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Updated: Mar 15, 2026

Optimizing Magnetic Force Microscopy Resolution and Sensitivity to Visualize Nanoscale Magnetic Domains
Published on: July 20, 2022
Acoustic-Wave-Induced Magnetization Switching of Magnetostrictive Nanomagnets from Single-Domain to Nonvolatile
Vimal Sampath1, Noel D'Souza1, Dhritiman Bhattacharya1
1Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering and ‡Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University , Richmond, Virginia 23284, United States.
Abstract:
We report experimental manipulation of the magnetic states of elliptical cobalt magnetostrictive nanomagnets (with nominal dimensions of ∼340 nm × 270 nm × 12 nm) delineated on bulk 128° Y-cut lithium niobate with acoustic waves (AWs) launched from interdigitated electrodes. Isolated nanomagnets (no dipole interaction with any other nanomagnet) that are initially magnetized with a magnetic field to a single-domain state with the magnetization aligned along the major axis of the ellipse are driven into a vortex state by acoustic waves that modulate the stress anisotropy of these nanomagnets. The nanomagnets remain in the vortex state until they are reset by a strong magnetic field to the initial single-domain state, making the vortex state nonvolatile. This phenomenon is modeled and explained using a micromagnetic framework and could lead to the development of extremely energy efficient magnetization switching methodologies for low-power computing applications.
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