New Manual for Spin Dynamics Engineering in Nanomagnets

A comprehensive manual for engineering spin dynamics in nanomagnets has been developed by the international research group at University of California, Riversideand the Institute of Magnetism in Kyiv, Ukraine.

This is a significant step taken to advance spintronic and quantum information technology.

Despite their small size, nanomagnets—found in most spintronic applications—express a rich spin excitation dynamics, or “magnon”, the quantum mechanical unit of spin fluctuations.

As a result of their nanoscale confinement, nanomagnets can be thought of as zero-dimensional systems with distinct magnon spectra, similar to atomic spectra.

The magnons interact with each other, thus forming a nonlinear spin dynamics. Nonlinear spin dynamics is a key challenge and a great opportunity to improve the performance of spintronic technologies such as spin torque memory, oscillators and neuromorphic computing.

Igor Barsukov, Corresponding Author of the Study and Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy, University of California-Riverside

This study has been reported in the journal Physical Review Applied.

Barsukov explains that magnon interactions track a set of rules—selection rules. Currently, scientists have postulated such rules regarding the symmetry of the magnon profile and the configuration of the magnetization.

The new work defends steps towards taming nanomagnets for next-generation computing technologies. In a previous publication, the team illustrated experimentally that symmetry could be used to engineer magnon interactions.

We recognized the opportunity, but also noticed that a lot of work needed to be done to understand and formulate the selection rules.

Igor Barsukov, Corresponding Author of the Study and Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of California-Riverside

Scientists feel that an extensive set of rules reveals the mechanism behind the magnon interaction.

It can be seen as a spintronics laboratory guide for debugging and designing nanomagnet devices. This lays the foundation for developing a suite of experimental tools for tunable magnetic neurons, switchable oscillators, energy-efficient memories, and other quantum and next-generation nanomagnetic applications..

Arezoo Etesamirad, First Author Study, University of California-Riverside

Etesamirad is the first author of a collaborative study in Barsukov’s laboratory and recently graduated with a doctorate in physics.

Barsukov and Etesamirad were created as part of research conducted by Rodolfo Rodriguez of UCR; and Julia Kharlan and Roman Verba of the Institute of Magnetism in Kyiv, Ukraine.

This study was supported financially by the US National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the National Research Foundation of Ukraine, the National Science Center – Poland, and the NVIDIA Corporation.

Journal Reference:

Etesamirad, A., et al. (2023) Controlling Selection Rules for Magnon Scattering in Nanomagnets with Spatial Symmetry Breaks. Physical Review Applied. doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.19.044087.

Source: https://www.ucr.edu/