No Arabic abstract
Finding an electronic transition a subtle excitation of which can launch dramatic changes of electric, optical or magnetic properties of media is one of the long-standing dreams in the field of photo-induced phase transitions [1-5]. Therefore the discovery of the magnetization switching only by a femtosecond laser pulse [6-10] triggered intense discussions about mechanisms responsible for these laser-induced changes. Here we report the experimentally revealed selection rules on polarization and wavelengths of ultrafast photo-magnetic recording in Co-doped garnet film and identify the workspace of the parameters (magnetic damping, wavelength and polarization of light) allowing this effect. The all-optical magnetic switching under both single pulse and multiple-pulse sequences can be achieved at room temperature, in narrow spectral ranges with light polarized either along <110> or <100> crystallographic axes of the garnet. The revealed selection rules indicate that the excitations responsible for the coupling of light to spins are d-electron transitions in octahedral and tetrahedral Co-sublattices, respectively.
Spin waves can probe the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) which gives rise to topological spin textures, such as skyrmions. However, the DMI has not yet been reported in yttrium iron garnet (YIG) with arguably the lowest damping for spin waves. In this work, we experimentally evidence the interfacial DMI in a 7~nm-thick YIG film by measuring the nonreciprocal spin wave propagation in terms of frequency, amplitude and most importantly group velocities using all electrical spin-wave spectroscopy. The velocities of propagating spin waves show chirality among three vectors, i.e. the film normal direction, applied field and spin-wave wavevector. By measuring the asymmetric group velocities, we extract a DMI constant of 16~$mu$J/m$^{2}$ which we independently confirm by Brillouin light scattering. Thickness-dependent measurements reveal that the DMI originates from the oxide interface between the YIG and garnet substrate. The interfacial DMI discovered in the ultrathin YIG films is of key importance for functional chiral magnonics as ultra-low spin-wave damping can be achieved.
We investigate the temperature dependent microwave absorption spectrum of an yttrium iron garnet sphere as a function of temperature (5 K to 300 K) and frequency (3 GHz to 43.5 GHz). At temperatures above 100 K, the magnetic resonance linewidth increases linearly with temperature and shows a Gilbert-like linear frequency dependence. At lower temperatures, the temperature dependence of the resonance linewidth at constant external magnetic fields exhibits a characteristic peak which coincides with a non-Gilbert-like frequency dependence. The complete temperature and frequency evolution of the linewidth can be modeled by the phenomenology of slowly relaxing rare-earth impurities and either the Kasuya-LeCraw mechanism or the scattering with optical magnons. Furthermore, we extract the temperature dependence of the saturation magnetization, the magnetic anisotropy and the g-factor.
The dynamic observation of domain wall motion induced by electric field in magnetoelectric iron garnet film is reported. Measurements in 800 kV/cm electric field pulses gave the domain wall velocity ~45 m/s. Similar velocity was achieved in magnetic field pulse about 50 Oe. Reversible and irreversible micromagnetic structure transformation is demonstrated. These effects are promising for applications in spintronics and magnetic memory.
We present experimental control of the magnetic anisotropy in a gadolinium iron garnet (GdIG) thin film from in-plane to perpendicular anisotropy by simply changing the sample temperature. The magnetic hysteresis loops obtained by SQUID magnetometry measurements unambiguously reveal a change of the magnetically easy axis from out-of-plane to in-plane depending on the sample temperature. Additionally, we confirm these findings by the use of temperature dependent broadband ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy (FMR). In order to determine the effective magnetization, we utilize the intrinsic advantage of FMR spectroscopy which allows to determine the magnetic anisotropy independent of the paramagnetic substrate, while magnetometry determines the combined magnetic moment from film and substrate. This enables us to quantitatively evaluate the anisotropy and the smooth transition from in-plane to perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Furthermore, we derive the temperature dependent $g$-factor and the Gilbert damping of the GdIG thin film.
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.