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At least 487 records · Page 27

Controlling magnetic anisotropy in La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3} nanostructures

We have developed a chlorine based dry etching process for nanopatterning the ferromagnetic oxide La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3} (LSMO). Large arrays of millions of identical structures have been fabricated from thin LSMO films by electron-beam lithography and reactive ion etching. SQUID magnetometry demonstrates that patterned nanostructures with lateral dimensions down to 100 nm retain their full magnetization and the Curie temperature of the bulk layer. In addition, their shape anisotropy is sufficient to overcome the crystalline anisotropy of the bulk. High resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy shows that crystallinity is preserved even at the edges of the nanostructures.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Local magnetoresistance through Si and its bias voltage dependence in ferromagnet/MgO/silicon-on-insulator lateral spin valves

Local magnetoresistance (MR) through silicon (Si) and its bias voltage (V{sub bias}) (bias current (I{sub bias})) dependence in ferromagnet (FM)/MgO/silicon-on-insulator lateral spin valves are investigated. From the experimental measurements, we find that the local-MR through Si increases with increasing V{sub bias}. This anomalous increase of local-MR as a function of V{sub bias} can be understood by considering the standard drift-diffusion theory improved by taking into account the difference in the interface resistances and first order quantum effect between FM/MgO/Si (source) and Si/MgO/FM (drain) interfaces. The interface resistance dependence on experimentally obtained local-MR ratios also agrees with the improved standard spin diffusion theory. These results indicate that experimentally observed local-MR is certainly related to the spin signal through the Si bulk band.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Development and intrinsic properties of hexagonal ferromagnetic (Zr,Ti)Fe{sub 2}

Nanocrystalline Ti{sub 0.75}Zr{sub 0.25}Fe{sub 2+x} (x = 0-0.4) and Ti{sub 0.75−y}B{sub y}Zr{sub 0.25}Fe{sub 2.4} (y = 0-0.35) with high saturation magnetization have been fabricated by the melt-spinning technique. Nanocrystalline Ti{sub 0.75}Zr{sub 0.25}Fe{sub 2+x} consists of the hexagonal C14 Laves phase (Ti,Zr)Fe{sub 2}. Fe addition decreases the lattice parameter a and shrinks the cell volume. The antiferromagnetic Fe-Fe interactions may decrease with the increase of x, leading to a significant enhancement of saturation polarization (J{sub s}) and Curie temperature (T{sub c}). The magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant K also increases with increasing x. Excessive Fe addition (x > 0.25) may induce structural disorder which lowers the J{sub s} and T{sub c}. Nanocrystalline Ti{sub 0.75−y}B{sub y}Zr{sub 0.25}Fe{sub 2.4} is composed of hexagonal (Ti,Zr)Fe{sub 2} and Fe-rich amorphous phases with relatively high J{sub s}. The lattice parameters a, c and cell volume V are almost unchanged with the increase of y for y ≥ 0.16. Simultaneously, the T{sub c} of (Ti,Zr)Fe{sub 2} remains unchanged, indicating that B does not enter this lattice but takes part in forming the amorphous phase, in good agreement with the X-ray diffraction results. The volume fraction of the amorphous phase increases with the increase of B content and results in a large enhancement of J{sub s} up to 10.8 kG. Further B addition (y > 0.30) decreases J{sub s}, possibly due to the decrease of the J{sub s} of the amorphous phase.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Nonreciprocal dispersion of spin waves in ferromagnetic thin films covered with a finite-conductivity metal

We study the effect of one-side metallization of a uniform ferromagnetic thin film on its spin-wave dispersion relation in the Damon–Eshbach geometry. Due to the finite conductivity of the metallic cover layer on the ferromagnetic film, the spin-wave dispersion relation may be nonreciprocal only in a limited wave-vector range. We provide an approximate analytical solution for the spin-wave frequency, discuss its validity, and compare it with numerical results. The dispersion is analyzed systematically by varying the parameters of the ferromagnetic film, the metal cover layer and the value of the external magnetic field. The conclusions drawn from this analysis allow us to define a structure based on a 30 nm thick CoFeB film with an experimentally accessible nonreciprocal dispersion relation in a relatively wide wave-vector range.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Emergent spin electromagnetism induced by magnetization textures in the presence of spin-orbit interaction (invited)

Emergent electromagnetic field which couples to electron's spin in ferromagnetic metals is theoretically studied. Rashba spin-orbit interaction induces spin electromagnetic field which is in the linear order in gradient of magnetization texture. The Rashba-induced effective electric and magnetic fields satisfy in the absence of spin relaxation the Maxwell's equations as in the charge-based electromagnetism. When spin relaxation is taken into account besides spin dynamics, a monopole current emerges generating spin motive force via the Faraday's induction law. The monopole is expected to play an important role in spin-charge conversion and in the integration of spintronics into electronics.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Twofold Andreev reflections and coherent transport in ferromagnetic semiconductor/d-wave superconductor/ferromagnetic semiconductor double tunneling junctions

Coherent transport in a ferromagnetic semiconductor (FS)/d-wave superconductor (SC)/FS structure with (110) interfaces is studied by extending Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation into eight components, in which the interband coupling of heavy and light hole bands in the FS, the strengths of potential scattering at the interfaces, and the mismatches in the effective mass and Fermi vector between the FS and SC are taken into account. Twofold Andreev reflections exist due to the existence of two bands in the FS, in which the incident hole and the two Andreev-reflected electrons, belonging to the different spin subbands, form twofold spin-singlet pairing states near the FS/SC interface. It is shown that due to the interplay of the SC with unconventional d-wave pairing symmetry and FS, the differential conductance and tunneling magnetoresistance exhibit an abundant dependence on not only the interband coupling in the FS but also the strengths of potential scattering at the interfaces. More importantly, the properties are found to be quite different from those in the FS/s-wave SC/FS structure with conventional pairing symmetry for the SC.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Unusual multiferroicity in Cu{sub 3}Nb{sub 2}O{sub 8}

Cu{sub 3}Nb{sub 2}O{sub 8} is an anti-ferromagnetic - ferroelectric material in which the non-collinear spin alignment leads to breaking of spatial inversion symmetry. We confirm that the ferroelectricity and magnetic anomaly both occur at T{sub N1} = 25K. The emergence of ferroelectricity due to complex spin ordering is investigated by the temperature dependent low temperature measurements of magnetization, dielectric constant and electric polarization. The microscopic origin to explain magneto-electric coupling in this compound is based on a model based on ferroaxial coupling rather than inverse Dzyalonshkii-Moria interaction.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Local control of magnetic damping in ferromagnetic/non-magnetic bilayers by interfacial intermixing induced by focused ion-beam irradiation

The influence of interfacial intermixing on the picosecond magnetization dynamics of ferromagnetic/non-magnetic thin-film bilayers was studied. Low-dose focused-ion-beam irradiation was used to induce intermixing across the interface between a 10 nm Ni{sub 81}Fe{sub 19} layer and a 2–3 nm capping layer of either Au or Cr. Time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect was used to study magnetization dynamics as a function of ion-beam dose. With an Au cap, the damping of the un-irradiated bilayer was comparable with native Ni{sub 81}Fe{sub 19} and increased with increasing ion dose. In contrast, for Ni{sub 81}Fe{sub 19}/Cr the damping was higher than that for native Ni{sub 81}Fe{sub 19}, but the damping decreased with increasing dose.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Direct observation of spin-resolved full and empty electron states in ferromagnetic surfaces

We present a versatile apparatus for the study of ferromagnetic surfaces, which combines spin-polarized photoemission and inverse photoemission spectroscopies. Samples can be grown by molecular beam epitaxy and analyzed in situ. Spin-resolved photoemission spectroscopy analysis is done with a hemispherical electron analyzer coupled to a 25 kV-Mott detector. Inverse photoemission spectroscopy experiments are performed with GaAs crystals as spin-polarized electron sources and a UV bandpass photon detector. As an example, measurements on the oxygen passivated Fe(100)-p(1×1)O surface are presented.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Off-axis electron holography of ferromagnetic multilayer nanowires

We have used electron holography to investigate the local magnetic behavior of isolated ferromagnetic nanowires (NWs) in their remanent states. The NWs consisted of periodic magnetic layers of soft, high-saturation magnetization CoFeB alloys, and non-magnetic layers of Cu. All NWs were fabricated by pulsed-potential electrodeposition in nanoporous alumina membranes. The NW composition and layer thicknesses were measured using scanning transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. The magnetization of individual NWs depended upon the thicknesses of the layers and the direction of an external magnetic field, which had been applied in situ. When the CoFeB was thicker than the diameter (50 nm), magnetization was axial for all external field directions, while thinner layers could be randomized via a perpendicular field. In some cases, magnetization inside the wire was detected at an angle with respect to the axis of the wires. In thinner Cu/CoFeB (<10 nm each) multilayer, magnetic field vortices were detected, associated with opposing magnetization in neighbouring layers. The measured crystallinity, compositions, and layer thicknesses of individual NWs were found to be significantly different from those predicted from calibration growths based on uniform composition NWs. In particular, a significant fraction of Cu (up to 50 at. %) was present in the CoFeB layers such that the measured magnetic induction was lower than expected. These results will be used to better understand previously measured effective anisotropy fields of similar NW arrays.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

Spin and orbital magnetic moments of Fe in the n-type ferromagnetic semiconductor (In,Fe)As

The electronic and magnetic properties of Fe atoms in the ferromagnetic semiconductor (In,Fe)As codoped with Be have been studied by x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) at the Fe L{sub 2,3} edge. The XAS and XMCD spectra showed simple spectral line shapes similar to Fe metal, but the ratio of the orbital and spin magnetic moments (M{sub orb}/M{sub spin}) estimated using the XMCD sum rules was significantly larger than that of Fe metal, indicating a significant orbital moment of Fe 3d electrons in (In,Fe)As:Be. The positive value of M{sub orb}/M{sub spin} implies that the Fe 3d shell is more than half-filled, which arises from the hybridization of the Fe{sup 3+} (d{sup 5}) state with the charge-transfer d{sup 6}L{sub ¯} states, where L{sub ¯} is a ligand hole in the host valence band. The XMCD intensity as a function of magnetic field indicated hysteretic behavior of the superparamagnetic-like component due to discrete ferromagnetic domains.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Spin-glass behavior and anomalous magnetoresistance in ferromagnetic Ge{sub 1-x}Fe{sub x}Te epilayer

We report that the Ge{sub 1-x}Fe{sub x}Te thin film exhibits spin-glass behavior when the Fe concentration increases to 0.08. A large bifurcation between the zero-field cooling and field cooling temperature-dependent magnetization was observed. The hysteresis loops after zero-field cooling and field cooling show an exchange bias effect. A time-dependent thermoremanent magnetization follows power-law decay, which confirms the existence of spin glass. The anomalous magnetotranport properties present a further evidence for spin-glass behavior and give a freezing temperature T{sub g} ∼ 5 K in the Ge{sub 0.92}Fe{sub 0.08}Te thin film.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Shear strain mediated magneto-electric effects in composites of piezoelectric lanthanum gallium silicate or tantalate and ferromagnetic alloys

Shear strain mediated magneto-electric (ME) coupling is studied in composites of piezoelectric Y-cut lanthanum gallium silicate (LGS) or tantalate (LGT) and ferromagnetic Fe-Co-V alloys. It is shown that extensional strain does not result in ME effects in these layered composites. Under shear strain generated by an ac and dc bias magnetic fields along the length and width of the sample, respectively, strong ME coupling is measured at low-frequencies and at mechanical resonance. A model is discussed for the ME effects. These composites of Y-cut piezoelectrics and ferromagnetic alloys are of importance for shear strain based magnetic field sensors.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Graphene spin diode: Strain-modulated spin rectification

Strain effects on spin transport in a ferromagnetic/strained/normal graphene junction are explored theoretically. It is shown that the spin-resolved Fermi energy range can be controlled by the armchair direction strain because the strain-induced pseudomagnetic field suppresses the current. The spin rectification effect for the bias reversal occurs because of a combination of ferromagnetic exchange splitting and the broken spatial symmetry of the junction. In addition, the spin rectification performance can be tuned remarkably by manipulation of the strains. In view of this strain-modulated spin rectification effect, we propose that the graphene-based ferromagnetic/strained/normal junction can be used as a tunable spin diode.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

On magnon mediated Cooper pair formation in ferromagnetic superconductors

Identification of pairing mechanism leading to ferromagnetic superconductivity is one of the most challenging issues in condensed matter physics. Although different models have been proposed to explain this phenomenon, a quantitative understanding about this pairing is yet to be achieved. Using the localized-itinerant model, we find that in ferromagnetic superconducting materials both triplet pairing and singlet pairing of electrons are possible through magnon exchange depending upon whether the Debye cut off frequency of magnons is greater or lesser than the Hund's coupling (J) multiplied by average spin (S) per site. Taking into account the repulsive interaction due to the existence of paramagnons, we also find an expression for effective interaction potential between a pair of electrons with opposite spins. We apply the developed formalism in case of UGe{sub 2} and URhGe. The condition of singlet pairing is found to be fulfilled in these cases, as was previously envisaged by Suhl [Suhl, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 167007 (2001)]. We compute the critical temperatures of URhGe at ambient pressure and of UGe{sub 2} under different pressures for the first time through BCS equation. Thus, this work outlines a very simple way to evaluate critical temperature in case of a superconducting system. A close match with the available experimental results strongly supports our theoretical treatment.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Dynamic selective switching in antiferromagnetically-coupled bilayers close to the spin reorientation transition

We have designed a bilayer synthetic antiferromagnet where the order of layer reversal can be selected by varying the sweep rate of the applied magnetic field. The system is formed by two ultra-thin ferromagnetic layers with different proximities to the spin reorientation transition, coupled antiferromagnetically using Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interactions. The different dynamic magnetic reversal behavior of both layers produces a crossover in their switching fields for field rates in the kOe/s range. This effect is due to the different effective anisotropy of both layers, added to an appropriate asymmetric antiferromagnetic coupling between them. Field-rate controlled selective switching of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy layers as shown here can be exploited in sensing and memory applications.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Chemical reaction at ferromagnet/oxide interface and its influence on anomalous Hall effect

Chemical reactions at the ferromagnet/oxide interface in [Pt/Fe]{sub 3}/MgO and [Pt/Fe]{sub 3}/SiO{sub 2} multilayers before and after annealing were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results show that Fe atoms at the Fe/MgO interface were completely oxidized in the as-grown state and significantly deoxidized after vacuum annealing. However, only some of the Fe atoms at the Fe/SiO{sub 2} interface were oxidized and rarely deoxidized after annealing. The anomalous Hall effect was modified by this interfacial chemical reaction. The saturation anomalous Hall resistance (R{sub xy}) was greatly increased in the [Pt/Fe]{sub 3}/MgO multilayers after annealing and was 350% higher than that in the as-deposited film, while R{sub xy} of the [Pt/Fe]{sub 3}/SiO{sub 2} multilayer only increased 10% after annealing.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

(Ga,Fe)Sb: A p-type ferromagnetic semiconductor

A p-type ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga{sub 1−x},Fe{sub x})Sb (x = 3.9%–13.7%) has been grown by low-temperature molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on GaAs(001) substrates. Reflection high energy electron diffraction patterns during the MBE growth and X-ray diffraction spectra indicate that (Ga,Fe)Sb layers have the zinc-blende crystal structure without any other crystallographic phase of precipitates. Magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopy characterizations indicate that (Ga,Fe)Sb has the zinc-blende band structure with spin-splitting induced by s,p-d exchange interactions. The magnetic field dependence of the MCD intensity and anomalous Hall resistance of (Ga,Fe)Sb show clear hysteresis, demonstrating the presence of ferromagnetic order. The Curie temperature (T{sub C}) increases with increasing x and reaches 140 K at x = 13.7%. The crystal structure analyses, magneto-transport, and magneto-optical properties indicate that (Ga,Fe)Sb is an intrinsic ferromagnetic semiconductor.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗