Acoustic-Wave-Induced Magnetization Switching of Magnetostrictive Nanomagnets from Single-Domain to Nonvolatile Vortex States.

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.