2025/06/11 by Lin Huang, Joseph Barker, Huang, Lin +11
Physics and Astronomy · Materials Science · Chemistry · #Magnetic properties of thin films #Chemical and Physical Properties of Materials #Advanced Physical and Chemical Molecular Interactions
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.09628
We studied the displacement of magnetic domains under temperature gradients in perpendicularly magnetized Ta/[Pt/Co68B32/Ir]× 10/Pt multilayer tracks with microfabricated Pt heaters/thermometers by magnetic force microscopy (MFM). Subtracting out the effects of the Oersted field from the heating current reveals the pure temperature gradient-driven motion, which is always towards the heater. The higher the thermal gradient along the track (owing to proximity to the heater or larger heater currents), the greater the observed displacements of the domains, up to a velocity of around 1~nm/s in a temperature gradient of 20~K/μm. Quantitative estimates of the strength of different driving mechanisms show that entropic forces dominate over those arising from the spin Seebeck and spin-dependent Seebeck effects.