High power ferromagnetic resonance and spin wave instability processes in Permalloy thin films

The high power ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) response, as well as butterfly curves of the spin wave instability threshold microwave field amplitude h(crit) versus in-plane static field H profiles, have been measured for Permalloy films with thicknesses of 104, 128, and 270 nm at a nominal pumping frequency of 9.37 GHz. The h(crit) values range from about 1 to 7 Oe. Both the resonance saturation response at the FMR field and the subsidiary absorption (SA) response for static fields below the FMR field are similar in appearance to those for bulk ferrites. Butterfly curves over the SA response region, while similar to those for ferrites, exhibit a film thickness dependent band edge cutoff effect not found in bulk ferrites. The SA butterfly curve data were analyzed on the basis of a spin wave instability theory adapted to thin films. The observed shift in the SA band edge cutoff with thickness agrees with calculations based on the thin film dispersion response and the assumption of first order instability processes with critical modes at one half the pumping frequency. The fitted SA spin wave linewidths give values consistent with metallic relaxation processes, but indicate critical modes with wave vectors that always make relatively small 0degrees-20degrees angles with the static field, very different from the critical modes for bulk ferrites. Three key conclusions from this work are (1) the nonlinear microwave FMR response in Permalloy films is a threshold effect related to well established spin wave instability processes, (2) the details of the SA response are controlled largely by the thin film spin wave dispersion, and (3) these nonlinear processes occur for very small precession angles. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.