Brillouin light scattering from magnetic excitations in superparamagnetic and ferromagnetic Co–Al–O Granular films

Akira Yoshihara, Toshiteru Maeda, Satoshi Kawamura, Shintaro Nakamura, Tsutomu Nojima, Yoshihiko Takeda, Shigehiro Ohnuma

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A systematic study of Brillouin light scattering (BLS) from superparamagnetic (SPM) and ferromagnetic (FM) Co–Al–O granular films was performed under magnetic fields of up to 4.6 kOe in the standard backscattering geometry at room temperature. The SPM and FM boundary, defined as the Co composition at which the exchange field vanishes, was found to be located at xC(Co) = 59.3 ± 1.3 at. %. From FM films we observed a pair of bulk spin-wave peaks on both the positive- and negative-frequency sides and a surface localized Damon–Eshbach peak only on the positive-frequency side under the present scattering conditions. From SPM films, a pair of broader but propagative excitation peaks with asymmetric intensity were observed on both frequency sides in a spectrum. We performed a numerical analysis of the BLS spectrum by employing the theory developed by Camley and Mills (CM) while retaining dipole and exchange couplings for FM films and only dipole coupling for SPM films. The CM theory successfully reproduced the observed spectrum for both SPM and FM films. The SPM spectrum exhibits a singlet–doublet peak structure similarly to an FM SW spectrum. The SPM peak stems from the dipole-coupled larger-amplitude precession motion of the granule magnetic moment around the external-field-induced magnetization.

Original languageEnglish
Article number044707
Journaljournal of the physical society of japan
Volume87
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

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