No Arabic abstract
We report a study on the electrical properties of 19 nm thick Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG) films grown by liquid phase epitaxy. The electrical conductivity and Hall coefficient are measured in the high temperature range [300,400]~K using a Van der Pauw four-point probe technique. We find that the electrical resistivity decreases exponentially with increasing temperature following an activated behavior corresponding to a band-gap of $E_gapprox 2$ eV, indicating that epitaxial YIG ultra-thin films behave as large gap semiconductor, and not as electrical insulator. The resistivity drops to about $5times 10^3$~$Omega cdot text{cm}$ at $T=400$ K. We also infer the Hall mobility, which is found to be positive ($p$-type) at 5 cm$^2$/(V$cdot$sec) and about independent of temperature. We discuss the consequence for non-local transport experiments performed on YIG at room temperature. These electrical properties are responsible for an offset voltage (independent of the in-plane field direction) whose amplitude, odd in current, grows exponentially with current due to Joule heating. These electrical properties also induce a sensitivity to the perpendicular component of the magnetic field through the Hall effect. In our lateral device, a thermoelectric offset voltage is produced by a temperature gradient along the wire direction proportional to the perpendicular component of the magnetic field (Righi-Leduc effects).
Spin information carried by magnons is attractive for computing technology and the development of magnon-based computing circuits is of great interest. However, magnon transport in insulators has been challenging, different from the clear physical picture for spin transport in conductors. Here we investigate the lateral transport properties of thermally excited magnons in yttrium iron garnet (YIG), a model magnetic insulator. Polarity reversals of detected spins in non-local geometry devices have been experimentally observed and are strongly dependent on temperature, YIG film thickness, and injector-detector separation distance. A competing two-channel transport model for thermally excited magnons is proposed, which is qualitatively consistent with the spin signal behavior. In addition to the fundamental significance for thermal magnon transport, our work furthers the development of magnonics by creating an easily accessible magnon source with controllable transport
A wide variety of new phenomena such as novel magnetization configurations have been predicted to occur in three dimensional magnetic nanostructures. However, the fabrication of such structures is often challenging due to the specific shapes required, such as magnetic tubes and spirals. Furthermore, the materials currently used to assemble these structures are predominantly magnetic metals that do not allow to study the magnetic response of the system separately from the electronic one. In the field of spintronics, the prototypical material used for such experiments is the ferrimagnetic insulator yttrium iron garnet (Y$_3$Fe$_5$O$_{12}$, YIG). YIG is one of the best materials especially for magnonic studies due to its low Gilbert damping. Here, we report the first successful fabrication of YIG thin films via atomic layer deposition. To that end we utilize a supercycle approach based on the combination of sub-nanometer thin layers of the binary systems Fe$_2$O$_3$ and Y$_2$O$_3$ in the correct atomic ratio on Y$_3$Al$_5$O$_{12}$ substrates with a subsequent annealing step. Our process is robust against typical growth-related deviations, ensuring a good reproducibility. The ALD-YIG thin films exhibit a good crystalline quality as well as magnetic properties comparable to other deposition techniques. One of the outstanding characteristics of atomic layer deposition is its ability to conformally coat arbitrarily-shaped substrates. ALD hence is the ideal deposition technique to grant an extensive freedom in choosing the shape of the magnetic system. The atomic layer deposition of YIG enables the fabrication of novel three dimensional magnetic nanostructures, which in turn can be utilized for experimentally investigating the phenomena predicted in those structures.
A dense system of independent oscillators, connected only by their interaction with the same cavity excitation mode, will radiate coherently, which effect is termed superradiance. In several cases, especially if the density of oscillators is high, the superradiance may dominate the intrinsic relaxation processes. This limit can be achieved, e.g., with cyclotron resonance in two-dimensional electron gases. In those experiments, the cyclotron resonance is coupled to the electric field of light, while the oscillator density can be easily controlled by varying the gate voltage. However, in the case of magnetic oscillators, to achieve the dominance of superradiance is more tricky, as material parameters limit the oscillator density, and the magnetic coupling to the light wave is rather small. Here we present quasi-optical magnetic resonance experiments on thin films of yttrium iron garnet. Due to the simplicity of experimental geometry, the intrinsic damping and the superradiance can be easily separated in the transmission spectra. We show that with increasing film thickness, the losses due to coherent radiation prevail the systems internal broadening.
The nuclear and magnetic structure and full magnon dispersions of yttrium iron garnet Y$_3$Fe$_5$O$_{12}$ have been studied by neutron scattering. The refined nuclear structure is distorted to a trigonal space group of $Rbar{3}$. The highest-energy dispersion extends up to 86 meV. The observed dispersions are reproduced by a simple model with three nearest-neighbor-exchange integrals between 16$a$ (octahedral) and 24$d$ (tetrahedral) sites, $J_{aa}$, $J_{ad}$, and $J_{dd}$, which are estimated to be 0.00$pm$0.05, $-$2.90$pm$0.07, and $-$0.35$pm$0.08 meV, respectively. The lowest-energy dispersion below 14 meV exhibits a quadratic dispersion as expected from ferromagnetic magnons. The imaginary part of $q$-integrated dynamical spin susceptibility $chi$($E$) exhibits a square-root energy-dependence in the low energies. The magnon density of state is estimated from the $chi$($E$) obtained on an absolute scale. The value is consistent with a single polarization mode for the magnon branch expected theoretically.
The first observation of microwave magnetoelectric (ME) interactions through ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) in bilayers of single crystal ferromagnetic-piezoelectric oxides and a theoretical model for the effect are presented. An electric field E produces a mechanical deformation in the piezoelectric phase, resulting in a shift dHE in the resonance field for the ferromagnet. The strength of ME coupling is obtained from data on dHE vs E. Studies were performed at 9.3 GHz on bilayers of (111) yttrium iron garnet (YIG) films and (001) lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (PMN-PT). The samples were positioned outside a TE102-reflection type cavity. Resonance profiles were obtained for E = 0-8 kV/cm for both in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic fields H. Important results are as follows. (i) The ME coupling in the bilayers is an order of magnitude stronger than in polycrystalline composites and is in the range 1-5.4 Oe cm/kOe, depending on the YIG film thickness. (ii) The coupling strength is dependent on the magnetic field orientation and is higher for out-of-plane H than for in-plane H. (iii) Estimated ME constant and its dependence on volume ratio for the two phases are in good agreement with the data.