4 Reports on Experimental Results

4.18 Study of material parameters of YIG lms with ferromagnetic resonance techniques
S. Klingler, A. Conca, A. V. Chumak, and B. Hillebrands
In collaboration with T. Mewes and B. Khodadadi, Center for Materials for Information Technology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA, and C. Dubs,
O. Surzhenko, and P. Grnert, INNOVENT e.V. Technologieentwicklung, Jena
This report is based on a stay of the rst author in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, at the Center for Materials
for Information Technology (MINT) at the University of Alabama. Every year the MINT-Center
offers the opportunity for interested students to gain experience in the study of magnetic lms
with microwave techniques in an international research team, and the rst author took part in this
program.
One of the most important technologies to replace the electron charge as information carrier is the
development of spintronics. In this new emerging eld the electron spin is used as information
carrier which can be manipulated without current and therefore without the limitations of electronics through heating processes. Spin is transported not only by electrons but also by magnons, the
quanta of dynamic excitations of the magnetic system. With Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG) a material
system was found with an ultra low damping of smaller than = 104 105 and a propagating distance of spin waves in the centimeter regime [1]. The expectation of fruitful research and
technological progress led to a huge interest and improvement in spintronic applications and spin
wave physics. In this connection the material parameters of YIG are of crucial importance for the
application of this material in magnonics and spintronics.
In this report we present measurements of the saturation magnetization Ms and the exchange constant A of liquid phase expitaxy (LPE) grown YIG lms. The sample lms were grown on horizontally rotated (111) Gadolinium Gallium Garnet (GGG) substrates and have a thickness of 0.91, 1.6
and 2.6 m and a size of 3 3 mm. The YIG samples were investigated with a waveguide ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) setup in a frequency range from 5 to 40 GHz in in-plane and out-of-plane
conguration. The exchange constant and saturation magnetization were determined using the rst
perpendicular standing spin wave modes (PSSW) and the method of Schreiber and Frait [2]. The
results for both congurations are compared and thereby an angular dependence was detected.
In an external magnetic eld H a torque forces the magnetization M of a sample to precess around
the direction of the eld so that its motion can be described by the Landau-Lifshitz and Gilbert
equation
M

M
= | |M H M
,
(1)
t
Ms
t
where Ms is the saturation magnetization, < 0 the gyromagnetic ratio and the Gilbert damping
parameter [4]. The rst term on the right hand side of the equation describes the free motion of
the magnetization around the direction of the effective applied eld. The second term on the right
hand side introduces a damping of this movement to the equation which forces the magnetization
to become parallel to the effective eld.
The eld H in Eq. 1 must be understood as an effective value including all possible contributions
(e.g. anisotropy elds and demagnetization elds):
Heff = Happl + H(t) + Hex + Hani + Hdemag + ...

(2)

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For this work the exchange interaction plays a major role which can be described as an exchange
eld with the form [5]
2A
Hex = 2 2 M.
(3)
Ms
Here, A is the exchange constant. The interpretation of the exchange eld is easier in the energy
space. For two adjacent spins the overlap of the spin wave functions inuences the energy of the
system due to Paulis exclusion principle. In the case of ferromagnets the energy contribution of
the exchange eld becomes negative for parallel spins so that the system is in its favorable energy
state. For any other direction of the spins, energy is needed in comparison to the ground state. This
energy contribution can be described by an exchange eld which forces the spins to be parallel
again. The exchange interaction is a short range interaction, so that mainly adjacent spins interact
with each other.
If now a microwave eld is applied to the system it will induce a precession of the magnetization
due to the torque created by the microwave eld. The resonance condition for the microwave eld
in dependence of the eld direction relative to the sample surface can be described by Kittels
formula [3]. For the in-plane conguration the applied eld is parallel to the sample surface and
the resonance condition is given by

 



2A 2
2A 2
=
Happl + k
Happl + k + 4 Meff .
(4)
| | ip
Ms
Ms
In the out-of-plane conguration the applied eld is perpendicular to the sample surface and the
resonance condition is described by
 

2A
= Happl + k2 4 Meff .
(5)
| | oop
Ms
In both cases k = n /d is the wave vector of the n-th excited perpendicular standing spin wave
2A 2
which is quantized over the thickness d of the sample and M
k is the exchange eld. For the
s
mode with n = 0 the classical case of ferromagnetic resonance is given. For n = 0 a perpendicular
standing spin wave is excited.
For measuring the material constants a waveguide FMR setup was used. It contains an electromagnet to apply the external eld in the range of 0 to 16.5 kOe. For this experiment a microwave power
of 10 dBm was used to excite the spin waves. Furthermore the waveguide was rotated so that the
angle between eld and sample surface could be varied from 0 to 360 . The absorption signal was
amplied by a lock-in amplier. The scan of a Lorenzian absorption peak with the lock-in eld results in an output voltage which has the form of the derivative of the original signal. For analyzing
the spectra (e.g. Fig. 1a) a LabView progam is used for tting the resonances. The parameters of
the t function take absorption and dispersion into account, so that the program delivers directly
the resonance positions and the peak-to-peak linewidths without foregone data reduction.
For the out-of-plane conguration, where magnetization and external eld are perpendicular to the
sample surface, Eq. (5) is used for the estimation of the saturation magnetization and the exchange
constant. In a plot where the position of the resonances over the square of the mode number n2 is
drawn, the resonance eld is dened by Eq. 5:
 

2A 2 2
res
Happl =
n +
+ 4 Meff .
(6)
2
Ms d
| | oop

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Fig. 1: (a) Example spectrum for the YIG sample with d = 1.6 m in out-of-plane conguration at 20 GHz.
The even mode numbers have a odd number of anti-nodes as explained in the text. The scale for the FMR
peak is streched by a factor of 50 right to the dashed line. (b) Line positions found in the spectrum of YIG
with d = 1.6 m in out-of-plane conguration. It is obvious that the line positions follow a linear function in
dependence of n2 . Since A, Ms and are shared tting parameters, they are the same for every frequency. The
dashed lines show the positions of the resonances with even mode numbers.
2

2A
Thus the slope of the linear function corresponds to M
and the effective magnetization is dened
s d2
by the y-intercept of the graph minus the given values for frequency over the gyromagnetic ratio.
This method was recommended by Schreiber and Frait in 1996 [2]. For both congurations it was
assumed that the lms had no signicant perpendicular anisotropy, i.e. Ms = Meff .

Slope and y-intercept are obtained by a so called global t. This means that the line positions of all
measured frequencies are plotted over the square of the mode number and the exchange constant,
gyromagnetic ratio and saturation magnetization are shared t parameters. With this, the best
results for all measurements are found at the same time. The graph of the global t for d = 1.6 m
is shown in Fig. 1b.
In the spectra mainly the resonances with an even mode number were observed. The absorption of
modes with an odd mode number was about ten times smaller in average than for the modes with
even mode numbers. This effect can be understood assuming a model of perfect pinning [6]:
since the magnetization on the surface of the sample is pinned, the excited spin waves propagate
in phase on the sample surface. The results are standing spin waves which consist of (n + 1) antinodes. For spin waves with an even number of anti-nodes the contribution of each anti-node to the
absorption summarizes in the ideal case to zero. In contrast to that, a spin wave with an odd number
of anti-nodes has a non-vanishing contribution to the absorption. The measured resonances with an
even number of anti-nodes can be interpreted with small eld inhomogeneities which contradict the
boundary conditions for perfect pinning. The smaller amplitude of this waves and the fact that there
is a continuous mode numbering seen in the spectra conrm this perfect pinning assumption.
The results of the measurements are shown in Tab. 1. The exchange constant of YIG was extracted
to be A = 3.48 107 erg
cm , where the saturation magnetization is 4 Ms = 1651.6 G and the gyromagnetic ratio is = 2.807 MHz
Oe . The values of the exchange constant of all three samples match
very well within the error bars and do not change with the thickness of the sample, which speaks
for the high quality of the lms.
For the in-plane conguration the spectrum looks different as it can be seen in Fig. 2a. The FMR

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conguration d (m)
0.91
out of plane
1.6
2.6
0.91
in-plane
1.6
2.6

4 Ms (G)
A107 erg/cm
1651.0 1.6 3.49 0.01
1660.6 2.3 3.48 0.01
1643.1 3.7 3.44 0.08
1733.2 3.8 3.71 0.01
1790.0 5.8 3.81 0.01
1805.3 2.7 3.82 0.04

(MHz/Oe)
2.809 0.001
2.809 0.001
2.802 0.002
2.810 0.001
2.809 0.001
2.809 0.001

Table 1: Results for the YIG samples with different thicknesses

resonance and the PSSW resonances overlap and the resonance elds are moved to lower elds
due to demagnetization effects. With Kittels formula Eqn. (4) the dependence of the resonance
frequency on the external eld can be described. The evaluation is also different since there is no
linear behavior over the square of the mode number.
In a rst step the effective magnetization of the sample is extracted by setting the exchange eld
for the FMR mode with n = 0 manually to be zero. Kittels expression for the FMR mode provides
then the effective magnetization.
In a second step, for every resonance in the spectra, the exchange eld can be found again with
Kittels expression, where the effective magnetization from the rst step is used. The evaluation is
equal to step one, but we do not observe the FMR mode but the higher order modes. We obtain an
exchange eld which depends on an unknown mode number.
Third, the exchange eld of the modes is varied over the presumed mode number. As a rst hint
the mode amplitude in the spectrum is again useful to decide whether the mode is an even or an
odd mode. If the exchange eld follows a linear function over the square of the mode number the
exchange constant is given by the slope of this function as presented in Fig. 2b. Again, mainly
resonances with even mode numbers were observed.
For all three samples the exchange constant, saturation magnetization and the gyromagnetic ratio
could be estimated as shown in Tab. 1. The exchange constant for all three samples is approximately constant, as in the experiments in out-of-plane conguration. The same results are obtained
for the saturation magnetization which stays constant over the lm thickness; only the sample with
d = 0.91 m shows a smaller value for Ms .
As nal values for the saturation magnetization, the average of both congurations is used: 4 Ms,oop =
1651 G and 4 Ms,ip = 1776 G. The total error for these measurements can be estimated to be at
least 7 G, so that the values of the saturation magnetization do not t together within the error bars.
Even with a larger error, the difference of 125 G cannot be explained. In comparison, as a typical
saturation magnetization of YIG 4 Ms = 1750 G is used [1].
As nal values for the exchange constant an average of both congurations is used: Aoop =
7 erg . A comparison chart for the exchange constant of YIG was
3.47 107 erg
cm and Aip = 3.78 10
cm
published by Anderson 1964 [8], where the value for A varys between 1.18107 and 6.1 107 erg
cm ,
so that our results t into the eld of exchange constants obtained by other groups.
The exchange constants vary as the saturation magnetization does. Indeed both t parameters
are antagonists, as can be seen in Kittels expressions Eq. (5) and (4). To obtain, e.g., the same
slope in Fig. 2b one can choose different values for both parameters as long as the proportion of
both is similar. Since for the out-of-plane conguration a smaller saturation magnetization was
obtained, the exchange constant has to be smaller, too. For the proportion between 2A and Ms

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Fig. 2: (a) Example spectrum for the YIG sample with d = 1.6 m in in-plane conguration at 20 GHz. The
derivations of the rst two resonances overlap in such a way that a multiple resonance t had to be used to
extract the linewidth and position of both resonances. The scale for the FMR peak streched by the factor of
130. (b) The exchange elds of the sample with d = 2.6 m follow a linear function of the square of the mode
number. The slope of the function is proportional to the exchange constant. Each point in the graph stands for
the exchange eld of one resonance.
erg
erg
we obtain 4.20 1010 cmG
in the out-of-plane conguration and 4.25 1010 cmG
in the in-plane
conguration. The difference between the measured exchange constants can now be ascribed to
the errors of the saturation magnetization. The reason for this angular dependence for the same
samples can be a magnetic anisotropy, which affects different by the determination of A and Ms for
in-plane and out-of-plane measurements, as shown in [9]. Another reason might be a mechanicalstress-induced anisotropy of A due to the lattice mismatch between YIG and GGG or a deviation to
the perfect pinning assumption. A further discussion is necessary to nd the origin of the angular
dependence.

We thank the group from the University of Alabama for their support and supervision and the
Nano Structuring Center in Kaiserslautern for technical support. Part of this work was supported
by NSF-CAREER Grant #0952929.
References
[1] A.A. Serga, A.V. Chumak, B. Hillebrands, YIG magnonics, J. Phys. D : Applied Physics 43, 264002 (2010).
[2] F. Schreiber, Z. Frait, Spin-wave resonance in high-conductivity lms: The Fe-Co alloy system, Phys. Rev. B
54, 6473-6480 (1996).
[3] C. Kittel, On the theory of ferromagnetic resonance absorption, Phys. Rev. 73, 155 161 (1948).
[4] T.L. Gilbert, Classics in magnetics: a phenomenological theory of damping in ferromagnetic materials, IEEE
Trans. Magn. 40, 3443-3449 (2004).
[5] H. Schulthei, Kohrenz und Dmpfungsverhalten von Spinwellen in magnetischen Mikrostrukturen, Dissertation (2010).
[6] C. Kittel, excitation of spin waves in a ferromagnet by a uniform rf eld, Phys. Rev. 110, 1295-1297 (1958).
[7] M.J. Hurben, C.E. Patton, Theory of two magnon scattering microwave relaxation and ferromagnetic resonance
linewidth in magnetic thin lms, J. Appl. Phys. 83, 4344-4365 (1998).
[8] E.E. Anderson, Molecular eld model and the magnetization of YIG, Phys. Rev. 134, A1581-A1585 (1964).
[9] V.B. Bobkov, I.V. Zavuslyak, V.F, Romanyuk, Microwave spectroscopy of magnetostatic waves in epitaxial
ferrite lms, Journal of Communications Technology & Electronics 48, 196-206 (2003).

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