Issue |
EPL
Volume 78, Number 6, June 2007
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 67006 | |
Number of page(s) | 5 | |
Section | Condensed Matter: Electronic Structure, Electrical, Magnetic and Optical Properties | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/78/67006 | |
Published online | 05 June 2007 |
Temporal evolution of exchange bias in spin-valve nanowires on the nanosecond time scale
1
IBM Almaden Research Center - 650 Harry Road, San Jose, CA 95120, USA
2
Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Stanford University - Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Received:
14
January
2007
Accepted:
3
May
2007
Joule heating from current pulses is used to vary the temperature of exchange biased spin-valve nanowires on the nanosecond timescale. By varying the magnitude and duration of a current pulse in the presence of small magnetic fields the temperature dependence of the temporal evolution of the exchange field of the reference magnetic electrode is determined. We observe that with increasing current strength an increasing fraction of the exchange bias anisotropy is reversed consistent with a distribution of exchange bias energies. This reversal takes place on a short time scale of from ∼110 nanoseconds, which we attribute to the switching time of the ferromagnetic reference layer. By using sufficiently large current pulses the direction of the exchange anisotropy can be fully and repeatedly reversed on the nanosecond time scale.
PACS: 75.75.+a – Magnetic properties of nanostructures / 75.60.Nt – Magnetic annealing and temperature-hysteresis effects / 85.75.-d – Magnetoelectronics; spintronics: devices exploiting spin polarized transport or integrated magnetic fields
© Europhysics Letters Association, 2007
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