Grayscale control of local magnetic properties with direct-write laser annealing
arXiv:2401.09314 · doi:10.1038/s41467-025-65921-7
Abstract
Across the fields of magnetism, microelectronics, optics, and others, engineered local variations in physical properties can yield groundbreaking functionalities that play a crucial role in enabling future technologies. Beyond binary modifications, 1D lateral gradients in material properties (achieved by gradients in thickness, stoichiometry, temperature, or strain) give rise to a plethora of new effects in thin film magnetic systems. However, extending such gradient-induced behaviors to 2D is challenging to realize with existing methods, which are plagued by slow processing speeds, dose instabilities, or limitation to variation along one dimension. Here, we show for the first time how commonplace direct-write laser exposure techniques, initially developed for grayscale patterning of photoresist surfaces, can be repurposed to perform grayscale direct-write laser annealing. With this technique, we demonstrate the ease with which two-dimensional, continuous variations in magnetic properties can be created at the mesoscopic scale in numerous application-relevant materials, including ferromagnetic, ferrimagnetic, and synthetic antiferromagnetic thin-film systems. The speed, versatility, and new possibilities to create complex magnetic energy landscapes offered by direct-write laser annealing opens the door to the lateral modification of the magnetic, electronic, and structural properties of a variety of thin films with an abundance of applications.
arXiv comment22 pages, 4 figures, 6 extended data figures
References in corpus (16)
- The design and verification of Mumax3
- Switching of perpendicular magnetization by spin-orbit torques in the absence of external magnetic fields
- Current-induced domain wall motion in compensated ferrimagnet
- LaBonte's method revisited: An effective steepest descent method for micromagnetic energy minimization
- Gradient index phononic crystals and metamaterials
- Correlation between the spin Hall angle and the structural phases of early 5d transition metals
- Helium Ion Microscopy for Reduced Spin Orbit Torque Switching Currents
- Hall detection of a ppm spin polarization
- Asymmetric spin wave dispersion due to a saturation magnetization gradient
- On-demand local modification of high- superconductivity in few unit-cell thick BiSrCaCuO
- Ultralow-loss domain wall motion driven by magnetocrystalline anisotropy gradient in antiferromagnetic nanowire
- Strong lateral exchange coupling and current-induced switching in single-layer ferrimagnetic films with patterned compensation temperature
- Laser patterning of magnonic structure via local crystallization of Yittrium Iron Garnet
- Three-dimensional nanoscale control of magnetism in crystalline Yttrium Iron Garnet
- Magnon-bandgap controllable artificial domain wall waveguide
- Origin of ion bombardment induced Tb oxidation in Tb/Co multilayers