Current-induced instability of domain walls in cylindrical nanowires

Abstract

We study the current-driven domain wall (DW) motion in cylindrical nanowires using micromagnetic simulations by implementing the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation with nonlocal spin-transfer torque in a finite difference micromagnetic package. We find that in the presence of DW, Gaussian wave packets (spin waves) will be generated when the charge current is suddenly applied to the system. This effect is excluded when using the local spin-transfer torque. The existence of spin waves emission indicates that transverse domain walls can not move arbitrarily fast in cylindrical nanowires although they are free from the Walker limit. We establish an upper velocity limit for DW motion by analyzing the stability of Gaussian wave packets using the local spin-transfer torque. Micromagnetic simulations show that the stable region obtained by using nonlocal spin-transfer torque is smaller than that by using its local counterpart. This limitation is essential for multiple DWs since the instability of Gaussian wave packets will break the structure of multiple DWs.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Hans Fangohr: orcid.org/0000-0001-5494-7193

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