Search Results (52)

Magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) hold great promise for both fundamental research and future applications due to their unique structural features, high specific surface area, and tailored physical properties. Here, we present a convenient thermal co-evaporation approach to deposit Co–C60 composite films with controlled composition, structure, morphology, and tunable performances, specifically designed for spintronic device applications. By tuning the growth rates of Co and C60 during co-evaporation, the composition of the films can be tuned with different ratios. With a Co/C60 ratio of 5:1, ~300 nm clusters are formed in the films with increased coercivity compared with pure Co films, which is attributed to the interfaces in the composite film. The magnetoresistance (MR), however, becomes dominated by organic semiconductor C60 with ordinary magnetoresistance (OMAR). By increasing the composition of C60 to the ratio of 5:2, the particle diameter decreases while the height increases dramatically, forming magnetic electrodes and, thus, nano-organic spin valves (OSV) in the composite films with giant magnetoresistance (GMR). The work demonstrates a versatile approach to tailoring the structural and functional properties of magnetic NP-composite films for advanced spintronic applications. Full article

Magnetic biosensors have wide applications in biological target detection due to their advantages such as low background noise, convenient detection, and low requirements for sample pretreatment. However, existing magnetic biosensors still have the drawback of low sensitivity compared to optical and electrochemical biosensors. This paper presents the novel design of a high-sensitivity magnetic biosensor by utilizing the magnetic field line convergence effect, which was applied to bacterial detection. The results indicate that it can achieve a detection limitation of 10 CFU/mL, demonstrating that it can be implemented in high-sensitivity biological target detection. Full article

The main objective of the work is to investigate the capacity of a single magnetoresistance (MR) element to measure AC electrical currents. An instrumentation system is presented to characterize individually the four active elements of an MR bridge current sensor preserving their internal connections. The system suggests the possibility to sense electrical currents using only one element of the bridge opening the way to design new MR sensors based on this concept. Sensitivity, offset and non-linearity deviation were obtained using bridges of tunnel (TMR)- and giant (GMR)-based MR technologies. The single element embedded in a Wheatstone bridge configuration is used for practical current measurements in a 50 Hz line. An electronic circuitry is proposed to measure alternating (AC) currents with a single MR element, including a lock-in amplifier and an interface to properly convert the signal to its root mean square (rms) value with a resolution of 250 mA peak in the 125 A range. Full article

We present a case of a man immunocompromised due to myelodysplastic syndrome with Candida krusei fungemia who had a rising cell-free DNA (cfDNA) giant magnetoresistance (GMR) signal when tested daily using plasma blood samples. With the rise in GMR signal paralleling the development of skin lesions in this patient, we conclude that cfDNA can be used to indicate uncontrolled infection and thus help monitor response to therapy. This index patient provides evidence that an invasive fungal infection requires both direct antifungal therapy and an intact immune system to control the infection. This biosensing platform has been simplified to potentially serve as a point-of-care test, setting it apart by overcoming the three common barriers of cfDNA testing: complexity, cost, and time. Full article

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have been widely utilized in the biomedical field for numerous years, offering several advantages such as exceptional biocompatibility and diverse applications in biology. However, the existing methods for quantifying magnetic labeled sample assays are scarce. This research presents a novel approach by developing a microfluidic chip system embedded with a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) sensor. The system successfully detects low concentrations of MNPs with magnetic particle velocities of 20 mm/s. The stray field generated by the magnetic subject flowing through the microchannel above the GMR sensor causes variations in the signals. The sensor’s output signals are appropriately amplified, filtered, and processed to provide valuable indications. The integration of the GMR microfluidic chip system demonstrates notable attributes, including affordability, speed, and user-friendly operation. Moreover, it exhibits a high detection sensitivity of 10 μg/μL for MNPs, achieved through optimizing the vertical magnetic field to 100 Oe and the horizontal magnetic field to 2 Oe. Additionally, the study examines magnetic labeled RAW264.7 cells. This quantitative detection of magnetic nanoparticles can have applications in DNA concentration detection, protein concentration detection, and other promising areas of research. Full article

In this study, we grew pristine and Ni-doped vertically aligned zinc oxide nanowires (NWs) on a glass substrate. Both the doped and pristine NWs displayed dominant 002 peaks, confirming their vertical alignment. The Ni-doped NWs exhibited a leftward shift compared to the pristine NWs. TEM measurements confirmed the high crystallinity of individual NWs, with a d-spacing of ~0.267 nm along the c-axis. Ni-doped NWs had a higher density, indicating increased nucleation sites due to nickel doping. Doped NW films on glass showed enhanced absorbance in the visible region, suggesting the creation of sub-gap defect levels from nickel doping. Magnetization vs. magnetic field measurements revealed a small hysteresis loop, indicative of soft ferromagnetic behavior. Current transient plots demonstrated an increase in current with an applied magnetic field. Two-terminal devices exhibited a photo response that intensified with magnetic field application. This increase was attributed to parallel grain alignment, resulting in enhanced carrier concentration and photo response. In the dark, transport properties displayed negative magnetoresistance behavior. This magneto-transport effect and enhanced photo response (under an LED at ~395 nm) were attributed to giant magnetoresistance (GMR) in the aligned NWs. The observed behavior arose from reduced carrier scattering, improved transport properties, and parallel spin alignment in the magnetic field. Full article

Brillouin light scattering (BLS) has been established as a standard technique to study thermally excited sound waves with frequencies up to ~100 GHz in transparent materials. In BLS experiments, one usually uses a Fabry–Pérot interferometer (FPI) as a spectrometer. The drastic improvement of the FPI contrast factor over 10¹⁰ by the development of the multipass type and the tandem multipass type FPIs opened a gateway to investigate low energy excitations (ħω ≤ 1 meV) in various research fields of condensed matter physics, including surface acoustic waves and spin waves from opaque surfaces. Over the last four decades, the BLS technique has been successfully applied to study collective spin waves (SWs) in various types of magnetic structures including thin films, ultrathin films, multilayers, superlattices, and artificially arranged dots and wires using high-contrast FPIs. Now, the BLS technique has been fully established as a unique and powerful technique not only for determination of the basic magnetic constants, including the gyromagnetic ratio, the magnetic anisotropy constants, the magnetization, the SW stiffness constant, and other features of various magnetic materials and structures, but also for investigations into coupling phenomena and surface and interface phenomena in artificial magnetic structures. BLS investigations on the Fe/Cr multilayers, which exhibit ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic arrangements of the adjacent Fe layer’s magnetizations depending on the Cr layer’s thickness, played an important role to open the new field known as “spintronics” through the discovery of the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect. In this review, I briefly surveyed the historical development of SW studies using the BLS technique and theoretical background, and I concentrated our BLS SW studies performed at Tohoku University and Ishinomaki Senshu University over the last thirty five years. In addition to the ferromagnetic SW studies, the BLS technique can be also applied to investigations of high-frequency magnetization dynamics in superparamagnetic (SPM) nanogranular films in the frequency domain above 10 GHz. One can excite dipole-coupled SPM excitations under external magnetic fields and observe them via the BLS technique. The external field strength determines the SPM excitations’ frequencies. By performing a numerical analysis of the BLS spectrum as a function of the external magnetic field and temperature, one can investigate the high-frequency magnetization dynamics in the SPM state and determine the magnetization relaxation parameters. Full article

The combination of magnetoresistive (MR) element and magnetic flux concentrators (MFCs) offers highly sensitive magnetic field sensors. To maximize the effect of MFC, the geometrical design between the MR element and MFCs is critical. In this paper, we present simulation and experimental studies on the effect of the geometrical relationship between current-in-plane giant magnetoresistive (GMR) element and MFCs made of a NiFeCuMo film. Finite element method (FEM) simulations showed that although an overlap between the MFCs and GMR element enhances their magneto-static coupling, it can lead to a loss of magnetoresistance ratio due to a magnetic shielding effect by the MFCs. Therefore, we propose a comb-shaped GMR element with alternate notches and fins. The FEM simulations showed that the fins of the comb-shaped GMR element provide a strong magneto-static coupling with the MFCs, whereas the electric current is confined within the main body of the comb-shaped GMR element, resulting in improved sensitivity. We experimentally demonstrated a higher sensitivity of the comb-shaped GMR sensor (36.5 %/mT) than that of a conventional rectangular GMR sensor (28 %/mT). Full article

Electrodeposited Ni₆₅Co₃₅/Cu multilayers were prepared with Cu spacer layer thicknesses between 0.5 nm and 7 nm. Their structure and magnetic and magnetoresistance properties were investigated. An important feature was that the Cu layers were deposited at the electrochemically optimized Cu deposition potential, ensuring a reliable control of the spacer layer thickness to reveal the true evolution of the giant magnetoresistance (GMR). X-ray diffraction indicated satellite reflections, demonstrating the highly coherent growth of these multilayer stacks. All of the multilayers exhibited a GMR effect, the magnitude of which did not show an oscillatory behavior with spacer layer thickness, just a steep rise of GMR around 1.5 nm and then, after 3 nm, it remained nearly constant, with a value around 4%. The high relative remanence of the magnetization hinted at the lack of an antiferromagnetic coupling between the magnetic layers, explaining the absence of oscillatory GMR. The occurrence of GMR can be attributed to the fact that, for spacer layer thicknesses above about 1.5 nm, the adjacent magnetic layers become uncoupled and their magnetization orientation is random, giving rise to a GMR effect. The coercive field and magnetoresistance peak field data also corroborate this picture: with increasing spacer layer thickness, both parameters progressively approached values characteristic of individual magnetic layers. At the end, a critical analysis of previously reported GMR data on electrodeposited Ni-Co/Cu multilayers is provided in view of the present results. A discussion of the layer formation processes in electrodeposited multilayers is also included, together with a comparison with physically deposited multilayers. Full article

Pipelines are typically used to transport oil, natural gas, water, etc. It is one of the most effective methods for transferring fluids over long distances. However, long-term usage of these pipes without maintenance results in the formation of residues, which will pave the way for pipeline accidents and soil contamination. To ensure the safety and protection of resources, these sustainable pipelines need to be inspected to avoid losses. This work aims to investigate various internal defect leaks in the non-uniform thickness of sustainable water pipes that are joined with a pipe expander. The magnetic flux leakage technique was implemented to evaluate these defects by means of a flexible GMR sensor array. An inspection robot containing two units was fabricated with the aid of 3D printing. The power unit provides the necessary thrust to actuate the entire robot whereas the sensing unit is responsible for analyzing the leaks. The robot’s movement is predicted by the MPU6050 and ultrasonic distance sensors that are plotted as motion plots. The sensing unit consists of permanent magnets and a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) array to interrogate the flux leakage in the defect region. The flux leakage from the defects was stored with the help of an Arduino microcontroller, which controls the overall process. In addition, the spring suspension is provided to regulate the motion of the robot. The flux leakage from the defect region was plotted as waveform graphs. Thus, the results are effectively presented and compared. The calculated signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the magnetic flux leakages (MFLs) for 4.5 mm-thick pipe defects was 12 to 20.8 dB, and for 6.52 mm-thick pipe defects, it was 9.5 to 19 dB. In sum, the MFL technique provides a reliable method for the sustainable development of water supply to wide areas. Full article

Nowadays, the increasing number of foodborne disease outbreaks around the globe has aroused the wide attention of the food industry and regulators. During food production, processing, storage, and transportation, microorganisms may grow and secrete toxins as well as other harmful substances. These kinds of food contamination from microbiological and chemical sources can seriously endanger human health. The traditional detection methods such as cell culture and colony counting cannot meet the requirements of rapid detection due to some intrinsic shortcomings, such as being time-consuming, laborious, and requiring expensive instrumentation or a central laboratory. In the past decade, efforts have been made to develop rapid, sensitive, and easy-to-use detection platforms for on-site food safety regulation. Herein, we review one type of promising biosensing platform that may revolutionize the current food surveillance approaches, the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) biosensors. Benefiting from the advances of nanotechnology, hundreds to thousands of GMR biosensors can be integrated into a fingernail-sized area, allowing the higher throughput screening of food samples at a lower cost. In addition, combined with on-chip microfluidic channels and filtration function, this type of GMR biosensing system can be fully automatic, and less operator training is required. Furthermore, the compact-sized GMR biosensor platforms could be further extended to related food contamination and the field screening of other pathogen targets. Full article

The eddy-current (EC) testing method is frequently utilized in the nondestructive inspection of conductive materials. To detect the minor and complex-shaped defects on the surface and in the underlying layers of a metallic sample, a miniature eddy-current probe with high sensitivity is preferred for enhancing the signal quality and spatial resolution of the obtained eddy-current images. In this work, we propose a novel design of a miniature eddy-current probe using a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) sensor fabricated on a silicon chip. The in-house-made GMR sensor comprises two cascaded spin-valve elements in parallel with an external variable resistor to form a Wheatstone bridge. The two elements on the chip are excited by the alternating magnetic field generated by a tiny coil aligned to the position that balances the background output of the bridge sensor. In this way, the two GMR elements behave effectively as an axial gradiometer with the bottom element sensitive to the surface and near-surface defects on a conductive specimen. The performance of the EC probe is verified by the numerical simulation and the corresponding experiments with machined defects on metallic samples. With this design, the geometric characteristics of the defects are clearly visualized with a spatial resolution of about 1 mm. The results demonstrate the feasibility and superiority of the proposed miniature GMR EC probe for characterizing the small and complex-shaped defects in multilayer conductive samples. Full article

Current-perpendicular-to-the-plane giant magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR) read sensors based on Heusler alloys are promising candidates for ultrahigh areal densities of magnetic data storage technology. In particular, the thickness of reader structures is one of the key factors for the development of practical CPP-GMR sensors. In this research, we studied the dependence of the free layer thickness on the stability of the Co₂(Mn_0.6Fe_0.4)Ge Heusler-based CPP-GMR read head for an areal density of 1 Tb/in², aiming to determine the appropriate layer thickness. The evaluations were done through simulations based on micromagnetic modelling. The reader stability indicators, including the magnetoresistance (MR) ratio, readback signal, dibit response asymmetry parameter, and power spectral density profile, were characterized and discussed. Our analysis demonstrates that the reader with a free layer thickness of 3 nm indicates the best stability performance for this particular head. A reasonably large MR ratio of 26% was obtained by the reader having this suitable layer thickness. The findings can be utilized to improve the design of the CPP-GMR reader for use in ultrahigh magnetic recording densities. Full article

Magnetoresistance (MR) is the variation of a material’s resistivity under the presence of external magnetic fields. Reading heads in hard disk drives (HDDs) are the most common applications of MR sensors. Since the discovery of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) in the 1980s and the application of GMR reading heads in the 1990s, the MR sensors lead to the rapid developments of the HDDs’ storage capacity. Nowadays, MR sensors are employed in magnetic storage, position sensing, current sensing, non-destructive monitoring, and biomedical sensing systems. MR sensors are used to transfer the variation of the target magnetic fields to other signals such as resistance change. This review illustrates the progress of developing nanoconstructed MR materials/structures. Meanwhile, it offers an overview of current trends regarding the applications of MR sensors. In addition, the challenges in designing/developing MR sensors with enhanced performance and cost-efficiency are discussed in this review. Full article

Magnetic field sensors based on the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect have a number of practical current and future applications. We report on a modeling of the magnetoresistive response of moving spin-valve (SV) GMR sensors combined in certain cluster networks to an inhomogeneous magnetic field of a label. We predicted a large variety of sensor responses dependent on the number of sensors in the cluster, their types of interconnections, the orientation of the cluster, and the trajectory of sensor motion relative to the label. The model included a specific shape of the label, producing an inhomogeneous magnetic field. The results can be used for the optimal design of positioning devices. Full article