UC Irvine

Manipulation of magnetic materials by the spin degree of freedom is leading way to a new generation of electronics known as spintronics. The nanodevices using these properties are becoming attractive candidates for electronics applications, since they may lead way to less power consumption than their semiconductor counterparts. One particular device of interest is the spin toque oscillator, which is a nanoscale source of microwave power. In this study, multiple types of these devices are fabricated but specifically two novel methods of driving these devices is discovered in the process. One method is based on magnon condensation through the spin Seebeck effect, where high thermal gradients across a magnetic insulator drive a spin current. The second method involved the discovery of a novel spin orbit torque linked to the planer Hall effect present in ferromagnetic materials. The source of the spin orbit torque not only originates from spin currents produced in the ferromagnet, but the action of this torque exhibits a novel angular symmetry in the plane defined by the charge current flow and substrate normal.