English

Wavenumber-dependent Gilbert damping in metallic ferromagnets

Materials Science 2016-03-23 v2

Abstract

New terms to the dynamical equation of magnetization motion, associated with spin transport, have been reported over the past several years. Each newly identified term is thought to possess both a real and an imaginary effective field leading to fieldlike and dampinglike torques on magnetization. Here we show that three metallic ferromagnets possess an imaginary effective-field term which mirrors the well-known real effective-field term associated with exchange in spin waves. Using perpendicular standing spin wave resonance between 2-26 GHz, we evaluate the magnitude of the finite-wavenumber (kk) dependent Gilbert damping α\alpha in three typical device ferromagnets, Ni79_{79}Fe21_{21}, Co, and Co40_{40}Fe40_{40}B20_{20}, and demonstrate for the first time the presence of a k2k^2 term as Δα=Δα0+Akk2\Delta\alpha=\Delta\alpha_0+A_{k}\cdot k^2 in all three metals. We interpret the new term as the continuum analog of spin pumping, predicted recently, and show that its magnitude, AkA_{k}=0.07-0.1 nm2^2, is consistent with transverse spin relaxation lengths as measured by conventional (interlayer) spin pumping.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1401.6467,
  title  = {Wavenumber-dependent Gilbert damping in metallic ferromagnets},
  author = {Yi Li and W. E. Bailey},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1401.6467},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

Preprint version. 5 pages, 4 figures