Effect of spin current on uniform ferromagnetism: domain nucleation

Phys Rev Lett. 2005 Feb 25;94(7):076601. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.076601. Epub 2005 Feb 24.

Abstract

A large spin current applied to a uniform ferromagnet leads to a spin-wave instability as pointed out recently. In this Letter, it is shown that such spin-wave instability is absent in a state containing a domain wall, which indicates that nucleation of magnetic domains occurs above a certain critical spin current. This scenario is supported also by an explicit energy comparison of the two states under spin current.