2005/10/31 by N. C. Emley, I. N. Krivorotov, A. G. F. Garcia +6 · 2 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Magnetic Properties and Applications #Magnetic properties of thin films #Metallic Glasses and Amorphous Alloys #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.96.247204
5 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2005/11/01 · openalex publication_date 2006/06/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report time-resolved measurements of current-induced reversal of a free magnetic layer in Permalloy/Cu/Permalloy elliptical nanopillars at temperatures T=4.2 K to 160 K. Comparison of the data to Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert macrospin simulations of the free layer switching yields numerical values for the spin torque and the Gilbert damping parameters as functions of T. The damping is strongly T dependent, which we attribute to the presence of an antiferromagnetic oxide layer around the perimeter of the Permalloy free layer. This adventitious antiferromagnetic oxide can have a major impact on spin-torque phenomena.