IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 50, NO.

1, JANUARY 2014 1500104

Tuning the Magnetization Dynamics in Sputtered Co FeAl Si Heusler

Alloy Thin Film by Gas Pressure
Lichuan Jin, Huaiwu Zhang, Xiaoli Tang, Feiming Bai, and Zhiyong Zhong
State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology
of China, Chengdu 610054

The influences of sputtering gas pressure on the high frequency magnetization dynamics properties of sputtered Co FeAl Si
(CFAS) Heusler alloy thin films have been systematic studied. Results show that the surface roughness, grain size, anisotropy field and
dynamic magnetic properties can be tailored by changing sputtering gas pressures. The inhomogeneous linewidth broadening of the
sputtered CFAS Heusler thin films is monotonously enhanced with the pressure increasing, similar as with the anisotropy field. A low
value intrinsic damping parameter is extracted as 0.0073 with a low sputtering pressure, - mbar. The intrinsic damping
parameter increases monotonously up to 0.0122 with the pressure increasing. The high tunability of the damping constant indicates that
controlling the sputtering gas pressure could be an effective method to tune the magnetization dynamics in sputtered CFAS thin film.
Index Terms—Co-based Heusler alloy thin films, dynamic magnetic property, external inhomogeneous broadening, ferromagnetic
resonance linewidth, intrinsic damping constant.

I. INTRODUCTION TABLE I
AR FLOW RATE CORRESPONDENCE WITH SPUTTERING GAS PRESSURE

T HE magnetization dynamics of thin magnetic layers is of

great scientific and technological interest. And such layers
are widely used in spin-injection and transport studies as well
as in magnetic devices. Most recently, the damping behavior of
the magnetic thin films has also been important to applications
in terahertz frequency [1]. Often it is desirable to tailor the spin
dynamics properties of thin magnetic layer. Co-based Heusler
alloy thin films have low damping and extraordinary large ex-
change stiffness [2]–[4] which is very important and attractive
for fast magnetization dynamic investigation, especially for the
spin wave waveguides and spin transfer torque oscillator appli-
cations [5], [6].
There are many approaches to tune the magnetization dy-
namics properties in thin magnetic films. Doping various ele-
ments is the most common method to change the damping con-
stant [7]–[10], high energy ion implantation can also modify
the dynamics properties of the magnetic films [11]–[14], ferro-
magnet/anti-ferromagnet exchange bias effect can be an effec-
tive way to tailor the relaxation process [15], [16], and postan-
nealing and seed layers have been proposed to tune the magne-
tization relaxation [17], [18]. Very recently, the spin current in-
fluenced spin dynamic properties in a thin ferromagnet/normal
metal bilayer system have attracted much attention for the spin
Hall effect and spin pumping effect [18]–[21].
In this work, we will show that the magnetization dynamics
in sputtered Co FeAl Si (CFAS) Heusler alloy thin films
can be effectively tuned by changing the sputtering gas pres-
sure. Significant sputtering pressure dependences of grain size,
surface roughness, anisotropy field and magnetization dynamics
have been revealed. The extracted inhomogeneous linewidth
broadening of the CFAS thin films are greatly influenced
by the pressure. The high tunability of the damping parameter
Manuscript received May 03, 2013; revised July 20, 2013; accepted August
17, 2013. Date of current version December 23, 2013. Corresponding author:
L. Jin (e-mail address: brooklynlichuanj@gmail.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2013.2279399
indicates that controlling the sputtering gas pressure can be an
effective method for tuning the magnetization dynamics in sput-
tered CFAS film.
II. EXPERIMENT AND MEASUREMENT
Series CFAS Heusler alloy thin films (120 nm in thickness)
were grown on mm mm Si (100) single crystal substrates
by using DC magnetron sputtering in LS500 automatic sput-
tering system with a base pressure of - mbar. CFAS
thin films were deposited from stoichiometric Co-Fe-Al-Si (Co:
50.0%, Fe: 25%, Al: 12.5% and Si: 12.5%) target. The deposi-
tion rate of the CFAS film was controlled by a quartz-crystal de-
position monitor. A magnetic field of about 250 Oe was applied
in the plane of the samples during the films deposition process
to induce a unidirectional anisotropy. The sputtering gas pres-
sure was changed from - mbar to - mbar
by controlling the Ar flow rate from 10 to 60 SCCM (SCCM de-
notes cubic centimeter per minute at standard temperature and
pressure). Ar flow rate corresponding to sputtering gas pres-
sure is shown in Table I. The dc sputtering power was 50 W.
Surface morphology and surface roughness were investigated
by using an atomic force microscopy (AFM) unit (SPI3800N,
Seiko Instruments). The static magnetic properties of the CFAS
films were studied by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM).
The dynamic magnetic properties were investigated by using
a coplanar waveguide (CPW) vector-network-analyzer ferro-
magnetic resonance (VNA-FMR) spectrometer with an in-plane
configuration. The applied field was along an easy axis,
and the rf field was perpendicular to that axis.

0018-9464 © 2013 IEEE

1500104 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 50, NO. 1, JANUARY 2014

Fig. 3 (a) Pressure dependences of the average roughness ( ) and the grain
size. (b) AFM image of the surface topography for - mbar pressures
deposited CFAS alloy film. (c) AFM image of the surface topography for
- mbar pressure deposited CFAS alloy film.

Fig. 1. Measured - loops for CFAS films deposited with various pressures:
(a) along the easy axis and (b) along the hard axis.

Fig. 4. Typical FMR absorption spectra for CFAS films obtained with dif-
ferent pressures, which are measured at a fixed frequency 14 GHz.

Fig. 3(a) shows the average roughness ( ) and the grain

size dependences of the sputtering pressure. It can be seen that
Fig. 2. Pressure dependences of easy axis coercivity ( ), anisotropy field the surface roughness increases monotonically as the sputtering
( ) and squareness ratio ( ).
pressure is increasing. For low pressure, the surface roughness
and the grain size are very small. In contrast, for higher pres-
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION sure, the grain size and the surface roughness of the CFAS thin
Six CFAS thin film samples were deposited at various gas films increase significantly. Fig. 3(b) and (c) presents typical
pressures from 0.91 to - mbar. Fig. 1(a) and (b) shows AFM images for low pressure and high pressure samples, re-
the easy axis and the hard axis loops of all the sam- spectively. Fig. 3(b) is the AFM scan image for a low pressure
ples. Pressure influences of coercivity ( ) and anisotropy field - mbar) deposited CFAS film, the gained grain size
( ) are presented in Fig. 2. The minimum value of the coer- is 10.5 nm and the surface roughness is 0.97 nm. The nanocrys-
civity ( ) and anisotropy field ( ) is obtained as 3.6 and talline CFAS alloy films have small coercivity and anisotropy
19.5 Oe for - mbar deposited sample, as shown in due to exchange softening [22]. The result agrees well with
Fig 1(a) and (b). By further increasing the sputtering pressures the low anisotropy property obtained at low pressure deposited
from - mbar to - mbar, the anisotropy fields CFAS thin films, as shown in Fig. 2. In contrast, the AFM scan
of the CFAS thin films can be significantly enhanced from 18.5 image for a high pressure - mbar) sample is presented
to 50.2 Oe. As the same time, the squareness ratio is in Fig. 3(c). Both the grain size and the surface roughness are
kept around at 0.97 ( is the remnant magnetization, while enhanced up to 18 and 4.9 nm, respectively. More importantly,
is the saturation magnetization of the CFAS film). It should the results indicate that one can obtain a very smooth surface as
be mentioned that while the sputtering pressure is larger than well as good soft magnetic performance in sputtered CFAS thin
- mbar, the coercivity increases and ratio film with low sputtering pressure. By tuning the gas pressure,
drops rapidly. The results reveal that a relatively low sputtering both the grain size and the surface roughness can be significantly
gas pressure is very important to obtain excellent soft magnetic changed, which will largely influence the magnetic properties.
properties in sputtered CFAS thin film; moreover, the anisotropy The magnetization dynamics of CFAS thin films were studied
field can be effectively tuned by controlling the sputtering gas by using a VNA-FMR spectrometer. The samples were placed
pressure. face down on a coplanar waveguide with a 40- -wide center
JIN et al.: TUNING THE MAGNETIZATION DYNAMICS IN SPUTTERED Co FeAl
Fig. 5. FMR linewidth as a function of frequency for different sputtering
gas pressures.
Fig. 6. Dependence of inhomogeneous linewidth broadening on the sput-
tering gas pressure. FMR frequency is 14 GHz.
conductor, while the ground line width is m. The whole
CPW was fabricated on a sapphire substrate with Ti/Au bilayer.
Field-swept FMR spectra were obtained by measured pa-
rameter at a fixed frequency while the applied magnetic field
was swept from high to low values. Fig. 4(a)–(d) shows the
typical FMR absorption spectra for different pressures ob-
tained in CFAS films, which are measured at a fixed frequency
14 GHz. Interestingly, double FMR modes was obtained for
low pressure deposited CFAS samples (0.91, 1.58 and
- mbar), as shown in Fig. 4(a)–(c); in contrast, the FMR
absorption spectra for higher pressure deposited CFAS films
( - mbar) only present single FMR mode. Fig. 4(d)
shows the typical FMR absorption spectrum for a
- mbar deposited CFAS film. Considering the grain size and
the magnetic anisotropy properties discussed above, it can be
seen that the additional low field FMR mode just appears in
samples with a small anisotropy field as well as small grain size.
The origin of the low field mode is unknown, so it does not allow
for a detailed analysis. However, similar behaviors were found
in other nanogranular magnetic film [23], [24]. Taking into ac-
count the fact of the presence in saturated samples, a reasonable
hypothesis to explain such a phenomenon is the inhomogeneous
precession like a spin-wave resonance [24]. Lorentz multipeak
fittings for an imaginary part of measured FMR absorp-
tion curves were presented in dash lines. Therefore, the FMR
linewidth ( ) of the main FMR mode can be determined.
In order to evaluate the frequency dependence , we per-
formed measurements between 6 to 18 GHz in an in-plane con-
figuration. Fig. 5 shows the linewidth as a function of fre-
quency for different pressures. Both the intrinsic damping pa-
Si HEUSLER ALLOY THIN FILM BY GAS PRESSURE 1500104
Fig. 7. Pressure dependence of the intrinsic Gilbert damping constant . FMR
frequency is 14 GHz.
rameter and the inhomogeneous linewidth broadening
of the CFAS Heusler films can be extracted from the linewidth
data by a linear fitting to the field-swept linewidth versus
resonance frequency [25]–[28]
(1)
where is the gyromagnetic ratio. The obtained
inhomogeneous linewidth broadening varies significantly
with changing the sputtering pressure, as shown in Fig. 6.
The minimum value of is obtained as Oe for
- mbar deposited CFAS film. Then, is rapidly
enhanced with the deposition pressure increasing. The enhance-
ment of the is up to Oe for a - mbar
sputtering pressure. It should be mentioned that the enhance-
ment of is accompanied by an increasing of , as shown
in Fig. 6; the same relationship has been illustrated in some
previous reports [28]. The inhomogeneous linewidth broad-
ening originates not only from the two-magnon scattering by
surface and defects, but also from the spatial inhomogeneous
anisotropy distribution. Large sputtering pressure can induce
large grain size as well as large surface roughness, which have
been proved with the AFM measurements. The roughness
influences the anisotropy and anisotropy distribution through
several mechanisms. For example, roughness can be expected
to influence the growth morphology as well as the magne-
tocrystalline anisotropy, magnetoelastic, or lateral variation in
elemental composition. And large grain size and roughness
induce large anisotropy and significant spatial inhomogeneous
of the anisotropy distribution [29]. So, small inhomogeneous
linewidth broadening CFAS Heusler alloy films can be ob-
tained by using a low pressure sputtering approach. This is very
helpful for fabricated high quality CFAS Heusler alloy films
for spintronics application.
We now turn to the pressure dependence of the intrinsic
Gilbert damping constant . The intrinsic Gilbert damping
constant was obtained without considering the inhomoge-
neous broadening contribution. As shown in Fig. 7, the
value monotonously increases with the sputtering pressure. It
increases from 0.0073 to 0.0122 with the pressure increasing
from - mbar to - mbar, showing an
impressive tunability. The high tunability of for sputtered
CFAS thin films brings great spintronics application potentials.
Compared with the postannealing, the controlling of sputtering
gas pressure is shown to be a more convenient method in tuning
1500104
the value of . Additionally, the value of for low pressure
sputtered CFAS Heusler alloy thin film is very small. It may
be of particular interest and important for both spin wave
waveguide and spin torque transfer based device applications.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this work, we show that the microstructure, static magnetic
properties and magnetization dynamics of the sputtered CFAS
thin films can be effectively tuned by changing sputtering gas
- mbar
pressure. With the pressure increasing from
to - mbar, both the surface roughness and the
anisotropy field are changed from 0.97 nm, 19.5 Oe to 4.9 nm,
50.2 Oe, respectively. And the inhomogeneous linewidth
broadening is monotonously enhanced from Oe
to Oe with the pressure increasing. Moreover,
significant surface roughness and anisotropy influenced
has been revealed. The results show that high quality sputtered
CFAS Heusler alloy thin films with small inhomogeneous
linewidth broadening can be obtained by using a low pressure
sputtering approach. The minimum value of intrinsic damping
constant is obtained as 0.0073 for a low sputtering pressure
( - mbar). Then, with the pressure increasing, the
intrinsic damping parameter gradually increases up to 0.0122.
The high tunability of the damping parameter indicates that
controlling the sputtering gas pressure could be an effective
method to tune the magnetization dynamics in sputtered CFAS
thin film.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported in part by the Foundation for Inno-
vative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Fund of
China under Grant 61021061, by the National Basic Research
Program of China under Grant 2012CB933104 and by the Na-
tional Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 61271037,
51171038 and 61271038).
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