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Broadband ferromagnetic resonance is measured in single crystalline Fe films of varying thickness sandwiched between MgO layers. An exhaustive magnetic characterization of the films (exchange constant, cubic, uniaxial and surface anisotropies) is enabled by the study of the uniform and the first perpendicular standing spin wave modes as a function of applied magnetic field and film thickness. Additional measurements of non-reciprocal spin wave propagation allow us to separate each of the two interface contributions to the total surface anisotropy. The results are consistent with the model of a quasi-bulk film interior and two magnetically different top and bottom interfaces, a difference ascribed to different oxidation states.

The technique of propagating spin wave spectroscopy is applied to a 20 nm thick Fe/MgO (001) film. The magnetic parameters extracted from the position of the resonance peaks are very close to those tabulated for bulk iron. From the propagating waveforms, a group velocity of 4 km/s and an attenuation length of about 6 micrometers are extracted for 1.6 micrometers-wavelength spin-wave at 18 GHz. From the measured current-induced spin-wave Doppler shift, we also extract a surprisingly high degree of spin-polarization of the current of 83%. This set of results makes single-crystalline iron a promising candidate for building devices utilizing high frequency spin-waves and spin-polarized currents., Comment: 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B

We present a finite-difference micromagnetic approach for determining the normal modes of spin-waves propagating in extended magnetic films and strips, which is based on the linearized Landau-Lifshitz equation and uses the dynamic matrix method. The model takes into account both short range exchange interactions and long range dipole-dipole interactions. The latter are accounted for through plane-wave dynamic demagnetization factors, which depend not only on the geometry and relative positions of the magnetic cells, as usual demagnetization factors do, but also on the wave vector of the propagating waves. Such a numerical model is most relevant when the spin-wave medium is spatially inhomogeneous perpendicular to the direction of propagation, either in its magnetic properties or in its equilibrium magnetic configuration. We illustrate this point by studying surface spin-waves in magnetic bilayer films and spin-waves channelized along magnetic domain walls in perpendicularly magnetized strips. In both cases, dynamic dipolar interactions produce non-reciprocity effects, where counter-propagative spin-waves have different frequencies., Comment: 23 pages, 16 figures