Controllable switching of vortex chirality in magnetic nanodisks by a field pulse

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method for rapidly switching the vortex chirality in magnetic nanodisks using an inhomogeneous field pulse, with a new mathematical definition for particle chirality.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach for controllably switching vortex chirality in nanodisks using a field pulse and proposes a mathematical definition for particle chirality.

Findings

Chirality can be switched by a field pulse above a critical intensity.

An inhomogeneous field influences the vortex state.

A new mathematical definition for particle chirality is proposed.

Abstract

We propose a way of fast switching the chirality in a magnetic nanodisk by applying a field pulse. To break the symmetry with respect to clockwise or counterclockwise chirality a mask is added by which an inhomogeneous field influences the vortex state of a nanodisk. Using numerical spin--lattice simulations we demonstrate that chirality can be controllably switched by a field pulse, whose intensity is above some critical value. A mathematical definition for the chirality of an arbitrary shaped particle is proposed.