Title :
Domain-Wall-Assisted Switching of Chains of Coupled Nanomagnets
Author :
Varga, Edit ; Csaba, Gyorgy ; Bernstein, Gary H. ; Porod, Wolfgang
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
Abstract :
We experimentally demonstrate that the stray field of a propagating transverse domain wall can switch chains of coupled nanomagnets (nanomagnet wires) to a magnetically ordered, low energy ground state. We fabricated nanomagnet wires consisting of 6 and 20 nanomagnets that were placed adjacent to a domain-wall conductor. Magnetic force microscope images clearly show the nanomagnet wire switching from an initial metastable state to an ordered ground state. This can be exploited for controlled order of nanomagnet switching and for energy-efficient clocking of nanomagnet logic devices. Reference structures were fabricated and characterized to prove our assumptions.
Keywords :
ground states; magnetic domain walls; magnetic force microscopy; magnetic switching; nanofabrication; nanomagnetics; nanowires; coupled nanomagnets; domain-wall conductor; domain-wall-assisted switching; energy-efficient clocking; magnetic force microscopy; magnetically ordered low energy ground state; metastable state; nanomagnet logic devices; nanomagnet switching; nanomagnet wires; propagating transverse domain wall; stray field; Magnetic domain walls; Magnetic domains; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic switching; Magnetization; Switches; Wires; Domain wall (DW); magnetic coupling; magnetic force microscopy; nanomagnet logic (NML); single domain nanomagnet;
Journal_Title :
Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TMAG.2014.2329291