The intrinsic relaxation properties obtained for Au/Fe/GaAs single layer films en-able one to test the influence of a second ferromagnetic layer on magnetic relaxation.
Magnetic multilayers are a special case where the interaction between itinerant elec-trons and magnetic moments can lead to unprecedented and exciting effects in spin dynamics. The electric resistance of a magnetic double layer depends on the rela-tive orientation of the magnetic moment of the two layers; this effect is called Giant
Magneto-Resistance (GMR). Berger [99, 100, 101] and Slonczewki [102, 103] pointed out that the inverse process can also take place. That is, the direction of the current flowing perpendicular to the interfaces can change the relative orientation of magnetic moments in magnetic double layers (parallel or antiparallel). Recently, this switching effect has been experimentally realized in point contacts [104, 105] and nano-pillars [106, 107]. Slonczewski [102] has shown that the flow of spin momentum that is carried by a current flowing perpendicular to the interfaces of a magnetic double layer system NM/F1/NM/F2/NM results in Landau Lifschitz like torques (see Eq. 2.5) acting on layers F1 and F2 and the sense of this torque depends on the direction of the current.
Here NM stands for normal metal and F1,2 stand for a ferromagnetic metal. The magnetization in F2 is usually assumed to be fixed, while the magnetization in F1 is allowed to precess (free magnetic layer). Very high current densities lead to spin torques that can overcome the intrinsic damping torques and lead to spin instabilities and switching phenomena [103]. Spin instabilities in turn can lead to phase coherent emission of microwaves in the presence of a magnetic field. This phenomenon was recently observed by the Cornell and NIST groups [108, 109].
4.3.1 Berger’s model
Berger’s treatment of a current flowing perpendicular to the NM/F1/NM/F2/NM layer system differs from Slonczewski’s approach: the magnetization in layer (F2) is assumed to be static and precession of the magnetization of the free layer F1 is ex-plicitly included using a magnon occupation number. The itinerant electrons entering F1 cannot immediately assume the instantaneous direction of the precessing magne-tization. This leads to an exchange torque directed towards the equilibrium axis and corresponds to an additional relaxation torque acting on the F1/NM interface. This torque is shared by the whole magnetic film due to exchange coupling. Conserva-tion of the total angular momentum requires that spins in the normal metal layer be flipped. An electron spin in the NM layer has to flip from up to down as a magnon in FM is annihilated and vice versa. The rate equations for spin up and spin down electrons can be derived from Fermi’s golden rule which includes the interaction with magnons [99]. This leads to a shift of the Fermi levels for spin up and spin down electrons ∆µ= ∆µ↑−∆µ↓, and causes an additional relaxation torque which may be written as [99, 110]
HBerger∼(∆µ+ω)mˆ1×mˆ2, (4.3)
where mˆ1,2 are the unit vectors of the magnetizations in layers F1 and F2. The absolute value and sign of ∆µ are determined by the density and direction of the current flowing perpendicular to the interfaces. Note that the second term in Eq. 4.3 is proportional to the microwave frequency and is always positive. This term is not present in Slonczewski’s model because it does not include the dynamic s-d interaction.
This term is present even in the absence of a current flowing though the interfaces and represents an additional Bloch-Blombergen like interface damping [83].
4.3.2 Experimental test
Berger’s predictions regarding additional interface damping can be tested by com-paring the magnetic damping in the Au/Fe/GaAs single layer structures discussed in the previous section with the magnetic damping observed in magnetic double layer Au/Fe/Au/Fe/GaAs structures. The absence of extrinsic damping in the magnetic single layer samples allows one to isolate the effect of the second magnetic layer (F2) on the damping in the first magnetic layer F1. A series of double layer samples complementary to the single layer samples was grown: 20Au/40Fe/40Au/nFe/GaAs, wheren was 8, 11, 16, 21, and 31. The Au spacer thickness was chosen such that the interlayer exchange coupling was very small but electron transport across the spacer remained ballistic. The electron mean free path in Au grown on an Fe/GaAs(001) template was found to be 38 nm, i.e. ∼190 ML Au [111]. The spin diffusion length in Au is much bigger than the electron mean free path and was estimated by Johnson to be lsdAu ≈ 1 µm [112]. Therefore spin transport between the ferromagnetic layers F1 and F2 through the 8 nm thick Au spacer is unimpeded by electron scattering.
Fig. 4.12a shows a typical FMR spectrum acquired from a double layer sample at 36.6 GHz. The two absorption peaks corresponding to the two layers (F1 and F2) are well separated (by∼1 kOe) because the bottom and the top layer have different interface anisotropies and thicknesses. This allows one to measure a FMR spectrum of layer F1 while layer F2 is detuned from resonance and has a negligible precessional angle, and vice versa. The FMR linewidth in single and double layers was also observed to be only weakly dependent on the angle of the static magnetization (see Fig. 4.11b). The good agreement between the FMR fields of the magnetic single layer and the bottom layer in the corresponding double layer (see Fig. 4.11a) shows that the interlayer ex-change coupling is negligible (j1 ≤0.03 erg/cm3) and that the magnetic properties of the Au/Fe/GaAs film system are very reproducible.
ϕ
∆
ϕ
Figure 4.11: Angular dependence of (a) FMR field and (b) FMR linewidth in the 20Au/40Fe/40Au/10Fe/GaAs double layer and 20Au/10Fe/GaAs single layer structure measured at 36.6 GHz. (◦) symbols represent the data for the 10Fe single layer and (•) symbols represent the10Fe bottom layer in the double layer sample. The solid line in(a) corresponds to the resonance field of the 40Fe top layer in the double layer structure.
χµ ∆
Figure 4.12: (a)FMR spectrum of the magnetic double layer 20Au/40Fe/40Au/11Fe/GaAs at 36.6 GHz with M [100]Fe. The dashed line shows the FMR signal measured on the corresponding single layer sample 20/11Fe/GaAs(001). Note that the amplitude of the dashed line is∼30% bigger than expected from the ratio of the linewidths; this was caused by the different size of the samples. (b) Frequency dependence of ∆H for 16Fe in the 20Au/16Fe/GaAs (◦) single layer and 20Au/40Fe/40Au/16Fe/GaAs (•) double layer with M [100]Fe. The () symbols correspond to the difference of single and double layer linewidths and the dotted line shows the frequency dependence of the additional linewidth as predicted by Berger’s theory scaled to fit the experimental data.
∆ ∆
Figure 4.13: (a)∆Hadd as a function of 1/tFemeasured at 36.6 GHz. (b)The in-plane () and out-of-plane () frequency dependence of ∆Hadd in the 20Au/40Fe/40Au/16Fe/GaAs sample.
∆
Figure 4.14: The additional FMR linewidth, ∆Hadd, at 23.9 GHz as a function of the Au spacer thickness in 20Au/40Fe/8-150Au/16Fe/GaAs(001). (•) represent samples that were grown on a wedge (17-27ML), while () represent individually grown samples. The (◦) symbol stands for a sample with a 40 ML Cu spacer.
All measurements showed that the FMR linewidth of F1 increased due to the pres-ence of a second layer F2 (see Fig. 4.12). This increase ∆Hadd scales inversely with the thickness of F1, as shown in Fig. 4.13a. The linear dependence of ∆Hadd on 1/tFe indicates that the additional relaxation is an interface effect [110]. The additional FMR linewidth ∆Hadd in both the parallel (H in-plane) and perpendicular (H per-pendicular to the plane of the specimen) FMR configurations is approximately equal
in magnitude, linearly dependent on the microwave frequency, and has no appreciable zero frequency offset [13] (see Fig. 4.13b). For all double layers the additional Gilbert damping is found to be only very weakly dependent on the crystallographic direction.
For the 10ML Fe film the average value is αadd10Fe = 11.0±0.5×10−3. This is almost triple the intrinsic Gilbert damping in the single Fe films,αint = 4.4±0.3×10−3 (see Fig. 4.11b).
Berger’s theory predicts that the strength of the additional damping depends on the average spin-flip relaxation time, conduction electron densities, and volume fractions of F1, F2, and NM (see Eq. (19) in [99] and Eq. (10) in [101]). As a consequence, the additional damping becomes a function of the respective volume fractions of F1, F2, and NM. For very thin Au spacers (20-30 ML) his predicted value for the additional damping strength is roughly double the experimentally observed value. Moreover, experimentally the additional damping is independent of the spacer thickness for Au spacers having thicknesses ranging from 12 to 150 ML (while keeping the thicknesses of F1 and F2 fixed), as can be seen in Fig. 4.14. In Berger’s theory the magnitude of the additional damping depends on the ellipticity of the precession of the magnetization. This corresponds to a strange type of ‘Bloch-Blombergen’ damping with a frequency dependent relaxation parameter, as shown by the dotted line in Fig. 4.12b. This aspect of Berger’s model is in disagreement with the experimental results, only simple Gilbert damping was observed.