Growth and ferromagnetic resonance of yttrium iron garnet thin films on metals

High-quality yttrium iron garnet (YIG) thin films were grown on a sandwich structure that consisted of a thick Cu layer and two thin cladding layers. The cladding layers were high entropy alloy nitrides (HEAN) and served as barriers to prevent Cu diffusion and oxidation during the YIG deposition. The Cu and HEAN layers were deposited by sputtering. The YIG films were grown by pulsed laser deposition. The YIG films had a thickness of several hundreds of nanometers, a surface roughness of several nanometers, and (111) orientation. The films showed a peak-to-peak ferromagnetic resonance linewidth of 1.1 Oe at 9.45 GHz. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4747465]