- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine
Access Provided by Xinjiang University

Physical Review Applied

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Access by Xinjiang University

Noise-Enhanced Synchronization of Stochastic Magnetic Oscillators

N. Locatelli1,2, A. Mizrahi1,2, A. Accioly1,2,3, R. Matsumoto4, A. Fukushima4, H. Kubota4, S. Yuasa4, V. Cros1, L. G. Pereira3 et al.

D. Querlioz2, J.-V. Kim2, and J. Grollier1,*

  • 1Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/Thales, 1 avenue A. Fresnel, Campus de l’Ecole Polytechnique, 91767 Palaiseau, France, and Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay, France
  • 2Institut d’Electronique Fondamentale, UMR CNRS 8622, Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay, France
  • 3Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 91501-970, Brazil
  • 4National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568, Japan

  • *julie.grollier@thalesgroup.com
PDF

Phys. Rev. Applied 2, 034009 – Published 16 September, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.2.034009

Abstract

We present an experimental study of phase locking in a stochastic magnetic oscillator. The system comprises a magnetic tunnel junction with a superparamagnetic free layer, whose magnetization dynamics is driven with spin torques through an external periodic driving current. We show that synchronization of this stochastic oscillator to the input current is possible for current densities below 3×106  A/cm2, and occurs for input frequencies lower than the natural mean frequency of the stochastic oscillator. We show that such injection locking is robust and leads to a drastic reduction in the phase diffusion of the stochastic oscillator, despite the presence of a frequency mismatch between the oscillator and the excitation.

View figure in article

Article Text

References (33)

  1. N. Locatelli, V. Cros, and J. Grollier, Spin-torque building blocks, Nat. Mater. 13, 11 (2014).
  2. W. H. Rippard, M. R. Pufall, S. Kaka, T. J. Silva, S. E. Russek, and J. A. Katine, Injection locking and phase control of spin transfer nano-oscillators, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 067203 (2005).
  3. B. Georges, J. Grollier, M. Darques, V. Cros, C. Deranlot, B. Marcilhac, G. Faini, and A. Fert, Coupling efficiency for phase locking of a spin transfer nano-oscillator to a microwave current, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 017201 (2008).
  4. Sergei Urazhdin, Phillip Tabor, Vasil Tiberkevich, and Andrei Slavin, Fractional synchronization of spin-torque nano-oscillators, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 104101 (2010).
  5. A. Dussaux, A. V. Khvalkovskiy, J. Grollier, V. Cros, A. Fukushima, M. Konoto, H. Kubota, K. Yakushiji, S. Yuasa, K. Ando, and A. Fert, Phase locking of vortex based spin transfer oscillators to a microwave current, Appl. Phys. Lett. 98, 132506 (2011).
  6. Shehzaad Kaka, Matthew R. Pufall, William H. Rippard, Thomas J. Silva, Stephen E. Russek, and Jordan A. Katine, Mutual phase locking of microwave spin torque nano-oscillators, Nature (London) 437, 389 (2005).
  7. F. B. Mancoff, N. D. Rizzo, B. N. Engel, and S. Tehrani, Phase-locking in double-point-contact spin-transfer devices, Nature (London) 437, 393 (2005).
  8. J. Grollier, V. Cros, and A. Fert, Synchronization of spin-transfer oscillators driven by stimulated microwave currents, Phys. Rev. B 73, 060409 (2006).
  9. A. Ruotolo, V. Cros, B. Georges, A. Dussaux, J. Grollier, C. Deranlot, R. Guillemet, K. Bouzehouane, S. Fusil, and A. Fert, Phase-locking of magnetic vortices mediated by antivortices, Nat. Nanotechnol. 4, 528 (2009).
  10. S. Sani, J. Persson, S. M. Mohseni, Ye Pogoryelov, P. K. Muduli, A. Eklund, G. Malm, M. Käll, A. Dmitriev, and J. Åkerman, Mutually synchronized bottom-up multi-nanocontact spin-torque oscillators, Nat. Commun. 4, 2731 (2013).
  11. M. Quinsat, D. Gusakova, J. F. Sierra, J. P. Michel, D. Houssameddine, B. Delaet, M.-C. Cyrille, U. Ebels, B. Dieny, L. D. Buda-Prejbeanu, J. A. Katine, D. Mauri, A. Zeltser, M. Prigent, J.-C. Nallatamby, and R. Sommet, Amplitude and phase noise of magnetic tunnel junction oscillators, Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 182507 (2010).
  12. Eva Grimaldi, Antoine Dussaux, Paolo Bortolotti, Julie Grollier, Grégoire Pillet, Akio Fukushima, Hitoshi Kubota, Kay Yakushiji, Shinji Yuasa, and Vincent Cros, Response to noise of a vortex based spin transfer nano-oscillator, Phys. Rev. B 89, 104404 (2014).
  13. Q. Mistral, M. van Kampen, G. Hrkac, Joo-Von Kim, T. Devolder, P. Crozat, C. Chappert, L. Lagae, and T. Schrefl, Current-driven vortex oscillations in metallic nanocontacts, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 257201 (2008).
  14. V. S. Pribiag, I. N. Krivorotov, G. D. Fuchs, P. M. Braganca, O. Ozatay, J. C. Sankey, D. C. Ralph, and R. A. Buhrman, Magnetic vortex oscillator driven by d.c. spin-polarized current, Nat. Phys. 3, 498 (2007).
  15. A. Dussaux, B. Georges, J. Grollier, V. Cros, A. V. Khvalkovskiy, A. Fukushima, M. Konoto, H. Kubota, K. Yakushiji, S. Yuasa, K. A. Zvezdin, K. Ando, and A. Fert, Large microwave generation from current-driven magnetic vortex oscillators in magnetic tunnel junctions, Nat. Commun. 1, 1 (2010).
  16. N. Locatelli, V. V. Naletov, J. Grollier, G. de Loubens, V. Cros, C. Deranlot, C. Ulysse, G. Faini, O. Klein, and A. Fert, Dynamics of two coupled vortices in a spin valve nanopillar excited by spin transfer torque, Appl. Phys. Lett. 98, 062501 (2011).
  17. D. Gusakova, M. Quinsat, J. F. Sierra, U. Ebels, B. Dieny, L. D. Buda-Prejbeanu, M.-C. Cyrille, V. Tiberkevich, and A. N. Slavin, Linewidth reduction in a spin-torque nano-oscillator caused by non-conservative current-induced coupling between magnetic layers, Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 052501 (2011).
  18. X. Cheng, C. T. Boone, J. Zhu, and I. N. Krivorotov, Nonadiabatic stochastic resonance of a nanomagnet excited by spin torque, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 047202 (2010).
  19. X. Cheng, J. A. Katine, G. E. Rowlands, and I. N. Krivorotov, Nonlinear ferromagnetic resonance induced by spin torque in nanoscale magnetic tunnel junctions, Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 082402 (2013).
  20. G. Finocchio, I. N. Krivorotov, X. Cheng, L. Torres, and B. Azzerboni, Micromagnetic understanding of stochastic resonance driven by spin-transfer-torque, Phys. Rev. B 83, 134402 (2011).
  21. M. d’Aquino, C. Serpico, R. Bonin, G. Bertotti, and I. D. Mayergoyz, Stochastic resonance in noise-induced transitions between self-oscillations and equilibria in spin-valve nanomagnets, Phys. Rev. B 84, 214415 (2011).
  22. Luca Gammaitoni, Peter Hänggi, Peter Jung, and Fabio Marchesoni, Stochastic resonance, Rev. Mod. Phys. 70, 223 (1998).
  23. Alexander Neiman, Alexander Silchenko, Vadim Anishchenko, and Lutz Schimansky-Geier, Stochastic resonance: Noise-enhanced phase coherence, Phys. Rev. E 58, 7118 (1998).
  24. Jan A. Freund, Lutz Schimansky-Geier, and Peter Hänggi, Frequency and phase synchronization in stochastic systems, Chaos 13, 225 (2003).
  25. S. Bahar, A. Neiman, L. A. Wilkens, and F. Moss, Phase synchronization and stochastic resonance effects in the crayfish caudal photoreceptor, Phys. Rev. E 65, 050901(R) (2002).
  26. T. Mori and S. Kai, Noise-induced entrainment and stochastic resonance in human brain waves, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 218101 (2002).
  27. A. Samardak, A. Nogaret, N. B. Janson, A. G. Balanov, I. Farrer, and D. A. Ritchie, Noise-controlled signal transmission in a multithread semiconductor neuron, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 226802 (2009).
  28. B. Shulgin, A. Neiman, and V. Anishchenko, Mean switching frequency locking in stochastic bistable systems driven by a periodic force, Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 4157 (1995).
  29. I. A. Khovanov and P. V. E. McClintock, Synchronization of stochastic bistable systems by biperiodic signals, Phys. Rev. E 76, 031122 (2007).
  30. S. Barbay, G. Giacomelli, S. Lepri, and A. Zavatta, Experimental study of noise-induced phase synchronization in vertical-cavity lasers, Phys. Rev. E 68, 020101(R) (2003).
  31. William Rippard, Ranko Heindl, Matthew Pufall, Stephen Russek, and Anthony Kos, Thermal relaxation rates of magnetic nanoparticles in the presence of magnetic fields and spin-transfer effects, Phys. Rev. B 84, 064439 (2011).
  32. Z. Li and S. Zhang, Thermally assisted magnetization reversal in the presence of a spin-transfer torque, Phys. Rev. B 69, 134416 (2004).
  33. G. Csaba, M. Pufall, D. E. Nikonov, G. I. Bourianoff, A. Horvath, T. Roska, and W. Porod, Spin torque oscillator models for applications in associative memories, in Proceedings of the 13th International Cellular Nanoscale Networks and Their Applications (CNNA) Workshop, 2012 (IEEE, Turin, 2012), pp. 1 and 2.

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Applied 2, 034009– Published 16 September, 2014
  • Received 16 May 2014

© 2014 American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation