Abstract: Various embodiments of a magneto-acoustic spin-wave signal processing system are provided. In one embodiment, a system includes an acoustic wave transducer configured to produce surface acoustic waves in a plane of a magnetostrictive material, wherein the magnetostrictive material serves as a medium for spin waves traveling in the plane, and wherein the acoustic wave transducer is oriented such that the acoustic waves parametrically amplify the spin waves. In this way, signal processing systems achieve the benefits of both spin wave and acoustic wave devices, taking advantage of the low dispersion and high dynamic range of acoustic waves coupled with the tunability and nonlinear effects provided by spin waves.

Abstract: Method for forming an integrated acoustic device. A thin film piezoelectric acoustic transducer is epitaxially formed on a host substrate and is then transferred to a functional target substrate wherein physical phenomena from the piezoelectric transducer and the arbitrary functional substrate interact to form a hybrid acoustic microsystem comprising the piezoelectric transducer and the arbitrary functional substrate.

Abstract: Acoustically assisted magnetic recording can be used in a hard disk drive or a solid state medium. In the described embodiments, otherwise unwriteable high-coercivity media are made amenable to recording by lowering their coercivity via strain induced by acoustic waves. The use of acoustic waves temporarily and locally reduces the magnetic field required to record information on a magnetic recording medium. The process makes use of the magnetostrictive property of a magnetic material by which the magnetic anisotropy of the material is changed by strain. The result of such a change is a reduction in the coercive field, i.e., the magnetic field required to reverse the magnetization direction. Because acoustic waves cause strain, the passage of an acoustic wave through a magnetic material can be used to reduce its coercive field.

Abstract: Acoustically assisted magnetic recording can be used in a hard disk drive or a solid state medium. In the described embodiments, otherwise unwriteable high-coercivity media are made amenable to recording by lowering their coercivity via strain induced by acoustic waves. The use of acoustic waves temporarily and locally reduces the magnetic field required to record information on a magnetic recording medium. The process makes use of the magnetostrictive property of a magnetic material by which the magnetic anisotropy of the material is changed by strain. The result of such a change is a reduction in the coercive field, i.e., the magnetic field required to reverse the magnetization direction. Because acoustic waves cause strain, the passage of an acoustic wave through a magnetic material can be used to reduce its coercive field.

Abstract: A ferromagnetic thin-film based magnetic field sensor with first and second sensitive direction sensing structures each having a nonmagnetic intermediate layer with two major surfaces on opposite sides thereof having a magnetization reference layer on one and an anisotropic ferromagnetic material sensing layer on the other having a length in a selected length direction and a smaller width perpendicular thereto and parallel to the relatively fixed magnetization direction. The relatively fixed magnetization direction of said magnetization reference layer in each is oriented in substantially parallel to the substrate but substantially perpendicular to that of the other. An annealing process is used to form the desired magnetization directions.

Abstract: A ferromagnetic thin-film based magnetic field sensor with first and second sensitive direction sensing structures each having a nonmagnetic intermediate layer with two major surfaces on opposite sides thereof having a magnetization reference layer on one and an anisotropic ferromagnetic material sensing layer on the other having a length in a selected length direction and a smaller width perpendicular thereto and parallel to the relatively fixed magnetization direction. The relatively fixed magnetization direction of said magnetization reference layer in each is oriented in substantially parallel to the substrate but substantially perpendicular to that of the other. An annealing process is used to form the desired magnetization directions.