Bottom-up approach for the fabrication of spin torque nano-oscillators

Darques, M [UCL] Dussaux, A. [Unité Mixte de physique CNRS/THALES (France)] Khvalkovskiy, A.V. [Unité Mixte de physique CNRS/THALES (France)] De La Torre Medina, Joaquin [UCL] Abreu Araujo, Flavio [UCL] Guillemet, R. [Unité Mixte de physique CNRS/THALES (France)] Bouzehouane, K. [Unité Mixte de physique CNRS/THALES (France)] Fusil, S. [Unité Mixte de physique CNRS/THALES (France)] Grollier, J. [Unité Mixte de physique CNRS/THALES (France)] Avanesyan, G.G. [A.M. Prokhorov General Physics Institute of RAS, Moscou (Russie)] Zvezdin, K.A. [A.M. Prokhorov General Physics Institute of RAS, Moscou (Russie)] Cros, V. [Unité Mixte de physique CNRS/THALES (France)] Piraux, Luc [UCL] et al.[show all]

We report on a bottom-up approach for the fabrication of spin-transfer nano-oscillators (STNOs). Porous alumina is used as a template for the growth by electrodeposition of metallic spin valves in series. Under specific magnetic field and injected current conditions, emission of microwave current is detected with frequency in the 1.5 GHz range and linewidth as low as 8 MHz. We find strong indications that the microwave emission is due to spin-transfer-driven vortex oscillations. This technique is promising for the fabrication of dense arrays of STNOs in view of device synchronization.