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Fe3O4, as a half-metallic ferrimagnetic material, is believed to be one of the most promising materials in spin transport for spintronics. However, fabricating stoichiometric Fe3O4 film is still challenging because the oxidation is hard to control for various preparing methods. In this paper, series of Fe3O4 thin films on Si (100) substrates are grown by sputtering from a Fe3O4 target without oxygen atmosphere at different growth temperature and then extra heat treatment in high vacuum. By combining X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Raman spectrum, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, VSM analysis, we see that the structure and magnetic moment of Fe3O4 film are not only related with growth temperature during sputtering, but also refer to the temperature of post-heat treatments. When the growth temperature is lower than 300 °C, the film does not show any XRD diffraction peaks. When the growth temperature increases from 300 to 500 °C, the film shows the (111) texture of Fe3O4 film clearly. However, the other XRD diffraction peaks are observed after post-heat treatment. The saturation magnetization increases with growth temperature and the largest saturation magnetization is 473 emu/cm3 for growth temperature of 450 °C and extra heat treatment, which is close to bulk Fe3O4. Our results suggest that a selectable method can be used to fabricate high magnetic moment of Fe3O4 thin film.

Magnetic dynamic damping is significantly important in determining the relaxation time of magnetic moments and the speed of magnetic memory devices. Here, magnetic dynamic behaviors of permalloy (Py) films capped with gadolinium (Gd) are studied, and the effects of the interface are investigated by the Cu insert layer. For Py/Gd bilayer films, both the saturation magnetization ( ${M}_{s}$ ) and the surface anisotropy constant ( ${K}_{{\bot }}$ ) are decreased with increasing Gd thickness, while the Gilbert damping ( $\alpha$ ) is enhanced. With the insert of Cu at Py/Gd interface, the above tendencies of ${M}_{s}$ , ${K}_{\bot }$ , and $\alpha $ are suppressed. We attribute these phenomena to the antiferromagnetic coupling between Gd and Py near the interface, which are caused by the magnetic proximity effect (MPE) instead of the spin relaxation in the rare earth Gd themselves.

We investigate the current induced depinning of magnetic domain walls (DWs) trapped at the kinks in a patterned Py nanowire with two-kink zigzag shape on Si/SiO2 substrate. By injecting pulse current with varying amplitude, two threshold current densities with a slight difference of around $6 \times 10^{10}$ A m−2 have been determined according to the different depinning process. The smaller threshold current density corresponds to the depinning of a single DW which is always the first DW facing to the electron flow. This fact indicates that the different pinning potential caused by the structural asymmetry is not the key to determine which DW is to depin. Micromagnetic simulations provide evidence that the specific current-driven behavior of the vortex DW might account for the single depinning process. The larger threshold corresponds to the simultaneous depinning of two DWs which has been commonly observed in a variety of shaped nanowires. This asynchronous depinning phenomenon provides the possibility of the selective DW depinning in the future logic devices.

Magnetic semiconductors with high critical temperature have long been the focus in materials science and are also known as one of the fundamental questions in two-dimensional (2D) materials. Based on density functional theory calculations, we predict a 2D spin-gapless ferromagnetic semiconductor of CrGa2Se4 monolayer, in which the type of spin-polarized current can be tuned by tailoring the Fermi energy. Moreover, the magnetic anisotropy energy calculations indicate that the CrGa2Se4 monolayer possesses spin anisotropy both in the basal plane and the vertical plane. This originates from the distortion-induced rearrangement of the 3d electrons in the CrSe6 octahedron and results in an inclined easy axis out of the film. The Curie temperature (Tc) of ferromagnetic phase transition for 2D CrGa2Se4 is more than 200 K. This 2D material shows promising transport properties for spintronics applications and is also important for fundamental research in 2D magnetism.

Recent advances in two-dimensional van der Waals (2D vdW) magnets provide new platforms to study their magnetism in reduced dimensions. However, most of the studies performed to date have been limited to low temperatures. Here, we report the proximity effect of a 2D vdW magnet Fe3GeTe2 (FGT) on nickel (Ni) films at room temperature. Ferromagnetic resonance measurements show that FGT can increase the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and magnetic damping of the adjacent Ni film. Such an interfacial effect is observed at room temperature, and becomes more pronounced as the temperature decreases. A similar effect is also achieved in another 2D heterostructure of Cr2Ge2Te6/Ni, implying its universality in a variety of 2D magnetic materials. Our work provides a new approach for utilizing 2D magnets in spintronics at room temperature.

Tunable magnetodynamic properties of magnetic materials will allow significant design freedom in spintronic devices. One of the most efficient methods to tailor magnetic properties is by element doping. Here, we study the effect of rare-earth (RE) doping on Permalloy (Py) films to modify the magnetic damping and exchange stiffness by both the ferromagnetic resonance uniform precession mode and the first perpendicular standing spin-wave mode. Results show that both static and dynamic magnetic properties of Py films are adjusted by doping with Gd, Tb, and Nd. The saturation magnetization is decreased by 59.4% with Tb, Gd, and Nd at concentrations of 10 at.%. The magnetic damping coefficient (α) is enhanced mostly by Tb dopant, followed by Nd and Gd, indicating that spin-orbit coupling may be one of the main mechanisms in determining α of RE-doped films. A 44.2% reduction of the exchange stiffness was achieved by doping with 3.3 at.% Nd. The results demonstrate that RE doping may be a viable technique for the control of magnetodynamic properties for spintronics applications.

Amorphous CoFeB films grown on GaAs(001) substrates demonstrating significant in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy were investigated by vector network analyzer ferromagnetic resonance. Distinct in-plane anisotropy of magnetic damping, with a largest maximum-minimum damping ratio of about 109%, was observed via analyzing the frequency dependence of linewidth in a linear manner. As the CoFeB film thickness increases from 3.5 nm to 30 nm, the amorphous structure for all the CoFeB films is maintained while the magnetic damping anisotropy decreases significantly. In order to reveal the inherent mechanism responsible for the anisotropic magnetic damping, studies on time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect and high resolution transmission electron microscopy were performed. Those results indicate that the in-plane angular dependent anisotropic damping mainly originates from two-magnon scattering, while the Gilbert damping keeps almost unchanged.

Fe3O4 nanomaterials have attracted lastest interests due to their excellent properties and potential applications. In this paper, the thermal excitation is investigated by Mossbauer spectra and first principle calculations. Fe3O4 nanoparticles with uniform size, regular shape and good dispersibility are prepared by the solvothermal methods, and Fe3O4@SiO2 composite magnetic particles with layers of mesostructured SiO2 structure are assembled by improved Stober method. The particle size is 500 nm and the shell thickness of SiO2 layer is 80 nm. Fe3O4@SiO2 composite magnetic particles are then annealed at different temperature of 200 °C, 400 °C and 600 °C. The experimental measurements exhibit that the grain size grows up, and the magnetization is enhanced significantly, with increasing heat treatment temperature. However, Mossbauer spectra show that the relative absorption intensity in B-site fast decreases as increasing heat treatment temperature, from 64% at room temperature to 27% at 600 °C, indicating that large amount of Fe vacancies may form in B-site, and correspondingly, the net magnetic moment due to the difference of amount of Fe in B and A sites would be reduced, which strongly disagrees with the results of magnetization measured by vibrating sample magnetometer. In order to find the mechanism behind magnetization, the first-principle calculations are performed and reveal that the oxygen ions in the SiO2 shell may go into Fe3O4 core, which causes number of Fe2+ ions to decreases and transfer to Fe3+ ions, leading to the increase of magnetic moment. So we classify the difference between the amount of Fe3+ and Fe2+ ions in B-site as γ-Fe2O3. Based on this, Mossbauer spectra analysis presents quantitatively the concentration of various phase and their hyperfine interactions. This work provides a method to analyze the magnetic moment of Fe3O4.

Chromium tellurides have triggered tremendous investigations in physics and materials science, where their unique properties offer excellent opportunities for spintronic applications. Here, we report anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) of ferromagnetic CrTe single crystal flake grown by chemical vapor deposition. An individual hexagonal flake exhibits an easy magnetization axis along its normal direction, and cooling from room temperature to low temperature, its electrical resistance measured with the magnetization parallel to current geometry is larger than that for the perpendicular to the current geometry, indicating the presence of an AMR behavior. The AMR ratio has been found to increase with decreasing temperature and is 5.2% at 5 K, comparable with general magnetic transition metal and alloy. This suggests CrTe single crystal flake to be a promising magnetic material for spintronics applications.

Using the vibrating sample magnetometer and ex situ vector network analyzer ferromagnetic resonance, the static and dynamic magnetic properties of Tb (4 nm)/Cr ( t Cr )/Ni 80 Fe 20 (12 nm) trilayers with different thickness of Cr layer (from 0.2 to 4.0 nm) were investigated comparing with those of Ni 80 Fe 20 film. From the results of in-plane static magnetic hysteresis loops, we analyzed the soft magnetic properties and in-plane anisotropy, along with obtaining the saturation magnetization ( M s ) which shows no obvious reducing and a modulation akin to RKKY coupling. By fitting the relationship of resonance field and linewidth versus resonance frequency, the effective magnetization 4π M eff , gyromagnetic ratio γ , and effective damping coefficient ( α eff ) were extracted. It is worthwhile to mention that the inserting of ultrathin Cr layer (0.2 nm) enhanced the above parameters obviously, which then backed down towards their values in Ni 80 Fe 20 film with increasing the thickness of Cr layer as a result of the weakening magnetic proximity effect and the decreasing spin-pumping effect in trilayers. Finally, they became flattening with the Cr layer thicker than 1 nm where oscillations are also observed in the value of γ and α eff. Interestingly, the oscillations in α eff and γ are consistent with each other, which implies the damping mechanism mainly related to the spin-orbit coupling originating from the indirect interaction between Tb and Ni 80 Fe 20 . In addition, the inhomogeneous broadening (Δ H 0 ) were determined to be very small which further ascertain the accurate of the α eff .

The strong (111)-textured ZnxFe3−xO4 thin films were grown on SiO2-terminated silicon substrates using pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction and high resolution transmission electron microscopy clearly show the column growth structure along the film thickness direction in [111] crystalline orientation for every grain column. With the introduction of texture induced magnetic anisotropy in the free energy density model, we quantitatively determined the doping effect on the various anisotropies in (111)-textured ZnxFe3−xO4 films. The mechanisms of ferromagnetic resonance linewidth of ZnxFe3−xO4 thin films are investigated by the theoretical fitting, in which considering the contributions from intrinsic spin-orbit coupling, extrinsic compositions from two-magnon scattering and inhomogeneous broadening. It is found that the Gilbert damping coefficient α increases with increasing Zn substitution x from 0 to 0.3, indicating that the spin-orbit coupling of the ZnxFe3−xO4 thin films increases with the introduction of Zn impurities.

Ferromagnet/two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenide (FM/2D TMD) interfaces provide attractive opportunities to push magnetic information storage to the atomically thin limit. Existing work has focused on FMs contacted with mechanically exfoliated or chemically vapor-deposition-grown TMDs, where clean interfaces cannot be guaranteed. Here, we report a reliable way to achieve contamination-free interfaces between ferromagnetic CoFeB and molecular-beam epitaxial MoSe2. We show a spin reorientation arising from the interface, leading to a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), and reveal the CoFeB/2D MoSe2 interface allowing for the PMA development in a broader CoFeB thickness-range than common systems such as CoFeB/MgO. Using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism analysis, we attribute generation of this PMA to interfacial d-d hybridization and deduce a general rule to enhance its magnitude. We also demonstrate favorable magnetic softness and considerable magnetic moment preserved at the interface and theoretically predict the interfacial band matching for spin filtering. Our work highlights the CoFeB/2D MoSe2 interface as a promising platform for examination of TMD-based spintronic applications and might stimulate further development with other combinations of FM/2D TMD interfaces.

Interfacial effect of amorphous cobalt-iron-boron (Co60Fe20B20) films deposited on GaAs(001) by DC magnetron-sputtering has been precisely studied. In-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (UMA) as a significant magnetic property has been found in Co60Fe20B20/GaAs heterostructure and the UMA field (Hu) of (∼75 Oe) is achieved. Magnetic Schottky barrier contact has been achieved by current-voltage (I–V) characteristic through the interface with a barrier height of 0.72 eV, which is an appropriate for tunneling injection of spin current from ferromagnet to semiconductors in spin-injection devices.

By analyzing the in-plane angular dependence of ferromagnetic resonance linewidth, we show that the Gilbert damping constant in ultrathin Fe3O4 epitaxial films on GaAs substrate can be enhanced by thickness reduction and oxygen vacancies in the interface. At the same time, the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy due to the interface effect becomes significant. Using the element-specific technique of X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, we find that the orbital-to-spin moment ratio increases with decreasing film thickness, in full agreement with the increase in the Gilbert damping obtained for these ultrathin single-crystal films. Combined with the first-principle calculations, the results suggest that the bonding with Fe and Ga or As ions and the ionic distortion near the interface, as well as the FeO defects and oxygen vacancies, may increase the spin–orbit coupling in ultrathin Fe3O4 epitaxial films and in turn provide an enhanced damping.

Magnonic devices are promising alternatives to conventional charge-current-driven spintronic devices. As the basic unit of spintronic devices, the spin valve is of limited use in magnonics because its dynamics is rarely studied. Here, we investigate the interlayer transmission of magnons in dynamic spin valve structures using the time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect. Interaction between magnons and the interfacial dissipation are studied by comparing three samples with different spin valve structures. Magnons with different intrinsic frequencies have strong interactions. In contrast, magnons with similar intrinsic frequencies have relatively weak interactions. Interfacial dissipations of magnons are increased by rare earth insertion, which can reduce the interactions between magnons indirectly. This work extends the application of spin valve structures to magnonic devices beyond their conventional use.

Polycrystalline Fe3O4 films with the thickness of 27 nm were grown at different temperature (Ts) on Si (100) substrate by Laser-Molecular Beam Epitaxy to study the influence of density of antiphase boundaries (APBs) and the spin polarization of Fe3O4. Films prepared with Ts in the range of 500 °C - 650 °C were proved to be of good crystallization, preferred orientation, and desirable values of saturation magnetization (a little smaller one for film prepared at Ts = 500 °C). The lowest density of APBs was verified by the measured bulk like electron-phonon (s-p) coupling constant for film prepared at Ts = 550 °C, along with the highest value of spin polarization and the best crystalline quality as the most obvious inflection in the curves of lnρ vs. 1000/T around Verwey transition. This optimum value of Ts can be interpreted by the APBs thermally activated migration process with an activation energy. Films prepared with Ts = 500 °C, 600 °C, and 650 °C still have a reasonable value of the s-p coupling constant compared to recently reported results, while larger magnetoresistance accompanied by the superparamagnetic behavior was observed for films prepared at lower Ts (Ts = 400 °C and 450 °C).

As an important parameter for characterizing the magnetization dynamics, Gilbert damping constant α in a thin film or a multilayer is generally extracted from the linear fitting of the frequency-dependence of the ferromagnetic resonance linewidth, sometimes accompanied with a tiny deviation of the linewidth to a smaller value at the low-frequency or high-frequency region due to the two-magnon scattering with an in-plane-field configuration, in which an in-plane magnetic field H perpendicular to a microwave field h was applied in film plane during measurement. In contrast, here we report, in ultrathin Gd/Cr/Fe multilayers, an anomalously large linewidth in the film plane at the low-frequency region. For the first time, we have successfully extracted the Gilbert damping constant from perfect theoretical fitting to the experimental data, by considering the effective direction of the magnetization around in precession staying out of the film plane when the in-pane H at which the precession starts is below the saturation field. This magnetization deviation from the film plane is found to have an obvious contribution to the enhanced linewidth caused by two magnon scattering, while slightly reduce the intrinsic linewidth. Under the same resonance frequency, the deviation angle reaches the maximum values at tCr = 1.0 nm while decreases when tCr increases to 1.5 nm, which coincides with the trend of the surface perpendicular anisotropy constant K⊥. A reduced intrinsic damping constant α is obtained as the introduction of Gd layer and Cr layer as a result of the competition between the spin pumping effect and the interfacial effects at the Fe/Gd and Fe/Cr interfaces. While the decreasing α for film with Cr layer thickness increasing to 1.5 nm might means the contribution of the electron density of states at the Fermi energy n(EF). This study offers an effective way to accurately obtain the intrinsic damping constant of spintronic materials/devices, which is essential for broad applications in spintronics.

The Tb(4 nm)/Cr( ${t}$ nm)/Fe(5 nm) trilayers with different thicknesses of Cr layer have been investigated by X-ray diffraction, vibrating sample magnetometer, and ferromagnetic resonance. When Cr is thinner than 1.8 nm, the ferromagnetic coupling of Tb and Fe leads to higher saturation magnetization ( $M_{s}$ ) than that of Fe(5 nm) film. On the other hand, the Gilbert damping constant $\alpha $ in all the trilayers have been found to exceed the magnitude of the Fe. In particular, when Cr layer is 1 nm thick, $\alpha $ increases by 38% and $M_{s}$ is increased by 6%; when Cr layer is 4 nm thick, $\alpha $ is increased by 46%, while $M_{s}$ is only decreased by 5%. Accordingly, we have demonstrated a way for enhancing damping and magnetic moment simultaneously in the Tb(4 nm)/Cr( ${t}$ nm)/Fe(5 nm) trilayers.

A 3.5 nm amorphous CoFeB film was sputtered on GaAs (001) wafer substrate without applying magnetic field during deposition, and a significant in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (UMA) field (Hu) of about 300 Oe could be achieved. To precisely determine the intrinsic Gilbert damping constant (α) of this film, both ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) and time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect (TRMOKE) techniques were utilized. With good fitting of the dynamic spectra of FMR and TRMOKE, α is calculated to be 0.010 and 0.013, respectively. Obviously, the latter is 30% larger than the former, which is due to the transient heating effect during the TRMOKE measurement. In comparison with ordinary amorphous CoFeB films with negligible magnetic anisotropies, α is enhanced significantly in the CoFeB/GaAs(001) film, which may be mainly resulted from the enhanced spin-orbit coupling induced by the CoFeB/GaAs interface. However, the significant in-plane UMA plays minor role in the enhancement of α.

Fe3O4 particles with uniform size, regular shape and good dispersibility are prepared by solvothermal methods. The size of Fe3O4 particles and their magnetic properties can be adjusted during synthesis. Fe3O4@SiO2 composite magnetic particles with layers of mesoporous SiO2 structure are assembled by improved Stöber method. The different shell thickness of SiO2 layer can be adjusted from 35∼150 nm using multi-coating by changing the content of TEOS to form Fe3O4@nSiO2@mSiO2. The Mössbauer spectra show that Fe3O4 particles are almost stoichiometric. However, it is found that the coverage of SiO2 have a significant effect on the occupation of Fe ions in Fe3O4 particles. Peroxidation appears in Fe3O4@SiO2 composite magnetic particles, which might be caused by oxygen in SiO2 layer during wrapping process.

The samarium doping zinc oxide (Zn 1– x Sm x O) with ( x =0.0, 0.04, 0.05 and 0.17) polycrystalline thin films have been deposited on n-Si(1 0 0) substrate using thermal evaporation technique. Ceramic targets for deposition were prepared by the standard solid-state reaction method and sintered in nitrogen atmospheres. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analyses show that the bulk and films features reveal wurtzite crystal structure with a preferential (1 0 1) crystallographic orientation and grows as hexagonal shape grains. According to the results of the Hall effect measurements, all the films show p-type conductivity, possibly a result of nitrogen incorporation into the Sm-doped ZnO samples. Magnetic measurements show that ferromagnetic behavior depends on the Sm 3+ concentration. For a film with lower Sm 2 O 3 contents ( x =0.04), a phenomenon of paramagnetism has been observed. While, with further increase of Sm 3+ contents ( x =0.05) the ferromagnetic behavior has been observed at room temperature. However, at higher doping content of Sm 3+ , the ferromagnetic behavior was suppressed. The decrease of ferromagnetism with increasing doping concentration demonstrates that ferromagnetism observed at room temperature is an intrinsic property of Zn 1– x Sm x O films.

The mechanism of the magnetic properties on the Zn2+ substituted Fe3O4 film have been investigated based on first principle calculations. It is found that the surface effect plays an important role in the occupation of Zn ion, and in turn changes the magnetic moment. It may also destroy the half metallic behavior of Fe3O4 film even if the Zn2+ concentration only is one Zn2+ per unit cell (4%), which is different from that in bulk material.

Focusing on the Ni80Fe20 (Py)/Nd-Cu bilayers, the magnetization dynamic damping from spin pumping effect is investigated systematically by doping itinerant Cu in rear earth metal Nd. Various Ta/Py/Nd1-xCux/Ta/Si films with x = 0%, 16%, 38%, 46% and 58% are prepared by magnetron sputtering. For every content of Cu, the thickness of Nd-Cu layer is changed from 1 nm to 32 nm. The damping coefficient increases with increasing the thickness of Nd-Cu layer, which shows the trend of the spin pumping behavior. Also, with increasing Cu concentration in the Nd-Cu layer, the damping coefficient decreases, implying that the spin-orbit coupling in Nd-Cu layer is indeed cut down by high itinerant of Cu dopants. It is interesting that the spin diffusion length (λSD) in the Nd-Cu layer for different Cu dopants is not found to increase monotonously.

Single-crystal Fe dot arrays with the lateral size varying from 400 nm to 50 nm are fabricated by focused ion beam (FIB) direct writing from a single-crystalline 10 monolayer (ML) Fe (100) continuous thin film grown on GaAs substrate. The Kerr hysteresis loops of both dot arrays and continuous thin film are measured by focused magnetooptical Kerr effect (MOKE) measurements along four major crystal directions: [0-11] [010] [011] and [001]. It is found that the in-plane uniaxial anisotropy has been greatly reduced down to zero in the dot arrays when the size is less than 150 nm. The micromagnetic simulations confirm the reduction of this intrinsic in-plane uniaxial anisotropy in the patterned dots by separating the effect of the shape anisotropy. The experimental and simulation results further indicate an additional magnetic uniaxial anisotropy along the [010] direction.

A series of Fe3O4 particle chains with an average particle diameter of 150 nm and different lengths were synthesized by using the self-assembly method at reduced temperature in different synthesizing magnetic fields. The influence of synthesizing magnetic field on the properties of the magnetite particle chains was studied by structural analyses, magnetometry measurement, and ferromagnetic resonance. A uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in the saturation field (Hs), hysteresis loop, and ferromagnetic resonance were observed to increase with increasing synthesizing field. The saturation magnetization and g-factor were found to increase slightly with increasing synthesizing field. The demagnetizing fields and demagnetizing factors were determined from the experimental data of magnetometry measurement, ferromagnetic resonance, and also numerical calculation, which agreed reasonably well. It was found that the magnetization non-uniformity in the chains and the magnetostatic interaction among the chains have an impo...

Magnetic anisotropies of Fe/MgO/GaAs(100) hybrid structure with two different nonmagnetic capping materials, Au and MgO have been studied by ferromagnetic resonance (FMR). A uniaxial anisotropy, unexpected from the crystal structure was observed in the ultrathin films for both capping materials. Its global easy axis is along [0-11] direction while two (010) directions are equally magnetic hard regardless of the overlayer material. The in-plane uniaxial anisotropy (in-plane cubic anisotropy) of the Au capped samples is stronger (weaker) than that of the MgO capped ones within the range of t Fe = 7.1 to 28 ML. This suggests that the MgO overlayer suppresses the uniaxial anisotropy faster than the Au overlayer.

It is well-known that heavy Rare Earth (RE) metal of Tb, with stronger coupling of orbital and spin moments and anisotropic magnetism, can influence the magnetic properties of Fe based soft magnetism, especially tailor magnetization dynamic damping and in turn influence the magnetization switching time [1], [2], [3]. In our previous work, the dynamic damping of Fe-based films with dilute RE(Tb, Nd) dopants is indeed enhanced [4], [5], and even for the bilayers of Permalloy/ Nd(Tb), damping constant is increased strongly by spin pumping effect. However, the magnetic moments of Tb and TM are found to be antiferromagnetic coupling with each other, which reduces the net magnetic moment greatly. It is reported that the Tb film grown on the Fe layer, separated by ultrathin Cr layer can solve the problem based on the principle of RE-metal moments coupling antiferromagnetically with Cr, and Cr in turn coupling antiferromagnetically with Fe [1]. Hence, an effective ferromagnetic coupling is expected between the RE and the Fe magnetic moments to enhance the saturation magnetization, at the same time to remain a higher damping constant in the combination of RE/Cr/Fe multilayers.

The magnetic anisotropies are one of the dominating factors affecting the behavior of magnetic materials, which is profoundly evident in magnetic ultrathin films, and significant in the application of information storage and magnetic sensor field. Extensive studies of magnetic anisotropies in various films have been carried out. It is well known that the contribution of magnetocrystalline anisotropy is negligible in isotropic polycrystalline films while essential in single-crystal films. However, in textured film, a polycrystalline film composed of nanograins with the near same lattice orientation, the competing interactions between magnetocrystalline and other anisotropy is still an open issue. The quantitative investigations on the contribution of magnetocrystalline anisotropy in the textured film are rarely reported. In this paper, the expression of magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy in textured film (texture anisotropy energy) is given, and angle-resolved FMR studies on the textured Fe 3 O 4 film is also presented.

Using micromagnetic simulation, we investigate the current-induced multiple domain wall motion (CIDWM) in zigzag nanowires with different bar angles (θ=90°, 120° and 150°). Two dynamic processes of single DWM and double DWM are found in different regimes of current density identified by two thresholds in all zigzag nanowires. The decreasing threshold current is found in the zigzag nanowires with increased bar angles, indicating the angular-dependence of the magnetic pinning. This work suggests a possibility of manipulating the single/multiple DWM in future DW devices by introducing the shape anisotropy.

Different thickness of ultrathin films of magnetite (Fe3O4) have been grown epitaxially on zinc-blende narrow band-gap semiconductor InAs(100) surfaces by in situ post-growth annealing of ultrathin epitaxial Fe films at 300 °C in an oxygen partial pressure of 5 × 10−5 mbar. Reflection high-energy electron-diffraction patterns show that the epitaxial Fe3O4 films have been rotated by 45° in-plane to match the InAs substrates. The magnetic hysteresis loops obtained by magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) shows a in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy for the ultrathin films, and the global easy axis is rotated from the uniaxial easy [011] direction to the cubic easy [010] direction when the thickness of the film increases.

The current-induced motion of magnetic domain walls (DWs) confined to nanostructures is of great interest for fundamental studies as well as for technological applications in spintronic devices. Here, we present magnetic images showing the depinning properties of pulse-current-driven domain walls in well-shaped Permalloy nanowires obtained using photoemission electron microscopy combined with x-ray magnetic circular dichroism. In the vicinity of the threshold current density (Jth = 4.2 × 1011 A.m−2) for the DW motion, discontinuous DW depinning and motion have been observed as a sequence of “Barkhausen jumps”. A one-dimensional analytical model with a piecewise parabolic pinning potential has been introduced to reproduce the DW hopping between two nearest neighbour sites, which reveals the dynamical nature of the current-driven DW motion in the depinning regime.

Highly (111)-textured ZnxFe3−xO4 thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition on silicon substrates. The spin and orbital magnetic moments of the ZnxFe3−xO4 thin films have been obtained by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and sum rule analysis. The total magnetic moments thus extracted are in good agreement with the values obtained by vibrating sample magnetometer. Both the unquenched orbital moment and the ratio of orbital-to-spin moment first increase significantly with increasing Zn substitution at a low concentration range ( 0≤x≤0.1), and then decrease at a higher concentration (x = 0.3). The underlying site-specific doping mechanisms involved here have been elucidated by detailed analysis of the XMCD of ZnxFe3−xO4 films. Our work demonstrates a practical means to manipulate the spin-orbit coupling in the ZnxFe3−xO4 thin films via Zn impurity doping.

In this paper, the epitaxial growth and the magnetic property of different thickness of ultrathin Fe3O4 film on InAs(100) are reported. As-capped InAs(100) substrate is loaded to the ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) deposition chamber, following an annealing at 600° C for 30 minutes before growth. Then an in situ reflectance high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) patterns of InAs (100) substrate is conducted along its [011] axis.

The magnetic nanowires have attracted great interests recently for their potential applications in novel logic and memory devices. The magnetization reversal of the magnetic nanowires is realized by the nucleation and the propagation of domain walls (DWs) along the wires. Both current and magnetic field driven DW motion have been proposed and investigated widely. One of the techniques to manipulate the DW is to introduce artificial defects to the nanowire structure such as different shapes of notches. Asymmetric notches have been reported to act as an asymmetric energy barrier for the DW and the depinning field and critical depin current depend on the direction of DW propagation, which is related to the slope of notch. The “Magnetic ratchet effect” has been addressed since the DW depins and moves easier in one direction than the other. Magnetic diodes were also proposed based on the asymmetric notch structure in magnetic nanowires. However, rather than constriction, the previous reports were based on the protruding shape of asymmetric notch. In this paper, we present a study on the depinning behaviour of the DW inside magnetic nanowires with a single inward asymmetric notch.

This paper presents the study using X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (XPEEM) of a simple and well defined single-layer necked Permalloy nanowire, which provides an artificial pinning site for domain wall. The XPEEM images provide direct evidence of the formation of the head-to-head or tail-to-tail domain wall by controlling the magnetization process.

This letter reports a free energy density model for textured films in which the related physical concept and expression of magneto-texture anisotropy energy are presented. The structural characterization and out-of-plane angular dependence ferromagnetic resonance of strongly textured Fe3O4 films were systematically investigated. We found that the typical free energy density model for polycrystalline film cannot be applied to the textured films. With the introduction of magneto-texture anisotropy energy in the free energy density model for thin films, we simulated and quantitatively determined the competing anisotropies in (111)-textured Fe3O4 films.

Highly uniform one-dimensional Ni chains with controllable diameters and lengths have been synthesized at 70 °C by a hydrothermal process under a 0.35 T induced magnetic field. The diameter of the spheres in the magnetic Ni chains is adjusted from 80 nm to 1000 nm with the chain length changed from 1.2 μm to 50 μm by varying the concentration of ethylene glycol and potassium hydroxide in the solution. The Ni chains with different length-to-diameter aspect ratio show the different particle shape and interparticle spacing. Magnetic hysteresis loop measurements demonstrate a uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (UMA) on the coercivity (Hc), and saturation field (Hs). The ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) shows that the difference between demagnetizing fields in the direction of easy and hard increases with increasing the length-to-diameter aspect ratio of nanochains, which is close to then that in Hs. From FMR measurements and theoretical simulation, the difference of the demagnetizing field between the length and width...

Porous monodisperse spindle-like α-Fe2O3 nanomaterials are first synthesized successfully by a hydrothermal method, and then the as-prepared nanoparticles are annealed at different temperatures under various atmospheres to achieve the spindle-like Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The evolution of the features of nanoparticles, including the changes of the structures and microstructures as well as the magnetic properties, during the reduction process has been investigated by using the Raman spectrum and Mossbauer spectrum. Our research reveals that the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles annealed by covering of the C powder become a mixture of α-Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 in the range of annealing temperature from 300 °C to 800 °C. With reduced atmospheric H2, spindle-like α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles are transferred to mixture of α-Fe2O3, Fe3O4 and Fe as temperature increases. They are also converted from a typical rhombohedral structure to a cubic α-Fe phase at 500 °C. Finally, with the atmosphere of H2/Ar (5%/95%), a pure Fe3O4 phase, and its exc...

The magnetic and transport properties of half metallic Fe3O4, which are sensitive to the stoichiometry, are the key issue for applications in spintronics. An anomalous enlargement of the saturation magnetic moment is found in a relatively thick sample of epitaxial Fe3O4 film by post-growth oxidation method. The investigation of the thickness dependence of magnetic moment suggests that the enhanced magnetism moment may come from the existence of oxygen vacancies. First-principles calculations reveal that with oxygen vacancies in Fe3O4 crystal the spin of Fe ions in the tetrahedron site near the vacancy is much easier to switch parallel to the Fe ions in the octahedron site by temperature disturbance, supported by the temperature dependence of magnetic moment of Fe3O4 films in experiment.

Previous studies on epitaxial Fe3O4 rings in the context of spin-transfer torque effect have revealed complicated and undesirable domain structures, attributed to the intrinsic fourfold magnetocrystalline anisotropy in the ferrite. In this Letter, we report a viable solution to this problem, utilizing a 6-nm-thick epitaxial Fe3O4 thin film on GaAs(100), where the fourfold magnetocrystalline anisotropy is negligible. We demonstrate that in the Fe3O4 planar wires patterned from our thin film, such a unique magnetic anisotropy system has been preserved, and relatively simple magnetic domain configurations compared to those previous reports can be obtained.

CoNiFe patterned films with rectangular elements, all 600-nm wide but of different lengths, were fabricated and investigated by ferromagnetic resonance experiment and micromagnetic simulation. An in-plane magnetic uniaxial anisotropy was exhibited, and its value increases with the increase of the aspect ratio of the elements, which was fitted by the model, including a quasi-ellipsoid demagnetizing field and a non-uniform demagnetizing field. The relative importance of the non-uniform demagnetizing field decreased from 0.26 to 0.16 with the increase of the length—width aspect ratio of the patterned element from 1.5 to 10. The demagnetizing factors in the three principal axes were determined from the experimental data of ferromagnetic resonance, which agreed reasonably well with the values calculated by micromagnetic simulation. The calculation also indicated that the interaction between elements could be neglected when the edge-to-edge spacing between neighboring elements was larger than 3 μm in our patterned films.

The mechanism of depinning process of vortex domain wall (DW) in a planar magnetic nanowire with an asymmetric notch is investigated by using focused magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) magnetometer and micromagnetic modeling. Two distinct depinning fields are directly observed by the single-shot MOKE measurements. Micromagnetic modeling provides physical insight into the details of how the depinning process develops at the asymmetric notch and reveals that the different depinning fields originate from the different chiralities of the vortex DWs.

The evolution of both in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic anisotropies has been studied on different thicknesses of Fe3O4/InAs(100) hybrid spintronic structures by ferromagnetic resonance. The uniaxial magnetic anisotropy with easy axis along InAs [011] direction and hard axis along [0-11] direction and the cubic magnetic anisotropy are determined by fitting the resonance field. The cubic magnetic anisotropy constant K1 is negative, as that of bulk magnetite, and its absolute value increases rapidly from 0.2 × 104 erg/cm3 to 10.8 × 104 erg/cm3 with increasing thickness of Fe3O4 film. When the thickness of Fe3O4 film is only several monolayers (tFe = 6 nm), a bulk-like cubic magneto-crystalline anisotropy is built up. The uniaxial anisotropy constant is much smaller than that in Fe3O4/GaAs film with the same thickness of Fe3O4 film, as expected from the less lattice mismatch at the interface.

The structure and magnetic properties of Fe1−xGd(Tb)x films prepared by sputtering have been investigated using x-ray diffraction, vibrating sample magnetometer, and ferromagnetic resonance. Magnetic measurements show that the saturation magnetization decreases as the increase of Gd(Tb) content, which agrees with that Gd(Tb) atomic moments align antiparallel with Fe moments. Theoretical fittings of the angular dependence of ferromagnetic resonance field yield the second- and forth-order perpendicular anisotropy constants K⊥1 and K⊥2, which show a spin reorientation with increasing Gd(Tb) doping. The intrinsic contribution of ferromagnetic resonance linewidth as a result of Gilbert damping is separated from the extrinsic contribution because of the inhomogeneity of the films. It is found that the additions of Gd additives do not significantly improve the damping constant, whereas the Tb dopants increase the damping constant from 0.04 without Tb to 0.11 with 19% Tb, thus a remarkable enhancement of 175%.

The hysteresis loops and the saturation magnetization of the epitaxial Fe3O4 ultrathin films with different thicknesses grown on the GaAs (100) surface have been studied. The molecular magnetic moment of the ultrathin films was obtained from the data of the measured saturation magnetic moment of the films and the number of Fe ions in each film calculated from the measured thickness of Fe films before oxidation and film area. It was found that the values of the molecular magnetic moment of films with thicknesses of 4 and 6 nm were close to the theoretical bulk value of magnetite. For the film thickness of 8 nm, larger magnetization was observed probably caused by less oxidation of the deeper Fe layer. The maximum magnetic moment of the film of 2 nm thick was lower due to the structure imperfection. The low coercivity of the films indicated that the quality of the films was reasonably good.

The magnetic anisotropy of epitaxial layered structures of Fe3O4(tFe=4nm)∕GaAs(100), MgO(3nm)∕Fe3O4(tFe=4nm)∕GaAs(100), and Fe3O4(tFe=4nm)∕MgO(3nm)∕Fe3O4(tFe=4nm)∕GaAs(100) was studied by ferromagnetic resonance. It was shown that a predominant in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy and a small fourfold cubic magnetocrystalline anisotropy existed. The in-plane uniaxial anisotropy constant decreased when the MgO layer was covered on Fe3O4∕GaAs, while the cubic anisotropy increased. In the sandwich structures, two resonance peaks were observed. One is similar to that in Fe3O4∕GaAs layer, while another corresponding to Fe3O4 on MgO showed more remarkable fourfold anisotropy and lower uniaxial anisotropy due to smaller mismatch between Fe3O4 and MgO. The interface the Fe3O4 layer is deposited on has dominant effect.

Magnetic anisotropies of single crystal ultrathin Fe3O4 films on GaAs(100) have been studied by ferromagnetic resonance (FMR). The dependence of the FMR fields on the field orientation was measured both in plane and out of plane. The ultrathin films show predominantly an in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy with the easy axis along the [0−11] direction of the GaAs substrate. The in-plane uniaxial anisotropy constant decreases with increasing thickness and changes from 7.1×104to2.1×104ergs∕cm3 when the thickness tFe varies from 4to8nm. An in-plane fourfold anisotropy due to cubic magnetocrystalline anisotropy coexists with the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy and increases with increasing film thickness. For tFe=8nm, the cubic anisotropy constant K1 reaches −8.4×104erg∕cm3, which is 76% of the value of bulk spinel Fe3O4. The out-of-plane measurements indicate a negative perpendicular anisotropy in these ultrathin Fe3O4 films.