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Current-induced magnetic domain wall motion at zero magnetic field is observed in the permalloy layer of a spin-valve-based nanostripe using photoemission electron microscopy. The domain wall movement is hampered by pinning sites, but in between them high domain wall velocities (exceeding 150 m/s) are obtained for current densities well below 10 12 A/m 2 , suggesting that these trilayer systems are promising for applications in domain wall devices in case of well controlled pinning positions. Vertical spin currents in these structures provide a potential explanation for the increase in domain wall velocity at low current densities.Moving magnetic domain walls using electric currents via spin-torque effects rather than using a magnetic field is one of the recent exciting developments in spintronics 1 . Since the prediction of spin-torque effects 2 , many experimental 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15 and theoretical 16,17,18 works have been dedicated to the study of currentinduced domain wall motion (CIDM). Besides fundamental investigations, the use of domain walls in logic 19 and memory 20 devices has already been proposed. Low current densities and high domain wall (DW) velocities at zero magnetic field are required for future applications.Direct evidence of CIDM at zero field has been reported for several nanostripe systems, including permalloy (FeNi) 6,11 , magnetic semiconductors 9 and systems with perpendicular magnetization 7,12,14,15 . For the commonly used FeNi system, the critical current densities are not much below 10 12 A/m 2 at zero magnetic field 8,11 , associated with DW velocities going from some m/s up to about 100 m/s 11 . Much lower critical currents are found for magnetic semiconductors like GaMnAs (about 1 × 10 9 A/m 2 ) because of the low magnetic moments, but the observed DW velocities are small (< 1 m/s) 9 . Moreover, these materials are not ferromagnetic at room temperature. Low current density values are also found in spin-valve-based nanostripes with either in-plane 3,10 or perpendicular anisotropy 7 . Additionally, transport measurements in FeNi/Cu/Co trilayers show CIDM induced by subnanosecond current pulses 5 , indirectly indicating high DW velocities in such spin-valve-based systems. In this work, we show that in these systems CIDM at zero magnetic field can take place with high DW velocities (exceeding 150 m/s) at current densities well below 10 12 A/m 2 . These high velocities are observed only in certain regions of the nanostripes, where domain wall pinning is limited. Currents perpendicular to the plane in the vicinity of the DW are probably partly responsible for this increase in efficiency, which makes the trilayer systems possible candidates for spintronic applications based on CIDM if pinning can be controlled.We observed domain wall motion in the FeNi layer of 400 nm wide FeNi (5 nm)/Cu (8 nm)/Co (7 nm)/ CoO (3 nm) nanostripes, by using Photoemission Electron Microscopy (PEEM) combined with X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (XMCD) 21 . The Cu spacer layer is chosen to ...

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Magnetization reversal and magnetoresistance behavior of perpendicularly magnetized [Co/Pd]4/Au/[Co/Pd]2 nanowires J. Appl. Phys. 112, 073902 (2012) Electric-field control of CoFeB/IrMn exchange bias system J. Appl. Phys. 112, 064120 (2012) Critical effect of spin-dependent transport in a tunnel barrier on enhanced Hanle-type signals observed in threeterminal geometry Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 132411 (2012) Giant tunneling magnetoresistance in epitaxial Co2MnSi/MgO/Co2MnSi magnetic tunnel junctions by halfmetallicity of Co2MnSi and coherent tunneling Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 132418 (2012) Interface mediated ferromagnetism in bulk CuO/Cu2O composites Appl.

The effects of pH and ionic strength on the rheological behavior of aqueous suspensions of both crude and purified Wyoming bentonite and natural interstratified illite-smectite from Tunisia were investigated. Flow tests were performed on the four clay suspensions at a 10% clay concentration at different pH values. They showed that the rheological properties were highly sensitive to pH and the nature of the clay. The evolution of the yield stress as a function of pH is characterized by the presence of maxima and minima attributed to changes in the mode of association of the particles. The effect of pH on the behavior of clay suspended in NaCl solutions was also studied. The results show that the presence of NaCl has very little effect on the pH and yield stress values of the four materials

Abstract. In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of high efficiencies tandem solar cells monolithically grown on a silicon substrate using GaAsPN absorber layer. InGaAs(N) quantum dots and GaAsPN quantum wells have been grown recently on GaP/Si susbstrate for applications related to light emission. For photovoltaic applications, we consider the GaAsPN diluted nitride alloy as the top junction material due to both its perfect lattice matching with Si and ideal bandgap energy for current generation in association with the Si bottom cell. Numerical simulation of the top cell is performed. The effect of layer thicknesses and doping on the cell efficiency are evidenced. In these structures a tunnel junction (TJ) is needed to interconnect both the top and bottom sub-cells. We compare the simulated performances of different TJ structures and show that the GaP(n+)/Si(p+) TJ is promising to improve performances of the current-voltage characteristic.

International audienceIII-V/Si heterostructures are currently investigated for silicon photonics and solar energy conversion. In particular, dilute nitride alloy GaAsPN grown on a GaP/Si platform exhibits lattice match with Si and an optimal band gap configuration for tandem solar cell devices. However, monolithic "coherent" growth of the GaP thin layer on Si suffers from the nucleation of extended structural defects, which can hamper device operation as well as the GaP/Si interface level and through their propagation inside the overall heterostructure. However, the effect of such structural defects on optical and transport properties is actually not well understood in details. In this letter, we investigate the anti phase domains defect (also called inversion domains) by means of ab initio calculations giving insights into the alteration of optical and transport properties of GaP due to the defective GaP/Si interface