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We study layered synthetic antiferromagnets (SAFs) with out-of-plane interface anisotropy, where the layer-wise antiferromagnetic (AF) alignment is induced by interlayer exchange coupling (IEC). By applying low energy He+ focused ion beam irradiation to the SAF, a depth-dependent reduction of the IEC and anisotropy can be achieved due to layer intermixing. As a consequence, after irradiation, a specific field reversal sequence of the SAF is energetically preferred. When tuning the pristine SAF to exhibit an inverted field reversal, we are thus able to create AF domains in the irradiated regions. When irradiated with a fluence gradient, these AF domains can be further deterministically manipulated by an external magnetic field. Among other applications, this could be utilized for engineering a controllable and local magnetic stray field landscape, for example, at AF domain walls, within the otherwise stray field free environment provided by the SAF.

Topological spin textures such as skyrmions, merons, and vortices in antiferromagnetic (AFM)/ ferromagnetic (FM) materials are actively explored for utilization in future data storage and signal processing devices. An emergent half-integer spin texture such as a magnetic vortex can be stabilized in a soft magnetic NiFe disk structure. Due to the topological nature, the unwinding of the magnetic vortex phase is mediated by the dynamic creation and subsequent annihilation of magnetic singularities, such as Bloch points. This process enables the formation of intermediate topological phases such as vortex-antivortex (V-AV) pairs and edge states. Interfacial interactions between an AFM and a topologically non-trivial spin structure of a FM can stabilize and extend the lifetime of V-AV phases, which are typically considered intrinsic and dynamic are imaged using high-resolution in-field magnetic force microscopy. Additionally, these interactions are used to protect the emerged chirality in an otherwise degenerate chiral spin system, rather than to introduce a preferred chirality.

This data contains results from magnetometry and magnetic force microscopy from the irradiated synthetic antiferromagnets.

Eine magnetische Struktur (510) weist einen synthetischen antiferromagnetischen Schichtstapel (100) mit senkrechter magnetischer Anisotropie auf. Ein erster und ein zweiter Teilbereich (110, 120) des synthetischen antiferromagnetischen Schichtstapels (100) sind lateral nebeneinander ausgebildet. Eine vertikaler erster Magnetisierungsverlauf im ersten Teilbereich (110) unterscheidet sich nach Betrag und/oder Orientierung von einem vertikalen zweiten Magnetisierungsverlauf im zweiten Teilbereich (120). Auf einer horizontalen Hauptoberfläche (101) des synthetischen antiferromagnetischen Schichtstapels (100) kann eine Entkopplungsschicht (200) ausgebildet sein. Auf der Entkopplungsschicht (200) oder der Hauptoberfläche (101) ist eine Funktionsschicht (300) ausgebildet. Die Funktionsschicht (300) wird lokal durch Kopplung mit dem synthetischen antiferromagnetischen Schichtstapel (100)oder durch die Streufelder des synthetischen antiferromagnetischen Schichtstapels (100)in ihrer Magnetisierung ausgerichtet, wodurch in der Funktionsschicht (300) beispielsweise eine variable und reprogrammierbare Infrastruktur für die Erzeugung, Verarbeitung, Übertragung und Detektion von Spinwellen erzeugt werden kann.

The adsorption of chiral molecules was recently shown to trigger a change in the magnetisation of mesoscopic magnetic domains in a ferromagnetic underlayer. In this work, we investigated the macroscopic (magneto-)optical response of chemisorbed α-helical polyalanine self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on a gold and gold-capped-cobalt thin film on Au substrates using spectroscopic ellipsometry and magneto-optical Kerr effect spectroscopy and microscopy. The optical and magneto-optical spectra reveal selective chemisorption of the α-helical polyalanine molecules depending on the orientation of the substrate remanent magnetisation during the SAMs process. Moreover, a sign change of the magneto-optical response was observed in some of the magnetic substrates after the chiral SAMs formation.

Non-reciprocity of wave phenomena describes the situation where wave dispersion depends on the sign of the wave-vector, i.e., counter-propagating waves exhibit di↵erent wavelengths for the same frequency. Such behavior has been recently observed in heavy-metal/ferromagnetic interfaces with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya coupling, and has also been known for coupled magnetic bilayers, where non-reciprocity is enhanced when the two layers are antiparallel aligned. Besides the conventional uses of spin-waves, non-reciprocity adds further functionalities, such as its potential applications in communications technologies and logical operations. In the current manuscript, we thus examine the spin-wave non-reciprocity induced by dipolar interactions in a coupled bilayer consisting of two ferromagnetic layers separated by a non-magnetic spacer. We derive an easy-to-use formula to estimate the frequency di↵erence provided by the non-reciprocity, which allows for choosing an optimal system in order to maximize the e↵ect. For small wave-numbers, non-reciprocity scales linearly, while for larger wave-vectors the non-reciprocity behaves non-monotonically, with a well-defined maximum. The study is carried out by means of analytical calculations that are complemented by micromagnetic simulations. Furthermore, we confirmed our model by experimental investigation of the spin-wave dispersion in a prototype antiparallel-coupled bilayer system. Since the relative magnetic orientation can be controlled through a bias field, the magnon non-reciprocity can be then turned on and o↵, which lends an important functionality to the coupled ferromagnetic bilayers.

Magnons are the fundamental excitations in magnetic materials, and they can transport angular momentum without actual charge currents. Therefore, they are attractive for applications in energy efficient information technology, offering high operating frequencies up to the THz range. Here we present a novel scheme for magnon generation using spin currents and domain walls. When a charge current is applied to a bilayer consisting of a heavy metal and a ferromagnetic metal, the spin currents originating from the spin Hall effect in the heavy metal apply a spin transfer torque on the magnetization of the ferromagnetic layer. This allows driving efficiently auto-oscillations of magnetization [1]. We focused on domain walls as local nano magnon channels [2]. Since it is possible to move domain walls by electrical currents [3], domain walls are attractive for nano-sized reprogrammable circuits. A 370 nm wide boomerang structure was fabricated from a Pt/CoFeB bilayer (Fig.1). The sample was magnetized by applying an external magnetic field H. After the saturation, the external magnetic field was set to 0 Oe, and a dc current was applied to the sample. The magnon intensity at the apex of the boomerang structure was measured by Brillouin light scattering microscopy [4]. Figure 2 shows the dc current dependency of the magnon spectrum on the remanent state. Magnons were detected for currents between 3.6 mA and 4.5 mA, while no magnons were observed for any negative dc currents. A domain wall is generated at the apex for the remanent state because of the shape anisotropy of the boomerang structure. We succeeded to excite magnons under zero magnetic field due to the autooscillation of the magnetization by spin transfer torque. Reference [1] A. N. Slavin and V. Tiberkevich, IEEE Trans. Magn. 45, 1875 (2009). [2] K. Wagner et. al., Nat. Nanotech. 11, 432 (2016). [3] S. S. P. Parkin et. al., Science 320, 190 (2008). [4] T. Sebastian et. al., Front. Phys. 3, 35 (2015).

Magnons are attractive for application in energy efficient information technology, because they propagate without any actual charge currents and they offer high frequencies up to THz range. Here we present a novel scheme for magnon generation using spin currents and domain walls. When a charge current is applied to a heavy metallic/ferromagnetic bilayer, the spin currents originating from a spin Hall effect in the heavy metal apply a spin transfer torque on the magnetization. This allows driving efficiently auto-oscillations of magnetization [1]. We focused on domain walls as local magnon nano channels [2]. Since domain walls can be moved by electrical currents [3], they are attractive for reprogrammable nano circuits. A 370 nm wide zigzag structure was fabricated from a Pt/CoFeB bilayer. A domain wall was generated at the apex by magnetic saturation. The magnon intensity on the remanent state was measured by Brillouin light scattering microscopy [4] with applying a dc current. The magnon excitation showed the dc current dependency. Magnons were detected only for positive dc currents. We succeeded to drive magnon auto-oscillation in the domain wall under zero magnetic field by spin transfer torque. Reference [1] A. N. Slavin and V. Tiberkevich, IEEE Trans. Magn. 45, 1875 (2009). [2] K. Wagner et. al., Nat. Nanotech. 11, 432 (2016). [3] S. S. P. Parkin et. al., Science 320, 190 (2008). [4] T. Sebastian et. al., Front. Phys. 3, 35 (2015).

The demand on high data transfer and storage capacities requires smaller devices to transmit or save data. Forming well-defined ferromagnetic and electrically conducting volumes within a non-magnetic and insulating matrix in the dimensions of several nanometers can pave a way to the production of such small devices. It has been demonstrated that the reduction of oxygen in Co₃O₄/Pd multilayers is possible via local proton irradiation resulting in ferromagnetic and conducting Co embedded in a nonmagnetic and insulating Co₃O₄ matrix [1]. However, the physical mechanism behind the ion irradiation-induced oxide reduction was not addressed clearly. There are two possible mechanisms suggested to play a role behind this oxide reduction. The first one is the chemical reduction of oxygen by reacting with implanted H+ ions, while the second possible mechanism is atomic displacements induced by ion irradiation. To address this issue, we analysed cobalt oxide thin films after irradiation with H+ and Ne+ ions at different doses. The irradiation parameters for Ne+ were chosen to give the same displacements per atom (dpa) as that of H+ which is required to reduce cobalt oxide. We also confined irradiated areas on the films in the range of microns to submicron, in order to ascertain the lateral distribution of oxygen after irradiation. We prepared single layer films of CoO (6-12nm) and Co₃O₄ (10nm) capped with Pt protection layers. Broad-beam H+ irradiations were performed at 0.3 keV for ion doses ranging from 10¹⁵ to 10¹⁷ ions/cm² on unpatterned films. After irradiation the films were characterized structurally and magnetically and compared to un-irradiated films. Extended films showed approximately 7% of the Co bulk metal saturation magnetization (MS) after irradiation at a dose of 5 x 10¹⁶ ions/cm² (fig. 1a inset). The increase is more pronounced with Co₃O₄ than CoO (fig. 1a). A sample was also prepared with a striped irradiation mask of 40 μm pitch. These films showed a higher magnetization after irradiation at lower doses as compared to unpatterned films, 0.14 MA/m for a dose of 10¹⁶ ions/cm² (striped) as opposed to 0.025 MA/m (extended) for a dose of 10¹⁷ ions/cm². Figure 1 (b) shows the effect of stripe width (0.5, 5, 10, 20 μm) on the resulting magnetization after H+ irradiation at the same energy with a dose of 10¹⁷ ions/cm². No clear correlation between stripe width and MS was seen in either oxide phase for stripes down to 0.5 μm. However, the CoO sample with 0.5 μm stripes and a thinner oxide thickness of 6 nm (gold line) as opposed to 12 nm exhibited larger MS after irradiation, indicating oxygen displacements occur in the first few nanometers of the oxide. We also performed 5 keV Ne+ irradiations with the helium-ion microscope (HIM) varying the ion dose from 10¹⁴ to 10¹⁶ ions/cm². After Ne+ irradiations magnetic force microscopy (MFM) images were taken along with a topography image in the remnant state (fig. 2). Starting from the ion dose of 5x10¹⁴ ions/cm², a magnetic contrast could be observed by MFM, suggesting that oxygen atoms were successfully removed locally by reducing paramagnetic CoO to ferromagnetic Co. The formation of topographical bubbles was observed upon increasing the ion dose from 10¹⁵ ions/cm² to 10¹⁶ ions/cm². The lateral and horizontal sizes of the observed bubbles show a clear dependence on the ion dose with a narrow size distribution. In conclusion, our results show that, oxygen removal by means of H+ irradiation is more efficient in Co₃O₄ films as opposed to CoO. Additionally, although there is little dependence of the resulting Ms on the pitch of the stripes (in the range of 0.5 - 20 μm), the use of a stripe mask has a more pronounced effect on the oxygen removal process as compared to the irradiations on extended films. Therefore, the physical mechanism behind the ion-irradiation induced oxide reduction process cannot purely be a chemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen. As an outlook, the lateral size and spacing of the ferromagnetic regions generated by H+ irradiation is only limited by the resolution of EBL. This method and the successful formation of ferromagnetic regions upon Ne+ irradiation using the HIM can be exploited to print smaller, closer and synchronized contacts for nanocontact spin torque oscillators.

Spin-Hall nano-oscillators (SHNOs) are modern auto-oscillation devices. Their simple geometry allows for an optical characterization by Brillouin-Light-Scattering microscopy at room temperature. Here we report on the observation of auto-oscillations in constriction based SHNOs under the forcing influence of an added alternating current. We show the possibility of injection locking between the applied external signal and the auto-oscillations driven by a direct current. Within the locking range the frequency of the auto-oscillations is forced to the external stimulus. In addition the intensity of the oscillations is increased strongly and the linewidth decreases. Due to the controllability of the auto-oscillations of the magnetization, injection locking can be used to influence the properties of future communication technologies, i.e. based on synchronized constriction based spin Hall nano-oscillators arrays.

Spintronic devices are often patterned from continuous films into micro- or nanostructures. Fabrication of those nano-devices is self-limited and depends on the lateral resolution of the chosen fabrication method. Ion irradiation offers an alternative route to introduce smaller magnetic patterns limited by the size of the ion beam. Irradiation of oxide materials can cause chemical reduction and lead to the local formation of metallic species. By using the oxide family of ferromagnets (e.g., Fe, Ni and Co), reduction leads to the formation of ferromagnetic and conducting volumes limited by the size of the ion irradiated area that are embedded into a non-magnetic and insulating matrix. On the other hand, the physical mechanism behind ion irradiation-induced oxide reduction could not be explained. Therefore, our studies focus on ion (H, He, Ne, O) irradiated cobalt-oxide (CoO or Co3O4) systems in order to explain the physics behind the process. Also, the knowledge is being exploited to tune exchange-bias direction, prepare nano contacts for synchronized spin torque oscillators, and to form topographically stabilized magnetic skyrmions.

As 3-dimensional field sensors require one part being susceptible to perpendicular fields, thin film GMR stacks with a linear and reversible response to such fields are of interest for the development of monolithic sensor devices. Stacks with such a behavior can be achieved by combining a pinning layer with perpendicular easy axis and a free layer with perpendicular hard axis. Furthermore, the stray field of the pinning layer can be minimized and its coercivity enhanced if a ferrimagnet (or antiferromagnet) is used. For the present study, TbxCo100−x alloys have been chosen as the pinning layer material and Ni81Fe19 for the free layer. The single layers have been characterized by SQUID-VSM measurements, the complete layer stack by magneto-resistance measurements. Initial films confirm the expected behavior and exhibit a change in resistivity of 5% in a field range of 10 kOe. Further films will be optimized regarding their magnetic and electric properties. They shall be micro-structured then and equipped with bottom contacts through the substrate.

The tuning of the magnetic properties of antiferromagnetically (AF) coupled multilayer films by ion beam irradiation has been investigated. Stacks of Co/Pd respectively Co/Pt multilayers, AF-coupled by Ru or Ir interlayers, have been useful for studying the energy contribution of interlayer exchange, perpendicular anisotropy and long range dipole interactions. The system shows a complex mixture of magnetic phases that can be tuned by the number of repeats of the multilayers (X). A lateral homogeneous AF remanent structure occurs for small X due to the dominance of the AF-coupling. For large X the demagnetisation energy prevails and ferromagnetic stripe domains evolve. With ion irradiation the balance of the energy contributions can be locally manipulated, thus a lateral heterogeneous structure of magnetic phases may be realised. Initial irradiation studies will be discussed.

Spin-Hall nano-oscillators (SHNOs) are modern auto-oscillation devices. Their simple geometry allows for an optical characterization by Brillouin-Light-Scattering microscopy at room temperature. Here we report on the observation of auto-oscillations in constriction based SHNOs. These are devices where the current density is increased locally due to lateral confinement. Hence, the spin current generated by the spin Hall effect can create well defined hot-spots for auto-oscillations. We present BLS measurements of auto-oscillations in Co60Fe20B20(5 nm)/Pt(7 nm) based samples with two interacting, neighbouring nanoconstrictions. The precession amplitude in these samples can be driven far from equilibrium, resulting in clear nonlinear signatures in the spinwave spectra. The spatial distributions of the observed modes and current dependencies are shown.

The tuning of the magnetic properties of antiferromagnetically (AF) coupled multilayer films by ion beam irradiation has been investigated. Stacks of Co/Pd respectively Co/Pt multilayers, AF-coupled by Ru or Ir interlayers, have been useful for studying the energy contribution of interlayer exchange, perpendicular anisotropy and long range dipole interactions. The system shows a complex mixture of magnetic phases that can be tuned by the number of repeats of the multilayers (X). A lateral homogeneous AF remanent structure occurs for small X due to the dominance of the AF-coupling. For large X the demagnetisation energy prevails and ferromagnetic stripe domains evolve. With ion irradiation the balance of the energy contributions can be locally manipulated, thus a lateral heterogeneous structure of magnetic phases may be realised. Initial irradiation studies will be discussed.

Nanostructured ferrimagnetic Tb-Fe alloy thin films were prepared on pre-patterned substrates as underlying template, consisting of nanodot arrays with a dot diameter of 30 nm and a period of 60 nm. Two distinct magnetic configuration are possible, one where the magnetic material on the nanodot and in the trenches is decoupled from each other for film thicknesses below the nanodot height, and the other where full exchange coupling between magnetic material on the dots and in the trenches is effective for magnetic films thicker than the nanodot height. Regardless, of the magnetic configuration the reversal of the magnetic material on top of the nanodots is found to be nucleation dominated, while the magnetic material in the trenches reverses via domain wall propagation, as confirmed by in-field magnetic force microscopy. The distinct behavior in this system is attributed to the reduced exchange stiffness followed by relatively narrow domain walls (approx. 3-4 nm) present in these rare earth - transition metal alloys. A systematic study of magnetic properties on nanostructured Tb-Fe alloy films as a function of composition and film thickness will be presented.

The understanding of how spins move and can be manipulated at pico- and femtosecond timescales has implications for ultrafast and energy-efficient data-processing and storage applications. However, the possibility of realizing commercial technologies based on ultrafast spin dynamics has been hampered by our limited knowledge of the physics behind processes on this timescale. Recently, it has been suggested that inertial effects should be considered in the full description of the spin dynamics at these ultrafast timescales, but a clear observation of such effects in ferromagnets is still lacking. Here, we report direct experimental evidence of intrinsic inertial spin dynamics in ferromagnetic thin films in the form of a nutation of the magnetization at a frequency of ~0.5 THz. This allows us to reveal that the angular momentum relaxation time in ferromagnets is on the order of 10 ps. Inertial dynamics are observed in a ferromagnet. Specifically, a nutation is seen on top of the usual spin precession that has a lifetime on the order of 10 picoseconds.