Spin current and optically driven single and interacting magnetodynamic solitons – bullets, droplets, and dynamical skyrmions

Spin torque nano-oscillators (STNOs) and Spin Hall nano-oscillators (SHNOs) are nanoscopic, ultratunable (0.1 – 100 GHz), and ultrafast modulated microwave oscillators, with tremendous potential for disruptive use in mobile telephony, networking, interchip communication, and vehicle radar.

They can also host a number of recently discovered and proposed  magnetodynamical solitons such as spin wave bullets, magnetic droplets, and dynamical skyrmions. The proposed project will study these solitons in detail with particular focus on their interactions.

The project is directly situated within the extremely active research fields of spintronics, magnonics, and nanomagnetism, which are currently undergoing a veritable revolution where extremely rapid advances are driven by steady progress along four critical dimensions: i) novel physical phenomena, ii) availability, yield and reliability of high-quality thin film materials and nanolithography techniques, iii) throughput and versatility of microwave and optical techniques, and iv) speed and user friendliness of numerical simulations.

The proposed project involves all four dimensions and builds on a large number of breakthrough discoveries and demonstrations by the applicant.

The group is e.g. behind the discovery of both the magnetic droplet and the dynamical skyrmion, and recent break-through demonstrations of the first direct images of magnetic droplets, the freezing and thawing of droplets, and dual strongly interacting droplets.