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© 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Nonvolatile logic networks based on spintronic and nanomagnetic technologies have the potential to create high-speed, ultralow power computational architectures. This article explores the feasibility of “chirality-encoded domain wall logic,” a nanomagnetic logic architecture where data are encoded by the chiral structures of mobile domain walls in networks of ferromagnetic nanowires and processed by the chiral structures' interactions with geometric features of the networks. High-resolution magnetic imaging is used to test two critical functionalities: the inversion of domain wall chirality at tailored artificial defect sites (logical NOT gates) and the chirality-selective output of domain walls from 2-in-1-out nanowire junctions (common operation to AND/NAND/OR/NOR gates). The measurements demonstrate both operations can be performed to a good degree of fidelity even in the presence of complex magnetization dynamics that would normally be expected to destroy chirality-encoded information. Together, these results represent a strong indication of the feasibility of devices where chiral magnetization textures are used to directly carry, rather than merely delineate, data.

Artificial spin ices are often spoken of as being realisations of some of the celebrated vertex models of statistical mechanics, where the exact microstate of the system can be imaged using advanced magnetic microscopy methods. The fact that a stable image can be formed means that the system is in fact athermal and not undergoing the usual finite-temperature fluctuations of a statistical mechanical system. In this paper we report on the preparation of artificial spin ices with islands that are thermally fluctuating due to their very small size. The relaxation rate of these islands was determined using variable frequency focused magneto-optic Kerr measurements. We performed magnetic imaging of artificial spin ice under varied temperature and magnetic field using X-ray transmission microscopy which uses X-ray magnetic circular dichroism to generate magnetic contrast. We have developed an on-membrane heater in order to apply temperatures in excess of 700 K and have shown increased dynamics due to higher temperature. Due to the ‘photon-in, photon-out' method employed here, it is the first report where it is possible to image the microstates of an ASI system under the simultaneous application of temperature and magnetic field, enabling the determination of relaxation rates, coercivties, and the analysis of vertex population during reversal

We have investigated magnetostatic interactions between domain walls in Ni80Fe20 planar nanowires using magnetic soft x-ray microscopy and micromagnetic simulations. In addition to significant monopole-like attraction and repulsion effects we observe that there is coupling of the magnetization configurations of the walls. This is explained in terms of an interaction energy that depends not only on the distance between the walls, but also upon their internal magnetization structure.