Tunable Magnetoelastic Effects in Voltage-Controlled Exchange-Coupled Composite Multiferroic Microstructures.

The magnetoelectric properties of exchange-coupled Ni/CoFeB-based composite multiferroic microstructures are investigated. The strength and sign of the magnetoelastic effect are found to be strongly correlated with the ratio between the thicknesses of two magnetostrictive materials. In cases where the thickness ratio deviates significantly from one, the magnetoelastic behavior of the multiferroic microstructures is dominated by the thicker layer, which contributes more strongly to the observed magnetoelastic effect. More symmetric structures with a thickness ratio equal to one show an emergent interfacial behavior which cannot be accounted for simply by summing up the magnetoelastic effects occurring in the two constituent layers. This aspect is clearly visible in the case of ultrathin bilayers, where the exchange coupling drastically affects the magnetic behavior of the Ni layer, making the Ni/CoFeB bilayer a promising next-generation synthetic magnetic system entirely. This study demonstrates the richness and high tunability of composite multiferroic systems based on coupled magnetic bilayers compared to their single magnetic layer counterparts. Furthermore, because of the compatibility of CoFeB with present magnetic tunnel junction-based spintronic technologies, the reported findings are expected to be of great interest for the development of ultralow-power magnetoelectric memory devices.

Magnetization reversal in circular vortex dots of small radius.

We present a detailed study of the magnetic behavior of Permalloy (Ni80Fe20 alloy) circular nanodots with small radii (30 nm and 70 nm) and different thicknesses (30 nm or 50 nm). Despite the small size of the dots, the measured hysteresis loops manifestly display the features of classical vortex behavior with zero remanence and lobes at high magnetic fields. This is remarkable because the size of the magnetic vortex core is comparable to the dot diameter, as revealed by magnetic force microscopy and micromagnetic simulations. The dot ground states are close to the border of the vortex stability and, depending on the dot size, the magnetization distribution combines attributes of the typical vortex, single domain states or even presents features resembling magnetic skyrmions. An analytical model of the dot magnetization reversal, accounting for the large vortex core size, is developed to explain the observed behavior, providing a rather good agreement with the experimental results. The study extends the understanding of magnetic nanodots beyond the classical vortex concept (where the vortex core spins have a negligible influence on the magnetic behavior) and can therefore be useful for improving emerging spintronic applications, such as spin-torque nano-oscillators. It also delimits the feasibility of producing a well-defined vortex configuration in sub-100 nm dots, enabling the intracellular magneto-mechanical actuation for biomedical applications.

High-yield fabrication of 60 nm Permalloy nanodiscs in well-defined magnetic vortex state for biomedical applications.

Permalloy disc structures in magnetic vortex state constitute a promising new type of magnetic nanoparticles for biomedical applications. They present high saturation magnetisation and lack of remanence, which ease the remote manipulation of the particles by magnetic fields and avoid the problem of agglomeration, respectively. Importantly, they are also endowed with the capability of low-frequency magneto-mechanical actuation. This effect has already been shown to produce cancer cell destruction using functionalized discs, about 1 µm in diameter, attached to the cell membrane. Here, Permalloy nanodiscs down to 60 nm in diameter are obtained by hole-mask colloidal lithography, which is proved to be a cost-effective method for the uniform patterning of large substrate areas, with a high production yield of nanostructures. The characterisation of the magnetic behaviour of the nanodiscs, complemented with micromagnetic simulations, confirms that they present a very well defined magnetic vortex configuration, unprecedented, to our knowledge, for nanostructures of this size prepared by a high-yield method. The successful detachment of the gold-covered nanodiscs from the substrate is also demonstrated by the use of sacrificial layers.