The rich physics of spin transfer nano-oscillators (STNO) has provoked a huge interest to create a new generation of multi-functional microwave spintronic devices [1]. It has been often emphasized that their nonlinear behavior gives a unique opportunity to tune their radiofrequency (rf) properties but at the cost of large phase noise, not compatible with practical applications. To tackle this issue as well as to open the opportunities to new developments for non-boolean computations [1], one strategy is to use electrical synchronization of STOs through the rf current. Thereby, it is crucial to understand how the synchronization forces transmitted through the electric current. In this talk, we will first present the results of an experimental study showing the self-synchronization of STNO by re-injecting its rf current after a certain delay time [2]. In the second part, we demonstrate that the synchronization of two vortex-STNOs connected in parallel can be tuned either by an artificial delay or by the spin transfer torques [3]. The synchronization of spin-torque oscillators, combined with the drastic improvement of the rf-features (linewidth decreases by a factor of 2 and power increases by a factor of 4) in the synchronized state, marks an important milestone towards a new generation of rf-devices based on STNO. The authors acknowledge the financial support from ANR agency (SPINNOVA: ANR-11-NANO-0016) and EU grant (MOSAIC: ICT-FP7-317950). [1] N. Locatelli, V. Cros, and J. Grollier, Nat Mater 13, 11 (2014). [2] S. Tsunegi et al., arXiv:1509.05583 (2015) [3] R. Lebrun et al., arXiv:1601.01247 (2016)

Date Published: 4 November 2016
PDF: 1 pages
Proc. SPIE 9931, Spintronics IX, 99310O (4 November 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2237305

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9931:
Spintronics IX
Henri-Jean Drouhin; Jean-Eric Wegrowe; Manijeh Razeghi, Editor(s)