Scratch-modified magnetic domain patterns in garnet films

If a loaded Al₂O₃ sphere is passed over SmGa and LuTb garnet crystalline films, the domain pattern is modified. The width of the changed pattern is proportional to the diameter of the zone of contact between the sphere and the garnet. The pattern depends on load: a herring-bone type is found at low loads, a parallel pattern at high loads. After a magnetic field has disturbed the pattern, a narrow region of straight domains is left, which persists unless the material is heated above 1100°C. The patterns are independent of the sign of the magnetostriction constants.     

Axially symmetrical domain structures in garnet ferrite films

The process of domain structure formation and evolution after magnetization of a small area of a garnet ferrite film to saturation was examined with the use of modified two-step high-speed photography. It was found that the radial deformation caused by magnetizing coil breaks the uniaxial anisotropy of the specimen and results in formation of the axially oriented stripe domain structure inside the magnetization reversal area. The period of this domain structure decreases with the increasing amplitude of the pulsed field. The formation of the axially oriented stripe domain structure occurs under the axially symmetrical magnetostatic field.     

High-drive-field domain wall dynamics in low-damping garnet films

Domain wall (DW) dynamics in a low-damping YBiFeGa film with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy was studied under FMR conditions. Measurements were carried out under radial expansion of magnetic bubbles in high pulsed drive fields and in an in-plane de magnetic field. A high-speed image recording technique was employed. The pattern of the dependence of DW velocity on drive field for the parts of the DW oriented parallel and perpendicular to the in-plane field was established. In all cases, this dependence contains a saturation region in which the DW velocity increases noticeably with increasing in-plane field. The experimental data obtained do not agree with theory. A possible explanation for this discrepancy is proposed. The onset of spatially periodic distortions in a moving DW is discussed.     

Mobility of domain walls in low-loss garnet films

The dependence of the domain wall mobility on the strength of a static magnetic field applied in the plane of the sample is investigated in single-crystal garnet films of the system YBiFeGa with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and a narrow ferromagnetic resonance line. It is shown that, as in the case of YIG single crystals with cubic magnetic anisotropy, wall motion gives rise to an additional energy loss contribution far greater than the relativistic contribution also present in the case of homogeneous magnetization. It is established that a mechanism recently proposed in theory does not give a correct explanation for this additional contribution, because qualitative as well as quantitative discrepancies exist between the theoretical conclusions and measurement data. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 1253–1256 (July 1997)     

Reversible-adsorption-induced variation of domain width in iron garnet films

It has been found using the Faraday-effect magneto-optic method that the width of magnetic domains of the labyrinth domain structure in bismuth-containing iron garnet films with perpendicular anisotropy changes considerably after the adsorption of methanol molecules. A maximum change in domain width of 50% has been observed in methanol saturated vapor. This effect is reversible. A decrease in domain width under adsorption has been attributed to a decrease in the effective constant of the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of the film caused by the adsorption of methanol molecules.     

Colloid-SEM method for the study of domain structures of garnet films

For the characterization of thin garnet films with submicron bubbles the capabilities of the conventional optical methods become limited. It is shown that the colloid-SEM method enables more precise determination of the stripe widths and bubble diameters in such garnet films.Dedicated to Academician Vladimír Hajko on the occasion of his 65th birthday.Thanks are due to Dr. J. Kaczér, DrSc. and Dr. K. Jurek, CSc, for their helpful discussions, to M. ula for the preparation of the ferrofiuid and to D. Uherová for her technical assistance.     

The initial stage in the nonlinear motion of a domain wall in garnet films

A study of the domain-wall motion in single-crystal garnet films of the YBiFeGa system with a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, activated by a constant in-plane bias field H _p parallel to the wall plane and a pulsed drive field H _g of an amplitude corresponding to the nonlinear region of the domain-wall velocity vs. the H _g relation is reported. The earlier data suggesting the existence of an initial phase of motion, where the wall is accelerated to a high instantaneous velocity, have been confirmed. The wall behavior in the initial phase has been shown to be affected by the field H _p and the drive-field pulse rise time. A possible mechanism of the wall structure transformation after the application of the H _g pulse is considered. It has been established that the dependence of the wall velocity on H _p in the saturation region disagrees with theory.     

Influence of domain boundary width on the statics of 90° domains in epitaxial ferroelectric thin films

The influence of the domain boundary width on the statics of single 90° elastic domains (twins) in epitaxial ferroelectric tetragonal films grown on a cubic substrate is theoretically investigated. The inhomogeneous internal stresses arising in polydomain epitaxial systems are calculated by the effective dislocation method. The elastic energy stored in the heterostructure is determined. The equilibrium domain size is found and the stability diagram for single domains at different wall widths is constructed by minimizing the total internal energy of the system. It is demonstrated that, as the domain boundary width 2w increases, the stability region of 90° domains increases and qualitatively changes for ultrathin films when the parameter 2w exceeds the specific critical value 2w _cr. The equilibrium width 2w* of domain walls in thin films is predicted to be larger compared to the width 2w ₀ of domain boundaries in a macroscopic crystal.     

Spontaneous phase transitions in ferrite garnet films

Spontaneous phase transitions in ferrite garnet films have been studied. It has been shown that, with variations in the temperature, domain walls undergo phase transitions which cause spontaneous phase transitions in the lattice of cylindrical magnetic domains. The phase transition in a domain wall causes a spin-reorientation phase transition over the whole sample near the magnetic compensation point. The character of the phase transition in the domain wall determines the mechanism of the spin-reorientation phase transition.     

Domain wall oscillations in magnetic garnet films

Domain wall oscillations in magnetic garnet films have been observed in the stripe lattice and in the bubble lattice for applied in-plane magnetic fields approaching the saturation limit of the film. Observations are reported in (111) and (001) oriented films. An effective domain wall mass model is developed which allows the variation of the azimuthal angle of the spins in a moving wall when an in-plane field is applied in the plane of the wall. The new model gives results which are in much better agreement with the experimental results than previous models. Reasonable agreement is also observed between theory and experiment when the cubic anisotropy is included. Experimental evidence of the Hubert wall structure and its change for in-plane fields less than 8M is also reported.     

Effect of magnetostatic pressure on the stabilization of a two-phase domain structure in thin garnet ferrite films

The coexistence of two domain phases, namely, a spiral domain and a bubble-domain lattice, is investigated experimentally in thin garnet ferrite films with uniaxial anisotropy. The condition for this coexistence is shown to be the equality of the magnetostatic pressures of the two phases. It is also shown that the possible formation of a spiral domain structure is determined by the magnetostatic pressure.     

Analysis of the domain wall structures of the three kinds of hard domains in garnet bubble films

It was found experimentally that dumbbell domains of the second kind produced at high temperature can convert to dumbbell domains of the first kind at low temperature. And the ordinary hard bubbles produced at low temperature can convert to dumbbell domains of the first kind at high temperature. So we conclude that the domain wall structures of the three kinds of hard domains are the same. We also observe that the equilibrium separation between two neighboring vertical-Bloch lines is widened with the increasing temperature when the hard domains collapse under the effect of bias field.     

Iron-yttrium garnet films with magnetic vortices

Submicron iron-yttrium garnet films have been studied. The effect of the switching of nonreciprocal resonance absorption, which is caused by the switching of the polarization of vortices, has been revealed.     

Dynamics of domain walls in bismuth-ytterbium-containing garnet ferrite films in the vicinity of the angular momentum compensation point

The dependence of the domain-wall velocity V on the acting magnetic field H is investigated for (Bi,Yb)₃(Fe,Ga)₅O₁₂ garnet ferrite single-crystal films in the vicinity of the angular momentum compensation point at different temperatures. The films are grown by liquid-phase epitaxy from a supercooled solution melt on Cd₃Ga₅O₁₂ substrates with the (111) orientation. It is demonstrated that, in these films, the precessional mechanism is not responsible for the motion of domain walls but there arises an internal effective magnetic field that weakens the acting magnetic field.     

Influence of induced uniaxial anisotropy on the domain structure and phase transitions of yttrium-iron garnet films

The effect of induced uniaxial anisotropy on the properties and parameters of the domain structure and phase transitions in yttrium-iron garnet (YIG) films is investigated. Based on the measurements and the derived formulas we determine the difference between the magnetization and the uniaxial anisotropy field for each of the films. We have also measured the parameters of the domain structures and phase transitions of the films for the magnetization parallel and perpendicular to the projections of the [111] crystallographic axes onto the plane of the film. We find that films of pure YIG films grown in (111) are characterized by the existence of some critical value of the uniaxial anisotropy field. It is found that for films in which the uniaxial anisotropy field is larger than this critical value and films in which it is less than this critical value, such parameters of the domain structures as the ratio of the width of the domains to the film thickness, the orientation of the magnetization of the domains, the orientation of the domain boundaries, and the magnitudes of the phase transition fields differ substantially. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 41, 2034–2041 (November 1999)     

XPS investigation of LPE garnet films

XPS spectra of YIG, YIG:Bi, YIG:Ca and YIG:Co(Ge, Ca) epitaxial garnet films were measured at room temperature. The positions of the main iron, yttrium, oxygen, bismuth, cobalt and lead spectral lines were determined and their changes with the surface treatments were investigated. It was found that divalent and trivalent states of iron and cobalt ions can be resolved, the chemical shifts being in oposite directions.The authors would like to thank Dr. J. imová for careful EPMA analysis of the samples.     

Microscopic spin-wave theory for yttrium-iron garnet films

Motivated by recent experiments on thin films of the ferromagnetic insulator yttrium-iron garnet (YIG), we have developed an efficient microscopic approach to calculate the spin-wave spectra of these systems. We model the experimentally relevant magnon band of YIG using an effective quantum Heisenberg model on a cubic lattice with ferromagnetic nearest neighbour exchange and long-range dipole-dipole interactions. After a bosonization of the spin degrees of freedom via a Holstein-Primakoff transformation and a truncation at quadratic order in the bosons, we obtain the spin-wave spectra for experimentally relevant parameters without further approximation by numerical diagonalization, using efficient Ewald summation techniques to carry out the dipolar sums. We compare our numerical results with two different analytic approximations and with predictions based on the phenomenological Landau-Lifshitz equation.