Search results for "mesoscale and nanoscale physics"
showing 10 items of 720 documents
Phenomenology of current-skyrmion interactions in thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
2014
We study skyrmions in magnetic thin films with structural inversion asymmetry perpendicular to the film plane. We determine the magnetization texture of a single skyrmion and its dependence on the strength of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction relative to the magnetostatic energy. Furthermore, we construct a phenomenological model that describes the interaction between the motion of skyrmions and electric currents to lowest order in spin-orbit coupling. We estimate the experimental verifiable velocities for current-driven motion of skyrmion textures based on available results obtained from domain walls dynamics.
Electron-phonon interaction in thin copper and gold films
2004
We have studied the electron-phonon (e-p) interaction in thin Cu and Au films at sub-Kelvin temperatures with the help of the hot electron effect, using symmetric normal metal-insulator-superconductor tunnel junction pairs as thermometers. By Joule heating the electron gas and measuring the electron and the lattice temperatures simultaneously, we show that the electron-phonon scattering rate follows a $T^{4}$ temperature dependence in both metals. The result is in accordance with the theory of e-p scattering in disordered films with vibrating boudaries and impurities, in contrast to the $T^{3}$-law expected for pure samples, and $T^{2}$-law for static disorder.
Large diamagnetic persistent currents
2007
In multichannel rings, evanescent modes will always co-exist with propagating modes. The evanescent modes can carry a very large diamagnetic persistent current that can oscillate with energy and are very sensitive to impurity scattering. This provides a natural explanation for the large diamagnetic persistent currents observed in experiments.
Phenomenology of current-induced skyrmion motion in antiferromagnets
2016
We study current-driven skyrmion motion in uniaxial thin film antiferromagnets in the presence of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions and in an external magnetic field. We phenomenologically include relaxation and current-induced torques due to both spin-orbit coupling and spatially inhomogeneous magnetic textures in the equation for the N\'eel vector of the antiferromagnet. Using the collective coordinate approach we apply the theory to a two-dimensional antiferromagnetic skyrmion and estimate the skyrmion velocity under an applied DC electric current.
Transmission of torque at the nanoscale
2018
In macroscopic mechanical devices torque is transmitted through gearwheels and clutches. In the construction of devices at the nanoscale, torque and its transmission through soft materials will be a key component. However, this regime is dominated by thermal fluctuations leading to dissipation. Here we demonstrate the principle of torque transmission for a disc-like colloidal assembly exhibiting clutch-like behaviour, driven by $27$ particles in optical traps. These are translated on a circular path to form a rotating boundary that transmits torque to additional particles confined to the interior. We investigate this transmission and find that it is determined by solid-like or fluid-like be…
Quantitative modeling of spin relaxation in quantum dots
2011
Physics Department, Harvard University, 02138 Cambridge MA, USA(Dated: December 16, 2011)We use numerically exact diagonalization to calculate the spin-orbit and phonon-induced triplet-singlet relaxation rate in a two-electron quantum dot exposed to a tilted magnetic field. Our schemeincludes a three-dimensional description of the quantum dot, the Rashba and the linear and cubicDresselhaus spin-orbit coupling, the ellipticity of the quantum dot, and the full angular descriptionof the magnetic field. We are able to find reasonable agreement with the experimental results ofMeunier et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 126601 (2007)] in terms of the singlet-triplet energy splittingand the spin relaxation …
Enhanced Nonadiabaticity in Vortex Cores due to the Emergent Hall Effect.
2016
We present a combined theoretical and experimental study, investigating the origin of the enhanced non-adiabaticity of magnetic vortex cores. Scanning transmission X-ray microscopy is used to image the vortex core gyration dynamically to measure the non-adiabaticity with high precision, including a high confidence upper bound. Using both numerical computations and analytical derivations, we show that the large non-adiabaticity parameter observed experimentally can be explained by the presence of local spin currents arising from a texture-induced emergent Hall effect. This enhanced non-adiabaticity is only present in two- and three-dimensional magnetic textures such as vortices and skyrmions…
Kinks and antikinks of buckled graphene: A testing ground for phi^4 field model
2017
Kinks and antikinks of the classical ${\ensuremath{\varphi}}^{4}$ field model are topological solutions connecting its two distinct ground states. Here we establish an analogy between the excitations of a long graphene nanoribbon buckled in the transverse direction and ${\ensuremath{\varphi}}^{4}$ model results. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we investigated the dynamics of a buckled graphene nanoribbon with a single kink and with a kink-antikink pair. Several features of the ${\ensuremath{\varphi}}^{4}$ model have been observed including the kink-antikink capture at low energies, kink-antikink reflection at high energies, and a bounce resonance. Our results pave the way towards the …
Effective field analysis using the full angular spin-orbit torque magnetometry dependence
2017
Spin-orbit torques promise ultra-efficient magnetization switching used for advanced devices based on emergent quasi-particles such as domain walls and skyrmions. Recently, the spin structure dynamics, materials and systems with tailored spin-orbit torques are being developed. A method, which allows one to detect the acting torques in a given system as a function of the magnetization direction is the torque-magnetometry method based on a higher harmonics analysis of the anomalous Hall-effect. Here we show that the effective fields acting on magnetic domain walls that govern the efficiency of their dynamics require a sophisticated analysis taking into account the full angular dependence of t…
Image charge dynamics in time-dependent quantum transport
2012
In this work we investigate the effects of the electron-electron interaction between a molecular junction and the metallic leads in time-dependent quantum transport. We employ the recently developed embedded Kadanoff-Baym method [Phys. Rev. B 80, 115107 (2009)] and show that the molecule-lead interaction changes substantially the transient and steady-state transport properties. We first show that the mean-field Hartree-Fock (HF) approximation does not capture the polarization effects responsible for the renormalization of the molecular levels neither in nor out of equilibrium. Furthermore, due to the time-local nature of the HF self-energy there exists a region in parameter space for which …