Effects of interfacial roughness on the magnetoresistance of magnetic metallic multilayers

Nanomaterials by design: a review of nanoscale metallic multilayers

Nanoscale metallic multilayers have been shown to have a wide range of outstanding properties, which differ to a great extent from those observed in monolithic films. Their exceptional properties are mainly associated with the large number of interfaces and the nanoscale layer thicknesses. Many studies have investigated these materials focusing on magnetic, mechanical, optical, or radiation tolerance properties. Thus, this review provides a summary of the findings in each area, including a description of the general attributes, the adopted synthesis methods and most common characterization techniques used. This information is followed by a compendium of the material properties and a brief discussion of related experimental data, as well as existing and promising applications. Other phenomena of interest, including thermal stability studies, self-propagating reactions and the progression from nano multilayers to amorphous and/or crystalline alloys, are also covered. In general, this review highlights the use of nano multilayer architectures as viable routes to overcome the challenges of designing and implementing new engineering materials at the nanoscale.

Paper-Based Magneto-Resistive Sensor: Modeling, Fabrication, Characterization, and Application

In this work, we developed and fabricated a paper-based anisotropic magneto-resistive sensor using a sputtered permalloy (Ni81Fe19) thin film. To interpret the characteristics of the sensor, we proposed a computational model to capture the influence of the stochastic fiber network of the paper surface and to explain the physics behind the empirically observed difference in paper-based anisotropic magneto-resistance (AMR). Using the model, we verified two main empirical observations: (1) The stochastic fiber network of the paper substrate induces a shift of 45∘ in the AMR response of the paper-based Ni81Fe19 thin film compared to a Ni81Fe19 film on a smooth surface as long as the fibrous topography has not become buried. (2) The ratio of magnitudes of AMR peaks at different anisotropy angles and the inverted AMR peak at the 90∘-anisotropy angle are explained through the superposition of the responses of Ni81Fe19 inheriting the fibrous topography and smoother Ni81Fe19 on buried fibrous topographies. As for the sensitivity and reproducibility of the sensor signal, we obtained a maximum AMR peak of 0.4%, min-max sensitivity range of [0.17,0.26]%, average asymmetry of peak location of 2.7kAm within two consecutive magnetic loading cycles, and a deviation of 250–850 Am of peak location across several anisotropy angles at a base resistance of ∼100 Ω. Last, we demonstrated the usability of the sensor in two educational application examples: a textbook clicker and interactive braille flashcards.

Phonon Surface Scattering and Thermal Energy Distribution in Superlattices

Thermal transport at small length scales has attracted significant attention in recent years and various experimental and theoretical methods have been developed to establish the reduced thermal conductivity. The fundamental understanding of how phonons move and the physical mechanisms behind nanoscale thermal transport, however, remains poorly understood. Here we move beyond thermal conductivity calculations and provide a rigorous and comprehensive physical description of thermal phonon transport in superlattices by solving the Boltzmann transport equation and using the Beckman-Kirchhoff surface scattering theory with shadowing to precisely describe phonon-surface interactions. We show that thermal transport in superlattices can be divided in two different heat transport modes having different physical properties at small length scales: layer-restricted and extended heat modes. We study how interface conditions, periodicity, and composition can be used to manipulate the distribution of thermal energy flow among such layer-restricted and extended heat modes. From predicted frequency and mean free path spectra of superlattices, we also investigate the existence of wave effects. The results and insights in this paper advance the fundamental understanding of heat transport in superlattices and the prospects of rationally designing thermal systems with tailored phonon transport properties.

Nonlocal Anomalous Hall Effect

The anomalous Hall (AH) effect is deemed to be a unique transport property of ferromagnetic metals, caused by the concerted action of spin polarization and spin-orbit coupling. Nevertheless, recent experiments have shown that the effect also occurs in a nonmagnetic metal (Pt) in contact with a magnetic insulator [yttrium iron garnet (YIG)], even when precautions are taken to ensure that there is no induced magnetization in the metal. We propose a theory of this effect based on the combined action of spin-dependent scattering from the magnetic interface and the spin-Hall effect in the bulk of the metal. At variance with previous theories, we predict the effect to be of first order in the spin-orbit coupling, just as the conventional anomalous Hall effect-the only difference being the spatial separation of the spin-orbit interaction and the magnetization. For this reason we name this effect the nonlocal anomalous Hall effect and predict that its sign will be determined by the sign of the spin-Hall angle in the metal. The AH conductivity that we calculate from our theory is in order of magnitude agreement with the measured values in Pt/YIG structures.