Search

Antiferromagnetically coupled (AFC) magnetic bilayer is a candidate media structure for high-density magnetic recording. Because the stray fields from the two magnetic layers of the AFC bilayer cancel each other out, switching field distribution originating from the stray fields from the adjacent data bits can be suppressed. Furthermore, in microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR), which utilizes ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) excitation in a microwave field to reverse a high-anisotropy magnetic material, AFC media can suppress the distribution in FMR frequency originating from the stray fields and improve MAMR performance. In this study, we fabricate an AFC magnetic bilayer consisting of two Co/Pt multilayers with perpendicular magnetization. We use anomalous-Hall-effect-FMR in combination with a circularly polarized microwave field and carry out layer-selective analysis of FMR excitation of the two magnetic layers. We then investigate the switching behavior of an AFC bilayer nanodot in a microwave magnetic field. The switching field decreases with increasing microwave field frequency and increases abruptly at the critical frequency, and a large switching field reduction by applying a microwave field is demonstrated. This switching behavior is similar to that of a single-layer perpendicular magnetic nanodot, showing that the AFC structure does not hinder the microwave assist effect.

We study the magnetization dynamics of a spin-torque oscillator (STO) and a magnetic dot coupled by a magnetic dipolar field using micromagnetic simulation with the aim of developing a read method in magnetic recording that uses magnetic resonance. We propose an STO with a perpendicularly magnetized free layer and an in-plane-magnetized fixed layer as a suitable STO for this resonance read method. When the oscillation frequency of the STO is near the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) frequency of the magnetic dot, the oscillation amplitude of the STO decreases because FMR excited in the magnetic dot causes additional dissipation. To estimate the read rate of the resonance read method, we study the transient magnetization dynamics to the coupled oscillation state from an initial state where the STO is in a free-running state and the magnetic dot is in a stationary stable state. The STO shows transient dynamics within a time scale of 1 ns, which means that the STO can perform resonance reading with a response t...

We propose Ising-machines composed of magnetic neurons, that is, magnetic bits in a recording track. In large-scale machines, the sizes of both neurons and synapses need to be reduced, and neat and smart connections among neurons are also required to achieve all-to-all connectivity among them. These requirements can be fulfilled by adopting magnetic recording technologies such as race-track memories and skyrmion tracks because the area of a magnetic bit is almost two orders of magnitude smaller than that of static random access memory, which has normally been used as a semiconductor neuron, and the smart connections among neurons are realized by using the read and write methods of these technologies.

We study microwave-assisted magnetization switching (MAS) of a perpendicularly magnetized nanomagnet with a diameter of 50 nm in a circularly polarized microwave magnetic field. The MAS effect appears when the rotation direction of the microwave field matches that of the ferromagnetic resonance excitation, and a large switching field decrease from 7.1 kOe to 1.5 kOe is demonstrated. In comparison with a linearly polarized microwave magnetic field, the circularly polarized microwave field induces the same MAS effect at half the microwave field amplitude, thereby showing its efficiency. We also examine MAS in the subnanosecond region and show that the magnetization switching can be induced by a microwave field with the duration of 0.2 ns.

We demonstrate microwave-assisted magnetization switching of a perpendicular magnetic nanodot in a microwave stray field from a spin-torque oscillator (STO). The switching field decreases when the STO is operated by applying a current. The switching field reduction is almost the same as that in a microwave magnetic field generated by a signal generator despite the fluctuations of the STO oscillation. The switching field distribution, however, is broader when the STO is used. We also examine the magnetization switching process in the nanosecond region by applying a nanosecond-order pulse current to the STO and measuring the STO signal waveform. The onset of the STO oscillation and subsequent assisted switching occur within a few nanoseconds.

Synchronized magnetization motion among the several magnetic layers composing a spin-torque oscillator (STO) is considered an effective way to improve spectral purity. To utilize this scheme in a MgO-based STO, we have fabricated a dual free-layer STO composed of a CoFeB free layer (FL), a MgO barrier layer, and a CoFe/Ru/CoFeB synthetic ferrimagnet free layer (SyF). Unlike conventional MgO-based STOs, this structure does not have an antiferromagnetic layer that pins the SyF, leading to a large-amplitude oscillation of magnetization in the SyF. The dual free-layer STO exhibits coherent microwave emissions with power spectrum density beyond 800 nW/GHz and narrow spectral linewidth below 5 MHz (Q-factor ≈ 2000). Macrospin simulations confirm that the stable oscillations originate from the synchronized magnetization motion of the FL and the SyF through dynamical dipolar coupling.

The fundamental function of any oscillator is to produce a waveform with a stable frequency. Here, we show a method of frequency stabilization for spin-torque nano-oscillators (STNOs) that relies on coupling with an adjacent nanomagnet through the magnetic dipole–dipole interaction. It is numerically demonstrated that highly stable oscillations occur as a result of mutual feedback between an STNO and a nanomagnet. The nanomagnet acts as a nonlinear resonator for the STNO. This method is based on the nonlinear behavior of the resonator and can be considered as a magnetic analogue of an optimization scheme in nanoelectromechanical systems. The oscillation frequency is most stabilized when the nanomagnet is driven at a special feedback point at which the feedback noise between the STNO and resonator is completely eliminated.

We fabricate perpendicular magnetic recording media comprising two antiferromagnetically coupled Co/Pt multilayers and investigate its magnetic properties by ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurement. In such media, the magnetizations of the two perpendicular magnets are designed to compensate each other in the remanent state in order to reduce the dipolar field, which is a limiting factor in high-density magnetic recording devices. We measure FMR absorption spectra of the media and estimate the magnetic anisotropy and interlayer exchange coupling. We also demonstrate that FMR measurement can be employed to read out the magnetization direction. The principles behind this readout method are different from those behind the conventional method of detecting the stray field from the media by means of a magnetoresistive sensor; therefore, the proposed readout method is applicable to magnetic recording media having zero remanent magnetization. We expand this readout scheme to three-dimensional magnetic recording with several vertically stacked recording layers. By providing each recording layer with a different FMR frequency, we experimentally confirm that layer selective readout is possible.

Current-induced magnetization excitations are studied for a spin-torque oscillator (STO) composed of a nanopillar with a perpendicular polarizer layer (PL), a MgO barrier layer, and a planar free layer (FL). By applying direct current and perpendicular-to-plane magnetic field, we measure resistance and radio-frequency electrical signal of the STO, which reflect magnetization motions of both PL and FL. Examination of the experimental results reveals that large-cone-angle magnetization oscillation occurs in the FL regardless of the current direction, whereas the PL magnetization shows principally either synchronized excitation with the FL oscillation or thermal-induced ferromagnetic resonance (FMR), depending on the current direction. Utilizing macrospin simulations, we show that hybridization of the excitation modes of the PL and FL through mutual dipolar field explains the magnetization dynamics. When the current flows from the PL to the FL, large-cone-angle oscillation of the FL magnetization occurs with the same rotation direction as that of FMR of the PL magnetization, leading to emergence of the synchronized excitation modes. On the other hand, when the current flows from the FL to the PL, the magnetization motions of the two layers have opposite rotation directions, and consequently, the PL and FL show their respective intrinsic excitation modes.

Spin-torque-induced excitations are numerically analyzed for an MgO-based magnetic tunnel junction nanopillar composed of a CoFe/Ru/CoFeB synthetic ferrimagnetic layer and a CoFeB layer. By performing macrospin simulations, we demonstrate that dynamical coupling between ferromagnetic layers through dipole-dipole interactions has a significant influence on the oscillation modes. In particular, we show that acoustic-like and optical-like oscillation modes established by the dynamical dipolar coupling emerge, depending on the in-plane bias field. The optical-like oscillation mode is stable under a wider current range than the acoustic-like one.

A read head composed of a spin-torque oscillator (STO) has been proposed for a hard disk drive (HDD). The STO read head senses the media field as modulation in its oscillation frequency, enabling high signal-transfer rate beyond the limit of ferromagnetic relaxation. Although frequency stability of STOs is poor because of their frequency nonlinearity, the problem of poor stability is expected to be overcome by employing delay detection. In this study, we demonstrate delay detection of the STO signals frequency-modulated by nanosecond-pulsed magnetic fields. For pulses with duration time of 1, 3, and 5 ns, we show that the phase shifts Δφ of the STO signals induced by the pulsed magnetic field are approximately proportional to the pulse area. Furthermore, output signals of delay detection are calculated using the single-shot waveforms, which show distinct pulsed forms corresponding to the respective pulsed magnetic fields.

We report a time domain study of the frequency transition of spin-torque oscillator (STO) under the magnetic-field pulse in nanosecond range. We fabricated the pillar-structured STO devices consisting of MgO-based tunnel junctions with CoFeB free layers. Single-shot waveforms of the STO were obtained using a real-time oscilloscope (40 GS/sec). First, we measured current dependence of the waveform to investigate the time-domain stability of the oscillation. With the increase in the dc current applied to the STO, the oscillation state changed continuously in the following order: thermal fluctuation, intermittent unsteady oscillation, steady oscillation, and chaotic oscillation. Next, we measured the response of the STO to the magnetic-field pulse with a rise time of 0.5 ns, a duration time of 10 ns, and an amplitude of 60 Oe. In this measurement, the oscillation state was kept in the above-mentioned steady state with the frequency ∼3.5 GHz and the spectral linewidth ∼50 MHz. In the presence of the magnetic-...

An application of spin-torque oscillators (STOs) to high-signal-transfer-rate read heads beyond 3 Gbits/s is considered and the signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the output signals under the thermal magnetization fluctuations are calculated by using the results of recent nonlinear theories. The STO head senses the media field as a modulation in the oscillation frequency, enabling high signal transfer rates beyond the limit of ferromagnetic relaxation. The output (digital) signal is obtained by frequency modulation (FM) detection, which is commonly used in communication technologies. As the problem of rapid phase diffusion in nonlinear STOs caused by the thermal fluctuations is overcome by employing a delay detection method, the sufficiently large SNRs are obtained even in nonlinear STOs less than 30×30 nm2 in size.

Angular dependence of power spectra is measured for tunnel-type spin-transfer oscillators by changing the direction of the external field in the plane. The oscillation frequency shows the red shift with increasing the current in the case that the field directions are away from the hard axis of the free layer. The frequency shift changes from red to blue at a specific direction near the hard axis, where the linewidth is much reduced. These results are explained by taking into account the nonlinearity arising from the in-plane anisotropy as well as that arising from the demagnetizing effect.