V-ChiralSpin · Voltage Control of Chiral Spin Structures

Voltage Control of Chiral Spin Structures

The goal of V-CHIRALSPIN is to use voltages to manipulate, create, and delete chiral spin structures, i.e., chiral domain wall (DW) spin textures and skyrmions, thus providing the conceptual basis necessary to build a new generation of high density memory technologies with low power consumption. Chiral spin structures allow for fast current-driven spin dynamics and large densities in solid-state devices. The project aims to develop voltage control of chiral spin structures as a powerful strategy towards energy-efficient memory and logic applications. Combining the fields of electric field control of magnetism and chiral spin structures would enable voltage control of chiral spin structures and thus spintronic devices with reduced power consumption and added functionality by reducing or even eliminating the need for electric currents or magnetic fields. Using voltages to create and delete chiral spin structures or to affect their dynamics offers an energy efficient approach superior to manipulation with currents. In light of this, the research project aims to develop strain-coupled multiferroic heterostructures to demonstrate voltage control of chiral spin structures (i.e., manipulation, creation, and deletion), determine and quantify the coupling effects, and explore potential device concepts. The project merges two fields of nanomagnetism, functioning as a starting point for a novel research direction. The project is to be explored in detail through three key objectives: 1. Establish suitable multiferroic heterostructures and demonstrate the writing, deleting and tuning of chiral DW spin textures and skyrmions using voltages. 2. Determine and quantify the exact effect of strain transfer that allows for voltage control of chiral spin structures. 3. Explore the possibility to control DW and skyrmion propagation with the aim to create gates usable in logic devices. Combining thin film deposition techniques (Molecular Beam Epitaxy and Sputtering) with magnetic microscopy (Spin Polarised Low Energy Electron Microscopy and Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect Microscopy) with Micromagnetic Simulations and analytical modelling all three objectives have been met. The conclusions of the action are that (1) domain wall types (Bloch vs Neel) may be modulated by means of tuning anisotropies as well as DMI, which can be easier with applied voltage and (2) novel ferromagnetic domain wall structures may be formed under the influence of imprinted ferroelectric domains.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз