H20849index cin Fig. 14 /H20850
and the conical diffuser part from the constriction until thereed output. In the upstream section, no pressure recovery isconsidered, so that the flow velocity can be calculated usingthe pressure difference between the mouth and this pointusing a Bernoulli model, as in Eq. /H208493/H20850, but replacing p
rwith
pc,
q=S/H208812/H20849pm−pc/H20850
/H9267. /H2084916/H20850
Similarly, the reed opening is calculated using the same
pressure difference,
/H20849/H9004p/H20850c=pm−pc=kS/H20849S0−S/H20850. /H2084917/H20850
The total pressure difference used to plot the character-
istic curve, however, is different, because the recovered pres-sure has to be added to /H20849/H9004p/H20850
c,
pm−pr=/H20849/H9004p/H20850c−Cp1
2/H9267/H20873q
Sc/H208742
, /H2084918/H20850
where Scis the reed duct cross section at the diffuser input,
i.e., at the constriction, which is found from Fig. 14, Sc=4
/H1100310−6m2.
Using these equations, the modified model can be fitted
to the experimental data. In Fig. 15, the same parameters ks
andS0were used as in Fig. 13, leaving only Cpas a free
parameter for the fitting. Figure 15 was obtained for a valueofC
p=0.8. This value can be compared to typical values of
pressure recovery coefficients found in industrial machines/H20851Azad /H208491996 /H20850/H20852.
In engineering literature, C
Pis found to depend mostly
on the ratio between output and input cross sections /H20849AR
=Sout/Sin/H20850and the diffuser length to initial diameter ratio
/H20849L/din/H20850/H20851White /H208492001 /H20850/H20852. The tapering angle /H9258influences the
growth of the boundary layers, so that above a critical angle/H20849/H9258=8° /H20850the flow is known to detach from the diffuser walls,
considerably lowering the recovered pressure. An in-depth
study of turbulent flow in conical diffusers can be found inthe literature /H20851Azad /H208491996 /H20850/H20852, usually for diffusers with much
larger dimensions than the ones found in the double reed.
The geometry of the conical diffuser studied in Azad
/H208491996 /H20850can be compared to the one studied in our work: the
cross section is circular and the tapering angle
/H9258=3.94° is
not very far from the tapering angle of the reed staple /H9258
=5.2° /H20851in particular, both are situated in regions of similar
flow regimes, Kilne and Abbott /H208491962 /H20850, as a function of the
already mentioned ARandL/din/H20852. Reynolds numbers of his
flows /H20849Re=6.9 /H11003104/H20850are also close to the maximum ones
found at the staple input /H20849Re/H11229104/H20850. The length to input di-
ameter ratio of the reed staple L/d=20 is bigger than that
found in Azad /H208491996 /H20850; however, the pressure recovery coef-
ficient can be extrapolated from his data to find the valueC
P/H112290.8 /H20851Fig. 2 in Azad /H208491996 /H20850/H20852, or a slightly smaller value
ofCP/H112290.7 based on Fig. 6.28b in White /H208492001 /H20850.
V. CONCLUSION
The quasistatic nonlinear characteristics were measured
for double reeds using a similar device as the one used forsingle-reed mouthpieces by Dalmont et al. /H208492003 /H20850. The ob-
tained curves are close to the ones found for single reeds, andin particular no evidence of multivalued flows for a samepressure was found, as was suggested by theoretical consid-erations made by Wijnands and Hirschberg /H208491995 /H20850or Vergez
et al. /H208492003 /H20850.
However, double-reed characteristic curves present sub-
stantial quantitative differences for high volume flows whencompared to elementary models for the reed. These differ-ences can be explained using a model of pressure recovery inthe conical staple, proportional to the square of the inputflow velocity.
In Vergez et al. /H208492003 /H20850a similar model had already been
considered with the pressure difference between the jet andthe output of the reed depending on the square of the volumeflow q/H20851Eq. 15, p. 969 in Vergez et al. /H208492003 /H20850/H20852,
p
m=pj+1
2/H9267vj2/H2084919/H20850
pj=pr+1
2/H9267/H90232
Sraq2, /H2084920/H20850
with Srathe cross section of the double reed where the jet
reattaches. However, through theoretical considerations, thetypical values /H9023were estimated to be positive /H20849would cor-
respond to a negative C
p/H20850. The result was a nonlinear char-
acteristic q=f/H20849pm−pout/H20850increasingly shifted to the right com-
pared to the curve q=f/H20849pm−pin/H20850asqincreases.
Based on the experimental results presented in the
present paper, it is now possible to explain why the underly-ing conjectures were wrong. In fact, our estimation wasbased on a jet contraction factor
/H9251=0.8, whereas our recent
experiments have revealed that no jet contraction occurs/H20851Almeida /H208492006 /H20850/H20852. Consequently, in Eq. 16 of Vergez et al.
/H208492003 /H20850head losses were the most important terms leading to
FIG. 15. Comparison of the experimental nonlinear characteristics curve
with a reed model with pressure recovery in the final part of the duct. Fittedk
sandS0are the same as in Fig. 13 and different for increasing and decreas-
ing mouth pressures. In both cases the value Cp=0.8 was used.
544 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 121, No. 1, January 2007 Almeida et al. : Quasistatic double-reed characteristics
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/termsa positive /H9023. On the other hand imposing /H9251=1 would mean
Sj=Srain Eq. 16 of Vergez et al. /H208492003 /H20850, leading to /H9023=−1
+/H20849Sra/Sr/H208502+/H9023losses. Given that /H20849Sra/Sr/H208502/H112294/H1100310−2, a nega-
tive/H9023, i.e., a positive Cp, is expected.
It is worth noting that direct application of the measured
characteristic curves to the modeling of the complete oboe isnot that obvious. Indeed, the assumption that the mouthpieceas a whole /H20849reed plus staple /H20850can be modeled as a nonlinear
element with characteristics given by the above experimentwould be valid if the size of the mouthpiece was negligiblewith respect to a typical wavelength. Given the 7 cm of themouthpiece and the several tens of centimeters of a typicalwavelength, this is questionable. Should the staple be con-sidered as part of the resonator? In that case, the separationbetween the exciter and the resonator would reveal a longerresonator and an exciter without pressure recovery. Thiscould be investigated through numerical simulations by in-troducing the pressure recovery coefficient /H20849C
P/H20850as a free
parameter.
Moreover, the underlying assumption of the models is
that nonstationary effects are negligible /H20849all flow models are
quasistatic /H20850. Some clues indicate that this could also be put
into question.
/H20849i/H20850 First of all, experimental observations of the flow at
the output of the staple /H20851through hot-wire measure-
ments, Almeida /H208492006 /H20850/H20852revealed significant differ-
ences in the flow patterns when considering static andauto-oscillating reeds.
/H20849ii/H20850Moreover, nondimensional analysis revealed Strouhal
numbers much larger than for simple reed instruments/H20851Vergez et al. /H208492003 /H20850, Almeida /H208492006 /H20850/H20852.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank J.-P. Dalmont and J.
Gilbert for experimental data on the clarinet reed character-istics and fruitful discussions and suggestions about the ex-periments and analysis of data, and A. Terrier and G. Ber-trand for technical support.
APPENDIX: CALCULATION OF THE MINIMUM
DIAPHRAGM CROSS SECTION
The total pressure drop in the reed-diaphragm system
/H20849Fig. 2 /H20850is
/H20849/H9004p/H20850s=/H20849/H9004p/H20850r+/H20849/H9004p/H20850d. /H20849A1/H20850
The system’s characteristics become multivalued when
there is at least one point on the curve where the slope isinfinite,
/H11509
/H11509q/H20849/H9004p/H20850s=/H11509
/H11509q/H20849/H9004p/H20850r+/H11509
/H11509q/H20849/H9004p/H20850d=0 . /H20849A2/H20850
Because of simplicity, the derivatives in Eq. /H20849A2/H20850are
replaced by their inverse,
/H11509
/H11509q/H20849/H9004p/H20850s=/H20873/H11509q
/H11509/H20849/H9004p/H20850r/H20874−1
+/H20873/H11509q
/H11509/H20849/H9004p/H20850d/H20874−1
=0 , /H20849A3/H20850
yielding/H20873S
/H9267/H208732/H20849/H9004p/H20850r
/H9267/H20874−1/2
−1
ks/H208732/H20849/H9004p/H20850r
/H9267/H208741/2/H20874−1
+/H9267
Sd/H208732/H20849/H9004p/H20850d
/H9267/H208741/2
=0 .
/H20849A4/H20850
Solving for Sd,
Sd=−/H208732/H20849/H9004p/H20850d
/H9267/H208741/2
/H11003/H20873S
/H9267/H208732/H20849/H9004p/H20850r
/H9267/H20874−1/2
−1
ks/H208732/H20849/H9004p/H20850r
/H9267/H208741/2/H20874.
/H20849A5/H20850
Simplifying,
Sd=−S/H20873/H20849/H9004p/H20850d
/H20849/H9004p/H20850r/H208741/2
+2
ks/H20849/H20849/H9004p/H20850d/H20849/H9004p/H20850r/H208501/2. /H20849A6/H20850
From Eqs. /H208493/H20850and /H208498/H20850, we can find
/H20849/H9004p/H20850r=/H20873Sd
S/H208742
/H20849/H9004p/H20850d, /H20849A7/H20850
and Eq. /H20849A6/H20850can be written
Sd=−SS
Sd+2
ksS
Sd/H20849/H9004p/H20850r. /H20849A8/H20850
Now we can replace S=S0−/H20851/H20849/H9004p/H20850r/ks/H20852to find
Sd2=/H20873−S0+3/H20849/H9004p/H20850r
ks/H20874/H20873S0−/H20849/H9004p/H20850r
ks/H20874. /H20849A9/H20850
It is clear that the right-hand side of this equation must be
positive. Moreover, it is a parabolic function of /H20849/H9004S/H20850
=/H20849/H9004p/H20850r/ks, with its concavity facing downwards.
The maximum value of Sd2/H20849S/H20850,
max /H20849Sd2/H20849S/H20850/H20850=S02
3, /H20849A10 /H20850
is thus the value for which there is only a single point where
the characteristic curve has an infinite slope.
We thus conclude that Sd=S0//H208813=0.58 S0is the mini-
mum value of the diaphragm cross section that should beused for flow measurements.
Almeida, A. /H208492006 /H20850. “Physics of double-reeds and applications to sound
synthesis,” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. Paris VI.
Almeida, A., Vergez, C., and Caussé, R. /H208492004 /H20850. “Experimental investiga-
tions on double reed quasi-static behavior,” in Proceedings of ICA 2004 ,
Vol.II, pp. 1229–1232.
Almeida, A., Vergez, C., and Caussé, R. /H208492006 /H20850. “Experimental investigation
of reed instrument functioning through image analysis of reed opening,”Acustica /H20849accepted /H20850.
Azad, R. S. /H208491996 /H20850. “Turbulent flow in a conical diffuser: a review,” Exp.
Therm. Fluid Sci. 13, 318–337.
Backus, J. /H208491963 /H20850. “Small-vibration theory of the clarinet,” J. Acoust. Soc.
Am. 35/H208493/H20850, 305–313.
Dalmont, J. P., Gilbert, J., and Ollivier, S. /H208492003 /H20850. “Nonlinear characteristics
of single-reed instruments: Quasi-static volume flow and reed openingmeasurements,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 114 /H208494/H20850, 2253–2262.
Dalmont, J.-P., Gilbert, J., Kergomard, J., and Ollivier, S. /H208492005 /H20850. “An ana-
lytical prediction of the oscillation and extinction thresholds of a clarinet,”J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 118 /H208495/H20850, 3294–3305.
Debut, V. /H208492004 /H20850.Deux études d’un instrument de musique de type clari-
nette: Analyse des fréquences propres du résonateur et calcul des auto-oscillations par décomposition modale /H20849Two studies of a clarinet-like mu-
sical instrument: Analysis of the eigen frequencies and calculation of theself-sustained oscillations by modal decomposition /H20850. Ph.D. thesis, Univer-
sité de la Mediterranée Aix Marseille II.
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lations of a clarinet as a Van-der-pol oscillator,” in Proceedings of ICA
2004, Vol. II, pp. 1425–1428.
Durrieu, P., Hofmans, G., Ajello, G., Boot, R., Aurégan, Y., Hirschberg, A.,
and Peters, M. C. A. M. /H208492001 /H20850. “Quasisteady aero-acoustic response of
orifices,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110 /H208494/H20850, 1859–1872.
Fletcher, N. H., and Rossing, T. D. /H208491998 /H20850.The Physics of Musical Instru-
ments , 2nd ed. /H20849Springer, Berlin /H20850.
Gilbert, J., Dalmont, J.-P., and Guimezanes, T. /H208492005 /H20850. “Nonlinear propaga-
tion in wood-winds,” in Forum Acusticum 2005 , pp. 1369–1372.
Helmholtz, H. /H208491954 /H20850.On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis
for the Theory of Music /H20849Dover, New York /H20850/H20849English translation by Alex-
ander Ellis /H20850.
Hirschberg, A. /H208491995 /H20850.Mechanics of Musical Instruments /H20849Springer, Berlin /H20850,
Chap. 7, pp. 229–290.
Kilne, S. J., and Abbott, D. E. /H208491962 /H20850. “Flow regimes in curved subsonicdiffusers,” J. Basic Eng. 84, 303–312.
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Vent à Anche Simple /H20849“Contribution to the study of oscillations in single-
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Vergez, C., Almeida, A., Causse, R., and Rodet, X. /H208492003 /H20850. “Toward a
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, 4th ed. /H20849McGraw-Hill, New York /H20850.
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Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/terms |
1.2172890.pdf | Ultrafast magnetization dynamics investigated in real space (invited)
M. Vomir, L. H. F. Andrade, E. Beaurepaire, M. Albrecht, and J.-Y. Bigot
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 99, 08A501 (2006); doi: 10.1063/1.2172890
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2172890
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/99/8?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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128.114.34.22 On: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 16:17:24Ultrafast magnetization dynamics investigated in real space „invited …
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Institute of Physics and Chemistry of Materials at Strasbourg (IPCMS), Louis Pasteur University, CNRS,
UMR 7504, 23 rue du Loess, BP 43, 67034 Strasbourg Cedex 2, France
/H20849Presented on 31 October 2005; published online 25 April 2006 /H20850
The ultrafast magnetization dynamics induced in ferromagnetic thin films by femtosecond optical
pulses is investigated in real space. Our experimental method allows us to retrieve thethree-dimensional trajectory of the magnetization vector over a large temporal range, from/H11011100 fs to /H110111 ns. This approach carries important information both on the initial spin dynamics
and the magnetization precession. An ultrafast decrease of the magnetization modulus, occurringwithin /H11011100 fs, reveals the initial laser induced demagnetization. It is accompanied by a
reorientation of the magnetization vector, taking place during the first picosecond, a process whichstrongly depends on the material anisotropy. Finally, the three-dimensional trajectory of themagnetization during its precession and damping undertakes a complex pathway as themagnetization modulus varies until the energy is dissipated to the environment in the nanosecondtime scale. © 2006 American Institute of Physics ./H20851DOI: 10.1063/1.2172890 /H20852
I. INTRODUCTION
The use of femtosecond optical pulses to induce and
investigate fast magnetic processes in highly correlated spinsystems is quite interesting as it brings an unprecedentedtemporal resolution as compared to techniques using pulsedmagnetic fields. Typically one can easily explore the tempo-ral range from a few femtoseconds to about 1 ns duringwhich several fundamental interaction processes occur in dy-namical magnetic systems.
1,2In addition, the versatility of
the current laser sources, which are available over a widespectral range from the near UV to the midinfrared, allowsus to explore very different materials, including ferromag-netic metals, or semiconductors, semimetals, or dielectrics. Abasic experimental configuration consists of exciting, for ex-ample, a ferromagnetic film with a sequence of two delayedfemtosecond pulses.
3One modifies the electronic ground
state and the second one probes the excited electronic andspin states at various temporal delays t, via an analysis of the
transmission T/H20849t/H20850, the reflectivity R/H20849t/H20850, and the Kerr or Fara-
day rotations
/H9258K,F/H20849t/H20850and ellipticities /H9257K,F/H20849t/H20850, with or without
the presence of an external static magnetic field H. Naturally
this so-called time resolved pump-probe magneto-opticalconfiguration is not unique and several femtosecond opticaltechniques are now also available. Instead, one can detect,for example, the modification of the photoemission yield ofcharges and spins from bulk or surface states,
4,5the ampli-
tude and polarization state of the second harmonicgeneration,
6,7or the terahertz emission resulting from the
pump pulse.8The common ground to these experiments is
the possibility of creating a highly nonequilibrium electrondistribution via interband and intraband optical processes.
9
While the mechanism associated with an ultrafast modifica-tion of the electronic distribution is clearly related to thelarge excess of energy acquired by the electrons above theFermi level,
10leading in some cases to a temperature in-crease of a few thousands of Kelvins, there are still debates
concerning the mechanism leading to an ultrafast modifica-tion of the magnetization which has been reported by severalgroups.
1–8,11–18It is indeed an interesting opened problem
where several candidate processes are suspected to play asignificant role such as the spin-orbit interaction, a time de-pendent exchange interaction with the excitation of Stoner
pairs, an infrared photon emission accompanied by spin re-versal, spin scattering at surfaces, and the spin-phonon inter-action. Some works have also studied band filling effectswhich may lead to an apparent demagnetization.
19,20
In spite of the complex many body theoretical approach
required to understand the experimental works reporting anultrafast magnetization dynamics, there are many progresseson the experimental side which carry out interesting informa-tion to clarify the overall puzzle. As we shall see in thefollowing sections it appears quite clearly that the delta-function excitation associated with the pump pulse not onlyinduces an ultrafast partial or total demagnetization, local-ized at the focused laser spot, but may also induce a reorien-tation of the magnetization as well as a damped motion ofprecession. The beauty of the femtosecond time resolvedmagneto-optical techniques is that they allow us to observethe overall dynamics of the magnetization vector, not only inreal time but also in the three directions of space.
21It is a
direct visualization of the complex magnetization trajectoryoccurring in a system which has been brought quasiinstanta-neously far from its ground state equilibrium. The presentwork focuses on such dynamics which we have been able tocapture in nickel and cobalt films. Let us stress that our ap-proach allows us to reveal the role played by important quan-tities such as the magnetocrystalline anisotropy. In addition,it offers a nice playground for analyzing the spin dynamics ina system where the modulus of the magnetization is not con-served which naturally requires to go beyond the usualLandau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equations.
22 a/H20850Electronic mail: bigot@ipcms.u-strasbg.frJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 99, 08A501 /H208492006 /H20850
0021-8979/2006/99 /H208498/H20850/08A501/5/$23.00 © 2006 American Institute of Physics 99, 08A501-1
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128.114.34.22 On: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 16:17:24II. METHODOLOGY
In order to access the full trajectory of the magnetization
vector one can take advantage of the versatility of themagneto-optical polarization techniques which allows us toretrieve the three spatial components in the so-called polar,longitudinal, and transverse directions.
23–25In Fig. 1 they are
referred to as the x,y, and zaxes. The sample plane, a thin
ferromagnetic metallic film in our case, is set in the yzplane.
An external static magnetic field Hcan be rotated around the
zaxis so that it makes an angle /H9278with respect to the xaxis.
Correspondingly, the static magnetization points in a direc-tion M
/H9278out of the sample plane. This direction is naturally
different than H/H9278, as the magnetization results from the total
effective field including the anisotropy, the exchange, and theexternal fields. The probe beam is set with either sorp
polarization with respect to its plane of incidence which isdefined by the xyplane in Fig. 1. The angle of incidence
/H9251of
the probe beam with respect to the normal to the sample /H20849x
axis/H20850can be modified. Although this is not required it allows
us to double check the consistency of the measurements aswe did in our experiments using two different probes withangles of incidence
/H9251=3° and /H9251=52°. The components of
the magnetization are retrieved from the reflected probebeam /H20849Kerr geometry /H20850by analyzing its polarization for dif-
ferent complementary angles
/H9278of the external field: the cor-
responding detected signal is named Shereafter. The polar
and longitudinal components are given, respectively, by
Pol=1
2/H20851S/H20849/H9278/H20850−S/H20849/H9266−/H9278/H20850/H20852and Long=1
2/H20851S/H20849/H9278/H20850−S/H20849−/H9278/H20850/H20852. The
transverse component, whenever it is present, is obtained di-
rectly from the reflectivity Rof the p-polarized probe beam,
i.e., without polarization bridge analysis, via the quantity
Trans=1
2/H20851R/H20849/H9278/H20850−R/H20849/H9266−/H9278/H20850/H20852. Simultaneously, we determine the
transmission Tand reflectivity Rof the probe beam. The
temporal variation of the five quantities of interest /H20849transmis-
sion, reflectivity, and the three components of the magneti-zation vector /H20850is then obtained from the standard pump-probe
configuration by measuring the following quantities for eachpump-probe delay t:/H9004T/T=/H20851T/H20849t/H20850−T
0/H20852/T0,/H9004R/R=/H20851R/H20849t/H20850
−R0/H20852/R0,/H9004Pol/Pol= /H20851Pol/H20849t/H20850−Pol 0/H20852/Pol 0,/H9004Long/Long
=/H20851Long /H20849t/H20850−Long 0/H20852/Long 0, and /H9004Trans/Trans= /H20851Trans /H20849t/H20850
−Trans 0/H20852/Trans 0, where the subscript 0 refers to the static
values.
The laser is a titanium:sapphire oscillator amplified at2.5 kHz. The fundamental wavelength is 790 nm and the
pulse duration is 130 fs. Part of this beam is split into twoweak beams corresponding to the two probes while the pumpbeam is obtained by frequency doubling /H20849395 nm /H20850in a beta
barium borate /H20849BBO /H20850crystal in order to avoid spurious noise
in the detected signals due to interference effects between thepump and probe around zero delay. The pump pulse durationis/H11011200 fs. The time resolved measurements are made by a
synchronous detection scheme using a lock-in amplifier andlow frequency chopping of the 2.5 kHz pump pulse train.The pump-probe delay can be varied up to 1 ns with a mini-mum step of 6 fs. The ratio between the pump and probespot diameters is /H110112. The maximum energy density of the
pump pulse is 2 mJ cm
−2, while the energy density of the
probe beam is kept very low. The maximum amplitude of thestatic magnetic field is 4 kOe.
We have studied three ferromagnetic thin films, two co-
balt films having a different magnetocrystalline anisotropyaxis, and a nickel film. The first cobalt sample, referred to asCo/Al
2O3in the following, is a 16-nm-thick Co film grown
by molecular beam epitaxy on a /H208490001 /H20850oriented sapphire
substrate. It has a hexagonal compact crystalline phase withthecaxis along the /H208490001 /H20850direction /H20849perpendicular to the
film, along the xaxis in Fig. 1 /H20850. The magnetization at satu-
ration in the sample plane /H20849yz/H20850occurs for an applied field of
/H110110.9 kOe. It is slightly anisotropic with coercive fields vary-
ing within /H1101110%. The perpendicular magnetization along
the hard axis /H20849xaxis/H20850saturates for an external field of
/H1101120 kOe. The second cobalt sample, named Co/MgO here-
after, is grown along the /H20849110/H20850direction of a MgO substrate.
The resulting hexagonal caxis is in the plane of the sample,
along the yaxis of Fig. 1. Along this easy axis, the magne-
tization saturates for an applied field of /H110110.2 kOe. The mag-
netization perpendicular to the film /H20849xaxis/H20850could not be
saturated up to 25 kOe, while in the sample plane along thehard direction /H20849zaxis/H20850the saturation field is /H1101110 kOe. This
sample is much thicker /H20849/H1101150 nm /H20850than Co/Al
2O3. The
nickel sample is a 15-nm-thick Ni film with cubic anisotropy
deposited on an Al 2O3substrate.
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Let us first consider the magnetization dynamics of the
Co/Al 2O3sample. In Fig. 2 we have represented the differ-
ential transmission /H9004T/T/H20849full line /H20850together with the dynam-
ics of the longitudinal component /H20849opened circles /H20850, when ap-
plying the external field H/H9278in the sample along the yaxis
/H20849/H9278=90° /H20850. In that case the initial condition is such that the
magnetization is saturated along the ydirection. The short
/H20849t/H1102120 ps /H20850and long /H20849t/H110211n s /H20850delay behaviors are shown in
Figs. 2 /H20849a/H20850and 2 /H20849b/H20850, respectively. These signals are easily
interpreted in terms of the electron /H20849/H9004T/T/H20850and spin
/H20849/H9004Long/Long /H20850dynamics. The initial decrease of the trans-
mission within the pump pulse duration corresponds to an
increase of the electronic temperature which then comesback to its initial value in two steps. First, the electron-phonon interaction contributes to an equilibrium between theelectron and lattice temperatures with a time constant of900 fs. The second step is a temperature relaxation, associ-
FIG. 1. Schematic of the magneto-optical configuration used to measure the
three-dimensional magnetization trajectory.08A501-2 Vomir et al. J. Appl. Phys. 99, 08A501 /H208492006 /H20850
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128.114.34.22 On: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 16:17:24ated with the heat diffusion to the environment, which occurs
with a time constant of 220 ps. It is remarkable that duringthis entire time scale the spins follow the same dynamics asthe electronic distribution in agreement with the previousobservations in CoPt thin films.
15,16Let us emphasize that
here the pulse duration is relatively long /H20849200 fs /H20850so that the
thermalization of the electronic distribution and spins, which
have been shown to occur with a time constant of /H1101160 fs,16
cannot be resolved. When the external magnetic field is set
with an angle out of the sample plane, the dynamics is muchricher. Figure 3 represents the temporal evolution of the po-lar, longitudinal, and transverse signals up to 1 ns, as well asthe reconstructed three-dimensional trajectory when
/H9278is set
to 15° /H20849and to its complementary values of 165° and −15° /H20850.
A detailed look at these figures and their corresponding shortdelay behaviors /H20849not shown in Fig. 3 /H20850allows us to trace back
the pathway of the magnetization vector. Initially/H208490/H11021t/H11021300 fs /H20850the magnitude of both the polar and longitu-
dinal components decreases while the transverse component
remains to zero. It clearly reflects the decrease of themagnetization modulus during the first hundreds offemtoseconds.
21Simultaneously and up to /H110111 ps, the rela-
tive changes of the polar and longitudinal components aredifferent. It corresponds to a rotation of the magnetizationvector which occurs in the xyplane as no transverse compo-
nent still shows up. After the electrons and spins are in equi-librium with the lattice /H20849t/H11022900 fs /H20850, one gradually sees the
development of a motion of precession which now leads to a
transverse component /H9004Trans/Trans. Like the polar and lon-
gitudinal components, it oscillates with a period of 100 psfor an applied field of 2.3 kOe and damps out with a timeconstant of /H11011300 ps. The phase of these signals is, however,
different as the magnetization vector rotates around the ef-fective field. Let us emphasize that during the first few hun-
dreds of femtoseconds, when the magnetization modulus de-creases, the pump pulse acts as a delta-function perturbationto excite the spins. During this time scale a description of themagnetization dynamics in terms of spin waves is not rel-evant. It is only after a few tens of picoseconds that spinwaves with their spatial dispersion become the appropriateconcept to describe the magnetization dynamics.
The magnetization dynamics in the Co/MgO sample
present very significant differences. Let us recall that thissample has an easy hexagonal caxis in the ydirection in the
sample plane and that its thickness is much larger than thepenetration depth of the laser beams /H20849/H1101115 nm /H20850. Figure 4 /H20849a/H20850
shows the long delay behaviors of the polar and longitudinal
signals for an external field of 3.5 kOe and an angle
/H9278=5°.
The signals have been slightly smoothed to better show abeating in the oscillatory behavior associated with theprecession. This beating corresponds to the excitation oftwo magnon modes.
26Their respective frequencies /H9024P0
=25.4 GHz and /H9024P1=31.3 GHz are obtained from the Fou-
rier transform in the inset of Fig. 4 /H20849a/H20850. The corresponding
zero and first order standing spin waves can be simulta-neously excited in this thick cobalt film /H2084950 nm /H20850. Assuming a
quadratic dispersion of the first order mode /H9024
P1=/H9024P0+Dk2
leads to a constant Dof/H11011620 meV Å2. A more detailed
study of the magnon dispersion, using, for example, the Bril-louin light scattering, would allow a comparison of our dy-
FIG. 2. Time dependent differential transmission /H20849/H9004T/T/H20850and longitudinal
/H20849/H9004Long/Long /H20850signals of the Co/Al2O3sample with an applied magnetic
field H/H9278set in the sample plane /H20849/H9278=90° /H20850, for short /H20849a/H20850and long /H20849b/H20850pump-
probe delays.
FIG. 3. Magnetization dynamics of Co/Al2O3obtained with an applied
magnetic field H/H9278set at the complementary angles /H9278= ±15° ,165°. Polar
/H20849a/H20850, longitudinal /H20849b/H20850, and transverse /H20849c/H20850differential signals. Corresponding
three-dimensional trajectory /H20849d/H20850.08A501-3 Vomir et al. J. Appl. Phys. 99, 08A501 /H208492006 /H20850
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128.114.34.22 On: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 16:17:24namical determination of Din this particular sample which
has a large in-plane anisotropy. Figure 4 /H20849b/H20850shows the pro-
jection of the magnetization trajectory on the xyplane for
long temporal delays. It is interesting to notice that, in con-trast to Co/Al
2O3, the precession damps out long before the
modulus of the magnetization has fully recovered its initialvalue. This is due to the fact that for Co/MgO the thermaldissipation on the MgO substrate lasts longer. Consequently,the lattice temperature of the cobalt film being still signifi-cant at 1 ns, the magnetization is lower than its initial value.Additional information can be traced back from the magne-tization orientation, in connection with magnetocrystallineanisotropy. In Fig. 4 /H20849b/H20850one can see that after the precession
motion has ended not only the modulus of the magnetizationvector has not recovered but also its direction. This is due toa variation of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy with the lat-tice temperature. In cobalt it is known that the anisotropydecreases with increasing temperature.
27Therefore the effec-
tive field, which results from the in-plane easy axis, the de-magnetizing field, and the applied external field tend to pointout of the sample plane when the temperature is larger thanits initial value. This dynamical process is indeed present as
soon as the temperature increases, as can be seen in the de-tailed view of the trajectory plotted for short temporal delaysin Fig. 4 /H20849c/H20850. The fact that the trajectory moves upward to-
wards the polar direction reflects the decrease of the magne-tocrystalline anisotropy field in the sample plane. A detailedstudy of this mechanism has been recently reported andmodeled.
22
The versatility of our experimental approach allows us toinvestigate the magnetization dynamics in many different
configurations. For example, Fig. 5 shows the evolution ofthe precession period on the nickel film when increasing theangle
/H9278of the external field H/H9278, i.e., when Hturns towards
the plane of the sample. The plotted quantity is now thetemporal variation of the differential Kerr rotation angle/H9004
/H9258K//H9258K. Clearly, the precession frequency /H9024P,/H9278increases
as/H9278increases /H20849/H9024P,10°=4.2 GHz, /H9024P,30°=7.7 GHz, and
/H9024P,80°=11.1 GHz /H20850. This is due to an increase of the effective
field related to a decrease of the modulus of the demagnetiz-ing field associated with the shape anisotropy pointing in the−xdirection. The amplitude of the signal decreases since the
measurements are performed with the probe beam having anangle of incidence of 3°, which is essentially sensitive to thepolar direction. Naturally, when
/H9278=90°, the magnetization is
initially oriented along the yaxis and therefore no precession
occurs and the polar signal vanishes.
In conclusion, in the present work we have investigated
the magnetization dynamics in the three dimensions of spaceover a broad temporal range covering the ultrafast demagne-tization and reorientation of the magnetization as well as itssubsequent motion of precession. It shows that in order tohave an accurate description of the magnetization pathway, itis important to retrieve the entire spatiotemporal dynamicssince the anisotropies /H20849magnetocrystalline and shape /H20850of the
material are not constant during the entire temporal evolutionof the magnetization. It has important consequences bothfrom the applied and theoretical points of view. Indeed, whenmodeling the magnetization dynamics in a consistent wayover such a large temporal range one cannot assume that themodulus of the magnetization is conserved like in theLandau-Lifshitz-Gilbert approach. A recent phenomenologi-cal approach has been developed which predicts most of thepresent observations.
22It considers a magnetization modulus
and a magnetocrystalline anisotropy which are time depen-dent via their temperature variations. The model includestwo coupled heat equations, associated with the electron/spinand lattice temperatures /H20849two-temperature model /H20850, simulta-
neously solved with the Bloch equations for the three com-ponents of the magnetization taking into account the tem-perature dependent effective field. Simulatenously, theconstraint that the magnetization modulus follows adiabati-cally the electron/spin temperature is imposed. An accurate
FIG. 4. Magnetization dynamics of Co/MgO. /H20849a/H20850Time dependent differen-
tial polar /H20849close circles /H20850and longitudinal /H20849open circles /H20850signals. Fourier
transform of the polar signal /H20851inset of /H20849a/H20850/H20852. Projection of the trajectory on the
xyplane for long /H20849b/H20850and short /H20849c/H20850temporal delays. The arrows indicate the
direction of time.
FIG. 5. Time dependent differential Kerr rotation signals of the Ni/Al2O3
sample for several directions of the applied magnetic field H/H9278
/H2084910°/H33355/H9278/H3335590°/H20850. For clarity each curve is displayed with an offset of 10−2.08A501-4 Vomir et al. J. Appl. Phys. 99, 08A501 /H208492006 /H20850
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128.114.34.22 On: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 16:17:24determination of the spatiotemporal dynamics is also rel-
evant when considering realistic magnetic devices con-strained to important temperature variations. In this contextour approach is interesting for understanding the detaileddynamics of such magnetic devices.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work has been carried out with financial supports
from the European Community program “Dynamics” andfrom the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique inFrance.
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1.4944650.pdf | Deterministic switching of a magnetoelastic single-domain nano-ellipse using bending
Cheng-Yen Liang , Abdon Sepulveda , Scott Keller , and Gregory P. Carman
Citation: J. Appl. Phys. 119, 113903 (2016); doi: 10.1063/1.4944650
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4944650
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/jap/119/11
Published by the American Institute of Physics
Deterministic switching of a magnetoelastic single-domain nano-ellipse
using bending
Cheng-Y en Liang, Abdon Sepulveda, Scott Keller, and Gregory P . Carman
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles,
California 90095, USA
(Received 7 January 2016; accepted 9 March 2016; published online 21 March 2016)
In this paper, a fully coupled analytical model between elastodynamics with micromagnetics is
used to study the switching energies using voltage induced mechanical bending of a magnetoelastic
bit. The bit consists of a single domain magnetoelastic nano-ellipse deposited on a thin film piezo-electric thin film (500 nm) attached to a thick substrate (0.5 mm) with patterned electrodes under-
neath the nano-dot. A voltage applied to the electrodes produces out of plane deformation with
bending moments induced in the magnetoelastic bit modifying the magnetic anisotropy. To mini-mize the energy, two design stages are used. In the first stage, the geometry and bias field (H
b)o f
the bit are optimized to minimize the strain energy required to rotate between two stable states. In
the second stage, the bit’s geometry is fixed, and the electrode position and control mechanism isoptimized. The electrical energy input is about 200 (aJ) which is approximately two orders of mag-
nitude lower than spin transfer torque approaches.
VC2016 AIP Publishing LLC .
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4944650 ]
I. INTRODUCTION
The use of multiferroic systems for development of low
energy memory applications has received considerable atten-tion in the past few years. The main concept is to use amultilayered composite material system consisting of piezo-electric and magnetoelastic layers and control the magnetiza-tion by induced strain.
1–3The actuation mechanism consists
of applying voltage to a piezoelectric substrate creating de-formation which in turns transfers to a ferromagnetic (FM)nano-dot placed on top. However, the multiferroic compositememory elements intrinsically reside on a fairly thick sub-strate system. This thick substrate clamps the piezoelectric/magnetoelastic material limiting the amount of strain that
can be generated and poses a significant problem for this
area of study.
4–8In this paper, we present a mechanism to
overcome this limitation, and more importantly, we showthat local strain profiles can be used to reorient the magnet-ization vector between two stable equilibrium points.
Researchers have demonstrated the feasibility of the
magnetization control between stable states in thin film mag-netoelastic material deposited on a thick piezoelectric sub-strate.
5–7This voltage induced strain mediation effect to
manipulate the magnetization is generally referred to as theconverse magnetoelectric effect.
8There have been extensive
studies that contain both theoretical and experimental workson strain-mediated magnetization changes, coercivity
changes, and strain-induced anisotropy in continuous mag-
netic thin films.
9In all of the continuous film studies, the
strain is appropriately assumed to be fully transferred fromthe ferroelectric to the ferromagnetic layer by treating themagnetoelastic energy as a pure uniaxial anisotropy to beapplied to the magnetic media. For example, Brintlingeret al .
10reported both experimental and analytical predic-
tions, using OOMMF and constant strain assumptions thatshow reversible switching in FeGa/BaTiO 3(BTO) thin film.
In recent years, several additional studies, such as ferroelec-
tric/ferromagnetic film coupling by Lahtinen et al.2and mag-
netic thin film stress modeling by Bai et al .,11have
demonstrated that this constant strain methodology works
reasonably well for continuous thin films.
The strain-mediated effect in multiferroic nanostruc-
tures has been used to alter magnetic domains12,13and to
shift the magnetic coercive field. Bur et al .14reported
strain-induced coercive field changes in patterned single-domain nickel nanostructures deposited on a thick Si/SiO
2
substrate using external mechanical loads. Moutis et al .15
reported electric-field modulation of coercive field H cusing
a piezoelectric on a periodic array of FM Co 50Fe50stripes
but once again this was on an entire substrate. Out of plane
magnetic reorientation has also been achieved with mag-
netic BiFeO 3(BFO)/CoFe 2O4(CFO) vertical heterostruc-
tures embedded into a ferroelectric described by Zavalicheet al.
16While demonstrating the concept this approach pro-
duced excitation in all the magnetic elements simultane-
ously and thus, the mechanism does not lend itself toindividual element control nor could it be used for deter-
ministic reorientation of the magnetic moment.
Brandlmaier et al.
17used the biaxial strain difference pro-
duced on the side of a piezoelectric stack actuator to control
the magnetic anisotropy of a thin crystalline Fe 3O4film on
bulk material. As an alternative to using in plane polarized
piezoelectric material, some researchers such as Wu
used the auxetic piezoelectric strain produced by [011]
cut (1-x)[Pb(Mg 1/3Nb2/3)O3]-x[PbTiO 3] (PMN-PT), while
others have used (1-x)Pb(Zn 1/3Nb2/3)O3–xPbTiO 3(PZN-PT)
single crystals.9These single crystal approaches resulted in a
proposed design of a magnetoelectric memory system but
once again required bulk piezoelectric material, which is not
0021-8979/2016/119(11)/113903/8/$30.00 VC2016 AIP Publishing LLC 119, 113903-1JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 119, 113903 (2016)
amenable to memory fabrication processes. In a device pro-
posed by Hu et al.,18they suggested individual magnetic ele-
ments could be controlled by very small single crystal PMN-PT elements, a configuration that presents significant fabrica-
tion challenges.
The development of a strain mediated multiferroic mem-
ory device requires that the magnetization to be individually
controllable for each nano-dot and the ferroelectric thin film
be grown on a substrate (e.g., Si wafer). The main difficultyhere is that the thin film piezoelectric is clamped by the thick
substrate and prevents strain transfer. Cui et al.
19suggested
the use of patterned electrodes to overcome substrate clamp-ing and obtain highly localized strain in a thin film piezo-
electric and the magnetic material. The concept was
demonstrated on bulk ceramic and relatively large magneticelements and did not include detailed analysis (or experi-
ments) for thin film piezoelectric on a thick substrate control-
ling a single magnetic domain element.
20In addition to
single-bit multiferroic memory devices, nanomagnetic-based
Boolean logic circuit also attracts research attention because
of its non-volatile and energy-efficient properties. D’Souzaet al.
21experimentally demonstrated strain-induced switching
of single-domain magnetostrictive nanomagnets (lateral
dimensions /C24200 nm) fabricated on bulk PMN–PT substrates
can implement a nanomagnetic Boolean NOT gate and steer
bit information unidirectionally in dipole-coupled nanomagnet
chains. From their estimation, the energy dissipation for logicoperations using thin film is only about /C241 aJ/bit.
The design of single domain switchable magnetoelectric
heterostructures requires the use of Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert(LLG) equation. The micromagnetics tools used today are
largely based on phenomenological approaches developed in
the 1950s that have been refined considerably in recentyears.
22An important addition to micromagnetics was the
inclusion of strain (or stress) for magnetostrictive materials
by Zhu et al.23as an extra term in the effective magnetic
field. This was then used by Hu24to model the effect of
stress on hysteresis curves and magnetization dynamics,
showing the interaction of stress with coercivity and the easyaxis of magnetoelastic materials. Based on these results, Hu
et al.
25,26used stability conditions and proposed an electric
field read and write magnetoresistance random-access mem-ory (MERAM) device. A balance of shape anisotropy and
strain anisotropy was used to describe an elliptical nanomag-
net that could be switched under stress by Roy et al .
27
However, in most of these studies, the magnetization and the
strain were assumed to be spatially uniform and thus did not
consider the clamping issue or the effects of a properly tai-lored strain field profile. D’Souza et al.
28proposed and ana-
lyzed a low-power 4-state universal logic gate using a linear
array of multiferroic nanomagnets but did not consider thesubstrate clamping issue. Tiercelin et al.
30described and an-
alyzed a magnetoelectric memory cell that balanced strain
anisotropy, shape anisotropy, and a bias field. In this laterwork, the elastic contribution was modeled separately, and
the piezoelectric film was not attached to a substrate. In
Liang’s study,
20a design based on four patterned electrodes
was introduced. In this work, a fully coupled model was
used to analyze the design and was shown that, by applyingan electric field through the thickness of the piezoelectric
substrate, the clamping effect can be overcome. Also, in thiswork, it was concluded that the effect of shear lag produceslocalized strain profiles (70%). Biswas et al .
29proposed a
scheme that can flip the magnetization of the soft layer (com-
plete 180/C14rotation) in magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) multi-
ferroic memory bit with stress alone and without the need forany feedback circuitry that undermines the energy-efficiencyand reliability of the bit writing scheme.
In this paper, the system consists of a nanoscale single
domain magnetoelastic ellipse deposited on a thin film piezo-electric wafer attached to a thick substrate. This composite ismodeled by analytically coupling electrostatics, micromag-netics (LLG), and elastodynamic partial differential equa-
tions. The piezoelectric thin film (500 nm) is attached and
clamped to a thick substrate, which prevents relative in-plane motion of the piezoelectric film. In order to inducelocalized strains, two electrodes are placed under the Niellipse with an insulation layer. When a voltage is applied tothese electrodes, bending deformation is exited, producingcompression on the Ni dot. Furthermore, unlike Tiercelin’swork, the piezoelectric clamping effect is fully captured bythe model. The intrinsic coupling of the piezoelectricresponse with the magnetoelastic response through strain ismodeled by coupled partial differential equations (i.e., elec-trostatics, micromagnetics, and elastodynamics). The numer-ical formulation uses tetrahedral finite elements with a
maximum size equal to the exchange length of Ni ( /C248.5 nm)
providing both spatially varying strains, electric fields, andmagnetic spins throughout structure. Therefore, the modelcaptures all the relevant physics required to accurately pre-dict the response of this multiferroic nanoscale structure.
II. THEORY
In this section, a fully-coupled micromagnetic elastody-
namic simulation with piezoelectrics for finite size 3D struc-tures is described. The coupled partial differential equationsto be solved as well as the numerical method to simulate a
wide range of shape and geometries are provided below. For a
more detailed derivation, the readers are referred to Ref. 20.
The model consists of magnetization dynamics using the
LLG equations coupled with the mechanical strains andstresses via the equations of elastodynamics. The piezoelec-tric response of the thin film is modeled with linear constitu-tive equations relating strain with the electric field using aquasi-static electric field approximation. Other modelingassumptions include small elastic deformations, linear elas-ticity, electrostatics, and negligible electrical current contri-
butions. The coupled governing equations used in this work
are as follows. The elastodynamics governing equation formechanical stresses and displacements is
q
du2
dt2¼r/C1 r; (1)
where qis the mass density, ris the stress tensor, u is the
displacement vector, and t is time.
The dynamics of magnetization is defined by the phe-
nomenological LLG equation113903-2 Liang et al. J. Appl. Phys. 119, 113903 (2016)
@m
@t¼/C0l0cm/C2Hef f/C0/C1þam/C2@m
@t/C18/C19
; (2)
where l0is the permeability of free space, cis the Gilbert
gyromagnetic ratio, ais the Gilbert damping constant, and m
is the normalized magnetization vector. The effective mag-
netic field, Heff, includes the external field ( Hext), the
exchange field ( Hex), the demagnetization field ( Hd), the
magnetocrystalline anisotropy field ( Hanis), and the magne-
toelastic field ( Hme) effects. Detailed expressions for these
terms can be found in recent literatures.20,22,23,31–34The
demagnetization field is calculated by using the quasi-static
Ampere’s law. This leads to Hd¼/C0 r u, where Hdis thedemagnetization field vector and uis the potential.
Combining this equation with the divergence of magnetic
induction equal to zero, and the constitutive relation,
B¼l0ðHþMÞ, produces the equation for the magnetic
potential, u, in terms of the magnetization (see Equation
(5)). The magnetization is coupled with the effective mag-
netic field through this demagnetization term.
Substituting the piezoelectric constitutive relations into
the elastodynamics equation (1) and LLG equations
(Equation (2)) produces a cross-coupled set of non-linear
equations containing displacements, magnetization, electri-
cal field, and magnetic potential as follows (detail derivationin Ref. 20):
qdu2
dt2/C0r/C1 C1
2ruþr uðÞT/C16/C17/C20/C21
þr/C1 CkmmmThi
þr/C1 CdE/C16/C17
¼0; (3)
@m
@t¼/C0l0cm/C2HextþHexmðÞþHduðÞþHanimðÞþHmem;uEðÞðÞ/C0/C1 /C0/C1þam/C2@m
@t/C18/C19
; (4)
r2u¼Msðr /C1 mÞ; (5)
where Cis the stiffness tensor, and kmis the magnetostric-
tion tensor. Eis the electric field vector, and dis the piezo-
electric coupling tensor.
In a similar fashion to magnetic potential, the quasi-static
Faraday’s Law implies that E¼/C0 r V,w h e r e Vis the electric
potential. This equation coupled with Gauss’s Law and provides
the piezoelectric coupling within the model. These coupled sys-tems of partial differential equa tions are solved for the mechani-
cal displacement ( u, v, w ), the electric potential ( V), the
magnetic potential ( u), and the magnetization ( m
x,my,mz).
The numerical solution of micro-magneto-electro-me-
chanical coupled equations is obtained by using a finite ele-
ment formulation (COMSOL) with an implicit backwarddifferentiation (BDF) time stepping scheme.
35,36In order to
decrease solution time, the system of equations is solvedsimultaneously but using a segregated method, which splitsthe solution process into sub-steps using a damped Newton’smethod. This coupled model provides dynamic results forthe full strain and micromagnetic spin distribution in themagnetoelastic component coupled with a piezoelectriclayer. For all numerical problems, convergence studies (i.e.,mesh size and time steps) were evaluated to ensure accuracy.
III. SIMULATION SETUP
Figure 1shows the configuration studied in this paper.
The design variables to be determined are the geometry ofthe ellipse (aaxis, baxis, and caxis), the position of electrodes(dist), and the time history for the applied voltage V(t). Adetailed description on determined these quantities is givenin Section IV.The material properties for the magnetoresistance ran-
dom-access memory (MRAM) element system are asfollows. The material properties for the nickel nano-dotare
36Ms¼4:8/C2105ðA=mÞ,Aex¼1:05/C210/C011ðJ=mÞ,
k100¼/C046/C210/C06,k111¼/C024/C210/C06,c11¼2:5/C21011
ðN=m2Þ,c12¼1:6/C21011ðN=m2Þ, and c44¼1:18/C21011
ðN=m2Þ. The nickel nano-dot is assumed polycrystalline;
therefore, the magnetocrystalline anisotropy is neglected.The Gilbert damping ratio is set as a¼0.5 to improve stabil-
ity and process time. Using the high Gilbert damping ratio
would cause the overdamped precessional motion in themagnetization response. When using realistic (lower) valueof Gilbert damping, more precessional motion will be shown
in the magnetization response (Fig. 6(a)). The magnetization
precesses with the amplitude gradually decreasing to equilib-rium. For both Gilbert damping ratios, the final equilibriumstate is the same. The PZT-5H material properties ared
33¼5:93/C210/C010ðC=NÞ, d31¼/C02:74/C210/C010ðC=NÞ,
c11¼c22¼1:27205 /C21011ðN=m2Þ,c12¼8:02/C21010ðN=m2Þ,
c13¼c23¼8:46/C21010ðN=m2Þ, c33¼1:17/C21011ðN=m2Þ,
c44¼c55¼2:29885 /C21010ðN=m2Þ, and q¼7500ðkg=m3Þ.
The Young’s modulus and the Poisson’s ratio for Au are
EAu¼7/C21010ðN=m2Þand /C23Au¼0:44, respectively. The
exchange constant for nickel isffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2Aex
l0Ms2q
/C248:5ðnmÞ. The
nickel nano-dot is discretized using tetrahedral elements
with a size on the order of nickel’s exchange length. The re-
mainder of the structure (i.e., Pb[ZrxTi 1-x]O3(0/C20x/C201)
(PZT)-5H thin film, Au electrodes) is discretized using tetra-hedral elements with graded element sizes dependent uponlocal geometry.
The boundary conditions of the piezoelectric film are
the four sides, and the bottom surface of the film is clamped.The bottom surface is also grounded. The top surface is free113903-3 Liang et al. J. Appl. Phys. 119, 113903 (2016)
to deform. The piezoelectric film is poling in /C0Z-direction.
Two electrodes (electrodes A and B) are underneath thenano-dot.
IV. NANO-DOT DESIGN
The objective in these memory applications is to design
the elliptical nano-dot and actuation mechanism for mini-mum magnetization switching energy. In order to havedeterministic rotation, the s table states are offset by 5
/C14.
This condition is not really required, but it was included
here to show how this requirement can be incorporated to
the design process. Also, the energy barrier between stablestates is constrained to be at least 40 kT for thermal stability(T¼300 K room temperature). Geometric design variables
for the ellipse are the major axis (aaxis), the eccentricity (e,b¼e*aaxis), and the thickness (caxis) as well as the magni-
tude of the H
bto achieve the offset of 5/C14. Control design
variables are the position of the electrodes (dist), amplitude,and duration of the voltage pulse. The main difficulty insolving this optimization problem is that the numerical so-lution of the system equations (in particular the LLG equa-tion) is extremely heavy computationally, and therefore the
approach of using and off the shelf optimizer linked to the
finite element code in impractical as a design tool. Themethod adopted in this paper is to solve the problem in twosteps. First, the plant (ellipse geometry, H
b) is optimized
with no control system, and then the control system (actua-tor, voltage) is optimized for a fixed plan. The followingsare the details of these two optimization procedures.
A. Plant design
In this first stage, the geometry of the ellipse and bias
field (H b) are optimized for minimum strain magnetization
rotation between stable states. This design can be doneneglecting the magnetization dynamics to avoid the solutionof the LLG equation each time we change a dimension.Thus, we pose the problem as minimizing the average strain(e
xx-eyy) required for a 90/C14rotation (the reason to use 90
instead of 180 will become evident in Section IV B) subjectto the conditions that the energy barrier is at least 40 kT and
that the stable states are offset by 5/C14relative to the x-axis.
The design variables are aaxis, e, caxis, and H b. The resultant
optimal dimensions are aaxis ¼130 nm, e ¼0.9, c ¼10 nm,
Hb¼492 A/m. The optimum strain, which actually corre-
sponds to an estimate of the amplitude required by thedynamic strain, is 1000 le. Also, it is important to mention
that with the resultant optimal dimensions a full dynamicanalysis was performed to verify that the nano-dot designsatisfies the design requirements.
B. Actuation and control system design
In this second stage, we keep the geometry of the
ellipse fixed and optimized design for the control mecha-nism. There are two parts to it, first is the position of the
electrodes and second the cont rol law for the applied volt-
age (magnitude and duration of the pulse). For this optimi-zation, we run the complete fully coupled dynamic model.Due to the symmetry of the configuration, by applying thesame voltage to both electrodes, the magnetization willrotate 90
/C14at the most. Then, for the full rotation, the sym-
metry has to be broken. Saying this first step was to deter-mine the distance (dist) and the magnitude of the voltagefor a 90
/C14rotation. This is done for a minimum switching
energy criterion. The result of this design phase isdist¼52 nm and V
max¼1 V (electrical field through the
thickness is 2 (MV/m)). With these values, we determinedthe proper duration of the pulses and finalize the controllaw for the voltage (how it is applied) First, the voltage isapplied on electrodes A and B simultaneously at time¼0.
Attime¼4 (that is when the magnetization has rotated
90
/C14), the voltage is removed from electrode B, returning to
ground state. Following this, at time¼6, the voltage on
electrode A is removed, and since this longer pulse on elec-trode A makes the magnetization cross the energy maxi-mum, the process will make the magnetization to settle atthe second energy well. Total time duration for the cycle is
15. All the simulations for this second optimization phase
consider the solution for the fully coupled dynamic model.
FIG. 1. Schematic plot and design
arrangements.113903-4 Liang et al. J. Appl. Phys. 119, 113903 (2016)
Also, prior to application of the bias magnetic field and/or
voltage, all magnetic spins are uniformly canted out of the
x-y plane at 5/C14and allowed to precess toward an equilib-
rium state.
V. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 2shows the deformation and strain distribution
(exx) results for a bias field Hb¼492ðA=mÞ, and the voltage
1 V is applied on both electrodes A and B with bottom sur-
face grounded. In Figure 2(a), a three-dimensional deforma-
tion plot with bending strain along the x-direction ( exx)i s
presented. The strain ( exx) represents the internal bending
strain along the x-direction in the nano-dot. A 2D cross-
sectional strain distribution plot is shown in Figure 2(b).
This shows the internal strain ( exx) in the nano-dot and the
deformation when the voltage is applied on both electrodesA and B. When a positive voltage is applied, a local bendingdeformation is produced in the nickel nano-dot that causes
stresses and strains. The magnitude of the strain is on the
order of 1000 lein the middle region of the nano-dot.
Figure 3shows the mechanism of the bi-stable elliptical
MRAM bit. Figure 3(a) shows the magnetization in the
nano-dot with a bias field ( H
b¼492ðA=mÞ) before applying
a voltage. The equilibrium magnetization was initially tiltedwith respect to the þx-direction by 5
/C14. Both electrodes A
and B are initially energized, as shown in Figure 3(b). When
a positive voltage is applied, a tensile strain is producedbelow the neutral axis of the nano-dot and a compressive
strain above the neutral axis, i.e., a bending strain. A voltageis applied for a time period (time period /C244) until the mag-
netization rotates close to 90
/C14. When the magnetization
rotates to 90/C14, the voltage on electrode B is removed, and the
voltage on electrode A remains on (during time ¼4–6). The
removal of the voltage from electrode A causes the magnet-
ization to rotate pass 90/C14in this process. Once the magnet-
ization rotates pass 90/C14(at time /C246), the voltage on
electrode A is switched off, and subsequently, the magnet-ization falls into the other stable energy well positioned at
170
/C14with respect to the þx-direction, as shown in Figure
3(d). When all voltages are removed from electrodes, the
magnetization remains at 170/C14. By selecting a similar pro-
cess of applying voltage to electrodes A and B, the magnet-
ization can be switched back to 5/C14, i.e., the other stable state.
Therefore, the magnetization can be switched deterministi-cally between these two states.
Figure 4(a) shows the strain distribution ( e
xx), and
Figures 4(b)–4(d) show the magnetization components (m x,
my,m z) for different layers in the nano-dot along the x-
direction when the voltage is applied to both electrodes Aand B. Due to the bending effect in the nano-dot, internalstrains result from lateral deformation. Note that the strain
distribution is symmetric in both electrode regions. As
shown in Figure 4(a), the neutral axis is in the middle region
of the nano-dot (at z ¼5 nm), where the stress/strain induced
by bending vanishes. A tensile strain is induced below the
neutral axis, and a compressive strain is induced above the
neutral axis near the electrode region. This bending straindevelops from the localized out-of-plane bending effect near
the electrodes when the voltage is applied on both electrodes
A and B. These bending strains create a new strain-inducedeasy axis which causes the magnetization to rotate in thenickel nano-dot. Figures 4(b)–4(d) show that the magnetiza-
tion components (m
x,m y,m z) in each layer do not rotate
coherently. Furthermore, due to the non-uniform straindistribution, the magnetization components also have non-uniform distribution. This is important and suggests that sin-
gle spin models are inappropriate for evaluating the response
of this design.
Figure 5(a) shows the strain distribution ( e
xx), and
Figures 5(b)–5(d) show the magnetization components (m x,
my,m z) for different layers in the nano-dot along the
x-direction when the voltage is applied to electrode A only.
Due to the one-sided bending effect in the nano-dot, internal
FIG. 3. Response of the bi-stable elliptical memory bit. (Time in nanosecond) (color: voltage and arrow: magnetization). (a) Starting position. The magnetiza-
tion stays one of the stable states at 5/C14with respect to the x-axis. (b) A positive voltage is applied on both electrodes A and B, the magnetization switches to
90/C14. (c) Switch off voltage on B and keep voltage on electrode A. The magnetization switches pass to 90/C14. (d) Switch off voltage on electrode A. The magnet-
ization rotates to 170/C14with respect to the x-axis. By applying appropriate voltage to the electrodes, the magnetization can be switched back and forth between
the two bi-stable states.
FIG. 2. Simulation results (displacement scale exaggerated). (a) Voltage
applied on both electrodes A and B. Two electrodes expand out-of-plane,and the bending effect is induced in the nano-dot. (b) Cross-section 2D plot
along the x-direction.113903-5 Liang et al. J. Appl. Phys. 119, 113903 (2016)
asymmetric strains result from lateral deformation. The
strain distribution near the electrode A region is shown in
Figure 5(a). As can be seen a one-side, a tensile strain is
induced below the neutral axis, and a compressive strain is
induced above the neutral axis near the electrode region.This is because the localized out-of-plane bending effect
arises near region A when the voltage is applied on electrode
A. Similar to the case of both electrodes being activated, themagnetization rotation in each layer is induced by symmetry
breaking, when the voltage is applied only on electrode A,
FIG. 4. Strain and magnetization component in different layers. Voltage
a p p l i e do nb o t he l e c t r o d e sAa n dB .T w o electrodes expand out-of-plane, and
the bending effect is induced in the nano- dot. (a) Strain for different layers in
the nano-dot along the x-direction. Direct compressive strain is induced above
the neutral axis of the nano-dot (z ¼6, 8, 10 nm), and direct tensile strain below
the neutral axis of the nano-dot (z ¼0, 2, 4 nm). (b)–(d) Magnetization compo-
nents (m x,my,mz) for different layers in the nano-dot along the x-direction.
FIG. 5. Strain and magnetization component in different layers. Voltage
applied on electrode A. Electrode A expands out-of-plane, and the bending
effect is induced in the nano-dot. (a) Strain for different layers in the nano-
dot along the x-direction. Asymmetric strain is induced at electrode Aregion. Direct compressive strain is induced above the neutral axis of the
nano-dot (z ¼6, 8, 10 nm), and direct tensile strain below the neutral axis of
the nano-dot (z ¼0, 2, 4 nm). (b)–(d) Magnetization components (m
x,m y,
mz) for different layers in the nano-dot along the x-direction.113903-6 Liang et al. J. Appl. Phys. 119, 113903 (2016)
and affected by the shear lag effect, resulting in non-uniform
reorientation in each layer, as shown in Figures 5(b)–5(d) .
Figure 6(a)shows the temporal response of the magnet-
ization when a voltage is applied. The magnetization was ini-tially in an equilibrium position, pointing to the þx-direction
with 5
/C14tilt, which defines the “0” state in a representative
memory device. The voltage is applied at time ¼0 on both
electrodes A and B until time ¼4 ns. The magnetization
switches from 5/C14to 90/C14as approaches time ¼6 ns. The mag-
netization has a relative response time of approximately
2.5 ns which is influenced by choice of damping coefficienta¼0.5. This value was chosen to expedite the computation
time and does not alter the results with the exception of the
temporal response. When using a smaller more realistic
damping coefficient a, the magnetization response is sub-
stantially faster. When the voltage is removed from electrode
B while the voltage on A remains, the magnetization contin-
ues to rotate past 90
/C14. Once the magnetization passes 90/C14,
the voltage on A is removed (at time ¼6 ns) and magnetiza-
tion rotates to 170 at time ¼10 ns, which is defined as the“1” state in a representative memory device. The magnetiza-
tion can be rotated back and forth deterministically between5 and 170 using the appropriate voltage sequence. To deter-mine the energy to rotate the bit, the following process was
used.
Figure 6(b) shows the temporal mechanical strain ( e
xx)
changes in the nano-ellipse: Volume average strain response(blue line), middle point strain response (red line), and strainresponses at points 650 nm from the center (green and pur-
ple lines, respectively). Three zones are shown in the straincurves. The first zone (0–4 ns), when both electrodes A andB are on, shows negative average strain, negative strain forthe points at 650 nm, and positive strain at the middle point,
therefore, symmetric bending. The second zone (4–6 ns),when the voltage is turned off from electrode B, shows nega-
tive average strain, negative strain for the points at þ50 nm,
positive strain at point /C050 nm, and positive at the middle
point, therefore, unsymmetrical bending.
The write energy for this bending switching mechanism
is the energy required to generate voltage on the electrodes.This energy is equivalent to amount of charge delivered tothe electrodes on the PZT film, i.e., capacitor charging. Thisenergy is called the “CV
2” energy, where C and V represent
the capacitance of the piezoelectric film and the applied volt-age, and is equivalent to QV/2. The total charge (Q) supplied
to the electrodes is determined from the simulations. Using
this approach for the results presented in Figure 3, the write
energy is calculated to be 0.2 fJ. Here, it is important to pointout that the thickness of the PZT was not optimized in thisstudy and that the reduction in PZT film thickness shouldreduce the write energy further.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, an analytical model was used to determine
the optimal nanodot dimensions, the electrode placement,and the voltage control mechanism to cause 170
/C14magnetiza-
tion rotation of a magnetoelastic single domain. The design
consisted of two stages where the first stage determined the
major and minor axis lengths to ensure thermal stability of asingle domain nanodot as well as electrode overlap, resultingin maximum localized strain with bending effect. The secondstage optimized the input voltage control scheme to produce170
/C14magnetization rotation. A physical description of the
mechanism to produce the voltage induced magnetizationwas presented. The energy to reorient the single domain was200 (aJ) in this particular design.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank Andres Chavez for
valuable discussions and editing. This work was supported
by the NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center forTranslational Applications of Nanoscale MultiferroicSystems (TANMS) Cooperative Agreement Award (No.EEC-1160504).
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both electrodes A and B, in which the magnetization rotates from 5/C14to 90/C14.
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netization rotates the other state (170/C14with respect to the x-axis). By
applying appropriate timing application of voltages on electrodes A and B,
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(blue line), middle point strain response (red line), and strain responses at
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|
1.3475501.pdf | Structural, static and dynamic magnetic properties of Co 2 MnGe thin films on a
sapphire a -plane substrate
M. Belmeguenai, F. Zighem, T. Chauveau, D. Faurie, Y. Roussigné, S. M. Chérif, P. Moch, K. Westerholt, and
P. Monod
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 108, 063926 (2010); doi: 10.1063/1.3475501
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3475501
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/108/6?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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137.189.170.231 On: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 04:47:53Structural, static and dynamic magnetic properties of Co 2MnGe thin films
on a sapphire a-plane substrate
M. Belmeguenai,1,a/H20850F. Zighem,2T. Chauveau,1D. Faurie,1Y. Roussigné,1S. M. Chérif,1
P. Moch,1K. Westerholt,3and P. Monod4
1LPMTM, Institut Galilée, UPR 9001 CNRS, Université Paris 13, 99 Avenue Jean-Baptiste
Clément F-93430 Villetaneuse, France
2LLB (CEA CNRS UMR 12), Centre d’études de Saclay, 91191 Gif-Sur-Yvette, France
3Institut für Experimentalphysik/Festkörperphysik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany
4LPEM, UPR A0005 CNRS, ESPCI, 10 Rue Vauquelin, F-75231 Paris Cedex 5, France
/H20849Received 21 May 2010; accepted 7 July 2010; published online 27 September 2010 /H20850
Magnetic properties of Co 2MnGe thin films of different thicknesses /H2084913, 34, 55, 83, 100, and 200
nm /H20850, grown by rf sputtering at 400 °C on single crystal sapphire substrates, were studied using
vibrating sample magnetometry and conventional or microstrip line ferromagnetic resonance. Theirbehavior is described assuming a magnetic energy density showing twofold and fourfold in-planeanisotropies with some misalignment between their principal directions. For all the samples, theeasy axis of the fourfold anisotropy is parallel to the c-axis of the substrate while the direction of
the twofold anisotropy easy axis varies from sample to sample and seems to be strongly influencedby the growth conditions. Its direction is most probably monitored by the slight unavoidable miscutangle of the Al
2O3substrate. The twofold in-plane anisotropy field Huis almost temperature
independent, in contrast with the fourfold field H4which is a decreasing function of the temperature.
Finally, we study the frequency dependence of the observed line-width of the resonant mode and weconclude to a typical Gilbert damping constant
/H9251value of 0.0065 for the 55-nm-thick film. © 2010
American Institute of Physics ./H20851doi:10.1063/1.3475501 /H20852
I. INTRODUCTION
Ferromagnetic Heusler half metals with full spin polar-
ization at the Fermi level are considered as potential candi-dates for injecting a spin-polarized current from a ferromag-net into a semiconductor and for developing sensitivespintronic devices.
1Some Heusler alloys, like Co 2MnGe, are
especially promising for these applications, due to their highCurie temperature /H20849905 K /H20850/H20849Ref. 2/H20850and to their good lattice
matching with some technologically importantsemiconductors.
3Therefore, great attention was recently paid
to this class of Heusler alloys.4–10
In a previous work,11we used conventional and micros-
trip line /H20849MS /H20850ferromagnetic resonance /H20849FMR /H20850, as well as
Brillouin light scattering to study magnetic properties of 34,55, and 83-nm-thick Co
2MnGe films at room temperature.
We showed that the in-plane anisotropy is described by thesuperposition of a twofold and of a fourfold term. The easyaxes of the fourfold anisotropy were found parallel to thec-axis of the Al
2O3substrate /H20849and, consequently, the hard
axes lie at /H1100645° of c/H20850. The easy axes of the twofold aniso-
tropy were found at /H1100645° of cfor the 34 and 55-nm-thick
films and slightly misaligned with this orientation in the caseof the 83-nm-thick sample. However, a detailed study of thein-plane anisotropy, involving temperature and thickness de-pendence, allowing for their physical interpretation was stillmissing. Therefore, it forms the aim of the present paper.Rather complete x-rays diffraction /H20849XRD /H20850measurements
over a large thickness range of Co
2MnGe films are reportedbelow in an attempt to find correlations between in-plane
anisotropies, thickness, and crystallographic textures. Thethickness-dependence and the temperature-dependence ofthese anisotropies are investigated using vibrating samplemagnetometry /H20849VSM /H20850and the above mentioned FMR tech-
niques. In addition, we present intrinsic damping parametersdeduced from broadband FMR data obtained with the help ofa vector network analyzer /H20849VNA /H20850.
12–14
II. SAMPLE PROPERTIES AND PREPARATION
Co2MnGe films with 13, 34, 55, 83, 100, and 200 nm
thickness were grown on sapphire a-plane substrates /H20849show-
ing an in-plane c-axis /H20850by rf sputtering with a final 4-nm-
thick gold over layer. A more detailed description of thesample preparation procedure can be found elsewhere.
11,15
The static magnetic measurements were carried out at
room temperature using a VSM. The dynamic magneticproperties were investigated with the help of 9.5 GHz con-ventional FMR and of MS-FMR.
11The conventional FMR
set-up consists in a bipolar X-band Bruker ESR spectrometer
equipped with a TE 102resonant cavity immersed is an Ox-
ford cryostat, allowing for exploring the 4–300 K tempera-ture interval. The MS-FMR set-up is home-made designedand, up to now, only works at room temperature. The reso-nance fields /H20849conventional FMR /H20850and frequencies /H20849MS-FMR /H20850
are obtained from a fit assuming a Lorentzian derivativeshape of the recorded data. The experimental results are ana-lyzed in the frame of the model presented in Ref. 11.
XRD experiments were performed using four circles dif-
fractometers in Bragg–Brentano geometry in order to deter-
a/H20850Electronic mail: belmeguenai.mohamed@univ-paris13.fr.JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 108, 063926 /H208492010 /H20850
0021-8979/2010/108 /H208496/H20850/063926/6/$30.00 © 2010 American Institute of Physics 108, 063926-1
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137.189.170.231 On: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 04:47:53mine/H9258–2/H9258patterns and pole figures. The diffractometer de-
voted to the /H9258–2/H9258patterns was equipped with a point
detector /H20849providing a precision of 0.015° in 2 /H9258scale /H20850. The
instrument used for recording pole figures was equipped withan Inel™ curved linear detector /H20849120° aperture with a preci-
sion of 0.015° in 2
/H9258scale /H20850. The x-rays beams /H20849cobalt line
focus source at /H9261=1.788 97 Å /H20850were emitted by a Bruker™
rotating anode. We define a direct macroscopic orthonormalreference /H208491, 2, 3 /H20850, where the 3-axis stands for the direction
normal to the film.
/H9278and/H9274are the so-called rotation angles
of samples used for pole figure measurements. /H9274is the dec-
lination angle between the scattering vector and the 3-axis, /H9278
is the rotational angle around the 3-axis. The /H9258–2/H9258patterns
/H20849not shown here /H20850indicate that, for all the Co 2MnGe thin
films, the /H20851110 /H20852axis can be taken along the 3-axis. The
Co2MnGe deduced lattice constant /H20849a=5.755 Å /H20850is in good
agreement with the previously published ones.6,16Due to the
/H20851111 /H20852preferred orientation of the gold over layer along the
3-axis, only partial /H20853110 /H20854pole figures could be efficiently
exploited. They behave as /H20853110 /H20854fiber textures containing
well defined zones showing significantly higher intensities/H20851Figs. 1/H20849a/H20850and1/H20849b/H20850/H20852. These regions correspond to orientation
variants which can be grouped into two families /H20849see Fig. 1/H20850.
The first one, where the threefold /H2085111¯1/H20852or the /H2085111¯1¯/H20852axis is
oriented along the crhombohedral direction, consists of two
kinds of distinct domains with the /H20851001 /H20852axis at /H1100654.5° from
thec-axis. The second family, which is rotated around the
3-axis by 90° from the first one, also contains two variants.This peculiar in-plane domain structure is presumably in-duced by the underlying vanadium seed layer. In the 200-nm-thick sample the anisotropy of the fiber is less markedbut the two families remain present. In the thinner sample/H2084913 nm thick /H20850the measured signal originating from the
Co
2MnGe film is very weak, thus preventing from a precise
analysis of the distribution of the crystallographic orienta-tions. In the following, we then choose to preferentiallypresent results concerning the 55 and the 100-nm-thickspecimens which allow for quantitative analysis of the con-centration of the above mentioned variants. As illustrated inFig. 1/H20849b/H20850, which represents
/H9278-scans at /H9274=60°, we do not
observe major differences between the crystallographic tex-tures of the 55 and of the 100-nm-thick samples: the firstfamily shows a concentration twice larger than the secondone; at least for the first family, which allows for quantitativeevaluations, the concentrations of the two variants do notappreciably differ from each other; finally, about 50% of thetotal scattered intensity arises from domains belonging tothese oriented parts of the scans.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Static magnetic measurements
In order to study the magnetic anisotropy at room tem-
perature, the hysteresis loops were measured for all the stud-ied films with an in-plane applied magnetic field along vari-ous orientations as shown in Fig. 2/H20849
/H9272His the in-plane angle
between the magnetic applied field Hand the c-axis of the
substrate /H20850. The variations in the coercive field /H20849Hc/H20850and of the
reduced remanent magnetization /H20849Mr/Ms/H20850were then investi-gated as function of /H9272H. The typical magnetic static behavior
for all the studied samples is illustrated below through tworepresentative films which present different anisotropies.
Figure 2/H20849a/H20850shows the loops along four orientations for
the 100-nm-thick sample. One observes differences in shapeof the normalized hysteresis loops depending upon the fieldorientation. For Halong the c-axis /H20849
/H9272H=0° /H20850we observe a
typical easy axis square-shaped loop with a nearly full nor-
malized remanence /H20849Mr/Ms=0.9 /H20850, a coercive field of about
20 Oe and a saturation field of 100 Oe. As /H9272Hincreases away
from the c-axis direction, the coercivity increases and the
hysteresis loop tends to transform into a hard axis loop.
When /H9272Hslightly overpasses 90° /H2084990°/H11021/H9272H/H11021100° /H20850the loop
evolves into a more complicated shape: it becomes com-
posed of three /H20849or two /H20850open smaller loops. Further increas-
ing the in-plane rotation angle, it changes from such a split-open curve up to an almost rectangular shape. The results for
/H9272H=45° and /H9272H=135° are different: they show a rounded
loop with Mr/Msequal to 0.75 and 0.63 and with saturation
fields of about 170 Oe and 200 Oe, respectively. This result
FIG. 1. /H20849Color online /H20850/H20849a/H20850Partial /H20853110 /H20854x-rays pole figures /H20849around 60° /H20850of
13, 55, 100, and 200-nm-thick films. /H20849b/H20850Display of the angular variations in
the intensity derived from the above figures for the 55 and 100-nm-thicksamples /H20849the blue and pink vertical dashed lines, respectively, refer to the
two expected positions of the diffraction peak relative to the two variantsbelonging to family 1 /H20850.063926-2 Belmeguenai et al. J. Appl. Phys. 108, 063926 /H208492010 /H20850
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137.189.170.231 On: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 04:47:53qualitatively agrees with a description of the in-plane aniso-
tropy in terms of fourfold and twofold contributions withslightly misaligned easy axes.
The variations in H
candMr/Msversus /H9272Hare illustrated
in Figs. 3/H20849a/H20850and3/H20849b/H20850for the 100-nm-thick film. The pres-
ence of a fourfold anisotropy contribution is supported by thebehavior of H
c/H20851Fig.3/H20849a/H20850/H20852, since two minima appear within
each period /H20849180°, as expected /H20850, as shown in Fig. 3/H20849a/H20850. The
minimum minimorum is mainly related to the uniaxial aniso-tropy term. In the same way, as displayed in Fig. 3/H20849b/H20850, the
behavior of M
r/Msis dominated by the uniaxial anisotropy.
It is worth to notice that the minimum minimorum positionslightly differs from 90° /H20849lying around 96° /H20850, thus arguing for
a misalignment between the twofold and the fourfold aniso-tropy axes.
Figure 2/H20849b/H20850shows a series of hysteresis loops, recorded
with an in-plane applied field, for the 55-nm-thick film. Acareful examination suggests that the fourfold anisotropycontribution is the dominant one and that the related easyaxis lies along the c-axis. The M
r/Msvariation versus /H9272H,
reported in Fig. 3/H20849c/H20850, is consistent with an easy uniaxial axis
oriented at 45° of this last direction. Both fourfold anduniaxial terms are smaller than for the 100-nm-thick sample.B. Dynamic magnetic properties
As previously published,11the dynamic properties are
tentatively interpreted assuming a magnetic energy densitywhich, in addition to Zeeman, demagnetizing and exchangeterms, is characterized by the following anisotropy contribu-tion:
E
anis=K/H11036sin2/H9258M−1
2/H208511 + cos 2 /H20849/H9272M−/H9272u/H20850/H20852Kusin2/H9258M
−1
8/H208513 + cos 4 /H20849/H9272M−/H92724/H20850/H20852K4sin4/H9258M, /H208491/H20850
In the above expression, /H9258Mand/H9272M, respectively, represent
the out-of-plane and the in-plane /H20849referring to the c-axis of
the substrate /H20850angles defining the direction of the magnetiza-
tionMs;/H9272uand/H92724stand for the angles of the uniaxial axis
and of the easy fourfold axis, respectively, with this c-axis.
With these definitions KuandK4are necessarily positive. As
done in Ref. 11, it is often convenient to introduce the effec-
tive magnetization 4 /H9266Meff=4/H9266Ms−2K/H11036/Ms, the uniaxial
in-plane anisotropy field Hu=2Ku/Msand the fourfold in-
plane anisotropy field H=4K4/Ms.
For an in-plane applied magnetic field H, the studied
model provides the following expression for the frequenciesof the experimentally observable magnetic modes:
F
n2=/H20873/H9253
2/H9266/H208742/H20875Hcos /H20849/H9272H−/H9272M/H20850+2K4
Mscos 4 /H20849/H9272M−/H92724/H20850
+2Ku
Mscos 2 /H20849/H9272M−/H9272u/H20850+2Aex
Ms/H20873n/H9266
d/H208742/H20876
/H11003/H20875Hcos /H20849/H9272H−/H9272M/H20850+4/H9266Meff
+K4
2Ms/H208493 + cos 4 /H20849/H9272M−/H92724/H20850/H20850
+Ku
Ms/H208491 + cos 2 /H20849/H9272M−/H9272u/H20850/H20850+2Aex
Ms/H20873n/H9266
d/H208742/H20876. /H208492/H20850
In the above expression /H9253is the gyromagnetic factor:
/H20849/H9253/2/H9266/H20850=g/H110031.397/H11003106Hz /Oe. The uniform mode corre-
sponds to n=0. The other modes to be considered /H20849perpen-
dicular standing modes /H20850are connected to integer values of n:
their frequencies depend upon the exchange stiffness con-stant A
exand upon the film thickness d.
For all the films the magnetic parameters at room tem-
perature were derived from MS-FMR measurements. The de-duced gfactor is equal to 2.17, as previously published.
11
The in-plane MS-FMR spectrum of the 100-nm-thick
sample /H20851Fig.4/H20849a/H20850/H20852submitted to a field of 520 Oe shows two
distinct modes: a main one /H20849mode 2 /H20850, with a wide line-width
/H20849about 0.6 GHz /H20850and a second weaker one /H20849mode 1 /H20850at lower
frequency with a narrower line-width /H208490.2 GHz /H20850. Their field-
dependences are presented in Fig. 4/H20849b/H20850. In contrast with
mode 2, which presents significant in-plane anisotropy, themeasured resonance frequency of mode 1 does not vary ver-sus the in-plane angular orientation of the applied magneticfield: such a different behavior prevents from attributingmode 1 to a perpendicular standing excitation. Consequently,mode 1 is presumably a uniform mode arising from the pres-ence of an additional magnetic phase in the film, possessing-100 -50 0 50 100-1.0-0.50.00.51.0Normalized magnetization (M/Ms)
Applied magnetic field (Oe)ϕΗ=0°
ϕΗ=45°
ϕΗ=90°
ϕΗ=135°100 nm
(a)
-100 -50 0 50 100-1.0-0.50.00.51.0
(b)Normalized magnetization (M/Ms)
Applied ma gnetic field (Oe)ϕH=0°
ϕH=45°
ϕH=90°
ϕH=135°55 nm
FIG. 2. /H20849Color online /H20850VSM magnetization loops of the /H20849a/H20850100-nm-thick
and the /H20849b/H2085055-nm-thick samples. The magnetic field is applied parallel to
the film surface, at various angles /H20849/H9272H/H20850with the c-axis of the sapphire
substrate.063926-3 Belmeguenai et al. J. Appl. Phys. 108, 063926 /H208492010 /H20850
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137.189.170.231 On: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 04:47:53a lower effective demagnetizing field. In the following, we
focus on mode 2 which is assumed to be the uniform modearising from the main phase. As previously published, onlyone uniform mode is observed with the 55-nm-thick sample.
Figures 5/H20849b/H20850and5/H20849d/H20850illustrate the experimental in-plane
angular-dependencies of the resonance frequency of the uni-form mode for the 100 and 55-nm-thick samples, compared
to the obtained fits using Eq. /H208492/H20850. As expected from the VSM
measurements, in the 100-nm sample the fourfold anduniaxial axes of anisotropy are misaligned: it results an ab-sence of symmetry of the representative graphs around
/H9272H
=90°. The best fit is obtained for the following values of themagnetic parameters: 4
/H9266Meff=9800 Oe, Hu=55 Oe, H4
=110 Oe, /H92724=0°,/H9272u=12°. As previously published, in the
case of the 55 nm sample the direction of the easy uniaxialaxis coincides with the hard fourfold axis: this parallelisminduces symmetry of the graphs around
/H9272H=90°. The best fit
for this film corresponds to: 4 /H9266Meff=9800 Oe, Hu=10 Oe,
H4=54 Oe, /H92724=0°,/H9272u=45°. In both samples, the fourfold
anisotropy easy direction is parallel to the c-axis of the sub-
strate: this presumably results from an averaging effect of theabove described distribution of the crystallographic orienta-tions, in spite of the facts that such a conclusion requiresequal concentrations of the two main variants, a conditionwhich, strictly speaking, is not fully realized, and that theobserved value of
/H92724does not derive from the probably over-
simplified averaging model that we attempted to use, basedon individual domain contributions showing their principalaxis of anisotropy along their cubic direction.0 50 100 150 200 250 300 3501520253035VSM measurements
(a)Coercive field (Oe)
ϕΗ(degrees )100 nm
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 3500.20.40.60.8
(b)Reduced remanent magnetization (Mr/Ms)
ϕΗ(degrees)VSM measurements100 nm
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 3500.750.800.850.900.95Reduced remanent magnetization (Mr/Ms)
ϕΗ(degrees)VSM measurements55 nm
(c)
FIG. 3. /H20849a/H20850Coercive field and /H20849b/H20850reduced remanent magnetization of the
100-nm-thick sample as a function of the in-plane field orientation /H20849/H9272H/H20850./H20849c/H20850
Reduced remanent magnetization of the 55-nm-thick film.6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5 10. 0-400-300-200-1000100200300Amplitude (arb. units )
Frequency (GHz)(a)H=520 Oe ϕΗ=0° Mode 2
Mode 1
0 300 600 900 1200 15002468101214
(b)Frequency (GHz)
Applied ma gnetic field (Oe)Mode 2
Mode 1
Fit mode 2
Fit mode 1
ϕΗ=0°
FIG. 4. /H20849Color online /H20850/H20849a/H20850MS-FMR spectrum under a magnetic field applied
/H20849H=520 Oe /H20850parallel the c-axis and /H20849b/H20850field-dependence of the resonance
frequency of the uniform excited modes, in the 100-nm-thick thin film. Thefits are obtained using Eq. /H208492/H20850with the parameters indicated in Table I.063926-4 Belmeguenai et al. J. Appl. Phys. 108, 063926 /H208492010 /H20850
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137.189.170.231 On: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 04:47:53As usual, attempts to interpret the in-plane hysteresis
loops using the coherent rotation model do not provide aquantitative evaluation of the anisotropy terms involved inthe expression of magnetic energy density. However, the ex-perimentally measured M
r/Msangular variation, which, with
this model, is given by cos /H20849/H9272M−/H9272H/H20850in zero-applied field and
is easily calculated knowing /H9272u,/H92724andHu/H4, is in agree-
ment with the values of these coefficients fitted from reso-nance data, as shown in Figs. 5/H20849a/H20850and5/H20849c/H20850.
The magnetic parameters deduced from our resonance
measurements are given in Table Ifor the complete set of the
studied films. In contrast with the direction of the fourfoldaxis which does not vary, the orientation of the uniaxial axisis sample dependent: for some of them /H2084934 and 55 nm /H20850the
easy uniaxial direction lies at 45° from the c-axis of the
substrate /H20849thus coinciding with the hard fourfold direction /H20850;
for other ones /H2084913, 83, 100 nm /H20850it shows a variable misalign-
ment; finally, the uniaxial anisotropy field vanishes for thethickest sample /H20849200 nm /H20850. We tentatively attribute at least a
fraction of the uniaxial contribution as originating from aslight misorientation of the surface of the substrate. The am-
plitudes of both in-plane anisotropies are sample dependentand cannot be simply related to the film thickness. It shouldbe mentioned that some authors
17have reported on strain-
dependent uniaxial and fourfold anisotropies in Co 2MnGa.
This suggests a forthcoming experimental x-rays study of thestrains present in our films.
In addition, it is useful to get information about the
damping terms involved in the dynamics of magnetic excita-tions in the above samples. Notice that in order to integratethese films in application devices like, for instance, magneticrandom access memory, it is important to make sure thattheir damping constant is small enough. The damping of the55-nm-thick film was studied by VNA-FMR:
12–14it is ana-
lyzed in terms of a Gilbert coefficient /H9251in the Landau–
Lifschitz–Gilbert equation of motion. The frequency line-width /H9004fof the resonant signal around f
robserved using this
technique is related to the field line-width /H9004Hmeasured with
conventional FMR excited with a radio-frequency equal to fr
through the equation:18
/H9004H=/H20879/H9004f/H11509H/H20849f/H20850
/H11509f/H20879
f=fr. /H208493/H20850
/H9004His given by:
/H9004H=/H9004H0+4/H9266fr
/H20841/H9253/H20841/H9251 /H208494/H20850
/H20849where /H9004H0stands for a small contribution arising from in-
homogeneous broadening /H20850. The measured linear dependence
of/H9004His shown versus frin Fig. 6. We then obtain the
damping coefficient: /H9251=0.0065. This value lies in the range
observed in the Co 2MnSi thin films.19–21
Finally, the temperature dependence was studied for the
55-nm-thick sample using conventional FMR. The fits of themagnetic parameters were performed assuming that gprac-
tically does not vary versus the temperature T, as generally
expected. We then take: g=2.17. The results for the uniaxial
and for the fourfold in-plane anisotropy fields are reported inFig.7.H
uis temperature independent while H4is a signifi-
cantly decreasing function of T. This behavior of H4is pre-
sumably related to the magnetocrystalline origin of this an-isotropy term.0 50 100 150 200 250 300 3506.87.27.68.00.00.30.60.9
100 nm
(b)Frequency (GHz)
ϕH(degrees)MS-FMR measurements
Fit100 nm
(a)Mr/Ms
Fit
VSM measurements
H=520 Oe
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 3502.73.03.33.60.60.81.0
(d)55 nm
H=130 OeFrequency (GHz)
ϕH(degrees)MS-FMR
Fit(c)55 nmMr/Ms
VSM measurements
Fit
FIG. 5. Reduced remanent magnetization of the /H20849a/H20850100-nm-thick and of the
/H20849c/H2085055-nm-thick films. The simulations are obtained from the energy mini-
mization using the parameters reported in Table I./H20849b/H20850and /H20849d/H20850show the
compared in-plane angular-dependences of the resonance frequency of theuniform modes. The fit is obtained using Eq. /H208492/H20850with the parameters indi-
cated in Table I.TABLE I. Magnetic parameters obtained from the best fits to our experi-
mental results. /H9272uand/H92724are the angles of in-plane uniaxial and of fourfold
anisotropy easy axes, respectively.
Thickness
/H20849nm /H208504/H9266Meff
/H20849Oe /H20850Hu=2Ku/Ms
/H20849Oe /H20850H4=4K4/Ms
/H20849Oe /H20850/H9272u
/H20849deg /H20850/H92724
/H20849deg /H20850
13 8000 45 40 12 0
34 9000 5 20 45 055 9800 10 54 45 083 9200 15 22 /H1100250
100 9800 60 110 12 0200 9900 /H1101502 4 0063926-5 Belmeguenai et al. J. Appl. Phys. 108, 063926 /H208492010 /H20850
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137.189.170.231 On: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 04:47:53IV. SUMMARY
The static and dynamic magnetic properties of Co 2MnGe
films of various thicknesses sputtered on a-plane sapphire
substrates have been studied. The present work focused onthe dependence of the parameters describing the magneticanisotropy upon the crystallographic texture and upon thethickness of the films. The crystallographic characteristicswere obtained through XRD which reveals the presence of amajority of two distinct /H20849110 /H20850domains. Magnetometric mea-
surements were performed by VSM and magnetization dy-namics was analyzed using conventional and MS resonances/H20849FMR and MS-FMR /H20850. The main results concern the in-planeanisotropy which contributes to the magnetic energy density
through two terms: a uniaxial one and a fourfold one. Theeasy axis related to the fourfold term is always parallel to thec-axis of the substrate while the easy twofold axis shows a
variable misalignment with the c-axis. The fourfold aniso-
tropy is a decreasing function of the temperature: it is pre-sumably of magnetocrystalline nature and its orientation isrelated to the above noticed domains. The observed mis-alignment of the twofold axis is tentatively interpreted asinduced by random slight miscuts affecting the orientation ofthe surface of the substrate. The twofold anisotropy does notsignificantly depend on the temperature. There is no evi-dence of a well-defined dependence of the anisotropy versusthe thickness of the films. Finally, we show that the dampingof the magnetization dynamics can be interpreted as arisingfrom a Gilbert term in the equation of motion that we evalu-ate.
1S. Tsunegi, Y. Sakuraba, M. Oogane, K. Takanashi, and Y. Ando, Appl.
Phys. Lett. 93, 112506 /H208492008 /H20850.
2S. Picozzi, A. Continenza, and A. J. Freeman, Phys. Rev. B 66, 094421
/H208492002 /H20850.
3S. Picozzi, A. Continenza, and A. J. Freeman, J. Phys. Chem. Solids 64,
1697 /H208492003 /H20850.
4T. Ambrose, J. J. Krebs, and G. A. Prinz, J. Appl. Phys. 89,7 5 2 2 /H208492001 /H20850.
5T. Ishikawa, T. Marukame, K. Matsuda, T. Uemura, M. Arita, and M.
Yamamoto, J. Appl. Phys. 99, 08J110 /H208492006 /H20850.
6F. Y. Yang, C. H. Shang, C. L. Chien, T. Ambrose, J. J. Krebs, G. A. Prinz,
V. I. Nikitenko, V. S. Gornakov, A. J. Shapiro, and R. D. Shull, Phys. Rev.
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Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 142510 /H208492007 /H20850.
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Miyazaki, and H. Kubota, Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 192508 /H208492006 /H20850.
9T. Marukame, T. Ishikawa, K. Matsuda, T. Uemura, and M. Yamamoto,
Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 262503 /H208492006 /H20850.
10D. Ebke, J. Schmalhorst, N.-N. Liu, A. Thomas, G. Reiss, and A. Hütten,
Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 162506 /H208492006 /H20850.
11M. Belmeguenai, F. Zighem, Y. Roussigné, S.-M. Chérif, P. Moch, K.
Westerholt, G. Woltersdorf, and G. Bayreuther, Phys. Rev. B 79, 024419
/H208492009 /H20850.
12M. Belmeguenai, T. Martin, G. Woltersdorf, M. Maier, and G. Bayreuther,
Phys. Rev. B 76, 104414 /H208492007 /H20850.
13T. Martin, M. Belmeguenai, M. Maier, K. Perzlmaier, and G. Bayreuther,
J. Appl. Phys. 101, 09C101 /H208492007 /H20850.
14M. Belmeguenai, T. Martin, G. Woltersdorf, G. Bayreuther, V. Baltz, A. K.
Suszka, and B. J. Hickey, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 20, 345206 /H208492008 /H20850.
15U. Geiersbach, K. Westerholt, and H. Back, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 240,
546 /H208492002 /H20850.
16T. Ambrose, J. J. Krebs, and G. A. Prinz, J. Appl. Phys. 87,5 4 6 3 /H208492000 /H20850.
17M. J. Pechan, C. Yua, D. Carrb, and C. J. Palmstrøm, J. Magn. Magn.
Mater. 286, 340 /H208492005 /H20850.
18S. S. Kalarickal, P. Krivosik, M. Wu, C. E. Patton, M. L. Schneider, P.
Kabos, T. J. Silva, and J. P. Nibarger, J. Appl. Phys. 99, 093909 /H208492006 /H20850.
19R. Yilgin, M. Oogane, Y. Ando, and T. Miyazaki, J. Magn. Magn. Mater.
310, 2322 /H208492007 /H20850.
20R. Yilgin, Y. Sakuraba, M. Oogane, S. Mizumaki, Y. Ando, and T.
Miyazaki, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Part 2 46, L205 /H208492007 /H20850.
21S. Trudel, O. Gaier, J. Hamrle, and B. Hillebrands, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.
43, 193001 /H208492010 /H20850.456789 1 0253035404550Field linewidth ΔH( O e )
Frequenc y(GHz)VNA-FMR measurements
Fit
FIG. 6. Line-width /H9004Has a function of the resonance frequency for 55-nm-
thick film. /H9004His derived from the experimental VNA-FMR frequency-
swept line-width.
0 50 100 150 200 250 300102030405060708090100Anisotropy fields (Oe)
Temperature (K)Hu
H4
FIG. 7. /H20849Color online /H20850Temperature-dependence of the fourfold anisotropy
field /H20849H4/H20850and the unixial anisotropy field /H20849Hu/H20850of the 55-nm-thick film,
measured by FMR at 9.5 GHz.063926-6 Belmeguenai et al. J. Appl. Phys. 108, 063926 /H208492010 /H20850
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137.189.170.231 On: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 04:47:53 |
1.3651792.pdf | Vibro-acoustics of organ pipes—Revisiting the Miller
experiment (L)
F . Gautier,a)G. Nief, J. Gilbert, and J. P . Dalmont
Laboratoire d’Acoustique de l’Universite ´ du Maine, UMR CNRS 6613 Avenue O. Messiaen,
72085 Le Mans Cedex 9, France
(Received 23 November 2010; revised 6 July 2011; accepted 6 July 2011)
A century ago, Science published a spectacular experimental study on the physics of organ pipes.
Dayton C. Miller observed experimentally that the sound produced by an organ pipe can depend onthe vibration of its walls, in addition to its internal geometry and the interaction between the air jet
and the labium. The Miller experiment has been repeated and an interpretation is now proposed in
terms of vibroacoustic coupling mechanisms between walls and internal fluid, which can lead to“pathological” behavior.
VC2012 Acoustical Society of America . [DOI: 10.1121/1.3651792]
PACS number(s): 43.75.Np, 43.75.Yy [JW] Pages: 737–738
I. INTRODUCTION
How does the wall material of a wind instrument affect
its sound? This question has engendered a long-lasting
debate among scientists, musicians, and instrument makers.One way the material might have an effect is related to
vibrations of the instrument walls. Acousticians explain that
the behavior of a wind instrument is governed by the acousti-cal response of the pipe—its input impedance—which is
mainly determined by its internal geometry—the bore. This
gives the wall vibrations a negligible role. On the contrary,some makers or musicians think they play a significant part.
The literature on this subject has thus sometimes provided
various and outwardly contradictory results.
In fact, the wall vibrations are easily felt or measured on
most wind instruments. However, their influence on the pro-
duced sound is more difficult to bring to light, because thefluid-structure couplings involved are weak.
A century ago in Science, Dayton C. Miller,
1one of the
founding members of the Acoustical Society of America,published an experimental study
2about materials and vibra-
tions of organ pipes. He compared flue pipes having rectan-
gular cross section, of identical internal geometry, but withdifferent thicknesses and construction materials. In one of
these experiments using a double walled organ pipe, the
space between the two walls could be filled with water whilethe pipe was sounded, presumably damping the wall vibra-
tions. Miller then observed, without explaining it, that the
filling led to unusual behavior of the pipe, clearly audible.Some heights of the water jacket produced pitch changes or
inharmonic and unstable tones. The aim of this paper is to
present experimental results obtained from a copy of thisexperiment and to interpret them according to recent results
on vibroacoustics of musical wave-guides.
II. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The experiment [Fig. 1(a)], often referenced in musical
acoustics, was reproduced [Fig. 1(b)] in the Laboratoired’Acoustique de l’Universite ´ du Maine, UMR CNRS, France.
An organ zinc pipe, whose cross section is rectangular
(5.8 cm /C27.1 cm) and whose thickness is 0.5 mm was
surrounded by a pipe of larger cross section to form a double-
walled pipe; the space between the walls could be filled with
water. Figure 1(c) presents a time-frequency analysis of the
sound recorded at 15 cm outside the labium while the double
wall is continuously filled with water. In the experiment, the
relationship between time and water height is hðtÞ¼ _ht,
where the filling speed _his equal to 5 mm s/C01.
The fundamental frequency rises about a semi-tone
throughout the whole experiment, due to thermal effects.During the filling some “accidents” occur that are more note-
worthy. Pitch changes and unstable tones are indeed clearly
audible. In Fig. 1(c) the arrows on the second harmonic
show respectively a strong pitch change (1), an unstable tone
(2), and a silence (3). The silence corresponds to a break up
of the self-sustained oscillation. This phenomenon was notobserved by Miller in his original paper.
III. INTERPRETATION
These spectacular experimental facts are due to an inter-
nal vibroacoustic coupling mechanism. The walls have been
set in vibration by the internal acoustic field, but in these
cases acoustic radiation from the vibrating walls to the exter-nal field does not have a significant effect. Instead, the oscil-
lation is disturbed by strong sound waves produced inside
the instrument by the vibrating walls. This occurs when oneof the acoustical resonance frequencies of the air column
and one of the mechanical resonance frequencies of the wall
coincide. In the experiment, the mechanical resonance fre-quencies vary as the water rises, because it affects the effec-
tive mass and stiffness of the walls. The variations of the
mechanical resonance frequencies has been confirmed bymodal testing made with an impact hammer and an acceler-
ometer located at the top of pipe. In a parallel experiment
described in Ref. 3, a rigid slide is connected to a test tube.
In such a way, the acoustical resonance can be changed,
without modifying the mechanical resonance frequencies of
the test tube, in order to satisfy or not the coincidence
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:
gautier@univ-lemans.fr
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 131(1), Pt. 2, January 2012 VC2012 Acoustical Society of America 737 0001-4966/2012/131(1)/737/2/$30.00condition. When it is satisfied, some tone color changes are
also measured.
The input impedance of the pipe can be calculated
using a model that includes the coupling between the air
column and the vibrating walls.3This model shows that a
deformable wall can sometimes shift acoustical resonance
frequencies enough to disturb t he harmonic relationships
that are important for self-sustaining oscillations of the fluepipe.
IV. CONCLUSION
The debate about the influence of wall materials will
continue, because they are important in some contexts and
less so in others. However, a re-examination of the vibroa-
coustics of Miller’s experiment shows convincingly how thecoupling between the wall vibrations and the air column can
be strong enough to cause drastic effects when the acoustical
and mechanical resonances match. The spectacular effect ofwall vibrations on the sound produced by the organ pipe is
explained by a coincidence phenomenon between acousticand mechanical resonances.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors are grateful to M. Walther (Centre National
de Formation des Apprentis Facteurs d’Orgues, Eschau,
France), to E. Boyer, G. Estienne, R. Le Goaziou, C. Pineau(Ecole Nationale Supe ´rieure d’Inge ´nieurs du Mans, France),
and to P. Hoekje for their contribution.
1P. Hoekje, Dayton C. Miller, Echoes 13(1), 1–7 (2003).
2D. Miller, “The influence of the material of wind-instruments on the tone
quality,” Science 29(735), 161–171 (1909).
3G. Nief, F. Gautier, J. P. Dalmont, and J. Gilbert, “Influence of wall vibra-
tions on the behavior of a simplified wind instrument,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.124, 1320–1331 (2008).
4D. Miller, The Science of Musical Sounds (MacMillan, New York, 1926), p. 180.
FIG. 1. (Color online) (a) Photograph of Miller’s historical experiment (from Ref. 4). (b) Diagram of experiment set-up using an organ pipe, as similar as pos-
sible to the one used by Miller. (c) Time-frequency analysis of the sound. In this spectrogram, time has been converted to water height (vertical axis) using the
constant filling rate. Arrows indicate a strong pitch change (1), an unstable tone (2), and silence (3).
738 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 131, No. 1, Pt. 2, January 2012 Gautier et al.: Letters to the EditorCopyright of Journal of the Acoustical Society of America is the property of American Institute of Physics and
its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's
express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. |
1.4961371.pdf | Exceptionally high magnetization of stoichiometric Y 3Fe5O12 epitaxial films grown on
Gd3Ga5O12
James C. Gallagher , Angela S. Yang , Jack T. Brangham , Bryan D. Esser , Shane P. White , Michael R. Page ,
Keng-Yuan Meng , Sisheng Yu , Rohan Adur , William Ruane , Sarah R. Dunsiger , David W. McComb , Fengyuan
Yang , and P. Chris Hammel
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 072401 (2016); doi: 10.1063/1.4961371
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4961371
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apl/109/7
Published by the American Institute of Physics
Exceptionally high magnetization of stoichiometric Y 3Fe5O12epitaxial films
grown on Gd 3Ga5O12
James C. Gallagher,1Angela S. Yang,1Jack T. Brangham,1Bryan D. Esser,2
Shane P . White,1Michael R. Page,1Keng-Yuan Meng,1Sisheng Yu,1Rohan Adur,1
William Ruane,1Sarah R. Dunsiger,1David W. McComb,2Fengyuan Yang,1
and P . Chris Hammel1
1Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
2Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis, Department of Materials Science and Engineering,
The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
(Received 31 May 2016; accepted 7 August 2016; published online 15 August 2016)
The saturation magnetization of Y 3Fe5O12(YIG) epitaxial films 4 to 250 nm in thickness has been
determined by complementary measurements including the angular and frequency dependencies ofthe ferromagnetic resonance fields as well as magnetometry measurements. The YIG films exhibit
state-of-the-art crystalline quality, proper stoichiometry, and pure Fe
3þvalence state. The values of
YIG magnetization obtained from all the techniques significantly exceed previously reportedvalues for single crystal YIG and the theoretical maximum. This enhancement of magnetization,
not attributable to off-stoichiometry or other defects in YIG, opens opportunities for tuning
magnetic properties in epitaxial films of magnetic insulators. Published by AIP Publishing.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4961371 ]
Y
3Fe5O12(YIG) is one of the most thoroughly studied
magnetic materials and has been widely used in microwave
applications in the past several decades due to its exceptionally
low magnetic damping.1In recent years, YIG has played a cen-
tral role in the emerging fields of ferromagnetic resonance
(FMR) spin pumping and therm ally driven spin calori-
tronics.2–9Previous studies and applications almost exclusively
used bulk YIG crystals or lm-thick YIG films synthesized by
liquid phase epitaxy. More recently, high quality thin YIG
films of a few to hundreds of nm thickness grown by pulsed
laser deposition10,11and sputtering3,12,13have attracted much
attention and revealed exciting phenomena, particularly in spin
pumping.2,12–14The static and dynamic magnetic characteris-
tics of the YIG thin films depend on crystalline ordering, stoi-
chiometry, and defect level. These characteristics in turn
determine the behavior of spin transport in YIG-based hetero-structures. Despite the extensive use of YIG thin films for these
studies, a thorough characteriz ation of the magnetization is
generally lacking. Here, we report a systematic study of high
quality YIG films grown by off-axis sputtering using comple-
mentary characterization techn iques, which exhibit a surpris-
ingly high magnetization.
YIG epitaxial films, 4 to 250 nm thick, were deposited
on Gd
3Ga5O12(GGG) (111) substrates using an ultrahigh
vacuum off-axis sputter deposition system.12,13A sputtering
gas of Ar þ1.05% O 2with a total pressure of 11.5 mTorr
was used. EPI-polished single crystal GGG substrates with a
surface roughness of <5A˚were purchased from MTI
Corporation. The GGG substrates were heated to 750/C14C for
YIG deposition and rotated at 10/C14/s. The growth rate was
16 nm/h at a radio-frequency power of 60 W.
We extensively characterized the quality and purity of
the YIG films. These studies revealed highly ordered films
essentially free of defects and impurities. The structuralquality of the YIG films was examined by X-ray diffraction
(XRD) using a Bruker D8 triple-axis X-ray diffractometer.Figure 1shows the 2 h-xscans for five YIG films 16, 24, 40,
80, and 164 nm thick, all of which exhibit distinct Laue
oscillations, indicating that the films are highly crystalline,ordered, and uniform. Although the YIG(444) peak is over-
shadowed by the GGG(444) peak, the YIG(444) peak posi-
tion can be accurately determined from the Laue oscillationsatellite peaks. The out-of-plane spacing between adjacent
YIG (111) planes is 7.175, 7.169, 7.161, 7.154, and 7.153 A ˚,
corresponding to YIG cubic lattice constants of 12.427,12.417, 12.403, 12.391, and 12.390 A ˚for the 16, 24, 40, 80,
FIG. 1. XRD 2 h-xscans of YIG films of thickness tYIG¼16, 24, 40, 80,
and 164 nm grown on the GGG(111) substrate near the YIG(444) peak (indi-
cated by the arrows), from which the out-of-plane spacing of the YIG(111)
planes is determined. The spectra are shifted vertically for clarity. Inset:
2h-xscan of a 160 nm YIG film epitaxially grown on a YAG(001) substrate.
0003-6951/2016/109(7)/072401/5/$30.00 Published by AIP Publishing. 109, 072401-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 109, 072401 (2016)
and 164 nm films, respectively. Given the dislocation-free,
full epitaxy shown below by STEM images, the in-plane lat-tice constant of the YIG films should equal that of GGG(12.383 A ˚), resulting in minimal epitaxial strain with very
small tetragonal distortions between 0.36% (16 nm) and
0.057% (164 nm).
The crystalline ordering of the 164 nm YIG film was fur-
ther characterized by high-angle annular dark field scanning
transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) using an
FEI probe-corrected Titan
380–300S/TEM. Figure 2(a)shows
a large-area STEM image of the (111)-oriented YIG/GGGviewed along the h110idirection, which demonstrates the
high uniformity of the YIG film without any detectabledefects. It directly measures the thickness of the film
(164 nm). We also performed energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX)
spectroscopy over the area marked by the yellow dashed box,which gives an atomic (at. %) composition of Y: 14.9 61.2
at. %, Fe: 25.0 63.4 at. %, and O: 60.1 63.9 at. % using
experimentally determined Cliff-Lorimer k-factors from astandard of equal thickness. This confirms proper stoichiome-try (3:5:12 ¼15%:25%:60%) within the instrument sensitiv-
ity. A high-resolution STEM image in Fig. 2(b) reveals clear
atomic ordering of Y and Fe in the garnet lattice. In HAADF-STEM or “ Z-contrast” ( Z: atomic number) imaging, scatter-
ing is Rutherford-like in nature leading to an intensity that isapproximately proportional to Z
2: the most intense columns
are pure Y ( Z¼39), the least intense are pure Fe ( Z¼26),
and the intermediate-intensity columns contain alternating
Y/Fe atoms. Thus, we identify the alternating pure Y andpure Fe columns along the blue dashed lines, while the greenbox marks a triplet of (Y/Fe)-Fe-(Y/Fe), which matches theoverlaying h110iprojection of the YIG lattice.
FIG. 2. HAADF-STEM images of a
164 nm YIG film grown on GGG (111)
viewed along the h110idirection. (a) A
low magnification STEM imagereveals that the film is highly uniform
without any detectable defects. The
yellow dashed box is the region of the
EDX measurement. (b) An atomic res-
olution STEM image of the YIG film,
where the two perpendicular dashed
lines indicate the alternating Y (bright)and Fe (dim) atomic columns. The
green box encloses a (Y/Fe)-Fe-(Fe/Y)
triplet chain. (c) A STEM image of the
YIG/GGG epitaxial interface shows
excellent continuity and no defects.
The yellow box highlights a chain of -
Ga-Gd-Fe-Y- atoms across the inter-face. (d) An EELS scan of the Fe L
2,3
edge in the YIG film, where the dashed
line indicates the Fe3þmaximum on
the Fe L3peak at 709.5 eV and no
detectable Fe2þat 707.8 eV. (e) EDX
line scans for Y, Fe, Gd, and Ga across
the interface as indicated by the reddashed line in (c).072401-2 Gallagher et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 072401 (2016)
The STEM image of the YIG/GGG interface shown in
Fig.2(c)demonstrates a smooth transition from GGG to YIG
without any visible transition lay er or detectable defects such
as dislocations. This high quality epitaxy arises from the factthat YIG and GGG are nearly perfectly matched with a lattice
mismatch of only 0.057%, which is also why GGG is the ideal
substrate for YIG growth. It clearly shows the atomic ordering
of Gd/Ga in the GGG and Y/Fe in the YIG. The yellow box in
Fig.2(c)highlights a chain of -Ga-Gd-Fe-Y- atoms across the
interface. The atomic ordering o f YIG near the interface is the
same as anywhere else deep in the YIG film.
In stoichiometric YIG, all Fe atoms should be Fe
3þwhere
oxygen deficiency can lead to the presence of Fe2þions. To
test for oxygen deficiency, we used electron energy loss spec-
troscopy (EELS) to measure the valence state of Fe in the YIG
film. Figure 2(d) shows an EELS scan of the Fe L2,3edge in
t h eY I Gfi l m ,w h e r eo n l yt h eF e3þL3(L2) peak is present with
the maximum at 709.5 eV (722.6 eV) and no Fe2þat 707.8 eV
(720.4 eV) is detected.15,16Quantitative analysis of the L2,3
edge gives 99.0 63.9% Fe3þ, indicating a stoichiometric oxi-
dation state. To probe whether there is interdiffusion at theYIG/GGG interface, we performed EDX line scans across the
interface as indicated by the red dashed line in Fig. 2(c).
Figure 2(e)shows the atomic percentages of Y, Fe, Gd, and Ga
as a function of distance from the interface, which provides
evidence of an interfacial transition region (from 0 to fullintensity) of 1.4, 4.9, 2.8, and 4.8 nm, respectively. There is no
detectable Gd and Ga in the YIG film beyond a few nm from
the interface. The widths of the interfacial transition region
may be due to delocalization of the X-ray emission signal or
interdiffusion. As shown below, since the 4 nm YIG filmexhibits high magnetization (2052 G) similar to that of the
thicker films, the interdiffusion layer should be much thinner
than 4 nm; thus, the widths of the EDX transition region are
mostly due to delocalization of the X-ray emission.
Ferromagnetic resonance is a precise spectroscopic tech-
nique for quantitative measurement of magnetization and
magnetic anisotropy. The angular dependencies of the FMRabsorption for all of the YIG samples were measured in a
microwave cavity using an X-band Bruker electron paramag-
netic resonance (EPR) spectrometer. Figure 3(a) shows the
derivative FMR absorption spectra for the 16 nm YIG film at
a resonance frequency f¼9.61 GHz with the orientation of
the applied magnetic field varying from in-plane ( h
H¼90/C14)
to out-of-plane ( hH¼0/C14) [see Fig. 3(b) for the experimental
setup]. The in-plane linewidth is DH¼4.3 G as shown in Fig.
3(c), which is very narrow for a 16 nm YIG film on GGG and
indicates high magnetic uniformity. By plotting the angulardependence ( h
H) of the FMR resonance field ( Hres), we can
determine the effective saturation magnetization, 4 pMeff
¼4pMsþH2?, where Msis the saturation magnetization
and H2?is the out-of-plane uniaxial anisotropy. The free
energy for a cubic crystal structure in the presence of anapplied magnetic field can be calculated using,
13,17
E¼/C0H/C1Mþ1
2M4pMeffcos2h/C01
2H4?cos4h/C26
/C01
8H4jj3þcos4/ ðÞ sin4h/C0H2jjsin2hsin2//C0p
4/C18/C19/C27
;(1)where H4?is the out-of-plane cubic anisotropy, H4jjis the
in-plane cubic anisotropy, H2jjis the in-plane uniaxial anisot-
ropy, and hand/are the angles describing the orientation of
the equilibrium magnetization ( M) with respect to the film
normal and in-plane easy axes, respectively. The equilibrium
orientation ( h;/) at each hHcan be obtained by minimizing
Ein Eq. (1)13,18
2pf
c/C18/C192
¼1
M2sin2hd2E
dh2d2E
du2/C0d2E
dhdu !22
43
5; (2)
where cis the gyromagnetic ratio, from which the effective
saturation magnetization can be extracted. Figures 3(d) and
FIG. 3. (a) Derivative FMR absorption spectra of a 16 nm YIG film taken at
various angles ranging from in plane ( hH¼90/C14) to out of plane ( hH¼0/C14), as
schematically shown in (b). (c) The FMR spectrum for the 16 nm YIG film in
an in-plane field exhibiting a narrow linewidth of 4.3 G. The angular ( hH)
dependence of the FMR resonance fie ld for (d) a 16 nm and (e) a 164 nm YIG
film, from which the effective saturation magnetization (4 pMeff) is extracted.
(f) The effective saturation magnetization (4 pMeff) for YIG films 4–250 nm
thick obtained from the angular and frequency dependencies of Hres,t h es a t u r a -
tion magnetization (4 pMs) of the 164 nm and 250 nm YIG films measured from
in-plane hysteresis loops by VSM, and the saturation field ( Hsat) of the 164 nm
and 250 nm films determined from the out-of-plane hysteresis loops by VSM.
As a comparison, the room -temperature value of 4 pMsfor YIG bulk crystals is
shown as a dashed line. All results s hown here are for room temperature.072401-3 Gallagher et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 072401 (2016)
3(e) show the angular dependencies of Hresfor the 16 and
164 nm YIG films at room temperature, which give4pM
eff¼2172613 and 2141 632 G, respectively. The sat-
uration magnetization ( Ms) can be calculated by subtracting
H2?from 4 pMeff. Previously, we studied the magnetocrys-
talline anisotropy as a function of the tetragonal distortion ofYIG films grown on Y
3Al5O12(YAG).13From this depen-
dence and the tetragonal distortion of the YIG films reportedhere—between 0.36% and 0.057%—the induced uniaxialanisotropy term would be rather small: 166 G for the 16 nm
YIG films and 38 G for the 164 nm film. Thus, 4 pM
effnearly
equals 4 pMs, especially for the thicker films. The values of
4pMeffobtained from the angular dependencies of Hresfor
YIG films from 4 to 250 nm thick are shown in Fig. 3(f),
ranging between 2052 G (4 nm) and 2261 G (250 nm) atroom temperature. All of these values are significantly higherthan the previously reported saturation magnetization of
1797 G for YIG single crystals,
19motivating further investi-
gation to confirm these results.
A second method to determine the YIG saturation mag-
netization is through the frequency dependence of Hres.W e
measured FMR absorption of the YIG films at frequencies
ranging from 4 to 20 GHz using a microwave stripline. For
each measurement, the magnetic field was swept with themicrowave frequency fixed. The FMR signal was detectedby applying a small modulation to the magnetic field andmeasuring the differential reflected microwave power with aStanford Research 850 Lock-In amplifier after passing thereflected microwave signal through a DC-blocked, zero-
biased Schottky diode detector. 4 pM
effcan be determined
from the frequency dependence of Hresby fitting to the Kittel
formula,20,21x¼cffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
HresðHresþ4pMeffÞp
. Figures 4(a) and
4(b) show two representative fvs.Hresplots for the 16 and
164 nm YIG films, from which we obtain 4 pMeff¼227368
and 2156 612 G, respectively. The values of 4 pMefffor
YIG films of 8–250 nm thickness, obtained from thefrequency dependence of Hres, are also shown in Fig. 3(f).
All of these (2156 to 2347 G) are again well above thereported value of 1797 G for YIG single crystals,
19even after
subtraction of the out-of-plane anisotropy field. From the fre-
quency dependence of the FMR linewidth, DH, we can deter-
mine the Gilbert damping constant, a, of the YIG films
using,9,21DH¼DHinhþ4pafffiffi
3p
c, where DHinhis the inhomoge-
neous broadening. Figures 4(c) and4(d) show the DHvs.f
plots for the 16 and 164 nm YIG films, yieldinga¼6.6/C210
/C04and 9.4 /C210/C04, respectively, which are repre-
sentative for all of our YIG films. The inhomogeneousbroadening of the YIG films ranges from 1.6 to 4.4 G. These
low values of aandDH
inhare additional verification of the
quality of these YIG films and well controlled oxidationstates since oxygen deficiency increases damping.
9,21
To further confirm the surprisingly large magnetization of
our YIG films obtained from the angular and frequency depen-
dencies of Hres, we measured the saturation magnetization
(4pMs) of the 164 and 250 nm YIG films using a LakeShore
vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) at room temperature.Given the large paramagnetic background of the GGG sub-strate, these two thick films gi ve the highest accuracy in the
magnetization measurements. Figure 5(a)shows the room tem-
perature in-plane hysteresis loop for the 164 nm YIG film after
subtraction of the paramagnetic background, which gives4pM
s¼2020650 G. Similarly, the 250 nm YIG film was
f o u n dt oh a v e4 pMs¼2085650 G. Both are considerably
higher than the 1797 G reported for single crystal YIG at roomtemperature, confirming a surprisingly large saturation magne-
tization of our YIG films. In addition, the YIG films exhibit
very small coercivity ( H
c) with sharp magnetic reversal, such
as in our earlier report of YIG films with Hc¼0.35 Oe and a
nearly ideal square hysteresis loop, further indicating the highmagnetic uniformity and low defect density of the YIG films.
22
Figure 5(b)shows an out-of-plane magnetic hysteresis loop of
the 164 nm YIG film, where the saturation field, Hsat¼2070 G,
equals the effective saturation m agnetization, corroborating the
values obtained from th e FMR measurements.
We also measured the temperature dependence of satu-
ration magnetization for the 164 and 250 nm films in the
VSM, as shown in Figs. 5(c)and5(d), which exhibit a Curie
temperature of 530 and 520 K, respectively, slightly belowthe value of 559 K reported for single crystal YIG.
19In addi-
tion, the angular dependence of the FMR was measured atlow temperatures down to 20 K and the results are shown in
Figs. 5(c) and5(d). Despite the small differences between
the saturation magnetizations obtained from the angulardependence of H
res, in-plane VSM, and out-of-plane VSM
measurements, all of the data show low temperature satura-tion magnetization around 3000 G. This is well above thevalue of 2470 G reported for bulk YIG at 4.2 K,
19and more
surprisingly, clearly higher than the maximum theoretical
value of 2459 G at 0 K for Y 3Fe5O12.
Similarly, high magnetization has been previously
reported for YIG films grown by pulsed-laser deposition.11,23
For example, Kelly et al. obtained 4 pMs¼2100 G for 20
and 7 nm YIG films grown on GGG,23which was attributed
to an off-stoichiometry in their YIG films. However, ourSTEM, EDX, and EELS results demonstrate that our YIGFIG. 4. Frequency vs. resonance field plots of the (a) 16 nm and (b) 164 nm
YIG films give the effective magnetization by fitting to the Kittel formula.
Frequency dependencies of FMR linewidths of (c) a 16 nm and (d) 164 nmYIG film, from which the damping constants a¼(6.660.4)/C210
/C04and
(9.460.5)/C210/C04, respectively, are extracted.072401-4 Gallagher et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 072401 (2016)
films on GGG are stoichiometric without any detectable Gd
or Ga in YIG and all Fe atoms are in the 3 þstate (no Fe2þ)
within the resolution of the techniques. Thus, off-
stoichiometry is not the cause of the high magnetization mea-
sured by multiple techniques in our YIG films over a broadrange of thicknesses, but the underlying mechanism for this
interesting phenomenon remains a tantalizing puzzle deserv-
ing further study. To elucidate whether the GGG substrateaffects the YIG magnetization, we grew a 160 nm YIG film
on the Y
3Al5O12(YAG) (001) substrate. The measured mag-
netization of the YIG/YAG sample at various temperaturesusing VSM is shown in Fig. 5(c), which is clearly lower than
that of the YIG films on GGG. A possible explanation for thisdecrease is the lower quality of YIG on YAG due to the larger
lattice mismatch (3%). However, the XRD scan in the inset toFig.1for this YIG/YAG sample demonstrates that the 160 nm
YIG film is still of high crystalline quality with clear Laueoscillations and fully relaxed with a lattice constant of12.386 A ˚. Thus, the surprisingly high magnetization observed
in YIG/GGG could be due to some unexpected effect of theGGG substrate on the YIG films. Future characterization ofthese YIG films with high magnetization, such as element-specific magnetic moment measurements, and theoreticalinsights will be needed to reveal the underlying mechanismfor this surprising observation. Nevertheless, the ability totune the magnetization of a technologically important mag-netic material such as YIG via epitaxy can potentially openopportunities for microwave and spintronic applications.
This work was primarily supported by National Science
Foundation under Grant No. DMR-1507274 (sample growth andcharacterization, ISHE measurements and analysis). This workw a ss u p p o r t e di np a r tb yU . S .D e p a r t m e n to fE n e r g y( D O E ) ,Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, under Award No. DE-FG02–03ER46054 (FMR measurements and modeling) and theCenter for Emergent Materials, an NSF-funded MRSEC, underGrant No. DMR-1420451 (STEM characterization).
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Kutrowski, and T. Wojtowicz, J. Appl. Phys. 98, 063904 (2005).
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20C. Kittel, Phys. Rev. 73, 155 (1948).
21S. S. Kalarickal, P. Krivosik, M. Wu, C. E. Patton, M. L. Schneider, P.
Kabos, T. J. Silva, and J. P. Nibarger, J. Appl. Phys. 99, 093909 (2006).
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172603 (2015).
23O. d’Allivy Kelly, A. Anane, R. Bernard, J. Ben Youssef, C. Hahn, A. H.
Molpeceres, C. Carretero, E. Jacquet, C. Deranlot, P. Bortolotti, R.
Lebourgeois, J. C. Mage, G. de Loubens, O. Klein, V. Cros, and A. Fert,Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 082408 (2013).FIG. 5. (a) Room temperature in-plane hysteresis loop of a 164 nm YIG film
after subtraction of the GGG substrate background, which gives a saturation
magnetization of 2020 G. Inset: raw M-H loop (b) Room temperature out-
of-plane hysteresis loop of the 164 nm YIG film after subtraction of GGG
background. The arrows indicate the saturation field Hsat¼2100 Oe which
corresponds to the value of 4 pMeff. Temperature dependencies of the effec-
tive saturation magnetization obtained from the angular dependence of the
FMR resonance field, the saturation magnetization measured by VSMin-plane hysteresis loops, and the saturation field obtained from VSM
out-of-plane hysteresis loops for (c) a 164 nm and (d) 250 nm YIG film. The
saturation magnetization of a 160 nm YIG film grown on YAG measured by
VSM in-plane hysteresis loops is also shown in (c).072401-5 Gallagher et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 072401 (2016)
|
1.4978435.pdf | Orientation and characterization of immobilized antibodies for improved
immunoassays (Review)
Nicholas G. Welch Judith A. Scoble and Benjamin W. Muir Paul J. Pigram
Citation: Biointerphases 12, 02D301 (2017); doi: 10.1116/1.4978435
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.4978435
View Table of Contents: http://avs.scitation.org/toc/bip/12/2
Published by the American Vacuum SocietyOrientation and characterization of immobilized antibodies for improved
immunoassays (Review)
Nicholas G. Welch
Centre for Materials and Surface Science and Department of Chemistry and Physics, School of Molecular
Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia and CSIRO Manufacturing, Clayton,
VIC 3168, Australia
Judith A. Scoble and Benjamin W. Muir
CSIRO Manufacturing, Clayton, VIC 3168, Australia
Paul J. Pigrama)
Centre for Materials and Surface Science and Department of Chemistry and Physics,
School of Molecular Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia
(Received 19 January 2017; accepted 28 February 2017; published 16 March 2017)
Orientation of surface immobilized capture proteins, such as antibodies, plays a critical role in the
performance of immunoassays. The sensitivity of immunodiagnostic procedures is dependent onpresentation of the antibody, with optimum performance requiring the antigen binding sites be
directed toward the solution phase. This review describes the most recent methods for oriented
antibody immobilization and the characterization techniques employed for investigation of theantibody state. The introduction describes the importance of oriented antibodies for maximizing
biosensor capabilities. Methods for improving antibody binding are discussed, including surface
modification and design (with sections on surface treatments, three-dimensional substrates, self-assembled monolayers, and molecular imprinting), covalent attachment (including targeting amine,
carboxyl, thiol and carbohydrates, as well as “click” chemistries), and (bio)affinity techniques
(with sections on material binding peptides, biotin-streptavidin interaction, DNA directed immobi-lization, Protein A and G, Fc binding peptides, aptamers, and metal affinity). Characterization tech-
niques for investigating antibody orientation are discussed, including x-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, dual polarization interferometry, neutron reflectometry,atomic force microscopy, and time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry. Future
perspectives and recommendations are offered in conclusion.
VC2017 Author(s). All article content,
except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).[http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.4978435 ]
I. INTRODUCTION
Immunodiagnostics, protein biochips, and biosensors
employed for antigen detection and quantification from bio-logical samples often employ recognition proteins such as
antibodies.
1–4Assay sensitivity is dependent on immobiliza-
tion of the capture antibodies onto a solid support with a suf-ficient surface density, a conformation that is representative
of their native, solution-phase state, and an orientation that
maximizes their antigen capture potential.
Antibodies are biopolymers of approximately 150 kDa
molecular mass and with dimensions of approximately
14/C210/C24 nm (Refs. 3and5) comprised of amino acids
whose sequence and composition, like other proteins, define
the three-dimensional structure.
6An antibody is comprised of
two fragment antigen binding (Fab) regions and a fragmentcrystallizable region (Fc). The Fab regions, joined by the hinge
region, is known as F(ab
0)2fragment. The Fab regions are dis-
similar in their composition, isoelectric point, and physicalstructure to the Fc region of the antibody (Fc), allowing deter-
mination of antibody orienta tion on the surface. Ideally, the
immobilized antibody is oriente d such that the Fc is substratefacing, sometimes referred to as “end-on”; however, randomly
immobilized antibodies may assume various surface orienta-
tions, including those loosely referred to as “head-on,” “side-on,” and “lying-on” (see Fig. 1).
7
Generally, hydrophobic amino acids are internalized in a
correctly folded protein structure, leaving hydrophilic resi-dues at the antibody surface, with chemically reactive func-tionalities, including amine, carboxyl, and hydroxyl groups.Disulfides, such as those that contribute to the hinge region,can be reduced to make thiol species that can also be conju-
gated. Further, sites for targeted immobilization (including
natural or non-natural amino acids) can be introducedrecombinantly to antibodies.
8–10
Physical adsorption of antibodies onto traditional immu-
noassay solid supports, such as polystyrene, occurs viahydrophobic and electrostatic interactions.
11While this
method offers the simplest attachment pathway, it is uncon-trollable, and antibodies can be immobilized in a randomly
oriented manner, denatured, or displaced in later steps by
washing.
12–14The substrate design has increased the capabil-
ities of immunoassays by improving antibody binding capac-ity and reducing denaturation at the surface.
15Covalent
attachment of the antibody, via its functional groups, tochemically engineered substrates has resulted in further
a)Electronic mail: p.pigram@latrobe.edu.au
02D301-1 Biointer phases 12(2), June 2017 1934-8630/2017/12(2)/02D301/13 VCAuthor(s) 2017.
02D301-1
improvements in antibody density, though often these meth-
ods are not site-directed and unfavorable random orientation
can occur.16In an ideal scenario, antibodies should be
immobilized in their native form, without the need for intro-duced functional groups, in a homogeneous arrangement
such that their antigen binding sites are free from steric hin-
drance and are oriented so as to maximize complementarybinding. A method that truly provides the ideal scenario has
yet to be realized; however, recent developments, as dis-
cussed in this review, offer improved control over antibodyimmobilization and orientation at the interface.
In parallel with the development and evolution of immo-
bilization methods, a significant need has emerged for sur-face characterization techniques that can accurately identify
antibody orientation at a substrate. Current techniques that
rely on indirect analysis, or inference from complex models,make definitive conclusions regarding orientation difficult.
17
Advances in data processing and multivariate analysis haveprovided an improved level of understanding of complexsurfaces, and direct surface analysis techniques, such as
time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS),
provide molecular information that has the potential to deter-mine antibody orientation with confidence.
This review is structured into two parts. First, a review of
current antibody immobilization strategies, including surfacemodification, antibody targeting, and coupling, will be pre-
sented. Second, advances in characterization techniques for
investigating these systems will be explored, including indi-rect and direct analyses. The advantages and shortfalls of
strategies and techniques will be addressed, and the review
will conclude with future perspectives and recommendations.II. IMPROVING ANTIBODY BINDING AT THE
INTERFACE
A. Surface modification and design strategies
Physical adsorption is the simplest method for the immo-
bilization of antibodies to immunoassay solid supports,such as microtiter plates. However, this method does notallow control of the antibody orientation and is typically
associated with poor binding and denaturation.
18Microtiter
plate manufacturers utilize polymers such as polystyrene,polypropylene, polyethylene, and cyclic olefin copolymerblends, employing surface modification methods to increasethe hydrophilicity of substrates. The increase in hydrophilic-
ity can increase antibody binding (density) and decrease the
amount of denatured protein. Polymer substrates are the tra-ditional immobilization platform for immunoassay as theyprovide a cheap, stable, reproducible substrate that is easy tomanufacture with precision.
1. Plasma treatment and plasma polymers
Plasma treatment is a surface modification method that
uses radio-frequency glow-discharge to generate a plasma ofa gas or monomer vapor. Microtiter plates have been treated
with oxygen, nitrogen, and other gas plasmas to create chem-
ical functionalities at the surface, thereby reducing thehydrophobicity of the plastic.
19Similarly, nonreactive gases
such as argon can be used to “activate” the surface by intro-ducing radicals, which react with atmospheric species upon
exposure to air.
20Plasma treatment offers a method to func-
tionalize existing substrates’ increasing hydrophilicity21
and reducing denaturation of bound proteins or to provide astarting point for further chemical treatment and covalentgrafting of proteins.
22In a recent example, P ^aslaru et al.23
plasma treated poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) with CO 2,
N2and N 2/H2(25/75) gases to attach carboxyl or amine
functionality for subsequent covalent immobilization ofproteins. N-ethyl- N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide
(EDC)/ N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) chemistry was used to
attach IgG or Protein A (with subsequent IgG binding) to the
PVDF treated surfaces. Possible preferential end-on orienta-
tion of IgG was achieved via the PVDF surfaces treated withN
2/H2and grafted with the Protein A.
Plasmas can also be used to produce polymer thin films
that retain some of the chemistry associated with the mono-
mer. The radicalized monomer fragments bind to the substratesurface, and to one another, creating a ubiquitous surfacecoating referred to as a plasma polymer. This methodology ofcreating polymers allows adherent and continuous coatings tobe formed on a broad range of substrates, including microtiter
plates.
24Plasma polymers have been produced from a diverse
range of monomers, including allylamine,25,26cyclopropyl-
amine,27bromine,28polyethylene glycol (PEG), diethylene
glycol dimethyl ether (diglyme),29–31a n dm a n yo t h e r s ,32,33
providing a broad spectrum of chemical functionalities for
subsequent protein grafting steps, including the option for pat-
terning.34–36Overall, a significant range of polymers have
been used to improve biomolecule immobilization properties
FIG. 1. Antibody orientation, dimensions, and important chemical species
for targeting.02D301-2 Welch et al. : Orientation and characterization of immobilized antibodies 02D301-2
Biointer phases , Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2017of substrates for use in microarray and protein assay applica-
tions.33,37Hasan and Pandey38provide an excellent review of
polymers and plasma techniques for producing materials forprotein immobilization.
2. Three-dimensional substrates
Three-dimensional substrates are attractive as they offer
increased surface area for antibody binding and can mini-mize steric hindrance that may prevent antigen capture.
Porous three-dimensional substrates have been prepared
from a variety of materials, including various polymers, sili-con, glass slides, metals, and gels. Wang and Feng
15provide
an excellent review on three-dimensional substrates with a
focus on the orientation of proteins.
Similarly, gels and sol–gels manufactured from agarose
or dextran have found improved antibody binding due to
their high surface area.1,39In a recent study, Orlov et al.40
employed three-dimensional immunochromatographic nitro-
cellulose membranes impregnated with magnetic nanopar-ticles for use in a strip sensor immunoassay, providing a
solid phase with a large surface area for antibody immobili-
zation. The sensor had a limit of detection of approximately740 fM and had a strong correlation with a standard enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of
prostate specific antigen from serum, though with improved
dynamic range (3.5 orders). One example from Feng et al.
41
utilized repeat units of Protein A genetically fused to the
nickel chelating His-tag. Adjacently immobilized (via a
nickel matrix substrate) the fused proteins order as columnsprotruding from the substrate and could immobilize five anti-bodies via their Fc regions. This three-dimensional protein
construct had a 64-fold increase in antigen detection sensi-
tivity relative to standard IgG immobilization.
3. Self-assembled monolayers
The formation of a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) pro-
vides another means of modifying surface chemistry to pro-mote antibody adsorption or to produce functional groupsfor subsequent covalent attachment.
42SAMs are typically
formed from molecules that contain active functional head-
groups at either end of a hydrocarbon chain and a linear car-bon chain which promote self-assembly when they attach toa surface. The anchoring head-group has an affinity for the
surface, while the other provides a solution-facing chemistry
for protein adsorption or attachment. The central hydrocar-bon chains provide stabilization of the SAM by interchain
hydrophobic interactions.
38
The gold–thiol interaction has been exploited most
commonly by utilizing alkanethiols to provide a linkerthat can bind gold substrates via the thiol group, and offer
customizable chemistry for adsorption or coupling anti-
bodies to SAMs.
43,44Lebec et al.45used alkanethiol SAMs
formed from 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (11-MUA) and1-undecanethiol on gold substrates to produce COOH and
CH
3surface chemistries, respectively. Antibodies were
adsorbed to both substrate types with an increase shown forthe CH 3surface. However, this antibody was found to have
no antigen recognition indicating denaturation or poor ori-
entation, with the latter supported by ToF-SIMS findings.
Chen et al.44demonstrated preferred orientation of mouse
IgG1 (and to a lesser extent IgG2a) by exploiting the anti-
body dipole and the use of charged SAM surfaces. IgG1
adsorbed to a NH 2terminated SAM produced from 11-
amino-1-undecanethiol had a higher antigen/antibody ratio
than a COOH terminated SAM produced from 16-
mercaptohexadecanoic acid. Vashist et al.46provide a good
review of antibody immobilization using silane SAMs on
various substrates for improved surface densities.
4. Molecularly imprinted polymers
Molecular imprinting is a polymerization technique that
uses a molecular template to produce target-specific binding
regions.47Once formed, the target-specific binding sites in
the polymer substrate may selectively immobilize the target,
such as an antibody, from a complex matrix. Bereli et al.48
imprinted a poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) cryogel with
the Fc portion of anti-human-IgG to create an antibody ori-
enting substrate. The Fc portion was then flushed from the
cryogel, which was subsequently activated with carbodii-mide for whole antibody binding. Anti-human-IgG was
then used as a capture antibody to bind IgG from human
plasma and the imprinted cryogel was demonstrated to be at
least three times better than using a nonimprinted cryogel.
This was despite similar amounts of the capture anti-human-
IgG being immobilized, via the nonspecific carbodiimide
method, indicating preferential antibody orientation. In
addition to providing orientating substrates, molecularly
imprinted polymers utilize gel structures with aqueous envi-
ronments that are thought to reduce the probability of protein
denaturation.
49
B. Covalent binding targets
While substrate design is important, the ability to reliably
attach the antibody to a solid support underpins the success
of an immunoassay. The covalent coupling of capture anti-
bodies ensures robust immobilization and can improve den-
sity and orientation outcomes at the substrate. However, for
oriented immobilization, site-directed attachment to the anti-
body is required. The covalent attachment can proceed via
various chemistries dependent on the substrate functionality,
target group on the antibody, and the physical restraints of
the system, i.e., pH, temperature, and degree of conjuga-
tion.33This section will discuss functional groups on anti-
bodies for covalent attachment, including common targets
such as amine, carboxyl, thiol, and carbohydrate moieties
(see Fig. 2for overview). The covalent attachment methods
of proteins are covered in good detail in reviews by Rao
et al.50and Liu and Yu.16
1. Amine and carboxyl groups
Amine and carboxyl groups are ubiquitous throughout an
antibody’s structure and are common at the antibody’s02D301-3 Welch et al. : Orientation and characterization of immobilized antibodies 02D301-3
Biointer phases , Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2017surface due to their polar nature. Amino acids such as lysine
with reactive primary amine side chains, and aspartate and
glutamate with carboxyl side chains, can be targeted forcovalent attachment. Due to their prevalence throughout theantibody surface, site-directed covalent antibody immobili-zation targeting these groups is difficult. Amine and carboxylcoupling (between the substrate and protein) is commonly
attained with carbodiimide chemistry that utilizes EDC com-
bined with succinimidyl esters (such as NHS).
33This method
is known as EDC/NHS coupling and results in robust amidebond formation. EDC/NHS chemistry has been employed asa covalent attachment methodology for immobilization of
proteins and also as a method for the preparation of sub-
strates. Carrigan et al.
51used EDC/NHS in two ways, (1) for
the cross-linking of polyethylenimine and carboxymethylcellulose, and (2) for activation of this substrate for proteinbinding targeting amine and carboxyl functionality. Sun
et al.
52took a novel approach to EDC/NHS coupling by
introducing NHS reactive groups to random sites on an anti-body then using an electric field to preferentially orient theantibody, via its intrinsic dipole, before reaction to the freeamines on cysteine immobilized to a gold electrode.
2. Thiol groups
Disulfide-bridged cysteines, such as those present in the
hinge region of antibodies, can also be targeted by reducingagents such as tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP) or 2-mercaptoethylamine (2-MEA) to form reactive thiols,
8,53
which may subsequently react with maleimide or iodoacetyl
activated surfaces. However, as the cysteines are internal to
the antibody tertiary structure, covalent attachment via thismethod can disrupt the conformation of the antibody
54whilesteric hindrance may limit antigen binding. Exploitation of
the gold–thiol bond makes this immobilization strategy useful
for gold substrates and nanoparticles in techniques such assurface plasmon resonance (SPR).
55UV-excitation has also
been used to initiate photoreduction of disulfide bridges in
hinge regions of antibodies according to an approach known
as the photonic immobilization technique.56Employing UV
pulses at 258 nm and 10 kHz, free thiols can be produced thatare then able to bind gold substrates for quartz crystal micro-
balance (QCM) measurements.
57Antibody fragments, such as
Fab0, can also be produced with reactive thiols and used in
immunosensors;5,42however, this review aims to focus pri-
marily on whole antibody immobilization and will not coverantibody fragments specifically.
Alternatively, primary amine groups can be converted
to thiol functionality using, for example, 2-iminothiolane
(Traut’s reagent) for subsequent immobilization using the
same maleimide or iodoacetyl chemistry.
58For example, lipid
PEG, functionalized with maleimide, was incorporated into
lipid nanocapsules for coupling thiolated antibodies or Fab0.59
3. “Click” chemistry
More recently, “click chemistry” exploiting 1,3-dipolar
cycloaddition between an azide and an alkyne has demon-
strated utility for the conjugation of single-domain camelidantibodies, known as VHH, to a dextran substrate.
9This
technique produced an oriented system via the site-specific
insertion of azidohomoalanine into the VHHs.
4. Carbohydrate groups
Antibodies are glycosylated at the Fc region and can pro-
vide a target for site-directed immobilization.60,61Periodate
FIG. 2. Oriented antibody immobilization strategies. (a) EDC/NHS coupling of antibody amine and carboxyl groups to surface carboxyl and amine groups. ( b)
Reduction of antibody disulfides, with TCEP or 2-MEA, to reactive thiols for binding gold substrates. (c) Periodate oxidation of carbohydrates in the Fc region
of antibodies followed by coupling to hydrazide surface chemistry.02D301-4 Welch et al. : Orientation and characterization of immobilized antibodies 02D301-4
Biointer phases , Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2017oxidation can be used to oxidize diols in carbohydrates into
aldehyde groups that can react with amines and hydra-
zides.62Diols can also be targeted by boronic acids to form
boronate ester intermediates reversibly.63Song et al.64dem-
onstrated end-on immobilization of antibodies using 3-
aminophenylboronic acid to first couple a NHS-derivatizedsurface and second bind the Fc carbohydrate. Due to the
reversible nature of boronate esters, Adak et al.
61employed
a single molecule with two functional groups to first form aboronate ester with the carbohydrate, and second to cova-
lently attach the antibody via photoinitiated cross-linking.
UV exposure causes the (trifluoromethyl)phenyldiazirine
functional group to form reactive carbenes that irreversibly
bind the antibody. Alternatively, Huang et al .
65oxidized
the carbohydrate of anti-alpha-fetoprotein to an aldehyde
and covalently linked the protein to a 3-aminopropyltri
ethoxysilane (APTES) modified silicon substrate. Theamount of antibody immobilized increased by 32% and the
antigen binding amount by 16% relative to physical adsorp-
tion. Yuan et al.
66used periodate oxidation of carbohydrates
on the anti-CD34 antibody to promote oriented immobiliza-
tion. First, stainless steel substrates were coated with ethyl-
ene vinyl acetate, then treated with O 2plasma, and silanated
with APTES to create amine groups (labeled SCA-SS).
Amines were then coupled with the oxidized carbohydrates
and successful binding was assessed via cell uptake by the
anti-CD34 antibody. Prieto-Sim /C19onet al.67used thiolated
hydrazide SAM linkers or electrografting of diazonium saltsto immobilize periodate-oxidized carbohydrates of anti-
bodies via hydrazide chemistry onto functionalized gold
substrates.
C. Affinity immobilization techniques
While covalent methods provide robust antibody immobi-
lization and can achieve site-directed immobilization,68
they may be unsuited due to the high prevalence of a particu-
lar functional group in the antibody (amine and carboxyl),
or may cause conformation changes upon attachment(thiol), without the use protein engineering. Affinity immobi-
lization techniques provide alternative and potentially
favorable strategies to promote site-directed antibodyimmobilization.
15
1. Material binding peptides
Peptide sequences that will preferentially immobilize to
substrates, metal ions, and other biomolecules have been
developed for enhanced protein orientation.69These peptides
can be incorporated as tags, into proteins of interest, via
chemical conjugation or genetic fusion. Phage screening
techniques have been developed to produce peptides withspecificity to a broad range of materials and proteins.
70A
large number of material binding peptides exist, including
those specific to polystyrene [PS-tag,71Lig1 (Refs. 72and
73)] and hydrophilic polystyrene (Phi-PS) [PS19-1 and
PS19-6 (Ref. 74)], silicon (Si-tag75,76), glass slides or silica
resin [R9 (Ref. 77)], poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA)(c02,78PM-OMP25,79PMMA-tag80), polycarbonate [PC-
OMP6 (Ref. 79)], poly- L-lactide [c22 (Ref. 81)], gold [GBP
(Ref. 82)], and the well known nickel and copper specific
His-tag.83,84
2. Biotin–streptavidin interaction
Oriented immobilization can be realized by exploiting the
biotin–avidin/streptavidin interaction.85Antibodies can be
easily conjugated to biotin using biotin-NHS chemistry that
targets amines; however, this results in randomly biotiny-lated antibodies. Paek’s group
86compared randomly biotiny-
lated IgG using biotin-NHS, with IgG biotinylated at the
hinge disulfides via competitive maleimide chemistry for
immobilization to streptavidin treated microwells and glassslides. The authors found a two-fold improvement in antigen
detection for the hinge disulfide biotinylated IgG, relative to
the random system. The group also demonstrated a twofoldimprovement for the same system by employing a gold sub-
strate with a thiol SAM and biotin–streptavidin linker.
87
3. DNA directed immobilization
DNA-directed immobilization (DDI) of proteins is
another affinity method that can produce oriented systems.
This method requires the binding of short nucleotide sequen-ces to the substrate and to the protein of interest, allowing
direct binding between the two. However, to truly achieve
an oriented system, care must be taken to ensure that thecovalent attachment of the DNA to the antibody occurs in a
site-direct manner. Wacker et al .
88investigated antibody
immobilization and fluorescent immunoassay performanceof antibodies bound via DDI, physical adsorption, and by
streptavidin–biotin interactions. IgG immobilized with DDI
was found to require 100-fold less antibody for the samefluorescence detection of the analyte; however, orientationof the antibody was not independently determined, and site-
directed biotinylation of the IgG was not stated. More
recently, Seymour et al.
89compared anti-ebola virus glyco-
protein (EBOV GP) antibody immobilized directly to NHS
containing copolymer or via DDI. The DDI immobilized
antibody was found to be an order of magnitude more sensi-tive to the EBOV GP antigen. Glavan et al.
90synthesized
single-stranded DNA onto paper substrates and investigated
antihuman C-reactive protein (hCRP) immobilized via DDIfor binding hCRP from serum in a sandwich ELISA.
However, DNA conjugation to the antibody utilized non-
site-directed NHS chemistry.
Boozer et al.
91prepared mixed SAMs containing ssDNA
thiols and oligo(ethylene glycol) thiols on gold SPR chips.
The complementary DNA strand was cross-linked usingNHS chemistry to the antibodies and immobilized by the
SAM. This system generated a 50-fold improvement on
their previous work
92using biotinylated immobilization.
However, by binding DNA to the antibody nonspecificallywith NHS chemistry, it is more likely that the improvement
arises due to the antibody being separated from the surface,
than through orientation.02D301-5 Welch et al. : Orientation and characterization of immobilized antibodies 02D301-5
Biointer phases , Vol. 12, No. 2, June 20174. Protein A and Protein G
Protein A and Protein G are small proteins, derived from
bacteria, which can specifically bind the Fc portion of anti-bodies allowing oriented systems to be obtained.
93–96The
IgG binding domain of Protein A, known as the Z-domain or
ZZ-domain, is also used as a smaller synthetic option for Fcbinding.
97This technique offers a method for truly obtaining
oriented antibodies as binding can only occur via the Fc por-
tion. Due to its effectiveness, Protein A, or its derivatives,has been exploited with many surface immobilization strate-
gies including biotin-streptavidin,
98SAMs,99,100EDC/NHS
chemistry,100,101glutaraldehyde,102tyrosinase chemistry,102
non-natural amino acid insertion,10gold binding peptide82or
polystyrene affinity ligand fusion,73and additional protein
linkers.103The ZZ-domain has also been coupled to carbohy-
drate binding modules for selective immobilization to cellu-lose coated slides
104and to paper105substrates, and also the
metal affinity His-tag.106,107It is important to note that sev-
eral issues may arise with such systems: (1) the Protein Acapture of the Fc is reversible, (2) Protein A has been
reported to bind Fab regions and albumin (although to a
much lesser extent), and (3) it is required that the Fc bindingsite of the Protein A is correctly oriented at the substrate to
permit antibody binding.
15,16More recently, Yang et al.108
engineered a photoactivatable Z-domain variant that incor-
porated the UV-active amino acid benzoylphenylalanine and
a biotin molecule. The Z-domain preferentially bound the Fc
portion of IgG that was irreversibly attached using UV-activation of the benzoylphenylalanine. When immobilized
to a streptavidin coated substrate, this system had a fivefold
lower antigen detection limit than randomly NHS-biotinylated IgG.
5. Fc-binding peptides and aptamers
Short peptides with specificity to the Fc domain of anti-
bodies have been used to promote oriented immobilization.Jung et al .
109used an Fc-binding peptide to immobilize
human, rabbit, goat, and mouse antibodies, with strong
selectivity for human IgG1 and IgG2. Anti-C-reactive pro-tein (anti-CRP) antibody immobilized with the Fc-binding
peptide was compared with randomly immobilized (EDC/
NHS coupling) antibody immobilized to SPR chip substratesand found that a 1.6-fold increase in the CRP/anti-CRP ratio
when employing the Fc-binding peptide. More recently, Tsai
et al.
110demonstrated that molecular dynamics can be used
to design a short peptide (RRGW) with high specificity to
the mouse IgG2a antihuman prostate specific antigen (PSA)
antibody. PSA binding was monitored via SPR demonstrat-ing good antibody orientation.
Yoo and Choi
111used a phage biopanning to screen for
peptides specific to the Fc portion of rabbit anti-goat IgG.
The peptide (KHRFNKD) immobilized with biotin to an
avidin-QCM surface showed improved IgG binding relativeto physical adsorption. Dostalova et al.
112used the Fc bind-
ing peptide HWRGWVC to immobilize antiprostate specific
membrane antigen antibodies to gold coated doxorubicinnanocarriers with solution-phase orientation. The inclusion
of the peptide gave a 1.4-fold improvement in signal during
the immunoassay. Lee et al.113developed photoactivatable
Fc-specific antibody binding proteins (FcBPs) expressed in
Escherichia coli that undergo photo-crosslinking (via photo-
methionine) with antibodies upon UV irradiation. FcBPswere immobilized on maleimide-coated slides and the epi-dermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-hmAb antibody
cross-linked with UV exposure. Dose-dependent antigen
(EGFR) binding was observed at above 110 fmol.
Aptamers are single chain DNA, or RNA, oligonucleoti-
des that fold to form complex three dimensional structures
and can specifically immobilize proteins of interest.
114
Miyakawa et al.115developed an RNA aptamer that selec-
tively binds the Fc portion of human IgG1 through IgG4, but
not other nonhuman IgGs. SPR was used to assess the bind-ing site of the aptamer on IgG, and it was found that the site
was similarly positioned to that of the Protein A binding site,
making it suitable for promoting antibody orientation. Maet al.
116produced a DNA aptamer capable of binding the Fc
domain of multiple mouse subclasses. This area has potential
to develop aptamers capable of universal Fc binding sub-strates, hence promoting antibody orientation and immuno-
diagnostic sensitivity.
6. Nucleotide binding site
Antibodies, even across different isotypes, contain largely
conserved sequences between the heavy and light chains of
the Fab region known as a nucleotide binding site (NBS).Targeting the NBS using a small molecule, indole-3-butyricacid, and UV irradiation, Alves et al.
117were able to immo-
bilize antibodies selectively, offering a 7.9-fold increase in
antigen sensitivity, compared with physical adsorption. Thegroup also demonstrated the utility of this technique with
Fab fragments.
118,119
7. Metal affinity
Perhaps the simplest option is to take advantage of the
endogenous metal binding properties of antibodies. In addi-
tion to recombinant peptide tags for metal coordination,native tag-free IgG have been purified using metal affinity.
The interaction of histidine and cysteine with metals, particu-
larly copper and zinc, has been exploited for protein fraction-ation and IgG purification using immobilized metal-affinity
chromatography.
120,121Hale122then went on to demonstrate
that Co(II) loaded resin could be used to irreversibly bindIgG in an oriented manner via the Fc region. Todorova-
Balvay et al.
123used computational modeling and immobi-
lized metal-ion affinity chromatography to investigate thetransition metals copper (II), nickel (II), zinc (II) and cobalt
(II), to determine a native metal-binding target in the Fc por-
tion of whole human IgG1. The histidine cluster His433–X–His 435 was found to be surface accessible to affinitybinding using these metals without the need for recombinant
tags. Muir et al.
124prepared metal coordinating polymer sub-
strates and screened a large range of transition metals to02D301-6 Welch et al. : Orientation and characterization of immobilized antibodies 02D301-6
Biointer phases , Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2017assess their antibody binding capabilities. This work covered
a library of 1600 different metal immobilized surface chemis-tries and identified chromium perchlorate with ethylenedi-amine as the “lead” combination. Immobilization ofantitumor necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNF a) to Luminex
beads with chromium perchlorate and ethylenediamine wascompared with carbodiimide coupling chemistry. Thechromium-mediated immobilization has an approximatelyninefold improvement in TNF aantigen sensitivity relative to
the carbodiimide method. Pingarr /C19on’s group used a metallic-
complex chelating polymer (Mix&Go
TM) to achieve oriented
immobilization of native anti-adiponectin antibodyon carboxyphenyl multiwalled carbon nanotubes
125and
graphene oxide-carboxymethyl cellulose hybrid.126Recently,
Welch et al .127employed the chromium complex,
[Cr(OH) 6]3/C0, buffered with ethylenediamine as a wet chemi-
cal modification to ten commercial microtiter plates, postpro-duction, to improve antibody immobilization and ELISAperformance. For an anti-EGFR, x-ray photoelectron spec-
troscopy (XPS) analysis indicated that the chromium modi-
fied microtiter plate bound twice the amount of antibodyrelative to the unmodified plate, and the ELISA signal morethan tripled indicating improved antibody orientation. Thechromium modification was demonstrated for use with fiveother antigen capture ELISAs. Welch et al.
128also demon-
strated optimization of the chromium complex by varying themetal salt and buffering base compounds and ratios. The opti-mized complex (1:1 chromium perchlorate hexahydrate toethylenediamine) was used to improve the antigen detectionlimits of a bovine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF a) ELISA
by an order of magnitude relative to untreated plates. In a
recent study, Welch et al.
29employed a traditionally low
fouling diethylene glycol dimethyl ether plasma polymer(DGpp) as a substrate for binding [Cr(OH) 6]3/C0with subse-
quent antibody immobilization. When equivalent amounts ofantibody were immobilized on the DGpp and the chromiumfunctionalized DGpp substrates, a tenfold improvement in
ELISA signal intensity was observed for the chromium func-
tionalized system indicating an oriented system. ToF-SIMSanalysis identified that chromium may be binding the anti-body through lysine, methionine, arginine, and histidineresidues.
III. IMMOBILIZED ANTIBODY CHARACTERIZATION
OVERVIEW
An immunoassay is the most widely employed method to
assess the state of an immobilized antibody, in that it repre-sents the practical application of successful immobilization.
ELISAs require that immobilized antibodies maintain the
correct orientation, unperturbed conformation, and adequatedensity at the substrate surface to maximize signal produc-tion and thus antigen quantification. However, as this is anindirect analysis technique, it only allows the antibody state
and orientation to be determined by inference. As a result,
complementary and independent methods for assessing theantibody have been developed. While there are a number oftechniques for quantifying the density of adsorbed pro-teins,
129the number of techniques that can probe antibody
orientation is much smaller. Table Ipresents an overview of
current characterization techniques, and schematic represen-tations are shown in Fig. 3.
A. X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy
XPS is a spectroscopic technique that uses incident x-ray
photons to probe the elemental and chemical composition of
the top 10 nm of the sample surface. This technique can be
TABLE I. Overview of surface analysis techniques employed for investigating antibody.
Technique Input Output Information Comments References
A) XPS Monochromatic
x-raysPhotoelectrons Elemental and chemical Quantification of anti-
body surface density23,29,127,128,
and131
B) SE Elliptically polar-
ized lightChange in light
phase or intensityThickness, refractive
index, surface roughnessModel based analysis,
inferred state of antibody132–137
C) Dual polarization
interferometry
(DPI)Laser light Evanescent wave
changeMass, film thickness,
refractive index, densityInferred state of antibody
based on mass and film
thickness64,138, and 139
D) SPR Monochromatic
multiangle laser
lightChange in
reflected and
absorbed lightRefractive index, film
thicknessInferred state based on
antibody and antigen
adsorption characteristics55and140–142
E) NR Neutron beam Change in reflec-
tion of neutron
beamRefractive index, film
thickness, surface
roughnessModel based analysis,
inferred state of antibody143–146
F) AFM Feedback driven
cantilevered tipz-height in 2D and
tip/surface forceSurface roughness, phase
information, imagingCorrectly oriented anti-
bodies have 14 nm height56,142, and
147–149
G) QCM Resonance fre-
quency of
microbalanceChange in fre-
quency and
amplitudeMass of adsorption,
bioaffinityInferred state of antibody
based on adsorption and
mass150and151
H) ToF-SIMS Ionized metal
clusters, “primary-
ions”Ionized sample
fragments,
“secondary-ions”Semiquantitative elemen-
tal, chemical, and
molecularAmino acid composition
of F(ab0)2and Fc varies
and can be distinguished45,130, and
152–15702D301-7 Welch et al. : Orientation and characterization of immobilized antibodies 02D301-7
Biointer phases , Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2017used to quantify the amount of nitrogen present, which in
turn can be correlated to the amount of immobilized anti-body.
29,127,128,130Antibody orientation can then be inferred
based on the immunoassay signal. Radadia et al.131com-
pared XPS and ELISA results to infer stability of antibodyimmobilized to glass and diamond films. P ^aslaru et al.
23pre-
pared plasma treated PVDF membranes for adsorption orgrafting of Protein A (followed by IgG) or IgG alone andused XPS to investigate sulfur and nitrogen content in thesamples. The nitrogen concentration was used to quantifyoverall protein content, and sulfur concentration (present due
to disulfide bonds in the IgG) was used to monitor IgG
binding.
B. Spectroscopic ellipsometry
Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) is a surface sensitive
optical technique that monitors the polarization change in
light reflected from the sample surface (typically a metal or
ceramic).132,133Polarization changes occur due to varia-
tions in the dielectric or refr active index properties of the
sample. Balevicius et al.134used total internal reflection
ellipsometry to demonstrate t hat antibodies reduced with 2-MEA, immobilized to a gold substrate, bind 2.5 times the
amount of antigen as compared with their intact whole anti-
body counterparts immobilize d randomly and covalently to
SAMs. Bae et al .135compared IgG immobilized to thio-
lated Protein G (to represent an oriented antibody) with
chemically bound IgG to an 11-MUA SAM, to represent
randomly oriented binding. SE was used to estimate the
IgG film thickness and together with atomic force micros-
copy (AFM) and SPR inference could be made regarding
different orientations of the antibodies. Wang and Jin136
first utilized Protein A adsorbed to silicon to immobilize
anti-IgG and compared with anti-IgG adsorbed to the sili-
con. In a kinetic manner, SE was used to investigate the
film thickness and found an increase in the anti-IgG bound
by Protein A, inferring a prefe rentially oriented system.
Wang then went on to investigate three different silane
modifications to silicon for IgG binding and identified with
SE that APTES/methyltriethoxys ilane functionalized sili-
con covalently bound IgG using glutaraldehyde gave the
largest increase in antibody and antigen binding as com-
pared to either APTES and glutaraldehyde, or APTES
alone.137
FIG. 3. Illustrative schematic of antibody orientation characterization techniques: (a) X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, (b) spectroscopic eMips ometry, (c)
dual polarization interferometry, (d) surface plasmon resonance, (e) neutron reflectometry, (f) atomic force microscopy, (g) quartz crystal micro balance, and
(h) time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry.02D301-8 Welch et al. : Orientation and characterization of immobilized antibodies 02D301-8
Biointer phases , Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2017C. Dual polarization interferometry
DPI is an optical waveguide technique that utilizes
changes in the evanescent wave of the sample beam of laserlight relative to a reference beam. The combined beams cre-ate an interference pattern that provides information regard-ing mass, film thickness, refractive index, and density.
138
Song et al.139used DPI to investigate anti-PSA antibody
(anti-PSA) immobilized covalently via lysines to thiolatedDPI chips, or captured via the Fc using immobilized ProteinG. The thickness of the two systems was monitored as theantibody bound the PSA antigen and a detection limit of
10 pg/ml was achieved. Song went on to investigate different
methods for anti-PSA immobilization with DPI, comparingboronate chelation, TCEP reduction with maleimide cova-lent linkage, Protein G, and random immobilization methods
to PEG:Thiol or amine modified DPI chips.
64They found
that while the mass of anti-PSA loaded onto the DPI chipwas lower for TCEP than boronate chelation, the antigensensitivity was 20 times higher inferring preferential orienta-tion with the TCEP method using amine modified chips.
D. Surface plasmon resonance
SPR is an optical technique used to monitor protein
adsorption and surface interactions. Monochromatic laserlight is used to stimulate a surface plasmon wave in the sens-ing surface and the reflected light angle is measured. Upon
absorption on the sensing surface, the refractive index of the
material changes causing the reflected light angle and thesurface plasmon resonance angle to change accordingly. Arecent review by Mauriz et al.
55covers SPR-based assays in
great detail.
Vashist et al.140utilized SPR as an assay method to inves-
tigate antibody immobilization strategies; random, covalent
(EDC/NHS), oriented with adsorbed Protein A followed by
antibody binding, covalent-oriented Protein A followed byantibody binding, and last covalent-CM5-dextran binding.SPR determined that the mass of antibody immobilizedwas greatest for the CM5 system. However, the covalent-
oriented system bound the greatest amount of antigen and
indicated preferential orientation. Zhang et al.
141used SPR
to investigate antigen binding capabilities of gold–grapheneoxide (Au/GO) composites compared with gold coated withProtein A. By tracking the resonant wavelength change as a
function of antigen concentration, the authors demonstrated
the oriented Protein A on Au/GO system had improved anti-gen sensitivity compared with Protein A on Au alone.
E. Neutron reflectometry
Neutron reflectometry (NR) is a diffraction technique
used to investigate film thickness. Neutrons are reflected off
the sample surface and assessed as a function of change inangle or wavelength. Lu’s team have used NR to investigateseveral antibody binding and orientation effects.
143–145NR
was used in conjunction with AFM to determine a flat-on
orientation of anti- b-hCG antibody (specific to the bunit
of human chorionic gonadotrophin) to silicon-oxide, asobserved by the film thickness.143Then using anti-PSA
immobilized to silicon-oxide substrate, the combination of
NR and DPI was used to demonstrate flat-on antibody orien-tation.
145NR and SE were also used complementarily to
assess the mass of antibody immobilized at different concen-
trations.144Schneck et al.146used NR to confirm the orienta-
tion of anti-(polyethylene glycol) (anti-PEG) antibodies
immobilized to PEG polymer brushes of varying their graft-
ing density. They noted that increased grafting densitycaused the distance between the two Fab regions to decrease
and overall orients the antibodies such that the Fc region
faced away from the PEG brush substrate into the bulk
solution.
F. Atomic force microscopy
AFM is a topographic analysis technique that employs
the scanning of a nanoscale tip across a sample surface. The
tip is bound to an oscillating cantilever and by accuratelymonitoring the cantilever’s change in resonance, a nanome-
ter scale resolution image of the surface can be achieved.
When surface bound, the asymmetrical dimensions of anti-bodies (14 /C210/C24n m
3) allow changes to the surface topog-
raphy, i.e., film thickness and surface roughness, to be
measured and can be representative of different antibody ori-entations. Chen et al.
142used AFM and SPR to confirm end-
on antibody orientation to the ProLinkerTMSAM by plotting
the height profile of the immobilized antibody and monitor-ing antigen uptake. Coppari et al.
147investigated a monoclo-
nal antibody adsorbed on mica and, by combining height
traces and images, were able to determine different antibody
orientations with AFM. By incorporating molecular dynamic
simulations with AFM images, Vilhena et al.148demon-
strated flat-on, head-on, side-on, and end-on orientations of
IgG adsorbed to graphene. Funari et al.56characterized phys-
isorbed and irradiation-coupled antibodies on extremelysmooth (root-mean-squared roughness 0.15 60.01 nm) gold-
coated silicon wafers. The irradiation causes photo-reduction
of disulfide bridges that yield free-thiols for binding gold.Using AFM, the authors found that the irradiated antibodies
had a smaller contact area with the surface and a larger
height distribution indicating a side-on orientation relative tothe physisorbed system being flat-on. Marciello et al .
149
used AFM to investigate the orientation of antibodies at the
surface of lipase-coated magnetic nanoparticles. The authors
assessed the surface of the nanoparticles and after immobili-
zation. Two immobilized antibody systems were investi-gated; the optimized sample, S1, with a recovered immune
activity (from immunoassay) of 80%, and S2, with a lower
recovered immune activity (about 3%). The peak-to-valleyheight determined with AFM of S1 was found to be 9 nm as
compared with only 5 nm for S2, indicating preferential ori-
entation of the antibody on S1.
G. Quartz crystal microbalance
QCM is a mass sensitive technique that monitors the
change in frequency and damping of a resonant quartz02D301-9 Welch et al. : Orientation and characterization of immobilized antibodies 02D301-9
Biointer phases , Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2017piezoelectric crystal. As the material is adsorbed to the crys-
tal, the resonance frequency decreases, allowing the amount
of material to be determined very precisely. Thus, if the
mass of the antibody and its complementary antigen areknown, then antibody orientation can be inferred from anti-gen binding. Recently, Deng et al .
150have developed a
QCM chip modification that is used to orient biotin-labeled
antibodies for use in an immunoassay. QCM was used to
quantify antibody binding and antigen coupling. Comparedwith the control surface, the biotinylated graphene oxide-avidin surface modification was found to bind slightly loweramounts of antibody, although it demonstrated improved
antigen capture, suggestive of antibody orientation.
Dissipation monitoring during QCM can provide insight
into the density and permeability of immobilized (bio)mole-cules at the interface.
51,158Via this method, protein orienta-
tion may be investigated; for instance, an antibody
immobilized close to the surface in a flat-on orientation will
have a low viscoelastic dissipation, while in contrast, an anti-body in head-on or end-on orientation will have a higher vis-coelastic dissipation.
Another QCM mass-based immunoassay was proposed
by Akter et al.
151who employed Protein A as the antibody
orienting component. Using QCM, the authors were able tomonitor antibody binding, antigen selectivity, and demon-strate the benefits of their precipitation mass amplificationsystem as applicable in immunoassay.
H. Time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry
ToF-SIMS employs a focused beam of ionized metal
atoms (or clusters of atoms), large molecules such as fuller-enes (C
60), or gas clusters, to bombard the sample and
remove fragmented material from the surface. A small per-
centage of the fragments are ionized, known as secondary-ions, which are collected as a representative sample of theelemental and molecular species from the top few mono-layers of the surface (on the order of 10 A ˚).
159The 14 nm
long axis of antibodies, combined with this limited sampling
depth, provides differentiation between orientations ofimmobilized antibody due to different amino acid composi-tions in the portions being analyzed.
ToF-SIMS analysis of known peptides has been used to
determine most common mass fragments arising from partic-
ular amino acids.
152,160,161These amino acid specific lists,
typically of up to 40 mass fragments, allow differentiationbetween protein and substrate.
153,154Foster et al.130analyzed
bovine IgG adsorbed to gold and sodium styrenesulfonate
coated gold surfaces. As the prevalence of serine is higher in
the F(ab0)2region of the IgG, and aspartate and valine preva-
lence higher in the Fc region, then a ratio of these aminoacids mass fragment intensities could be used to assess therelative orientation of IgG immobilized to the substrates.Wang et al.
155investigated anti-hCG IgG, F(ab0)2, and Fc
immobilized on gold and also orientation promoting SAMs
(COOH and NH 2). Principal component analysis (PCA)
identified amino acid fragments that were more prevalent inthe F(ab0)2and Fc portions, and these were correlated against
the antibody amino acid composition. A ratio of the impor-
tant amino acids could then be used as predictors for anti-body orientation. More recently, Welch et al. has employed
larger peak lists incorporating over 700 mass fragments for
characterizing adsorbed whole antibody and antibody frag-ments.
156The increased peak list significantly improved the
ability to identify and classify the samples using multivariate
analysis techniques. One potential drawback is that ToF-
SIMS operates in an ultrahigh vacuum environment (UHV)that is likely to denature proteins.
157One possible strategy
for avoiding UHV induced denaturation is by the fixation of
proteins at surfaces with trehalose. Trehalose is a disaccha-ride that has been used to fix the state of proteins at interfa-
ces to preserve their conformation and minimize changes to
their orientation.
153,162However, coating samples prior to
ToF-SIMS analysis, or other surface analysis techniques
such as XPS, may cause difficulties in subsequent data
analysis.
I. Multivariate analysis
It is now a common practice to employ multivariate anal-
ysis techniques such as PCA to reduce the dimensionality ofcomplex data sets, such as those derived from ToF-SIMS.PCA is used to identify the variables that contribute to the
largest amount of variance in the dataset. In the case of ToF-
SIMS analysis, the intensity or number of counts obtainedfor each mass fragment comprise the input variables for
PCA. PCA has been used to investigate antibody orientation
on various substrates to good effect.
163,164Liu et al .165
immobilized Fab and Fc fragments to both gold and
polymer-coated slide substrates and used PCA to investigate
each of the four systems. Principal component 1 (PC1) sepa-rated the samples based on substrate, and principal compo-
nent 2 (PC2) separated samples based on antibody fragment.
The loadings plot for PC2, showing the contributions fromeach of the amino acid variables, correlated strongly with
natural amino acid composition differences in the antibody
fragments. Park et al .
164interrogated randomly and site-
directed IgG and F(ab0)2with ToF-SIMS and PCA. Using
known amino acid related mass fragments, PC1 showed that
site-directed IgG and F(ab0)2were more commonly in the
end-on orientation than the randomly immobilized proteins.Kosobrodova et al.
166investigate antibodies immobilized to
untreated and plasma treated polycarbonate with ToF-SIMS
and PCA and found that the F(ab0)2component of the anti-
body was preferentially exposed on the plasma treated
surface.
Artificial neural networks (ANN) are another class of
multivariate analysis techniques and classify and group sam-
ples based on their similarities and differences across the
input variables. Sanni et al.167employed ANN to differenti-
ate between 13 different protein films, including two typesof antibodies, using nominal mass values of all mass frag-
ments available in the spectra. ANN was able to identify the
key mass fragments associated with each of the proteins to02D301-10 Welch et al. : Orientation and characterization of immobilized antibodies 02D301-10
Biointer phases , Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2017distinguish between them. More recently, Welch et al .156
employed ANNs to discriminate between an antibody and its
proteolysis fragments adsorbed to silicon substrates, based
solely on their ToF-SIMS spectra. The ANN analysismethod holds promise for investigating antibody orientation
at interfaces due to its ability to incorporate a broad range of
mass fragments and investigate complex relationships
between variables.
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND PERSPECTIVES
In summary, existing and new methods for oriented anti-
body immobilization have been developed over the past few
years with good progress made on improving the established
methods. Nevertheless, some shortcomings and challenges
still exist. Oriented systems based on novel surface chemis-try, protein engineering, or both, require complex and time-
consuming production steps, which may also be expensive.
Ideally, antibodies truly representative of their native
solution-phase state, i.e., without protein engineered tags,
would be immobilized to a simple, cheap, and easy to pro-
duce substrate, homogeneously arranged and site-directed as
to maximize their antigen capture. However, it is likely thatsmaller antibody fragments and aptamers may be favored
over whole antibodies in the future as they can be prepared
recombinantly and are easily modified genetically or chemi-
cally with the ability to maximize capture events due to
increased packing and binding site density.
168Additionally,
camelid antibodies with one single domain for antigen bind-
ing (known as VHH) have attracted attention due to theirhigh solubility and stability, and may provide an opportunity
for incorporation into sensors.
8Also, peptides and aptamers
provide a highly customizable method for producing cova-
lent attachment of antibodies, or fragments thereof, either by
active targeting of the protein, or the substrate, or both. In
the future, it may be seen that metallic thin films are used to
produce homogeneous substrates that can be targeted simplyby endogenous antibody epitopes or material binding pepti-
des coupled to Fc specific aptamers or peptides. In the case
of the latter, such a system could be near universally applica-
ble to native state antibodies.
It is clear that surface analysis techniques and multivari-
ate analysis tools will play a prevalent role in identifying,
investigating, and predicting antibody orientation at sub-
strates of interest. Characterization of antibody orientation in
situor in the native “wet” environment permits a more accu-
rate presentation of the antibody state without the potential
for confirmation changes. XPS and ToF-SIMS require UHVconditions and are ex situ . AFM is typically performed in a
dry state (however progress has been made regarding wet
analysis) and is performed ex situ. QCM, SPR, NR, SE, and
DPI can be performed in solution and with the correct appa-
ratus in situ also. Additionally, complementary techniques
such as sum frequency generation promise to provide in situ
characterization of protein orientation via changes in theinfrared absorption patterns; however, complex analysis is
still required.
169,170Nevertheless, ToF-SIMS has the potential to characterize
and differentiate antibody properties including orientationand denaturation state, yielding molecularly specific infor-mation from the uppermost surface. The information-rich
data greatly stands to benefit from interrogation with multi-
variate analysis techniques PCA and ANN. Not only can thiscombination offer new insight into the state of immobilizedproteins, but it is also directly applicable to new material dis-covery and will greatly assist in the development and optimi-
zation of immunoassay performance. In parallel with this
approach, recent developments in molecular modeling, and,in particular, coarse-grain modeling,
171,172may provide a
method for assessing antibody orientation characteristics onnovel substrates in silico before fabrication, or to aid sub-
strate design.
In this article, we have discussed the most up-to-date and
state-of-the-art methods used for the immobilization of anti-
bodies in an oriented manner, particularly for the improve-ment of immunoassay performance. Further, we havediscussed the current range of surface analysis techniquesbeing used for investigating the orientation of antibody sys-
tems and have highlighted the importance of multivariate
analysis tools in the interrogation and analysis of the experi-mental data produced.
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Biointer phases , Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2017 |
5.0059800.pdf | AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
Analytical study of the sth-order perturbative
corrections to the solution to a one-dimensional
harmonic oscillator perturbed by a spatially
power-law potential Vper(x)=λxα
Cite as: AIP Advances 11, 085310 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0059800
Submitted: 12 June 2021 •Accepted: 24 July 2021 •
Published Online: 6 August 2021
Tran Duong Anh-Tai,1,a)
Duc T. Hoang,2Thu D. H. Truong,2
Chinh Dung Nguyen,3,4Le Ngoc Uyen,5
Do Hung Dung,6Nguyen Duy Vy,7,8,b)
and Vinh N. T. Pham2,c)
AFFILIATIONS
1Quantum Systems Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Onna, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan
2Department of Physics, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3Institute of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, Duy Tan University, 6 Tran Nhat Duat St., District 1,
Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam
4Faculty of Natural Sciences, Duy Tan University, 03 Quang Trung St., Hai Chau District, Danang 550000, Vietnam
5Department of Engineering Science, The University of Electro-Communications, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan
6Department of Natural Science, Dong Nai University, Dong Nai, Vietnam
7Laboratory of Applied Physics, Advanced Institute of Materials Science, Ton Duc Thang University,
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
8Faculty of Applied Sciences, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
a)Electronic mail: tai.tran@oist.jp
b)Electronic mail: nguyenduyvy@tdtu.edu.vn
c)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: vinhpnt@hcmue.edu.vn
ABSTRACT
In this work, we present a rigorous mathematical scheme for the derivation of the sth-order perturbative corrections to the solution to
a one-dimensional harmonic oscillator perturbed by the potential Vper(x)=λxα, whereαis a positive integer, using the non-degenerate
time-independent perturbation theory. To do so, we derive a generalized formula for the integral I=+∞
∫
−∞xαexp(−x2)Hn(x)Hm(x)dx,
where Hn(x)denotes the Hermite polynomial of degree n, using the generating function of orthogonal polynomials. Finally, the ana-
lytical results with α=3 andα=4 are discussed in detail and compared with the numerical calculations obtained by the Lagrange-mesh
method.
©2021 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0059800
I. INTRODUCTION
Approximation methods play a crucial role in quantum
mechanics since the number of problems that are exactly solv-
able is small in comparison to those that must be solved approxi-
mately. To our knowledge, the hydrogen atom, harmonic oscillators,
and quantum particles in some specific potential wells have exactsolutions,1–4and two cold atoms interacting through a point-like
force in a three-dimensional harmonic oscillator potential5can also
be solved analytically. Recently, Jafarov et al. reported an exact
solution to the position-dependent effective mass harmonic oscil-
lator model.6Because of this, approximation methods have been
developed early since the dawn of quantum mechanics. One of
the essential approximation methods is the perturbation theory
AIP Advances 11, 085310 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0059800 11, 085310-1
© Author(s) 2021AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
(PT) established by Schrödinger in 1926.7Later, it was immedi-
ately used to interpret the LoSurdo–Stark effect of the hydrogen
atom by Epstein.8Although the PT is not well convergent at higher-
order corrections,1–3,9,10many more efficient approximation meth-
ods have been developed to treat quantum-mechanically complex
problems,11it is still a paramount and elementary approximation
method in quantum physics. For instance, the PT contributes signif-
icantly to quantum optics and quantum field theory, as discussed in
Ref. 12. For this reason, the PT is usually presented clearly and dis-
cussed in detail in quantum mechanics textbooks for undergraduate
students.1–3,9
The one-dimensional harmonic oscillator is not only a rich
pedagogical example for approximation theories in quantum
mechanics13–24but also an excellent candidate for numerical25,26and
analytical or algebraic methods,6,27–30owing to its simple calcula-
tion and exact solution. Moreover, the one-dimensional harmonic
oscillator potential has also played a key role in studies of ultra-
cold atomic quantum gases for the last two decades.5,31–51Moshinsky
and Smirnov52provided a deep review of the role of quantum har-
monic oscillators in modern physics. In standard quantum mechan-
ics textbooks,1–3a one-dimensional anharmonic oscillator is usu-
ally presented as an application of PT because the solutions can
be constructed based on the exact solution to a one-dimensional
harmonic oscillator. The two perturbative potentials that are usu-
ally considered are Vper(x)=λxand Vper(x)=λx4. It is common
to present the calculation of the first- and second-order correc-
tions of the energy; however, the corrections to the wave function
are usually not provided in detail.1–3Moreover, physicists have also
studied the generalized case Vper(x)=λx2β, whereβis a positive
integer. The case β=2 has been studied using the WKB method,53
the intermediate Hamiltonian,54the Padé approximation,55–57the
Heisenberg matrix mechanics,58and the variational perturbation.59
In addition, the cases β=3 andβ=4 were studied in Refs. 60 and 61,
and the considered potential of the harmonic oscillator is V(x)=x2
instead of V(x)=0.5x2. The authors intended to establish efficient
methods to solve the problem mathematically, regardless of their
physical meaning. Recently, the problem has been extended to sex-
tic (x6) and decatic ( x10) potentials using polynomial solutions62,63
and a polynomial perturbative potential.64Interestingly, we real-
ized that in the above-mentioned works, the authors only consid-
ered even values of the power of x, while the odd cases have not
been studied. It is also interesting to note that the wave function
was not considered in the above-mentioned articles. Essentially,
the applications of the one-dimensional anisotropic oscillator can
be found in chemistry, in which the perturbative potential is used
to study the vibration in molecules.65–69In addition, the pertur-
bative potential λx4has recently been used to model the Brown-
ian motion of particles in optical tweezers.70Consequently, it is
necessary to compute the approximated wave function and the
energy of a one-dimensional harmonic oscillator perturbed by
the potential Vper(x)=λxαfor arbitrary eigenstates with arbitrary
values ofα.
The goal of this study is to present a systematic and complete
treatment of the sth-order perturbative corrections to the solution
to a one-dimensional harmonic oscillator perturbed by the poten-
tialVper(x)=λxα. To achieve this goal, we derived a formula for
I=∫+∞
−∞xαexp(−x2)Hn(x)Hm(x)dx, with Hn(x)being the Her-
mite polynomial of degree n. Our scheme is based on the so-calledgenerating functions of orthogonal polynomials.71Because the
potential depends solely on the spatial coordinate and the states are
non-degenerate, the non-degenerate time-independent PT is used
to derive the corrections to the wave function and energy. Note that
our results can be used for arbitrary eigenstates of a one-dimensional
anharmonic oscillator with an arbitrary power coefficient α.
This is significantly different from previous works, as discussed
above.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: Sec. II
briefly outlines the time-independent PT for non-degenerate states.
Section III presents the main results and discussion. Finally, conclu-
sions are presented in Sec. IV. For simplicity, we use atomic units in
which h=m=ω=1 throughout this study. In addition, the notation
Xα
n,sdenotes the sth-order perturbation correction to the physical
quantity Xin the state with the quantum number nand the power
coefficientα.
II. NON-DEGENERATE TIME-INDEPENDENT
PERTURBATION THEORY AND THE 2s+1RULE
This section presents the time-independent PT for non-
degenerate states and a recurrence relation to obtain higher-order
corrections to the wave function and energy. We followed the
procedure of Fernandez.9The Schrödinger equation describing a
one-dimensional quantum system is as follows:
ˆHψn=Enψn, (1)
where ˆHis the Hamiltonian operator and Enis the eigenvalue corre-
sponding to the eigenfunction ψn. The Hamiltonian can be split into
two parts,
ˆH=ˆH0+λˆH′, (2)
with ˆH0being the Hamiltonian operator, whose eigenvalues and
eigenfunctions are analytically solvable and satisfy the equation
ˆH0ψn,0=En,0ψn,0, (3)
and ˆH′being sufficiently small and considered as a small perturba-
tion with parameter λ. The Taylor formula is used to expand the
energy and the eigenfunction of the Hamiltonian ˆHas a function of
perturbation parameter λ,
En=∞
∑
s=0En,sλs,ψn=∞
∑
s=0ψn,sλs, (4)
where sis the order of the perturbative correction. Substituting
Eq. (4) into Eq. (1), we obtain a recurrence equation expressing the
relation between the corrections to the eigenfunction ψn,sand the
energy En,sas follows:
[ˆH0−En,0]ψn,s=s
∑
j=1En,jψn,s−j−ˆH′ψn,s−1. (5)
The perturbation correction to the wave function, ψn,s, is then
expanded as a linear combination of the eigenfunctions of the
non-perturbative Hamiltonian, ˆH0, as follows:
ψn,s=∑
mcmn,sψm,0, (6)
AIP Advances 11, 085310 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0059800 11, 085310-2
© Author(s) 2021AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
where cmn,s=⟨ψm,0∣ψn,s⟩is the expanding coefficient. Substituting
Eq. (6) into Eq. (5) and then integrating over the whole space after
multiplying both sides by ψ∗
m,0yield
[Em,0−En,0]cmn,s=s
∑
j=1En,jcmn,s−j−∑
kˆH′
mkckn,s−1, (7)
where ˆH′
mk=⟨ψm,0∣ˆH′∣ψk,0⟩. For non-degenerate states, Em,0≠En,0
if and only if m≠n, we can derive the general expression for the
correction to the energy by letting m=nin Eq. (7); hence, we obtain
En,s=⟨ψn,0∣ˆH′∣ψn,s−1⟩−s−1
∑
j=1En,jcnn,s−j. (8)
The normalization condition ⟨ψn∣ψn⟩=1 results in a constraint on
the correction to the wave function,
s
∑
j=0⟨ψn,j∣ψn,s−j⟩=δs0. (9)
Finally, in the case of m≠n, we can derive the expanding coefficients
for the correction to the wave function as follows:
cmn,s=1
En,0−Em,0⎛
⎝∑
kˆH′
mkckn,s−1−s
∑
j=1En,jcmn,s−j⎞
⎠(10)
and
cnn,1=0,cnn,s=−1
2s−1
∑
j=1∑
mcmn,jcmn,s−j,s>1 (11)
for the case of m=n. Substituting s=1 into Eq. (8) derives the for-
mula for the first-order correction to the energy, which is the average
of the perturbation potential with respect to the eigenfunction ψn,0,
En,1=⟨ψn,0∣ˆH′∣ψn,0⟩, (12)
and the expanding coefficient for the first-order correction to the
wave function is then derived as follows:
cmn,1=⟨ψm,0∣ˆH′∣ψn,0⟩
En,0−Em,0. (13)
Obtaining the second-order correction to the energy is also straight-
forward. It is obtained as follows:
En,2=⟨ψn,0∣ˆH′∣ψn,1⟩=∑
m≠n∣⟨ψm,0∣ˆH′∣ψn,0⟩∣2
En,0−Em,0. (14)
These results can be found in standard quantum mechanics text-
books.1–3To derive higher-order corrections to the energy, it is obvi-
ous that one can use the recurrence given by Eq. (8). However, there
is another way to quickly compute the corrections to the energy.
It is called the 2 s+1 rule, in which, once we know the sorder of
the correction to the wave function, we are allowed to compute the
corrections to the energy up to the 2 s+1 order. For the detailed
derivation of the rule, one should refer to the textbook.9Below, we
list the formula for the third-, fourth-, and fifth-order corrections to
the energy used for calculations in Sec. III,
En,3=⟨ψn,1∣ˆH′−En,1∣ψn,1⟩, (15)En,4=⟨ψn,2∣ˆH′−En,1∣ψn,1⟩−En,2(⟨ψn,2∣ψn,0⟩+⟨ψn,1∣ψn,1⟩), (16)
En,5=⟨ψn,2∣ˆH′−En,1∣ψn,2⟩−En,2(⟨ψn,1∣ψn,2⟩+⟨ψn,2∣ψn,1⟩). (17)
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Derivation of the sth-order perturbative corrections
to the solution to a one-dimensional anharmonic
oscillator
The Schrödinger equation describing a one-dimensional har-
monic oscillator induced by a perturbation potential λxαis
(−1
2d2
dx2+1
2x2+λxα)ψα
n(x)=Eα
nψα
n(x), (18)
whereλis the strength of the external field, which gives rise to
the perturbation, and αis a positive integer. In the absence of
the perturbation, Eq. (18) is the well-known equation describing a
one-dimensional harmonic oscillator with a wave function
ψ0
n,0(x)=Anexp(−x2
2)Hn(x), (19)
where An=1√
2nn!√πis the normalization constant, nis the quantum
number, and Hn(x)is the Hermite polynomial of degree n, and the
energy is given by
E0
n,0=n+1
2. (20)
Since Eq. (18) cannot be analytically solvable, the PT is then cho-
sen to approximate the solutions. As discussed above, the first-order
correction of the wave function is given by the following equation:
ψα
n,1(x)=∑
m≠ncmn,1ψ0
m,0(x), (21)
where
cmn,1=⟨ψ0
m,0∣xα∣ψ0
n,0⟩
En,0−Em,0(22)
is the expanding coefficient of the first-order correction to the wave
function. Making use of Eq. (A12) (see the Appendix), we obtain the
following equation:
⟨ψ0
m,0∣xα∣ψ0
n,0⟩=k≤α/2
∑
k=0α−2k
∑
ℓ=0(α
2k)(α−2k
ℓ)n!m!2n−ℓAnAm
(m−α+2k+ℓ)!
×Γ(k+1
2)δm,n+α−2(k+ℓ), (23)
whereδm,ndenotes the Kronecker delta, satisfying
δm,n=⎧⎪⎪⎨⎪⎪⎩1, m=n,
0, m≠n.(24)
By substituting Eq. (23) into Eq. (21), the first-order correction to
the wave function for arbitrary states is obtained by
AIP Advances 11, 085310 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0059800 11, 085310-3
© Author(s) 2021AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
ψα
n,1(x)=∑
m≠nk≤α/2
∑
k=0α−2k
∑
ℓ=0(α
2k)(α−2k
ℓ)n!m!2n−ℓAnAm
(m−α+2k+ℓ)!
×Γ(k+1
2)
(n−m)ψ0
m,0(x)δm,n+α−2(k+ℓ). (25)
The first-order correction to the energy is then computed by the
following equation:
Eα
n,1=⟨ψ0
n,0∣xα∣ψ0
n,0⟩. (26)
Combining the known wave function of a one-dimensional har-
monic oscillator and Eq. (A12), the first-order correction to the
energy is obtained by
Eα
n,1=k≤α/2
∑
k=0α−2k
∑
ℓ=0(α
2k)(α−2k
ℓ)n!2−ℓ
(n−α+2k+ℓ)!
×Γ(k+1
2)√πδn,n+α−2(k+ℓ). (27)
It is interesting to note that En,1is non-zero only if
k+ℓ=α
2, (28)
owing to the mathematical property of the Kronecker delta. Because
kand ℓare integers, the above equation has the solutions for even
αsolely. This means that in the case of odd α, the first-order cor-
rection to energy always equals to zero. Therefore, the anharmonic
oscillator does not feel the presence of the external field in this case ifonly the first-order approximation is considered. Therefore, it is nec-
essary to compute higher-order corrections to the energy. Regard-
ing the second-order correction of energy, it can be computed
as follows:
Eα
n,2=⟨ψ0
n,0∣xα∣ψα
n,1⟩. (29)
By substituting Eqs. (19) and (25) into Eq. (29), we obtain the
following equation:
Eα
n,2=∑
m≠nk≤α/2
∑
k=0α−2k
∑
ℓ=0(α
2k)(α−2k
ℓ)
×n!m!2n−ℓAnAm
(m−α+2k+ℓ)!Γ(k+1
2)
(n−m)δm,n+α−2(k+ℓ)
×+∞
∫
−∞ψ0
m,0(x)ψ0
n,0(x)dx. (30)
Once again, the integral can be treated by making use of Eq. (A12),
+∞
∫
−∞ψ0
m,0(x)ψ0
n,0(x)dx=k′≤α/2
∑
k′=0α−2k′
∑
ℓ′=0(α
2k′)(α−2k′
ℓ′)
×n!m!2n−ℓ′AnAm
(m−α+2k′+ℓ′)!Γ(k′+1
2)
×δm,n+α−2(k′+ℓ′). (31)
Substituting back into Eq. (30), the general second-order correction
to the energy is obtained as follows:
Eα
n,2=∑
m≠nk≤α/2
∑
k=0α−2k
∑
ℓ=0(α
2k)2
(α−2k
ℓ)2(n!m!)222(n−ℓ)A2
nA2
m
(m−α+2k+ℓ)!2(n−m)Γ(k+1
2)2δm,n+α−2(k+ℓ). (32)
Using Eq. (15), the third-order correction to the energy for arbitrary states could be derived as follows:
Eα
n,3=⟨ψα
n,1∣xα−Eα
n,1∣ψα
n,1⟩=∑
m1≠n∑
m2≠nk1≤α/2
∑
k1=0α−2k1
∑
ℓ1=0k2≤α/2
∑
k2=0α−2k2
∑
ℓ2=0(α
2k1)(α−2k1
ℓ1)(α
2k2)(α−2k2
ℓ2)
×n!m1!Γ(k1+1
2)Γ(k2+1
2)
(m1−α+2k1+ℓ1)!(n−m1)π√πδm1,n+α−2(k1+ℓ1)⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣k′≤α/2
∑
k′=0α−2k′
∑
ℓ′=0(α
2k′)(α−2k′
ℓ′)m2!2n−m2−ℓ1−ℓ2−ℓ′Γ(k′+1
2)
(m2−α+2k2+ℓ2)!(m2−α+2k′+ℓ′)!(n−m2)
×δm2,n+α−2(k2+ℓ2)δm2,m1+α−2(k′+ℓ′)−k≤α/2
∑
k=0α−2k
∑
ℓ=0(α
2k)(α−2k
ℓ)n!2n−m1−ℓ1−ℓ2−ℓΓ(k+1
2)
(m1−α+2k2+ℓ2)!(n−α+2k+ℓ)!(n−m1)
×δm1,n+α−2(k2+ℓ2)δn,n+α−2(k+ℓ)⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦. (33)
The wave function of a one-dimensional anharmonic oscil-
lator with first-order correction is given by the following
equation:
ψα
n(x)=ψα
n,0(x)+λψα
n,1(x), (34)and the corresponding energy with third-order correction is as
follows:
Eα
n=Eα
n,0+λEα
n,1+λ2Eα
n,2+λ3Eα
n,3. (35)
Obviously, the above results can be used to approximate the wave
function and the energy for arbitrary states and arbitrary power α.
AIP Advances 11, 085310 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0059800 11, 085310-4
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Since the calculation for the higher-order corrections is more tedious
for the general case α, we constrained our calculation for the general
powerαat this point. In the following, we discuss two particular
circumstances in which α=4 andα=3 in detail and then extend
the calculation to the second-order correction to the wave function
and the fourth- and fifth-order corrections to the energy for these
cases.
B. Typical cases: α=4and α=3
In this section, we discuss two particular circumstances where
α=4 andα=3 as two typical examples of PT. In addition, to val-
idate the significance of the higher-order corrections to the energy
obtained in the textbook,9we calculated the second-order correc-
tion to the wave function for these two cases and then computed
the energy up to the fifth-order approximation. The numerical
results obtained by the Lagrange-mesh method25,26were then used
as the benchmark to validate the applicable range of the analytically
approximated results.
First, let us discuss the case where α=4 explicitly. According to
Eq. (25), the first-order correction to the wave function is given bythe following equation:
ψ4
n,1(x)=1
4[1
4√
(n−3)4ψ0
n−4,0(x)−1
4√
(n+1)4ψ0
n+4,0(x)
+(2n−1)√
(n−1)2ψ0
n−2,0(x)−(2n+3)
×√
(n+1)2ψ0
n+2,0(x)], (36)
where(a)n=a(a+1)⋅⋅⋅(a+n−1)is the Pochhammer symbol.
The first-, second-, and third-order corrections to the energy are
obtained by using Eqs. (27), (32), and (33), respectively, with α=4,
E4
n,1=3
4(2n2+2n+1), (37)
E4
n,2=−1
8(34n3+51n2+59n+21), (38)
E4
n,3=(375
16n4+375
8n3+177
2n2+1041
16n+333
16). (39)
The second-order correction can be derived by the 2 s+1 rule,
which was presented in Sec. II. The calculation shows that
ψ4
n,2(x)=1
512√
(n−7)8ψ0
n−8,0(x)+1
192(6n−11)√
(n−5)6ψ0
n−6,0(x)+1
16(2n−7)(n−1)√
(n−3)4ψ0
n−4,0(x)
+1
2√
(n−1)2(−1
16n3−129
32n2+107
32n−33
16)ψ0
n−2,0(x)+1
2√
(n+1)2(−1
16n3+123
32n2+359
32n+75
8)ψ0
n+2,0(x)
+1
16(2n+9)(n+2)√
(n+1)4ψ0
n+4,0(x)+1
192(6n+17)√
(n+1)6ψ0
n+6,0(x)+1
512√
(n+1)8ψ0
n+8,0(x)
−1
2(65
128n4+65
64n3+487
128n2+211
64n+39
32)ψ0
n,0(x). (40)
Consequently, the fourth- and fifth-order corrections to the energy
are obtained, respectively, as follows:
E4
n,4=−10 689
64n5−53 445
128n4−71 305
64n3−80 235
64n2
−111 697
128n−30 885
128, (41)
E4
n,5=87 549
64n6+262 647
64n5+3 662 295
256n4+2 786 805
128n3
+3 090 693
128n2+3 569 679
256n+916 731
256. (42)
Next, we compare the analytically approximated formulas with
numerical calculations to validate the exactness and determine the
applicable range of the approximated formulas. For this purpose, the
relative deviation is given by the following equation:
σ=∣Enum−Eana
Enum∣, (43)where Enum and Eanaare the numerical and analytical results,
respectively. As shown in Fig. 1, in the small λregime (0≤λ≤0.05),
the approximated formulas match well to the numerical calculation.
In this regime, the tenth-order corrected formula has the lowest
relative deviation, approximately zero. However, the higher-order
formulas diverge rapidly as the perturbative parameter increases.
Nevertheless, in the large λregime, the first-order corrected
formula has, in general, a smaller relative deviation compared to
others.
Finally, we explicitly present the corrections to the energy and
wave function in the case of α=3. The first- and second-order cor-
rections to the wave function of this case are given, respectively, as
follows:
ψ3
n,1(x)=√
2
12√
(n−2)3ψ0
n−3,0(x)−√
2
12√
(n+1)3ψ0
n+3,0(x)
+3√
2
4n√nψ0
n−1,0(x)−3√
2
4(n+1)√
n+1ψ0
n+1,0(x)
(44)
AIP Advances 11, 085310 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0059800 11, 085310-5
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FIG. 1. The first row shows the plots of the energy of the ground state and three excited states as a function of perturbative parameter λwith different orders of correction in
the case ofα=4. Meanwhile, the second row depicts the relative deviation between the analytical formulas and the numerical calculation obtained by the Lagrange-mesh
method (black solid line). Note that the tenth-order corrected energy (pink star line) is taken from Ref. 9.
and
ψ3
n,2(x)=1
144√
(n+1)6ψ0
n+6,0(x)+1
32√
(n+1)4(4n+7)ψ0
n+4,0(x)
+1
16√
(n+1)2(7n2+33n+27)ψ0
n+2,0(x)
+1
144√
(n−5)6ψ0
n−6,0(x)
+1
32√
(n−3)4(4n−3)ψ0
n−4,0(x)
+1
16√
(n−1)2(7n2−19n+1)ψ0
n−2,0(x)
−1
2(41
18n3+41
12n2+32
9n+29
24)ψ0
n,0(x). (45)Straightforwardly, we obtain
E3
n,1=0, (46)
E3
n,2=−15
4n2−15
4n−11
8, (47)
E3
n,3=0, (48)
E3
n,4=−705
16n3−2115
32n2−1635
32n−465
32, (49)
E3
n,5=0. (50)
Similarly, the analytically approximated formulas were compared
to the numerical calculation. Because the odd-order corrections to
FIG. 2. Same as Fig. 1 but for α=3.
AIP Advances 11, 085310 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0059800 11, 085310-6
© Author(s) 2021AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
the energy are zero, the second- and fourth-order corrections are
considered. The results are depicted in Fig. 2. The comparison shows
that the second- and fourth-order corrected energies are relatively
identical to the numerical results. The deviations of the ground and
first-excited state are less than 1%, while those of higher-excited
states are larger, ∼5%, which is still acceptable.
IV. CONCLUSION
In summary, we have provided a mathematical procedure to
derive the wave function and energy for any arbitrary states of a one-
dimensional anharmonic oscillator with the general perturbation
potential Vper(x)=λxαusing the time-independent non-degenerate
PT. Subsequently, the explicit results of two particular cases in which
α=3 andα=4 are discussed in detail. In addition, the second-order
correction to the wave function and up to fifth-order correction to
the energy for these cases were computed. The analytical results
were then compared with the numerical solutions obtained using
the Lagrange-mesh method. The comparison indicates that in the
regime in which the perturbation parameter is small, the analytical
results agree well with those obtained numerically and then dramat-
ically diverge as the perturbation parameter increases. The higher-
order corrections to the energy diverge rapidly as the perturbative
parameter increases. In addition, the fifth-order corrected energy
in the case of α=4 is the same as that printed in Ref. 9; however,
the procedure is more comfortable to approach. The results in the
present article are anticipated to be a useful reference.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and
Training of Vietnam (Grant No. B2021-SPS-02-VL). Mr. Tran
Duong Anh-Tai acknowledges support provided by the Okinawa
Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST).
The authors are thankful to Mr. Mathias Mikkelsen for introducing
the Lagrange-mesh method to them.
APPENDIX: THE INTEGRAL
I=+∞
∫
−∞xαexp(−x2)Hn(x)Hm(x)dx
In this work, the Hermite polynomials of degrees mandnare
expanded by generating function,71respectively,
g(t,x)=+∞
∑
n=0Hn(x)tn
n!=exp(−t2+2tx), (A1)
f(z,x)=+∞
∑
m=0Hm(x)zn
m!=exp(−z2+2zx). (A2)
Then, multiplying both sides of the above two equations by
xαexp(−x2)and taking the integral from −∞ to+∞, we obtain
+∞
∑
n=0+∞
∑
m=0⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣+∞
∫
−∞xαexp(−x2)Hm(x)Hn(x)dx⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦tnzm
n!m!
=exp(2tz)+∞
∫
−∞xαexp[−(x−(t+z))2]dx. (A3)To simplify the calculation, let us introduce a new variable y=x
−(t+z), and then the right-hand side is rewritten as
A=exp(2tz)+∞
∫
−∞[y+(t+z)]αexp(−y2)dy. (A4)
The binomial in (A4) is expanded by the binomial formula
[y+(t+z)]α=α
∑
i=0(α
i)(t+z)α−iyi, (A5)
and hence,
A=exp(2tz)α
∑
i=0(α
i)(t+z)α−i+∞
∫
−∞yiexp(−y2)dy. (A6)
The integral in Eq. (A6) can be straightforwardly deduced as
+∞
∫
−∞xkexp(−x2)dx=⎧⎪⎪⎪⎨⎪⎪⎪⎩0 if kis odd,
Γ(1+k
2) ifkis even,(A7)
therefore solely the integrals with even coefficients i=2kare
considered
A=exp(2tz)k≤α/2
∑
k=0(α
2k)Γ(k+1
2)(t+z)α−2k. (A8)
It can be seen in (A3) that the value of the integral is the coefficient
oftnzm; thus, we need to find that expanding coefficient. To do so,
we expand
exp(2tz)=∞
∑
j=0(2tz)j
j!(A9)
by the Taylor formula and
(t+z)α−2k=α−2k
∑
ℓ=0(α−2k
ℓ)tℓzα−2k−ℓ(A10)
by the binomial formula. Substituting into (A4), we obtain
A=+∞
∑
j=0⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣k≤α/2
∑
k=0α−2k
∑
ℓ=0(α
2k)(α−2k
ℓ)Γ(k+1
2)2j
j!⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦tj+ℓzα−2k−ℓ+j. (A11)
Combining (A11) and (A3), the desired result is obtained,
+∞
∫
−∞xαexp(−x2)Hm(x)Hn(x)dx
=k≤α/2
∑
k=0α−2k
∑
ℓ=0(α
2k)(α−2k
ℓ)n!m!2n−ℓ
(m−α+2k+ℓ)!
×Γ(k+1
2)δm,n+α−2(k+ℓ). (A12)
AIP Advances 11, 085310 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0059800 11, 085310-7
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DATA AVAILABILITY
The data that support the findings of this study are available
from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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© Author(s) 2021 |
1.5023118.pdf | Pseudomorphic spinel ferrite films with perpendicular anisotropy and low damping
R. C. Budhani , Satoru Emori , Zbigniew Galazka , Benjamin A. Gray , Maxwell Schmitt , Jacob J. Wisser , Hyung-
Min Jeon , Hadley Smith , Piyush Shah , Michael R. Page , Michael E. McConney , Yuri Suzuki , and Brandon M.
Howe
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 113, 082404 (2018); doi: 10.1063/1.5023118
View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5023118
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apl/113/8
Published by the American Institute of PhysicsPseudomorphic spinel ferrite films with perpendicular anisotropy and low
damping
R. C. Budhani,1,2,a)Satoru Emori,3,4Zbigniew Galazka,5Benjamin A. Gray,1
Maxwell Schmitt,1Jacob J. Wisser,3,6Hyung-Min Jeon,7Hadley Smith,1Piyush Shah,1
Michael R. Page,1Michael E. McConney,1YuriSuzuki,3,6and Brandon M. Howe1
1Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Dayton, Ohio 45433, USA
2Department of Physics, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland 21251, USA
3Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
4Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
5Leibniz Institute for Crystal Growth—Forschungsverbund Berlin eV, 12489 Berlin, Germany
6Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
7Department of Electrical Engineering, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio 45435, USA
(Received 21 January 2018; accepted 6 August 2018; published online 22 August 2018)
We report on epitaxial thin films of spinel ferrite Ni 0.65Zn0.35Fe1.2Al0.8O4with strain-induced per-
pendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and low magnetic damping. Static magnetometry and
broadband ferromagnetic resonance experiments show a distinct change in the preferred direction
of magnetization from in-plane to out-of-plane when the coherent strain in films changes from/C242% compressive on (001) MgAl
2O4to/C240.5% tensile on (001) MgGa 2O4substrates. Significant
deviations from the spin-only value (2.0) of the g-factor suggest spin-orbit effects and further sup-
port our conclusion of strain-driven magnetic anisotropy in these films. The low Gilbert dampingparameter of a¼5/C210
/C03in these ferrite films, combined with their PMA, makes them promising
for spintronic and frequency-agile microwave device applications. Published by AIP Publishing.
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5023118
Thin magnetic films possessing perpendicular magnetic
anisotropy (PMA) are essential material platforms for highdensity data recording technology
1–3and spin-torque-driven
magnetic memory and logic devices.4–7While conventional
spin-torque devices have been based on metallic ferromag-nets, more recently, control of magnetization by spin-orbittorque (SOT) due to the spin-Hall effect has been realized inmagnetic insulators.
8–14For instance, magnetic insulator thin
films with PMA, such as barium hexaferrite (BaFe 12O19)15
and thulium iron garnet (Tm 3Fe5O12),16have been used to
demonstrate tuning of coercivity and magnetic switching bySOT.
12–14One potential merit of magnetic insulators is that
their magnetic damping may be lower than that of metallicferromagnets. Since the threshold current density for spin-torque switching scales with the Gilbert damping parameter,low-damping magnetic insulators may be excellent platformsfor SOT driven memory and nano-oscillator devices.However, while thin films of yttrium iron garnet (Y
3Fe5O12)
without PMA exhibit a low Gilbert damping of a<10/C03,17–20
damping in thin films of PMA insulators is rather high, e.g.,
a>0.01 with ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) linewidths on
the order of /C2410 mT at 10 GHz in Tm 3Fe5O12.21,22It is there-
fore an outstanding challenge to develop an insulating PMAmaterial system with low damping, which would be suitablefor power-efficient spintronic memory and logic devices.
Here, we achieve the desirable combination of PMA and
low damping in pseudomorphic thin films of insulating spinelNiZnAl-ferrite (NZAFO) via epitaxial strain. Specifically, weshow that tensile strain in NZAFO on MgGa
2O4(MGO)substrates causes the magnetic easy axis to point out of plane ,
in contrast with the previous report of easy-in-plane anisotropy
in compressively strained NZAFO on MgAl 2O4(MAO) sub-
strates.23We also show that the tensile-strained NZAFO/MGO
films exhibit a Gilbert damping parameter of a<5/C210/C03,
which is among the lowest reported for thin-film magneticinsulators with PMA. Our findings identify epitaxial spinel fer-rites as an attractive insulating platform for spintronic applica-tions that require both PMA and low damping.
Compared to iron garnets and hexaferrites, spinel ferrites
have a relatively simple crystal structure and are amenable to arange of chemical substitutions to tune their epitaxial strain andmagnetism.
24–29In this study, we focus on spinel NZAFO films
with nominal composition Ni 0.65Zn0.35Fe1.2Al0.8O4, derived
from the parent compound NiFe 2O4.30Here, Zn2þsubstitution
of Ni2þleads to softer magnetism, and Al3þsubstitution of
Fe3þdecreases structural defects by improving the lattice
match with the single-crystal spinel substrate (MAO or MGO).This particular composition of NZAFO enables high-qualitypseudomorphic film growth, while keeping the Curie tempera-ture well above room temperature. We note that the Fe cationsin NZAFO are mostly in the 3 þvalence state,
23according to
X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements on thin filmsof this compound deposited under conditions similar to this
study.
Thin epitaxial films of NZAFO were deposited in a load-
locked vacuum chamber by ablating a 2.5-cm-diameter sin-tered target of Ni
0.65Zn0.35Al0.8Fe1.2O4with a KrF excimer
laser operating at 248 nm. The typical deposition parametersfor the ferrite films are the laser pulse repetition rate of 4 Hz,
laser fluence of 4 J/cm
2, target to substrate distance of /C245 cm,
substrate temperature of 600–700/C14C, oxygen pressure duringa)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: ramesh.budhani@
morgan.edu
0003-6951/2018/113(8)/082404/5/$30.00 Published by AIP Publishing. 113, 082404-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 113, 082404 (2018)
growth of /C24250–300 mTorr, and post-deposition cooling
rate of 10/C14C/min to ambient temperature. These deposition
parameters give rise to a growth rate of /C240.02 nm/pulse. The
films were deposited on 5 /C25m m2and/or 10 /C210 mm2(001)
oriented single crystal substrates of MAO and MGO. While
the MAO substrates were acquired from a commercial
source, the MGO substrates were prepared from bulk crystalsobtained by the Czochralski method.
31Here, we focus on
results from 19-nm and 114-nm thick films deposited on
MGO substrates. These films are compared with 27-nm and
84-nm thick NZAFO films on MAO substrates.
The crystalline quality of the films on these two types of
substrates was compared by high resolution four circle x-ray
diffractometry. In Fig. 1(a), we compare the x-2hscans of
four films, two each on one kind of substrate, in the angularrange covering the (004) reflection of the substrate and the
ferrite. The diffraction profiles show prominent Laue oscilla-
tions, from which the thickness values of the films werededuced. The presence of Laue oscillations in the films indi-
cates an atomically flat surface and interface.
Taking note of the relative positions of the substrate and
film diffraction peaks and the lattice parameter of NZAFO inthe bulk form (a ¼0.8242 nm), we found that the films are com-
pressively strained on MAO (lattice parameter, a ¼0.8083 nm),
whereas they are tensile strained on MGO (a ¼0.828 nm).
Specifically, the c-axis lattice parameters of the 27-nm and84-nm thick films on MAO are 0.8395 nm and 0.8373 nm,respectively, whereas those of the 19-nm and 114-nm thickfilms on MGO are 0.8169 nm and 0.8185 nm, respectively. The
c-axis lattice parameter of each thicker film being closer to the
lattice parameter of bulk NZAFO suggests some structuralrelaxation with the increasing film thickness. However, in thereciprocal space maps of the thicker films shown in Fig. 1(b),
the in-plane lattice parameter of the film coincides with that of
the substrate, suggesting fully strained pseudomorphic growth.
While this observation appears incompatible with the differenceseen in the c-axis lattice parameters of the thick and thin films,we believe the elasticity of the lattice accommodates this
difference.
The deformation of the lattice due to coherent strain
affects the magnetic anisotropy in these films significantly
as seen from the magnetization loops ( M(H)) presented in
Fig.2. The saturation magnetization of the films is in close
agreement with the value reported for the bulk NZAFO.
30
This suggests minimal changes in the site occupancies ofmetal ions in the films. The epitaxial films of NZAFO on
MAO display easy-plane anisotropy, with a very large out-of-
plane saturation field of >1 T. The magnitude of effective in-
plane uniaxial anisotropy energy density, jK
u,effj, calculated
from the difference in the area ( M.H) of Figs. 2(a)and2(b)
under the first quadrant of M-Hresponse is 1.7 /C2105J/m3for
the 27-nm thick film on MAO and 2.3 /C2105J/m3for the 84-
nm thick film on MAO. These results compare well with thevalues of the anisotropy energy derived from ferromagneticresonance measurements,
23and its origin is primarily the
strain related magneto-elastic interaction.
FIG. 1. (a) X-ray x/C02Hdiffraction profiles of four NZAFO films in the
angular range covering the (004) reflection of the ferrite and the substrate. (b)Reciprocal space map of the ( /C221/C2215) asymmetric diffraction for the 84-nm film
on MAO and the 114-nm film on MGO (marked b
1and b 2, respectively).FIG. 2. Static magnetization ( M) measured as a function of field at 300 K in a
SQUID magnetometer. Panels (a) and (b) are for 27-nm and 84-nm thick
films, respectively, on MAO. The in-plane field in both the cases was directedalong the (110) direction. Panels (c) and (d) show the M(H) response of the
19-nm and 114-nm thick films on MGO.082404-2 Budhani et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 113, 082404 (2018)A dramatically different M(H) response is seen in films
deposited on MGO where the ferrite is subjected to a tensile
stress due to the /C240.5% larger lattice parameter of the sub-
strate. Here, the magnetization in the out-of-plane field geom-etry [see Figs. 2(c)and2(d)] saturates at a much lower field
for both of the films compared to the films on MAO [Figs.
2(a) and2(b)], whereas the magnetization in the in-plane
geometry shows hard-axis behavior. The M(H) response seen
here is indicative of out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy. The
value of K
u,effcalculated from the difference in area enclosed
by the M-H curve in the first quadrant is /C251.4/C2104J/m3for
the 19-nm and 114-nm thick films and comparable to the val-ues reported for epitaxial Tm
3Fe5O12with PMA.21,22
To gain further insight into the magnetic anisotropy as
well as spin-orbit coupling and magnetization dynamics inthese PMA films deposited on MGO, we performed ferromag-
netic resonance (FMR) measurements with a broadband
coplanar-waveguide-based spectrometer with both in-planeand out-of-plane dc field directions. Some typical examples of
the FMR spectra are shown in Fig. 3.E a c hs p e c t r u mw a sfi t
with the derivative of a sum of the symmetric and antisym-metric Lorentzians to extract the resonance field, H
fmr, and the
half-width-at-half-maximum linewidth, DH. Under applied
fields higher than the saturation field, most spectra could be fitwith a single mode of a Lorentzian derivative, implying that
the observed signal arises from the uniform FMR mode.
However, multiple modes were observed at all excita-
tion frequencies in the out-of-plane FMR spectra of the 114-
nm thick film [Fig. 3(b)]. These modes are indicative of per-
pendicular standing spin waves (PSSW) with indicesn¼odd, consistent with the case where the spins are pinned
at both film surfaces under uniform microwave excitation.
Further studies of PSSW and their evolution with tempera-ture will be reported in the future.
We quantify the Land /C19eg-factor and effective anisotropy
fields by fitting the frequency dependence of H
fmrwith theappropriate Kittel equation.32For the out-of-plane case, the
Kittel equation is
f¼goplB
hl0Hfmr/C0Meff ðÞ ; (1)
where gopis the out-of-plane g-factor and l0Meff¼l0(Ms
/C0Hpma) is the total uniaxial out-of-plane anisotropy field,
which includes the demagnetizing field ( l0Ms/C250.13 T) and
the perpendicular anisotropy field, l0Hpma. The results of the
fits with Eq. (1)are shown in Fig. 4.
We first discuss our findings for Meff, while deferring the
discussion of the g-factor to compare with the in-plane
results. The fact that l0Meffisnegative signifies that l0Hpma
is large enough to overcome the shape anisotropy, thus
allowing the magnetic easy axis to be out of plane. Theeffective PMA energy density jK
u,effj¼l0jMeffjMs/2 is
/C251.2/C2104J/m3for the 19-nm thick film and /C251.4/C2104J/m3
for the 114-nm thick film. These values are in excellent
agreement with the anisotropy energy deduced from thestatic M(H) measurements of Fig. 2. This PMA field stems
from the epitaxial strain state of the ferrite film, where the
tetragonal distortion of the ferrite lattice subject to an in-
plane biaxial strain of e
biand an out-of-plane uniaxial
strain ezzleads to a magneto-elastic response. The magnetoe-
lastic coefficient B1, which quantifies the coupling, is given
asB1¼l0HMEMs/(2(ezz/C0ebi)), where the magneto-elastic
anisotropy field HMEis assumed to be equivalent to the PMA
field HPMA. Following the linear elastic response assumption,
we arrive at ebi¼0.005 and ezz¼/C00.007. These values yield
B1¼1.5/C2106J/m3, which is in good agreement with previ-
ously reported NZAFO on MAO.23
For the in-plane FMR, the Kittel equation is
f¼giplB
hl0HfmrþH4;ipcos 4U ðÞ1
2
/C2HfmrþMeffþ1
4H4;ip3þcos 4U ðÞ/C18/C19 1
2
; (2)
FIG. 3. Exemplary FMR spectra at f¼15 GHz measured under out-of-plane
field (a) and (b) and in-plane field (c) and (d) for the 19-nm thick (a) and (c)
and 114-nm thick (b) and (d) NZAFO films on MGO. Note the presence ofdistinct multiple modes, attributed to perpendicular standing spin waves, in
the out-of-plane FMR spectrum in the 114-nm thick film (b).
FIG. 4. Frequency dependence of resonance field, Hfmr, with out-of-plane
field (a) and (b) and in-plane field (c) and (d) for the 19-nm thick (a) and (c)
and 114-nm thick (b) and (d) NZAFO films on MGO. For the 114-nm thickfilm in an out-of-plane field (b), the data for the uniform FMR ( n¼0) mode
are shown.082404-3 Budhani et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 113, 082404 (2018)where gipis the in-plane g-factor, H4,ipis the in-plane cubic
anisotropy field, and Uis the in-plane magnetization angle
with respect to the [100] crystallographic axis. The in-planeFMR measurements were conducted with the field appliedalong [100], i.e., U¼0. To constrain the number of free
parameters in the fit using Eq. (2),w efi x l
0Meffto the value
found from the out-of-plane analysis [Eq. (1), Figs. 4(a)and
4(b)]. We note that l0jHpmaj>200 mT whereas l0jH4,ipj
<10 mT, confirming that the perpendicular anisotropy from
the tetragonal distortion is much stronger than the in-planeanisotropy from the in-plane four-fold crystallographic struc-ture of the film. From both out-of-plane and in-plane mea-surements, as shown in Fig. 4, we find that the g-factor of
>2.1 is systematically greater than the spin-only value of
2.0. This supports the existence of spin-orbit coupling thatgives rise to the strain-induced anisotropy. However, theg-factors found here in tensile-strained NZAFO films on
MGO are smaller than g/C252.3 found previously in compres-
sively strained films on MAO.
23This discrepancy in gpossi-
bly arises from the different strain state, which may change
the occupation of orbitals and hence the magnitude of orbitalangular momentum of magnetic cations.
We now quantify the Gilbert damping parameter, a,
from the frequency dependence of DH, using the relation
DH¼DH
0þh
gl0lBaf; (3)
whereDH0is the zero-frequency linewidth and g¼goporgip
depending on the field direction. Figure 5summarizes our
results. We find a/C254/C210/C03for both the 19- and 114-nm
thick NZAFO films in out-of-plane and in-plane fields. Thedamping in NZAFO thin films with PMA is significantlylower than what has been reported previously in insulatingPMA thin films.
21Our findings also show that it is possible
to simultaneously achieve PMA and low damping in pseu-
domorphic spinel ferrite thin films, thus introducing anadditional family of magnetic insulators for spin-torque-
driven applications.
While epitaxial magnetic films in general can exhibit sub-
stantial non-Gilbert damping (e.g., due to two-magnon scatter-ing) mediated by defects,
33–35damping in NZAFO films is
dominated by the Gilbert mechanism [captured by Eq. (3)].
First, the linear scaling of linewidth with the wide range of fre-quencies suggests that two-magnon scattering does not play arole. The Gilbert damping parameters for the in-plane and out-of-plane configurations are comparable, which also suggests anegligible role played by two-magnon scattering. However, wenote that the damping parameters for the 19-nm thick NZAFOon MGO are higher than those for a film of comparable thick-ness on MAO ( a/C253/C210
/C03).23The exact reason for this dis-
crepancy is unknown but may be due to the differentmicrostructure of the thin films grown on MGO compared to
MAO.
In summary, it is shown that a tensile strain in NZAFO
epitaxial films grown on the (001) surface of MGO spinelresults in perpendicular magnetic anisotropy with an energydensity of /C251.4/C210
4J/m3, derived from static magnetometry
and frequency dependent FMR measurements. This is in con-trast with compressively strained NZAFO on MAO that exhib-its large easy-plane anisotropy. The NZAFO films with PMAdisplay among the lowest Gilbert damping ( a<5/C210
/C03)
reported so far in insulating PMA thin films. This demonstra-
tion of low-damping spinel ferrite films with sizable PMA is
promising for future spintronic applications such as spin-orbit-torque nano-oscillators and high density magnetic memorydevices.
This material is based upon work supported by the Air
Force Office of Scientific Research under Award No.FA9550-15RXCOR198. R.C.B. thanks the NationalResearch Council, Washington DC, for the award of a senior
fellowship. Work at Stanford was supported by the Vannevar
Bush Faculty Fellowship Program sponsored by the BasicResearch Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense forResearch and Engineering and funded by the Office of NavalResearch through Grant No. N00014-15-1-0045.
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(a) and (b) and in-plane field (c) and (d) for the 19-nm thick (a) and (c) and
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1.4991663.pdf | Indirect excitation of self-oscillation in perpendicular ferromagnet by spin Hall effect
Tomohiro Taniguchi
Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 022410 (2017); doi: 10.1063/1.4991663
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4991663
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apl/111/2
Published by the American Institute of Physics
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Applied Physics Letters 111, 022408 (2017); 10.1063/1.4990680Indirect excitation of self-oscillation in perpendicular ferromagnet by
spin Hall effect
Tomohiro Taniguchi
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Spintronics Research Center,
Tsukuba 305-8568, Japan
(Received 25 May 2017; accepted 21 June 2017; published online 14 July 2017)
A possibility to excite a stable self-oscillation in a perpendicularly magnetized ferromagnet by the
spin Hall effect is investigated theoretically. It had been shown that such self-oscillation cannot be
stabilized solely by the direct spin torque by the spin Hall effect. Here, we consider adding anotherferromagnet, referred to as pinned layer, on the free layer. The pinned layer provides another spin
torque through the reflection of the spin current. The study shows that the stable self-oscillation is
excited by the additional spin torque when the magnetization in the pinned layer is tilted from thefilm plane. Published by AIP Publishing. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4991663 ]
It has been experimentally demonstrated that the spin
Hall effect (SHE)
1,2in nonmagnetic heavy metals generates
pure spin current flowing in the direction perpendicular to an
external voltage and excites spin torque on a magnetization
in an adjacent ferromagnet.3–12The spin torque induces
the magnetization dynamics such as switching and self-
oscillation. Substantial efforts have been made to develop
practical devices based on the spin Hall effect, for example,magnetic random access memory, microwave generator,
high sensitivity sensor, and new direction such as bio-
inspired computing.
13,14
The spintronics devices based on the spin Hall effect,
however, face a serious problem because of the geometricalrestriction of the spin torque direction. Let us assume that an
electric current flows in the nonmagnet along xdirection,
while the ferromagnet is set in zdirection. Then, the direc-
tion of the spin polarization in the spin current generated by
the spin Hall effect is fixed to ydirection. The device designs
and performances are subject to limitation due to suchrestriction of spin polarization. For example, the magnetiza-tion switching of a perpendicular ferromagnet solely by the
spin Hall effect is impossible because the spin torque does
not break the symmetry with respect to the film plane,whereas a perpendicular ferromagnet is suitable for a high
density memory. Using external magnetic field,
7tilted
anisotropy,15,16or exchange bias17has been proposed to
overcome this issue. It was also shown that an excitation of
the self-oscillation in a perpendicular ferromagnet solely by
the spin Hall effect is impossible due to the symmetry,18
although a large amplitude oscillation excited in a perpendic-
ular ferromagnet is preferable for an enhancement of emis-
sion power. Contrary to the case of the switching, thisproblem has not been solved yet.
The purpose of this letter is to investigate the possibility
to excite the self-oscillation in a perpendicular ferromagnet by
the spin Hall effect. The work is motivated by recent theoreti-
cal studies on the spin-orbit torque in the presence of anadditional ferromagnet to the free layer.
19–21These theories
predict the existence of additional torques and/or enhance-
ment of the spin accumulation. Here, we consider addinganother ferromagnet, referred to as the pinned layer, on thetop of the free layer. The pinned layer provides an additional
spin torque due to the reflection of the spin current at theinterface and the diffusion in bulk. This additional torque
has a different angular dependence from the conventional
spin-orbit torque and results in the excitation of the self-oscillation. In the following, we describe the system in thisstudy and show the spin torque formula applied in the geome-
try. Then, we investigate the magnetization dynamics by solv-
ing the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation numerically.It is shown that the self-oscillation can be excited when themagnetization in the pinned layer is tilted from the film plane.
The system under consideration is schematically shown
in Fig. 1(a). The bottom layer is a nonmagnetic heavy metal
showing the spin Hall effect. Applying an external voltage
along the in-plane ( x) direction, the electric current with
the density J
0is converted to pure spin current flowing in
zdirection. We also consider placing a pinned layer onto
the free layer. The spin current excites the magnetizationdynamics in the free layer through the spin-transfer effect.We denote the unit vectors pointing in the magnetization
direction of the free and pinned layers as mandp, respec-
tively. The magnetization dynamics in the free layer isdescribed by the LLG equation as
dm
dt¼/C0cm/C2HþTþam/C2dm
dt; (1)
where cand aare the gyromagnetic ratio and the Gilbert
damping constant, respectively. The magnetic field Hcon-
sists of a perpendicular anisotropy field and the stray fieldfrom the pinned layer, and is given by
H¼/C0H
dpyeyþ2HdpzþðHK/C04pMÞmz ½/C138 ez; (2)
where Hdcharacterizes the magnitude of the stray field,
whereas HKand 4 pMwith the saturation magnetization Mare
the crystalline and shape (demagnetization) fields, respec-tively. The magnitude of the stray field found in the experi-ments is typically on the order 100 Oe,
7which is consistent
with a theoretical evaluation; see the supplementary material .
Thus, in this paper, we use the value of Hd¼100 Oe in the
following calculations. We assume that HK>4pM, and the
0003-6951/2017/111(2)/022410/5/$30.00 Published by AIP Publishing. 111, 022410-1APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 111, 022410 (2017)
free layer consequently becomes perpendicularly magnetized
in the absence of the pinned layer. The spin torque in Eq. (1)
isT, which in the present geometry is given by
T¼/C0/C22hg1J0
2eMdm/C2ey/C2m ðÞ
/C0/C22hg2J0
2eMdmym/C1pðÞ m/C2p/C2m ðÞ ½/C138
1/C0k2m/C1pðÞ2; (3)
where dis the thickness of the free layer, whereas eð>0Þis
the elementary charge. The first term on the right hand
side of Eq. (3)is the conventional spin Hall torque directly
excited by the spin current generated by the bottom nonmag-net. For convention, we call this torque the direct spin torque(DST) [see Fig. 1(a)]. On the other hand, the second term
arises from the spin current transmitted through the free layer
and reflected by the pinned layer, which is also schematically
shown in Fig. 1(a). In a same manner, we call this torque the
reflection spin torque (RST).
Before solving the LLG equation, let us explain the
physical meaning, as well as its derivation, of these spin tor-
ques in this system. The spin torque has been calculated the-oretically by using several methods such as the ballistic spintransport theory with the interface scattering,
22,23the first-
principles calculations,24,25the Boltzmann approach,26,27
and the diffusive spin transport theory in bulk.28,29Although
the parameters characterizing the spin torque depend on themodels, these theories basically deduce the same angulardependence of the spin torque. The derivation of Eq. (3)in
the present geometry using the diffusive spin transport the-ory in bulk and the interface scattering theory is summarized
in the supplementary material . The spin torque efficiency g
1
of the direct spin torque is proportional to the spin Hall angle
in the bottom nonmagnet. It also depends on the interfaceand bulk properties. Note that the direct spin torque isexcited by an absorption of the transverse component (per-
pendicular to m) of a spin current generated by the spin Hall
effect in the bottom nonmagnet. The spin polarization of thespin current points to the ydirection, and thus, the direct spin
torque moves the magnetization parallel or antiparallel to theyaxis, as schematically shown in Fig. 1(b).
On the other hand, the reflection spin torque arises from
the spin current passing through the free layer. Such spincurrent is again injected into the free layer from the top inter-
face due to the reflection from the top interface and diffusivespin transport in the pinned layer. Note that the spin current
generated in the bottom nonmagnet has the spin polarization
in the ydirection. Because of the absorption of the transverse
component of the spin current from the bottom nonmagnetmentioned earlier, the reflection spin torque includes the fac-
torm
y; i.e., when my¼0, the spin current generated in the
bottom nonmagnet is completely absorbed to the free layerat the bottom interface, and therefore, the reflection spin tor-
que becomes zero because the spin current passing through
the free layer is unpolarized. Similarly, the spin polarizationparallel to psurvives during the transport through the pinned
layer. As a result, the reflection spin torque also includes the
factor m/C1pon the numerator in Eq. (3). Moreover, the direc-
tion of the reflection spin torque is given by m/C2ðp/C2mÞ,a s
schematically shown in Fig. 1(b), in comparison to that of
the direct spin torque pointing to the direction of
m/C2ðe
y/C2mÞ. The spin torque efficiency g2and the parame-
terkdetermining the angular dependence characterize the
amount of the spin current reinjected from the top interfaceto the free layer. Their values depend not only on the spin
Hall angle in the bottom nonmagnet but also on the interface
and bulk properties of the pinned layer, such as spin diffu-sion length and mixing conductance. The details of the deri-vation of the reflection spin torque, as well as the relation to
material parameters in the diffusive model, are summarized
insupplementary material .
We note that the present model is applicable to a metal-
lic multilayer. When a spacer between the free and pinned
layers is replaced by an oxide barrier, as in the case of amagnetic tunnel junction, the spin current cannot penetrateinto the pinned layer, and thus, the reflection spin torque
becomes zero. When an electric voltage is applied along the
perpendicular direction, as in the case of the experiment toobtain an electric signal through tunnel magnetoresistanceeffect,
7a spin current will be driven between the free and
pinned layer, and a torque similar to the reflection spin tor-
que will appear. The angular dependence of such a torque,however, might be different from the reflection spin torque.
We investigate the magnetization dynamics in this
geometry by solving Eq. (1)numerically. The values of
the parameters are brought from typical experimental
FIG. 1. (a) Schematic view of the system in this study. The spin Hall effect (SHE) in the bottom nonmagnet injects pure spin current into the free layer. T he
spin current reflected by the pinned layer is again injected into the free layer. The direct and reflection spin torques are referred to as DST and RST, for simplic-
ity. (b) Schematic view of the flow of the spin current and the direction of spin torques. Passing through the free layer from bottom to top, the spin polar ization
transverse to mis absorbed and excites direct spin torque. The spin polarization of the reflected spin current is parallel (or antiparallel) to p. The transverse
component of the reflected spin current is absorbed to the free layer and excites the reflection spin torque.022410-2 Tomohiro Taniguchi Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 022410 (2017)values in spin torque oscillator,30i.e., M¼1448.3 emu/c.c.,
HK¼18:6 kOe, d¼2n m , c¼1:764/C2107rad/(Oe s), and
a¼0:005. The spin torque parameters are g1¼0:14;g2
¼0:07, and k¼0:82, respectively; see the supplementary
material for the evaluations of these parameters. The magne-
tization in the pinned layer is
p¼0
/C0sinhp
coshp0
B@1
CA; (4)
where hpis the tilted angle from zaxis. We note that efforts
have been made to realize a tilted state ( hp6¼0/C14nor 90/C14)
of a magnetization in a ferromagnet by making use of a
higher-order anisotropy or an interlayer exchange couplingbetween a perpendicular and an in-plane magnetized ferro-
magnets.
31–34The initial state is the energetically stable state
given by mð0Þ¼ð 0;sinh0;cosh0Þ, where h0is the tilted
angle of the magnetization from zaxis, which minimizes
the energy density given by E¼/C0MÐdm/C1H¼/C0M½Hd
sinhpmyþ2HdcoshpmzþðHK/C04pMÞm2
z=2/C138. We note that
the magnetization in equilibrium is destabilized by the spin
torques when the current density is larger than a critical
value given by
Jc¼2aeMd
/C22hPHXþHY
2/C18/C19
; (5)
where an effective spin polarization Pis derived as
P¼ g1sinh0þg2
1/C0k2p2
Zp2
Zsin2h0/C0n
2pX/C18/C19
: (6)
Here, pZ¼/C0sinðhpþh0Þand pX¼cosðhpþh0Þ, whereas
n¼KpZsinh0þpXsinh0þpZcosh0withK¼2k2pXpZ=
ð1/C0k2p2
ZÞ. The fields HXandHYin Eq. (5)are expressed as
HX¼Hdð2 cos hpcosh0þsinhpsinh0Þ
þðHK/C04pMÞcos 2 h0; (7)
HY¼Hdð2 cos hpcosh0þsinhpsinh0Þ
þðHK/C04pMÞcos2h0: (8)
We note that the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) frequency
is related to HXandHYas
fFMR¼c
2pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
HXHYp
: (9)
The derivation of Eq. (5)based on the linearized LLG equa-
tion is summarized in the supplementary material . Equation
(5)diverges when the magnetization in the pinned layer
points to the perpendicular direction, hp¼0. This fact indi-
cates that the linearized LLG equation is inapplicable to
study the instability analysis of the magnetization dynamics.
In this case, the critical current will be independent of the
damping constant, as studied in Ref. 35, and does not show
self-oscillation.
Figures 2(a) and2(b) show examples of the magnetiza-
tion dynamics obtained from Eq. (1),w h e r e hpis 10/C14in (a)
and 60/C14in (b). The current density is 20 MA/cm2in thesecalculations, whereas the critical current density estimated
from Eq. (5)is 9.5 MA/cm2forhp¼10/C14and 7.4 MA/cm2for
hp¼60/C14. As shown, a stable oscillation is excited for
hp¼10/C14; this is the main finding in this study. The magneti-
zation precesses around an axis slightly tilted from zaxis. The
oscillation frequency is 1.60 GHz, which is slightly smaller
than the FMR frequency, 1.72 GHz. The relaxation time to theself-oscillation time is about 50 ns. We note here that theinverse of the relaxation time is proportional to the current,
36
and therefore, the relaxation time will be shortened by apply-ing a large current. On the other hand, when h
p¼60/C14,t h e
magnetization switches to the direction antiparallel to the y
direction without showing a self-oscillation, as shown in Fig.
2(b), for a current larger than the critical current. This behav-
ior is similar to that excited solely by the direct spin torquestudied in Ref. 18.
The current dependences of the oscillation frequency for
several values of h
pare summarized in Fig. 3. Random tor-
que,/C0cm/C2h, originated from thermal fluctuation is added
to the right hand side of Eq. (1)to evaluate the magnoise
frequency below the threshold. The components of the
random torque satisfy the fluctuation-dissipation theorem,hh
kðtÞh‘ðt0Þ i¼½ 2akBT=ðcMVÞ/C138dk‘dðt/C0t0Þ, where the tem-
perature Tand the cross-section area S(V¼Sd) are assumed
as 300 K and p/C2602nm2,30respectively. The oscillation
frequency is estimated from the Fourier transformation ofm
yðtÞ, where the spectra are averaged over 103realizations.
When the current density is smaller than the critical current
density, the magnetization oscillates around the equilibrium
state, and thus, the magnoise appears around the FMRFIG. 2. Time evolutions of the magnetization ( mxin red, myin blue, and mz
in black) for (a) hp¼10/C14and (b) 60/C14. The current density is 20 MA/cm2.
The inset in (a) shows the oscillation of the magnetization in a steady state.022410-3 Tomohiro Taniguchi Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 022410 (2017)frequency. When hp¼90/C14and the current is larger than the
critical value, the magnetization switches its direction to the
negative ydirection without showing a self-oscillation, simi-
lar to that shown in Fig. 2(b). As a result, a discontinuous
change of the oscillation frequency appears near the critical
value, Jc¼10:1 MA/cm2. For hp¼30/C14;40/C14, and 50/C14, the
magnetization shows the self-oscillation when the current islarger than the critical value. In the self-oscillation, the oscil-
lation frequency decreases with increasing current magni-
tude. Above certain values of the current, however, the
magnetization switching occurs, and thus, the discontinuous
drops of the oscillation frequency are observed. On the otherhand, self-oscillations are observed for the present range
of the current ( J
0/C2050 MA/cm2) when hp¼10/C14and 20/C14
(a switching for hp¼10/C14occurs at a sufficiently large cur-
rent J0>115 MA/cm2). These results indicate that the self-
oscillation is stably excited when the magnetization in the
pinned layer is tilted, particularly in close range, from theperpendicular ( z) axis. A possible reason why a current over
which the stable self-oscillation terminates becomes smaller
when h
pbecomes larger is due to the characteristics of
angular dependence of the reflection spin torque. As men-
tioned above, the angular dependence of the reflection spin
torque includes the term m/C1p. As can be seen in Fig. 2(a),
the self-oscillation is excited closely around the zaxis.
Consequently, the magnitude of the reflection spin torque
becomes small for a large hp(p!ey), making the effect of
the reflection spin torque on the oscillation small and region
of the stable self-oscillation narrow. We note, however, that
the self-oscillation cannot be excited when the magnetizationin the pinned layer completely points to the zdirection, as
mentioned earlier.
Finally, let us discuss the role of the reflection spin tor-
que in the above-mentioned results. We emphasize that the
reflection spin torque plays a key role in stabilizing the self-
oscillation. To understand this argument, we revisit the theo-retical conditions to excite the self-oscillation studied in our
previous work.
18First, the spin torque should supply a finite positive
energy to the free layer during the oscillation to cancel
the energy dissipation due to the damping torque. In the con-
ventional geometry of the spin Hall devices consisting of asingle perpendicular ferromagnet and in the absence of
an external field, the energy supplied by the spin torque
becomes totally zero due to the axial symmetry of the oscil-lation orbit. Therefore, a self-oscillation cannot be excited.
18
A way to solve this problem is to apply an external mag-
netic field. The field breaks the symmetry of the oscillationorbit, and makes the supplied energy by the spin torque
finite. In this work, the stray field from the pinned layer plays
the role of such external field. This is, however, not sufficientenough to stabilize the self-oscillation. The second condition
necessary to stabilize the self-oscillation is that a current
magnitude should be larger than the critical current destabi-lizing the equilibrium state.
18If this condition is unfulfilled,
the free layer undergoes the magnetization switching above
the critical current without showing a self-oscillation,18as in
the case shown in Fig. 2(b).
It was shown in Ref. 18that the direct spin torque is not
sufficient to stabilize the self-oscillation in the spin Hall
geometry because the second condition is not satisfied evenin the presence of an external field. On the other hand, in
the present study, the self-oscillation is excited, as shown
in Fig. 2(a). This fact indicates that the reflection spin torque
fulfills the second condition and stabilizes the self-oscillation.
One might be interested in proving the stabilization of
the self-oscillation by the reflection spin torque analytically,instead of the numerical approach done in the earlier calcula-
tions. It is relatively easy to confirm whether the first condi-
tion to stabilize the self-oscillation is satisfied by focusing onthe symmetries of the oscillation orbit and the angular depen-dence of the spin torque. On the other hand, as far as we
know, it cannot be easily confirmed to fulfill the second con-
dition. It should individually be examined for each system.In principle, the second condition can be studied theoreti-
cally by deriving an analytical formula of mcorresponding
to an oscillation orbit and solving the energy balance equa-tion.
37Then, it becomes, for example, possible to derive ana-
lytical conditions on the material parameters to stabilize the
self-oscillation. These calculations are, however, generallycomplicated, in practice, except for a few cases. In the pre-
sent system, the solution of the oscillation orbit can be
described by the elliptic functions, in principle. It involves,however, complex mathematics, and thus, analytical calcula-tions to study the satisfaction of the second condition are
beyond the scope of this paper.
In conclusion, the magnetization dynamics in the spin
Hall geometry in the presence of an additional ferromagnet
was studied theoretically. In addition to the direct spin torque
by the spin Hall effect, the additional ferromagnet providesanother spin torque through the reflection of the spin current.
Solving the LLG equation with the direct and reflection spin
torques numerically, it was found that a stable self-oscillation can be excited when the magnetization in the
pinned layer is tilted from the film-plane.
Seesupplementary material for the derivations of Eqs.
(2),(3), and (5).
FIG. 3. Current dependences of the oscillation frequency of the magnetiza-
tion at finite temperature for hp¼10/C14(red square), 20/C14(green square), 30/C14
(blue circle), 40/C14(magenta circle), 50/C14(turquoise triangle), and 90/C14(purple
triangle). The critical current densities at zero temperature for these hpare
9.5, 6.3, 5.8, 6.1, 6.7, and 10.1 MA/cm2.022410-4 Tomohiro Taniguchi Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 022410 (2017)The author is grateful to Takehiko Yorozu and Hitoshi
Kubota for valuable discussion. The author is also thankful
to Satoshi Iba, Aurelie Spiesser, Hiroki Maehara, and Ai
Emura for their support and encouragement. This work wassupported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Young
Scientists (B) 16K17486.
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1.2839900.pdf | Measurement of vocal-tract influence during saxophone
performance
Gary P . Scavone,a/H20850Antoine Lefebvre, and Andrey R. da Silva
Computational Acoustic Modeling Laboratory, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media
and Technology, Music Technology, Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, CanadaH3A 1E3
/H20849Received 5 July 2007; revised 11 January 2008; accepted 13 January 2008 /H20850
This paper presents experimental results that quantify the range of influence of vocal tract
manipulations used in saxophone performance. The experiments utilized a measurement system thatprovides a relative comparison of the upstream windway and downstream air column impedancesunder normal playing conditions, allowing researchers and players to investigate the effect ofvocal-tract manipulations in real time. Playing experiments explored vocal-tract influence over thefull range of the saxophone, as well as when performing special effects such as pitch bending,multiphonics, and “bugling.” The results show that, under certain conditions, players can create anupstream windway resonance that is strong enough to override the downstream system incontrolling reed vibrations. This can occur when the downstream air column provides only weaksupport of a given note or effect, especially for notes with fundamental frequencies an octave belowthe air column cutoff frequency and higher. Vocal-tract influence is clearly demonstrated when pitchbending notes high in the traditional range of the alto saxophone and when playing in thesaxophone’s extended register. Subtle timbre variations via tongue position changes are possible formost notes in the saxophone’s traditional range and can affect spectral content from at least800–2000 Hz. © 2008 Acoustical Society of America. /H20851DOI: 10.1121/1.2839900 /H20852
PACS number /H20849s/H20850: 43.75.Ef, 43.75.Pq, 43.75.St, 43.75.Yy /H20851NFH /H20852 Pages: 2391–2400
I. INTRODUCTION
Since the late 1970s, there has been significant interest
in understanding the role and influence of a player’s vocaltract in wind instrument performance. Acousticians generallyagree that, in order for such influence to exist in reed-valveinstruments, the player’s upstream windway must exhibit in-put impedance maxima of similar or greater magnitude thanthose of the downstream air column.
1Most musicians concur
that they can influence sound via vocal-tract manipulations,though there is less consensus in terms of the extent of suchinfluence or the specifics of how this is done.
2A number of
previous studies have been reported but attempts to demon-strate and/or quantify vocal-tract influence have not beenconclusive. These analyses have been complicated by thefact that measurement of the upstream windway configura-tion and impedance are difficult under performance condi-tions.
It is the aim of this study to provide experimental results
that substantiate the discussion on the role of vocal tractmanipulations in wind instrument performance. The resultsare obtained using a measurement system that allows theanalysis of vocal tract influence in real time during perfor-mance.
Most previous acoustical studies of vocal-tract influence
have focused on the measurement of the input impedance ofplayers’ upstream windways while they simulate or mimicoral cavity shapes used in playing conditions.
1,3–6These
measurements have then been compared with the input im-pedance of the downstream instrument air column to show
instances where the vocal tract might be able to influence thereed vibrations. The majority of these investigations are inagreement with regard to the existence of an adjustable up-stream wind-way resonance in the range of 500–1500 Hz,which corresponds to the second vocal-tract resonance.
3–6
On the other hand, musicians do not appear to manipulate the
first vocal-tract resonance, which is typically below about300 Hz.
6In Ref. 6, players reported using a fairly stable
vocal-tract shape for most normal playing conditions, withupstream manipulations taking place mainly in the altissimoregister and for special effects. A brief review of previousstudies and a discussion of their limitations is provided byFritz and Wolfe.
6
Numerical investigations have also been reported that
couple an upstream windway model to a complete wind in-strument system.
7–10Simplified, single-resonance models of
a player’s windway have been shown to reproduce bugling,pitchbend, multiphonics, and glissando characteristics inclarinet and saxophone models, effects generally associatedwith vocal-tract influence.
8,9
Many performers have used x-ray fluoroscopic or endo-
scopic approaches to analyze the vocal tract shapes and ma-nipulations used while playing their instruments.
2,11–15These
studies have reported some general trends in vocal-tract con-figurations for different registers, produced mainly by varia-tions of the tongue position, but have not well addressed theunderlying acoustic principles involved.
A fundamental limitation of previous acoustical investi-
gations is related to the fact that the measurements were notconducted in real time. Subjects were required to mime and
a/H20850Electronic mail: gary@music.mcgill.ca.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 123 /H208494/H20850, April 2008 © 2008 Acoustical Society of America 2391 0001-4966/2008/123 /H208494/H20850/2391/10/$23.00hold a particular vocal-tract setting for up to 10 s, a task that
is likely difficult and uncomfortable for the player. Despitethe results of Fritz and Wolfe
6that indicate players’ have
consistent “muscle” /H20849or procedural /H20850memory, it is not clear
that subjects can accurately reproduce the exact vocal-tractconfigurations of interest in this study without playing theinstrument because auditory, and perhaps vibrotactile, feed-back is important in fine-tuning and maintaining an oral cav-ity configuration. Further, these methods only provide datafor the held setting, without indicating the time-varying char-acteristics of vocal-tract manipulations. This last issue re-mains for a recently reported approach that allows the up-stream impedance to be measured while the instrument isplayed.
16
This paper addresses the previously mentioned limita-
tions by providing a running analysis of vocal-tract influenceover time /H20849not solely at discrete moments in time /H20850. This is
achieved using a measurement system embedded in an E /flat
alto saxophone that allows a relative comparison of the up-stream windway and downstream air column impedances un-der normal playing conditions. The same approach couldalso be applied to clarinets, though we chose to concentrateon saxophones given our own playing experience with them.
This paper is organized as follows: Section II describes
the measurement approach, including the system and proce-dures used to evaluate vocal-tract influence. Section III pre-sents the measured data for playing tasks involving tradi-tional and extended registers, pitch bend, bugling,multiphonics, and timbre variation. Finally, Sec. IV con-cludes with an analysis of the results in the context of saxo-phone performance practice.
II. MEASUREMENT APPROACH
Measurements made for this study were based on conti-
nuity of volume flow at the reed junction,
Uu=Ud=Pu
Zu=Pd
Zd⇒Zu
Zd=Pu
Pd, /H208491/H20850
where uanddsubscripts represent upstream and downstream
quantities, respectively. This expression is attributed first toElliot and Bowsher
17in the context of brass instrument mod-
eling. This implies that a relative measure of the upstream
and downstream impedances can be obtained from the en-trance pressures in the player’s mouth and the instrumentmouthpiece, which is sufficient to indicate when vocal-tractinfluence is being exerted. That is, it is assumed that theupstream system can be influential when values of Z
uare
close to or greater than those of Zdand this can be deter-
mined from their ratio without knowing the distinct value ofeach. Because measurements of the mouth and mouthpiecepressures can be acquired while the instrument is being
played, this approach allows the player to interact normallywith the instrument. Further, as modern computers can cal-culate and display the pressure spectra in real time, playersand researchers can instantly see how vocal tract changesdirectly affect the upstream impedance.
In this context, the reed is assumed to be primarily con-
trolled by the pressure difference across it and thus, a mea-surement of these two pressures can provide a good indica-
tion of how the reed oscillations are influenced by the twosystems on either side of it. While it may not be possible touse this approach to reconstruct or calculate an upstreamimpedance characteristic from measurements of Z
d,Pd, and
Pu/H20849as attempted by Wilson5/H20850, it is valid to indicate instances
of upstream influence. This argument ignores the possibleeffect of hydrodynamic forces on the behavior of the reeddue to unsteady flow.
18–20
A. Measurement system
The measurement approach used in this study requires
the simultaneous acquisition of the “input” pressures on theupstream and downstream sides of the instrument reed undernormal playing conditions. Therefore, it was necessary tofind a nonintrusive method for measuring pressures in theinstrument mouthpiece and the player’s mouth near the reedtip. Such measurements are complicated by the fact that thesound pressure levels /H20849SPL /H20850in a saxophone mouthpiece un-
der playing conditions can reach 160 dB or more
21and that
the dimensions of the alto saxophone mouthpiece requirerelatively small microphones to allow normal playing condi-tions and to avoid interference with the normal reed/mouthpiece interaction.
After tests with a prototype system,
22a special saxo-
phone mouthpiece was developed as shown in Fig. 1.A n
Endevco 8510B-1 pressure transducer was threaded throughthe top of the mouthpiece 55 mm from the mouthpiece tip toobtain internal pressure values. For pressure measurementsinside the player’s mouth, a groove was carved in the top ofthe saxophone mouthpiece for an Endevco 8507C-1 minia-ture pressure transducer of 2.34 mm diameter such that thetransducer tip was positioned 3 mm behind the front edge of
FIG. 1. Saxophone mouthpiece system.
2392 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 123, No. 4, April 2008 Scavone et al. : Vocal-tract influence in saxophone performancethe mouthpiece. This position is well within the mouth given
that the player’s teeth typically rest anywhere from about 13to 20 mm from the mouthpiece tip. Both Endevco transduc-ers are rated for maximum SPLs between 170 and 180 dBand were found to be unaffected by moisture.
Ideally, both microphones would be located at the front
edge of the mouthpiece /H20849inside and outside /H20850, which repre-
sents the input to both the downstream and upstream aircolumns. Wilson
5experimented with two mouthpiece trans-
ducer locations on a clarinet and selected the more distantposition /H2084939 mm /H20850because of noise due to unsteady flow
nearer the reed tip. The results from a digital waveguide
simulation using a cylinder-cone model
23suggest that the
signal recorded by the 8510B-1 transducer at a distance of55 mm from the tip differs from the downstream input im-pedance peak values by less than 2 dB for frequencies up to1500 Hz and less than 3.7 dB for frequencies up to 2000 Hz.Thus, the microphone positioning does not represent a limi-tation, considering that the frequency range analyzed in thisstudy does not exceed 2000 Hz and that we are mainly in-
terested in the use of a vocal-tract resonance that runs fromabout 500 to 1500 Hz.
The pressure transducers were connected to an Endevco
136 differential voltage amplifier and the signals from therewere routed to a National Instruments /H20849NI/H20850PCI-4472 dy-
namic signal acquisition board. The acquisition card samplerate was set to 12 000 Hz. An NI
LABVIEW interface was
designed to allow real-time display of the spectra of the twopressure signals. The Endevco transducers were calibratedrelative to one another prior to the experiment, as describedin the Appendix.
To help distinguish between vocal tract and embouchure
changes, a small circular /H2084912.7 mm diameter /H20850force sensing
resistor /H20849FSR /H20850made by Interlink Electronics was placed un-
der the cushion on the top of the saxophone mouthpiece toobtain a relative measure of the upper teeth force /H20849see Fig.
1/H20850. The time-varying sensor voltages were input to the signal
acquisition board for storage and to provide a running dis-play of “embouchure movement” in the
LABVIEW interface.
Although this setup provided no data on movements of thelower lip, normal embouchure adjustments involve a simul-
FIG. 2. /H20849Color online /H20850Spectrograms of the SPL ratio between the mouth-
piece and the mouth pressures when playing a scale /H20849Subjects A and D, from
top to bottom /H20850.5 10 15 20−40−30−20−1001020
Scale Note IndexFirst Partial SPL Ratios (dB)Subject A
Subject B
Subject C
Subject D
0 5 10 15 20−40−30−20−1001020
Scale Note IndexFirst Partial SPL Ratios (dB)
FIG. 3. Average SPL ratios for first partials of scale: individual by subject
/H20849top/H20850and for all subjects /H20849bottom /H20850.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 123, No. 4, April 2008 Scavone et al. : Vocal-tract influence in saxophone performance 2393taneous variation of both the upper teeth and lower lip. The
primary purpose of this sensor was to provide players withvisual feedback to help them focus on maintaining a fixedembouchure setting, rather than acquiring an absolute mea-sure of lip or teeth force.
Playing tests were conducted in an IAC /H20849Industrial
Acoustics Company /H20850double-walled sound isolation booth to
minimize external sound interference. In addition to themouthpiece described previously, a single Vandoren #3 /H20849me-
dium hardness /H20850reed and Selmer Super Action Series II alto
saxophone /H20849serial number 438024 /H20850were used for the entire
experiment.
B. Player tests
Upstream influence was evaluated using the measure-
ment system through a series of playing tests with a group offour professional saxophonists. Subject C was the first authorof this paper. The subjects filled out a questionnaire abouttheir saxophone background and experience and were givenabout 5 min to become accustomed to the mouthpiece and
saxophone setup. They were allowed to practice the re-quested tasks before the recording began. After the subjectswere comfortable with all the tasks, data storage was initi-ated and each task was performed in sequential order. Whensubjects had difficulty with a given task, they were allowedto repeat it. A large real-time display of the FSR reading wasprovided and the subjects were told to avoid making embou-chure changes while performing the tasks.
III. RESULTS
To examine variations of upstream influence over time,
many of the results in the subsequent sections are displayedvia spectrograms of the ratio of the SPL in decibels /H20849or
power spectral densities /H20850of the mouth and mouthpiece pres-
sures. To reduce artifacts arising from the ratio calculation,spectral bins containing no significant energy in both theupstream and downstream power spectra were masked. Themeasured upper teeth force is also plotted to indicate therelative steadiness of a player’s embouchure setting.
A. Traditional and extended registers
The traditional range of a saxophone is from written
B/flat3–F/sharp6, which on an alto saxophone corresponds to the
frequency range 138.6–880 Hz. Advanced players can play afurther octave or more using cross-fingerings, a range re-ferred to as the “altissimo” or extended register. In order toevaluate general player trends over the full range of the in-strument, each subject was asked to play an ascending legatowritten B /flat/H20849D/flatconcert pitch /H20850scale from the lowest note on
the instrument to the highest note that could comfortably beheld /H20849which was typically near a written C7 in the extended
register /H20850, playing each note for about 0.5 s.
Representative spectrograms of the SPL ratios of up-
stream and downstream pressures for this task are shown inFig. 2, as played by Subjects A and D. Breaks in the mea-
sured upper teeth force indicate instances where subjectsstopped to breath. SPL averages computed at the fundamen-
FIG. 4. /H20849Color online /H20850Spectrograms of the SPL ratio between the mouth-
piece and the mouth pressures when playing a written D6 without vibrato,with a slow lip vibrato, and bending via vocal tract manipulations /H20849Subjects
B and D, from top to bottom /H20850.500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850 90060708090100110120130140150
Frequency (Hz)SPL dB (pref=2 0 µPa)Mouth Pressure
Mouthpiece Pressure
FIG. 5. Overlaid snapshots of the pitch bend spectra on an alto saxophone at
the starting frequency /H20849700 Hz /H20850and at the lowest frequency trajectory
/H20849580 Hz /H20850for Subject D.
2394 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 123, No. 4, April 2008 Scavone et al. : Vocal-tract influence in saxophone performancetal frequencies for each scale note are shown in Fig. 3for
each subject and averaged across all subjects. For most notesin the traditional range, the SPL ratios at the fundamentalfrequencies are below −20 dB. In other words, pressures inthe mouthpiece for these notes are typically 10 times greaterthan those in the players’ mouths. Based on the assumptionsoutlined in Sec. II, this indicates a similar ratio of inputimpedance peak levels at the fundamental playing frequen-cies on either side of the reed and thus minimal upstreaminfluence for notes in this range. These ratios display a localminima centered at the thirteenth note of the scale /H20849466 Hz /H20850,
which may be related to the fact that notes in this range are
relatively easy to play. The standard deviation of the SPLratios are shown by the error bars in the lower plot of Fig. 3.
A fairly abrupt change in SPL ratios is evident when
subjects prepare to enter the extended register, a result thatwas also reported by Fritz and Wolfe.
6Scale note index 19 in
Fig.3is the highest note /H20849written F6 /H20850in the scale that falls
within the traditional register. An alternate fingering existsfor F6 on the saxophone that has a playing behavior morelike extended register notes /H20849it is based on the use of a third
air column partial /H20850, though the fingering used by subjects in
this study was not specified or recorded. Averaged SPL ratiosacross all subjects for the extended register notes are be-tween 3 and 5 dB, though the standard deviation is signifi-cant. In particular, Subjects A and B show large variations inSPL ratios from note to note in this range, whereas the re-sults for Subjects C and D are more consistent. It should benoted that the task called for a legato scale, or slurring fromnote to note. Future studies could investigate potential varia-tions of SPL ratios in the extended register when the notesare attacked individually, with or without breaks betweeneach.
It has been suggested by Wilson
5that performers might
tune upstream resonances with higher harmonics of a playednote. There are some instances in Fig. 2/H20849and the data for the
other subjects /H20850where the ratios for upper partials of notes are
near 0 dB, typically in the range 600–1600 Hz, though thisvaries significantly among the subjects. However, no system-atic note-to-note tuning with an upper harmonic was found.
It is unlikely that upstream tuning would help stabilize a noteunless the fundamental is weak and only one or two higherpartials exist below the cutoff frequency of the instrument.That said, variations of upper partial ratios could affect thetimbre of the instrument and this is investigated further inSec. III E.
B. Pitch pending
Saxophonists make frequent use of pitch bends in their
playing, especially in jazz contexts. There are several wayssuch frequency modifications can be achieved, including lippressure and tonehole key height changes, as well as vocaltract manipulations. Lip pressure variations, which are usedto produce vibrato, affect the average reed tip opening andcan yield maximum frequency modulations of about half asemitone. The use of vocal tract manipulations for pitch bendcan achieve downward frequency shifts of a musical third ormore. Significant upward frequency shifts using lip pressure0 500 1000 1500 200001234567x1 07
Frequency (Hz)Impedance Magnitude (Pa s m−3)Register Key Closed
Register Key Open
FIG. 6. Input impedance of the alto saxophone for the D6 fingering.
FIG. 7. /H20849Color online /H20850Spectrograms of the SPL ratio between the mouth
and mouth piece pressures when performing the bugling task /H20849Subjects B
and C, from top to bottom /H20850.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 123, No. 4, April 2008 Scavone et al. : Vocal-tract influence in saxophone performance 2395or the vocal tract are not possible. On an alto saxophone,
bends produced via vocal-tract manipulations are easiestwhen starting on notes above concert E /flat5. Bends that start
above a concert C5 tend to have a lower limit around the C5frequency /H20849523 Hz /H20850. In other words, the fingered note con-
trols the starting /H20849and highest /H20850frequency of the bend range
but the minimum frequency is generally always between 500and 600 Hz.
Pitch bending has previously been investigated with re-
spect to vocal tract influence.
5,6In the present study, subjects
were asked to finger a written high D6 /H20849698 Hz /H20850with the first
palm key and to play the note normally, without vibrato, for
about 3 s. They were then asked to play the note with a slowvibrato /H20849about 1 Hz /H20850, modulating the pitch up and down as
much as possible using lip pressure only . Finally, subjects
were instructed to perform, without varying their lip pres-
sure, a slow downward pitch bend to the lowest note they
could comfortably maintain, hold that note for about 1 s, andthen bend the note back to the starting D pitch.
Figure 4shows representative spectrograms of the SPL
ratios of upstream and downstream pressures for Subjects Band D when performing the requested tasks. The averageSPL ratio at the fundamental frequency, across all subjects,
when played normally without vibrato was −25 dB, with astandard deviation of 9.3. Subjects B, C, and D demonstrateda consistent vibrato frequency range, using lip pressurevariations only, of about 677–700 Hz /H20849or 54 cents down and
about 5 cents up /H20850. Subject A’s range for the same task was
655–690 Hz, but his SPL fundamental ratios were as high as3.4 dB at the vibrato frequency dips, indicating that he usedsome vocal-tract manipulation as well. For the pitch bendperformed without lip pressure variation, the lower fre-quency limits of the four subjects were 583, 597, 558, and570 Hz, respectively, with corresponding fundamental fre-quency SPL ratios of 29.1, 22.7, 30.7, and 25.1 dB. The sub-jects averaged a frequency drop of 330 cents with a SPL ratioof 26.9 and a standard deviation of 3.7. Snapshots of theupstream and downstream spectra at the starting frequencyand lowest frequency trajectory of the pitch bend task forSubject D are overlaid in Fig. 5. At the starting frequency of
about 700 Hz, the upstream and downstream SPLs differ byabout −35 dB, while at the bottom of the bend, they differ byabout 25 dB.
The input impedance of the alto saxophone used for this
study with a D6 fingering is shown in Fig. 6, from which it is
clear that the instrument has no strong resonance between400 and 650 Hz. This measurement was obtained using atwo-microphone transfer function technique.
24,25Given the
fixed fingering and relatively constant lip pressure used bythe subjects, as well as the fact that lip pressure variationsalone can only produce bends of about 54 cents, the pitchbends of 300 cents and more can only be the result of vocal-tract manipulation. The high SPL ratio during the bend indi-cates that a significantly stronger resonance exists in theplayers’ mouths during the pitch bend than in the down-stream air column. The implication is that performers cancreate a resonance in the upstream windway in the range700–550 Hz /H20849for this task /H20850that is strong enough to override
the downstream air column and assume control of the reedvibrations.
The upstream resonance frequency is mainly controlled
via tongue position variations. The pitch bend is only pos-sible for notes higher in the traditional range, where the aircolumn resonance structure is relatively weak. We speculatethat the lower frequency limit on the pitch bend is related tothe vocal-tract physiology and players’ control of the secondupstream resonance within an approximate range of about520–1500 Hz, which is close to that reported by Benade.
3
This is corroborated by the fact that a similar lower fre-quency limit is found when pitch bending on both sopranoand tenor saxophones. Informal tests on a B /flatclarinet indi-0 2 4 6 8−30−20−100102030
Overtone Series Note IndexSPL Ratios (dB)Subject A
Subject B
Subject C
Subject D
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9−30−20−100102030
Overtone Series Note IndexSPL Ratios (dB)
FIG. 8. Average SPL ratios at each overtone series frequency: individual by
subject /H20849top/H20850and for all subjects /H20849bottom /H20850.
FIG. 9. /H20849Color online /H20850Fingerings and approximate sounding notes /H20849written
and frequencies /H20850for four requested multiphonics.
2396 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 123, No. 4, April 2008 Scavone et al. : Vocal-tract influence in saxophone performancecate a greater variance in the lower pitch bend range with
different fingerings, though the overall range still falls withinthe limits mentioned earlier.
C. “Bugling”
Bugling involves the articulation of the notes of an over-
tone series while maintaining a fixed low note fingering. Be-ginning students can normally produce the first and secondovertones, sometimes inadvertently while trying to play thefundamental. It typically takes many years of practice to de-velop the flexibility that allows one to cleanly attack thehigher overtones. In this task, subjects were asked to finger awritten B /flat3/H20849all holes closed /H20850and to play an overtone se-
ries, attacking each note individually.
Representative spectrograms of the SPL ratios for the
bugling exercise are shown in Fig. 7, as played by Subjects B
and C. Individual subject averages, as well as averagesacross all subjects, computed at the fundamental frequenciesof each overtone are shown in Fig. 8. Subject D did not play
overtones 8–9 and Subject A was unable to play overtones2–4 and 9. Vocal tract influence is not clearly evident untilthe third overtone, where downstream instrument resonancesbegin to weaken. In general, it is difficult to play the thirdovertone without some vocal tract manipulation and it ap-pears that a ratio of about −7 dB is sufficient to allow this tohappen. It also may be possible that, when playing the thirdovertone, players reinforce the 1130 Hz component with anupstream resonance rather than the component at 563 Hz,which falls at the lower end of the adjustable upstream reso-nance range. Averaging across Subjects B, C, and D, the SPLratio of the 1130 Hz component when playing the fundamen-tal of the overtone series is −8.7 dB. The ratio at this samefrequency when playing the third overtone is 4.8 dB.
D. Multiphonics
Multiphonics involve oscillations of the reed based on
two inharmonic downstream air column resonance frequen-cies and their intermodulation components.
26Two relatively
easy and two more difficult multiphonics were chosen foranalysis with respect to potential vocal-tract influence. Thefour multiphonic fingerings and their approximate soundingnotes are illustrated in Fig. 9.
Figure 10shows the SPL ratios for four different multi-
phonics, as played by Subjects B and D. The sounds pro-duced by the two subjects differed significantly. From theplots, there are more spectral components evident in thesounds of Subject D. We expect that a player can influencethe sound quality of a multiphonic by aligning an upstreamresonance with one or more components. For example, bothsubjects appear to reinforce a group of partials in the range875–1075 Hz for the last multiphonic. SPL ratio levels forSubject D were, across all tasks, generally higher than thoseof Subject B. This suggests that Subject D makes use ofstronger upstream resonances, which likely explains both thehigher ratios for this task, as well as the greater spectraldensity of the multiphonic sounds.E. Timbre variations
In a questionnaire, all subjects indicated that they
thought they could influence the sound of the saxophone viavocal-tract variations. They reported using upstream influ-ence to control and adjust tone color /H20849timbre /H20850, pitch, and
extended register notes. To investigate timbre variations viavocal-tract manipulation, subjects were asked to play asteady written F4 /H20849207.7 Hz /H20850and to move their tongue peri-
odically toward and away from the reed while maintaining a
constant embouchure setting.
Figure 11shows spectrograms of the SPL ratios result-
ing from this task, as played by Subjects A and C. Partialsfour and higher show clear variations in SPL ratios withtongue motion. Snapshots of the mouth and mouthpiecespectra for Subject C are shown in Fig. 12at times of 4 and
5 seconds. Although both the upstream and downstreamspectra varied with tongue position, the upstream changeswere most significant. For example, the downstream SPL ofthe fourth partial only changes by +3 dB between the two
FIG. 10. /H20849Color online /H20850Spectrograms of the SPL ratio between the mouth
and mouthpiece pressures when playing four multiphonics /H20849Subjects B and
D, from top to bottom /H20850.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 123, No. 4, April 2008 Scavone et al. : Vocal-tract influence in saxophone performance 2397times, whereas the upstream SPL increases by +13 dB. For
this partial and subject, the SPL ratio goes from an averageof −0.7 to 9.9 dB, or a difference of 10.6 dB between thetwo tongue positions. The change of downstream and up-stream SPL for two tongue position extremes is collated forpartials 1–9 and Subjects A-C in Fig. 13. Subject D’s results
showed no clear variation of SPL ratios over time and it islikely this person did not properly understand the requestedtask. In general, tongue movements toward the reed tendedto boost upstream frequency components from about 800 Hzto at least 2000 Hz. Note that these spectral changes occursimultaneously over a wide frequency range and thus arelikely the result of a more wide bandwidth upstream reso-nance. Below 800 Hz, the effect of the tongue positionmovement varied significantly among the subjects. It is notpossible to say whether these variations were the result ofdifferences in physiology or tongue positions.
IV. DISCUSSION
Results of the tongue movement task indicate that vocal-
tract manipulations can be used throughout the playing rangeof the saxophone to produce subtle timbre variations involv-
ing frequency components from at least 800–2000 Hz.These timbre variations simultaneously affect partials over awide frequency range, which implies the use of a relativelywide bandwidth upstream resonance. The pitch bend, ex-tended register, and bugling tasks, however, indicate thatvocal-tract influence significant enough to override down-stream air column control of reed vibrations is only possiblewhen the downstream system provides weak support of agiven note. This is normally the case for notes with funda-mental frequencies an octave below the downstream air col-umn cutoff frequency /H20849around 1500 Hz for the alto
saxophone
27/H20850and higher. Thus, significant vocal-tract influ-
ence can be exerted for notes near the top of the alto saxo-phone’s conventional range and on into the extended /H20849or al-
tissimo /H20850register. This type of influence makes use of a
narrow upstream resonance that the player manipulates tocontrol the fundamental vibrating frequency of the reed.
Various special fingerings are used when playing notes
in the saxophone’s extended register but these provide onlyweak downstream support of a note. When students unaccus-tomed with altissimo register playing try these fingerings,they produce a weak tone lower in the traditional range of
FIG. 11. /H20849Color online /H20850Spectrograms of the SPL ratio between the mouth
and mouthypiece pressures when varying tongue position while holding anF3/H20849Subjects A and C, from top to bottom /H20850.0 500 1000 1500 200060708090100110120130140150
Frequency (Hz)SPL dB (pref=2 0 µPa)Time = 4 seconds
Time = 5 seconds
0 500 1000 1500 200060708090100110120130140150
Frequency (Hz)SPL dB (pref=2 0 µPa)Time = 4 seconds
Time = 5 seconds
FIG. 12. Snapshots of the mouthpiece /H20849top/H20850and mouth /H20849bottom /H20850spectra for
the tongue variation task at times of 4 and 5 s as played by Subject C.
2398 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 123, No. 4, April 2008 Scavone et al. : Vocal-tract influence in saxophone performancethe instrument. From the discussion above, this implies the
need for vocal-tract influence when playing in the extendedregister. There were a few instances when the SPL ratios forSubjects A and B fell below 0 dB while playing in this range/H20849see Figs. 3and8/H20850. This might happen because a given fin-
gering produced a relatively strong downstream resonance atthe fundamental playing frequency or it is possible thesesubjects made embouchure adjustments that were not de-tected by the FSR on the top of the mouthpiece. The subjectswere instructed to avoid making embouchure changes for alltasks in this study. However, it is common for performers tomove their lower lip forward, away from the reed tip, inpreparation for playing in the saxophone’s altissimo register.The authors assume this reduces the reed damping, with acorresponding increase in the reed resonance frequency, andthat this may help to maintain normal operation of the reed in
its “stiffness controlled” region. As well, extended registerplaying is generally easier with stiffer reeds. Notes near thetop of the extended register, with fundamentals in the range1400–2000 Hz, may be beyond the range of a high- Qsec-
ond vocal-tract resonance. It is not clear whether playersstabilize these extreme high notes, which are difficult to pro-duce consistently even for professionals, with a vocal-tract
resonance and/or by manipulating the reed resonance fre-quency.
One of the clearest examples of the use of vocal-tract
influence involves pitch bending, with downward frequencymodulations 5–6 times greater than that possible via lip pres-sure variations alone. Pitch bends are not possible for noteslower than about a concert C5 /H20849523 Hz /H20850, at the lower ex-
treme of the main adjustable upstream resonance and where
several downstream air column resonances can help stabilizea note.
The results of this study are less conclusive with respect
to the production of multiphonics. Performers who are un-able to play in the extended register of the saxophone nor-mally also have trouble producing the more difficult multi-phonics. This would imply the use of an upstream resonanceto support one or more intermodulation components. A futurestudy should compare successful and unsuccessful multi-phonic attempts for a fixed fingerings in an effort to verifythis behavior. There were considerable differences in thesound and quality of the multiphonics produced by the sub-jects of this study and this is likely related to variations in theupstream system.
Finally, there is a common misconception among some
scientists and players that vocal-tract influence is exerted ona nearly continuous basis while playing a single-reed instru-ment in its traditional range .
5,13For example, an early study
by Clinch et al.13concluded “that vocal tract resonant fre-
quencies must match the frequency of the required notes inclarinet and saxophone performance.” Likewise, Wilson
5
claims that for most tones in analyzed melodic phrases, “theperformer’s airways were tuned to the first harmonic or tothe second harmonic, or there was a resonance aligned withboth the first and second harmonics.” A related conclusion ismade by Thompson
28with respect to variations of the reed
resonance. These suggestions have no basis in performancepractice. Although it is true that effects such as pitch slidescommon to jazz playing may involve some level of vocal-tract influence, most professional musicians use and advo-cate a relatively fixed vocal-tract shape during normal play-ing. This behavior is corroborated by Fritz and Wolfe.
6It
seems likely that players vary their embouchure and perhapstheir vocal-tract shape gradually when moving from low tohigh register notes, but this should be understood to varywith register and not on a note-by-note basis /H20849until one gets
to the altissimo register /H20850. The results of this study indicate
that vocal-tract influence for “normal” playing within thetraditional range of the alto saxophone is primarily limited totimbre modification because most of these notes are wellsupported by the downstream air column.
A website and video demonstrating the measurement
system described in this paper is available online.
29
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their
insightful comments and suggestions. They also acknowl-edge the support of the Natural Sciences and EngineeringResearch Council of Canada, the Canadian Foundation for1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9−20−15−10−5051015202530
Partial NumberSPL Differences (dB)Subject A
Subject B
Subject C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9−20−15−10−5051015202530
Partial NumberSPL Differences (dB)
Subject A
Subject B
Subject C
FIG. 13. SPL changes in mouthpiece /H20849top/H20850and mouth /H20849bottom /H20850between two
tongue position extremes for partials 1–9 of held F3 /H20849Subjects A, B, and C /H20850.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 123, No. 4, April 2008 Scavone et al. : Vocal-tract influence in saxophone performance 2399Innovation, and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in
Music Media and Technology at McGill University. The doc-toral research of the second and third authors is supported bythe Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et lesTechnologies and CAPES /H20849Funding Council of the Brazilian
Ministry of Education /H20850, respectively. Finally, we would like
to thank Bertrand Scherrer for his help in developing the firstprototype of the National Instruments
LABVIEW measurement
system.
APPENDIX: TRANSDUCER CALIBRATION
A JBL 2426H compression driver was connected to a
steel cylindrical pipe of 150 mm length and 25.4 mm diam-eter. The calibration is valid up to the cutoff frequency of thefirst higher order mode, which is f
c=1.84 c//H208492/H9266a/H20850/H110158 kHz
for a radius a=12.7 mm and a speed of sound c=347 m /s.30
At the far end of this pipe, the two transducers were fit
through a cap such that they extended a few millimeters be-yond the cap surface. A 60-s noise sequence was playedthrough the system and power spectral densities were deter-mined using a modified averaged periodogram of 1024 datapoints and 50% overlap /H20849Hanning windows /H20850at a sampling
rate of 48 kHz. In order to match fast Fourier transform binsused in the
LABVIEW interface and the subsequent data analy-
sis, the calibration data was downsampled to 12 kHz. Thepower spectral densities were computed with the pwelch
andcpsd functions in
MATLAB . The transfer function relat-
ing the gain and phase differences between the microphoneswas obtained as:
31
Hˆ12=Sˆ22−Sˆ11+/H20881/H20849Sˆ11−Sˆ22/H208502+4/H20841Sˆ12/H208412
2Sˆ21,
where
Sˆ11=PWELCH /H20849P1,HANNING /H20849N/H20850,N/2,N,FS/H20850,
Sˆ22=PWELCH /H20849P2,HANNING /H20849N/H20850,N/2,N,FS/H20850,
Sˆ12=CPSD /H20849P1,P2,HANNING /H20849N/H20850,N/2,N,FS/H20850,
and
Sˆ21=CPSD /H20849P2,P1,HANNING /H20849N/H20850,N/2,N,FS/H20850.
A similar calibration technique was previously reported
by Seybert and Ross.24
1J. Backus, “The effect of the player’s vocal tract on woodwind instrument
tone,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 78, 17–20 /H208491985 /H20850.
2M. Watkins, “The saxophonist’s vocal tract. 1,” Saxophone Symp. 27,
51–78 /H208492002 /H20850.
3A. H. Benade, “Air column, reed, and player’s windway interaction in
musical instruments,” in Vocal Fold Physiology, Biomechanics, Acoustics,
and Phonatory Control , edited by I. R. Titze and R. C. Scherer /H20849Denver
Center for the Performing Arts, Denver, CO, 1985 /H20850, Chap. 35, pp. 425–
452.
4P. L. Hoekje, “Intercomponent energy exchange and upstream/downstreamsymmetry in nonlinear self-sustained oscillations of reed instruments,”Ph.D. thesis, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 1986.
5T. D. Wilson, “The measured upstream impedance for clarinet perfor-mance and its role in sound production,” Ph.D. thesis, University of Wash-ington, Seattle, WA, 1996.
6C. Fritz and J. Wolfe, “How do clarinet players adjust the resonances of
their vocal tracts for different playing effects?,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 118,
3306–3315 /H208492005 /H20850.
7S. D. Sommerfeldt and W. J. Strong, “Simulation of a player-clarinet
system,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 83, 1908–1918 /H208491988 /H20850.
8R. Johnston, P. G. Clinch, and G. J. Troup, “The role of the vocal tract
resonance in clarinet playing,” Acoust. Aust. 14, 67–69 /H208491986 /H20850.
9G. P. Scavone, “Modeling vocal-tract influence in reed wind instruments,”
inProceedings of the 2003 Stockholm Musical Acoustics Conference ,
Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 291–294.
10P. Guillemain, “Some roles of the vocal tract in clarinet breath attacks:Natural sounds analysis and model-based synthesis,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.121, 2396–2406 /H208492007 /H20850.
11R. L. Wheeler, “Tongue registration and articulation for single and double
reed instruments,” Natl. Assoc. College Wind Percussion Instruct. J. 22,
3–12 /H208491973 /H20850.
12W. E. J. Carr, “A videofluorographic investigation of tongue and throat
positions in playing flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone,” Ph.D.thesis, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 1978.
13P. G. Clinch, G. J. Troup, and L. Harris, “The importance of vocal tractresonance in clarinet and saxophone performance: A preliminary account,”Acustica 50, 280–284 /H208491982 /H20850.
14J. T. Peters, “An exploratory study of laryngeal movements during perfor-
mance on alto saxophone,” Master’s thesis, North Texas State University,Denton, TX, 1984.
15M. Patnode, “A fiber-optic study comparing perceived and actual tonguepositions of saxophonists successfully producing tones in the altissimoregister,” Ph.D. thesis, Arizona State University, 1999.
16J.-M. Chen, J. Smith, and J. Wolfe, “Vocal tract interactions in saxophoneperformance,” in Proceedings of the International Symposium on Musical
Acoustics , Barcelona, Spain, 2007.
17S. Elliott and J. Bowsher, “Regeneration in brass wind instruments,” J.
Sound Vib. 83, 181–217 /H208491982 /H20850.
18A. R. da Silva, G. P. Scavone, and M. van Walstijn, “Numerical simula-
tions of fluid-structure interactions in single-reed mouthpieces,” J. Acoust.Soc. Am. 122, 1798–1809 /H208492007 /H20850.
19J. van Zon, A. Hirschberg, J. Gilbert, and A. Wijnands, “Flow through the
reed channel of a single reed instrument,” J. Phys. /H20849Paris /H20850, Colloq. 54,C 2
821–824 /H208491990 /H20850.
20A. Hirschberg, R. W. A. van de Laar, J. P. Marrou-Maurières, A. P. J.
Wijnands, H. J. Dane, S. G. Kruijswijk, and A. J. M. Houtsma, “A quasi-stationary model of air flow in the reed channel of single-reed woodwindinstruments,” Acustica 70, 146–154 /H208491990 /H20850.
21X. Boutillon and V. Gibiat, “Evaluation of the acoustical stiffness of saxo-
phone reeds under playing conditions by using the reactive power ap-proach,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 100, 1178–1889 /H208491996 /H20850.
22G. P. Scavone, “Real-time measurement/viewing of vocal-tract influence
during wind instrument performance /H20849A/H20850,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 119, 3382
/H208492006 /H20850.
23G. P. Scavone, “Time-domain synthesis of conical bore instrument
sounds,” in Proceedings of the 2002 International Computer Music Con-
ference , Göteborg, Sweden, pp. 9–15.
24A. Seybert and D. Ross, “Experimental determination of acoustic proper-
ties using a two-microphone random excitation technique,” J. Acoust. Soc.Am. 61, 1362–1370 /H208491977 /H20850.
25A. Lefebvre, G. P. Scavone, J. Abel, and A. Buckiewicz-Smith, “A com-
parison of impedance measurements using one and two microphones,” inProceedings of the International Symposium on Musical Acoustics , Barce-
lona, Spain, 2007.
26J. Backus, “Multiphonic tones in the woodwind instrument,” J. Acoust.Soc. Am. 63, 591–599 /H208491978 /H20850.
27A. H. Benade and S. J. Lutgen, “The saxophone spectrum,” J. Acoust. Soc.
Am. 83, 1900–1907 /H208491988 /H20850.
28S. C. Thompson, “The effect of the reed resonance on woodwind tone
production,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 66, 1299–1307 /H208491979 /H20850.
29G. P. Scavone, http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~gary/vti/, 2007 /H20849last viewed
11 January 2008 /H20850.
30N. H. Fletcher and T. D. Rossing, The Physics of Musical Instruments
/H20849Springer, New York, 1991 /H20850.
31J. H. P. R. White and M. H. Tan, “Analysis of the maximum likelihood,
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2400 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 123, No. 4, April 2008 Scavone et al. : Vocal-tract influence in saxophone performance |
1.4904960.pdf | Magnetoimpedance effect at the high frequency range for the thin film geometry:
Numerical calculation and experiment
M. A. Corrêa, F. Bohn, R. B. da Silva, and R. L. Sommer
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 116, 243904 (2014); doi: 10.1063/1.4904960
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4904960
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/116/24?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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134.124.28.17 On: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 01:24:37Magnetoimpedance effect at the high frequency range for the thin film
geometry: Numerical calculation and experiment
M. A. Corr ^ea,1,a)F . Bohn,1,b)R. B. da Silva,2and R. L. Sommer3
1Departamento de F /C19ısica Te /C19orica e Experimental, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte,
59078-900 Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
2Departamento de F /C19ısica, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, 97105-900 Santa Maria,
Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
3Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas F /C19ısicas, Rua Dr. Xavier Sigaud 150, Urca, 22290-180 Rio de Janeiro,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
(Received 12 November 2014; accepted 11 December 2014; published online 24 December 2014)
The magnetoimpedance effect is a versatile tool to investigate ferromagnetic materials, revealing
aspects on the fundamental physics associated to magnetization dynamics, broadband magneticproperties, important issues for current and emerging technological applications for magnetic
sensors, as well as insights on ferromagnetic resonance effect at saturated and even unsaturated
samples. Here, we perform a theoretical and experimental investigation of the magnetoimpedanceeffect for the thin film geometry at the high frequency range. We calculate the longitudinal
magnetoimpedance for single layered, multilayered, or exchange biased systems from an approach
that considers a magnetic permeability model for planar geometry and the appropriate magneticfree energy density for each structure. From numerical calculations and experimental results found
in literature, we analyze the magnetoimpedance behavior and discuss the main features and
advantages of each structure. To test the robustness of the approach, we directly comparetheoretical results with experimental magnetoimpedance measurements obtained at the range of
high frequencies for an exchange biased multilayered film. Thus, we provide experimental
evidence to confirm the validity of the theoretical approach employed to describe themagnetoimpedance in ferromagnetic films, revealed by the good agreement between numerical
calculations and experimental results.
VC2014 AIP Publishing LLC .
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4904960 ]
I. INTRODUCTION
The study of dynamical phenomena has provided central
advances on magnetization dynamics during the past decades.Usually, the investigations are based on traditional ferromag-netic resonance (FMR) experiments,
1in which the sample is
submitted to an intense external magnetic field, saturating itmagnetically. From FMR measurements, information regard-ing magnetic anisotropies, damping parameter, and otherimportant parameters related to the magnetic dynamics can bereached. However, nowadays, similar information can beaccessibly obtained also through the study of the magnetoim-pedance effect. This effect is a versatile tool commonlyemployed to investigate ferromagnetic materials, revealingaspects on the fundamental physics associated to magnetiza-tion dynamics, broadband magnetic properties,
2,3as well as
on important issues for current and emerging technologicalapplications for magnetic sensors.
4–7Besides, further insights
on FMR effect at saturated and even unsaturated samples8can
be easily gotten, making possible the study of local resonan-ces and their influence in the dynamics magnetization.
The magnetoimpedance effect (MI) corresponds to the
change of the real and imaginary components of electricalimpedance of a ferromagnetic sample caused by the actionof an external static magnetic field. In a typical MIexperiment, the studied sample is also submitted to an alter-
nate magnetic field associated to the electric current I
ac¼Io
expði2pftÞ,fbeing the probe current frequency. Irrespective
to the sample geometry, the overall effect of these magneticfields is to induce strong modifications of the effective mag-netic permeability.
Experimentally, studies on MI have been performed in
ferromagnetic films with several structures, such as singlelayered,
2,9multilayered,10–14and structured multilayered
samples.15–17
The general theoretical approach to the MI problem
focuses on its determination as a function of magnetic fieldfor a range of frequencies. Traditionally, the changes of mag-
netic permeability and impedance with magnetic fields at dif-
ferent frequency ranges are caused by three distinctmechanisms:
18–20magnetoinductive effect, skin effect, and
FMR effect. Thus, MI can generally be classified into thethree frequency regimes.
21Moreover, the MI behavior with
magnetic field and probe current frequency becomes more
complex, since it also depends on magnetic properties, suchas magnetic anisotropies, as well as sample dimensions andgeometry. Given that distinct effects affect the magnetic per-meability behavior at different frequency ranges and differ-ent properties influences the MI, the description of the
magnetoimpedance effect over a wide range of frequency
becomes a difficult task. For this reason, the comprehensionon the theoretical and experimental point of views of the
a)Electronic address: marciocorrea@dfte.ufrn.br
b)Electronic address: felipebohn@dfte.ufrn.br
0021-8979/2014/116(24)/243904/12/$30.00 VC2014 AIP Publishing LLC 116, 243904-1JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 116, 243904 (2014)
[This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP:
134.124.28.17 On: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 01:24:37magnetoimpedance effect is fundamental for the develop-
ment of new materials with optimized response.
Since the system geometry has an important role on
MI results, several studies have been performed to obtain
further information on this dependence. Considerable atten-tion has been given to describe the MI effect in samples pre-senting cylindrical geometry with distinct anisotropyconfigurations.
22–25For this case, e.g., Makhnovskiy et al.23
have reported a very strict study on the surface impedance
tensor, in which theoretical results for the cylindrical geome-try are directly compared to experimental measurementsacquired for ferromagnetic wires. In addition, Usov et al.
25
have presented theoretical and experimental results for ferro-
magnetic wires with weak helical anisotropy.
Regarding the MI effect for the case of planar systems,
an important study has been performed in single layers byKraus,
26who performed the calculation of the MI effect in a
single planar conductor and studied the influence of theGilbert damping constant, the angle between the anisotropydirection and the applied magnetic field on the MI effect.Moreover, Panina et al.
27and Sukstanskii et al.28investi-
gated the MI behavior in multilayers, analyzing the influenceof width, length, and relative conductivity in MI effect.
Although the MI results obtained are consistent and
seem to reproduce experimental data, they are restricted to alimited frequency range. Since experimental measurementsare usually taken over a wide range of frequencies, in whichdifferent mechanisms contribute to the permeability, a gen-eral theoretical approach to the transverse magnetic perme-ability, which enables the MI calculation, consideringfrequency dependent magnetic permeability, becomes veryimportant for MI interpretation.
In this paper, we report a theoretical and experimental
investigation of the magnetoimpedance effect for the thinfilm geometry at the high frequency range. First of all, weperform numerical calculations of the longitudinal magneto-impedance for single layered, multilayered, and exchangebias systems, from a classical electromagnetic impedance fora planar system. To this end, we consider a theoreticalapproach that takes into account a magnetic permeabilitymodel for planar geometry and the appropriate magnetic freeenergy density for each structure. We analyze the magneto-impedance behavior, and discuss the main features andadvantages of each structure, as well as we relate the numeri-cal calculations with experimental results found in literature.Finally, to test the robustness of the approach, we comparetheoretical results calculated for an exchange biased multi-layered system with experimental magnetoimpedance meas-urements obtained in the range of high frequencies for anexchange biased multilayered film. Thus, we provide experi-
mental evidence to confirm the validity of the theoretical
approach to describe the magnetoimpedance in ferromag-netic films.
II. EXPERIMENT
H e r e ,w ei n v e s t i g a t ea[ N i 20Fe80(40 nm)/Ir 20Mn80(20 nm)/
Ta(1 nm)] /C220 ferromagnetic exchange biased multilayered
film. The film is deposited by magnetron sputtering onto a glasssubstrate, covered with a 2 nm-thick Ta buffer layer. The depo-
sition process is performed with the following parameters: basevacuum of 8.0 /C210
/C08Torr, deposition pressure of 5.0 mTorr
with a 99.99% pure Ar at 50 sccm constant flow, and DC
source with current of 150 mA for the deposition of the Ta
and IrMn layers, as well as 65 W set in the RF power supplyfor the deposition of the NiFe layers. With these conditions,the obtained deposition rates are 0.08 nm/s, 0.67 nm/s, and0.23 nm/s for NiFe, IrMn, and Ta, respectively. During the dep-osition, the substrate with dimensions of 5 /C22m m
2is submit-
ted to a constant magnetic field of 2 kOe, applied along themain axis of the substrate in order to define an easy magnetiza-tion axis and induce a magnetic anisotropy and an exchangebias field ~H
EBin the interface between the NiFe and IrMn
layers.
Quasi-static magnetization curves are obtained with a
vibrating sample magnetometer, measured along and perpen-dicular to the main axis of the films, in order to verify themagnetic behavior.
The magnetoimpedance effect is measured using a
RF-impedance analyzer Agilent model E4991, with E4991 A
test head connected to a microstrip in which the sample isthe central conductor, which is separated from the groundplane by the substrate. The electric contacts between the
sample and the sample holder are made with 24 h cured low
resistance silver paint. To avoid propagative effects andacquire just the sample contribution to MI, the RF imped-ance analyzer is calibrated at the end of the connection cableby performing open, short, and load (50 X) measurements
using reference standards. The probe current is fed directlyto one side of the sample, while the other side is in short cir-cuit with the ground plane. The accurrent and external mag-
netic field are applied along the length of the sample. MImeasurement is taken over a wide frequency range, between0.5 GHz and 3.0 GHz, with maximum applied magneticfields of 6350 Oe. While the external magnetic field is
swept, a 0 dBm (1 mW) constant power is applied to the
sample characterizing a linear regime of driving signal.
Thus, at a given field value, the frequency sweep is madeand the real Rand imaginary Xparts of the impedance are
simultaneously acquired. For further information on thewhole procedure, we suggest Ref. 17. The curves are known
to exhibit hysteretic behavior, associated with the coercivefield. However, in order to clarify the general behavior, onlycurves depicting the field going from negative to positivevalues are presented.
III. THEORETICAL APPROACH
A. Thin film planar geometry
To investigate the MI effect, we perform numerical cal-
culations of quasi-static magnetization curves, magneticpermeability, and magnetoimpedance for the thin film geom-etry. To this end, from the appropriate magnetic free energydensity for the investigated structure, in a first moment, weconsider a general magnetic susceptibility model, whichtakes into account its dependence with both frequency and
magnetic field.
29It is therefore possible to obtain the trans-
verse magnetic permeability for planar geometry from243904-2 Corr ^eaet al. J. Appl. Phys. 116, 243904 (2014)
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134.124.28.17 On: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 01:24:37susceptibility and in turn describe the MI behavior by using
different models, according to system structure, for a widerange of frequencies and external magnetic fields.
We focus on the study of ferromagnetic thin films,
which can be modeled as a planar system. Here, in particu-lar, we calculate the longitudinal magnetoimpedance effectfor single layered, multilayered, or exchange biased sys-tems. Figure 1(a) presents the theoretical system and the
definitions of the relevant vectors considered to perform thenumerical calculations. In order to investigate the magneto-impedance effect in films, we consider the single layered,multilayered, and exchange biased systems, as, respectively,shown in Figs. 1(b)–1(d) .
Thus, from the appropriate magnetic free energy density
nfor each structure, a routine for energy minimization
determines the values the equilibrium angles h
ManduMof
magnetization for a given external magnetic field ~H, and we
obtain the magnetization curve, permeability tensor l, and
longitudinal magnetoimpedance Zfor the respective struc-
ture in a wide range of frequencies.
B. Permeability Tensor
Generally, the magnetization dynamics is governed by
the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation, given by
d~M
dt¼/C0c~M/C2~Hef f/C16/C17
/C0ca
M~M/C2 ~M/C2~Hef f/C16/C17hi
;(1)
where ~Mis the magnetization vector, ~Hef fis the effective
magnetic field, and c¼jcGj=ð1þa2Þ, in which cGis the
gyromagnetic ratio and ais the phenomenological Gilbert
damping constant. In a MI experiment, the effective mag-netic field presents two contributions and can be written as~H
ef f¼ð~Hþ~HnÞþ~hac. The first term, ð~Hþ~HnÞ, corre-
sponds to the static component of the field. It contains the
external magnetic field ~Hand the internal magnetic field
~Hn¼/C0@n
@~M,30due to different contributions to the magnetic
free energy density n, such as magnetic anisotropies and
induced internal magnetic fields. On the other hand, the sec-
ond term corresponds to the alternate magnetic field ~hacgen-
erated by the Iacapplied to the sample, which in turn induces
deviations of the magnetization vector from the static equi-librium position. Equation (1)is a general expression that
can be applied to express the magnetization dynamics of anysystem, with any geometry.
As previously cited, it is possible to understand the MI
effect from the knowledge of the transverse magnetic perme-ability of a given material. This goal is achieved by consider-ing how magnetic dynamics transition takes place from onestate of equilibrium to another under both dcandacfields.
With this spirit, a very interesting approach to study the mag-netization dynamics was successfully undertaken by Spinu
et al.
29This theory allows us to investigate the magnetic sus-
ceptibility tensor and its dependence on both frequency andmagnetic field, using knowledge of appropriate magneticfree energy density.
From the approach,
29the magnetic susceptibility tensor,
in spherical coordinates, for a general system with a givenmagnetic free energy density n, is written as
vr;h;uðÞ ¼gc
21þa2 ðÞ00 0
0nuu
sin2hM/C0nhu
sinhM
0/C0nhu
sinhMnhh0
BBBBBB@1
CCCCCCA
þg00 0
0iM
scxa iMscx
0/C0iMscx iMscxa0
BB@1
CCA; (2)
where gis
g¼1
x2
r/C0x2þixDx: (3)
The quantities xrandDxin Eq. (3)are known, respectively,
as the resonance frequency and width of the resonance
absorption line, given by29
xr¼c
MsinhMffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1þa2p ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
nhhnuu/C0n2
huq
; (4)
and
Dx¼ac
Mnhhþnuu
sin2hM/C18/C19
: (5)
Here, nhh;nuu;nuh, and nhuare the second derivatives of the
magnetic free energy density at an equilibrium position,defined by the magnetization vector with h
ManduM, as pre-
viously shown in Fig. 1(a).
FIG. 1. Ferromagnetic thin films modeled as a planar system. (a) Schematic
diagram of the theoretical ferromagnetic system and definitions of magnetiza-
tion and magnetic field vectors considered for the numerical calculation ofmagnetization, magnetic permeability, and magnetoimpedance curves. (b)
Single layered (SL) system, composed by a 500 nm-thick ferromagnetic (FM)
layer. (c) Multilayered (ML) system, composed by 250 nm-thick ferromag-
netic layers and metallic non-magnetic (NM) layers with variable thicknesses.
(d) Exchange-biased (EB) system, composed by a single 500 nm-thick ferro-
magnetic layer and a single antiferromagnetic (AF) layer.243904-3 Corr ^eaet al. J. Appl. Phys. 116, 243904 (2014)
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134.124.28.17 On: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 01:24:37Considering the matrix of the linear transformation of the unit vectors from spherical to Cartesian coordinates, the suscep-
tibility tensor in the laboratory reference can be obtained. For instance, the real and imaginary components of the term vxxcan
be, respectively, written as29
<vxx½/C138¼ja2þ1 ðÞ cx2
rnuucot2hMcos2uM/C02nhucothMsinuMcosuMþnhhsin2uM/C16/C17
/C0x2/C02a2þ1 ðÞ cnhucothMsinuMcosuM
þa2þ1 ðÞ cnuu
sin2hM/C0aMs/H17005x/C18/C19
cos2hMcos2uMþa2þ1 ðÞ cnhh/C0aMs/H17005x/C0/C1
sin2uM2
643
752
6666643
777775; (6)
=vxx½/C138¼/C0jx/C02nhua2þ1 ðÞ c/H17005xcothMsinuMcosuMþ a2þ1 ðÞ c/H17005xnuu
sin2hMþaMsx2/C18/C19
cos2hMcos2uM
þa2þ1 ðÞ c/H17005xnhhþaMsx2/C0/C1
sin2uM/C0aMsx2
rcos2hMcos2uMþsin2uM/C0/C12
643
75;(7)
where
j¼c
x2
r/C0x2/C0/C12þx2Dx2:
In particular, the diagonal component of the suscepti-
bility tensor presented in Eqs. (6)and(7),a sw e l la st h e vyy
andvzzcomponents (not presented here for sake of simplic-
ity), exhibit form similar to that presented in Ref. 29
when x!0, as expected. From the cited equations, it can
be noticed a clear dependence of the magnetic susceptibil-ity with the equilibrium angles of the magnetization, aswell as with the derivatives of the magnetic free energy
density. Thus, this general description to the susceptibility
and, consequently, to the dynamic magnetic behavior cor-responds to a powerful tool, once it can be employed forany magnetic structure, using an appropriate energyconfiguration.
In ferromagnetic thin films, which can be modeled as
planar systems, the magnetization is frequently observed tobe in the plane of the film. Thus, by considering h
M¼90/C14
(see Fig. 1(a)), the expressions for the terms of the perme-
ability tensor l¼1þ4pvcan be considerably simplified.
The diagonal terms represented by lxx,lyy,andlzzcan be
written as
lxx¼1þ4pjsin2uM
/C2ðx2
r/C0x2Þð1þa2ÞcnhhþaMsx2/H17005x
þi½/C0ð1þa2Þcx/H17005xnhhþaMsxðx2
r/C0x2Þ/C138"#
;
(8)
lyy¼1þ4pjcos2uM
/C2ðx2
r/C0x2Þð1þa2ÞcnhhþaMsx2Dx
þi½/C0ð1þa2Þcx/H17005xnhhþaMsxðx2
r/C0x2Þ/C138"#
;(9)
lzz¼1þ4pj
/C2ðx2/C0x2
rÞð1þa2ÞcnuuþaMsx2/H17005x
þi½/C0ð1þa2Þcx/H17005xnuuþaMsxðx2
r/C0x2Þ/C138"#
:
(10)Moreover, the off-diagonal terms are
lxy¼lyx¼1þ2pjsinð2uMÞ
/C2/C0ðx2
r/C0x2Þð1þa2Þcnhh/C0aMsx2/H17005x
þi½ð1þa2Þcx/H17005xnhh/C0aMsxðx2
r/C0x2Þ/C138"#
;
(11)
lxz¼1þ4pjsinuM
/C2/C0ðx2
r/C0x2Þð1þa2Þcnhu/C0Msx2/H17005x
þi½ð1þa2Þcx/H17005xnhuþMsxðx2
r/C0x2Þ/C138"#
;(12)
lyz¼1þ4pjcosuM
/C2ðx2
r/C0x2Þð1þa2ÞcnhuþMsx2/H17005x
þi½/C0ð1þa2Þcx/H17005xnhu/C0Msxðx2
r/C0x2Þ/C138"#
;
(13)
lzx¼1þ4pjsinuM
/C2/C0ðx2
r/C0x2Þð1þa2ÞcnhuþMsx2/H17005x
þi½ð1þa2Þcx/H17005xnhuþMsxðx2
r/C0x2Þ/C138"#
;(14)
lzy¼1þ4pjcosuM
/C2ðx2
r/C0x2Þð1þa2Þcnhu/C0Msx2/H17005x
þi½/C0ð1þa2Þcx/H17005xnhu/C0Msxðx2
r/C0x2Þ/C138"#
:
(15)
For all the numerical calculations, we consider that the
magnetic field ~His applied, as well as the electrical current
is flowing, along the y-direction (see Fig. 1(a)),
hH¼uH¼90/C14. Then, the lxxterm can be understood as the
transverse magnetic permeability lt. In Secs. IV A –IV C ,w e
present the MI calculations for single layered, multilayered,
and exchange biased systems. To this end, we consider MImodels, such as the classical MI expression for a slab con-ductor
26,31or the model proposed by Panina for multi-
layers,32previously explored in a limited frequency range. In
particular, this limitation is due to the employed permeabilitycalculation. Here, we consider a general approach to the per-meability and, consequently, we are able to explore the MI243904-4 Corr ^eaet al. J. Appl. Phys. 116, 243904 (2014)
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134.124.28.17 On: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 01:24:37behavior in several planar structures in a wide frequency
range.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Single layered system
First of all, we perform numerical calculation for the
longitudinal MI effect for a single layered system, as pre-sented in Fig. 1(b).
We consider a Stoner-Wohlfarth modified model to
describe the magnetic free energy density. In this case, it canbe written as
n¼/C0 ~M/C1~H/C0
Hk
2Ms~M/C1^uk/C0/C12þ4pM2
s^M/C1^nðÞ ; (16)
where the first term is the Zeeman interaction, the second
term describes the uniaxial anisotropy, and the third one cor-responds to the demagnetizing energy density for a thin pla-nar system, such as a thin film. In this case, in addition to thevectors ~H;~M;^u
k, and ^nalready discussed in Fig. 1(a),
Hk¼2Ku/Msis the known anisotropy field, Kuis the uniaxial
anisotropy constant, and Msis the saturation magnetization
of the ferromagnetic material.
The longitudinal impedance is strongly dependent of the
sample geometry. Here, to describe the magnetoimpedancein a single layered system, we consider the approachreported by Kraus
26for an infinite slab magnetic conductor.
Thus, for a single layered system, the impedance can be writ-ten as
26
Z
Rdc¼kt
2coth kt
2/C18/C19
; (17)
where Rdcis the electrical dc resistance, tis the thickness of
the system, and k¼(1/C0i)/d, where dis the classic skin
depth, given by
d¼ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2q=xlp
; (18)
in which qis the electric resistivity, xis the angular fre-
quency, and lis the magnetic permeability. In our case, we
consider l¼lxx¼lt.
Thus, from the magnetic free energy density, given by
Eq.(16), and the calculation of the transverse magnetic per-
meability, Eq. (8), the longitudinal magnetoimpedance for a
single layered system, Eq. (17), can be obtained. The other
terms of the permeability tensor previously presented can beused to calculate the Zbehavior, since a specific calculation
of the Ztensor is done.
For a single layered system, to perform the numerical
calculation, we consider the following parameters: M
s
¼780 emu/cm3,Hk¼5 Oe, hk¼90/C14,uk¼2/C14,a¼0.018,
cG/2p¼2.9 MHz/Oe,33t¼500 nm, hH¼90/C14, and uH¼90/C14.
We intentionally chose uk6¼0/C14since small deviations in the
sample position or of the magnetic field in an experiment arereasonable. Figure 2shows the numerical calculations for
the real Rand imaginary Xcomponents of the longitudinal
impedance as a function of the external magnetic field forselected frequency values.It is important to point out that, experimentally, the MI
measurements present a frequency dependent shift of the realand imaginary components, a feature related to the electrical/metallic contributions of the sam ple and of the microwave cav-
ity or microstrip employed in the experiment. In order todirectly compare experimental data with numerical calculation,this dependence can be removed of the experimental MIresults, according to Ref. 34, or can be inserted in the MI nu-
merical calculation by fitting the measured RandXcurves as a
function of the frequency for th e highest magnetic field value,
where the sample is magnetically saturated and it is not in aresonant regime.
21In this case of a single layered system, we
consider a fitting obtained from the data reported in Ref. 17.
Thus, from Fig. 2, the well-known symmetric magneto-
impedance behavior around H¼0 for anisotropic systems is
FIG. 2. (a) Real Rand (b) imaginary Xcomponents of the longitudinal im-
pedance as a function of the external magnetic field for selected frequency
values. The numerical calculations are obtained, using the described
approach, for a single layered system with Ms¼780 emu/cm3,Hk¼5 Oe,
hk¼90/C14,uk¼2/C14,a¼0.018, cG/2p¼2.9 MHz/Oe,33t¼500 nm, hH¼90/C14,
anduH¼90/C14.243904-5 Corr ^eaet al. J. Appl. Phys. 116, 243904 (2014)
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134.124.28.17 On: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 01:24:37verified, including the dependence with the magnetic field
amplitude, frequency, and the orientation between theapplied magnetic field and accurrent with respect to the
magnetic anisotropies. A double peak behavior is present for
the whole frequency range, a feature of the FMR relation dis-
persion,
7,21,26in a signature of the parallel alignment of the
external magnetic field and accurrent along the hard mag-
netization axis.
At low and intermediate frequencies (not shown), below
0.5 GHz, the position of the peaks remains unchanged andthey are close to H
k. This feature reflects the fact that, at this
frequency range, the skin effect is the main responsible forthe magnetization dynamics and MI variations. Beyond
0.5 GHz, besides the skin effect, the FMR effect also
becomes an important mechanism responsible for variationsin MI effect, a fact evidenced by the displacement of thepeak position in the double peak structure toward higherfields as the frequency is increased following the behaviorpredicted for the FMR effect.
7,21,26The contribution of the
FMR effect to Zis also verified using the method described
by Barandiar /C19anet al.,35and previously employed by our
group in Ref. 17. In particular, the classical FMR signature
is observed in the numerical calculation of the longitudinalMI response at the high frequency range strictly due to the
fact that we employ a magnetic permeability model derived
from the FMR theory.
29
These numerical calculation results are in qualitative
agreement with several experimental results for single lay-ered thin films
2,9with uniaxial magnetic behavior, when the
magnetic field and current are transverse to the easy magnet-ization axis during the experiment.
B. Multilayered system
Here, we perform the numerical calculation of the longi-
tudinal MI effect for a multilayered system, as presented inFig.1(c).
The multilayered system consists of two ferromagnetic
layers separated by a metallic non-magnetic layer. To modelit, we consider a Stoner-Wohlfarth modified model, similarto that discussed in Subsection IV A , and the magnetic free
energy density can be written as
n¼X
2
i¼1/C0~Mi/C1~H/C0Hki
2Msi~Mi/C1^uki/C0/C12þ4pM2
si^Mi/C1^n/C0/C1/C20/C21
;(19)
where ~MsiandMsiare the magnetization vector and satura-
tion magnetization for each ferromagnetic layer, respec-
tively, Hki¼2Kui/Msiis the anisotropy field for each layer,
and Kuiis the uniaxial anisotropy constant, directed along
^uki, for each layer. In a traditional multilayered system, it is
reasonable to consider Ms1¼Ms2¼Ms,Ku1¼Ku2¼Ku,
^uk1¼^uk2¼^uk, since the two layers are made of similar
ferromagnets.
To describe the magnetoimpedance behavior in a multi-
layered system, we consider the approach to study the mag-
netoimpedance effect in a trilayered system reported byPanina et al.
32and investigated by our group.21In this
model, the trilayered system has finite width 2 band length lfor all layers, thicknesses t1andt2, and conductivity values
r1andr2for the metallic non-magnetic and ferromagnetic
layers, respectively, and variable flux leaks across the inner
non-magnetic conductor. When bis sufficiently large and the
edge effect is neglected, impedance is dependent on the filmthickness t. Therefore, for a tri-layered system, impedance
can be written as
Z
Rdc¼gmgfðÞcothgmr2
lr1/C18/C19
coth gfðÞþ2gm
k1t1
cothgmr2
lr1/C18/C19
þ2gm
k1t1coth gfðÞ2
66643
7775; (20)
where lis the magnetic permeability for the ferromagnetic
layers, in our case, we consider l¼lxx¼lt, and
gm¼k1t1
2lr1
r2/C18/C19
;gf¼k2t2;
k1¼1/C0iðÞ
d1;k2¼1/C0iðÞ
d2;
d1¼2pr1x ðÞ/C01=2;d2¼2pr2xl ðÞ/C01=2:
To perform the numerical calculation for a multilay-
ered system, we consider the parameters similar to thosepreviously employed: M
s1¼Ms2¼780 em/cm3,Hk1¼Hk2
¼5O e , hk1¼hk2¼90/C14,uk1¼uk2¼2/C14;a¼0:018;cG=2p
¼2:9M H z =Oe, t1¼100 nm, t2¼250 nm, hH¼90/C14,a n d
uH¼90/C14. In particular, the thickness of the metallic non-
magnetic layer is thick enough to neglect the bilinear and
biquadratic coupling between the ferromagnetic layers.
Moreover, we employ r1¼6/C2107(Xm)/C01andr2¼r1/4.
Thus, from Eqs. (19),(8), and (20), Fig. 3shows the nu-
merical calculations for the real Rand imaginary Xcompo-
nents of the longitudinal impedance as a function of the
external magnetic field for selected frequency values. In par-
ticular, for a multilayered system, the MI curves present allthe typical features described for an anisotropic single layered
system, including the double peak MI structure due to the ori-
entation between ~H,I
acsense and ^uk, as well as the R,X,and
Zbehavior with frequency. In order to consider the frequency
dependent shift of RandXfor a multilayered system, we con-
sider a fitting obtained from the data reported in Ref. 17.
To contrast the MI behavior verified for the studied sys-
tems, Fig. 4presents a comparison between the numerical
calculations of the real Rand imaginary Xcomponents of the
longitudinal impedance for single layered and multilayered
systems. The positions in field of the MI peaks are similar,
irrespective of the frequency. This feature is expected in thiscase, once similar parameter values are employed for both
numerical calculations, and, consequently, both systems
have the same quasi-static magnetic properties.
The primary difference between the results for single
layered or multilayered systems resides basically in the am-
plitude of the MI curves. This fact is verified in Fig. 4and
evidenced in Fig. 5. In this case, the MI variations are ampli-
fied for the multilayered system, a fact directly associated to
the insertion of a metallic non-magnetic layer with high elec-tric conductivity r
1(Ref. 17) and thickness t1.243904-6 Corr ^eaet al. J. Appl. Phys. 116, 243904 (2014)
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134.124.28.17 On: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 01:24:37Regarding the electric properties and the conductivity of
the system, it is well-known that multilayered systems pres-ent a clear dependence of the MI variations with the r
1/r2ra-
tio. This behavior has been verified and detailed discussed in
Ref. 32, as well as also previously calculated by our group
for a trilayered system.21
Concerning the size of the system, the MI variations are
strongly dependent on the thickness t1of the metallic non-
magnetic layer, as shown in Fig. 5. The higher MI variation
values are verified for the thicker systems, with large t1val-
ues. This fact is due to the reduction of the electric resistanceof the whole system with the increase of t
1, which is affected
for both the increase of the system cross section and higherconductivity of the system. On the other hand, theoretically,in the limit of t
1!0, Eq. (20) for the impedance is reducedto Eq. (17), as expected, since the multilayered system
becomes a single layered system for t1¼0.
In this line, these numerical calculation results obtained
for multilayered systems with different r1/r2ratio or t1val-
ues are in qualitative concordance with several experimental
results found in literature for multilayered films.13,14
The damping parameter ais also an important element
for the determination of magnetoimpedance because of its
relationship with the magnetization dynamics at high fre-
quencies. Experimentally, the avalue is influenced by the
kind of the employed ferromagnetic material,36structural
character,36and structure of the sample (single layered, mul-
tilayered, sandwiched samples). From the numerical calcula-tions, we carry out an analysis similar to that presented byKraus,
26although here we consider a higher frequency
FIG. 4. Comparison of the (a) real Rand (b) imaginary Xcomponents of the
longitudinal impedance, as a function of the external magnetic field for
selected frequency values, calculated for single layered (dashed lines) and
multilayered (solid lines) systems. The numerical calculations are performedusing parameters similar to those previously employed for single layered
and multilayered systems.
FIG. 3. (a) Real Rand (b) imaginary Xcomponents of the longitudinal im-
pedance as a function of the external magnetic field for selected frequency
values. The numerical calculations are obtained for a multilayered system
with Ms1¼Ms2¼780 em/cm3,Hk1¼Hk2¼5 Oe, hk1¼hk2¼90/C14,
uk1¼uk2¼2/C14,a¼0.018, cG/2p¼2.9 MHz/Oe, t1¼100 nm, t2¼250 nm,
r1¼6/C2107(Xm)/C01,r2¼r1/4,hH¼90/C14, and uH¼90/C14.243904-7 Corr ^eaet al. J. Appl. Phys. 116, 243904 (2014)
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134.124.28.17 On: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 01:24:37range, where FMR signatures can be verified in the MI
results.
Figure 6presents the numerical calculations of the real
Rand imaginary Xcomponents of the longitudinal imped-
ance, as well as the impedance Z, for multilayered systems
with different values of the damping parameter a. Here, it
can be clearly noticed that the amplitude of R,X,a n d Z
increases as the avalue decreases. Moreover, a displace-
ment of the peak position in field is observed when differ-
entavalues are considered. This displacement leads to
changes in the FMR frequency for a given external mag-
netic field and, therefore, it modifies the frequency limit
between the regimes where distinct mechanisms are re-
sponsible for the MI effect vari ations. The features verified
in these numerical calculations are present in experimentalresults measured in films with low damping parameter a
values.36
C. Exchange biased system
Finally, we perform the numerical calculation for the
longitudinal MI effect for an exchange biased system, as pre-sented in Fig. 1(d).
The exchange biased system is composed by a ferro-
magnetic layer directly coupled to an antiferromagneticlayer. The sample configuration favors the appearance of theexchange interaction in the ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic
interface, described through a bias field ~H
EB.37Thus, the
magnetic free energy density can be written as37
n¼/C0 ~M/C1~H/C0Hk
2Ms~M/C1^uk/C0/C12þ4pM2
s^M/C1^nðÞ /C0~M/C1~HEB:(21)
For the numerical calculation for an exchange biased
system, we consider the following parameters previouslyemployed: M
s¼780 emu/cm3,Hk¼5 Oe, hk¼90/C14, variable
uk;a¼0:018, cG/2p¼2.9 MHz/Oe, thickness of the ferro-
magnetic layer t¼500 nm, hH¼90/C14, and uH¼90/C14. Beyond
the traditional parameters, HEB¼50 Oe, oriented along ^uk.
In particular, the thickness of the antiferromagnetic layer isnot considered for the numerical calculations.
Figure 7shows the numerical calculations for the nor-
malized magnetization curves and real Rand imaginary X
components obtained as a function of the external magneticfield at 2 GHz for two different orientations between ~H
EB
and^ukwith ~HandIac, together with the schematic represen-
tations of the two configurations. In particular, in this case,the calculations are performed considering Eqs. (21),(8),
and(17).
Considering the magnetization curves (see Fig. 7(a)),
the exchange bias can be clearly identified through the shiftof the curve, where the maximum exchange bias field isobserved when ~Hk~H
EB(Fig. 7(c)), as expected. As the
angle between ~HEBand ^ukwith ~Hand Iacis increased, a
reduction of the component of the exchange bias field along
~His verified, evidenced by the decrease of the shift (Not
shown here). For the limit case of ~H?~HEB(Fig. 7(d)), none
FIG. 6. (a) Real Rcomponent, (b) imaginary Xcomponent, and (c) imped-
ance Z, as a function of the external magnetic field at 2 GHz, calculated for
multilayered systems with different values of the damping parameter a. The
numerical calculations are performed using the same parameters previously
employed for multilayered systems.
FIG. 5. (a) Real Rand (b) imaginary Xcomponents of the longitudinal im-
pedance, as a function of the external magnetic field at 2 GHz, calculated for
multilayered systems with different values of the thickness t1of the metallic
non-magnetic layer. For t1¼0, the multilayered system becomes a single
layered system. The numerical calculations are performed using the same
parameters previously employed for multilayered systems.243904-8 Corr ^eaet al. J. Appl. Phys. 116, 243904 (2014)
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134.124.28.17 On: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 01:24:37shift of the curve is observed. At the same time, an evolution
of the shape of the magnetization curve is noticed as theangle increases. These exchange bias features are reflected inthe behavior of the MI curves. In particular, the shift of thecurves of the real and imaginary components of the imped-
ance follows the one of the respective magnetization curve
(see Fig. 7(b)).
Figure 8shows the numerical calculations for the real R
and imaginary Xcomponents of the longitudinal impedance
as a function of the external magnetic field for selected fre-quency values, calculated for an exchange biased system forthe configuration of ~H
EBk~H. In order to consider the fre-
quency dependent shift of Rand X, we consider a fitting
obtained from the data reported in Ref. 17.
For exchange biased systems, the well-known symmet-
ric magnetoimpedance behavior around H¼0 for anisotropic
systems38is entirely shifted to H¼HEB.37Besides, the MI
curves reflect all classical features of the magnetoimpedancein systems without the exchange bias, including the Zbehav-
ior for distinct orientation between the anisotropy and exter-
nal magnetic field,
7as well as the R,X,andZbehavior with
frequency,20,21,26together with the new features owed to
exchange bias effect.37In this case, a single peak placed at
H¼HEB6Hc, where Hcis the coercive field, can be
observed from 0.15 GHz (not presented here) up to 0.5 GHz,and it is due to changes in the transverse magnetic perme-ability. The single peak becomes more pronounced with theincrease of the frequency. At around 0.6 GHz, the singlepeak splits in a double peak structure symmetric at H¼H
EB.
In classical MI experiments, this evolution of the curves
from a single peak to a double peak structure is verified
when both the external magnetic field and electrical currentare applied along the easy magnetization axis,38and is owed
to the typical shape of FMR dispersion relation for thisgeometry.
7,26
These numerical calculation results obtained for
exchange biased systems are in qualitative agreement with
experimental results found in literature for ferromagnetic
films with exchange bias.11,12
D. Comparison with the experiment
The previous tests performed with the theoretical
approach have qualitatively described the main features ofsingle layered, multilayered, and exchange biased systems .
To verify the validity of the theoretical approach, we investi-gate the quasi-static and dynamical magnetic properties of
an exchange biased multilayered film and compare the ex-
perimental results with numerical calculations obtained an
FIG. 7. (a) Normalized magnetization curves and (b) real Rand imaginary X
components of the longitudinal impedance Zas a function of the external field
at 2 GHz, calculated for a exchange biased system when EA and ~HEBare par-
allel ( uk¼88/C14) and perpendicular ( uk¼2/C14)t o ~HandIac. Schematic repre-
sentation of an exchange biased system and two configurations of the external
and alternate magnetic fields and current sense when the easy magnetizationaxis (EA) and ~H
EBare (c) parallel and (d) perpendicular to ~HandIac.
FIG. 8. (a) Real Rand (b) imaginary Xcomponents of the longitudinal im-
pedance as a function of the external magnetic field for selected frequency
values calculated for an exchange biased system with the same parameter
employed previously and uk¼88/C14.243904-9 Corr ^eaet al. J. Appl. Phys. 116, 243904 (2014)
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134.124.28.17 On: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 01:24:37exchange biased multilayered system . The complexity of the
considered system, including different features previously
studied, and the quantitative agreement with experimentalresults do confirm the robustness of our theoretical approach.
We perform numerical calculation for the quasi-static
and dynamical magnetic properties of an exchange biasedmultilayered system, as shown in Fig. 9(a).
To model the exchange biased multilayered system, we
consider a magnetic free energy density that can be writtenas
n¼X
20
i¼1/C0~Mi/C1~H/C0Hki
2Msi~Mi/C1^uki/C0/C12
þ4pM2
si^Mi/C1^n/C0/C1
/C0~HEB/C1~Mi2
643
75: (22)
With respect to numerical calculations, the following
parameters must be defined to describe the experimentalmagnetization and MI curves: magnetization and saturation
magnetization of each ferromagnetic layer, Miand Msi,
respectively, uniaxial anisotropy field Hki, uniaxial anisot-
ropy versor ^uki, exchange bias field HEB, thicknesses, t1and
t2, and conductivities, r1andr2, of the non-magnetic and
ferromagnetic layers, respectively, damping parameter a,
gyromagnetic factor cG, and external magnetic field ~H. The
thickness of the antiferromagnetic layer is not considered for
the numerical calculations, however, experimentally, it isthick enough to neglect the bilinear and biquadratic coupling
between the ferromagnetic layers.
The calculation of the magnetization curves is carried
out using the same minimization process developed for the
MI calculation, without the ~h
acfield. This process consists in
to determine the hManduMvalues that minimize the mag-
netic free energy density for the studied system for each
external magnetic field value. Thus, since the calculated
magnetization curve validates the experimental magnetiza-tion behavior, the aforementioned parameters are fixed to
perform the numerical calculations of MI behavior. As previ-
ously cited, there is an offset increase in the real and imagi-nary parts of the experimental impedance as a function of
frequency, a feature of the electrical/metallic contribution to
MI that is not taken into account in theoretical models. Thus,it is inserted in the MI numerical calculation from the fitting
of the measured Rand Xcurves as a function of the fre-
quency for the highest magnetic field value.
21
Figure 9(b) shows the normalized magnetization curves
of the produced exchange biased multilayered film.
Experimental magnetization curves are obtained along twodifferent directions, when ~His applied along and perpendic-
ular to the main axis of the films. It is important to point out
that a constant magnetic field is applied along the main axisduring the deposition process. As a matter of fact, by com-
paring experimental curves, it is possible to observe that
magnetic anisotropy is induced during the film growth, con-firming an easy magnetization axis and an exchange bias
field oriented along the main axis of the film.
From the magnetization curve measured along the main
axis of the film, we find the coercive field /C242O e a n d
H
EB/C2430 Oe. Thus, to the numerical calculation, we con-
sider the following parameters Msi¼780 emu/cm3,
Hki¼2O e , hki¼90/C14, variable uki,HEB¼30.5 Oe with ~HEB
oriented along ^uki,a¼0.018, cG/2p¼2.73 MHz/Oe,39
t1¼1n m , t2¼40 nm, r1¼6/C2107(Xm)/C01,a n d r2¼r1/0.5.
Since hH¼90/C14anduH¼90/C14, we obtain uki¼85/C14and
uki¼4/C14, respectively, for the two measurement directions.
A small misalignment between anisotropy and field can beassociated to stress stored in the film as the sample thickness
increases, as well as small deviations in the sample position
in an experiment are reasonable. This is confirmed throughthe numerical calculation of the magnetization curves.
Notice the striking quantitative agreement between experi-
ment and theory.
As mentioned above, parameters are fixed from the cal-
culation of magnetization curves and used to describe the MI
behavior. Thus, from Eqs. (19),(8), and (20), the real Rand
imaginary Xcomponents of the longitudinal impedance as a
function of field and frequency for an exchange biased
FIG. 9. (a) Schematic diagram of an exchange biased multilayered system.
Experimentally, we produce a [Ni 20Fe80(40 nm)/Ir 20Mn 80(20 nm)/
Ta(1 nm)] /C220 ferromagnetic multilayered film, in which the easy magnet-
ization axis EA and the exchange bias field ~HEBare oriented in the same
direction. (b) Normalized magnetization curves obtained experimentally
when ~His applied along (0/C14) and perpendicular (90/C14) to the main axis of the
film, together with numerical calculations performed for an exchange biased
multilayered system.243904-10 Corr ^eaet al. J. Appl. Phys. 116, 243904 (2014)
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134.124.28.17 On: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 01:24:37multilayered system can be calculated. Fig. 10shows experi-
mental data and numerical calculation of RandXas a func-
tion of Hfor selected frequency values for both considered
directions.
For all cases, it is evident the quantitative agreement
between the experimental data and numerical calculation. In
particular, the numerical calculations performed using theconsidered magnetic permeability and MI models, with pa-
rameters fixed by analyzing the magnetization curves, are
able to describe all the main features of each impedancecomponent for the whole frequency range.
Although it is well-known that the changes of magnetic
permeability and impedance with magnetic fields at differentfrequency ranges are caused by three distinct mecha-
nisms,
18–20the determination of the precise frequency limits
between regimes is a hard task, since the overlap of contribu-tions to MI of distinct mechanisms, such as the skin and
FMR effects, is very likely to occur. Thus, the use of distinct
models for magnetic permeability and their use in calculatingMI become restricted, since it is not possible to determine
when to leave one model and start using another one as the
frequency is changing.
Even there are distinct mechanisms controlling MI var-
iations at different frequency ranges, all of our experimental
findings are well described by the theoretical results calcu-lated using the aforementioned magnetic permeability and
MI models. This is due to the fact that the distinctmechanism contributions at different frequency ranges are
included naturally in the numerical calculation through mag-netic permeability.
V. CONCLUSION
As an alternative to the traditional FMR experiment, the
magnetoimpedance effect corresponds as a promising tool toinvestigate ferromagnetic materials, revealing aspects on thefundamental physics associated to magnetization dynamics,broadband magnetic properties, important issues for current,and emerging technological applications for magnetic sen-sors, as well as insights on ferromagnetic resonance effect atsaturated and even unsaturated samples. In this sense, itsstudy in ferromagnetic samples with distinct featuresbecomes a very important task.
In this paper, we perform a theoretical and experimental
investigation of the magnetoimpedance effect for the thinfilm geometry at the high frequency range.
In particular, we calculate the longitudinal magnetoim-
pedance for single layered, multilayered, or exchange biasedsystems from an approach that considers a magnetic perme-ability model for planar geometry and the appropriate mag-netic free energy density for each structure. Usually,theoretical models that describe magnetization dynamical
properties and the MI of a given system consider more than
one approach to magnetic permeability. This is due to the
FIG. 10. Experimental results and numerical calculation of real Rand imaginary Xcomponents of the longitudinal impedance as a function of the external
magnetic field for selected frequency values. (a)–(c) Experimental data obtained when ~His applied along (0/C14) to the main axis of the film, together with numer-
ical calculations performed for an exchange biased multilayered system with uki¼85/C14. (d)–(f) Similar plot of experimental data when the field is perpendicu-
lar (90/C14) to the main axis of the film, with numerical calculations performed with uki¼4/C14.243904-11 Corr ^eaet al. J. Appl. Phys. 116, 243904 (2014)
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134.124.28.17 On: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 01:24:37fact that these permeability approaches reflect distinct mech-
anisms responsible for MI changes, applicable only for a re-
stricted range of frequencies, where the mechanism isobserved. Thus, the difficult task of choosing the correct
magnetic permeability model to use at a certain frequency
range explains the reduced number of reports comparing MIexperimental results and theoretical predictions for a wide
frequency range. Anyway, even there are distinct mecha-
nisms controlling MI variations at different frequencyranges, with the magnetic permeability and MI models con-
sidered here, the distinct mechanism contributions at differ-
ent frequency ranges are included naturally in the numericalcalculation through magnetic permeability. For this reason,
the numerical calculations for different systems succeed to
describe the main features of the MI effect in each structure,in concordance with experimental results found in literature.
At the same time, we perform experimental magnetiza-
tion and MI measurements in a multilayered film withexchange bias. To interpret them, numerical calculations are
performed using the described magnetic permeability and MI
models. With parameters fixed by analyzing the magnetizationcurves, quantitative agreement between the experimental MI
data and numerical calculation is verified, and we are able to
describe all the main features of each impedance componentfor the whole frequency range. Thus, we provide experimental
evidence to confirm the validity of the theoretical approach to
describe the magnetoimpedance in ferromagnetic films.
Although we perform here all the analysis just for an
exchange biased multilayered film, since a general model is
used to describe magnetic permeability, it can be consideredin the study of samples with any planar geometry, such as
films, ribbons, and sheets, given that an appropriate magnetic
free energy density and adequate MI model are considered.In this sense, the simplicity and robustness place this theoret-
ical approach as a powerful tool to investigate the permeabil-
ity and longitudinal magnetoimpedance for the thin filmgeometry in a wide frequency range.
In particular, we focus on the l
xxterm of the magnetic
permeability tensor and on the longitudinal magnetoimpe-dance. This is due to the fact that our experimental setup pro-
vides information related to the transverse magnetic
permeability. On the other hand, the l
yy,lzz, and off-diagonal
terms of the magnetic permeability tensor can bring relevant
information on the MI effect, since the correct impedance
expression is obtained. At the same time, this information canbe measured by considering a distinct experimental system.
These next steps are currently in progress.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The research was partially supported by the Brazilian
agencies CNPq (Grant Nos. 471302/2013-9, 310761/2011-5,
476429/2010-2, and 555620/2010-7), CAPES, FAPERJ, and
FAPERN (Grant PPP No. 013/2009, and Pronem No. 03/2012). M.A.C. and F.B. acknowledge financial support of
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134.124.28.17 On: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 01:24:37 |
1.5129724.pdf | AIP Advances 9, 125332 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129724 9, 125332
© 2019 Author(s).Dual-structure microwave-assisted
magnetic recording using only a spin
torque oscillator
Cite as: AIP Advances 9, 125332 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129724
Submitted: 01 October 2019 . Accepted: 01 November 2019 . Published Online: 27 December 2019
Simon John Greaves
, and Waka Saito
COLLECTIONS
Paper published as part of the special topic on 64th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
Note: This paper was presented at the 64th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials.
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Dual-structure microwave-assisted magnetic
recording using only a spin torque oscillator
Cite as: AIP Advances 9, 125332 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5129724
Presented: 8 November 2019 •Submitted: 1 October 2019 •
Accepted: 1 November 2019 •Published Online: 27 December 2019
Simon John Greavesa)
and Waka Saito
AFFILIATIONS
RIEC, Tohoku University, Katahira 2-1-1, Aoba ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan
Note: This paper was presented at the 64th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials.
a)simon@riec.tohoku.ac.jp
ABSTRACT
The selective switching of dual-structure magnetic dots under the influence of the stray field from a spin torque oscillator was investigated.
A configuration was found which allowed selective switching of either structure when subject to ac magnetic fields oscillating at 9 GHz and
20 GHz. No other external magnetic fields were needed to switch the magnetisation of the structures.
©2019 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129724 .,s
I. INTRODUCTION
Microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) makes use
of high frequency (HF) magnetic fields which, when oscillating at,
or near, the resonance frequency of a magnetic material, reduce
the switching field of the magnetic material.1When the HF field is
applied in conjunction with the field from a write head magnetic
grains with much higher uniaxial anisotropy, Ku, can be switched
than when using the head field alone.
The HF field is usually generated by a spin torque oscillator
(STO).2However, it is difficult to obtain stable STO oscillation when
the STO is integrated into a write head due to the large fields acting
on the STO.3In some cases it is possible to switch the magnetisation
of a recording medium or magnetic dot using only the field from the
STO and with no other external field sources.4–6This is true even if
the coercivity or switching field of the magnetic dot is much higher
than the strength of the HF field from the STO. The sense of rotation
of the HF field, or chirality, determines the direction of magnetisa-
tion switching, e.g., from up to down, or vice-versa,7and this can be
controlled by the direction in which the current flows through the
device.8
Another advantage of MAMR is the ability to record on media
or dots with multiple recording structures.9–11If each structure
has a different ferromagnetic resonance frequency the magnetisa-
tion of each structure can be switched independently. For media
or dots with two structures this theoretically allows the recordingdensity to be doubled. In this work we investigate the possibility of
selective recording on dual structure magnetic dots using only the
field from a STO. No write head or any other external applied fields
were used.
II. THE MODEL
A simplified model of a spin torque oscillator consisting of just
a field generating layer (FGL) was used in this work. The FGL was
modelled as a uniformly-magnetised cuboid with a thickness ( z) of
10 nm and in-plane ( x,y) dimensions of 20 nm ×20 nm. The FGL
had Msof 1591 emu/cm3and the magnetisation was assumed to
rotate in the x-yplane at a constant angular velocity. The stray field
arising from the FGL was calculated underneath the FGL and varied
as a function of position and time.
Two discrete, cylindrical magnetic data storage structures, RL1
and RL2, were centred underneath the STO, with RL1 being fur-
thest from the STO along the zaxis. The saturation magnetisa-
tion of the two structures was 750 emu/cm3and their diameter,
D, was 20 nm. When D≤12 nm discretisation of the structures
into 1 nm thick layers was sufficient to capture the magnetisa-
tion dynamics, but for larger diameters the magnetisation reversal
became non-uniform and in-plane discretisation was also necessary.
As a result the structures were discretised into 1 nm cubes with
exchange coupling of 1 ×10−6erg/cm acting between neighbouring
cubes. In some cases exchange coupled composite (ECC) structures
AIP Advances 9, 125332 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5129724 9, 125332-1
© Author(s) 2019AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
were used.12,13These comprised of magnetically hard and soft lay-
ers exchange coupled together with a strength of 5 ×10−7erg/cm.
The Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert damping constant, α, was 0.02 for all
structures.
The switching probability of the structures was calculated at a
temperature of 300 K. At the start of the simulations the magnetisa-
tion of the structures was pointing up ( ⃗Malong the positive zaxis).
After waiting for 0.25 ns in zero field the STO was turned on for 2 ns.
Once the STO was turned off the simulation continued in zero field
for a further 1 ns after which time the magnetisation of the struc-
tures was evaluated. The main variables were the frequency of the
HF field, the spacing between the structures and the STO ( dz), and
the uniaxial anisotropy of the structures. The switching probabilities
given here were evaluated after 100 trials.
III. SINGLE STRUCTURE DOTS
First the switching of single structures was investigated. The HF
field from the STO decreased rapidly with distance from the STO
surface. The structure nearest to the STO (RL2) experienced higher
HF fields and should therefore have higher Kuthan the structure
further away from the STO (RL1). If two recording structures are
to be switched by the same STO both structures should be as thin
as possible. However, a minimum structure thickness of 3 nm was
imposed in order that thermally stable structures could be realised
using realistic values of Ku.
Fig. 1 shows the switching probabilities of single phase struc-
tures with various values of Kuwhere the spacing between the STO
and the structures was 1 nm. Switching probabilities of 1 were
achieved for Kuvalues from 4.6 ×106erg/cm3to 8.1 ×106erg/cm3.
The switching probability curves shifted to higher STO frequen-
cies as Kuincreased as the resonance frequency of a single phase
structure is proportional to the anisotropy field Hk.
For selective switching of two structures to be possible the left
edge of the switching probability curve for RL2 should reach zero
at a sufficiently high STO frequency, e.g., 10 GHz. Fig. 1 shows that
to achieve this condition Kushould be at least 7.1 ×106erg/cm3. A
design for RL1 is then needed which switches at a STO frequency
below 10 GHz.
Fig. 2 shows the effect of the spacing between the STO and
the recording structure on the switching probability when Kuwas
6.6×106erg/cm3. The switching probability dropped below 1 once
FIG. 1 . Switching probability vs. STO frequency for 3 nm thick recording structures
with various Ku. Spacing between recording structure and STO dz= 1 nm.
FIG. 2 . Switching probability vs. STO frequency for 3 nm thick recording structures.
dz= spacing between recording structure and STO.
FIG. 3 . Switching probability of RL1 for a 3 nm hard layer and various soft layer
thicknesses. dz= 6 nm, Kusoft = 1 ×106erg/cm3.
dzexceeded 3 nm. Given the minimum structure thickness of 3 nm
and a minimum spacing between structures of 1 nm, the smallest
possible value of dzfor the structure furthest from the STO (RL1) is
5 nm. The switching probability could be increased by reducing Ku,
e.g., the switching probability was 1 at 8 GHz when dz= 5 nm and
Ku= 4.6 ×106erg/cm3, but a more flexible approach is to use an
ECC structure for RL1.
Fig. 3 shows switching probabilities of single phase and ECC
structures for dz= 6 nm and hard layer Kuof 6.1 ×106erg/cm3.
Adding a soft layer with Kuof 1×106erg/cm3and a thickness of
2 nm, or more, shifted the switching probability curves to lower STO
frequencies whilst maintaining a maximum switching probability
of 1. The right edges of the switching probability curves for soft layer
thicknesses of 2 nm and 3 nm reached zero at a frequency of around
15 GHz. This can be below the peak in the switching probability
curve of RL2 if RL2 has Kuof 7.6 ×106erg/cm3, or more.
IV. DUAL-STRUCTURE DOTS
Based on the results in section III the two structure design
shown in Fig. 4 was adopted. RL1 had an ECC structure with a 3 nm
thick hard layer and 2 nm soft layer. The spacing between the two
structures was 2 nm.
Fig. 5(a) shows hysteresis loops of a dual structure dot calcu-
lated at 4.2 K and 300 K. The loops show that the magnetisation
AIP Advances 9, 125332 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5129724 9, 125332-2
© Author(s) 2019AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
FIG. 4 . Schematic of dual-structure dot and STO.
of the two recording structures reversed independently at distinctly
different applied fields, both at low temperature and at room tem-
perature. Fig. 5(b) shows the magnitude of the in-plane component
of the HF field from the STO at various distances from the STO sur-
face. The fields shown were those at the centre of the dot and at the
edge of the dot (10 nm from the centre), and were much smaller than
the switching fields indicated by the hysteresis loops in Fig. 5(a).
The switching probabilities of RL1 and RL2 in a dual-structure
dot as a function of the STO frequency are shown in Fig. 6. In
this calculation the magnetisation of the two structures was initially
parallel. The thin lines show the switching probabilities for single
structure dots whilst the bold lines and points are the results for
a dual-structure dot. Compared with the single structure dots the
switching probability curves of the dual-structure dot were narrower
and the maximum switching probability decreased from 1 to 0.97
for RL1 and to 0.95 for RL2. The reduction was a consequence of
FIG. 5 . (a) Hysteresis loops of a dual structure dot at 4.2 K and 300 K. (b) In-plane
component of HF field at centre and edge of dot vs. vertical distance from STO.
FIG. 6 . Switching probabilities of RL1 and RL2 in a dual-structure dot. Thin lines:
single structure dots, bold lines and points: dual-structure dot.
the magnetostatic interaction between the two recording structures
which favoured the initial, parallel magnetisation alignment.
Fig. 6 shows that for a dual-structure dot the maximum switch-
ing probabilities for RL1 and RL2 occurred at STO frequencies of
9 GHz and 20 GHz, respectively. Fig. 7 shows some typical mag-
netisation dynamics for RL1 and RL2 under HF fields at these fre-
quencies. When the HF field was turned on the magnetisation of
the target structure decreased and began to oscillate around Mz= 0
after about 0.5 ns. Subsequently the magnetisation gradually became
increasingly negative over the following 0.5 - 1 ns. The magneti-
sation of the non-target structure was slightly disturbed by the
HF field in both cases but no correlation between the oscillation
of the magnetisation of the two structures was observed. As can be
seen in Fig. 7, the oscillation frequencies of the two structures when
subjected to the same HF field were quite different.
Magnetisation reversal took place via domain wall nucleation
and motion. In addition to lateral motion of the domain wall, which
was responsible for the magnetisation oscillations shown in Fig. 7,
the domain wall also rotated multiple times during the reversal pro-
cess. The speed of rotation was not constant, but the average fre-
quency of rotation was about 12 GHz for RL1 when the HF field
frequency was 9 GHZ. For RL2 the domain wall rotation frequency
was about 22 GHz for a 20 GHz HF field.
FIG. 7 . Switching of RL1 and RL2 when subject to HF fields of 9 GHz (top) and
20 GHz (bottom). 2 ns HF field pulse.
AIP Advances 9, 125332 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5129724 9, 125332-3
© Author(s) 2019AIP Advances ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/adv
FIG. 8 . Effect of HF pulse duration on switching probabilities of RL1 and RL2 in a
two structure stack.
FIG. 9 . Switching probabilities for anti-parallel initial magnetisation state. Pulse
duration = 2 ns. Thin lines = switching probabilities for parallel initial magnetisation
state.
The effect of the HF field pulse duration was examined, vary-
ing the pulse length from 0.5 ns to 4 ns. Fig. 8 shows the results.
For pulse durations of less than 2 ns the switching probabilities
decreased rapidly. For pulses longer than 2 ns the maximum switch-
ing probability slowly increased, reaching 1 for a pulse length of 4 ns.
As the pulse length increased the probability of RL1 switching at
higher STO frequencies also increased. For example, when the STO
frequency was 15 GHz the switching probability of RL1 increased
from zero to 0.03 when the pulse length was extended from 2 ns
to 4 ns.
In a storage system the switching error rate (SER) determines
the ultimate capacity of the system.14The SER of RL1 and RL2 at
9 GHz and 20 GHz was calculated for 1000 trials using 4 ns pulses.
The SER was 0.001 for RL1 and 0.01 for RL2. Thus, the capacity of a
system of Ndots would be 0.99 Nfor RL1 and 0.92 Nfor RL2.The switching probabilities for the anti-parallel initial magneti-
sation state are shown in Fig. 9 for 2 ns HF field pulses. In contrast
to the parallel initial magnetisation state the magnetostatic inter-
action assisted magnetisation reversal of the target structure and
the switching probability reached 1 over a wide range of STO fre-
quencies. It should be noted that although the switching probability
curves for RL1 and RL2 appear to overlap in the frequency range of
9 - 13 GHz, only the magnetisation of the target structure was
switched in any given simulation. This was because when the ini-
tial magnetisation state was anti-parallel only one of the structures
responded to the HF field. The magnetisation of the other struc-
ture precessed in the opposite direction and could not absorb energy
from the HF field.
V. CONCLUSIONS
A design for a two structure dot in which either structure could
be selectively switched by the application of a HF field from a STO at
an appropriate frequency was shown. Switching probabilities of 1 for
the target structure and 0 for the non-target structure were obtained
after 100 trials for HF field pulses of 4 ns duration.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Advanced Storage
Research Consortium for their support of this work.
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AIP Advances 9, 125332 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5129724 9, 125332-4
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