Enhancement of spin current in Fe$_{85}$Co$_{15}$/Ni$_{80}$Fe$_{20}$ bilayers via interlayer ferromagnetic coupling

Abstract

We present a detailed study on how the strength of the interlayer magnetic coupling on Fe$_{85}$Co$_{15}$/Ni$_{80}$Fe$_{20}$ bilayers modifies the spin wave behavior of this system. A series of Fe$_{85}$Co$_{15}$/Ni$_{80}$Fe$_{20}$ bilayers deposited on MgO[100] substrates were grown by magnetron sputtering. Magnetic characterization of the samples was performed using a vibrating sample magnetometer and magneto-optical Kerr effect. The in-plane hysteresis loops reveal a cubic magnetic anisotropy of magnetocrystalline origin, with easy and hard axis along the [100] and [110] Fe-Co crystallographic directions, respectively. Ferromagnetic resonance measurements were performed to analyze the in-plane angular dependence of the resonance field, and also the resonance field at several frequencies was determined along the hard axis. By using a bilayer model in the frame of the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert magnetization equation of motion, the magnetization precession components were calculated, as well as the dependence of precession area on the Fe-Co layer thickness and the ferromagnetic interlayer coupling. We observe a maximum in the area of the ellipsoid generated by the magnetization precession of the permalloy layer at a certain exchange constant, showing that this effect could be used to maximize the injected spin currents, which could be tuned by changing the interlayer exchange constant in bilayer systems, the saturation magnetization of the materials, or the excitation frequency.