Magnetoelastic Anisotropy Research Articles

Tensile stress and low temperature influence changes in geometry of propagating domain wall in magnetic glass-coated bistable microwires

Dynamics of magnetic domain walls in bistable glass-coated microwires under the influence of axial tensile stress and temperature are studied. Recent work dealing with domain wall geometry confirmed that increased damping of domain wall motion results in shortening of the wall. Results of further research into the effects of applied axial tensile stress and low temperature on domain wall geometry are presented. Magnetoelastic anisotropy changes in microwire samples due to applied tensile stress showed additional voltage peaks in induced signals from the pick-up coil, representing local increase in domain wall velocity. This local velocity increase appears to contradict pinning center predictions.

Electric-Field Control of Magnetoresistance Behavior in a Conetic Alloy Thin Film/Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3 Multiferroic Heterostructure

In this work, we investigate the influence of electric fields (E-fields) on the room-temperature magnetotransport behavior of an artificial multiferroic heterostructure, a Conetic alloy (Ni77Fe14Cu5Mo4) thin film/Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3 (011). When the external magnetic field is parallel to the applied current, the switching field increases from 0.8 to 3.3 Oe at 0 and 8 kV/cm, respectively, and the corresponding magnetoresistance (MR) ratio at 20 Oe respectively decreases from 0.14% to 0.03% at 0 and 8 kV/cm. However, when the external magnetic field is perpendicular to the current, the switching field decreases from 10.1 to 1.7 Oe at 0 and 8 kV/cm, and the MR ratio in such a case decreases from −0.001% to −0.10%, respectively. Consequently, under the parallel and perpendicular modes, the tunabilities of the switching field are approximately +313% and −83%, and the MR ratio tunabilities under E-fields are approximately −79% and +9,900%, respectively. Such a large and anisotropic tunability of both the switching field and MR ratio is attributed to the ultrasoft magnetic property of the Conetic alloy thin film and anisotropic in-plane strain-mediated magnetoelectric coupling. However, the anisotropic MR ratio is approximately 0.15% and does not vary with the applied E-fields owing to the intrinsic property of Conetic thin films using transfer and circle transfer curve measurements, rather than the magnetization rotation caused by E-field-induced magnetoelastic anisotropy. This work demonstrates that multiferroic heterostructures with electrically tunable MR show considerable potential in designing energy-efficient electronic and spintronic devices.

Structural and magnetic asymmetry at the interfaces of MgO/FeCoB/MgO trilayer: Precise study under x-ray standing wave conditions

Magnetic tunnel junctions based on FeCoB as a magnetic electrode and MgO as a tunneling barrier gained much attention because of their applications in random access memories and magnetic sensors in disk drives. In this work, the structural and magnetic properties of the MgO/FeCoB/MgO trilayer have been studied precisely under x-ray standing wave (XSW) conditions, where XSW is generated through a high-density (Pt) waveguide structure. The combined x-ray scattering and fluorescence data obtained under XSW conditions revealed the formation of a high-density FeCoB layer at the MgO/FeCoB interface (FeCoB-on-MgO) in the as-deposited trilayer. Diffusion of B from the FeCoB layer into MgO is attributed to the formation of Fe- and Co-rich high-density layer (B-deficient FeCoB layer) at the interface. Angular-dependent magnetism of the trilayer structure revealed the presence of in-plane magnetic anisotropy (IMA), which disappeared with thermal annealing at a temperature of 450 °C. Stress in B-deficient FeCoB layer at the interface is attributed to the origin of IMA through magneto-elastic anisotropy energy minimization. The disappearance of anisotropy after annealing is mainly due to the removal of long-range stress and the formation of crystalline bcc-FeCo phase.

Enhancing Converse Magnetoelectric Coupling Through Strain Engineering in Artificial Multiferroic Heterostructures.

Magnetoelectric materials present a unique opportunity for electric field-controlled magnetism. Even though strain-mediated multiferroic heterostructures have shown unprecedented increase in magnetoelectric coupling compared to single-phase materials, further improvements must be made before ultra-low power memory, logic, magnetic sensors, and wide spectrum antennas can be realized. This work presents how magnetoelectric coupling can be enhanced by simultaneously exploiting multiple strain engineering approaches in heterostructures composed of Fe0.5Co0.5/Ag multilayers on (011) Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 piezoelectric crystals. When grown and measured under strain, these heterostructures exhibit an effective converse magnetoelectric coefficient in the order of 10-5 s m-1: the highest directly measured, non-resonant value to-date. This response occurred at room temperature and at low electric fields (<2 kV cm-1). This large effect is enabled by magnetization reorientation caused by changing the magnetic anisotropy with strain from the substrate and the use of multilayered magnetic materials to minimize the internal stress from deposition. Additionally, the coercive field dependence of the magnetoelectric response under strain suggests contributions from domain-mediated magnetization switching modified by voltage-induced magnetoelastic anisotropy. This work highlights how multicomponent strain engineering enables enhanced magnetoelectric coupling in heterostructures and provides an approach to realize energy-efficient magnetoelectric applications.

Strain-driven magnetic domain wall dynamics controlled by voltage in multiferroic heterostructures

Magnetic domain walls (DWs) have significants application potential as information carriers in the construction of novel high-density, high-speed spintronics devices. In this study, the fully coupled micro-magnetic-mechanical finite element method (FEM) was used to demonstrate the behaviour of DW dynamics under voltage-modulated magnetoelastic anisotropy via piezostrain transfer in ferromagnetic (FM)/piezoelectric (PE) multiferroic heterostructures. Continuous and long-distance high-speed DW-motion could be realized in the ferromagnetic layer by utilizing a voltage switching on the piezoelectric layer without applying magnetic fields or spin-polarization currents. Numerical simulations demonstrate that this system has low energy consumption of 1.215fJ for every shift operation and high speed with an average velocity of 234.4m/s when applying a 0.5volts under continuous and long-distance DW motion. This performance can be further improved by optimizing the structural design and material selection. The design and analysis results in this study provide a new and effective method to realize low-power consumption and high-speed spin logic devices based on magnetic DWs.

Structural relaxation in metastable magnetic submicronic wires

Changes triggered by low temperature metastable relaxation annealing in the peculiar magnetic behavior of rapidly solidified submicronic amorphous wires are reported. The overall aim was to understand the effects of the associated stress relief process on magnetization switching and magnetic domain wall propagation in these low dimensional amorphous wires with cylindrical symmetry. The results have shown that, even though the employed relatively low annealing temperatures did not initiate any crystallization, i.e., the amorphous state has been preserved, the consequences in terms of magnetic behavior are significant, with important variations in both magnetic switching field and domain wall velocity values. The observed modifications have been interpreted based on the interplay between the magnetoelastic and magnetostatic anisotropies within the submicronic amorphous wires, as well as on the complex changes in the underlying nonlinear stress distribution generated by the rapid solidification process. The outcomes of this investigation, alongside the general framework for their explanation, have unraveled novel ways of accurately tailoring and controlling the magnetic characteristics of the amorphous submicronic wires for developing new applications in sensors and domain wall logic devices, in which rapid switching and fast domain walls can make an important impact.

Annealing Temperature and Thickness Dependencies of Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy and Dzyaloshinskii– Moriya Interaction of Pt/Co/MgO Thin Films

Effects of the ferromagnetic layer thickness and annealing temperature were studied in Pt-/Co-/MgO-based systems grown on thermally oxidized Si substrates using magnetron sputtering system. The Co thicknesses were varied in the range of 1–6 nm and the samples were annealed <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ex situ</i> at 200 °C, 300 °C, and 400 °C. Vibrating sample magnetometry was used to determine the magnetization at saturation and the magnetic dead layer thickness that were found to be insignificantly affected by the annealing. Brillouin light scattering, in Damon–Eshbach configuration, was used to measure the thermally excited spin wave (SW) frequencies versus the in-plane applied magnetic field and the SW vector which were used to investigate the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and interfacial Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (iDMI), respectively. The Co effective thickness dependence of the effective magnetization ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M_{\mathrm {eff}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ), which provides information on the PMA constants, shows the existence of two linear regimes with different slopes due to misfit strain-induced magnetoelastic anisotropy contributions to volume and surface terms. The volume magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant increases monotonously with annealing temperature, whereas the pure surface (Néel type) constant increases with annealing up to 300 °C and degrades at 400 °C. The surface iDMI constant decreases with increasing annealing temperature and no obvious correlation with interface PMA constant has been found, suggesting different interfaces contribution to PMA and iDMI.

Magnetocaloric effect in Gd microwires

In Gd microwires obtained by ultrafast cooling of the melt, a change in the magnetic entropy of 12 J/kg K was determined at a Curie temperature of 293 K in a magnetic field of 5 T. This value coincides with the change in the magnetic part of the entropy in bulk single-crystal samples in the same field. It has been found that in a strong magnetic field of 9 T, the temperature dependence of the entropy exhibits two maxima at temperatures of 292 and 312 K. The appearance of an additional entropy maximum in microstructured samples is caused by high mechanical microstresses retained in the sample after ultrafast cooling. Keywords: microwires, magnetic entropy, magnetoelastic anisotropy, Curie temperature.

Stress-induced modification of gyration dynamics in stacked double-vortex structures studied by micromagnetic simulations

In this paper, using micromagnetic simulations, we investigate the stress-induced frequency tunability of double-vortex nano-oscillators comprising magnetostrictive and non-magnetostrictive ferromagnetic layers separated vertically by a non-magnetic spacer. We show that the relative orientations of the vortex core polarities p 1 and p 2 have a strong impact on the eigen-frequencies of the dynamic modes. When the two vortices with antiparallel polarities have different eigen-frequencies and the magnetostatic coupling between them is sufficiently strong, the stress-induced magnetoelastic anisotropy can lead to the single-frequency resonant gyration mode of the two vortex cores. Additionally, for the case of parallel polarities, we demonstrate that for sufficiently strong magnetostatic coupling, the magnetoelastic anisotropy leads to the coupled vortex gyration in the chaotic regime and to the lateral separation of the vortex core trajectories. These findings offer a path for achieving a fine control over gyration frequencies and trajectories in vortex-based oscillators via adjustable elastic stress, which can be easily generated and tuned electrically, mechanically or optically.

Structure–Property Relationships for Weak Ferromagnetic Perovskites

Despite several decades of active experimental and theoretical studies of rare-earth orthoferrites, the mechanism of the formation of their specific magnetic, magnetoelastic, optical, and magneto-optical properties remains a subject of discussion. This paper provides an overview of simple theoretical model approaches to quantitatively describing the structure–property relationships—in particular, the interplay between FeO6 octahedral deformations/rotations and the main magnetic and optic characteristics, such as Néel temperature, overt and hidden canting of magnetic sublattices, magnetic and magnetoelastic anisotropy, and optic and photoelastic anisotropy.

Matteucci Effect and Single Domain Wall Propagation in Bistable Microwire under Applied Torsion

Systematic experimental results on the Matteucci effect in torsioned magnetostrictive FeSiB microwire are introduced, observed during the propagation of a single domain wall (DW) under the action of axial driving magnetic field, Hdr. These data are discussed, reviewing current bibliography models and proposing new perspectives. The unidirectional DW velocity is quantified by voltage induced in tiny pickup coils along the microwire. The Matteucci electromotive force (emf) induced between the microwire's ends is associated with depinning and annihilation of the DW, introducing a new method to measure DW velocity. The emf amplitude is proportional to the DW velocity and the time derivative of the azimuthal magnetization, tailored by applied torsion. The data confirm the existence of net values of azimuthal magnetization and spontaneous torsion induced during fabrication. The clockwise/counterclockwise applied torsion dependence of Matteucci emf and DW velocity are experimentally determined for parallel and antiparallel Hdr. Asymmetric behaviors are observed for both, the sense of applied torsion and the direction of Hdr. The experimental data are discussed in terms of the magnetoelastic anisotropy introduced by torsion. Through analysis of the DW dynamics, such asymmetric behaviors are interpreted as a magnetochiral effect derived from the change of chirality of the propagating wall.

Electric-field-assisted non-volatile magnetic switching in a magnetoelectronic hybrid structure

SummaryElectric-field (E-field) control of magnetic switching provides an energy-efficient means to toggle the magnetic states in spintronic devices. The angular tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of an magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ)/PMN-PT magnetoelectronic hybrid indicates that the angle-dependent switching fields of the free layer can decrease significantly subject to the application of an E-field. In particular, the switching field along the major axis is reduced by 59% from 28.0 to 11.5 Oe as the E-field increases from 0 to 6 kV/cm, while the TMR ratio remains intact. The switching boundary angle decreases (increases) for the parallel (antiparallel) to antiparallel (parallel) state switch, resulting in a shrunk switching window size. The non-volatile and reversible 180° magnetization switching is demonstrated by using E-fields with a smaller magnetic field bias as low as 11.5 Oe. The angular magnetic switching originates from competition among the E-field-induced magnetoelastic anisotropy, magnetic shape anisotropy, and Zeeman energy, which is confirmed by micromagnetic simulations.

Bringing flexibility to giant magnetoresistive sensors directly grown onto commercial polymeric foils

The emergence of augmented reality, robotics and point-of-care biosensors has pushed forward the frontiers of compliant sensors with mechanical resilience and capability of being arbitrarily shaped upon demand. Here, we report exchange-biased spin valve structures directly fabricated on 25 μm thick commercial polymeric substrates. Linear electrical response with low coercivity was demonstrated for sensors grown on polymers. Despite the higher roughness of polymers ≃0.75 nm, a Néel coupling field comparable to that of samples grown on conventional SiO2 substrates was shown. Nevertheless, significant changes in the linear range of polymeric samples were observed, together with changes in the shift of the transfer curve. The measurements also indicate deviations from fully orthogonal magnetization orientation achieved in patterned linear sensors. Such results were ascribed to the presence of a non-negligible magnetostrictive component, most likely due to residual mechanical stress in the sensor's free- and pinned-layers. To support the study, a macrospin model was developed, considering the magnetoelastic anisotropy, to address in particular the impact of mechanical stress on final sensor output.

Surface acoustic wave assisted depinning of magnetic domain walls

We investigate the effects of high frequency strain on the depinning of magnetic domain walls in perpendicular anisotropy materials. Micron wide stripes of [Co(0.3 nm)/Pt(0.6 nm)]5 are patterned between a pair of identical inter-digital transducers that generate high frequency (114.8 MHz) standing surface acoustic waves. We use magneto-optical Kerr effect microscopy to characterize the thermally-assisted depinning of domain walls at defect sites within the strips. Our results show that the excitation of the domain walls with surface acoustic waves results in an increase in their depinning probabilities by approximately a factor of 10. Our data are consistent with a model in which the magnetoelastic anisotropies induced by the acoustic waves modulate the energy barriers that pin the domain walls. These results suggest an alternative route to domain wall depinning in thin films and nanostructures and are relevant to the development of racetrack memories, where domain wall pinning can result in reduced velocities and non-deterministic motion.

High Figure of Merit Magneto‐Optical Ce‐ and Bi‐Substituted Terbium Iron Garnet Films Integrated on Si

AbstractFilms of polycrystalline terbium iron garnet (TbIG), cerium‐substituted TbIG (CeTbIG), and bismuth‐substituted TbIG (BiTbIG) are grown on Si substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The films grow under tensile strain due to thermal mismatch with the Si substrate, resulting in a dominant magnetoelastic anisotropy which, combined with shape anisotropy, leads to in‐plane magnetization. TbIG has a compensation temperature of 253 K which is reduced by substitution of Ce and Bi. The Faraday rotation at 1550 nm of the TbIG, Ce0.36TbIG, and Bi0.03TbIG films is 5400 ± 600° cm−1, 4500 ± 100° cm–1, and 6200 ± 300° cm−1, respectively, while Ce0.36TbIG and Bi0.03TbIG exhibit lower optical absorption than TbIG, attributed to a reduction in Fe2+ and Tb4+ absorption pathways. The high Faraday rotation of the films, and in particular the high magneto‐optical figure of merit of the Bi0.03TbIG of 720° dB−1 at 1550 nm, make these polycrystalline films valuable for applications in integrated photonics.

Effect of Si/B ratio on magnetic properties and microstructure of FeSiBNbCuAl nanocrystalline alloys

The effect of Si/B ratio on the magnetic properties, microstructure, magnetic domain structure, and crystallization kinetics of Fe77Si10+xB9-xNb2Cu1Al1 (x=0, 1, 2 at%) nanocrystalline alloys has been investigated. The slight increase in Si/B ratio has minimal effect on the saturation magnetization of the alloys, but effectively increases the permeability and decreases the coercivity in a wide annealing temperature range. Substituting 2% Si for B significantly increases the activation energy of α-Fe(Si) growth and Fe3B precipitation, leading to the formation of uniform, fine and stable α-Fe(Si) grains. This structure is beneficial to reduce the magnetocrystalline anisotropy and magnetoelastic anisotropy of the alloy, and form wide and smooth-moving magnetic domains, thus significantly improving the soft magnetic properties.

Electronic Surveillance and Security Applications of Magnetic Microwires

Applications in security and electronic surveillance require a combination of excellent magnetic softness with good mechanical and anticorrosive properties and low dimensionality. We overviewed the feasibility of using glass-coated microwires for electronic article surveillance and security applications, as well as different routes of tuning the magnetic properties of individual microwires or microwire arrays, making them quite attractive for electronic article surveillance and security applications. We provide the routes for tuning the hysteresis loops’ nonlinearity by the magnetostatic interaction between the microwires in the arrays of different types of amorphous microwires. The presence of neighboring microwire (either Fe- or Co-based) significantly affects the hysteresis loop of the whole microwires array. In a microwires array containing magnetically bistable microwires, we observed splitting of the initially rectangular hysteresis loop with a number of Barkhausen jumps correlated with the number of magnetically bistable microwires. Essentially, nonlinear and irregular hysteresis loops have been observed in mixed arrays containing Fe- and Co-rich microwires. The obtained nonlinearity in hysteresis loops allowed to increase the harmonics and tune their magnetic field dependencies. On the other hand, several routes allowing to tune the switching field by either postprocessing or modifying the magnetoelastic anisotropy have been reviewed. Nonlinear hysteresis loops have been also observed upon devitrification of amorphous microwires. Semihard magnetic microwires have been obtained by annealing of Fe–Pt–Si microwires. The observed unique combination of magnetic properties together with thin dimensions and excellent mechanical and anticorrosive properties provide excellent perspectives for the use of glass-coated microwires for security and electronic surveillance applications.

Magnetoelectric coupling in self-assembled BiFeO3–CoFe2O4 nanocomposites on (110)-LaAlO3 substrates

We describe the magnetic domain structures and magnetoelectric coupling in self-assembled BiFeO3–CoFe2O4 (BFO–CFO) nanocomposite thin films grown on (110)-LaAlO3 substrates, consisting of CFO slab-shaped crystals (nanofins) embedded in a BFO matrix. The nanofins exhibit magnetic single-domain states with in-plane magnetization along their length due to shape and magnetoelastic anisotropies. The piezoresponse of the BFO matrix is affected by applying an in-plane hard axis magnetic field, indicating magnetoelectric coupling within the multiferroic composite. Conversely, an applied electric field leads to the magnetic reversal of a fraction of the nanofins as the strain transferred from the BFO alters the magnetic anisotropy, enabling switching driven by magnetostatic interactions.

Strain-Mediated Giant Magnetoelectric Coupling in a Crystalline Multiferroic Heterostructure.

Multiferroic heterostructures based on the strain-mediated mechanism present ultralow heat dissipation and large magnetoelectric coupling coefficient, two conditions that require endless improvement for the design of fast nonvolatile random access memories with reduced power consumption. This work shows that a structure consisting of a [Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3]0.7-[PbTiO3]0.3 (001) substrate on which a crystalline FeGa(001)/MgO(001) bilayer is deposited exhibits a giant magnetoelectric coupling coefficient of order 15 × 10–6 s m–1 at room temperature. That result is a 2-fold increment over the previous highest value. The spatial orientation of the magnetization vector in the epitaxial FeGa film is switched 90° with the application of electric field. The symmetry of the magnetic anisotropy is studied by the angular dependence of the remanent magnetization, demonstrating that poling the sample generates a switchable uniaxial magnetoelastic anisotropy in the film that overcomes the native low 4-fold magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy. Magnetic force microscopy shows that the switch of the easy axis activates the displacement of domain walls and the domain structures remain stable after that point. This result highlights the interest in single-crystalline structures including materials with large magnetoelastic coupling and small magnetocrystalline anisotropy for low-energy-consuming spintronic applications.

Dynamical behaviour of ultrathin [CoFeB (tCoFeB)/Pd] films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

CoFeB-based ultrathin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy are promising for different emerging technological applications such as nonvolatile memories with low power consumption and high-speed performance. In this work, the dynamical properties of [CoFeB (tCoFeB)/Pd (10 Å)]5 multilayered ultrathin films (1 Å ≤ tCoFeB ≤ 5 Å) are studied by using two complementary methods: time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect and broadband ferromagnetic resonance. The perpendicular magnetization is confirmed for multilayers with tCoFeB ≤ 4 Å. The effective perpendicular magnetic anisotropy reaches a clear maximum at tCoFeB = 3 Å. Further increase of CoFeB layer thickness reduces the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and the magnetization became in-plane oriented for tCoFeB ≥ 5 Å. This behaviour is explained by considering competing contributions from surface and magnetoelastic anisotropies. It was also found that the effective damping parameter αeff decreases with CoFeB layer thickness and for tCoFeB = 4 Å reaches a value of ~ 0.019 that is suitable for microwave applications.