Letter abstract
Nature Physics 4, 368 - 372 (2008)
Published online: 13 April 2008 | doi:10.1038/nphys936
Subject Categories: Condensed-matter physics | Nanotechnology | Materials physics
Probing vortex-core dynamics using current-induced resonant excitation of a trapped domain wall
Rai Moriya1, Luc Thomas1, Masamitsu Hayashi1, Yaroslaw B. Bazaliy2, Charles Rettner1 & Stuart S. P. Parkin1
Magnetic domain walls in soft magnetic nanowires often exhibit a structure in which the magnetization curls within the plane of the nanowire around a singular point with out-of-plane magnetization, the vortex core1, 2. Although the core is a small object, with a diameter of only 
10 nm in permalloy2, its motion controls the dynamics of the entire wall, which can be several hundred nanometres in size. In particular, when a domain wall trapped at a pinning site is driven out of equilibrium by either a magnetic field or a spin-polarized current, the vortex core gyrates around its equilibrium position. The sense of gyration is determined by the polarity of the core3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Here, we show that spin-polarized a.c. currents can resonantly excite a vortex domain wall trapped at a notched site in a nanowire. The shape and magnitude of the resonance, measured from the nanowire's resistance, reveal both the elliptical trajectory of the vortex core as well as its polarity.
- IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, California 95120, USA
- University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA
Correspondence to: Stuart S. P. Parkin1 e-mail: parkin@almaden.ibm.com
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