The prediction of ultra-low magnetic damping in Co 2 MnZ Heusler half-metal thin-film magnets is explored in this study and the damping response is shown to be linked to the underlying electronic properties. By substituting the Z elements in high crystalline quality films (Co 2 MnZ with Z=Si, Ge, Sn, Al, Ga, Sb), electronic properties such as the minority spin band gap, Fermi energy position in the gap and spin polarization can be tuned and the consequence on magnetization dynamics analyzed. The experimental results allow us to directly explore the interplay of spin polarization, spin gap, Fermi energy position and the magnetic damping obtained in these films, together with ab initio calculation predictions. The ultra-low magnetic damping coefficients measured in the range 4.1 10 -4 -9 10 -4 for Co 2 MnSi, Ge, Sn, Sb are the lowest values obtained on a conductive layer and offers a clear experimental demonstration of theoretical predictions on Half-Metal Magnetic Heusler compounds and a pathway for future materials design.

Oxygen defects and their atomic arrangements play a significant role in the physical properties of many transition metal oxides. The exemplary perovskite SrCoO 3-δ ( P- SCO) is metallic and ferromagnetic. However, its daughter phase, the brownmillerite SrCoO 2.5 ( BM- SCO), is insulating and an antiferromagnet. Moreover, BM- SCO exhibits oxygen vacancy channels (OVCs) that in thin films can be oriented either horizontally ( H -SCO) or vertically ( V -SCO) to the film’s surface. To date, the orientation of these OVCs has been manipulated by control of the thin film deposition parameters or by using a substrate-induced strain. Here, we present a method to electrically control the OVC ordering in thin layers via ionic liquid gating (ILG). We show that H -SCO (antiferromagnetic insulator, AFI) can be converted to P -SCO (ferromagnetic metal, FM) and subsequently to V -SCO (AFI) by the insertion and subtraction of oxygen throughout thick films via ILG. Moreover, these processes are independent of substrate-induced strain which favors formation of H -SCO in the as-deposited film. The electric-field control of the OVC channels is a path toward the creation of oxitronic devices.

We report the growth of MgO[001]//Fe(6 nm)/MgO(7 nm) and MgO[001]//Fe(6 nm)/Pt(6 nm) by molecular beam epitaxy and show that the full characterization by spin-orbit ferromagnetic resonance (SO-FMR) allows the determination of magnetic anisotropies as by classical FMR-only studies. The spin mixing conductance of epitaxial Fe/Pt interface was measured to be 19 ffect

Scalable fabrication of magnetic 2D materials and heterostructures constitutes a crucial step for scaling down current spintronic devices and the development of novel spintronic applications. Here, we report on van der Waals (vdW) epitaxy of the layered magnetic metal Fe3GeTe2 (FGT)—a 2D crystal with highly tunable properties and a high prospect for room temperature ferromagnetism (FM)—directly on graphene by employing molecular beam epitaxy. Morphological and structural characterization confirmed the realization of large-area, continuous FGT/graphene heterostructure films with stable interfaces and good crystalline quality. Furthermore, magneto-transport and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism investigations confirmed a robust out-of-plane FM in the layers, comparable to state-of-the-art exfoliated flakes from bulk crystals. These results are highly relevant for further research on wafer-scale growth of vdW heterostructures combining FGT with other layered crystals such as transition metal dichalcogenides for the realization of multifunctional, atomically thin devices.

Spin-polarization and magnetic damping are measured for several polycrystalline films with each of them being made of a different single Co 2 Mn-based Heusler compound. As several epitaxial Co 2 Mn-based Heusler compounds are shown to be half-metal magnetic materials with full spin-polarization and ultralow magnetic damping, we explore here these properties but in polycrystalline films. Co 2 MnSi, Co 2 MnGe, and Co 2 MnGa thin films were grown on glass substrates and analyzed in situ by electron diffraction and spin-resolved photoemission and ex situ by transmission electron microscopy and ferromagnetic resonance. Despite the polycrystalline state of the films, they still exhibit high spin polarizations and very low magnetic damping coefficients. The latter are at least of the same order as the best epitaxial films using regular ferromagnetic materials. The key point to achieve such properties is to control the Heusler stoichiometry as best as possible.

Heusler magnetic alloys offer a wide variety of electronic properties very promising for spintronics and magnonics. Some alloys exhibit a spin gap in their band structure at the Fermi energy, the so-called half-metal magnetic (HMM) behavior. This particular property leads to two very interesting properties for spintronics, i.e., fully polarized current together with ultra-low magnetic damping, two key points for spin-transfer-torque based devices. This Tutorial gives experimental details to grow and characterize Heusler Co2MnZ compounds in thin films (Z = Al, Si, Ga, Ge, Sn, Sb) by using molecular beam epitaxy in order to get the proper predicted electronic properties. A first part of this Tutorial is dedicated to control the stoichiometry as best as possible with some methods to test it. The chemical ordering within the lattice was examined by using electron diffraction during growth, regular x-ray diffraction, and scanning transmission electron microscopy. In particular, standard x-ray diffraction is carefully analyzed depending on the chemical ordering in the cubic cell and shown to be inefficient to distinguish several possible phases, on the contrary to electron microscopy. The electronic properties, i.e., magnetic moment, spin polarization, and magnetic damping were reviewed and discussed according to the stoichiometry of the films and also theoretical predictions. Polycrystalline films were also analyzed, and we show that the peculiar HMM properties are not destroyed, a good news for applications. A clear correlation between the spin polarization and the magnetic damping is experimentally demonstrated. At least, our study highlights the major role of stoichiometry on the expected properties.

The perovskite SrRuO3 (SRO) is a strongly correlated oxide whose physical and structural properties are strongly intertwined. Notably, SRO is an itinerant ferromagnet that exhibits a large anomalous Hall effect (AHE) whose sign can be readily modified. Here, a hydrogen spillover method is used to tailor the properties of SRO thin films via hydrogen incorporation. It is found that the magnetization and Curie temperature of the films are strongly reduced and, at the same time, the structure evolves from an orthorhombic to a tetragonal phase as the hydrogen content is increased up to ≈0.9 H per SRO formula unit. The structural phase transition is shown, via in situ crystal truncation rod measurements, to be related to tilting of the RuO6 octahedral units. The significant changes observed in magnetization are shown, via density functional theory (DFT), to be a consequence of shifts in the Fermi level. The reported findings provide new insights into the physical properties of SRO via tailoring its lattice symmetry and emergent physical phenomena via the hydrogen spillover technique.

Engineering of magnetic materials for developing better spintronic applications relies on the control of two key parameters: the spin polarization and the Gilbert damping, responsible for the spin angular momentum dissipation. Both of them are expected to affect the ultrafast magnetization dynamics occurring on the femtosecond timescale. Here, engineered Co2MnAlxSi1‐x Heusler compounds are used to adjust the degree of spin polarization at the Fermi energy, P, from 60% to 100% and to investigate how they correlate with the damping. It is experimentally demonstrated that the damping decreases when increasing the spin polarization from 1.1 × 10−3 for Co2MnAl with 63% spin polarization to an ultralow value of 4.6 × 10−4 for the half‐metallic ferromagnet Co2MnSi. This allows the investigation of the relation between these two parameters and the ultrafast demagnetization time characterizing the loss of magnetization occurring after femtosecond laser pulse excitation. The demagnetization time is observed to be inversely proportional to 1 – P and, as a consequence, to the magnetic damping, which can be attributed to the similarity of the spin angular momentum dissipation processes responsible for these two effects. Altogether, the high‐quality Heusler compounds allow control over the band structure and therefore the channel for spin angular momentum dissipation.