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Time-resolved scanning Kerr microscopy (TRSKM) was used to study precessional magnetization dynamics induced by a radio frequency (RF) current within a Al2O3/Py(5 nm)/Pt(6 nm)/Au(150 nm) spin Hall nano-oscillator structure. The Au layer was formed into two needle-shaped electrical contacts that concentrated the current in the center of a Py/Pt mesa of 4 mu m diameter. Due to the spin Hall effect, current within the Pt layer drives a spin current into the Py layer, exerting a spin transfer torque (STT). By injecting RF current and exploiting the phase sensitivity of TRSKM and the symmetry of the device structure, the STT and Oersted field torques have been separated and spatially mapped. The STT and torque due to the in-plane Oersted field are observed to exhibit minima at the device center that is ascribed to spreading of RF current that is not observed for DC current. Torques associated with the RF current may destabilize the position of the self-localized bullet mode excited by the DC current and inhibit injection locking. The present study demonstrates the need to characterize both DC and RF current distributions carefully., QC 20190121

Time-resolved scanning Kerr microscopy has been used to directly image the magnetization dynamics of nanocontact (NC) spin-torque vortex oscillators (STVOs) when phase locked to an injected microwave (rf) current. The Kerr images reveal free-layer magnetization dynamics that extend outside the NC footprint, where they cannot be detected electrically, but which are crucial to phase-lock STVOs that share common magnetic layers. For a single NC, dynamics were observed not only when the STVO frequency was fully locked to that of the rf current, but also for a partially locked state characterized by periodic changes in the core trajectory at the rf frequency. For a pair of NCs, we explore the correlation between the spatial character of injection-locked dynamics and the free-running spectra. Insight gained from these images may improve understanding of the conditions required for mutual phase locking of multiple STVOs, and hence enhanced microwave power emission., QC 20160914