Reprogrammable magnonic crystals formed by interacting ferromagnetic nanowires

Spin-wave (SW) modes are addressed which are confined in thin individual Ni 80Fe 20 nanowires with widths ranging from 220 to 360 nm. In periodic arrays with an edge-to-edge separation of down to 100 nm, confined modes of neighboring nanowires are found to couple coherently and form allowed minibands and forbidden frequency gaps. This gives rise to a one-dimensional magnonic crystal. We present all-electrical SW spectroscopy data and micromagnetic simulations. We find that the nanowire arrays allow us to reprogram the relevant magnonic band structure via the magnetic history. A forbidden frequency gap of up to about 1 GHz is controlled by an in-plane magnetic field being as small as a few mT. © 2011 IUPAC.