TY - JOUR
T1 - Phase Locking of a Pair of Ferromagnetic Nano-oscillators on a Topological Insulator
AU - Wang, Cheng Zhen
AU - Xu, Hong Ya
AU - Rizzo, Nicholas D.
AU - Kiehl, Richard
AU - Lai, Ying-Cheng
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge support from the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship Program sponsored by the Basic Research Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and funded by the Office of Naval Research through Grant No. N00014-16-1-2828.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Physical Society.
PY - 2018/12/3
Y1 - 2018/12/3
N2 - We investigate the magnetization dynamics of a pair of ferromagnetic insulators (FMIs) deposited on the surface of a topological insulator (TI). Because of the nonlinear nature of the underlying physics and intrinsic dynamics, the FMIs can exhibit oscillatory behaviors even under a constant applied voltage. The motion of the surface electrons of the TI, which obeys relativistic quantum mechanics, provides a mechanism of direct coupling between the FMIs. In particular, the spin-polarized current of the TI surface electrons can affect the magnetization of the two FMIs, which in turn modulates the electron transport, giving rise to a hybrid relativistic quantum and classical nonlinear dynamical system. We find robust phase and antiphase locking between the magnetization dynamics. As driving the surface electrons of a TI requires only extremely low power, our finding suggests that nanoscale FMIs coupled by a spin-polarized current on the surface of a TI have the potential to serve as the fundamental building blocks of unconventional, low-power computing paradigms.
AB - We investigate the magnetization dynamics of a pair of ferromagnetic insulators (FMIs) deposited on the surface of a topological insulator (TI). Because of the nonlinear nature of the underlying physics and intrinsic dynamics, the FMIs can exhibit oscillatory behaviors even under a constant applied voltage. The motion of the surface electrons of the TI, which obeys relativistic quantum mechanics, provides a mechanism of direct coupling between the FMIs. In particular, the spin-polarized current of the TI surface electrons can affect the magnetization of the two FMIs, which in turn modulates the electron transport, giving rise to a hybrid relativistic quantum and classical nonlinear dynamical system. We find robust phase and antiphase locking between the magnetization dynamics. As driving the surface electrons of a TI requires only extremely low power, our finding suggests that nanoscale FMIs coupled by a spin-polarized current on the surface of a TI have the potential to serve as the fundamental building blocks of unconventional, low-power computing paradigms.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.10.064003
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.10.064003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85057713473
VL - 10
JO - Physical Review Applied
JF - Physical Review Applied
SN - 2331-7019
IS - 6
M1 - 064003
ER -