Nano scale thermo-electrical detection of magnetic domain wall propagation

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a nano-scale thermo-electrical method using the anomalous Nernst effect to precisely detect and track magnetic domain wall propagation in nanowires, achieving high spatial resolution and broad material applicability.

Contribution

It introduces a novel thermo-electrical detection technique based on the anomalous Nernst effect for high-resolution tracking of magnetic domain walls in nanowires.

Findings

Achieved spatial resolution below 20 nm

Successfully detected DW propagation in various materials

Applicable over a broad temperature range

Abstract

In magnetic nanowires with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) magnetic domain walls (DW) are narrow and can move rapidly driven by current induced torques. This enables important applications like high-density memories for which the precise detection of the position and motion of a propagating DW is of utmost interest. Today's DW detection tools are often limited in resolution, or acquisition speed, or can only be applied on specific materials. Here, we show that the anomalous Nernst effect provides a simple and powerful tool to precisely track the position and motion of a single DW propagating in a PMA nanowire. We detect field and current driven DW propagation in both metallic heterostructures and dilute magnetic semiconductors over a broad temperature range. The demonstrated spatial resolution below 20 nm is comparable to the DW width in typical metallic PMA systems.