Computation of spin-wave spectra of magnetic nanostructures for information storage systems

In recent years, micromagnetic simulation has evolved into a vital tool for understanding and optimizing the electronic and dynamic properties of magnetic structures on the nanometer scale. We have enhanced a micromagnetic simulation tool and developed a package called SpinWaveAnalyzer for the computation of the spin-wave spectra for arbitrary excitation pattems. We find that the spin-wave eigenmodes sensitively depend on the spatial symmetry of their excitations and that for decreasing lateral extensions, the oscillatory behaviour of nanosized multilayers shifts from standing spin waves with higher harmonics along and perpendicular to the static magnetization to dipolar modes with higher harmonics situated on the edge of a structure. These simulations can help to find the optimal frequency with which to switch the magnetization of real-life magnetic storage cells, thus enabling the creation of faster, non-volatile, low-power storage concepts that could revolutionize computer architectures.