No Arabic abstract
The damping of magnetization, represented by the rate at which it relaxes to equilibrium, is successfully modeled as a phenomenological extension in the Landau-Lifschitz-Gilbert equation. This is the damping torque term known as Gilbert damping and its direction is given by the vector product of the magnetization and its time derivative. Here we derive the Gilbert term from first principles by a non-relativistic expansion of the Dirac equation. We find that the Gilbert term arises when one calculates the time evolution of the spin observable in the presence of the full spin-orbital coupling terms, while recognizing the relationship between the curl of the electric field and the time varying magnetic induction.
The use of femtosecond laser pulses generated by a Ti:Sapphire laser system allows us to gain an insight into the magnetization dynamics on time scales from sub-picosecond up to 1 ns directly in the time domain. This experimental technique is used to excite a polycrystalline nickel (Ni) film optically and probe the dynamics afterwards. Different spin wave modes (the Kittel mode, perpendicular standing spin-wave modes (PSSW) and dipolar spin-wave modes (Damon-Eshbach modes)) are identified as the Ni thickness is increased. The Kittel mode allows determination of the Gilbert damping parameter alpha extracted from the magnetization relaxation time tau_alpha. The non-local damping by spin currents emitted into a non-magnetic metallic layer of vanadium (V), palladium (Pd) and the rare earth dysprosium (Dy) are studied for wedge-shaped Ni films 1 nm-30 nm. The damping parameter increases from alpha=0.045 intrinsic for nickel to alpha>0.10 for the heavy materials, such as Pd and Dy, for the thinnest Ni films below 10 nm thickness. Also, for the thinnest reference Ni film thickness, an increased magnetic damping below 4 nm is observed. The origin of this increase is discussed within the framework of line broadening by locally different precessional frequencies within the laser spot region.
A fully quantum mechanical description of the precessional damping of Pt/Co bilayer is presented in the framework of the Keldysh Green function approach using {it ab initio} electronic structure calculations. In contrast to previous calculations of classical Gilbert damping ($alpha_{GD}$), we demonstrate that $alpha_{GD}$ in the quantum case does not diverge in the ballistic regime due to the finite size of the total spin, $S$. In the limit of $Srightarrowinfty$ we show that the formalism recovers the torque correlation expression for $alpha_{GD}$ which we decompose into spin-pumping and spin-orbital torque correlation contributions. The formalism is generalized to take into account a self consistently determined dephasing mechanism which preserves the conservation laws and allows the investigation of the effect of disorder. The dependence of $alpha_{GD}$ on Pt thickness and disorder strength is calculated and the spin diffusion length of Pt and spin mixing conductance of the bilayer are determined and compared with experiments.
A method with which to calculate the Gilbert damping parameter from a real-space electronic structure method is reported here. The anisotropy of the Gilbert damping with respect to the magnetic moment direction and local chemical environment is calculated for bulk and surfaces of Fe$_{50}$Co$_{50}$ alloys from first principles electronic structure in a real space formulation. The size of the damping anisotropy for Fe$_{50}$Co$_{50}$ alloys is demonstrated to be significant. Depending on details of the simulations, it reaches a maximum-minimum damping ratio as high as 200%. Several microscopic origins of the strongly enhanced Gilbert damping anisotropy have been examined, where in particular interface/surface effects stand out, as do local distortions of the crystal structure. Although theory does not reproduce the experimentally reported high ratio of 400% [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 117203 (2019)], it nevertheless identifies microscopic mechanisms that can lead to huge damping anisotropies.
We present a microscopic theory for magnetization relaxation in metallic ferromagnets of nanoscopic dimensions that is based on the dynamic spin response matrix in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. Our approach allows the calculation of the spin excitation damping rate even for perfectly crystalline systems, where existing microscopic approaches fail. We demonstrate that the relaxation properties are not completely determined by the transverse susceptibility alone, and that the damping rate has a non-negligible frequency dependence in experimentally relevant situations. Our results indicate that the standard Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert phenomenology is not always appropriate to describe spin dynamics of metallic nanostructure in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling.
Using broadband ferromagnetic resonance, we measure the damping parameter of [Co(5 r{A})/Pt(3 r{A})]${times 6}$ multilayers whose growth was optimized to maximize the perpendicular anisotropy. Structural characterizations indicate abrupt interfaces essentially free of intermixing despite the miscible character of Co and Pt. Gilbert damping parameters as low as 0.021 can be obtained despite a magneto-crystalline anisotropy as large as $10^6~textrm{J/m}^3$. The inhomogeneous broadening accounts for part of the ferromagnetic resonance linewidth, indicating some structural disorder leading to a equivalent 20 mT of inhomogenity of the effective field. The unexpectedly relatively low damping factor indicates that the presence of the Pt heavy metal within the multilayer may not be detrimental to the damping provided that intermixing is avoided at the Co/Pt interfaces.