Magnetic field detection with extremely high spatial resolution is crucial to applications in magnetic storage, biosensing, and magnetic imaging. Here, we present the concept of using a spin torque oscillator (STO) to detect magnetic fields by measuring the frequency of the oscillator. This sensor's performance relies predominantly on STO properties such as spectral linewidth and frequency dispersion with magnetic field, rather than signal amplitude as in conventional magnetoresistive sensors, and is shown in measured devices to achieve large signal to noise ratios. Using macrospin simulations, we describe oscillator designs for maximizing performance, making spin torque oscillators an attractive candidate to replace more commonly used sensors in nanoscale magnetic field sensing and future magnetic recording applications.

Sensitive magnetic field detection devices have been fabricated based on the planar Hall effect. The active material consists of permalloy ultrathin films (6 nm thick) epitaxially grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Uniaxial magnetic anisotropy is induced in the film through ferromagnetic coupling with a Fe/Pd bilayer epitaxially grown on MgO(001). The active layer shows a magnetoresistive ratio ΔR/R=2%. The device gives a sensitivity of 100 V/TA and a minimum detectable field below 10 nT. The detector response is linear over at least four decades. The transverse resistivity is sensitive only to the anisotropic resistivity, and not to the isotropic resistivity term which is highly temperature sensitive. Consequently, the thermal noise at 1 Hz is reduced by four orders of magnitude compared to a similar longitudinal magnetoresistive detector.

We have developed a self-aligned, high-yield process to fabricate CPP (current perpendicular to the plane) magnetic sensors of sub 100 nm dimensions. A pinned synthetic antiferromagnet (SAF) is used as the reference layer which minimizes dipole coupling to the free layer and field induced rotation of the reference layer. We find that the critical currents for spin transfer induced magnetization reversal of the free layer vary dramatically with relatively small changes the in-plane magnetic field, in contrast to theoretical predictions based on stability analysis of the Gilbert equations of magnetization dynamics including Slonczewski-type spintorque terms. The discrepancy is believed due to thermal fluctuations over the time scale of the measurements. Once thermal fluctuations are taken into account, we find good quantitative agreement between our experimental results and numerical simulations.

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