Elucidation of orbital moment, anisotropy, and magnetic damping in epitaxial Fe3O4 films

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.107.064414

Authors: C. Love (University of York; Diamond Light Source) , J. E. Beevers (University of York) , B. Achinuq (University of York) , R. Fan (Diamond Light Source) , K. Matsuzaki (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Japan)) , T. Susaki (Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation; Tokyo Institute of Technology) , V. K. Lazarov (University of York) , S. S. Dhesi (Diamond Light Source) , G. Van Der Laan (Diamond Light Source) , S. A. Cavill (University of York; Diamond Light Source)
Co-authored by industrial partner: Yes

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Physical Review B , VOL 107

State: Published (Approved)
Published: February 2023
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 14135

Abstract: The size of the orbital moment in Fe 3 O 4 has been the subject of a long-standing and contentious debate. In this paper, we make use of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectroscopy and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) to provide complementary determinations of the size of the orbital moment in “bulklike” epitaxial Fe 3 O 4 films grown on yttria-stabilized zirconia (111) substrates. Annealing the 100 nm as-grown films to 1100 ∘ C in a reducing atmosphere improves the stoichiometry and microstructure of the films, allowing for bulklike properties to be recovered as evidenced by x-ray diffraction and vibrating sample magnetometry. In addition, in-plane angular FMR spectra exhibit a crossover from a fourfold symmetry to the expected sixfold symmetry of the (111) surface, together with an anomalous peak in the FMR linewidth at ∼ 10 GHz; this is indicative of low Gilbert damping in combination with two-magnon scattering. For the bulklike annealed sample, a spectroscopic splitting factor g ≈ 2.18 is obtained using both FMR and XMCD techniques, providing evidence for the presence of a finite orbital moment in Fe 3 O 4 .

Journal Keywords: Ferrimagnetism; Magnetic anisotropy; Magnetism; Spin waves; Ferromagnetic resonance; X-ray diffraction; X-ray magnetic circular dichroism

Diamond Keywords: Ferrimagnetism; Spintronics

Subject Areas: Materials, Physics


Instruments: I06-Nanoscience (XPEEM)

Added On: 16/02/2023 08:30

Discipline Tags:

Surfaces Physics Electronics Magnetism Materials Science interfaces and thin films

Technical Tags:

Spectroscopy Circular Dichroism (CD) X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (XMCD)