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Concave nanomagnets: investigation of anisotropy properties and applications to nanomagnetic logic

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Abstract

Emerging applications for nanomagnets demand increasingly precise control of magnetic anisotropy. To date, many of the available mechanisms for controlling anisotropy have placed restrictions on a nanomagnet’s material, size, or thickness, particularly when more than one easy axis is required. This gives rise to practical and fundamental challenges to designing nanomagnet-based devices. Here, we review an experimental investigation of configurational anisotropy in concave nanomagnets, motivated by the finding that, in concave geometries, small adjustments to a nanomagnet’s shape result in large, predictable changes in its anisotropy profile. We first employ magnetooptical techniques to characterize nanomagnets with concave shapes. We then design and test a nanomagnetic logic architecture using concave nanomagnets that exhibits improved reliability relative to existing designs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Berkeley, USA

    Brian Lambson, Zheng Gu, Morgan Monroe, Scott Dhuey, Andreas Scholl & Jeffrey Bokor

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  1. Brian Lambson
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  2. Zheng Gu
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Correspondence to Brian Lambson.

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Lambson, B., Gu, Z., Monroe, M. et al. Concave nanomagnets: investigation of anisotropy properties and applications to nanomagnetic logic. Appl. Phys. A 111, 413–421 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-013-7654-y

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