Electrical spectroscopy of the spin-wave dispersion and bistability in gallium-doped yttrium iron garnet

Abstract

Yttrium iron garnet (YIG) is a magnetic insulator with record-low damping, allowing spin-wave transport over macroscopic distances. Doping YIG with gallium ions greatly reduces the demagnetizing field and introduces a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, which leads to an isotropic spin-wave dispersion that facilitates spin-wave optics and spin-wave steering. Here, we characterize the dispersion of a gallium-doped YIG (Ga:YIG) thin film using electrical spectroscopy. We determine the magnetic anisotropy parameters and Gilbert damping from the frequency and linewidth of the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR). Next, we use propagating spin wave spectroscopy in the Damon–Eshbach configuration to detect the small spin-wave magnetic fields of this ultrathin weak magnet over a wide range of wavevectors, enabling the extraction of the exchange constant αex=1.32×10−12 J/m. We observe foldover of the FMR with increasing drive power, leading to frequency shifts of the spin-wave modes and a bistable region in the spin-wave spectra. Our results shed light on isotropic spin-wave transport in Ga:YIG and highlight the potential of electrical spectroscopy to map out the dispersion and bistability of propagating spin waves in magnets with a low saturation magnetization.