Switching magnetic vortex core by a single nanosecond current pulse

In a ferromagnetic nanodisk, the magnetization tends to swirl around in the plane of the disk and can point either up or down at the center of this magnetic vortex. This binary state can be useful for information storage. It is demonstrated that a single nanosecond current pulse can switch the core polarity. This method also provides the precise control of the core direction, which constitutes fundamental technology for realizing a vortex core memory.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Current-driven resonant excitation of magnetic vortex

A magnetic vortex core in a ferromagnetic circular nanodot has a resonance frequency originating from the confinement of the vortex core. By the micromagnetic simulation including the spin-transfer torque, we show that the vortex core can be resonantly excited by an AC (spin-polarized) current through the dot and that the resonance frequency can be tuned by the dot shape. The resistance measurement under the AC current successfully detects the resonance at the frequency consistent with the simulation.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

Shot Noise Induced by Electron-nuclear Spin-flip Scattering in a Nonequilibrium Quantum Wire

We study the shot noise (nonequilibrium current fluctuation) associated with dynamic nuclear polarization in a nonequilibrium quantum wire (QW) fabricated in a two-dimensional electron gas. We observe that the spin-polarized conductance quantization of the QW in the integer quantum Hall regime collapses when the QW is voltage biased to be driven to nonequilibrium. By measuring the shot noise, we prove that the spin polarization of electrons in the QW is reduced to $\sim 0.7$ instead of unity as a result of electron-nuclear spin-flip scattering. The result is supported by Knight shift measurements of the QW using resistively detected NMR.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Evolution of the Kondo Effect in a Quantum Dot Probed by the Shot Noise

We measure the current and shot noise in a quantum dot (QD) in the Kondo regime to address the non-equilibrium properties of the Kondo effect. By systematically tuning the temperature and gate voltages to define the level positions in the QD, we observe an enhancement of the shot noise as temperature decreases below the Kondo temperature, which indicates that the two-particle scattering process grows as the Kondo state evolves. Below the Kondo temperature, the Fano factor defined at finite temperature is found to exceed the expected value of unity from the non-interacting model, reaching $1.8 \pm 0.2$.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Anti-damping spin transfer torque through epitaxial Nickel oxide

We prepare the high quality epitaxial MgO(001)[100]/Pt(001)[100]/NiO(001)[100]/FeNi/SiO2 films to investigate the spin transport in the NiO antiferromagnetic insulator. The ferromagnetic resonance measurements of the FeNi under a spin current injection from the Pt by the spin Hall effect revealed the change of the ferromagnetic resonance linewidth depending on the amount of the spin current injection. The results can be interpreted that there is an angular momentum transfer through the NiO. A high efficient angular momentum transfer we observed in the epitaxial NiO can be attributed to the well-defined orientation of the antiferromagnetic moments and the spin quantization axis of the injected spin current