Magnetic properties and domain structure of ultrathin yttrium iron garnet/Pt bilayers

We report on the structure, magnetization, magnetic anisotropy, and domain morphology of ultrathin yttrium iron garnet (YIG)/Pt films with thickness ranging from 3 to 90 nm. We find that the saturation magnetization is close to the bulk value in the thickest films and decreases towards low thickness...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2019-03
Main Authors: Mendil, Johannes, Morgan Trassin, Bu, Qingqing, Schaab, Jakob, Baumgartner, Manuel, Murer, Christoph, Dao, Phuong T, Vijayakumar, Jaianth, Bracher, David, Bouillet, Corinne, Vaz, Carlos A F, Fiebig, Manfred, Gambardella, Pietro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anisotropy
Demagnetization
Domain walls
Emission microscopy
Iron
Magnetic anisotropy
Magnetic domains
Magnetic properties
Magnetic saturation
Magnetism
Magnetization
Magnetoresistance
Magnetoresistivity
Morphology
Photoelectrons
Substrates
Thickness
Variations
Yttrium
Yttrium-iron garnet
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Summary:We report on the structure, magnetization, magnetic anisotropy, and domain morphology of ultrathin yttrium iron garnet (YIG)/Pt films with thickness ranging from 3 to 90 nm. We find that the saturation magnetization is close to the bulk value in the thickest films and decreases towards low thickness with a strong reduction below 10 nm. We characterize the magnetic anisotropy by measuring the transverse spin Hall magnetoresistance as a function of applied field. Our results reveal strong easy plane anisotropy fields of the order of 50-100 mT, which add to the demagnetizing field, as well as weaker in-plane uniaxial anisotropy ranging from 10 to 100 \(\mu\)T. The in-plane easy axis direction changes with thickness, but presents also significant fluctuations among samples with the same thickness grown on the same substrate. X-ray photoelectron emission microscopy reveals the formation of zigzag magnetic domains in YIG films thicker than 10 nm, which have dimensions larger than several 100 \(\mu\)m and are separated by achiral N\'{e}el-type domain walls. Smaller domains characterized by interspersed elongated features are found in YIG films thinner than 10 nm.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1903.08285