Search

Electrically controllable non-volatile magnetic memories show great potential for the replacement of semiconductor-based technologies. Recently there has been strong interest in spin-orbit torque (SOT) induced magnetization reversal due to the device's increased lifetime and speed of operation. However, recent SOT switching studies reveal an incubation delay in the ~ns range due to stochasticity in the nucleation of a magnetic domain during reversal. Here, we experimentally demonstrate ultrafast SOT-induced magnetization switching dynamics of a ferromagnet with no incubation delay by avoiding the nucleation process and driving the magnetization coherently. We employ an ultrafast photo-conducting switch and a co-planar strip line to generate and guide ~ps current pulses into the heavy metal/ferromagnet layer stack and induce ultrafast SOT. We use magneto-optical probing to investigate the magnetization switching dynamics with sub-picosecond time resolution. Depending on the relative current pulse and in-plane magnetic field polarities, we observe either an ultrafast demagnetization and subsequent recovery along with a SOT-induced precessional oscillation, or ultrafast SOT switching. The magnetization zero-crossing occurs in ~70 ps, which is approximately an order of magnitude faster than previous studies. Complete switching needs ~250 ps and is limited by the heat diffusion to the substrate. We use a macro-magnetic simulation coupled with an ultrafast heating model to analyze the effect of ultrafast thermal anisotropy torque and current-induced torque in the observed dynamics. Good agreement between our experimental results and the macro-spin model shows that the switching dynamics are coherent and present no noticeable incubation delay. Our work suggests a potential pathway toward dramatically increasing the writing speed of SOT magnetic random-access memory devices., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, Supplemental Material

Bottom-up assembled nanomaterials and nanostructures allow for the studies of rich and unprecedented quantum-related and mesoscopic transport phenomena. However, it can be difficult to quantify the correlations between the geometrical or structural parameters obtained from advanced microscopy and measured electrical characteristics when they are made into macroscopic devices. Here, we propose a strategy to connect the nanomaterial morphologies and the device performance through a Monte Carlo device model and apply it to understand the scaling trends of bottom-up synthesized armchair graphene nanoribbon (GNR) transistors. A new nanofabrication process is developed for GNR transistors with channel length down to 7 nm. The impacts of the GNR spatial distributions and the device geometries on the device performance are investigated systematically through comparison of experimental data with the model. Through this study, challenges and opportunities of transistor technologies based on bottom-up synthesized GNRs are pinpointed, paving the way to the further improvement of the GNR device performance for future transistor technology nodes.

Control of magnetization dynamics is one of the primary goals in spintronics. It has been demonstrated using spin Hall effect i.e charge current to spin current conversion in non-magnetic metal which has large spin-orbit coupling such as Pt, W etc. Recently different groups have shown generation of spin current in Pt, W while thermal gradient is created by virtue of spin Nernst effect. In this work we show the evidence of magnetization control by spin Nernst torque in Pt/Py bi-layer. We compared relative strength of spin Nernst Torque and spin Hall torque by measuring the systematic variation of magnetic linewidth on application of constant heat or charge current. Spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) technique is adopted to excite the magnet and to measure line-width precisely from the symmetric and anti-symmetric voltage component. Control of magnetization dynamics by spin Nernst torque will emerge as an alternative way to manipulate nano-magnets.

Spin current has emerged as a leading candidate for manipulation of spins in a nano-magnet. We here experimentally show another utility of spin current viz. it can be used for generation of phonons. Within the same experimental setup, we also demonstrate the inverse effect of generation of spin current by phonons. To demonstrate them, we measured the scattering-matrix of a two-port device with interdigital transducers as one port and array of Ni/Pt lines as second port on piezoelectric substrate. The off-diagonal elements which correspond to transmission between the ports, were found to have 180 degree relative phase shift. The transmission of electrical signal from port 2 to 1 corresponds to generation of phonons from spin-current, while transmission from port 1 to 2 corresponds to the inverse effect. These results could be useful for designing spin-current based gyrators.

In this article we demonstrate the injection locking of recently demonstrated spintronic feedback nano oscillator to microwave magnetic fields at integers as well fractional multiples of its auto oscillation frequency. Feedback oscillators have delay as a new degree of freedom which is absent for spin-transfer torque based oscillators, which gives rise to side peaks along with a main peak. We show that it is also possible to lock the oscillator on its side band peaks, which opens a new avenue to phase locked oscillators with large frequency differences. We observe that for low driving fields, side band locking improves the quality factor of the main peak, whereas for higher driving fields the main peak is suppressed. Further, measurements at two field angles provide some insight into the role of symmetry of oscillation orbit in determining the fractional locking., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure(Manuscript), 3 figure( supplementary information),Accepted ( Physical Review Applied)

In this work we report observation of in-plane current induced out-of-plane magnetic field driven torque in spin valve structure. Since ferromagnet has high spin orbit coupling it is expected to be the source of spin-orbit-torque as it possesses anomalous-Hall-effect (AHE: equivalent to spin Hall effect in heavy metal). So we have carried out spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) experiment in a spin valve (consists of a fixed magnet and a free magnet which are separated by Cu spacer), passing in-plane radio frequency current and measuring DC voltage. Our experimental results eventually indicate that spin torque exerted on the free magnet is not caused due to the spin current injection by the fixed magnet owing to its AHE, but it is originated from in-plane current driven out-of plane effective magnetic field. This is new class of spin torque which is completely different from Slonczewski-spin transfer torque and Rashba like field like torque. The effective out-of plane magnetic field depends on the direction of current (in-plane) and magnetization (in-plane) of the pinned layer. One possible mechanism behind this unconventional torque could be intefacial spin-scattering which is also origin of current in-plane GMR effect. Most importantly this effective out-of plane torque can be useful to switch out-of plane magnetic bits in spintronic memory application.

In this work report unconventional sign change of field like spin orbit torque in ultra-thin Chromium(1.5nm-5nm)/Nickel(8nm) bi-layer. We performed standard spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) experiment in Cr/Ni bi-layer by passing radio frequency current and measuring DC voltage. We observe that when thickness of Cr layer is critically low (<6nm) spin orbit torque by Cr on Ni significantly increases. Most importantly the sign of field like torque is opposite to the Oersted field generated torque. To verify interracial nature of this torque, 2 nm thin Cu is inserted between Cr and Ni and field like torque behaves same as Oersted field induced torque. Hence possible origin of such unconventional sign change of field like torque could be inter-facial Rashba like spin orbit interaction which is present between Cr and Ni but vanishes in Cr/Cu/Ni hetero-structure. From our experiment we can estimate that approximately 35 Oe of effective Rashba like magnetic field is created on 8 nm thicker Ni layer, when 1E12 A/m^2 current flows through Cr layer. All experiments are done at room temperature. So Cr thin film is expected to behave like paramagnet (Neel temperature of bulk Cr is 311K). Hence Cr can be a good choice as a heavy metal to employ large spin orbit torque combining bulk spin Hall effect and inter-facial Rashba interaction.

Central focus of spintronics is concentrated on generation of pure spin current and associated spin torque. Pure spin current can be generated by spin Hall effect in heavy metals by passing charge current. By spin Seebeck effect pure spin current can also be generated in ferromagnet. In this work we experimentally demonstrate that if heavy metals like Platinum with high spin orbit coupling carry heat current it can convert it into spin current due to relativistic spin orbit interaction. This conversion of heat current into spin current in non magnet is equivalent of thermally driven spin Hall effect or it is known as spin Nernst effect. We observed spin Nernst effect in Ni/Pt bi-layer experimentally and we confirm that when Pt is replaced by low spin orbit material like Al spin Nernst effect significantly reduces. So we have detected spin Nernst effect unambiguously and compare its strength with electrical spin Hall effect.