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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Brillouin light scattering study of spin waves in NiFe/Co exchange spring bilayer films

Spin waves are investigated in Permalloy(Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20})/Cobalt(Co) exchange spring bilayer thin films using Brillouin light scattering (BLS) experiment. The magnetic hysteresis loops measured by magneto-optical Kerr effect show a monotonic decrease in coercivity of the bilayer films with increasing Py thickness. BLS study shows two distinct modes, which are modelled as Damon-Eshbach and perpendicular standing wave modes. Linewidths of the frequency peaks are found to increase significantly with decreasing Py layer thickness. Interfacial roughness causes to fluctuate exchange coupling at the nanoscale regimes and the effect is stronger for thinner Py films. A quantitative analysis of the magnon linewidths shows the presence of strong local exchange coupling field which is much larger compared to macroscopic exchange field.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

The role of Pt underlayer on the magnetization dynamics of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy Pt/Co{sub 2}FeAl{sub 0.5}Si{sub 0.5}/MgO

We investigate the role of Pt on the magnetization dynamics of Pt/Co{sub 2}FeAl{sub 0.5}Si{sub 0.5}/MgO with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy using the time resolved magneto-optic Kerr effect. Pt/Co{sub 2}FeAl{sub 0.5}Si{sub 0.5}/MgO shows ultrafast magnetization dynamics comparable to 3d ferromagnets and can be fully demagnetized. The demagnetization time τ{sub d} ∼ 0.27 ps and magnetic heat capacity are independent of the Pt underlayer, whereas the value of the electron-phonon coupling time τ{sub e} ∼ 0.77 ps depends on the presence of the Pt layer. We further measure the effective damping α{sub eff} ∼ 1 that does not scale as the inverse demagnetization time (1/τ{sub d}), but is strongly affected by the Pt layer.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Modifying magnetic properties of ultra-thin magnetite films by growth on Fe pre-covered MgO(001)

Iron oxide films were reactively grown on iron buffer films, which were deposited before on MgO(001) substrates to analyze the influence of the initial iron buffer layers on the magnetic properties of the magnetite films. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and low energy electron diffraction showed that magnetite films of high crystalline quality in the surface near region were formed by this two-step deposition procedure. The underlying iron film, however, was completely oxidized as proved by x-ray reflectometry and diffraction. The structural bulk quality of the iron oxide film is poor compared to magnetite films directly grown on MgO(001). Although the iron film was completely oxidized, we found drastically modified magnetic properties for these films using the magnetooptic Kerr effect. The magnetite films had strongly increased coercive fields, and their magnetic in-plane anisotropy is in-plane rotated by 45∘ compared to magnetite films formed directly by one step reactive growth on MgO(001)

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Evaluation of magnetic flux distribution from magnetic domains in [Co/Pd] nanowires by magnetic domain scope method using contact-scanning of tunneling magnetoresistive sensor

Current-driven magnetic domain wall motions in magnetic nanowires have attracted great interests for physical studies and engineering applications. The magnetic force microscope (MFM) is widely used for indirect verification of domain locations in nanowires, where relative magnetic force between the local domains and the MFM probe is used for detection. However, there is an occasional problem that the magnetic moments of MFM probe influenced and/or rotated the magnetic states in the low-moment nanowires. To solve this issue, the “magnetic domain scope for wide area with nano-order resolution (nano-MDS)” method has been proposed recently that could detect the magnetic flux distribution from the specimen directly by scanning of tunneling magnetoresistive field sensor. In this study, magnetic domain structure in nanowires was investigated by both MFM and nano-MDS, and the leakage magnetic flux density from the nanowires was measured quantitatively by nano-MDS. Specimen nanowires consisted from [Co (0.3)/Pd (1.2)]{sub 21}/Ru(3) films (units in nm) with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy were fabricated onto Si substrates by dual ion beam sputtering and e-beam lithography. The length and the width of the fabricated nanowires are 20 μm and 150 nm. We have succeeded to obtain not only the remanent domain images with the detection of up and down magnetizations as similar as those by MFM but also magnetic flux density distribution from nanowires directly by nano-MDS. The obtained value of maximum leakage magnetic flux by nano-MDS is in good agreement with that of coercivity by magneto-optical Kerr effect microscopy. By changing the protective diamond-like-carbon film thickness on tunneling magnetoresistive sensor, the three-dimensional spatial distribution of leakage magnetic flux could be evaluated.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Helical filaments

The shaping of laser-induced filamenting plasma channels into helical structures by guiding the process with a non-diffracting beam is demonstrated. This was achieved using a Bessel beam superposition to control the phase of an ultrafast laser beam possessing intensities sufficient to induce Kerr effect driven non-linear self-focusing. Several experimental methods were used to characterize the resulting beams and confirm the observed structures are laser air filaments.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Modifying exchange-spring behavior of CoPt/NiFe bilayer by inserting a Pt or Ru spacer

We herein explore the possibility of obtaining tunable tilted magnetic anisotropy in ordered-CoPt (5 nm)/NiFe(t{sub NiFe}) bilayers through modifying their exchange spring behavior by inserting Pt and Ru-spacers. The tuning process of tilt angle magnetization of NiFe-layer was systematically investigated by varying the Pt or Ru thickness (t{sub Pt} or t{sub Ru}) from 0 to 8 nm at different thicknesses of NiFe (t{sub NiFe} = 1.5, 4.0, and 6.0 nm). Polar magneto-optic Kerr effect (p-MOKE) studies reveal that the bilayers grown in absence of spacers exhibit almost a rectangular hysteresis loop. With the insertion of Pt-spacer, the loop becomes more and more tilted as t{sub Pt} increases; whereas, in the case of Ru-spacer, the nature of the loops is not simply changing in one direction. The estimated SQR{sub ⊥} (= θ{sub r}/θ{sub s}) values from the p-MOKE loops are found to monotonically decrease with increasing t{sub Pt} when t{sub Pt} ≦ 4 nm. In contrast, in the case of Ru-spacer, an oscillatory behavior for the SQR{sub ⊥} values is apparent when t{sub Ru} ≦ 4 nm. As a result, an oscillatory tilted angle of NiFe spin configuration was obtained in the case of Ru-spacer; while a decoupling effect was prominent for the Pt-spacer. The results of present study reveal that the insertion of Pt and Ru-spacers as an appropriate means for realizing tunable tilted magnetic anisotropy in the CoPt/NiFe exchange springs.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Influence of an electric field on the spin-reorientation transition in Ni/Cu(100)

Magnetoelectric coupling offers the possibility to change the magnetic state of a material by an applied electric field. Over the last few years, metallic systems have come up as simple prototypes for this interaction. While the previous studies focused on Fe and Co thin films or their alloys, here we demonstrate magnetoelectric coupling in a Ni thin film which is close to a spin-reorientation transition. Our magneto-optic Kerr effect measurements on 10 ML of Ni/Cu(100) show a considerable influence of the applied electric field on the magnetism. This rounds off the range of magnetic metals that exhibit magnetoelectric coupling, and it reveals the possibility of an electric field control of a spin-reorientation transition.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Magnetic stripe domains of [Pt/Co/Cu]{sub 10} multilayer near spin reorientation transition

The dependence of magnetic anisotropy, magnetic domain patterns and magnetization reversal processes in [Pt/Co(t{sub Co})/Cu]{sub 10} film stack epitaxied on Cu (111) substrate have been studied as a function of the Co layer thickness t{sub Co}, by magneto-optic polar Kerr magnetometry and microscopy. We find the film undergoes spin reorientation transition from out-of-plane to in-plane as t{sub Co} increases. The SRT thickness is verified by Rotating-field Magneto-Optic Kerr effect method. The film exhibits the stripe domain structures at remanence with the width decreasing while t{sub Co} approaches SRT. As demonstrated by the first order reversal curve measurement, the magnetization reversal process encompasses irreversible domain nucleation, domain annihilation at large field and reversible domain switching near remanence.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2019

Micromagnetic and Magnetooptical Properties of Ferromagnetic/Heavy Metal Thin Film Structures

The magnetic properties of CoPt, CoPd, and FePd thin films with different contents of a ferromagnetic material fabricated by electron beam evaporation have been compared. The micromagnetic structure investigations have shown a decrease in the magnetic domain size with an increase in the Co content in the CoPt and CoPd films, which has been attributed to the presence of two magnetic phases in the films. The magnetooptical studies have shown anomalously large Faraday angles and the absence of Kerr effect in the CoPt films, which make them attractive for application in optics. In the FePd films, the minimum coercivity values have been obtained from the magnetic-field dependences of the magnetization, which has also been related to the magnetic structure features.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Structural and magnetic properties of ion beam sputtered Co{sub 2}FeAl full Heusler alloy thin films

Co{sub 2}FeAl full Heusler alloy thin films grown at different temperatures on Si(100) substrates using ion beam sputtering system have been investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns revealed the A2 disordered phase in these films. The deduced lattice parameter slightly increases with increase in the growth temperature. The saturation magnetization it is found to increase with increase in growth temperature. The magnetic anisotropy has been studied using angle dependent magneto-optical Kerr effect. In the room temperature deposited film, the combination of cubic and uniaxial anisotropy have been observed with weak in-plane uniaxial anisotropy which increases with growth temperature. The uniaxial anisotropy is attributed to the anisotropic interfacial bonding in these Co{sub 2}FeAl /Si(100) heterostructures.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Single-shot switching in Tb/Co-multilayer based nanoscale magnetic tunnel junctions

Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) are elementary units of magnetic memory devices. For high-speed and low-power data storage and processing applications, fast reversal of the magnetization by an ultrashort laser pulse is extremely important. Here we demonstrate single-shot switching of Tb/Co-multilayer based nanoscale MTJs by combining the optical writing and the electrical read-out methods. A 90-fs-long laser pulse switches the magnetization of the storage layer (SL). The change in the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) between the SL and a reference layer (RL) is probed electrically across the oxide barrier. Single-shot switching is demonstrated by varying the cell diameter from 300 nm to 20 nm. The anisotropy, magnetostatic coupling, and switching probability exhibit cell-size dependence. By suitable association of laser fluence and magnetic field, successive commutation between high-resistance and low-resistance states is achieved. The nature of the magnetization reversal of both SL and RL in a continuous film is probed with a depth-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) magnetometry. The ultrafast dynamics in the continuous full-MTJ stack is investigated with the time-resolved pump–probe technique. Our experimental findings provide strong support for the growing interest in ultrafast spintronic devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Transient enhancement of magnetization damping in CoFeB film via pulsed laser excitation

Laser-induced spin dynamics of in-plane magnetized CoFeB films has been studied by using time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements. While the effective demagnetization field shows little dependence on the pump laser fluence, the intrinsic damping constant has been found to be increased from 0.008 to 0.076 with the increase in the pump fluence from 2 mJ/cm{sup 2} to 20 mJ/cm{sup 2}. This sharp enhancement has been shown to be transient and ascribed to the heating effect induced by the pump laser excitation, as the damping constant is almost unchanged when the pump-probe measurements are performed at a fixed pump fluence of 5 mJ/cm{sup 2} after irradiation by high power pump pulses.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Absence of strain-mediated magnetoelectric coupling at fully epitaxial Fe/BaTiO{sub 3} interface (invited)

Interfacial MagnetoElectric coupling (MEC) at ferroelectric/ferromagnetic interfaces has recently emerged as a promising route to achieve electrical writing of magnetic information in spintronic devices. For the prototypical Fe/BaTiO{sub 3} (BTO) system, various MEC mechanisms have been theoretically predicted. Experimentally, it is well established that using BTO single crystal substrates MEC is dominated by strain-mediated mechanisms. In case of ferromagnetic layers epitaxially grown onto BTO films, instead, no direct evidence for MEC has been provided, apart from the results obtained on tunneling junction sandwiching a BTO tunneling barrier. In this paper, MEC at fully epitaxial Fe/BTO interface is investigated by Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect and magnetoresistance measurements on magnetic tunnel junctions fabricated on BTO. We find no evidence for strain-mediated MEC mechanisms in epitaxial systems, likely due to clamping of BTO to the substrate. Our results indicate that pure electronic MEC is the route of choice to be explored for achieving the electrical writing of information in epitaxial ferromagnet-ferroelectric heterostructures.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Magnetic properties on the surface of FeAl stripes induced by nanosecond pulsed laser irradiation

We demonstrate the formation of magnetic nanostripes on the surface of Fe{sub 52}Al{sub 48} induced by nanosecond pulsed laser irradiation and investigate their magnetic properties. The magnetic stripe consists of a disordered A2 phase of Fe-Al alloys with Al-oxide along the [110] direction on the (111)-oriented plane. According to the focused magneto-optical Kerr effect measurement, the coercive force of the magnetic stripe obeys the 1/cos θ law, where θ is the field rotation angle estimated from the stripe direction. Also, the jump field can be observed in the magnetic hysteresis loop. These results indicate that the magnetization reversal in the magnetic stripe originates from the domain pinning, showing that the magnetization rotates incoherently.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Simulations of magnetic hysteresis loops at high temperatures

The kinetic Monte-Carlo algorithm as well as standard micromagnetics are used to simulate MH loops of high anisotropy magnetic recording media at both short and long time scales over a wide range of temperatures relevant to heat-assisted magnetic recording. Microscopic parameters, common to both methods, were determined by fitting to experimental data on single-layer FePt-based media that uses the Magneto-Optic Kerr effect with a slow sweep rate of 700 Oe/s. Saturation moment, uniaxial anisotropy, and exchange constants are given an intrinsic temperature dependence based on published atomistic simulations of FePt grains with an effective Curie temperature of 680 K. Our results show good agreement between micromagnetics and kinetic Monte Carlo results over a wide range of sweep rates. Loops at the slow experimental sweep rates are found to become more square-shaped, with an increasing slope, as temperature increases from 300 K. These effects also occur at higher sweep rates, typical of recording speeds, but are much less pronounced. These results demonstrate the need for accurate determination of intrinsic thermal properties of future recording media as input to micromagnetic models as well as the sensitivity of the switching behavior of thin magnetic films to applied field sweep rates at higher temperatures.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Tunnelling anisotropic magnetoresistance at La{sub 0.67}Sr{sub 0.33}MnO{sub 3}-graphene interfaces

Using ferromagnetic La{sub 0.67}Sr{sub 0.33}MnO{sub 3} electrodes bridged by single-layer graphene, we observe magnetoresistive changes of ∼32–35 MΩ at 5 K. Magneto-optical Kerr effect microscopy at the same temperature reveals that the magnetoresistance arises from in-plane reorientations of electrode magnetization, evidencing tunnelling anisotropic magnetoresistance at the La{sub 0.67}Sr{sub 0.33}MnO{sub 3}-graphene interfaces. Large resistance switching without spin transport through the non-magnetic channel could be attractive for graphene-based magnetic-sensing applications.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Generation of ultrashort pulses with minimum duration of 90 fs in a hybrid mode-locked erbium-doped all-fibre ring laser

Regimes of ultrashort pulse generation in an erbium-doped all-fibre ring laser with hybrid mode locking based on single-wall carbon – boron nitride nanotubes and the nonlinear Kerr effect in fibre waveguides are studied. Stable dechirped ultrashort pulses are obtained with a duration of ∼90 fs, a repetition rate of ∼42.2 MHz, and an average output power of ∼16.7 mW, which corresponds to a pulse energy of ∼0.4 nJ and a peak laser power of ∼4.4 kW. (control of laser radiation parameters)

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Laterally localizing potential as a tool for controlling the electron spin relaxation time in GaAs quantum wells

The coherent spin dynamics of electrons localized in a plane of GaAs quantum wells is studied experimentally by the application of an electrically controlled potential. The localizing potential is produced with the use of a metal gate with submicrometer windows deposited onto the sample surface. The photoinduced spin Kerr effect is used to study the electron spin lifetime as a function of the temperature, applied bias, and magnetic field for gates with different sets of windows. It is shown that, with an electrically controlled laterally localizing potential, it is possible to gradually change the electron spin lifetime from several hundreds of picoseconds to several tens of nanoseconds. The dependence of the electron spin relaxation time on the sizes of the lateral localization region is in good qualitative agreement with theoretical prediction.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗