Surface Spin Waves Research Articles

Theory of spin and lattice wave dynamics excited by focused laser pulses

We develop a theory of spin wave dynamics excited by ultrafast focused laser pulses in a magnetic film. We take into account both the volume and surface spin wave modes in the presence of applied, dipolar and magnetic anisotropy fields and include the dependence on laser spot exposure size and magnetic damping. We show that the sound waves generated by local heating by an ultrafast focused laser pulse can excite a wide spectrum of spin waves (on top of a dominant magnon–phonon contribution). Good agreement with recent experiments supports the validity of the model.

Unidirectional Spin-Wave-Propagation-Induced Seebeck Voltage in a PEDOT:PSS/YIG Bilayer

We clarify the physical origin of the dc voltage generation in a bilayer of a conducting polymer film and a micrometer-thick magnetic insulator Y_{3}Fe_{5}O_{12} (YIG) film under ferromagnetic resonance and/or spin wave excitation conditions. The previous attributed mechanism, the inverse spin Hall effect in the polymer [Nat. Mater. 12, 622 (2013)NMAACR1476-112210.1038/nmat3634], is excluded by two control experiments. We find an in-plane temperature gradient in YIG which has the same angular dependence with the generated voltage. Both vanish when the YIG thickness is reduced to a few nanometers. Thus, we argue that the dc voltage is governed by the Seebeck effect in the polymer, where the temperature gradient is created by the nonreciprocal magnetostatic surface spin wave propagation in YIG.

Strong excitation of surface and bulk spin waves in yttrium iron garnet placed in a split ring resonator

This paper presents an experimental study of the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) in a bilayer consisting of a yttrium iron garnet (YIG) and platinum (Pt) loaded on a metamaterial split ring resonator (SRR). The system is excited by a microstrip feed line which generates both surface and bulk spin waves in the YIG. The spin waves subsequently undergo spin pumping from the YIG film to an adjacent Pt layer, and is converted into a charge current via the ISHE. It is found that the presence of the SRR causes a significant enhancement of the mangetic field near the resonance frequency of the SRR, resulting in a significant increase in the ISHE signal. Furthermore, the type of spin wave generated in the system can be controlled by changing the external applied magnetic field angle (). When the external applied magnetic field is near parallel to the microstrip line (), magnetostatic surface spin waves are predominantly excited. On the other hand, when the external applied magnetic field is perpendicular to the microstrip line (), backward volume magnetostatic spin waves are predominantly excited. Hence, it can be seen that the SRR structure is a promising method of achieving spin-charge conversion, which has many advantages over a coaxial probe.

Microwave Bistability in Active Ring Resonators With Dual Spin-Wave and Optical Nonlinearities

The microwave bistability in active ring resonators (RRs) with dual spin-wave and optical nonlinearities has been investigated. The theory for the nonlinear transfer function of the active RRs consisting of the spin-wave delay line and highly nonlinear optical fiber was developed taking into account both the dispersion and nonlinear properties of the ferrite film as well as the nonlinear properties of the optical fiber. The bistable behavior of the transmission characteristics of the active RR was analyzed using the developed theory for two types of spin-wave delay lines based on forward volume spin waves (FVSWs) and surface spin waves (SSWs). It was shown that an introduction of highly nonlinear optical fiber in the active RR based on the FVSW delay line provides compensation of the spin-wave nonlinearity. However, exactly the same nonlinear optical fiber in the active RR based on the SSW delay line enhanced the bistability. The transmission characteristics of the particular case of the active RRs consisted of the nonlinear FVSW or SSW delay lines, and linear optical single-mode fiber was experimentally measured. The obtained theoretical results are in good agreement with the experiment.

Spin-Wave Phase Shifters Utilizing Metal–Insulator Transition

A general theory describing the dispersion of surface spin waves has been developed for ferrite-dielectric-metal multilayered structures that takes into account the finite values of the layer permittivity and conductivity. The influence of different structure parameters on the dispersion characteristics was analyzed. A change of the conductivity of the conducting film layer manifests itself in a strong wavenumber variation. A novel miniature spin-wave phase shifter based on ferrite-dielectric-vanadium dioxide multilayered structures is proposed. A structure 1 mm in length gives a phase shift of 5.27 rad and an insertion loss of 2.1 dB at a frequency of 8.99 GHz. The introduction of a dielectric layer between the ferrite and vanadium dioxide films preserves the wavenumber variation and minimizes the thermal effect induced by heating of the vanadium dioxide film.

Фильтрация поверхностных магнитостатических волн в пленках железо-иттриевого граната переменной ширины при возбуждении фокусирующими преобразователями

AbstractWe have studied the filtration of surface spin waves in yttrium iron garnet (YIG) films of variable width excited by focusing transducers integrated with the film.

Micro-Focused Pulse Laser-Induced Propagating Spin Waves in Permalloy Films With Different Thicknesses

Propagating spin waves excited by a micro-focused ultra-short pulse laser were investigated in Permalloy films with the thicknesses of 20, 50, and 100 nm by means of an all-optical space-and-time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect. Although various perpendicular standing spin-wave modes were excited, the propagating magneto-static surface spin wave was clearly detected in each film, where the group velocities of approximately 4, 8, and 12 km/s and the propagation lengths of 3.8, 6.6, and 13 ${\mu }\text{m}$ for the 20, 50, and 100 nm-thick films, respectively, were evaluated. The evaluated group velocities were consistent with the theoretical values, whereas the propagation lengths were smaller than the theoretical values with the Gilbert damping constant ${\alpha }$ of 0.008.

Long-distance excitation of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond via surface spin waves

We make use of room-temperature magnetostatic surface spin waves (MSSWs) to mediate the interaction between the microwave field from an antenna and the spin of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. We show that this transport spans distances exceeding 3 mm, a manifestation of the MSSW robustness and large diffusion length. Using the NV spins as a local sensor, we find that the MSSW couples resonantly, and the NV spins amplitude grow linearly with the applied microwave power, suggesting that this approach could be extended to amplify the signal from neighboring spin qubits by several orders of magnitude.

Spin-wave nonreciprocity and magnonic band structure in a thin permalloy film induced by dynamical coupling with an array of Ni stripes

An efficient way for the control of spin wave propagation in a magnetic medium is the use of periodic patterns known as magnonic crystals (MCs). However, the fabrication of MCs especially bi-components, with periodicity on nanoscale, is a challenging task due to the requirement for sharp interfaces. An alternative method to circumvent this problem is to use homogeneous ferromagnetic film with modified periodically surrounding. The structure is also suitable for exploiting nonreciprocal properties of the surface spin waves. In this work, we demonstrate that the magnonic band structure forms in thin permalloy film due to dynamical magnetostatic coupling with Ni stripes near its surface. We show, that the band gap width can be systematically tuned by the changing interlayer thickness between film and stripes. We show also the effect of nonreciprocity, which is seen at the band gap edge shifted from the Brillouin zone boundary and also in nonreciprocal interaction of propagating spin waves in Py film with the standing spin waves in Ni stripes. Our findings open possibility for further investigation and exploitation of the nonreciprocity and band structure in magnonic devices.

Distribution of the amplitude of the magnetic potential of diffractive beams generated in a ferrite slab by a surface spin wave incident on a slit in an opaque screen

The total magnetic potential generated in the far field of a ferrite slab as a result of a plane noncollinear surface spin wave incident on a slit in an opaque screen is investigated. The dependence of the potential amplitude from the polar angle in the plane of a ferrite slab is calculated for different orientations of the screen with relative to an external magnetic field magnetizing the slab. It is found that two diffractive beams are generated in the slab as a result of spin diffraction on the slit. The angular width of each beam depends largely on the slit’s orientation and can be greater or smaller than value λ n /D (where D is the slit’s width and λ n is the length of the spin wave corresponding to each beam).

Excitation of coherent propagating spin waves in ultrathin CoFeB film by voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy

Spin waves (SWs) may be used as potential information carriers in next generation low-power spintronics devices. Here, we report an experimental study on the excitation of propagating magnetostatic surface SWs by voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy in a 2 nm thick CoFeB film. The SWs are detected by a pico-second time-resolved longitudinal Kerr microscope with a spatial resolution of 600 nm. We found a linear increase in the SW amplitude with the applied rf voltage. We show that in this ultrathin film, the voltage excited SWs can propagate up to micrometer distances which decrease with the increase in the bias magnetic field value. This is also supported by micromagnetic simulation results. Furthermore, we show that voltage excitations are spatially localized as opposed to conventional microstrip antenna induced Oersted field excitations. We discuss about the advantage of voltage excitation compared to the Oersted field excitation. We believe that voltage excitation of SWs will be more suitable and useful for the development of all-voltage-controlled nanoscale spintronics devices with a high density of integration.

Reciprocal excitation of propagating spin waves by a laser pulse and their reciprocal mapping in magnetic metal films

Focused pulse-laser-induced propagating magnetostatic surface spin waves (MSSWs) were investigated using an all-optical space-time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect microscope in 20-nm-thick permalloy thin films to clarify reciprocity and symmetry of MSSW emission. The microscope setup was constructed with variable direction of the applied magnetic field, and the corresponding angular dependence was examined. MSSWs were reciprocally emitted from the laser spot, in contrast to the nonreciprocal emission obtained by the antenna method. Specifically, the observed excitation amplitude and phase were independent of the propagation and magnetization directions within experimental error. By transforming the data into wave number--frequency space, the MSSW dispersion relation was clearly identified within the wave number of 2--3 rad/$\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ and frequency of 10 GHz. These observations are consistent with the model of ultrafast modulation of out-of-plane shape magnetic anisotropy inside the focused laser spot. In addition to confirming the symmetric and reciprocal emission of laser-induced MSSWs, the study demonstrated that this technique can provide all-optical microscopic spectroscopy for MSSW in metals, such as Brillouin light-scattering technique.

Magnonic band structure in a Co/Pd stripe domain system investigated by Brillouin light scattering and micromagnetic simulations

By combining Brillouin light scattering and micromagnetic simulations, we studied the spin-wave (SW) dynamics of a Co/Pd thin film multilayer, which features a stripe domain structure at remanence. The periodic up and down domains are separated by corkscrew type domain walls. The existence of these domains causes a scattering of the otherwise bulk and surface SW modes, which form mode families, similar to a one-dimensional magnonic crystal. The dispersion relation and mode profiles of SWs are measured for the transferred wave vector parallel and perpendicular to the domain axis.

Spin waves with large decay length and few 100 nm wavelengths in thin yttrium iron garnet grown at the wafer scale

Using conventional coplanar waveguides (CPWs), we excited spin waves with a wavelength λ down to 310 nm in a 200 nm thin yttrium iron garnet film grown by liquid phase epitaxy. Spin-wave transmission was detected between CPWs that we separated by up to 2 mm. For magnetostatic surface spin waves, we found a large nonreciprocity of 0.9 and a high group velocity vg of up to 5.4 km/s. The extracted decay length ld amounted to 0.86 mm. Small λ, high vg, and large ld are key figures of merit when aiming at non-charged based signal transmission and logic devices with spin waves.

Green’s functions theory for an interstitial magnetic impurity in a transverse Ising ferromagnet

A Green’s function formalism is used to calculate the spectrum of localized states associated with an interstitial magnetic impurity in a semi-infinite ferromagnet described by the transverse Ising model. The nonresonant and resonant excitations of the system due to the impurity (i.e. the defect modes outside and inside, respectively, the region of the bulk and surface spin waves (SW)) are calculated numerically for the high-temperature phase. Two situations are analyzed, depending on the position of the interstitial impurity: the impurity is in the surface ([Formula: see text]) and the impurity is in the bulk region ([Formula: see text]).

Spin wave surface states in 1D planar magnonic crystals

We have investigated surface spin wave states in 1D planar bi-component magnonic crystals, localized on the surfaces resulting from the breaking of the periodic structure. The two systems have been considered: the magnonic crystal with periodic changes of the anisotropy field in an exchange regime and the magnonic crystal composed of Fe and Ni stripes in a dipolar regime with exchange interactions included. We chose the symmetric unit cell for both systems to implement the symmetry related criteria for existence of the surface states. We investigated also the surface states induced by the presence of perturbation of the surface areas of the magnonic crystals. We showed that the system with modulated anisotropy is a direct analog of the electronic crystal. Therefore, the surface states in both systems have the same properties. For the surface states existing in magnonic crystals in dipolar-exchange regime we demonstrated that the spin waves show distinct differences in comparison to the electronic crystals, which are due to long-range dynamic dipolar interactions. We found that tuning of the strength of magnetization pinning, resulting from the surface anisotropy or dipolar effect, is vitally important for the existence of surface states in magnonic crystals.

Modulation of Spin Dynamics via Voltage Control of Spin‐Lattice Coupling in Multiferroics

Motivated by the most recent progresses in both magnonics (spin dynamics) and multiferroics fields, this work aims at magnonics manipulation by the magnetoelectric coupling effect. Here, voltage control of magnonics, particularly the surface spin waves, is achieved in La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/0.7Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3‐0.3PbTiO3 multiferroic heterostructures. With the electron spin resonance method, a large 135 Oe shift of surface spin wave resonance (≈7 times greater than conventional voltage‐induced ferromagnetic resonance shift of 20 Oe) is determined. A model of the spin‐lattice coupling effect, i.e., varying exchange stiffness due to voltage‐induced anisotropic lattice changes, has been established to explain experiment results with good agreement. Additionally, an “on” and “off” spin wave state switch near the critical angle upon applying a voltage is created. The modulation of spin dynamics by spin‐lattice coupling effect provides a platform for realizing energy‐efficient, tunable magnonics devices.

Spin wave interference in YIG cross junction

This work is aimed at studying the interference between backward volume magnetostatic spin waves and magnetostatic surface spin waves in a magnetic cross junction. These two types of magnetostatic waves possess different dispersion with zero frequency overlap in infinite magnetic films. However, the interference may be observed in finite structures due to the effect magnetic shape anisotropy. We report experimental data on spin wave interference in a micrometer size Y3Fe2(FeO4)3 cross junction. There are four micro antennas fabricated at the edges of the cross arms. Two of these antennas located on the orthogonal arms are used for spin wave generation, and the other two antennas are used for the inductive voltage detection. The phase difference between the input signals is controlled by the phase shifter. Prominent spin wave interference is observed at the selected combination of operational frequency and bias magnetic field. The maximum On/Off ratio exceeds 30dB at room temperature. The obtained results are important for a variety of magnetic devices based on spin wave interference.

Optical excitation of spin waves in epitaxial iron garnet films: MSSW vs BVMSW.

In most of the previous studies of the spin wave optical generation in magnetic dielectrics, the backward volume spin waves were excited. Here we modified the parameters of the circularly polarized optical pump beams emitted by femtosecond laser to reveal surface spin waves in bismuth iron garnet thin film. Beams that are larger than 10 μm in diameter generate both surface and volume spin waves with only one spectral peak near the ferromagnetic resonance. On the contrary, narrower beams excite predominantly surface spin waves of higher frequency, providing an additional peak in the spin wave spectrum. Thus different interference patterns of the magnetization dynamics are achievable. This may significantly broaden the capabilities of spin wave based devices.

Control of propagation characteristics of spin wave pulses via elastic and thermal effects

A study of the magnetoelastic (ME) and thermal effects governing the phase (φ) and amplitude of magnetostatic surface spin wave (MSSW) pulses propagating in Ga:YIG/GGG and permalloy magnonic waveguides is presented. The ME effects were studied in a flexural configuration, under punctual mechanical force (F). Thermally induced ME and demagnetization phenomena were controlled by optically injected thermal power Pth. It was determined that in an unclamped Ga:YIG waveguide, the force F that induces the phase shift Δφ=π, decreases by a quadratic law in the range from 1 mN to nN, and the Pth at which Δφ=π decreases linearly from mW to μW as the waveguide volume decreases from mm3 to nm3. For nano-volume waveguides the ME control energy (Eme) can be of order of aJ, and the thermal control energy (ΔEth) can be as small as 50fJ. The response time of these effects lies in the ns time scale. Both the mechanical and the thermo-magnetic forces provide an effective control of MSSW pulse amplitude, in addition to its phase shift. The thermo-magnetic effect allows one to realize variable delays of a MSSW pulse.