Investigations of magnetic anisotropy in ferromagnetic thin films and its applications
Dr. S. Sakshath (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore)

Studies on lateral confinement of spin wave excitations and the effects of the spin-transfer torque are at the forefront of research in magnetic devices. One of the important factors influencing the physics of these is the magnetic anisotropy (MA) in the physical system. Fe/GaAs(001) forms a typical system for study in spintronics. The reasons behind the unexpected appearance of an in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (UMA) in cubic ferromagnetic thin films grown on semiconducting substrates, such as Fe/GaAs(001), has been debated for long time. In the talk, some experimental results which support the contribution of electronic structure at the Fe-GaAs interface for UMA will be presented. Two applications of magnetic properties in thin film devices will be elaborated. The first one will be a way of creating a 2 dimensional magnetic medium with periodic variation of MA. It is a possible candidate for use as a magnonic material. The second is a memory device that uses different stable magnetisation configurations in a ferromagnetic nano-ring contacted by nanowires. Switching between memory states can be achieved by passing an electric current.