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Torques appear between charge carrier spins and local moments in regions of ferromagnetic media where spatial magnetization gradients occur, such as a domain wall, owing to an exchange interaction. This phenomenon has been predicted by different theories 1-7 and confirmed in a number of experiments on metallic and semiconductor ferromagnets 8-19. Understanding the magnitude and orientation of such spin-torques is an important problem for spin-dependent transport and currentdriven magnetization dynamics, as domain-wall motion underlies a number of emerging spintronic technologies 20,21. One outstanding issue concerns the non-adiabatic spin-torque component β, which has an important role in wall dynamics, but no clear consensus has yet emerged over its origin or magnitude. Here, we report an experimental measurement of β in perpendicularly magnetized films with narrow domain walls (1-10 nm). By studying thermally activated wall depinning, we deduce β from the variation of the Arrhenius transition rate with applied currents. Surprisingly, we find β to be small and relatively insensitive to the wall width, which stands in contrast to predictions from transport theories 2,5-7. In addition, we find β to be close to the Gilbert damping constant α, which, in light of similar results on planar anisotropy systems 15 , suggests a universal origin for the non-adiabatic torque. The adiabatic torque, which accounts for transport processes in which the conduction spin follows the local spatial magnetization variation by remaining in either the majority or minority state, is well understood and has been reproduced by a number of different transport theories. In contrast, the non-adiabatic contribution, characterized by a dimensionless parameter β (ref. 22), remains the subject of much debate. Various mechanisms have been put forward to explain its origin, such as momentum transfer 2,7 , spinmistracking 4,6 or spin-flip scattering 3. It is predicted that large nonadiabatic effects should appear in narrow domain walls because of large magnetization gradients 2,5,6 , whereby the wall width becomes comparable to important transport scales such as the spin-diffusion length 2 or the Larmor precession length 6 , which are of the order of a few nanometres in ferromagnetic transition metals. The presence of a non-adiabatic term is of fundamental importance, because its existence implies that current-driven wall motion is possible for any finite current in a perfect system, even in the absence of an applied magnetic field. Difficulty in characterizing β experimentally therefore stems in part from being able to distinguish between extrinsic sources of wall pinning, due to structural defects, for example, from the intrinsic finite threshold current predicted 2 for β = 0. We have studied current-driven domain wall dynamics in two different pseudo spin-valve systems based either on CoNi

Owing to their reduced dimensions, the magnetic properties of ultrathin magnetic films and multilayers, e.g. magnetic anisotropies and exchange coupling, often depend strongly on the surface and interface structure. In addition, chemical composition, crystallinity, grain sizes and their distribution govern the magnetic behaviour. All these structural properties can be modified by light-ion irradiation in an energy range of 5–150 keV due to the energy loss of the ions in the solid along their trajectory. Consequently the magnetic properties can be tailored by ion irradiation. Similar effects can also be observed using Ga+ ion irradiation, which is the common ion source in focused ion beam lithography.Examples of ion-induced modifications of magnetic anisotropies and exchange coupling are presented. This review is limited to radiation-induced structural changes giving rise to a modification of magnetic parameters. Ion implantation is discussed only in special cases.Due to the local nature of the interaction, magnetic patterning without affecting the surface topography becomes feasible, which may be of interest in applications. The main patterning technique is homogeneous ion irradiation through masks. Focused ion beam and ion projection lithography are usually only relevant for larger ion masses. The creation of magnetic feature sizes below 50 nm is shown. In contrast to topographic nanostructures the surrounding area of these nanostructures can be left ferromagnetic, leading to new phenomena at their mutual interface.Most of the material systems discussed here are important for technological applications. The main areas are magnetic data storage applications, such as hard magnetic media with a large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy or patterned media with an improved signal to noise ratio and magnetic sensor elements. It will be shown that light-ion irradiation has many advantages in the design of new material properties and in the fabrication technology of actual devices.