Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

An all-metallic logic gate based on current-driven domain wall motion

Nature Nanotechnology volume 3, pages 97–100 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

The walls of magnetic domains can become trapped in a ferromagnetic metallic point contact when the thickness of the film and the width of the contact are less than their critical values1. The discovery that domain walls can be moved from such constrictions by a sufficiently large current has attracted considerable attention from researchers working on both fundamental research and potential applications2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. Here we show that Invar nanocontacts fabricated on silica substrates exhibit a sharp drop in resistance with increasing bias voltage at room temperature in the absence of an applied magnetic field. Moreover, when two nanocontacts are combined in an all-metallic comparison circuit, it is possible to perform logical NOT operations. The use of electrical currents rather than applied magnetic fields to control the domain walls also reduces energy consumption and the risk of crosstalk in devices13,14.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of Invar circuits on silica substrates.
Figure 2: Direct current measurements showing the switching action.
Figure 3: Logic NOT gate circuit and testing results.
Figure 4: Width effects in the a.c. resistance spectra.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Lepadatu, S., Xu, Y. B. & Ahmad, E. Current induced magnetic switching in Ni80Fe20, Ni, Fe, and Co wires. J. Appl. Phys. 97, 10C711 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Yamaguchi, A. et al. Real-space observation of current-driven domain wall motion in submicron magnetic wires. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 077205 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Lepadatu, S. & Xu, Y. B. Direct observation of domain wall scattering in patterned Ni80Fe20 and Ni nanowires by current–voltage measurements. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 127201 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Bagrets, A., Papanikolaou, N. & Mertig, I. Magnetoresistance of atomic-sized contacts: An ab initio study. Phys. Rev. B 70, 064410 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Yamanouchi, M., Chiba, D., Matsukura, F. & Ohno, H. Current-induced domain-wall switching in a ferromagnetic semiconductor structure. Nature 428, 539–542 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Labaye, Y., Berger, L. & Coey, J. M. D. Domain walls in ferromagnetic nanoconstriction. J. Appl. Phys. 91, 5341–5346 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Ono, T. et al. Propagation of a magnetic domain wall in a submicrometer magnetic wire. Science 284, 468–470 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Thomas, L. et al. Oscillatory dependence of current-driven magnetic domain wall motion on current pulse length. Nature 443, 197–200 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Laufenberg, M. et al. Temperature dependence of the spin torque effect in current-induced domain wall motion. Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 046602 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Ohe, J. & Kramer, B. Dynamics of a domain wall and spin-wave excitations driven by a mesoscopic current. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 027204 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Beach, G. S. D., Knutson, C., Nistor, C., Tsoi, M. & Erskine, J. L. Nonlinear domain-wall velocity enhancement by spin-polarized electric current. Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 057203 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Versluijs, J. J., Bari, M. A. & Coey, J. M. D. Magnetoresistance of half-metallic oxide nanocontacts. Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 026601 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Allwood, D. A. et al. Submicrometer ferromagnetic NOT gate and shift register. Science 296, 2003–2006 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Allwood, D. A. et al. Magnetic domain-wall logic. Science 309, 1688–1692 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Saitoh, E., Miyajima, H., Yamaoka, T. & Tatara, G. Current-induced resonance and mass determination of a single magnetic domain wall. Nature 432, 203–206 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Tatara, G. & Kohno, H. Theory of current-driven domain wall motion: spin transfer versus momentum transfer. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 086601 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Dongmin Chen, Enge Wang and Zheng Cui for fruitful discussions. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no.90406024-1), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (grant nos 2006CB933000 and 2006AA03Z402) and the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100080, China

    Peng Xu, Ke Xia, Changzhi Gu, Ling Tang, Haifang Yang & Junjie Li

Authors
  1. Peng Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ke Xia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Changzhi Gu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ling Tang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Haifang Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Junjie Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

C.G. and K.X. conceived and designed the experiments. P.X., H.Y. and J.L. performed the experiments. C.G., K.X., P.X. and L.T. analysed the data. C.G., P.X. and K.X. co-wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ke Xia or Changzhi Gu.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary information and supplementary figures S1–S3 (PDF 715 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Xu, P., Xia, K., Gu, C. et al. An all-metallic logic gate based on current-driven domain wall motion. Nature Nanotech 3, 97–100 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2008.1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2008.1

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing