We investigate experimentally the synchronization of a vortex based spin transfer oscillator to an external rf current whose frequency is at multiple integers, as well as half integer, of the oscillator frequency. Through a theoretical study of the locking process, we highlight both the crucial role of the symmetries of the spin torques acting on the magnetic vortex and the nonlinear properties of the oscillator on the phase locking process. Through the achievement of a perfect injection locking state, we report a record phase noise reduction down to -90dBc/Hz at 1 kHz offset frequency. The phase noise of these nanoscale oscillators is demonstrating as being low and controllable which is of significant importance for real applications using spin transfer devices.In the last decade, large expectations have been anticipated on how the rich spin transfer physics will give birth to a new generation of multifunctional spintronic devices [1]. The tunable response of spin torque devices has been predicted to play a crucial role in several domains such as radio frequency [2] or magnonic [3] nanoscale and low energy cost devices for ICTs as well as neuroinspired memory devices [4]. For all of these potential applications, and notably for the corresponding microwave applications, it is essential to identify the mechanisms leading to a fine control of the phase of these spin torque devices. Indeed, it has been often emphasized that their nonlinear behavior gives a unique opportunity to tune their radiofrequency properties [5][6][7] but at the cost of large phase noise, not compatible with targeted applications [1,2]. In order to tackle these issues, a solution is to rely either on their synchronization to a reference external signal [8][9][10][11] or to achieve mutual synchronization [12,13] in arrays of spin torque nano-oscillators (STNOs). However, in all the reported studies made on the locking regime of STNOs, the phase noise, often measured through the estimation of the spectral linewidth measured with a spectrum analyzer, remains large, typically in the kHz range. This feature reveals that phase slips associated with the large thermal energy lead to a loss of synchronization [9,10,14] and have a detrimental and non-controllable impact on the expected behavior of STNOs.In this letter, we investigate the mechanism leading to a perfect phase locking of a double vortex based STNO to an external rf current with a F s frequency at f 0 /2, f 0 and 2f 0 , where f 0 is the frequency of our STNO. Indeed, thanks to their large intrinsic coherence compared to other types of STNOs [7,15,16], we succeed to elucidate the strong correlation between the oscillator parameters and the locking process through a thorough experimental study combining time domain measurements and analytical developments. This allows understanding of the locking range characteristics [8,17,18] as well as the high phase coherence in the locked regime [19][20][21]. Our results demonstrate the specific spin transfer locking process of our vortex based STNO, a...
The concept of spin-torque-driven high-frequency magnetization dynamics, allows the potential construction of complex networks of non-linear dynamical nanoscale systems, combining the field of spintronics and the study of non-linear systems. In the few previous demonstrations of synchronization of several spin-torque oscillators, the short-range nature of the magnetic coupling that was used has largely hampered a complete control of the synchronization process. Here we demonstrate the successful mutual synchronization of two spin-torque oscillators with a large separation distance through their long range self-emitted microwave currents. This leads to a strong improvement of both the emitted power and the linewidth. The full control of the synchronized state is achieved at the nanoscale through two active spin transfer torques, but also externally through an electrical delay line. These additional levels of control of the synchronization capability provide a new approach to develop spin-torque oscillator-based nanoscale microwave-devices going from microwave-sources to bio-inspired networks.
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