Switching the magnetic configuration of a spin valve by current induced domain wall motion

Abstract

We present experimental results on the displacement of a domain wall by injection of a dc current through the wall. The samples are 1 micron wide long stripes of a CoO/Co/Cu/NiFe classical spin valve structure. The stripes have been patterned by electron beam lithography. A neck has been defined at 1/3 of the total length of the stripe and is a pinning center for the domain walls, as shown by the steps of the giant magnetoresistance curves at intermediate levels (1/3 or 2/3) between the resistances corresponding to the parallel and antiparallel configurations. We show by electric transport measurements that, once a wall is trapped, it can be moved by injecting a dc current higher than a threshold current of the order of magnitude of 10^7 A/cm^2. We discuss the different possible origins of this effect, i.e. local magnetic field created by the current and/or spin transfer from spin polarized current.

3 pages, 3 figures

Cited by in corpus (28)

• Spin Transfer Torques
• Theory of Current-Driven Domain Wall Motion: A Poorman's Approach
• Microscopic approach to current-driven domain wall dynamics
• Switching a spin-valve back and forth by current-induced domain wall motion
• Domain wall propagation in magnetic nanowires by spin polarized current injection
• Field dependence of magnetization reversal by spin transfer
• Domain wall pinning and potential landscapes created by constrictions and protrusions in ferromagnetic nanowires
• Threshold Current of Domain Wall Motion under Extrinsic Pinning, $\beta$-Term and Non-Adiabaticity
• Magnetic domain walls in constrained geometries
• Reduction of threshold current density for current-driven domain wall motion by shape control
• Theory of Domain Wall Dynamics under Current
• Spin-Torque-Induced Rotational Dynamics of a Magnetic Vortex Dipole
• Universality of thermally assisted magnetic domain wall motion under spin torque
• Magnetic domain wall motion by spin transfer
• Anisotropic Magneto-Thermopower: the Contribution of Interband Relaxation
• Domain wall displacement triggered by an AC current below threshold
• Magnetic domain wall propagation in a submicron spin-valve stripe: influence of the pinned layer
• Spin-transfer in an open ferromagnetic layer: from negative damping to effective temperature
• A Circuit Model for Domain Walls in Ferromagnetic Nanowires: Application to Conductance and Spin Transfer Torques
• Electric manipulation of domain walls in magnetic Weyl semimetals via the axial anomaly
• Non-collinear magnetic structures: a possible cause for current induced switching
• A two-terminal spin valve device controlled by spin-orbit torques with enhanced giant magnetoresistance
• Ultra-high differential mobility and velocity of Néel walls in spin valves with planar-transverse polarizers under low perpendicularly injected currents
• Current distribution in metallic multilayers from resistance measurements
• Excitation Transport through a Domain Wall in a Bose-Einstein Condensate
• Stabilizing current-driven steady flows of 180${}^{\circ }$ domain walls in spin valves by interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction
• Domain wall motion in a diffusive weak ferromagnet
• Slonczewski-spin-current driven dynamics of 180${}^{\circ }$ domain walls in spin valves with interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction