Mathias Weiler: Interfacial spin torques and helical magnets for nanomagnonics

Complimentary approaches to semiconductor transistor-based computation are vigorously sought after to satisfy our ever-increasing demand for computational power. A promising approach is found in exploiting the electronic spin degree of freedom for information storage, transport and processing. The field of magnonics aims to exploit the collective spin excitations of magnetically ordered materials for this purpose. Here I show that all-magnetic heterostructures and helical magnets are promising platforms for nanomagnonic applications. We exploit interfacial spin torques at a metallic magnet / magnetic insulator interface for the efficient excitation of spin waves with wavelengths below 100 nm in a macroscopic device [1]. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrate that the intrinsic periodicity of helical magnets leads to the formation of natural magnonic crystals with lattice constants in the order of 100 nm [2].

[1] S. Klingler et al., ArXiv:1712.02561 (2017) (Phys. Rev. Lett., in press).

[2] M. Weiler et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 237204 (2017).