Tsoi M, Sun J Z, Parkin S S P
Physics Department, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Jul 16;93(3):036602. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.036602. Epub 2004 Jul 15.
We study experimentally the current-driven magnetic excitations in symmetric Co/Cu/Co nanopillars. In contrast with all the previous observations where the current of only one polarity is capable of exciting a multilayer system saturated by an externally applied magnetic field, we observe that both polarities of the applied current trigger excitations in a symmetric multilayer. This may indicate that in symmetric structures the current propels high-frequency magnetic oscillations in all magnetic layers. We argue, however, that only one layer is excited in our multilayers but, interestingly, currents of opposite polarities excite different layers. This hypothesis is supported by modeling the spin accumulation in symmetric magnetic multilayers.
