Coupled spin dynamics in epitaxial trilayer heterostructures of ferrimagnetic garnet

Abstract

The magnetization dynamics of an all-garnet trilayer consisting of Y3Fe5O12/Y3Fe3Al2O12/Y3Fe5O12 (YIG/YIAG/YIG) is analysed. The two magnetic YIG layers, separated by a 4 nm thick paramagnetic YIAG layer, are coupled via dipolar interactions leading to the formation of hybrid magnon modes distinct from the modes found in a single YIG layer. The YIAG exchange-decouples the YIG layers while enabling lattice coherence, maintaining the low damping of the YIG. Both ferromagnetic resonance and micro-Brillouin light scattering measurements were used to characterize the sample and its hybrid dynamics, which showed excellent agreement with an analytical reciprocal space model of spin-wave dynamics and with micromagnetic modeling of a dipolarly coupled magnetic heterostructure.