Magnetic metal nanostructures: New properties and new opportunities
Associate Professor Robert Stamps, School of Physics, The University of Western Australia

Associate Professor Robert Stamps received BS and MS degrees from the University of Colorado, and a PhD in Physics from Colorado State University. He has held a Humbolt Junior Fellowship, CNRS Professorial Fellowships CNR Fellowship and a University of Paris VII Visiting Professorship. His work on exchange bias and magnetization dynamics featured in his tenure as the 2004 Wohlfarth Lecturer (Institute of Physics). He has interests in linear and nonlinear dynamics of magnetic and ferroelectric nanostructures.

Presentation (970kb)

Technologies capable of producing a wide range of patterned structures, whose primary functional elements are magnetic, are developing rapidly. Applications include magnetic logic, information storage, spin electronics, high frequency signal processing, and biomedicine. Several examples of Australian magnetics research are being pursued within one or more of these areas, with direct relevance to a number of technologies and applications. These include materials for data storage, microwave signal processing, medical imaging and targeted drug delivery.

I will provide an overview and summary of research in these areas that we and others in Australia are pursuing. Specific results from recent research are highlighted which are interesting in terms of intrinsic scientific merit and relevance for technological application. Wall interaction and motion through random potentials are discussed with reference to the general problem of roughening transitions and reversal dynamics for magnetic elements. Aspects of ballistic charge and spin transport through domain boundary walls are illustrated for mesoscopic magnetic wires. Difficult and unsolved problems associated with the general topic of frustration and disorder are described in terms of the ferromagnet/antiferromagnet interface, and also for systems of interacting magnetic nanoparticles. Fundamental studies of spin orbit coupling at magnetic surfaces will be mentioned in terms of the formation and control of useful magnetic properties.