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The high contrast in the electrical resistivity between amorphous and crystalline states of a phase change material can potentially enable multiple memory levels for efficient use of a data storage medium. We report on our investigation of the role of the current injection site geometry (circular and square) in stabilizing such intermediate states within a nanoscale single-phase change material system (Ge2Sb2Te5). We have developed a three dimensional multiphysics model, which includes phase change kinetics, electrical, thermal, thermoelectric, and percolation effects, all as a function of temperature, using an iterative approach with coupled differential equations. Our model suggests that the physical origin of the formation of stable intermediate states in square top contact devices is mainly due to anisotropic heating during the application of a programming current pulse. Furthermore, the threshold current requirement and the width of the programming window are determined by crystallite nucleation and growth rates such that a higher crystallization rate leads to a narrower range of current pulses for switching to intermediate resistance level(s). The experimentally determined resistance maps, those that are indicative of the crystallinity, show good agreement with the simulated phase change behavior confirming the existence of stable intermediate states. Our model successfully predicts the required programming conditions for such mixed-phase levels, which can be used to optimize memory cells for future ultra-high density data storage applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noncollinear antiferromagnets can have additional spin Hall effects due to the net chirality of their magnetic spin structure, which provides for more complex spin-transport phenomena compared to ordinary nonmagnetic materials. Here we investigated how ferromagnetic resonance of permalloy (Ni_{80}Fe_{20}) is modulated by spin Hall effects in adjacent epitaxial IrMn_{3} films. We observe a large dc modulation of the ferromagnetic resonance linewidth for currents applied along the [001] IrMn_{3} direction. This very strong angular dependence of spin-orbit torques from dc currents through the bilayers can be explained by the magnetic spin Hall effect where IrMn_{3} provides novel pathways for modulating magnetization dynamics electrically.

Tailoring Gilbert damping of metallic ferromagnetic thin films is one of the central interests in spintronics applications. Here we report a giant Gilbert damping anisotropy in epitaxial Co_{50}Fe_{50} thin films with a maximum-minimum damping ratio of 400%, determined by broadband spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance as well as inductive ferromagnetic resonance. We conclude that the origin of this damping anisotropy is the variation of the spin orbit coupling for different magnetization orientations in the cubic lattice, which is further corroborated from the magnitude of the anisotropic magnetoresistance in Co_{50}Fe_{50}.

Recently discovered exotic magnetic configurations, namely magnetic solitons appearing in the presence of bulk or interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction (i-DMI), have excited scientists to explore their potential applications in emerging spintronic technologies such as race-track magnetic memory, spin logic, radio frequency nano-oscillators and sensors. Such studies are motivated by their foreseeable advantages over conventional micro-magnetic structures due to their small size, topological stability and easy spin-torque driven manipulation with much lower threshold current densities giving way to improved storage capacity, and faster operation with efficient use of energy. In this work, we show that in the presence of i-DMI in Pt/CoFeB/Ti multilayers by tuning the magnetic anisotropy (both in-plane and perpendicular-to-plane) via interface engineering and postproduction treatments, we can stabilize a variety of magnetic configurations such as Néel skyrmions, horseshoes and most importantly, the recently predicted isolated radial vortices at room temperature and under zero bias field. Especially, the radial vortex state with its absolute convergence to or divergence from a single point can potentially offer exciting new applications such as particle trapping/detrapping in addition to magnetoresistive memories with efficient switching, where the radial vortex state can act as a source of spin-polarized current with radial polarization.