Study on the Gilbert damping of polycrystalline YIG films with different capping layers

This paper describes the effect of 5-nm thick platinum (Pt), aluminum (Al) and silicon oxide (SiO_x) capping layers on the static and dynamic magnetic properties of 400-nm thick polycrystalline YIG films deposited on a Pt buffer layer. Both static and dynamic magnetic properties of Pt capped YIG film are totally different among all YIG films. Namely, the squareness of the magnetization curve for Pt capped YIG film increases, indicating that Pt capped YIG film is magnetically softer than other YIG films. Interestingly, the effective Gilbert damping parameter of Pt capped YIG films is about four times as large as those of other YIG films, and its value is approximately 9.52 × 10^?4. However, the value of Gilbert damping is 2.55 × 10^?4, 3.46 × 10^?4 and 3.85 × 10^?4 respectively for no capping, SiOx capping and Al capping samples respectively. This huge change in Gilbert damping parameter is mainly originating from the spin pumping effect, which arises at the interface of a material having strong spin orbit interaction such as Pt. Moreover, the enourmous increase in the value of effective anisotropic field and decrese in effective saturation magnetization indicates interface anisotropy is induced in Pt capped sample. These results suggest that the static and dynamic magnetic properties of YIG film can be controlled by selecting an appropriate capping layer.