Magnetostatics and Dynamics of Ion Irradiated NiFe/Ta Multilayer Films Studied by Vector Network Analyzer Ferromagnetic Resonance

In the present work, the implications of ion irradiation on the magnetostatic and dynamic properties of soft magnetic Py/Ta (Py = Permalloy: Ni80Fe20) single and multilayer films have been investigated with the main objective of finding a way to determine their saturation magnetization. Both polar magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) and vector network analyzer ferromagnetic resonance (VNA-FMR) measurements have proven to be suitable methods to determine µ0MS, circumventing the problem of the unknown effective magnetic volume that causes conventional techniques such as SQUID or VSM to fail. Provided there is no perpendicular anisotropy contribution in the samples, the saturation magnetization can be determined even in the case of strong interfacial mixing due to an inherently high number of Py/Ta interfaces and/or ion irradiation with high fluences. Another integral part of this work has been to construct a VNA-FMR spectrometer capable of performing both azimuthal and polar angle-dependent measurements using a magnet strong enough to saturate samples containing iron. Starting from scratch, this comprised numerous steps such as developing a suitable coplanar waveguide design, and writing the control, evaluation, and fitting software. With both increasing ion fluence and number of Py/Ta interfaces, a decrease of saturation magnetization has been observed. In the case of the 10×Py samples, an immediate decrease of µ0MS already sets in at small ion fluences. However, for the 1×Py and 5×Py samples, the saturation magnetization remains constant up to a certain ion fluence, but then starts to rapidly decrease. Ne ion irradiation causes a mixing and broadening of the interfaces. Thus, the Py/Ta stacks undergo a transition from being polycrystalline to amorphous at a critical fluence depending on the number of interfaces. The saturation magnetization is found to vanish at a Ta concentration of about 10–15 at.% in the Py layers. The samples possess a small uniaxial anisotropy, which remains virtually unaffected by the ion fluence, but slightly reduces with an increasing number of Py/Ta interfaces. In addition to magnetostatics, the dynamic properties of the samples have been investigated as well. The Gilbert damping parameter α increases with both increasing number of Py/Ta interfaces and higher ion fluences, with the former having a stronger influence. The inhomogeneous linewidth broadening ΔB0 increases as well with increasing number of Py/Ta interfaces, but slightly decreases for higher ion fluences.In dieser Dissertation ist der Einfluss von Ionenbestrahlung auf die magnetostatischen und dynamischen Eigenschaften von weichmagnetischen Py/Ta-Einzel- und Multilagen (Py = Permalloy: Ni80Fe20) untersucht worden, wobei das Hauptziel gewesen ist, eine Methode zur Bestimmung der Sättigungsmagnetisierung zu finden. Sowohl polare magneto-optische Kerr-Effektmessungen (MOKE) als auch ferromagnetische Resonanzmessungen mittels eines Vektornetzwerkanalysators (VNA-FMR) haben sich als geeignet erwiesen, um µ0MS zu bestimmen, wobei das Problem des unbekannten effektiven magnetischen Volumens umgangen wird, welches bei der Verwendung von Techniken wie SQUID oder VSM auftreten würde. Unter der Voraussetzung, dass die Proben keinen senkrechten magnetischen Anisotropiebeitrag besitzen, kann die Sättigungsmagnetisierung selbst im Fall starker Grenzflächendurchmischung infolge einer großen Anzahl an Py/Ta-Grenzflächen und/oder Ionenbestrahlung mit hohen Fluenzen bestimmt werden. Ein weiterer wesentlicher Bestandteil dieser Arbeit ist die Konstruktion eines VNA-FMR-Spektrometers gewesen, welches vollautomatisiert ist, polare und azimutale Winkelabhängigkeiten messen kann und einen Magneten besitzt, der Proben, die Eisen beinhalten, sättigen kann. Von Grund auf beginnend umfasste dies zahlreiche Schritte wie z. B. die Entwicklung eines geeigneten koplanaren Wellenleiterdesigns sowie das Schreiben von Steuerungs-, Auswertungs- und Fitprogrammen. Mit steigender Fluenz und Zahl an Py/Ta-Grenzflächen ist eine Abnahme der Sättigungsmagnetisierung beobachtet worden. Im Fall der 10×Py-Proben findet diese bereits bei kleinen Fluenzen statt. Im Gegensatz dazu bleibt µ0MS der 1×Py- und 5×Py-Proben bis zu einer bestimmten Fluenz konstant, bevor sie sich dann umso schneller verringert. Die Bestrahlung mit Ne-Ionen verursacht eine Durchmischung und Verbreiterung der Grenzflächen. Infolgedessen erfahren die Py/Ta-Proben bei einer kritischen Fluenz, die von der Zahl der Grenzflächen abhängig ist, einen Phasenübergang von polykristallin zu amorph. Die Sättigungsmagnetisierung verschwindet ab einer Ta-Konzentration von etwa 10–15 Atom-% in den Py-Schichten. Die Proben besitzen eine kleine uniaxiale Anisotropie, die praktisch unbeeinflusst von der Fluenz ist, sich jedoch mit steigender Zahl an Py/Ta-Grenzflächen leicht verringert. Neben den statischen sind auch die dynamischen magnetischen Eigenschaften der Proben untersucht worden. Der Gilbert-Dämpfungsparameter α erhöht sich sowohl mit steigender Zahl an Py/Ta-Grenzflächen als auch mit höheren Fluenzen, wobei Erstere einen größeren Einfluss hat. Die inhomogene Linienverbreiterung ΔB0 nimmt ebenfalls mit steigender Zahl an Py/Ta-Grenzflächen zu, verringert sich jedoch bei größeren Fluenzen leicht

Interpretation of spin wave modes in Co/Ag nanodot arrays probed by broadband ferromagnetic resonance

Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) and the measurement of magnetization dynamics in general have become sophisticated tools for the study of magnetic systems at the nanoscale. Nanosystems, such as the nanodots of this study, are technologically important structures, which find applications in a number of devices, such as magnetic storage and spintronic systems. In this work, we describe the detailed investigation of cobalt nanodots with a 200 nm diameter arranged in a square pitch array with a periodicity of 400 nm. Due to their size, such structures can support standing spin-wave modes, which can have complex spectral responses. To interpret the experimentally measured broadband FMR, we are comparing the spectra of the nanoarray structure with the unpatterned film of identical thickness. This allows us to obtain the general magnetic properties of the system, such as the magnetization, g-factor and magnetic anisotropy. We then use state-of-the-art simulations of the dynamic response to identify the nature of the excitation modes. This allows us to assess the boundary conditions for the system. We then proceed to calculate the spectral response of our system, for which we obtained good agreement. Indeed, our procedure provides a high degree of confidence, since we have interpreted all the experimental data to a good degree of accuracy. In presenting this work, we provide a full description of the theoretical framework and its application to our system, and we also describe in detail the novel simulation method used.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figure

Flight initiation distance and refuge in urban birds

Risk-taking in birds is often measured as the flight initiation distance (FID), the distance at which individuals take flight when approached by a potential predator (typically a human). The ecological factors that affect avian FID have received great attention over the past decades and meta-analyses and comparative analyses have shown that FID is correlated with body mass, flock size, starting distance of the approaching human, density of potential predators, as well as varying along rural to urban gradients. However, surprisingly, only few studies (mainly on reptiles and mammals) have explored effects of different types of refugia and their availability on animal escape decisions. We used Bayesian regression models (controlling for the phylogenetic relatedness of bird species) to explore changes in escape behaviour recorded in European cities in relationship to the birds' distance to the nearest refuge and distance fled to the refuge. In our analyses, we also included information on the type of refuge, built-up and vegetation cover, starting distance, flock size, urbanization level, and type of urban habitat. We found that birds preferred tree refuges over artificial and bush refuges. Birds escaped earlier if the distance to the nearest refuge of any type was longer and if birds fled longer distances to the refuge. FID was shorter when birds used bushes as refugia or landed on the ground after flushing compared to using artificial refugia. Similarly, the distance fled to a refuge was shortest when using bushes, and increased when escaping to artificial substrates and trees. Birds were more timid in suburban than core areas of cities, cemeteries than parks, and in areas with higher bush cover but lower cover of built-up areas and trees. Our findings provide novel information regarding the importance of refuge proximity and type as factors affecting the escape behaviour of urban birds.MD was funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 to the project URBILAND (PID2019-107423GA-I00).Peer reviewe

Tunable ferromagnetic resonance in coupled trilayers with crossed in-plane and perpendicular magnetic anisotropies

An original approach to tune the ferromagnetic resonance frequency of a soft magnetic Ni80Fe20 (Permalloy = Py) film with in-plane magnetic anisotropy (IMA) based on the controlled coupling to a hard magnetic NdCox film with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) through a nonmagnetic Al spacer is studied. Using the transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect (T-MOKE), alternating gradient magnetometry (AGM), and vector network analyzer ferromagnetic resonance (VNA-FMR) spectroscopy, the influence of both the Co concentration and the Al spacer thickness on the static and dynamic magnetic properties of the coupled IMA/PMA system is investigated. Compared to a single Py film, two striking effects of the coupling between IMA and PMA layers can be observed in their FMR spectra. First, there is a significant increase in the zero-field resonance frequency from 2.0 GHz up to 6.4 GHz, and second, an additional frequency hysteresis occurs at low magnetic fields applied along the hard axis. The maximum frequency difference between the frequency branches for increasing and decreasing magnetic fields is as high as 1 GHz, corresponding to a tunability of about 20% at external fields of typically less than ±70 mT. The origin of the observed features in the FMR spectra is discussed by means of magnetization reversal curves

Magnetostatics and Dynamics of Ion Irradiated NiFe/Ta Multilayer Films Studied by Vector Network Analyzer Ferromagnetic Resonance

In the present work, the implications of ion irradiation on the magnetostatic and dynamic properties of soft magnetic Py/Ta (Py = Permalloy: Ni80Fe20) single and multilayer films have been investigated with the main objective of finding a way to determine their saturation magnetization. Both polar magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) and vector network analyzer ferromagnetic resonance (VNA-FMR) measurements have proven to be suitable methods to determine µ0MS, circumventing the problem of the unknown effective magnetic volume that causes conventional techniques such as SQUID or VSM to fail. Provided there is no perpendicular anisotropy contribution in the samples, the saturation magnetization can be determined even in the case of strong interfacial mixing due to an inherently high number of Py/Ta interfaces and/or ion irradiation with high fluences. Another integral part of this work has been to construct a VNA-FMR spectrometer capable of performing both azimuthal and polar angle-dependent measurements using a magnet strong enough to saturate samples containing iron. Starting from scratch, this comprised numerous steps such as developing a suitable coplanar waveguide design, and writing the control, evaluation, and fitting software. With both increasing ion fluence and number of Py/Ta interfaces, a decrease of saturation magnetization has been observed. In the case of the 10×Py samples, an immediate decrease of µ0MS already sets in at small ion fluences. However, for the 1×Py and 5×Py samples, the saturation magnetization remains constant up to a certain ion fluence, but then starts to rapidly decrease. Ne ion irradiation causes a mixing and broadening of the interfaces. Thus, the Py/Ta stacks undergo a transition from being polycrystalline to amorphous at a critical fluence depending on the number of interfaces. The saturation magnetization is found to vanish at a Ta concentration of about 10–15 at.% in the Py layers. The samples possess a small uniaxial anisotropy, which remains virtually unaffected by the ion fluence, but slightly reduces with an increasing number of Py/Ta interfaces. In addition to magnetostatics, the dynamic properties of the samples have been investigated as well. The Gilbert damping parameter α increases with both increasing number of Py/Ta interfaces and higher ion fluences, with the former having a stronger influence. The inhomogeneous linewidth broadening ΔB0 increases as well with increasing number of Py/Ta interfaces, but slightly decreases for higher ion fluences.In dieser Dissertation ist der Einfluss von Ionenbestrahlung auf die magnetostatischen und dynamischen Eigenschaften von weichmagnetischen Py/Ta-Einzel- und Multilagen (Py = Permalloy: Ni80Fe20) untersucht worden, wobei das Hauptziel gewesen ist, eine Methode zur Bestimmung der Sättigungsmagnetisierung zu finden. Sowohl polare magneto-optische Kerr-Effektmessungen (MOKE) als auch ferromagnetische Resonanzmessungen mittels eines Vektornetzwerkanalysators (VNA-FMR) haben sich als geeignet erwiesen, um µ0MS zu bestimmen, wobei das Problem des unbekannten effektiven magnetischen Volumens umgangen wird, welches bei der Verwendung von Techniken wie SQUID oder VSM auftreten würde. Unter der Voraussetzung, dass die Proben keinen senkrechten magnetischen Anisotropiebeitrag besitzen, kann die Sättigungsmagnetisierung selbst im Fall starker Grenzflächendurchmischung infolge einer großen Anzahl an Py/Ta-Grenzflächen und/oder Ionenbestrahlung mit hohen Fluenzen bestimmt werden. Ein weiterer wesentlicher Bestandteil dieser Arbeit ist die Konstruktion eines VNA-FMR-Spektrometers gewesen, welches vollautomatisiert ist, polare und azimutale Winkelabhängigkeiten messen kann und einen Magneten besitzt, der Proben, die Eisen beinhalten, sättigen kann. Von Grund auf beginnend umfasste dies zahlreiche Schritte wie z. B. die Entwicklung eines geeigneten koplanaren Wellenleiterdesigns sowie das Schreiben von Steuerungs-, Auswertungs- und Fitprogrammen. Mit steigender Fluenz und Zahl an Py/Ta-Grenzflächen ist eine Abnahme der Sättigungsmagnetisierung beobachtet worden. Im Fall der 10×Py-Proben findet diese bereits bei kleinen Fluenzen statt. Im Gegensatz dazu bleibt µ0MS der 1×Py- und 5×Py-Proben bis zu einer bestimmten Fluenz konstant, bevor sie sich dann umso schneller verringert. Die Bestrahlung mit Ne-Ionen verursacht eine Durchmischung und Verbreiterung der Grenzflächen. Infolgedessen erfahren die Py/Ta-Proben bei einer kritischen Fluenz, die von der Zahl der Grenzflächen abhängig ist, einen Phasenübergang von polykristallin zu amorph. Die Sättigungsmagnetisierung verschwindet ab einer Ta-Konzentration von etwa 10–15 Atom-% in den Py-Schichten. Die Proben besitzen eine kleine uniaxiale Anisotropie, die praktisch unbeeinflusst von der Fluenz ist, sich jedoch mit steigender Zahl an Py/Ta-Grenzflächen leicht verringert. Neben den statischen sind auch die dynamischen magnetischen Eigenschaften der Proben untersucht worden. Der Gilbert-Dämpfungsparameter α erhöht sich sowohl mit steigender Zahl an Py/Ta-Grenzflächen als auch mit höheren Fluenzen, wobei Erstere einen größeren Einfluss hat. Die inhomogene Linienverbreiterung ΔB0 nimmt ebenfalls mit steigender Zahl an Py/Ta-Grenzflächen zu, verringert sich jedoch bei größeren Fluenzen leicht

Rural-Urban Differences in Escape Behavior of European Birds across a Latitudinal Gradient

Behavioral adjustment is a key factor that facilitates species’ coexistence with humans in a rapidly urbanizing world. Because urban animals often experience reduced predation risk compared to their rural counterparts, and because escape behavior is energetically costly, we expect that urban environments will select for increased tolerance to humans. Many studies have supported this expectation by demonstrating that urban birds have reduced flight initiation distance (FID = predator-prey distance when escape by the prey begins) than rural birds. Here, we advanced this approach and, for the first time, assessed how 32 species of birds, found in 92 paired urban-rural populations, along a 3,900 km latitudinal gradient across Europe, changed their predation risk assessment and escape strategy as a function of living in urban areas. We found that urban birds took longer than rural birds to be alerted to human approaches, and urban birds tolerated closer human approach than rural birds. While both rural and urban populations took longer to become aware of an approaching human as latitude increased, this behavioral change with latitude is more intense in urban birds (for a given unit of latitude, urban birds increased their pre-detection distance more than rural birds). We also found that as mean alert distance was shorter, urban birds escaped more quickly from approaching humans, but there was no such a relationship in rural populations. Although, both rural and urban populations tended to escape more quickly as latitude increased, urban birds delayed their escape more at low latitudes when compared with rural birds. These results suggest that urban birds in Europe live under lower predation risk than their rural counterparts. Furthermore, the patterns found in our study indicate that birds prioritize the reduction of on-going monitoring costs when predation risk is low. We conclude that splitting escape variables into constituent components may provide additional and complementary information on the underlying causes of escape. This new approach is essential for understanding, predicting, and managing wildlife in a rapidly urbanizing world.Peer reviewe

Ferromagnetic resonance studies in magnetic nanosystems

This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Nanomagnetism.Ferromagnetic resonance is a powerful method for the study of all classes of magnetic materials. The experimental technique has been used for many decades and is based on the excitation of a magnetic spin system via a microwave (or rf) field. While earlier methods were based on the use of a microwave spectrometer, more recent developments have seen the widespread use of the vector network analyzer (VNA), which provides a more versatile measurement system at almost comparable sensitivity. While the former is based on a fixed frequency of excitation, the VNA enables frequency-dependent measurements, allowing more in-depth analysis. We have applied this technique to the study of nanostructured thin films or nanodots and coupled magnetic layer systems comprised of exchange-coupled ferromagnetic layers with in-plane and perpendicular magnetic anisotropies. In the first system, we have investigated the magnetization dynamics in Co/Ag bilayers and nanodots. In the second system, we have studied Permalloy (Ni80Fe20, hereafter Py) thin films coupled via an intervening Al layer of varying thickness to a NdCo film which has perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.D.S.S., D.M. and L.M.Á.-P. acknowledge financial support from the Institut de Physique of CNRS for experimental equipment, a post doc position, and guest researcher stays, respectively. A.H.-R. acknowledges European Union’s Horizon 2020 framework program for research and innovation under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action No. H2020-MSCA-IF-2016-746958. A.H.-R., C.Q., J.D. and L.M.Á.-P. would like to thank the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCI) for financial support under Project PID2019-104604RB/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.Peer reviewe

Tunable ferromagnetic resonance in coupled trilayers with crossed perpendicular and in-plane magnetic anisotropies

Resumen del póster presentado al 10th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics (META), celebrado en Lisboa (Portugal) del 23 al 26 de julio de 2019.The effect of controllably coupling a hard magnetic NdCox film with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy to a soft magnetic Ni80Fe20 film with in-plane magnetic anisotropy through a non-magnetic Al spacer is investigated. The most striking results of the coupling between both layers can be observed in their ferromagnetic resonance spectra, which, compared to a single Ni80Fe20 film, show a significant increase of the zero-field resonance frequency and, for low bias fields applied along the hard axis, also a frequency hysteresis