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Ultra-low magnetic damping of a metallic ferromagnet

Nature Physics volume 12, pages 839–842 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Magnetic damping is of critical importance for devices that seek to exploit the electronic spin degree of freedom, as damping strongly affects the energy required and speed at which a device can operate. However, theory has struggled to quantitatively predict the damping, even in common ferromagnetic materials1,2,3. This presents a challenge for a broad range of applications in spintronics4 and spin-orbitronics that depend on materials and structures with ultra-low damping5,6. It is believed that achieving ultra-low damping in metallic ferromagnets is limited by the scattering of magnons by the conduction electrons. However, we report on a binary alloy of cobalt and iron that overcomes this obstacle and exhibits a damping parameter approaching 10−4, which is comparable to values reported only for ferrimagnetic insulators7,8. We explain this phenomenon by a unique feature of the band structure in this system: the density of states exhibits a sharp minimum at the Fermi level at the same alloy concentration at which the minimum in the magnetic damping is found. This discovery provides both a significant fundamental understanding of damping mechanisms and a test of the theoretical predictions proposed by Mankovsky and colleagues3.

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Figure 1: Ferromagnetic resonance spectra, measured by means of FMR and the resulting linewidth as a function of frequency.
Figure 2: Total measured damping with radiative and interfacial contributions.
Figure 3: Calculated electron density of states (DOS) and its comparison to the intrinsic damping.

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Acknowledgements

O.E. acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council (VR) and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (projects 2013.0020 and 2012.0031). DOS calculations were performed under a SNIC project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Quantum Electromagnetics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA

    Martin A. W. Schoen, Michael L. Schneider, T. J. Silva, Hans T. Nembach & Justin M. Shaw

  2. Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, University of Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany

    Martin A. W. Schoen

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University Uppsala, S-75120 Uppsala, Sweden

    Danny Thonig, Olle Eriksson & Olof Karis

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  1. Martin A. W. Schoen
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  2. Danny Thonig
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Contributions

M.A.W.S. and D.T. wrote the manuscript, J.M.S. and H.T.N. conceived of the experiment, M.A.W.S. deposited the samples, and performed the SQUID measurements and analysis, M.A.W.S., M.L.S. and H.T.N. performed the FMR measurements and analysis, J.M.S. performed the XRD measurements and analysis, D.T. and O.E. performed the first-principles DFT calculations. All authors contributed to the interpretation of the results.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Justin M. Shaw.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Schoen, M., Thonig, D., Schneider, M. et al. Ultra-low magnetic damping of a metallic ferromagnet. Nature Phys 12, 839–842 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3770

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