Reversing the Circulation of Ferromagnetic Nanodisks with a Local Circular Magnetic Field
ORCID ID
Jessica Bickel https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7506-1831
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2020
Publication Title
Nanotechnology
Abstract
Ferromagnetic nanodisks have a unique closed-flux vortex state with two degrees of freedom that results in four different magnetization states that are degenerate in energy and stable against thermal fluctuations. Such disks could be interesting for magnetic memory devices if the independent switching of each degree of freedom can be realized. Polarity switching of the vortex core has been demonstrated, but it is difficult to manipulate switching of the vortex due to the high symmetry of the structure. In this work, we reverse the circulation direction of a circular ferromagnetic nanodisk by applying a local circular Oersted field via a metallic atomic force microscope tip placed at the center of the disk. The resulting field reverses the circulation of the vortex without switching the orientation of the core. Switching of the vortex is accomplished by the sudden increase in the current that occurs when there is dielectric breakdown of a thin insulating layer on top of the disk. Micromagnetic simulations indicate that a line current concentrated in the center of a nanodisk can reverse the magnetization of the disk at a value over one order of magnitude smaller than the current required if the current is instead uniformly distributed across the cross section of disk. These results can be applied to reducing the switching current in circularly symmetric device structures.
Repository Citation
Ju, Wen-Ming; Bickel, Jessica E.; Pradhan, Nihar; Aidala, Katherine E.; and Tuominen, Mark, "Reversing the Circulation of Ferromagnetic Nanodisks with a Local Circular Magnetic Field" (2020). Physics Faculty Publications. 440.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/sciphysics_facpub/440
Original Citation
Ju WM, Bickel JE, Pradhan N, Aidala KE, Tuominen M. Reversing the circulation of ferromagnetic nanodisks with a local circular magnetic field. Nanotechnology. 2020 Mar 13;31(11):115205. doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ab5c3c.
DOI
10.1088/1361-6528/ab5c3c
Volume
31
Issue
11
Comments
The authors acknowledged the support by NSF grants No. DMR 0906832, 097201, 1208042, 1207924, and the NSF Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (CMMI-0531171).