UK-Japanese Collaboration on Current-Driven Domain Wall Dynamics

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The project will be a collaboration between theory (Japan) and experiment (UK). The effort of this project will be directed into study of the role of the spin-orbit interaction in current-driven spin torques in magnetic nanowires. Here we will tackle two main areas. The first is the use of spin-orbit coupling to induce spin-flip scattering and hence increase the so-called non-adiabatic (beta term) torque, which is field-like in symmetry. The second is to study the use of spin orbit coupling to introduce a current-dependent effective magnetic field through the Rashba effect. Both of these are outstanding mysteries of condensed matter physics, in that there is no predictive theory to allow materials and devices with appropriate parameters to be designed. They may also hold the key to the substantially more efficient spin-torques that will allow for lower power device operation. The project builds on existing programmes in the UK and Japan, in particular "Current-Driven Domain Wall Motion in Multilayer Nanowires" EPSRC grant EP/I011668/1 held by Dr Marrows and "Microscopic theory of spin transports", a JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (Grant No. 22340104) held by Prof. Tatara. There is a natural complementarity between the experimental programme in the former and the programme of analytical and first-principles theory in the latter.