Angle dependence of the ferromagnetic resonance linewidth and two magnon losses in pulsed laser deposited films of yttrium iron garnet, MnZn ferrite, and NiZn ferrite

Shorted waveguide ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements were made at 9.5 GHz for pulsed laser deposited yttrium iron garnet (YIG), MnZn ferrite, and NiZn ferrite films with thicknesses of 1.8, 0.5, and 1.5 mu m, respectively. The FMR field versus the field angle confirmed the operational assumption of a uniform mode response. For the YIG, the linewidth was 10 Oe when the external field and magnetization vectors were perpendicular to the disk (perpendicular FMR) and increased smoothly to a maximum value of 27 Oe when the field and magnetization were in the film plane (parallel FMR). For the MnZn, the linewidth was 49 Oe at perpendicular FMR, increased with the angle between the film normal and the external field to a broad maximum of 80 Oe at 35 degrees, and then dropped to 65 Oe at parallel FMR. For the NiZn, the linewidth was 310 Oe at perpendicular FMR, increased with the field angle to a broad maximum of 1530 Oe at 45 degrees, and then dropped to 960 Oe at parallel FMR. The linewidths were larger than predicted for reasonable values of the Landau-Lifshitz damping and showed angle dependences which indicated nonintrinsic contributions to the loss. Two magnon scattering was used to model these linewidth differences. The angle dependences of the excess linewidths show qualitative agreement with the two magnon predictions, with inhomogeneity sizes in the submicron range and volume fractions below 1%. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)00609-X].