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A recent observation by Basini [Nature \textbf{628}, 534 (2024)] of a large transient magnetization induced by circularly polarized ferroelectric phonons in SrTiO3 suggests the existence of hitherto unrecognized mechanisms coupling chiral lattice dynamics with electric degrees of freedom. Here, we develop an atomistic tight-binding model demonstrating a possible contribution to this effect arising from the pumping of atomic electron orbital angular momentum of Ti by chiral motion of oxygen atoms coordinating it, and facilitated by the degeneracy of its t2g orbitals allowing unquenched transient orbital moments. The proposed mechanism may be relevant to other materials with orbitally degenerate or quasi-degenerate electron states, and is attractive for efficient orbital moment generation in orbitronic applications without electric currents., Comment: Comments and suggestions are welcome

Both magnetism and spin-orbit coupling in systems with broken inversion symmetry lift the spin degeneracy of electronic bands, but the consequences of interplay between these mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we show that ultrathin transition ferromagnet-heavy metal bilayers exhibit anomalous temperature- and electric bias-dependent behaviors in the vicinity of the Curie temperature, inconsistent with the usual Weiss magnetism. Characterization by several complementary techniques and analysis of the dependence on composition reveal that these effects originate from interfacial spin-orbit interaction, which results in the emergence of a state with distinct magnetic and magnetoelectronic properties that can be described as Rashba magnetism. Our findings open a new route for the characterization and control of spin-orbit phenomena in heterostructures enabling the development of efficient spin-orbitronic devices., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, comments are welcome

SrIrO$_3$ is a metallic complex oxide with unusual electronic and magnetic properties believed to originate from electron correlations due to its proximity to Mott metal-insulator transition. However, the nature of its electronic state and the mechanism of metallic conduction remain poorly understood. We demonstrate that shot noise produced by nanoscale SrIrO$_3$ junctions is strongly suppressed, inconsistent with diffusive quasiparticle transport. Analysis of thermal effects and scaling with the junction length reveals that conduction is mediated by collective hopping of electrons almost localized by correlations. Our results provide insight into the non-Fermi liquid state close to Mott transition, and advance shot noise measurements as a powerful technique for the studies of quantum materials., Comment: Comments are welcome

We show that the interplay between spin-orbit coupling and cubic symmetry breaking in SrTiO3 results in a highly anomalous Zeeman effect of conduction electrons substantially different among the three conduction sub-bands and strongly dependent on their splitting. This effect can be measured via electrically-driven spin resonance enabled by the interplay between electron hopping and spin-orbit coupling, and enhanced by the near-degeneracy of the conduction sub-bands. The proposed effects can provide a unique insight into the electronic properties of SrTiO3 and its heterostructures., Comment: A major error in the calculation of the g-factor is corrected, resulting in a substantial revision of the expected effects. Analysis generalized to an arbitrary sign and magnitude of strain

We develop a two-orbital Hubbard model of electron correlations in ultrathin (111)-oriented fcc films of late transition metals such as Co and Ni. Our model indicates that the Mott-Hund's interaction results in ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor orbital correlations. Frustration associated with the mismatch between orbital and crystal symmetries prevents orbital ordering, resulting in the orbital liquid state. This state can be manifested in phenomena involving spin-orbit coupling, such as magnetic anisotropy., Comment: Manuscript published in Phys. Rev. Materials

We show that the mean-field resonating valence bond approximation proposed in 1987 by Baskaran, Zou, and Anderson describes gapless charge pair excitations confined to the boundaries of the spinon Brillouin zone. The existence of such pairs accounts for all the essential anomalous electronic properties of cuprates, with superconductivity arising due to the charge drag by the spinon superflow. This mechanism may be relevant to other unconventional superconductors., Comment: The submissions of this manuscript to Phys Rev., J. Phys, PSS, Physica C were rejected, this is its only publication record

We utilize the Hubbard model to demonstrate that doping of the antiferromagnetic parent compounds of cuprate superconductors stabilizes a spin liquid state. Superconductivity in such a state emerges due to the spin-orbit coupling between charge current and superfluidity of spinon condensate, resulting in a chiral relation between the order parameter phase gradient and supercurrent. We propose simple experimental tests for the presented mechanism., Comment: A substantial error in the analysis of spin-orbit effects renders the results invalid

We show that the Bloch states in the conduction band of SrTiO$_3$ arise from the interplay between highly anisotropic hopping in sub-bands derived from the Ti $t_{2g}$ orbitals and spin-orbit coupling that mixes these orbitals. Because of the nearly flat-band characteristics for one of the principal axes, at sufficiently high doping these Bloch states become unstable with respect to electron interactions, resulting in Mott-like singlet correlations. These findings may be relevant to the anomalous electronic properties of SrTiO$_3$, including its unusual superconductivity., Comment: Version published in Phys. Rev. B

We utilize a 1d Hubbard model to show that the superconductivity in cuprate superconductors likely arises due to the orbital entanglement between holes in the copper oxide plane mediated by orbitally-selective charge hopping. The main role of doping required to achieve superconductivity in cuprates is to suppress the Mott correlations and orbital ordering. The proposed mechanism explains superconductivity in other unconventional superconductors, and provides guidance in the search for new high-temperature superconductors., Comment: The analysis in this manuscript is not applicable to cuprate superconductors

We study phonons generated by current in a Pt nanowire, by measuring resistance of another nanowire separated from the first one by an insulating spacer. For thin spacers, the resistance varies almost linearly with current at cryogenic temperatures, while an additional quadratic contribution emerges for thicker spacers. These observations suggest a non-thermal distribution of current-generated phonons that relax via strongly nonlinear dynamical processes rather than few-phonon scattering. Our results provide insight into the nonequilibrium phonon dynamics at nanoscale, which may facilitate efficient heat management in electronic nanodevices., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; Comments, including suggestions for missed references, are appreciated

We investigate the ultrafast electron dynamics triggered by terahertz and optical pulses in thin platinum and gold films by probing their transient optical reflectivity. The response of the platinum film to an intense terahertz pulse is similar to the optically-induced dynamics of both films and can be described by a two-temperature model. Surprisingly, gold can exhibit a much smaller terahertz pulse-induced reflectivity change and with opposite sign. For platinum, we estimate a 20% larger electron-phonon coupling for the terahertz-driven dynamics compared to the optically-induced one, which we ascribe to an additional nonthermal electron-phonon coupling contribution. We explain the remarkable response of gold to terahertz radiation with the field emission of electrons due the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling process, in samples with thickness below the structural percolation threshold where near-field enhancement is possible. Our results provide a fundamental insight into the ultrafast processes relevant to modern electro- and magneto-optical applications., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 Table, Supplementary Material

We utilize transverse ac susceptibility measurements to characterize magnetic anisotropy in archetypal exchange-bias bilayers of ferromagnet Permalloy (Py) and antiferromagnet CoO. Unidirectional anisotropy is observed for thin Py, but becomes negligible at larger Py thicknesses, even though the directional asymmetry of the magnetic hysteresis loop remains significant. Additional magnetoelectronic measurements, magneto-optical imaging, as well as micromagnetic simulations show that these surprising behaviors are likely associated with asymmetry of spin flop distribution created in CoO during Py magnetization reversal, which facilitates the rotation of the latter back into its field-cooled direction. Our findings suggest new possibilities for efficient realization of multistable nanomagnetic systems for neuromorphic applications., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. Comments, including suggestions for relevant citations, are welcome

We experimentally demonstrate a proof-of-principle implementation of an almost ideal memristor - a two-terminal circuit element whose resistance is approximately proportional to the integral of the input signal over time. The demonstrated device is based on a thin-film ferromagnet/antiferromagnet bilayer, where magnetic frustration results in viscous magnetization dynamics enabling memristive functionality, while the external magnetic field plays the role of the driving input. The demonstrated memristor concept is amenable to downscaling and can be adapted for electronic driving, making it attractive for applications in neuromorphic circuits., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We utilize simulations of electron scattering by a chain of dynamical quantum spins, to analyze the interplay between the spin transfer effect and the magnetization dynamics. We show that the complex interactions between the spin-polarized electrons and the dynamical states of the local spins can be decomposed into separate processes involving electron reflection and transmission, as well as absorption and emission of magnons - the quanta of magnetization dynamics. Analysis shows that these processes are substantially constrained by the energy and momentum conversation laws, resulting in a significant dependence of spin transfer on the electron's energy and the dynamical state of the local spins. Our results suggest that exquisite control of spin transfer efficiency and of the resulting dynamical magnetization states may be achievable by tailoring the spectral characteristics of the conduction electrons and of the magnetic systems., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

We simulate scattering of electrons by a chain of antiferromagnetically coupled quantum Heisenberg spins, to analyze spin-transfer effects not described by the classical models of magnetism. Our simulations demonstrate efficient excitation of dynamical states that would be forbidden by the semiclassical symmetries, such as generation of multiple magnetic excitation quanta by a single electron. Furthermore, quantum interference of spin wavefunctions enables generation of magnetization dynamics with amplitudes exceeding the transferred magnetic moment. The efficiency of excitation is almost independent of the electron spin polarization, and is governed mainly by the transfer of energy. Non-classical spin transfer may thus enable efficient electronic control of antiferromagnets not limited by the classical constraints., Comment: version accepted by Physical Review Letters

We show that ideal memristors - devices whose resistance is proportional to the charge that flows through them - can be realized using spin torque-driven viscous magnetization dynamics. The latter can be accomplished in the spin liquid state of thin-film heterostructures with frustrated exchange, where memristive response is tunable by proximity to the glass transition, while current-induced Joule heating facilitates nonvolatile operation and second-order memristive functionality beneficial for neuromorphic applications. Ideal memristive behaviors can be achieved in other systems characterized by viscous dynamics of physical, electronic, or magnetic degrees of freedom., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We utilize simulations of spin-polarized electron scattering by a chain of localized quantum spins to show that energy and linear momentum conservation laws impose strong constraints on the properties of magnetic excitations induced by spin transfer. In turn, electron's orbital and spin dynamics depends on the dynamical characteristics of the local spins. Our results suggest the possibility to achieve precise control of spin transfer-driven magnetization dynamics by tailoring the spectral characteristics of the magnetic systems and the driving electrons., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

More than 30 years ago, Malozemoff (Phys. Rev. B 35, 3679 (1987)) hypothesized that exchange interaction at the interface between a ferromagnet (F) and an antiferromagnet (AF) can act as an effective random field, which can profoundly affect the magnetic properties of the system. However, until now this hypothesis has not been directly experimentally tested. We utilize magnetoelectronic measurements to analyze the effective exchange fields at Permalloy/CoO interface. Our results cannot be explained in terms of quasi-uniform effective exchange fields, but are in agreement with the random-field hypothesis of Malozemoff. The presented approach opens a new route for the quantitative analysis of effective exchange fields and anisotropies in magnetic heterostructures for memory, sensing and computing applications., Comment: funding information and a few typos corrected

Large-amplitude magnetization dynamics is substantially more complex compared to the low-amplitude linear regime, due to the inevitable emergence of nonlinearities. One of the fundamental nonlinear phenomena is the nonlinear damping enhancement, which imposes strict limitations on the operation and efficiency of magnetic nanodevices. In particular, nonlinear damping prevents excitation of coherent magnetization auto-oscillations driven by the injection of spin current into spatially extended magnetic regions. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate that nonlinear damping can be controlled by the ellipticity of magnetization precession. By balancing different contributions to anisotropy, we minimize the ellipticity and achieve coherent magnetization oscillations driven by spatially extended spin current injection into a microscopic magnetic disk. Our results provide a novel route for the implementation of efficient active spintronic and magnonic devices driven by spin current.

Sufficiently large electric current applied to metallic nanostructures can bring them far out-of-equilibrium, resulting in non-Ohmic behaviors characterized by current-dependent resistance. We experimentally demonstrate a linear dependence of resistance on current in microscopic thin-film metallic wires at cryogenic temperatures, and show that our results are inconsistent with common non-Ohmic mechanisms such as Joule heating. As the temperature is increased, the linear dependence becomes smoothed out, resulting in the crossover to behaviors consistent with Joule heating. A plausible explanation for the observed behaviors is the strongly non-equilibrium distribution of phonons generated by the current. Analysis based on this interpretation suggests that the observed anomalous current-dependent resistance can provide information about phonon transport and electron-phonon interaction at nanoscale. The ability to control the properties of phonons generated by current can lead to new routes for the optimization of thermal properties of electronic nanodevices., Comment: Version accepted for publication in PRX; 9 pages, 4 figures

A recent preprint arXiv:1807.08572 reported the observation of a transition in Ag/Au nanoparticle composites near room temperature and at ambient pressure, to a vanishingly small four-probe resistance, which was tentatively identified as a percolating superconducting transition. In this brief comment, I point out that a vanishing four-probe resistance may also emerge in non-superconducting systems near conductance percolation threshold., Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures

We utilize variable-temperature, variable-frequency magneto-optical transverse magnetic susceptibility technique to study the static and dynamical magnetic properties of a thin-film CoO/Permalloy bilayer. Our measurements demonstrate that in the studied system, the directional asymmetry of the hysteresis loop is associated mainly with the difference in the reversal mechanisms between the two reversed states of magnetization stabilized by the exchange-induced uniaxial anisotropy. The latter is found to be much larger than the exchange-induced unidirectional anisotropy of the ferromagnet. We also observe an abrupt variation of the frequency-dependent imaginary part of ac susceptibility near the exchange bias blocking temperature, consistent with the magnetic freezing transition inferred from the previous time-domain studies of magnetic aging in similar systems. The developed measurement approach enables precise characterization of the dynamical and static characteristics of thin-film magnetic heterostructures that can find applications in reconfigurable magnonic and neuromorphic circuits., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures

The emerging field of nano-magnonics utilizes high-frequency waves of magnetization - the spin waves - for the transmission and processing of information on the nanoscale. The advent of spin-transfer torque has spurred significant advances in nano-magnonics, by enabling highly efficient local spin-wave generation in magnonic nanodevices. Furthermore, the recent emergence of spin-orbitronics, which utilizes spin-orbit interaction as the source of spin torque, has provided a unique ability to exert spin torque over spatially extended areas of magnonic structures, enabling enhanced spin-wave transmission. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that these advances can be efficiently combined. We utilize the same spin-orbit torque mechanism for the generation of propagating spin waves, and for the long-range enhancement of their propagation, in a single integrated nano-magnonic device. The demonstrated system exhibits a controllable directional asymmetry of spin wave emission, which is highly beneficial for applications in non-reciprocal magnonic logic and neuromorphic computing.

We experimentally study magnetization aging in a thin-film NiO/Permalloy bilayer. Aging characteristics are nearly independent of temperature below the exchange bias blocking temperature, but rapidly vary above it. The dependence on the magnetic history qualitatively changes across this temperature. The observed behaviors are consistent with the spin glass transition at the exchange bias blocking temperature, with significant implications for magnetism and magnetoelectronic phenomena in antiferromagnet/ferromagnet bilayers., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We study THz-driven spin dynamics in thin CoPt films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Femtosecond magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements show that demagnetization amplitude of about $1\%$ can be achieved with a peak THz electric field of $300$~kV/cm, and a corresponding peak magnetic field of $0.1$~T. The effect is more than an order of magnitude larger than observed in samples with easy-plane anisotropy irradiated with the same field strength. We also utilize finite-element simulations to design a meta-material structure that can enhance the THz magnetic field by more than an order of magnitude, over an area of several tens of square micrometers. Magnetic fields exceeding $1$~Tesla, generated in such meta-materials with the available laser-based THz sources, are expected to produce full magnetization reversal via ultrafast ballistic precession driven by the THz radiation. Our results demonstrate the possibility of table-top ultrafast magnetization reversal induced by THz radiation., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

We utilize nanoscale spin valves with Pt spacer layers to characterize spin scattering in Pt. Analysis of the spin lifetime determined from our measurements indicates that the extrinsic Elliot-Yafet spin scattering is dominant at room temperature, while the intrinsic Dyakonov-Perel mechanism dominates at cryogenic temperatures. The significance of the latter is supported by the suppression of spin relaxation in Pt layers interfaced with a ferromagnet, likely caused by the competition between the effective exchange and spin-orbit fields., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Spin transfer - the transfer of angular momentum from spin-polarized electrical current to magnetic materials - has been extensively researched as an efficient mechanism for the electronic manipulation of the static and dynamic states in nanomagnetic systems, advancing our understanding of nanomagnetism and electronic transport, and enabling the development of energy-efficient magnetic nanodevices. Our present understanding of spin transfer is based on the classical approximation for the magnetization, even though the spin-polarized electrons mediating spin transfer are treated quantum-mechanically. Here, we utilize a nanoscale magnetic spin-valve structure to demonstrate that quantum zero-point fluctuations of magnetization, neglected in the existing theories of spin transfer, provide the dominant contribution to this effect at cryogenic temperatures, and remain non-negligible even at room temperature. The demonstrated quantum spin transfer (QST) is distinguished by a non-smooth piecewise-linear dependence of the fluctuation intensity on current, and can be driven not only by the directional flows of electrons, but also by their thermal motion. This effect can enhance current-induced phenomena, overcoming the efficiency limitations that are presently perceived as fundamental to the spin transfer mechanism., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

We utilize anisotropic magnetoresistance to study temporal evolution of the magnetization state in epitaxial Ni$_{80}$Fe$_{20}$/Fe$_{50}$Mn$_{50}$ ferromagnet/antiferromagnet bilayers. The resistance exhibits power-law evolution over a wide range of temperatures and magnetic fields, indicating that aging is characterized by a wide range of activation time scales. We show that aging is a cooperative process, i.e. the magnetic system is not a superposition of weakly interacting subsystems characterized by simple Arrhenius activation. The observed effects are reminiscent of avalanches in granular materials, providing a conceptual link to a broad class of critical phenomena in other complex condensed matter systems., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

We study the effects of electrostatic gating on the current-induced phenomena in ultrathin ferromagnet/heavy metal heterostructures. We utilize heterodyne detection and analysis of symmetry with respect to the direction of the magnetic field to separate electric field contributions to the magnetic anisotropy, current-induced field-like torque, and damping torque. Analysis of the electric field effects allows us to estimate the Rashba and the spin Hall contributions to the current-induced phenomena. Electrostatic gating can provide insight into the spin-orbit phenomena, and enable new functionalities in spintronic devices., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We study the spectral characteristics of spin current nano-oscillators based on the Pt/[Co/Ni] magnetic multilayer with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. By varying the applied magnetic field and current, both localized and propagating spin wave modes of the oscillation are achieved. At small fields, we observe an abrupt onset of the modulation sidebands. We use micromagnetic simulations to identify this state as a dynamical magnetic skyrmion stabilized in the active device region by spin current injection, whose current-induced dynamics is accompanied by the gyrotropic motion of the core due to the skew deflection. Our results demonstrate a practical route for controllable skyrmion manipulation by spin current in magnetic thin films., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Physical Review Letters, in press (2015)

We demonstrate that magnetic oscillations of a current-biased magnetic nanocontact can be parametrically excited by a microwave field applied at twice the resonant frequency of the oscillation. The threshold microwave amplitude for the onset of the oscillation decreases with increasing bias current, and vanishes at the transition to the auto-oscillation regime. The parametrically excited oscillation mode is the same as the one in the auto-oscillation regime, enabling studies of both the passive and the active dynamics of the oscillator. Theoretical analysis shows that measurements of parametric excitation provide quantitative information about the relaxation rate, the spin transfer efficiency, and the nonlinearity of the nanomagnetic system., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, a total of 10 panels

We demonstrate that magnetic multilayer nanopillars can be efficiently protected from oxidation by coating with silicon. Both the protected and the oxidized nanopillars exhibit an increase of reversal current at cryogenic temperatures. However the magnetic excitation onset current increases only in the oxidized samples. We show that oxidized nanopillars exhibit anomalous switching statistics at low temperature, providing a simple test for the quality of magnetic nanodevices., Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures

Magnetic nanodevices usually include a free layer whose configuration can be changed by spin-polarized current via the spin transfer effect, and a fixed reference layer. Here, we demonstrate that the roles of the free and the reference layers interchange over a small range of their relative thicknesses. Precession of both layers can be induced by spin transfer in symmetric devices, but the dynamics of one of the layers is rapidly suppressed in asymmetric devices. We interpret our results in terms of the dynamical coupling between magnetic layers due to spin transfer., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

We studied exchange bias in magnetic multilayers incorporating antiferromagent CoO doped with up to 35 atomic percent of Pt. The exchange bias increased with doping in epitaxial films, but did not significantly change in polycrystalline films at the lowest measured temperature of 5 K, and decreased at higher temperatures. We explain our results by the increased granularity of the doped antiferromagnetic films, resulting in simultaneous enhancement of the uncompensated spin density and reduction of the magnetic stability of antiferromagnetic grains.

We demonstrate the predicted out-of-plane precession induced by spin transfer in magnetic nanostructures with in-plane magnetic field. We show that other magnetic excitations have a significant effect on the stability of the out-of plane precession, making it extremely sensitive to the orientation of the applied magnetic field. The data are supported with micromagnetic simulations. Our results elucidate the relation between the excitation spectrum and the specific dynamical behaviors of nanoscale magnets., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We present systematic magnetoelectronic measurements of magnetic nanopillars with different structures of polarizing magnetic layers. The magnetic reversal at small magnetic field, the onset of magnetic dynamics at larger field, and the magnetoresistance exhibit a significant dependence on the type of the polarizing layer. We performed detailed quantitative modeling showing that the differences can be explained by the effects of spin-dependent electron diffusion., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

We study the effects of spin transfer on thermally activated dynamics of magnetic nanopillars with identical thicknesses of the magnetic layers. The symmetric nanopillars exhibit anomalous dependencies of switching statistics on magnetic field and current. We interpret our data in terms of simultaneous current-induced excitation of both layers. We also find evidence for coupling between the fluctuations of the layers due to the spin transfer., Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures

We provide evidence for the effects of spin polarized current on a nanofabricated antiferromagnet incorporated into a spin-valve structure. Signatures of current-induced effects include bipolar steps in differential resistance, current-induced changes of exchange bias correlated with these steps, and deviations from the statistics expected for thermally activated switching of spin valves. We explain our observations by a combination of spin torque exerted on the interfacial antiferromagnetic moments, and electron-magnon scattering in antiferromagnet., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures