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Current-controlled propagation of spin waves in antiparallel, coupled domains

Nature Nanotechnology volume 14, pages 691–697 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Spin waves may constitute key components of low-power spintronic devices. Antiferromagnetic-type spin waves are innately high-speed, stable and dual-polarized. So far, it has remained challenging to excite and manipulate antiferromagnetic-type propagating spin waves. Here, we investigate spin waves in periodic 100-nm-wide stripe domains with alternating upward and downward magnetization in La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 thin films. In addition to ordinary low-frequency modes, a high-frequency mode around 10 GHz is observed and propagates along the stripe domains with a spin-wave dispersion different from the low-frequency mode. Based on a theoretical model that considers two oppositely oriented coupled domains, this high-frequency mode is accounted for as an effective antiferromagnetic spin-wave mode. The spin waves exhibit group velocities of 2.6 km s−1 and propagate even at zero magnetic bias field. An electric current pulse with a density of only 105 A cm−2 can controllably modify the orientation of the stripe domains, which opens up perspectives for reconfigurable magnonic devices.

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Fig. 1: Nanostripe domain structures and spin-wave spectra measured by a VNA.
Fig. 2: Spin-wave reflection measurement and micromagnetic simulations.
Fig. 3: Control spin-wave propagation by rotating domain stripes.
Fig. 4: Magnetic characterization and spin-wave dispersion relations.
Fig. 5: Current switching of the stripe domains for reconfigurable spin-wave propagation.

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Data availability

The authors declare that the main data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its Supplementary Information. Extra data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank J. Hu, K. Wagner and H. Schultheiss for discussions. The authors also acknowledge support from NSF China under grants nos. 11674020, 11444005, U1801661 and 51788104, 111 Talent Program B16001 and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China MOST no. 2016YFA0300802. The work in Beijing Normal University is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China through contract no. 2016YFA0302300. J.D. and M.W. were supported by the US National Science Foundation (EFMA-1641989) and the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (DE-SC0018994). J.X. is supported by NSF China under grant no. 11722430.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Chuanpu Liu, Shizhe Wu, Jianyu Zhang, Jilei Chen, Jinjun Ding, Ji Ma.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fert Beijing Institute, BDBC, School of Microelectronics, Beihang University, Beijing, China

    Chuanpu Liu, Jianyu Zhang, Jilei Chen, Sa Tu, Hanchen Wang & Haiming Yu

  2. Department of Physics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Shizhe Wu, Yuelin Zhang & Jinxing Zhang

  3. Department of Physics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Jinjun Ding & Mingzhong Wu

  4. State Key Lab of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Ji Ma & Ce-Wen Nan

  5. State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics and Electron Microscopy Laboratory, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Yuanwei Sun, Peng Gao & Dapeng Yu

  6. Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China

    Pengfei Liu, Chexin Li & Yong Jiang

  7. Department of Physics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

    Dapeng Yu

  8. Department of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Jiang Xiao

  9. Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing, China

    Jiang Xiao

  10. Institute for Theoretical Physics, Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands

    Rembert Duine

  11. Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands

    Rembert Duine

Authors
  1. Chuanpu Liu
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Contributions

J.X., Jinxing Z. and H.Y. conceived and designed the experiments. S.W., Y.Z. and Jinxing Z. provided the LSMO films. J.D. and M.W. characterized the films with SQUID and FMR techniques. C. Liu, Jianyu Z., J.C. and H.Y. designed and fabricated the spin-wave devices. J.M., S.W., Y.Z., Jinxing Z. and C.-W.N. conducted the MFM measurements. Y.S., C. Liu, P.G. and D.Y. conducted the transmission electron microscopy characterization. C. Liu, Jianyu Z., J.C. and H.Y. performed the spin-wave measurements. S.W., C. Liu, Jianyu Z., S.T. and H.Y. conducted the current-control experiments. S.W., P.L., C. Li and Y.J. fabricated the eight-terminal device for current-switching experiments. J.C., Jianyu Z., C. Liu and H.Y. analysed the data. R.D. performed the theoretical modelling. C. Liu, H.W. and J.C. performed the micromagnetic simulations. Jinxing Z. and H.Y. supervised the experimental study. H.Y., J.C., C. Liu and Jianyu Z. wrote the paper and the Supplementary Information.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jinxing Zhang or Haiming Yu.

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Journal peer review information: Nature Nanotechnology thanks Marco Madami, Markus Münzenberg and other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Liu, C., Wu, S., Zhang, J. et al. Current-controlled propagation of spin waves in antiparallel, coupled domains. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 691–697 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0429-7

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