Yttrium Iron Garnet Thin Films Research Articles

Thermally induced all-optical ferromagnetic resonance in thin YIG films

All-optical ferromagnetic resonance (AO-FMR) is a powerful tool for the local detection of micromagnetic parameters, such as magnetic anisotropy, Gilbert damping or spin stiffness. In this work we demonstrate that the AO-FMR method can be used in thin films of yttrium iron garnet (YIG) if a metallic capping layer (Au, Pt) is deposited on top of the film. Magnetization precession is triggered by heating of the metallic layer with femtosecond laser pulses. The heat pulse modifies the magneto-crystalline anisotropy of the YIG film and shifts the quasi-equilibrium orientation of the magnetization, which results in precessional magnetization dynamics. The laser-induced magnetization precession corresponds to a uniform (Kittel) magnon mode, with the precession frequency determined by the magnetic anisotropy of the material as well as the external magnetic field, and the damping time set by a Gilbert damping parameter. The AO-FMR method thus enables measuring local magnetic properties, with a resolution given by the laser spot size.

Magnonic Casimir Effect in Ferrimagnets.

Quantum fluctuations are the key concepts of quantum mechanics. Quantum fluctuations of quantum fields induce a zero-point energy shift under spatial boundary conditions. This quantum phenomenon, called the Casimir effect, has been attracting much attention beyond the hierarchy of energy scales, ranging from elementary particle physics to condensed matter physics together with photonics. However, the application of the Casimir effect to spintronics has not yet been investigated enough, particularly to ferrimagnetic thin films, although yttrium iron garnet (YIG) is one of the best platforms for spintronics. Here we fill this gap. Using the lattice field theory, we investigate the Casimir effect induced by quantum fields for magnons in insulating magnets and find that the magnonic Casimir effect can arise not only in antiferromagnets but also in ferrimagnets including YIG thin films. Our result suggests that YIG, the key ingredient of magnon-based spintronics, can serve also as a promising platform for manipulating and utilizing Casimir effects, called Casimir engineering. Microfabrication technology can control the thickness of thin films and realize the manipulation of the magnonic Casimir effect. Thus, we pave the way for magnonic Casimir engineering.

Spin Pumping of Magnons Coherently Coupled to a Cavity Dark Mode

Cavity magnonics provides a versatile platform to tune the photon-magnon interaction bringing about promising applications for quantum information processing. Here, we implement a metamaterial planar cavity to suppress the radiative damping by engineering the symmetry of the cavity configuration. Then, the mode with suppressed radiative damping, i.e., dark mode, is coupled to the magnon mode in a thin yttrium iron garnet film ($5\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$), which is detected by performing the reflection measurements and spin-pumping experiment. Pronounced anticrossing of the ferromagnetic resonance and the cavity dark mode is observed, where the largest coupling strength reaches 2.5% of the resonant cavity frequency. In addition, the spin wave resonances along the thickness direction are identified, which enhances the spin-pumping signal when they coalesce with the hybridized cavity-magnon-polariton mode. The dark mode excited by the planar metamaterial cavity leads to an improvement in the coherent manipulation of the spin current.

Spin-wave-based tunable coupler between superconducting flux qubits

Quantum computing and simulation based on superconducting qubits have achieved significant progress and entered the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era recently. Using a third qubit or object as a tunable coupler between qubits is an important step in this process. In this article, we propose a hybrid system made of superconducting qubit and a yttrium iron garnet (YIG) system as an alternative way to realize this. YIG thin films have spin wave (magnon) modes with low dissipation and reliable control for quantum information processing. Here, we propose a scheme to achieve strong coherent coupling between superconducting (SC) flux qubits and magnon modes in YIG thin film. Unlike the direct $\sqrt{N}$ enhancement factor in coupling to the Kittel mode and other spin ensembles, with $N$ the total number of spins, an additional spatial-dependent phase factor needs to be considered when the qubits are magnetically coupled with the magnon modes of finite wavelength. To avoid undesirable cancellation of coupling caused by the symmetrical boundary condition, a CoFeB thin layer is added to one side of the YIG thin film to break the symmetry. Our numerical simulation demonstrates avoided crossing and coherent transfer of quantum information between the flux qubit and the standing spin waves in YIG thin films. We show that the YIG thin film can be used as a tunable coupler between two flux qubits, which have a modified shape with small direct inductive coupling between them. Our results manifest that by cancellation of direct inductive coupling and indirect spin-wave couple of flux qubits we can turn on and off the net coupling between qubits. This bring magnonic YIG thin film into the field of quantum information processing.

Nonlocal Detection of Interlayer Three-Magnon Coupling.

A leading nonlinear effect in magnonics is the interaction that splits a high-frequency magnon into two low-frequency magnons with conserved linear momentum. Here, we report experimental observation of nonlocal three-magnon scattering between spatially separated magnetic systems, viz. a CoFeB nanowire and a yttrium iron garnet (YIG) thin film. Above a certain threshold power of an applied microwave field, a CoFeB Kittel magnon splits into a pair of counterpropagating YIG magnons that induce voltage signals in Pt electrodes on each side, in excellent agreement with model calculations based on the interlayer dipolar interaction. The excited YIG magnon pairs reside mainly in the first excited (n=1) perpendicular standing spin-wave mode. With increasing power, the n=1 magnons successively scatter into nodeless (n=0) magnons through a four-magnon process. Our results demonstrate nonlocal detection of two separately propagating magnons emerging from one common source that may enable quantum entanglement between distant magnons for quantum information applications.

Delineating magnetization dynamics in solution-processed doped yttrium iron garnet thin films

In this work, thin films of ruthenium-doped and cerium-doped yttrium iron garnet were deposited on silicon using solgel chemistry. Doped YIG could be produced in phase pure form up to a precursor stoichiometry of Y3Ru0.1Fe4.9O12 and Ce0.7Y2.3Fe5O12. Both dopants significantly increase the coercivity and anisotropy field of the materials either due to domain wall pinning or increased spin–orbit coupling from the dopant. To delineate these two effects, the dynamic magnetic properties were studied using strip line ferromagnetic resonance (FMR). The FMR linewidth was separated into intrinsic loss and inhomogeneous line broadening. Inhomogeneous line broadening was found to dominate the magnetic losses in all the films likely due to magnon scattering off grain boundaries, but the Gilbert damping remained fairly low. By comparing the two dopants, it was found that Gilbert damping increased more in Ce:YIG films than in Ru:YIG films. This finding was corroborated by changes in the anisotropy field of the films, indicating a larger contribution from spin–orbit coupling from cerium than from ruthenium. Surprisingly, while magnetic loss globally increased with higher substitution, adding a small amount of dopant actually reduced the inhomogeneous line broadening in both sets of films. This was corroborated by crystallite size. The damping in Ru:YIG also decreased with a small amount of the dopant, which has been predicted by Kittel for doped garnets. Thus, it follows that there is an ideal doping regime where solgel YIG can be doped at low levels without increasing magnetic loss.

Automated mechanical exfoliation technique: a spin pumping study in YIG/TMD heterostructures.

Spintronics devices rely on the generation and manipulation of spin currents. Two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are among the most promising materials for a spin current generation due to a lack of inversion symmetry at the interface with the magnetic material. Here, we report on the fabrication of Yttrium Iron Garnet(YIG)/TMD heterostructures by means of a crude and fast method. While the magnetic insulator single-crystalline YIG thin films were grown by magnetron sputtering, the TMDs, namely MoS2 and MoSe2, were directly deposited onto YIG films using an automated mechanical abrasion method. Despite the brute force aspect of the method, it produces high-quality interfaces, which are suitable for spintronic device applications. The spin current density and the effective spin mixing conductance were measured by ferromagnetic resonance, whose values found are among the highest reported in the literature. Our method can be scaled to produce ferromagnetic materials/TMD heterostructures on a large scale, further advancing their potential for practical applications.

Direct probing of strong magnon–photon coupling in a planar geometry

We demonstrate direct probing of strong magnon–photon coupling using Brillouin light scattering (BLS) spectroscopy in a planar geometry. The magnonic hybrid system comprises a split-ring resonator loaded with epitaxial yttrium iron garnet thin films of 200 nm and 2.46 μm thickness. The BLS measurements are combined with microwave spectroscopy measurements where both biasing magnetic field and microwave excitation frequency are varied. The cooperativity for the 200 nm-thick YIG films is 1.1, and larger cooperativity of 29.1 is found for the 2.46 μm-thick YIG film. We show that BLS is advantageous for probing the magnonic character of magnon–photon polaritons, while microwave absorption is more sensitive to the photonic character of the hybrid excitation. A miniaturized, planar device design is imperative for the potential integration of magnonic hybrid systems in future coherent information technologies, and our results are a first stepping stone in this regard. Furthermore, successfully detecting the magnonic hybrid excitation by BLS is an essential step for the up-conversion of quantum signals from the microwave to the optical regime in hybrid quantum systems.

Giant quadratic magneto-optical response of thin Y3Fe5O12 films for sensitive magnetometry experiments

We report on observation of a magneto-optical effect quadratic in magnetization (Cotton-Mouton effect) in 50 nm thick layer of Yttrium-Iron Garnet (YIG). By a combined theoretical and experimental approach, we managed to quantify both linear and quadratic magneto-optical effects. We show that the quadratic magneto-optical signal in the thin YIG film can exceed the linear magneto-optical response, reaching values of 450 urad that are comparable with Heusler alloys or ferromagnetic semiconductors. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a proper choice of experimental conditions, particularly with respect to the wavelength, is crucial for optimization of the quadratic magneto-optical effect for magnetometry measurement.

Giant magnon spin conductivity in ultrathin yttrium iron garnet films.

Conductivities are key material parameters that govern various types of transport (electronic charge, spin, heat and so on) driven by thermodynamic forces. Magnons, the elementary excitations of the magnetic order, flow under the gradient of a magnon chemical potential1-3 in proportion to a magnon (spin) conductivity. The magnetic insulator yttrium iron garnet is the material of choice for efficient magnon spin transport. Here we report a giant magnon conductivity in thin yttrium iron garnet films with thicknesses down to 3.7 nm when the number of occupied two-dimensional subbands is reduced from a large number to a few, which corresponds to a transition from three-dimensional to two-dimensional magnon transport. We extract a two-dimensional magnon spin conductivity around 1 S at room temperature, comparable to the (electronic) conductivity of the high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas in GaAs quantum wells at millikelvin temperatures4. Such high conductivities offer opportunities to develop low-dissipation magnon-based spintronic devices.

Thickness dependence of spin Seebeck resistivity in polycrystalline YIG films grown by metal organic decomposition method

In this work, we investigated the dependence of spin Seebeck effect (SSE) voltages on the thickness of yttrium iron garnet (Y3Fe5O12-YIG) thin films grown on a silicon (Si) substrate fabricated by a metal-organic decomposition (MOD) method. The thickness of films was controlled by repeated spin coating and annealing cycles. Based on grazing incidence X-ray diffraction measurements, the YIG thin films displayed high crystallinity without secondary peaks, despite the increase in thickness. Scanning electron microscopy revealed uniform, highly dense films for samples having a thickness in the range of 37–260 nm. Magnetic hysteresis loops showed similar coercivities of <36 Oe for all samples, confirming the high quality of the YIG films, regardless of mismatch between the lattice constants of YIG and the substrate. Spin Seebeck resistivity results revealed a strong dependence on the thickness of the samples and the local maxima for 138-nm-thick YIG. This was attributed to the effect of the magnon energy relaxation length (ξL), which is shorter in comparison to that of a single-crystal YIG film grown on gadolinium gallium garnet. In this study, facile fabrication of hundreds of nanometers-thick YIG films on a Si substrate was achieved, for applications involving thermoelectric energy harvesting.

Reproducible low Gilbert damping yttrium iron garnet by magnetron sputtering

Reproducible growth of single-crystalline (111) yttrium iron garnet (YIG) with very low Gilbert damping (α) has been reported by the use of several techniques, and continues to attract the attention of many groups in sprintronics and magnonics. We report on the growth of YIG thin films onto GGG (111) substrates by magnetron sputtering, followed by an ex-situ oxygen flow heat treatment. The magnetic properties were studied by ferromagnetic resonance, and the structural and morphological properties by x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. The annealing parameters and thickness dependency on the magnetic properties was systematically investigated. A decrease in α for almost ten times was found preventing the YIG growth at the edges of the substrate by the use of lithography. For YIG 60 nm thick α were measured as (1.72 ± 0.08) × 10−4, Ms = 179 ± 2 emu cm−3, and surface roughness as 0.23 nm. To quantify the growth as being of good quality, we measured the spin current injection via spin pumping to an adjacent bismuth-doped copper layer with spin mixing conductance g↑↓ = 2.16 × 1018 m−2, for a platinum layer g↑↓ = 2.17 × 1018 m−2, with the detection of a 7 μV in the inverse spin Hall effect voltage, quantities which are in good agreement with the best values reported so far.

WITHDRAWN: Thickness dependence of spin Seebeck resistivity in polycrystalline YIG films grown by metal organic decomposition method

In this work, we investigated the dependence of spin Seebeck effect (SSE) voltages on the thickness of yttrium iron garnet (Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 -YIG) thin films grown on a silicon (Si) substrate fabricated by a metal-organic decomposition (MOD) method. The thickness of films was controlled by repeated spin coating and annealing cycles. Based on grazing incidence X-ray diffraction measurements, the YIG thin films displayed high crystallinity without secondary peaks, despite the increase in thickness. Scanning electron microscopy revealed uniform, highly dense films for samples having a thickness in the range of 37–260 nm. Magnetic hysteresis loops showed similar coercivities of <36 Oe for all samples, confirming the high quality of the YIG films, regardless of mismatch between the lattice constants of YIG and the substrate. Spin Seebeck resistivity results revealed a strong dependence on the thickness of the samples and the local maxima for 138-nm-thick YIG. This was attributed to the effect of the magnon energy relaxation length ( ( ξ L ) ), which is shorter in comparison to that of a single-crystal YIG film grown on gadolinium gallium garnet. In this study, facile fabrication of hundreds of nanometers-thick YIG films on a Si substrate was achieved, for applications involving thermoelectric energy harvesting. • Pure garnet-phase and high condensation YIG thin films were successfully grown on Silicon substrate via a facile fabrication method (i.e. MOD method). • The thickness of the sample was simply controlled by the repetition of coating and annealing processes. • A large spin Seebeck resistivity value of 37.3 nm/A which is comparable to YIG/GGG film was obtained. • The magnon energy relaxation length in poly-crystalline YIG/Si was obtained as 138 nm which is smaller than that of single-crystal YIG/GGG.

Fast long-wavelength exchange spin waves in partially compensated Ga:YIG

Spin waves in yttrium iron garnet (YIG) nano-structures attract increasing attention from the perspective of novel magnon-based data processing applications. For short wavelengths needed in small-scale devices, the group velocity is directly proportional to the spin-wave exchange stiffness constant λex. Using wave vector resolved Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy, we directly measure λex in Ga-substituted YIG thin films and show that it is about three times larger than for pure YIG. Consequently, the spin-wave group velocity overcomes the one in pure YIG for wavenumbers k &amp;gt; 4 rad/μm, and the ratio between the velocities reaches a constant value of around 3.4 for all k &amp;gt; 20 rad/μm. As revealed by vibrating-sample magnetometry and ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy, Ga:YIG films with thicknesses down to 59 nm have a low Gilbert damping (α&amp;lt;10−3), a decreased saturation magnetization μ0MS≈20 mT, and a pronounced out-of-plane uniaxial anisotropy of about μ0Hu1≈95 mT, which leads to an out-of-plane easy axis. Thus, Ga:YIG opens access to fast and isotropic spin-wave transport for all wavelengths in nano-scale systems independently of dipolar effects.

Slot Line Waveguide Induced Magnetization Dynamics of Perpendicularly Magnetized La-YIG Thin Film

We study the magnetization dynamics in La-doped yttrium iron garnet thin film induced by a slot line waveguide with the magnetic field applied perpendicular to the plane. The magnetization dynamics depend significantly on the slot line waveguide dimensions, particularly the number of excitation conditions increases with the enlargement of linewidth and the gap between the lines. Such an increase is not observed when the magnetic field is applied to the film plane. The excitation is caused by the interaction between the local magnetization dynamics around the line and the spin waves coming from the other side of the line. Forward volume magnetostatic spin waves are emitted when the magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the film. Their magnetic field dependence of the wavelength change is very gradual, allowing the satisfaction of the resonance condition to be much easier than the in-plane magnetized film.

Magnetic polarization selective spectroscopy of magnetic thin films probed by wideband crossed microstrip circuit in GHz regime.

We have developed a method to obtain wideband magnetic polarization selective spectra of magnetic thin films by using circularly polarized microwaves. The combination of an over-coupled crossed microstrip resonator and a hybrid coupler enables broadband and accurate control of circularly polarized microwaves. The performance of the present method was demonstrated with an yttrium iron garnet thin film, and we detected the magnetic polarization dependence of a Kittel mode and a perpendicular standing spin wave mode in the range of 3-20GHz. In addition, three types of crossed microstrip resonators were systematically studied with experiments and simulations. As a result, we achieved the polarization efficiency of 80% and found how to optimize the crossed microstrip resonator depending on the desired sensitivity, bandwidth, or sample size.

Spin transport properties of Bi&lt;sub&gt;&lt;i&gt;x&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;Y&lt;sub&gt;3–&lt;i&gt;x&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;Fe&lt;sub&gt;5&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;12 &lt;/sub&gt;thin films prepared by spin coating

Yttrium iron garnet (YIG), as a room temperature ferrimagnetic insulator with low damping and narrow ferromagnetic resonance linewidth, has been the research hotspot in spintronics because of its spin transport properties. Bi is one of the most common doping elements used in YIG, and some researches have proved that it can tune the magnetic properties of YIG. Previous studies of Bi&lt;sub&gt;&lt;i&gt;x&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;Y&lt;sub&gt;3–&lt;i&gt;x&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;Fe&lt;sub&gt;5&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;12&lt;/sub&gt; thin films focused on the evolutions of their structures, morphologies, and magnetic characteristics. Yet, the effects of Bi&lt;sup&gt;3+&lt;/sup&gt; substitution of Y&lt;sup&gt;3+&lt;/sup&gt; on spin transport in YIG thin films have not been systematically studied. The regulation of YIG spin transport by doping is expected to provide a new idea for the spintronics exploration of Pt/YIG system. In this work, we prepare a series of Bi&lt;sub&gt;&lt;i&gt;x&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;Y&lt;sub&gt;3–&lt;i&gt;x&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;Fe&lt;sub&gt;5&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;12&lt;/sub&gt; films with different doping ratios by spin coating. And we investigate the effects of Bi&lt;sup&gt;3+&lt;/sup&gt; on morphology, structure and spin transport properties of YIG films. The results show that Bi doping does not change the crystal structure of YIG. The absorption of the film increases and the bandgap decreases with the increase of doping ratio. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) indicates the co-existence of Bi&lt;sup&gt;3+&lt;/sup&gt; and Bi&lt;sup&gt;2+&lt;/sup&gt;. The regulation of Bi doping on spin transport is reflected in the fact that the magnon diffusion length of Bi&lt;i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/i&gt;Y&lt;sub&gt;3–&lt;i&gt;x&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;Fe&lt;sub&gt;5&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;12&lt;/sub&gt; films is significantly smaller than that of pure YIG films. Meanwhile, we find that the obvious spin Hall magnetoresistance can still be detected in the Pt/Bi&lt;sub&gt;&lt;i&gt;x&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;Y&lt;sub&gt;3–&lt;i&gt;x&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;Fe&lt;sub&gt;5&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;12&lt;/sub&gt; heterostructure, and the amplitude is the largest when &lt;i&gt;x&lt;/i&gt; = 0.3.

Magnon transport in Y3Fe5O12/Pt nanostructures with reduced effective magnetization

For applications making use of magnonic spin currents damping effects, which decrease the spin conductivity, have to be minimized. We here investigate the magnon transport in an yttrium iron garnet thin film with strongly reduced effective magnetization. We show that in a three-terminal device the effective magnon conductivity can be increased by a factor of up to six by a current applied to a modulator electrode, which generates damping compensation above a threshold current. Moreover, we find a linear dependence of this threshold current on the applied magnetic field. We can explain this behavior by the reduced effective magnetization and the associated nearly circular magnetization precession.

Imaging of magnetic excitations in nanostructures with near-field microwave microscopy

We present images of spin-wave excitations in a patterned yttrium iron garnet (YIG) thin film obtained by use of near-field microwave microscopy, which can achieve spatial resolution as high as 50 nm. Visualization of magnetic excitations is an enticing prospect for high-speed, high-density magnetic logic and storage applications, which has spurred the development of new magnetic microscopy and imaging techniques in recent years. Here we present a novel approach for local imaging of magnetic modes excited at room temperature with sub-diffraction-limited spatial resolution. This approach is based on a special atomic force microscope with broadband GHz capability for imaging the spatial distribution of dynamic magnetic excitations in patterned magnetic structures. Due to the inherent sub-wavelength, nanometer-scale spatial resolution of near-field scanning probe techniques, this approach has potential for a significant improvement in spatial resolution over optical techniques.

Spin-Wave Dispersion Measurement by Variable-Gap Propagating Spin-Wave Spectroscopy

Knowledge of the spin-wave dispersion relation is a prerequisite for the explanation of many magnonic phenomena as well as for the practical design of magnonic devices. Spin-wave dispersion measurement by established optical techniques such as Brillouin light scattering or the magneto-optical Kerr effect at ultralow temperatures is often forbiddingly complicated. By contrast, microwave spectroscopy can be used at all temperatures but it usually lacks spatial and wave-number resolution. Here we develop a variable-gap-propagating-spin-wave-spectroscopy (VGPSWS) method for the deduction of the dispersion relation of spin waves in a wide frequency and wave-number range. The method is based on the phase-resolved analysis of the spin-wave transmission between two antennas with variable spacing, in conjunction with theoretical data treatment. We validate the method for in-plane magnetized $\mathrm{Co}$-$\mathrm{Fe}$-$\mathrm{B}$ and yttrium iron garnet thin films in $\mathbf{k}\ensuremath{\perp}\mathbf{B}$ and $\mathbf{k}\ensuremath{\parallel}\mathbf{B}$ geometries by deducing the full set of material and spin-wave parameters, including spin-wave dispersion, hybridization of the fundamental mode with the higher-order perpendicular standing spin-wave modes, and surface spin pinning. The compatibility of microwaves with low temperatures makes this approach attractive for cryogenic magnonics at the nanoscale.