Phys.org September 25, 2018
For spintronics devices research focused on ferromagnetic materials to stabilize small spin textures and to move them efficiently with high velocities, but ferromagnets show fundamental limits for speed and size. An international team of researchers (USA- MIT, Germany) circumvent these limits using compensated ferrimagnets. Using ferrimagnetic Pt/Gd44Co56/TaOx films they realized a current-driven domain wall motion with a speed of 1.3 km s–1. Both the size and dynamics of the ferrimagnet are in excellent agreement with a simplified effective ferromagnet theory. The research shows using ferrimagnets instead of ferromagnets could theoretically speed up spintronics devices… read more.
TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Schematic of the Pt/Co44Gd56 layer structure in which ferrimagnetic Co44Gd56 exhibits a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (the TaOx cap is not shown). Green (black) arrows indicate the Gd (Co) sublattice moments in a domain wall (DW) structure. Credit: Nature Nanotechnology (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41565-018-0255-3