Morphology-Induced Magnetic Phenomena Studied by Broadband Ferromagnetic Resonance

In the present work, the influence of the morphology of thin ferromagnetic films on their static as well as dynamic magnetic properties was investigated by means of broadband ferromagnetic resonance (FMR). Using an ion beam erosion process the surface of the substrates was periodically modulated (ripples), where the modulation wavelength is determined by the ion energy. In this way a well-controllable roughness profile evolves ranging from a few ten up to several hundreds of nanometers in wavelength. The substrate’s surface profile in turn is repeated by films grown on top offering an easy and fast approach to investigate morphology influences on the magnetic properties. This work aims on modifications of the magnetic anisotropy as well as the FMR linewidth of the magnetic relaxation process.
Prior to magnetic investigations the existing FMR setup was extended to measure FMR spectra at a fixed microwave frequency while sweeping the external magnetic field. Furthermore, a software toolbox was developed to perform the data processing and evaluation.
Starting with the morphology influence on the magnetic anisotropy 10 nm thin Fe, Co, and Ni81Fe19 (Permalloy Py) films were deposited on rippled Si substrates. Due to Si displacements during ion erosion and natural oxidation the rippled Si substrates exhibit an amorphous surface causing a polycrystalline material growth. This leads to a suppression of magneto-crystalline anisotropy leaving only morphology-induced anisotropy contributions.
Here, a uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (UMA) was observed that aligns its easy axis with the ripple ridges, whereas its strength decays with increasing ripple wavelength for all materials. From thickness-dependent measurements two characteristic regions were determined with competing uniaxial volume and surface anisotropy contributions. Underlined by micromagnetic simulations a dominant volume contribution was found in the thin region accompanied by magnetic moments nearly following the surface corrugation. In the thick region the UMA is controlled by dipolar stray fields at the surface.
In contrast to Si, ion eroded MgO keeps its crystal structure offering epitaxial growth of 10 nm thin single-crystalline Fe films. Consequently, a superposition of morphology-induced UMA and magneto-crystalline cubic anisotropy was observed. The direction of the ripple ridges is predetermined by the incident ion beam, which allows to freely orient the UMA’s direction with respect to the cubic anisotropy, offering a possibility for anisotropy engineering. In comparison to the planar reference case rippled magnetic films exhibit lower intrinsic and extrinsic relaxation contributions.
For the final part, 30 nm Py was grown on rippled Si covering modulation wavelengths l ranging from 27 to 432 nm. Using magnetic force microscopy and holography measurements the dipolar stray fields above and inside the magnetic layer were characterized. For l 222 nm, the stray fields act as scattering centers for spin waves triggering two-magnon scattering (TMS). This causes an apparent line broadening generating distinct peaks in the frequency-dependent linewidth whose position can be tuned by altering l. These effects are understood in the framework of a perturbation theory of spin waves in periodically perturbed films recently presented in the literature. Furthermore, the in-plane angular dependence of the linewidth revealed a two-fold symmetry, which is not present for vanishing TMS at small l.