Low Power Microwave Signal Detection With a Spin-Torque Nano-Oscillator in the Active Self-Oscillating Regime

A spin-torque nano-oscillator (STNO) driven by a ramped bias current can perform spectrum analysis quickly over a wide frequency bandwidth. The STNO spectrum analyzer operates by injection locking to external microwave signals and produces an output DC voltage $V_{\rm dc}$ that temporally encodes the input spectrum. We found, via numerical analysis with a macrospin approximation, that an STNO is able to scan a $10~\rm GHz$ bandwidth in less than $100~\rm ns$ (scanning rate $R$ exceeds $100~\rm MHz/ns$). In contrast to conventional quadratic microwave detectors, the output voltage of the STNO analyzer is proportional to the amplitude of the input microwave signal $I_{\rm rf}$ with sensitivity $S = dV_{\rm dc}/dI_{\rm rf} \approx 750~\rm mV/mA$. The minimum detectable signal of the analyzer depends on the scanning rate $R$ and, at low $R \approx 1~\rm MHz/ns$, is about $1~\rm pW$.