Increased Gilbert damping in yttrium iron garnet by low temperature vacuum annealing

TY - JOUR

T1 - Increased Gilbert damping in yttrium iron garnet by low temperature vacuum annealing

AU - Cheshire, D. M.

AU - Backes, D.

AU - Veiga, L. S.I.

AU - Dhesi, S. S.

AU - Cavill, S. A.

N1 - © 2025 Author(s).

PY - 2025/3/19

Y1 - 2025/3/19

N2 - The effect of thermal surface cleaning on the Gilbert damping ( α ) of yttrium iron garnet (YIG), before capping with a metallic layer, has been investigated. Our results show that α is strongly affected by relatively mild annealing conditions (T = 300 °C) when performed in a vacuum. This increase needs to be taken into account when obtaining the spin-mixing conductance from spin pumping measurements. We measure an increase in α by a factor of × 8 when the YIG is vacuum annealed at 300 °C. No such changes in α are observed when annealed at the same temperature in 1 × 10−1 mbar of oxygen. We suggest that the main driver for the increase in α is the reduction of Fe3+ to Fe2+, as demonstrated by soft x-ray magnetic spectroscopy.

AB - The effect of thermal surface cleaning on the Gilbert damping ( α ) of yttrium iron garnet (YIG), before capping with a metallic layer, has been investigated. Our results show that α is strongly affected by relatively mild annealing conditions (T = 300 °C) when performed in a vacuum. This increase needs to be taken into account when obtaining the spin-mixing conductance from spin pumping measurements. We measure an increase in α by a factor of × 8 when the YIG is vacuum annealed at 300 °C. No such changes in α are observed when annealed at the same temperature in 1 × 10−1 mbar of oxygen. We suggest that the main driver for the increase in α is the reduction of Fe3+ to Fe2+, as demonstrated by soft x-ray magnetic spectroscopy.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105000374998&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1063/5.0244429

DO - 10.1063/5.0244429

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105000374998

SN - 0003-6951

VL - 126

JO - Applied Physics Letters

JF - Applied Physics Letters

IS - 11

M1 - 112405

ER -