Notes: The exchange stiffness constant A of evaporated (Gd,Tb)-(Fe,Co) amorphous alloys with constant Curie temperature of 465±25 K was determined with two different methods for a large composition and temperature range. One is the excitation of standing spin waves using Brillouin light scattering. The other method is the deviation of A from measurements of the wall energy density σw and the uniaxial anisotropy Ku using the Bloch wall energy equation. σw could be determined from the applied magnetic field difference for collapsing and expanding of thermomagnetically written domains. The compositional and experimental limits of this method are described. The uniaxial anisotropy Ku was measured with a torque magnetometer. In GdTb-FeCo the resulting exchange stiffness constant of A=(2.6±0.6)×10−12 J/m was found to be independent of the Tb content. The results obtained from Brillouin light-scattering measurements on Gd21.2 Co78.8 and Gd13.5Tb6.2Fe80.3 are in good agreement.

Notes: The static and spin wave properties of regular square lattices of magnetic dots of 0.5–2 μm dot diameter and 1–4 μm periodicity patterned in permalloy films have been investigated by Brillouin light scattering. The samples have been structured using x-ray lithography and ion beam etching. The Brillouin light scattering spectra reveal both surface and bulk spin wave modes. The spin wave frequencies can be well described taking into account the demagnetization factor of each single dot. For the samples with smallest dot separation of 0.1 μm a fourfold in-plane magnetic anisotropy with the easy axis directed along the pattern diagonal is observed, indicating anisotropic coupling between the dots. © 1997 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: We report on the exchange bias effect as a function of the in-plane direction of the applied field in twofold symmetric, epitaxial Ni80Fe20/Fe50Mn50 bilayers grown on Cu(110) single-crystal substrates. An enhancement of the exchange bias field, Heb, up to a factor of 2 is observed if the external field is nearly, but not fully aligned perpendicular to the symmetry direction of the exchange bias field. From the measurement of the exchange bias field as a function of the in-plane angle of the applied field, the unidirectional, uniaxial and fourfold anisotropy contributions are determined with high precision. The symmetry direction of the unidirectional anisotropy switches with increasing NiFe thickness from [11¯0] to [001]. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: Static and dynamic magnetic properties of epitaxial Fe(001) films with Pd overlayers have been measured by means of Brillouin light scattering and magneto-optic Kerr effect magnetometry. From low energy electron diffraction studies, the initial growth of Pd [dPd〈2 monolayer (ML)] is identified as a self-formation process of quasione-dimensional Pd structures. Auger electron spectroscopy examinations proved that for dPd≥2 ML the Pd overlayers cover the Fe films almost completely. The measured frequencies of the dipolar spin wave mode and the derived anisotropy constants show a linear change with increasing dPd up to 5 ML with following saturation. The M(H) curves show pronounced anomalies in the coercive field for dPd〈2 ML accompanied by large tails in the hysteresis loops. The results are interpreted as a strong pinning of domain walls caused by large local changes in the surface anisotropy due to the inhomogeneous Pd cover layer in this regime. © 1997 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: We have investigated the propagation of surface and backward volume spin waves (BVSW) with the in-plane wavevector k(parallel)=10–900 cm−1 excited by microwaves in YIG and Lu2.04Bi0.96Fe5O12 (LBIG) films with the film thicknesses 5 and 1.5 μm, respectively. In all cases the magnetization and k(parallel) were in the film plane. The frequencies of the spin wave excitations as well as the spatial distribution of their intensities in the linear and in the nonlinear excitation regime were measured by means of a fully automated, high-stabilization, small-angle Brillouin light scattering (BLS) setup with a spatial resolution of 30 μm. It is well known1 that in the case of BVSW modes, the Lighthill criterion2 for modulational instability is fulfilled for both the longitudinal and the transverse perturbations of the initially constant-amplitude wave beam. Therefore, this mode is very much suitable for the investigation of the evolution of a plane-front, constant-amplitude initial beam, and for a direct experimental study of two-dimensional nonlinear diffraction effects of the beam leading to self-focusing. The garnet films with in-plane dimensions of 2×10 mm2 were grown by liquid phase epitaxy onto a single crystalline (111)-oriented gallium gadolinium garnet substrate. Two strip antennas, 35 μm wide and situated at the ends of the films, were used for the excitation of the spin waves and for monitoring. The working frequency was 8.10 GHz. Special efforts were taken to minimize the beam divergence due to the finite length of the input antenna. For all nonlinear studies the initial angular beam divergence was not larger than aitch-thetamax=0.05 rad. In the linear regime the attenuation factor was measured, and the reflection of the spin waves from the sample boundaries was studied. We also observed the interference between the two lowest order lateral modes having different initial spatial distributions of the magnetization. The BLS technique was shown to provide a signal to noise ratio exceeding 60 dB. In the nonlinear regime the propagation of the BVSW mode was thoroughly investigated. We have found clear evidence for the self-focusing effect, which exists in a narrow interval of input powers. In these studies overheating of the sample by the microwave power was carefully avoided by using an intermittent source of maximum average power of 100 mW working at a frequency of 4 kHz. That allowed us to claim that the observed focusing of the spin waves was not an artifact caused by sample heating. The distance between the focusing maximum and the antenna was 1.5 mm for LBIG sample and 6 mm for YIG sample. These values are in a good agreement with our theoretical calculations, if one takes into account the thicknesses of the films. For a comparison of the observed values of the width and the length of the focusing spot and their dependence on the microwave power with the theory, more numerical calculations are needed. Our results demonstrate the wide applicability of an advanced combined microwave-BLS technique for a two-dimensional mapping of the spin wave amplitudes in the media. © 1997 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: All contributing magnetic anisotropies in (110)-oriented exchange biased Ni80Fe20/Fe50Mn50 double layers prepared by molecular beam epitaxy on Cu(110) single crystals have been determined by means of Brillouin light scattering. Upon covering the Ni80Fe20 films by Fe50Mn50, a unidirectional anisotropy contribution appears, which is consistent with the measured exchange bias field. The uniaxial and fourfold in-plane anisotropy contributions are largely modified by an amount, which scales with the Ni80Fe20 thickness, indicating an interface effect. The strong uniaxial anisotropy contribution shows an in-plane switching of the easy axis from [11¯0] to [001] with increasing Ni80Fe20-layer thickness. The large mode width of the spin wave excitations, which exceeds the linewidth of uncovered Ni80Fe20 films by a factor of more than six, indicates large spatial variations of the exchange coupling constant. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: Static magnetic and spin wave properties of square lattices of permalloy micron dots with thicknesses of 500 and 1000 Å and with varying dot separations have been investigated. A magnetic fourfold anisotropy was found for the lattice with dot diameters of 1 μm and a dot separation of 0.1 μm. The anisotropy is attributed to an anisotropic dipole–dipole interaction between magnetically unsaturated parts of the dots. The anisotropy strength (order of 105 erg/cm3) decreases with increasing in-plane applied magnetic field. © 1997 American Institute of Physics.