Scott A. Bender

Switching of perpendicular magnetization by spin-orbit torques in the absence of external magnetic fields

Magnetization switching by current-induced spin-orbit torques is of great interest due to its potential applications in ultralow-power memory and logic devices. The switching of ferromagnets with perpendicular magnetization is of particular technological relevance. However, in such materials, the presence of an in-plane external magnetic field is typically required to assist spin-orbit torque-driven switching and this is an obstacle for practical applications. Here, we report the switching of out-of-plane magnetized Ta/Co(20)Fe(60)B(20)/TaO(x) structures by spin-orbit torques driven by in-plane currents, without the need for any external magnetic fields. This is achieved by introducing a lateral structural asymmetry into our devices, which gives rise to a new field-like spin-orbit torque when in-plane current flows in these structures. The direction of the current-induced effective field corresponding to this field-like spin-orbit torque is out-of-plane, facilitating the switching of perpendicular magnets.

Electronic Pumping of Quasiequilibrium Bose-Einstein-Condensed Magnons

We theoretically investigate spin transfer between a system of quasiequilibrated Bose-Einstein-condensed magnons in an insulator in direct contact with a conductor. While charge transfer is prohibited across the interface, spin transport arises from the exchange coupling between insulator and conductor spins. In a normal insulator phase, spin transport is governed solely by the presence of thermal and spin-diffusive gradients; the presence of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), meanwhile, gives rise to a temperature-independent condensate spin current. Depending on the thermodynamic bias of the system, spin may flow in either direction across the interface, engendering the possibility of a dynamical phase transition of magnons. We discuss the experimental feasibility of observing a BEC steady state (fomented by a spin Seebeck effect), which is contrasted to the more familiar spin-transfer-induced classical instabilities.

Spin Hall phenomenology of magnetic dynamics

We study the role of spin-orbit interactions in the coupled magnetoelectric dynamics of a ferromagnetic film coated with an electrical conductor. While the main thrust of this work is phenomenological, several popular simple models are considered microscopically in some detail, including Rashba and Dirac two-dimensional electron gases coupled to a magnetic insulator, as well as a diffusive spin Hall system. We focus on the long-wavelength magnetic dynamics that experiences current-induced torques and produces fictitious electromotive forces. Our phenomenology provides a suitable framework for analyzing experiments on current-induced magnetic dynamics and reciprocal charge pumping, including the effects of magnetoresistance and Gilbert-damping anisotropies, without a need to resort to any microscopic considerations or modeling. Finally, some remarks are made regarding the interplay of spin-orbit interactions and magnetic textures.

Thermally driven spin torques in layered magnetic insulators

Thermally-driven spin-transfer torques have recently been reported in electrically insulating ferromagnet

Spin wave nanofabric update

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Two-Fluid Theory for Spin Superfluidity in Magnetic Insulators.

normal-metal heterostructures. In this paper, we propose two physically distinct mechanisms for such torques. The first is a local effect: out-of-equilibrium, thermally-activated magnons in the ferromagnet, driven by a spin Seebeck effect, exert a torque on the magnetization via magnon-magnon scattering with coherent dynamics. The second is a nonlocal effect which requires an additional magnetic layer to provide the symmetry breaking necessary to realize a thermal torque. The simplest structure in which to induce a nonlocal thermal torque is a spin valve composed of two insulating magnets separated by a normal metal spacer; there, a thermal flux generates a pure spin current through the spin valve, which results in a torque when the magnetizations of the layers are misaligned.

Interfacial spin and heat transfer between metals and magnetic insulators

We provide a progress update on the spin wave nanofabric. The nanofabric comprises magneto-electric cells and spin wave buses serving for spin wave propagation. The magneto-electric cells are used as the input/output ports for information transfer between the charge and the spin domains, while information processing inside the nanofabric is via spin waves only. Information is encoded into the phase of the propagating spin wave, which makes it possible to utilize waveguides as passive logic elements and take the advantage of using wave superposition for data processing. This provides a fundamental advantage over the conventional transistor-based logic circuitry allowing for functional throughput enhancement and power consumption minimization at the same time. We present recent accomplishments in the magneto-electric element development and integration with spin wave buses. In particular, we show the excitation and detection of the spin waves via multiferroic elements. In addition, we present different approaches to magnonic logic circuit engineering and provide the comparison with CMOS by mapping the designs to 45nm NANGATE standard cell libraries. The estimates show more than 40X power reduction and 53X area reduction for magnonic circuits. These results illustrate the potential advantages over conventional charge based electronics that could be a route to beyond CMOS logic circuitry.

Enhanced spin conductance of a thin-Film insulating antiferromagnet

We investigate coupled spin and heat transport in easy-plane magnetic insulators. These materials display a continuous phase transition between normal and condensate states that is controlled by an external magnetic field. Using hydrodynamic equations supplemented by Gross-Pitaevski phenomenology and magnetoelectric circuit theory, we derive a two-fluid model to describe the dynamics of thermal and condensed magnons, and the appropriate boundary conditions in a hybrid normal-metal-magnetic-insulator-normal-metal heterostructure. We discuss how the emergent spin superfluidity can be experimentally probed via a spin Seebeck effect measurement.

Exponentially decaying correlations in a gas of strongly interacting spin-polarized 1D fermions with zero-range interactions.

We study the role of thermal magnons in spin and heat transport across a normal-metal/insulating-ferromagnet interface, which is beyond an elastic electronic spin transfer. Using an interfacial exchange Hamiltonian, which couples spins of itinerant and localized orbitals, we calculate spin and energy currents for an arbitrary interfacial temperature difference and misalignment of spin accumulation in the normal metal relative to the ferromagnetic order. The magnonic contribution to spin current leads to a temperature-dependent torque on the magnetic order parameter; reciprocally, the coherent precession of the magnetization pumps spin current into the normal metal, the magnitude of which is affected by the presence of thermal magnons.

Green's function formalism for spin transport in metal-insulator-metal heterostructures

We investigate spin transport by thermally excited spin waves in an antiferromagnetic insulator. Starting from a stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert phenomenology, we obtain the out-of-equilibrium spin-wave properties. In linear response to spin biasing and a temperature gradient, we compute the spin transport through a normal-metal-antiferromagnet-normal-metal heterostructure. We show that the spin conductance diverges as one approaches the spin-flop transition; this enhancement of the conductance should be readily observable by sweeping the magnetic field across the spin-flop transition. The results from such experiments may, on the one hand, enhance our understanding of spin transport near a phase transition, and on the other be useful for applications that require a large degree of tunability of spin currents. In contrast, the spin Seebeck coefficient does not diverge at the spin-flop transition. Furthermore, the spin Seebeck coefficient is finite even at zero magnetic field, provided that the normal metal contacts break the symmetry between the antiferromagnetic sublattices.