Professor Tom Hayward
MPhys PhD
School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering
Professor of Materials Physics
t.hayward@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 5499
+44 114 222 5499
Sir Robert Hadfield Building
Full contact details
Professor Tom Hayward
School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering
Sir Robert Hadfield Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering
Sir Robert Hadfield Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
- Profile
-
I completed my PhD at Sidney Sussex College, the University of Cambridge, in 2007, under the supervision of the late Professor Tony Bland. I subsequently worked in post-doctoral positions, both in Cambridge and at the University of Sheffield, before being awarded an EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellowship in 2012, which I used to start my own group. I became a lecturer in 2017, a senior lecturer in 2020, and Professor of Materials Physics in 2024. My groups work is/has been supported by grants from a range of funders including EPSRC, Leverhulme trust, the European Commission, the Royal Society, and the Sir Henry Royce Institute.
- Research interests
-
My research explores the use of nano-scale magnetism and spintronics (spin-electronics) to create new, energy-efficient computing devices, as well understand fundamental physics. The majority of my group's research is currently focused on developing new neuromorphic (brain-like) computing devices that will allow us to use artificial intelligence at a fraction of its current energy cost. More broadly, my group has expertise in the growth of high-quality magnetic thin films and multilayers, the lithographic patterning of these into nanodevices, experimental characterisation via a wide range of techniques and simulation of device behaviour.
Key research interests:
- Magnetism
- Spintronics
- Magnonics
- Neuromorphic Computing
- Unconventional Computing
- Machine Learning
- Micromagnetic Simulation.
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Fingerprinting magnetic states in interconnected nanoring arrays via spin wave spectra. SPIN. View this article in WRRO
- Magnetic domain walls : types, processes and applications. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 57(6). View this article in WRRO
- Reconfigurable reservoir computing in a magnetic metamaterial. Communications Physics, 6(1). View this article in WRRO
- Machine learning using magnetic stochastic synapses.. Neuromorph. Comput. Eng., 3, 21001-21001.
- A perspective on physical reservoir computing with nanomagnetic devices. Applied Physics Letters, 122(4), 040501-040501.
- Quantifying the computational capability of a nanomagnetic reservoir computing platform with emergent magnetisation dynamics. Nanotechnology.
- Comparative study of the giant stress impedance behavior of commercial amorphous ribbons for strain sensing applications. Journal of Applied Physics, 131(21).
- Dynamics of high-velocity domain wall motion and spin wave excitation in trilayer structures. Journal of Applied Physics, 130(22).
- Surface acoustic wave assisted depinning of magnetic domain walls. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 33(31).
- Neuromorphic computation with a single magnetic domain wall. Scientific Reports, 11(1). View this article in WRRO
- An investigation on the mechanical properties of soft magnetostrictive FeCoCr films by nanoindentation. Journal of Alloys and Compounds. View this article in WRRO
- Voltage-controlled superparamagnetic ensembles for low-power reservoir computing. Applied Physics Letters, 118(20).
- Influence of geometry on the giant magnetoimpedance of high-aspect ratio amorphous magnetic ribbons. Journal of Applied Physics, 128(17).
- Suppression of dynamically induced stochastic magnetic behavior through materials engineering. Physical Review Applied, 13(2). View this article in WRRO
- Influence of Ga evaporation rate on the magnetic properties of amorphous FeGaSiB thin films. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. View this article in WRRO
- Toward Chirality‐Encoded Domain Wall Logic. Advanced Functional Materials, 29(10). View this article in WRRO
- Selective Excitation of Localized Spin-Wave Modes by Optically Pumped Surface Acoustic Waves. Physical Review Applied, 10(3). View this article in WRRO
- A Micromagnetic Protocol for Qualitatively Predicting Stochastic Domain Wall Pinning. Scientific Reports, 7(1). View this article in WRRO
- Suppression of Stochastic Domain Wall Pinning Through Control of Gilbert Damping. Scientific Reports, 7(1). View this article in WRRO
- Beyond the quasi-particle: stochastic domain wall dynamics in soft ferromagnetic nanowires. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 50(8). View this article in WRRO
- Ballistic rectification of vortex domain wall chirality at nanowire corners. Applied Physics Letters, 107(22), 222403-222403. View this article in WRRO
- A sound idea: Manipulating domain walls in magnetic nanowires using surface acoustic waves. Applied Physics Letters, 107(14). View this article in WRRO
- Intrinsic Nature of Stochastic Domain Wall Pinning Phenomena in Magnetic Nanowire Devices. Scientific Reports, 5. View this article in WRRO
- Domain wall pinning for racetrack memory using exchange bias. Applied Physics Letters, 105(16), 162406-162406.
- Suppression of stochastic pinning in magnetic nanowire devices using “virtual” domain walls. Journal of Applied Physics, 116(12), 123914-123914.
- Planar organic spin valves using nanostructured Ni
80 Fe20 magnetic contacts. Organic Electronics, 15(1), 276-280. View this article in WRRO
- Linear transport of domain walls confined to propagating 1-D potential wells. JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS, 114(16).
- Domain walls in ring-shaped nanowires under rotating applied fields. Journal of Applied Physics, 114(1).
- Magnetic domain walls: traps with potential.. Nat Nanotechnol, 8(6), 391-392.
- ChemInform Abstract: Spin-State Manipulation in Ferromagnetic Nano-Rings. ChemInform, 43(45), no-no.
- A simple model for calculating magnetic nanowire domain wall fringing fields. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 45(9).
- Controlling domain walls velocities in ferromagnetic ring-shaped nanowires. Applied Physics Letters, 100(7).
- Nanomagnetic engineering of the properties of domain wall atom traps. Journal of Applied Physics, 110(12). View this article in WRRO
- Magnetic micro-barcodes for molecular tagging applications. J PHYS D APPL PHYS, 43(17).
- Pinning induced by inter-domain wall interactions in planar magnetic nanowires. APPL PHYS LETT, 96(5).
- Direct imaging of domain-wall interactions in Ni80Fe20 planar nanowires. PHYS REV B, 81(2). View this article in WRRO
- Magnetic measurements of suspended functionalised ferromagnetic beads under DC applied fields. J MAGN MAGN MATER, 321(14), 2129-2134.
- Design and fabrication of SU8 encapsulated digital magnetic carriers for high throughput biological assays. J APPL PHYS, 105(3).
- Interactions of ultracold atoms with magnetic fields from domain walls in nanowires. Optics InfoBase Conference Papers.
- Magnetic remanent states and quasistatic switching behavior of Fe split-rings for spin field-effect-transistor applications. Applied Physics Letters, 95(17).
- Interactions of ultracold atoms with magnetic fields from domain walls in nanowires.. CLEO/Europe - EQEC 2009 - European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and the European Quantum Electronics Conference.
- Rewritable remote encoding and decoding of miniature multi-bit magnetic tags for high-throughput biological analysis.. Lab Chip, 8(11), 1883-1887.
- Effect of MgO barriers on ferromagnetic metallic layers studied by polarized neutron reflectivity. APPL PHYS LETT, 93(1).
- Control of epitaxy-induced magnetocrystal line anisotropy in a molecular beam epitaxy-grown Co/MgO/Fe/MgO(100) pseudo-spin-valve. APPL PHYS LETT, 92(8).
- Ferromagnetic Nanorings. ChemInform, 38(48).
- Coercivity engineering of exchange biased magnetic multilayer samples for digital encoding applications. J APPL PHYS, 102(10).
- Quantitative digital detection of magnetic beads using pseudo-spin-valve rings for multiplexed bioassays. APPL PHYS LETT, 91(20).
- Switching behavior of individual pseudo-spin-valve ring structures. PHYS REV B, 74(13).
- Reading and writing of vortex circulation in pseudo-spin-valve ring devices. APPL PHYS LETT, 89(11).
- Mesoscopic thin-film magnetic rings (invited). J APPL PHYS, 99(8).
- Competing reversal mechanisms and edge roughness in thin micron-scale ferromagnetic ring elements. INTERMAG 2006 - IEEE International Magnetics Conference, 940.
- Focused Magneto-optical Kerr Effect measurement of single pseudo spin-valve ring elements. INTERMAG 2006 - IEEE International Magnetics Conference, 939.
- Magnetic avalanche digital detector for biosensor applications. INTERMAG 2006 - IEEE International Magnetics Conference, 544.
- Exquisitely balanced thermal sensitivity of the stochastic switching process in macroscopic ferromagnetic ring elements. PHYS REV B, 72(18).
- Magnetization reversal in individual micrometer-sized polycrystalline Permalloy rings. J APPL PHYS, 97(6).
- Exploring physical and digital architectures in magnetic nanoring array reservoir computers. Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering.
- Dynamically‐Driven Emergence in a Nanomagnetic System. Advanced Functional Materials, 2008389-2008389.
- Manipulating ultracold atoms with a reconfigurable nanomagnetic system
of domain walls. Nano Lett., 12, 4065.
- Design and Characterization of a Field-Switchable Nanomagnetic Atom
Mirror. J. Appl. Phys., 108, 043906.
- Chirality-Based Vortex Domain-Wall Logic Gates. Physical Review Applied, 2(4).
- Quantifying the Computational Capability of a Nanomagnetic Reservoir
Computing Platform with Emergent Magnetization Dynamics.
Conference proceedings papers
- From stochasticity to functionality: harnessing magnetic domain walls for probabilistic and neuromorphic computing. Spintronics XIV, 1 August 2021 - 5 August 2021.
- Domain wall pinning for racetrack memory using exchange bias. 2015 IEEE Magnetics Conference (INTERMAG), 11 May 2015 - 15 May 2015.
- Enabling suspension-based biochemical assays with digital magnetic microtags. JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS, Vol. 107(9)
- The Effect of Oxidation and Carbon Contamination on SEM Dopant Contrast. ELECTRON MICROSCOPY AND ANALYSIS GROUP CONFERENCE 2009 (EMAG 2009), Vol. 241
- Double Vortex Interaction in Micron-Sized Elliptical Ni80Fe20 Elements Studied by Real-Time Kerr Microscopy. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, Vol. 45(6) (pp 2511-2514)
- Novel Multibit Magnetic Tagging Techniques for High-Throughput Multiplexed Chemical Analysis. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, Vol. 45(6) (pp 2878-2881)
- Digital biomagnetism: Electrodeposited multilayer magnetic barcodes. JOURNAL OF MAGNETISM AND MAGNETIC MATERIALS, Vol. 321(10) (pp 1662-1666)
- Influence of thermal excitation on magnetization states and switching routes of magnetic multilayer rings. JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS, Vol. 105(7)
- Digital magnetic tagging for multiplexed suspension-based biochemical assays. JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS, Vol. 105(7)
- High throughput biological analysis using multi-bit magnetic digital planar tags. BIOMAGNETISM AND MAGNETIC BIOSYSTEMS BASED ON MOLECULAR RECOGNITION PROCESSES, Vol. 1025 (pp 74-81)
- Towards magnetic suspension assay technology. BIOMAGNETISM AND MAGNETIC BIOSYSTEMS BASED ON MOLECULAR RECOGNITION PROCESSES, Vol. 1025 (pp 111-124)
- Moment selective digital detection of single magnetic beads for multiplexed Bioassays. BIOMAGNETISM AND MAGNETIC BIOSYSTEMS BASED ON MOLECULAR RECOGNITION PROCESSES, Vol. 1025 (pp 176-185)
- Ferromagnetic nanorings. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS-CONDENSED MATTER, Vol. 19(25)
- Measurement of variable magnetic reversal paths in electrically contacted pseudo-spin-valve rings. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS D-APPLIED PHYSICS, Vol. 40(5) (pp 1273-1279)
- Stochastic switching in individual micrometre-sized Permalloy rings. PHYSICA B-CONDENSED MATTER, Vol. 372(1-2) (pp 164-167)
Preprints
- RingSim- An Agent-based Approach for Modelling Mesoscopic Magnetic Nanowire Networks, arXiv.
- Optimising network interactions through device agnostic models, arXiv.
- Magnetic domain walls : Types, processes and applications.
- Machine learning using magnetic stochastic synapses, arXiv.
- A perspective on physical reservoir computing with nanomagnetic devices, arXiv.
- Reservoir Computing with Emergent Dynamics in a Magnetic Metamaterial, Research Square Platform LLC.
- Reservoir Computing with Emergent Dynamics in a Magnetic Metamaterial, arXiv.
- Manipulating ultracold atoms with a reconfigurable nanomagnetic system of domain walls, arXiv.
- Nanomagnetic engineering of the properties of domain wall atom traps, arXiv.
- Design and Characterization of a Field-Switchable Nanomagnetic Atom Mirror, arXiv.
- Neuromorphic Computation With a Single Magnetic Domain Wall.
- Fingerprinting magnetic states in interconnected nanoring arrays via spin wave spectra. SPIN. View this article in WRRO
- Teaching activities
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- MAT1220 (Introduction to Materials Properties).
- MAT2220 (Functional Materials)
- MAT3821 (Introduction to Finite Element Modelling).
- MAT4111 (Functional and Structural Ceramics)
- MAT6390 (Nanoscale Magnetic Materials and Devices)
- MAT2390-214 (Perspectives in Materials Research)
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Member of the Institute of Physics
- Member of EPSRC Peer Review College