Ferromagnetic Resonance Experiments Research Articles

About the significance of the driving current direction in ferromagnetic resonance experiments

About the significance of the driving current direction in ferromagnetic resonance experiments

Electrical Excitation and Detection of Chiral Magnons in a Compensated Ferrimagnetic Insulator.

Magnon chirality refers to the precessional handedness of magnetization around the external magnetic field, which is fixed as right-handed in ferromagnets. Compensated ferrimagnets accommodate parallel and antiparallel configurations of net magnetization and angular momentum, and thus serve as an ideal platform for studying magnon chirality. Through performing spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance experiments, we experimentally study the reversal of low-frequency magnon chirality across the magnetization and angular momentum compensation temperatures in a Gd_{3}Fe_{5}O_{12}/Pt bilayer. In particular, we demonstrate that dampinglike spin torque could sensitively excite and detect the reversal of low-frequency magnon chirality. By solving the coupled Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equations, the close correlation between the reversal of low-frequency magnon chirality and the sign of net angular momenta is established. The electrical excitation and detection of low-frequency magnon chirality in compensated ferrimagnetic insulators could be useful for building chiral spintronics.

Impact of thickness and saturation direction over magnetostatic mode energies and profiles in Ni80Fe20 antidots

Abstract The magnetization dynamics of square arrays of circular antidots fabricated on Si(001) substrates using deep ultraviolet lithography with a 248 nm exposing wavelength have been studied. The effects of thickness (40 nm and 80 nm) and the in-plane direction of the applied magnetic field on the magnetostatic mode energies were investigated through ferromagnetic resonance experiments and micromagnetic simulations for both thicknesses. The experimental results and the simulations allowed the determination of nature of the magnetostatic modes nature measured at angles of 0° and 45° between the applied magnetic field and the axis of the square array. Notably, in this geometry, the main modes do not disapear when the sample is rotated; instead, the localization of the modes follow the rotation of the applied field, with a variation in measured intensity directly related to the surface area occupied by the localized mode.

Non-volatile Fermi level tuning for the control of spin-charge conversion at room temperature

Current silicon-based CMOS devices face physical limitations in downscaling size and power loss, restricting their capability to meet the demands for data storage and information processing of emerging technologies. One possible alternative is to encode the information in a non-volatile magnetic state and manipulate this spin state electronically, as in spintronics. However, current spintronic devices rely on the current-driven control of magnetization, which involves Joule heating and power dissipation. This limitation has motivated intense research into the voltage-driven manipulation of spin signals to achieve energy-efficient device operation. Here, we show non-volatile control of spin-charge conversion at room temperature in graphene-based heterostructures through Fermi level tuning. We use a polymeric ferroelectric film to induce non-volatile charging in graphene. To demonstrate the switching of spin-to-charge conversion we perform ferromagnetic resonance and inverse Edelstein effect experiments. The sign change of output voltage is derived by the change of carrier type, which can be achieved solely by a voltage pulse. Our results provide an alternative approach for the electric-field control of spin-charge conversion, which constitutes a building block for the next generation of spin-orbitronic memory and logic devices.

Contact and bulk rectification effects in ferromagnetic resonance experiments

We present an experimental study of the spin rectification effects produced by ferromagnetic resonance in a NiFe wire. A system of four independent nonmagnetic contact probes was used to supply both rf and dc currents to the wire and to measure dc voltages at different locations in the wire. The rf current drives the ferromagnet’s magnetization into resonance and produces a dc photovoltage which results from the rectification of rf current in the ferromagnet with oscillating magnetization. Our 4-probe system provided a means to detect the photovoltage and separate contributions from the ferromagnet/nonmagnet contacts and the bulk of the ferromagnet. The contact photovoltage was found to increase approximately linearly with the dc bias applied to the wire. In contrast, the bulk contribution was found to be almost independent of the dc bias. By tuning properties of individual contact probes we were able to change the magnitude of the contact photovoltage and even reverse its sign. Our results highlight the different contributions to photovoltage and the importance of contact properties/nonlinearities for rectification effects in spintronic devices.

Generation of localized, half-frequency spin waves in micron sized ferromagnetic stripes: Experiments and simulations

Generation of localized, half-frequency spin waves in micron sized ferromagnetic stripes: Experiments and simulations

Efficient charge to spin conversion in iridium oxide thin films

Many 5d transition metal oxides have a unique electronic structure, where the density of states near the Fermi level is dominated by only 5d electrons with strong spin–orbit coupling. IrO2, a Dirac nodal line semi-metal, is the simplest of these oxides. The presence of 5d electrons and gap opening of Dirac nodal lines via strong spin–orbit coupling allows for the hybridization of the 5d electrons of the oxide with the itinerant d electrons of a ferromagnet, while simultaneously increasing the intrinsic spin Hall effect. We report large charge-to-spin conversion in thin films of this material using spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance experiments. By independently performing line shape analysis and linewidth modulation experiments, we conclusively determine the spin Hall angle of optimized IrO2 films to be ∼8 times larger than that of Pt.

Spin pumping into a partially compensated antiferromagnetic/paramagnetic insulator

Spin pumping from a metallic ferromagnet (FM) into an insulating antiferromagnet has been studied across the magnetic phase transition by means of temperature-dependent, broad-band ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) experiments. A set of spin pumping heterostructures consisting of Permalloy (Ni80Fe20) as FM and ZnCo x O with and 0.6 (Co:ZnO) as partially compensated antiferromagnetic insulator has been used for which previous experiments have already pointed out the possibility of the existence of spin-pumping. The present experiments allow to reliably separate the various contributions of the temperature-dependent Gilbert damping parameter to the FMR line-width. A careful analysis of the obtained data demonstrates a significant increase of the temperature-dependence of the Gilbert damping parameter around the magnetic phase transition of Co:ZnO which extends up to room temperature, confirming spin pumping into the fluctuating spin sink of an antiferromagnetic/paramagnetic insulator.

Strongly Coupled Magnon-Plasmon Polaritons in Graphene-Two-Dimensional Ferromagnet Heterostructures.

Magnons and plasmons are different collective modes, involving the spin and charge degrees of freedom, respectively. Formation of hybrid plasmon-magnon polaritons in heterostructures of plasmonic and magnetic systems faces two challenges, the small interaction of the electromagnetic field of the plasmon with the spins, and the energy mismatch, as in most systems plasmons have energies orders of magnitude larger than those of magnons. We show that graphene plasmons form polaritons with the magnons of two-dimensional ferromagnetic insulators, placed up to to half a micrometer apart, with Rabi splittings in the range of 100 GHz (dramatically larger than cavity magnonics). This is facilitated both by the small energy of graphene plasmons and the cooperative super-radiant nature of the plasmon-magnon coupling afforded by phase matching. We show that the coupling can be modulated both electrically and mechanically, and we propose a ferromagnetic resonance experiment implemented with a two-dimensional ferromagnet driven by graphene plasmons.

Distance and size dependence of the interactions within highly ordered magnetic nanoparticle mesocrystals

Arranging magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) into highly ordered structures, so-called superlattices or mesocrystals, is of great interest from a fundamental point of view, as the employment of the corresponding coupled nanoentities introduces additional degrees of freedom to manipulate the overall magnetic characteristics of such hierarchical materials. Characterizing the associated magnetic interactions on the mesoscopic scale is indispensable for obtaining a profound understanding of the relative strengths of the types of interactions involved, such as dipole-dipole interactions, which affect the collective response of a corresponding mesocrystal. In this paper, nanoparticles are deposited onto silicon substrates by spin coating, leading to two-dimensional monolayered structures showing a close-packed hexagonal arrangement. The MNPs consist of iron oxide (magnetite ${\mathrm{Fe}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{4}$) and are coated with a nonmagnetic polymer (polystyrene). The MNPs are synthesized such that their diameters ${d}_{\text{MNP}}$ are tuned in a range between 9 and 18 nm. A precise manipulation of the shell thickness ${d}_{\text{shell}}$ is achieved by coating the MNPs with polystyrene of different molecular weights. In this fashion, the spacing between the MNPs, ${d}_{\text{spacer}}=2{d}_{\text{shell}}$, is varied in a range between 6 and 14 nm. Within the investigated ${d}_{\text{spacer}}$ range, dipolar interactions govern the collective properties showing distinct distance-dependent characteristics. As ${d}_{\text{spacer}}$ increases, the dipolar coupling strength between the MNPs decreases, as deduced from the spectral features of ferromagnetic resonance experiments. These observations are further corroborated by numerical simulations of the dynamic properties of appropriate model systems. A comparison of the experimental and theoretical findings shows that material parameters, such as the magnetization ${M}_{\text{MNP}}$ and the magnetocrystalline anisotropy ${C}_{\text{MNP}}$ of the MNPs, are reduced compared to their bulk values.

Growth temperature-controlled Gilbert damping and anisotropies in PLD grown epitaxial Co2FeSi Heusler alloy thin film

The utilization of spin rather than charge as a functional aspect in the electronic devices will result in an energy-efficient, thermally stable, and fast operation. Cobalt-based Heusler alloy Co2FeSi (CFS) offers excellent possibilities due to its high curie temperature, large spin polarization, and low Gilbert damping (α). Small damping makes the alloy fascinating for spin transfer torque magnetoresistive random-access memory (STT-MRAM) devices where a low α causes a low value of switching current. The present investigation explored the effect of deposition temperature on the chemical, structural and magnetic properties of the pulsed laser deposition grown single-crystal CFS film of thickness 50 nm on a lattice-matched (001) MgO substrate. The XRD data suggest that Co site atomic ordering and overall film crystallinity improved with temperature, resulting in a minimal value of α obtained from ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) experiment in the film grown at 600°C. The azimuthal angular variation (φ) of FMR field data gives a fourfold anisotropy pattern that confirms the single-crystal CFS film epitaxially grown on the MgO substrate. Two in-plane anisotropies, namely cubic (four-fold) and uniaxial, were obtained in all the samples. This investigation is crucial in the fabrication of fast spintronics based memory and processing devices.

Reduced effective magnetization and damping by slowly relaxing impurities in strained γ-Fe2O3 thin films

Magnetically ordered insulators are of key interest for spintronics applications, but most of them have not yet been explored in depth regarding their magnetic properties, in particular with respect to their dynamic response. We study the static and dynamic magnetic properties of epitaxially strained γ-Fe2O3 (maghemite) thin films grown via pulsed-laser deposition on MgO substrates by SQUID magnetometry and cryogenic broadband ferromagnetic resonance experiments. SQUID magnetometry measurements reveal hysteretic magnetization curves for magnetic fields applied both in- and out of the sample plane. From the magnetization dynamics of our thin films, we find a small negative effective magnetization in agreement with a strain induced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Moreover, we observe a non-linear evolution of the ferromagnetic resonance-linewidth as a function of the microwave frequency and explain this finding with the so-called slow relaxor model. We investigate the magnetization dynamics and non-linear damping mechanisms present in our samples as a function of frequency and temperature and in particular, observe a sign change in the effective magnetization from the transition of the magnetic anisotropy from a perpendicular easy axis to an easy in-plane anisotropy for reduced temperatures. Its nonlinear damping properties and strain-induced perpendicular anisotropy render γ-Fe2O3 an interesting material platform for spintronics devices.

All-Optical Generation and Time-Resolved Polarimetry of Magnetoacoustic Resonances via Transient Grating Spectroscopy

The generation and control of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) in a magnetic material are objects of an intense research effort focused on magnetoelastic properties, with fruitful ramifications in spin-wave-based quantum logic and magnonics. We implement a transient grating setup to optically generate SAWs also seeding coherent spin waves via magnetoelastic coupling in ferromagnetic media. In this work we report on SAW-driven ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) experiments performed on polycrystalline Ni thin films in combination with time-resolved Faraday polarimetry, which allows extraction of the value of the effective magnetization and of the Gilbert damping. The results are in full agreement with measurements on the very same samples from standard FMR. Higher-order effects due to parametric modulation of the magnetization dynamics, such as down-conversion, up-conversion, and frequency mixing, are observed, testifying the high sensitivity of this technique.

Magnon spectrum of Bloch hopfion beyond ferromagnetic resonance

With the development of new nanofabrication technologies and measurement techniques, the interest of researchers is moving toward 3D structures and 3D magnetization textures. Special attention is paid to the topological magnetization textures, particularly hopfions. In this paper, we investigate the magnetization dynamics of the hopfion through the numerical solution of the eigenvalue problem. We show that the spectrum of spin-wave modes of the hopfion is much richer than those attainable in ferromagnetic resonance experiments or time-domain simulations reported so far. We identified four groups of modes that differ in the character of oscillations (clockwise or counter-clockwise rotation sense), the position of an average amplitude localization along the radial direction, and different oscillations in the vertical cross section. The knowledge of the full spin-wave spectrum shall help in hopfion identification, understanding of the interaction between spin waves and hopfion dynamics as well as the development of the potential of hopfion in spintronic and magnonic applications.

Giant Extrinsic Spin Hall Effect in Platinum-Titanium Oxide Nanocomposite Films.

Although the spin Hall effect provides a pathway for efficient and fast current‐induced manipulation of magnetization, application of spin–orbit torque magnetic random access memory with low power dissipation is still limited to spin Hall materials with low spin Hall angles or very high resistivities. This work reports a group of spin Hall materials, Pt1 −x (TiO2) x nanocomposites, that combines a giant spin Hall effect with a low resistivity. The spin Hall angle of Pt1 −x (TiO2) x in an yttrium iron garnet/Pt1 −x (TiO2) x double‐layer heterostructure is estimated from a combination of ferromagnetic resonance, spin pumping, and inverse spin Hall experiments. A giant spin Hall angle 1.607 ± 0.04 is obtained in a Pt0.94(TiO2)0.06 nanocomposite film, which is an increase by an order of magnitude compared with 0.051 ± 0.002 in pure Pt thin film under the same conditions. The great enhancement of spin Hall angle is attributed to strong side‐jump induced by TiO2 impurities. These findings provide a new nanocomposite spin Hall material combining a giant spin Hall angle, low resistivity and excellent process compatibility with semiconductors for developing highly efficiency current‐induced magnetization switching memory devices and logic devices.

Low-temperature ferromagnetic resonance in bare and SiO2 coated La0.775Sr0.225MnO3 nanoparticles

La0.775Sr0.225MnO3 nanoparticles were synthesized by sol-gel method with heat treatment at T = 1073 K and covered with silica shells of various thicknesses. Analysis of their experimental ferromagnetic resonance spectra was carried out in the temperature range of 77–290 K. The linewidth of absorption curves change in a nonlinear manner in coated samples in the temperature range of 230 K ≤ T ≤ 290 K. Such changes indicate the appearance of external stresses between nanoparticles due to the difference in the thermal expansion coefficients of the two materials.

Influence of Ga+ milling on the spin waves modes in a Co2MnSi Heusler magnonic crystal

Ferromagnetic resonance experiment was performed to study the magnonic modes of an antidot lattice nanopatterned in a sputtered Co2MnSi Heusler alloy thin film. The magnonic crystal was prepared with a Ga+ focused ion beam, and micromagnetic simulations were used to explain qualitatively and quantitatively the complex experimental spin waves spectrum. We demonstrate the necessity to consider the geometrical imperfections and the modification of the Co2MnSi magnetic parameters induced by the nanofabrication process to describe the evolution of the frequencies and spatial profiles of the principal experimental spin waves modes in the 0–300 mT magnetic field range. In particular, our model suggests that Ga+ milling induces a drastic decrease (between 80% and 90%) in the bulk Co2MnSi magnetic parameters. In addition, simulations reveal the presence of a diversity of localized and extended spin waves modes whose spatial profiles are closely related to the evolution of the magnetic state at equilibrium from a very non-collinear configuration up to a quasi-saturated state.

Magnon-exciton proximity coupling at a van der Waals heterointerface

We report on an optically probed ferromagnetic resonance experiment which elucidates the magnon-exciton coupling at the interface between a magnetic thin film and an atomically thin semiconductor. Our approach allies the long-lived magnons hosted in a film of yttrium iron garnet (YIG) to strongly bound excitons in a flake of a transition metal dichalcogenide, ${\mathrm{MoSe}}_{2}$. The magnons induce on the excitons a dynamical valley Zeeman effect ruled by interfacial exchange interactions. This nascent class of hybrid system suggests new opportunities for information transduction between microwave and optical regions.

Assessing the relaxation mechanisms contributions on magnetoimpedance effect in YIG/W bilayers

Damping parameter plays a key role in the magnetization dynamics of ferri/ferromagnetic materials with potential technological applications. Experimentally the damping parameter can be estimated from the linewidth of the ferromagnetic resonance experiment, which is altered by distinct mechanisms associated with extrinsic contributions, such as spin pumping and two-magnon scattering mechanisms. Here we perform a systematic investigation of the magnetization dynamics through magnetoimpedance effect in Y5Fe3O12(t)/W(100 nm) bilayers having t YIG between 25 and 125 nm. By modifying the YIG thickness, we explore the contributions of such extrinsic mechanisms to α eff . From the structural features, quasi-static magnetic properties, and ferromagnetic resonance results, we interpret our findings for the magnetization dynamics. Our results disclose that the bilayer structure allows us to explore the magnetoimpedance effect in a wide range of frequency and magnetic fields, providing insights on the effective damping parameter.

Magnetic field robust high quality factor NbTiN superconducting microwave resonators

We systematically study the performance of compact lumped element planar microwave Nb70Ti30N (NbTiN) resonators operating at 5 GHz in external in-plane magnetic fields up to 440 mT, a broad temperature regime from 2.2 K up to 13 K, as well as mK temperatures. For comparison, the resonators have been fabricated on thermally oxidized and pristine, (001) oriented silicon substrates. When operating the resonators in the multi-photon regime at T = 2.2 K, we find internal quality factors Q int ≃ 2 × 105 for NbTiN resonators grown on pristine Si substrates. In addition, we investigate the Q-factors of the resonators on pristine Si substrates at millikelvin temperatures to assess their applicability for quantum applications. We find Q int ≃ 2 × 105 in the single photon regime and Q int ≃ 5 × 105 in the high power regime at T = 7 mK. From the excellent performance of our resonators over a broad temperature and magnetic field range, we conclude that NbTiN deposited on Si (100) substrates, where the surface oxide has been removed, constitutes a promising material platform for electron spin resonance and ferromagnetic resonance experiments using superconducting planar microwave resonators.