Low Gilbert damping and in-plane magnetic anisotropy in Ni–Mn–Sn thin film with high L2₁ order

Abstract

Mn-rich off-stoichiometric Ni–Mn–Sn Heusler alloy thin film of thickness of 1000 nm was deposited on Si (100) substrate at ambient temperature by dc magnetron sputtering and then annealed ex situ at 550 °C for 1 h under high vacuum. X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy analyses show that the annealed film has high L21 crystalline ordering with a lattice constant 5.96 Å and average surface roughness of 1.8 nm. Annealed film exhibited ferromagnetism at room temperature with high saturation magnetization of 162 emu/cm3, low retentivity of 22 emu/cm3 and easy axis of magnetization along the plane of the film. Magneto-dynamic analysis using micro-strip ferromagnetic resonance spectra shows the presence of small in-plane anisotropy K u = 1.4 × 104 erg/cm3 with 4πM s = 2075 ± 10 Oe and g-factor of 2.1. Line width analysis yields a low intrinsic damping constant (α = 0.008). A significant contribution from extrinsic two-magnon scattering to the line width of the order of Γ = 50 Oe was observed which may be due to surface roughness or/and presence of inhomogeneity and atomic site disorder in the film. The film exhibits the unique combination of low damping constant, low K u, high magnetic saturation and low retentivity.