Manipulating spin waves in ferromagnetic microstructures: redirection of propagation of magnons

Official starting date of the ESP 4 Project “Manipulating spin waves in ferromagnetic microstructures: redirection of propagation of magnons” funded within the ESPRIT (“Early Stage Programme: Research, Innovation and Training”) Career Advancement for Postdocs from FWF.

Abstract

Over the past decades computing devices decreased drastically in size. When an electric charge is used for the information transfer a number of problems can arise, which prevent an effective work of such logic devices. For that reason, new ways of information processing are actively researched. One of promising candidates are spin waves or magnons. They allow to transfer information using purely magnetic properties of the materials. The latter gives an opportunity to transfer bigger amounts of information much faster then with an electrical charge. However, before moving to real application thorough fundamental research is of utmost importance. A wide range of geometrical systems of various materials suitable for transferring spin waves has been investigated at this point, including nanometer range thin films, multilayer nanostructures, magnonic crystals, magnonic waveguides and confined microstructures.

In this project the focus is put on a fundamental understanding of the dynamic magnetic properties of confined structures, as this is a prerequisite for the development of nanoscale computational devices based on magnetism. In the previous research of the principal investigator it was shown that device’s geometry variation can possibly be used in order to manipulate spin waves. This principle is planned to be exploited in the project. The influence of the device’s shape will be systematically investigated using experimental and theoretical approach in order to be able to controllably excite and manipulate spin waves in confined structures using simple excitation scheme.

Participants

Santa Pile (project lead), Arthur Ernst (mentor), Institute of Semiconductor and Solid State Physics at JKU Linz (hosting institute), HZDR (international cooperation partner).