title: Nanopatterning reconfigurable magnetic landscapes via thermally assisted scanning probe lithography.
abstract: The search for novel tools to control magnetism at the nanoscale is crucial for the development of new paradigms in optics, electronics and spintronics. So far, the fabrication of magnetic nanostructures has been achieved mainly through irreversible structural or chemical modifications. Here, we propose a new concept for creating reconfigurable magnetic nanopatterns by crafting, at the nanoscale, the magnetic anisotropy landscape of a ferromagnetic layer exchange-coupled to an antiferromagnetic layer. By performing localized field cooling with the hot tip of a scanning probe microscope, magnetic structures, with arbitrarily oriented magnetization and tunable unidirectional anisotropy, are reversibly patterned without modifying the film chemistry and topography. This opens unforeseen possibilities for the development of novel metamaterials with finely tuned magnetic properties, such as reconfigurable magneto-plasmonic and magnonic crystals. In this context, we experimentally demonstrate spatially controlled spin wave excitation and propagation in magnetic structures patterned with the proposed method.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy.|School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
authors.forename: E
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8134-0482
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Albisetti
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Petti
authors.affiliation: CIC nanoGUNE, E-20018 Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pancaldi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia, Università di Perugia, 06123 Perugia, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0727-1773
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Madami
authors.affiliation: Istituto Officina dei Materiali del CNR (CNR-IOM), Unità di Perugia, c/o Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia, 06123 Perugia, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1403-2268
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tacchi
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Curtis
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors.forename: W P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: King
authors.affiliation: Center for Nano Science and Technology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Papp
authors.affiliation: Center for Nano Science and Technology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Csaba
authors.affiliation: Center for Nano Science and Technology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Porod
authors.affiliation: CIC nanoGUNE, E-20018 Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain.|IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48013 Bilbao, Spain.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vavassori
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.|CUNY-Advanced Science Research Center and City College New York, City University of New York, 85 St Nicholas Terrace, New York, New York 10031, USA.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Riedo
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy.|IFN-CNR, c/o Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32, 20133 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bertacco