Behrouz Khodadadi

Interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and damping parameter in ultra thin Co2FeAl films

B2-ordered Co2FeAl films were synthesized using an ion beam deposition tool. A high degree of chemical ordering ∼81.2% with a low damping parameter (α) less than 0.004 was obtained in a 50 nm thick film via rapid thermal annealing at 600 °C. The perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) was optimized in ultra thin Co2FeAl films annealed at 350 °C without an external magnetic field. The reduced thickness and annealing temperature to achieve PMA introduced extrinsic factors thus increasing α significantly. However, the observed damping of Co2FeAl films was still lower than that of Co60Fe20B20 films prepared at the same thickness and annealing temperature.

Measurements of the exchange stiffness of YIG films using broadband ferromagnetic resonance techniques

Measurements of the exchange stiffness D and the exchange constant A of Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG) films are presented. YIG films with thicknesses from 0.9 to 2.6 µm were investigated with a microwave setup in a wide frequency range from 5 to 40 GHz. The measurements were performed with the external static magnetic field applied in-plane and out-of-plane. The method of Schreiber and Frait (1996 Phys. Rev. B 54 6473), based on the analysis of the perpendicular standing spin wave mode frequency dependence on the applied out-of-plane magnetic field, was used to obtain the exchange stiffness D. This method was modified to avoid the influence of internal magnetic fields during the determination of the exchange stiffness. Furthermore, the method was also adapted for in-plane measurements. The results obtained using all methods are compared and values of D between (5.18 ± 0.01) 10−17 T m2 and (5.40 ± 0.02) 10−17 T m2 were obtained for different thicknesses. From this, the exchange constant was calculated to be A = (3.7 ± 0.4) pJm−1.

Study of structural and ferromagnetic resonance properties of spinel lithium ferrite (LiFe5O8) single crystals

The effect of B-site cation ordering on the room temperature structural and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) properties of single crystal spinel lithium ferrite (LiFe5O8, LFO) have been investigated. A detailed microstructural analysis is done through X-ray diffraction, polarized Raman spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to examine the effect of post-annealing on the B-site cation ordering. The X-ray diffraction pattern of the as-grown crystal indicates a disordered state of the crystal. However, the annealed sample shows additional superlattice reflections corresponding to the ordered phase. This ordering is further confirmed by Raman spectra and TEM images, which reveal ordering of Li and Fe ions at the octahedral sites contrasting with the relatively high degree of octahedral site disorder in the as-grown crystal. To study the effect of B-site ordering on the magnetic properties and FMR linewidth, vibrating sample magnetometry and broadband FMR measurements have been performed for bot...

Low Gilbert damping in Co2FeSi and Fe2CoSi films

Thin highly textured Fe1+xCo2–xSi (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) films were prepared on MgO (001) substrates by magnetron co-sputtering. Magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements were used to investigate the composition dependence of the magnetization, the magnetic anisotropy, the gyromagnetic ratio, and the relaxation of the films. Both MOKE and FMR measurements reveal a pronounced fourfold anisotropy for all films. In addition, we found a strong influence of the stoichiometry on the anisotropy as the cubic anisotropy strongly increases with increasing Fe concentration. The gyromagnetic ratio is only weakly dependent on the composition. We find low Gilbert damping parameters for all films with values down to 0.0012±0.00010.0007 for Fe1.75Co1.25Si. The effective damping parameter for Co2FeSi is found to be 0.0018±0.00040.0034. We also find a pronounced anisotropic relaxation, which indicates significant contributions of two-magnon scattering processes that is strongest along the easy ax...

Magnetic damping and spin polarization of highly ordered B2 Co2FeAl thin films

Epitaxial Co2FeAl films were synthesized using the Biased Target Ion Beam Deposition technique. Post annealing yielded Co2FeAl films with an improved B2 chemical ordering. Both the magnetization and the Gilbert damping parameter were reduced with increased B2 ordering. A low damping parameter, ∼0.002, was attained in B2 ordered Co2FeAl films without the presence of the L21 Heusler phase, which suggests that the B2 structure is sufficient for providing low damping in Co2FeAl. The spin polarization was ∼53% and was insensitive to the chemical ordering.

Bulk Single Crystal‐Like Structural and Magnetic Characteristics of Epitaxial Spinel Ferrite Thin Films with Elimination of Antiphase Boundaries

Spinel ferrite NiFe2 O4 thin films have been grown on three isostructural substrates, MgAl2 O4 , MgGa2 O4 , and CoGa2 O4 using pulsed laser deposition. These substrates have lattice mismatches of 3.1%, 0.8%, and 0.2%, respectively, with NiFe2 O4 . As expected, the films grown on MgAl2 O4 substrate show the presence of the antiphase boundary defects. However, no antiphase boundaries (APBs) are observed for films grown on near-lattice-matched substrates MgGa2 O4 and CoGa2 O4 . This demonstrates that by using isostructural and lattice-matched substrates, the formation of APBs can be avoided in NiFe2 O4 thin films. Consequently, static and dynamic magnetic properties comparable with the bulk can be realized. Initial results indicate similar improvements in film quality and magnetic properties due to the elimination of APBs in other members of the spinel ferrite family, such as Fe3 O4 and CoFe2 O4 , which have similar crystallographic structure and lattice constants as NiFe2 O4 .