Broadband ferromagnetic resonance spectrometer

The continuous wave ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectrometer operating in multioctave (0.05-40 GHz) frequency range has been built to investigate the magnetic properties of thin ferromagnetic films in the temperature range of 4-420 K. The spectrometer has two probeheads: one is the X-band microwave reflection cavity used to perform express room temperature measurements and the other is an in-cryostat microstrip line probe to carry out FMR experiments covering the entire frequency range offered by the microwave source. Very uniform and stable magnetic field up to 2.4 T, temperature 4 K-420 K, and continuous frequency scan performed by an HP8722D vector network analyzer provide various modes of operation. Both probe heads are equipped with two-circle high precision goniometers to ensure accurate characterization of magnetic anisotropy and magnetostatic waves spectra recording. Use of the phase sensitive detection, utilized by magnetic field modulation at audio frequency and computer triggering of the network analyzer, enables broadband spectrometer sensitivity to be as high as 1.3x10(11) spins/Oe. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.