Control of spectral characteristics of spin-current auto-oscillator by electric field

Abstract

We study the effects of electrostatic gating on the magnetization auto-oscillations induced by the local injection of electric current into a ferromagnet/heavy metal bilayer. We find that the characteristic currents required for the excitation, the intensity and the spectral characteristics of the generated dynamical states can be tuned by the voltage applied to the metallic gate separated from the bilayer by a thin insulating layer. We show that the effect of electrostatic gating becomes enhanced in the strongly nonlinear oscillation regime at sufficiently large driving currents. Analysis shows that the observed effects are caused by a combination of electric field-dependent surface anisotropy and electric field-dependent contribution to the current-induced spin-orbit torques. The demonstrated ability to control the microwave emission and spectral characteristics provides an efficient approach to the development of electrically tunable microwave nano-oscillators.