Interfacial Structure Dependent Spin Mixing Conductance in Cobalt Thin Films

Tokaç, M.; Bunyaev, S.A.; Kakazei, G.N.; Schmool, D.S.; Atkinson, D.; Hindmarch, A.T.

Abstract

Enhancement of Gilbert damping in polycrystalline cobalt thin-film multilayers of various thicknesses, overlayered with copper or iridium, was studied in order to understand the role of local interface structure in spin pumping. X-ray diffraction indicates that cobalt films less than 6 nm thick have strong fcc(111) texture while thicker films are dominated by hcp(0001) structure. The intrinsic damping for cobalt thicknesses above 6 nm is weakly dependent on cobalt thickness for both overlayer materials, and below 6 nm the iridium overlayers show higher damping enhancement compared to copper overlayers, as expected due to spin pumping. The interfacial spin mixing conductance is significantly enhanced in structures where both cobalt and iridium have fcc(111) structure in comparison to those where the cobalt layer has subtly different hcp(0001) texture at the interface.

Citation

Tokaç, M., Bunyaev, S., Kakazei, G., Schmool, D., Atkinson, D., & Hindmarch, A. (2015). Interfacial Structure Dependent Spin Mixing Conductance in Cobalt Thin Films. Physical Review Letters, 115(5), Article 056601. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.115.056601

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 29, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Jul 30, 2015
• Publication Date: Jul 31, 2015
• Deposit Date: Jul 30, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 3, 2015
• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Print ISSN: 0031-9007
• Electronic ISSN: 1079-7114
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 115
• Issue: 5
• Article Number: 056601
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.115.056601
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1424754