We report the results of magnetization, heat capacity, and neutron diffraction measurements on (M... more We report the results of magnetization, heat capacity, and neutron diffraction measurements on (Mo2/3RE1/3)2AlC with RE = Dy and Tb. Temperature and field-dependent magnetization as well as heat capacity were measured on a powder sample and on a single crystal allowing the construction of the magnetic field-temperature phase diagram. To study the magnetic structure of each magnetic phase, we applied neutron diffraction in a magnetic field up to 6 T. For (Mo2/3Dy1/3)2AlC in zero field, a spin density wave is stabilized at 16 K, with antiferromagnetic ordering at 13 K. Furthermore, we identify the coexistence of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases induced by magnetic fields for both RE = Tb and Dy. The origin of the field induced phases is resulting from the competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions.
The applicability of the magnetic shape memory effect in Ni-Mn-based martensitic Heusler alloys i... more The applicability of the magnetic shape memory effect in Ni-Mn-based martensitic Heusler alloys is closely related to the nature of the crystallographically modulated martensite phase in these materials. We study the properties of modulated phases as a function of temperature and composition in three magnetic shape memory alloys Ni49.8Mn25.0Ga25.2, Ni49.8Mn27.1Ga23.1 and Ni49.5Mn28.6Ga21.9. The effect of substituting Ga for Mn leads to an anisotropic expansion of the lattice, where the b-parameter of the 5M modulated structure increases and the a and c-parameters decrease with increasing Ga concentration. The modulation vector is found to be both temperature and composition dependent. The size of the modulation vector corresponds to an incommensurate structure for Ni49.8Mn25.0Ga25.2 at all temperatures. For the other samples the modulation is incommensurate at low temperatures but reaches a commensurate value of q ≈ 0.400 close to room temperature. The results show that commensurate...
We present a statistically motivated method to extract magnonic contrast from time-resolved scann... more We present a statistically motivated method to extract magnonic contrast from time-resolved scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (TR-STXM) measurements. TR-STXM is an element-specific method for resolving spin-dynamics in space and time. It offers nanometer spatial resolution and picosecond temporal resolution. The presented method makes it possible to obtain phase and amplitude profiles of spin-waves from STXM measurements. Furthermore, it allows for a rigorous transformation to reciprocal magnon k⃗-space, revealing k⃗-dependent magnon properties such as the magnon dispersion in three dimensions and for all directions of the magnetic anisotropy. We demonstrate our method using X-band ferromagnetic resonance on a micrometer-sized permalloy assembly.
We report an in situ study of the time evolution of magnetic anisotropy constants of an uncapped ... more We report an in situ study of the time evolution of magnetic anisotropy constants of an uncapped 4 nm [∼27 monolayers (ML)] Fe film epitaxially grown on a GaAs (110) substrate at room temperature under ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions. The structural and chemical properties are monitored by low energy electron diffraction and Auger spectroscopy with a sensitivity of 0.01 ML. The in situ UHV ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) study over a period of 6 days in <10−9 Pa reveals that there is a slow magneto-morphological transition of the Fe film surface at room temperature. The resonance field measured in situ in the [11−0] direction initially changes at a rate of 0.3 mT/h within 30 h after deposition and later at 0.1 mT/h over 80 h. We determine the time-dependent changes in the in-plane and out-of-plane anisotropy constants and find a sign change in the uniaxial in-plane anisotropy in the first 24 h due to morphological changes at the surface. The in situ FMR measurements and the Auge...
We present the element-specific and time resolved visualization of uniform ferromagnetic resonanc... more We present the element-specific and time resolved visualization of uniform ferromagnetic resonance excitations of a Permalloy (Py) disk–Cobalt (Co) stripe bilayer microstructure. The transverse high frequency component of the resonantly excited magnetization is sampled in the ps regime by a combination of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM-FMR) recording snapshots of the local magnetization precession of Py and Co with nanometer spatial resolution. The approach allows us to individually image the resonant dynamic response of each element, and we find that angular momentum is transferred from the Py disk to the Co stripe and vice versa at their respective resonances. The integral (cavity) FMR spectrum of our sample shows an unexpected additional third resonance. This resonance is observed in the STXM-FMR experiments as well. Our microscopic findings suggest that it is governed by magnetic exchange between Py and Co, showing for the Co strip...
Three-layer iron-rich Fe3+xSi1−x/Ge/Fe3+xSi1−x (0.2 < x < 0.64) heterostructures on a Si(11... more Three-layer iron-rich Fe3+xSi1−x/Ge/Fe3+xSi1−x (0.2 < x < 0.64) heterostructures on a Si(111) surface with Ge thicknesses of 4 nm and 7 nm were grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Systematic studies of the structural and morphological properties of the synthesized samples have shown that an increase in the Ge thickness causes a prolonged atomic diffusion through the interfaces, which significantly increases the lattice misfits in the Ge/Fe3+xSi1−x heterosystem due to the incorporation of Ge atoms into the Fe3+xSi1−x bottom layer. The resultant lowering of the total free energy caused by the development of the surface roughness results in a transition from an epitaxial to a polycrystalline growth of the upper Fe3+xSi1−x. The average lattice distortion and residual stress of the upper Fe3+xSi1−x were determined by electron diffraction and theoretical calculations to be equivalent to 0.2 GPa for the upper epitaxial layer with a volume misfit of −0.63% compared with a undistorted cou...
Solid solution AuFe nanoparticles with paramagnetic Fe atoms in the Au matrix synthesized at 25 °... more Solid solution AuFe nanoparticles with paramagnetic Fe atoms in the Au matrix synthesized at 25 °C transform into Janus particles upon annealing at 700 °C with the ferromagnetic bcc Fe phase epitaxially grown on fcc Au.
Skyrmions and antiskyrmions are topologically protected spin structures with opposite vorticities... more Skyrmions and antiskyrmions are topologically protected spin structures with opposite vorticities. Particularly in coexisting phases, these two types of magnetic quasi-particles may show fascinating physics and potential for spintronic devices. While skyrmions are observed in a wide range of materials, until now antiskyrmions were exclusive to materials with D2d symmetry. In this work, we show first and second-order antiskyrmions stabilized by magnetic dipole–dipole interaction in Fe/Gd-based multilayers. We modify the magnetic properties of the multilayers by Ir insertion layers. Using Lorentz transmission electron microscopy imaging, we observe coexisting antiskyrmions, Bloch skyrmions, and type-2 bubbles and determine the range of material properties and magnetic fields where the different spin objects form and dissipate. We perform micromagnetic simulations to obtain more insight into the studied system and conclude that the reduction of saturation magnetization and uniaxial mag...
Strong unidirectional anisotropy in bulk polycrystalline B20 FeGe has been measured by ferromagne... more Strong unidirectional anisotropy in bulk polycrystalline B20 FeGe has been measured by ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy. Such anisotropy is not present in static magnetometry measurements. B20 FeGe exhibits inherent Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, resulting in a nonreciprocal spin-wave dispersion. Bulk and micron sized samples were produced and characterized. By X-band ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy at 276 K ± 1 K, near the Curie temperature, a distribution of resonance modes was observed in accordance with the cubic anisotropy of FeGe. This distribution exhibits a unidirectional anisotropy, i.e. shift of the resonance field under field inversion, of KUD = 960 J/m3 ± 10 J/m3, previously unknown in bulk ferromagnets. Additionally, more than 25 small amplitude standing spin wave modes were observed inside a micron sized FeGe wedge, measured at 293 K ± 2 K. These modes also exhibit unidirectional anisotropy. This effect, only dynamically measurable and not detectable in st...
The direct and parameter-free measurement of anisotropic electrical resistivity of a magnetic Mn+... more The direct and parameter-free measurement of anisotropic electrical resistivity of a magnetic Mn+1AXn (MAX) phase film is presented. A multitip scanning tunneling microscope is used to carry out 4-probe transport measurements with variable probe spacing s. The observation of the crossover from the 3D regime for small s to the 2D regime for large s enables the determination of both in-plane and perpendicular-to-plane resistivities ρab and ρc. A (Cr0.5Mn0.5)2GaC MAX phase film shows a large anisotropy ratio ρc/ρab=525±49. This is a consequence of the complex bonding scheme of MAX phases with covalent M–X and metallic M–M bonds in the MX planes and predominately covalent, but weaker bonds between the MX and A planes.
The fct L10-FeNi alloy is a promising candidate for the development of high performance critical-... more The fct L10-FeNi alloy is a promising candidate for the development of high performance critical-elements-free magnetic materials. Among the different materials, the Au-Cu-Ni alloy has resulted very promising; however, a detailed investigation of the effect of the buffer-layer composition on the formation of the hard FeNi phase is still missing. To accelerate the search of the best Au-Cu-Ni composition, a combinatorial approach based on High-Throughput (HT) experimental methods has been exploited in this paper. HT magnetic characterization methods revealed the presence of a hard magnetic phase with an out-of-plane easy-axis, whose coercivity increases from 0.49 kOe up to 1.30 kOe as the Au content of the Cu-Au-Ni buffer-layer decreases. Similarly, the out-of-plane magneto-crystalline anisotropy energy density increases from 0.12 to 0.35 MJ/m3. This anisotropy is attributed to the partial formation of the L10FeNi phase induced by the buffer-layer. In the range of compositions we inve...
We report the results of magnetization, heat capacity, and neutron diffraction measurements on (M... more We report the results of magnetization, heat capacity, and neutron diffraction measurements on (Mo2/3RE1/3)2AlC with RE = Dy and Tb. Temperature and field-dependent magnetization as well as heat capacity were measured on a powder sample and on a single crystal allowing the construction of the magnetic field-temperature phase diagram. To study the magnetic structure of each magnetic phase, we applied neutron diffraction in a magnetic field up to 6 T. For (Mo2/3Dy1/3)2AlC in zero field, a spin density wave is stabilized at 16 K, with antiferromagnetic ordering at 13 K. Furthermore, we identify the coexistence of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases induced by magnetic fields for both RE = Tb and Dy. The origin of the field induced phases is resulting from the competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions.
The applicability of the magnetic shape memory effect in Ni-Mn-based martensitic Heusler alloys i... more The applicability of the magnetic shape memory effect in Ni-Mn-based martensitic Heusler alloys is closely related to the nature of the crystallographically modulated martensite phase in these materials. We study the properties of modulated phases as a function of temperature and composition in three magnetic shape memory alloys Ni49.8Mn25.0Ga25.2, Ni49.8Mn27.1Ga23.1 and Ni49.5Mn28.6Ga21.9. The effect of substituting Ga for Mn leads to an anisotropic expansion of the lattice, where the b-parameter of the 5M modulated structure increases and the a and c-parameters decrease with increasing Ga concentration. The modulation vector is found to be both temperature and composition dependent. The size of the modulation vector corresponds to an incommensurate structure for Ni49.8Mn25.0Ga25.2 at all temperatures. For the other samples the modulation is incommensurate at low temperatures but reaches a commensurate value of q ≈ 0.400 close to room temperature. The results show that commensurate...
We present a statistically motivated method to extract magnonic contrast from time-resolved scann... more We present a statistically motivated method to extract magnonic contrast from time-resolved scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (TR-STXM) measurements. TR-STXM is an element-specific method for resolving spin-dynamics in space and time. It offers nanometer spatial resolution and picosecond temporal resolution. The presented method makes it possible to obtain phase and amplitude profiles of spin-waves from STXM measurements. Furthermore, it allows for a rigorous transformation to reciprocal magnon k⃗-space, revealing k⃗-dependent magnon properties such as the magnon dispersion in three dimensions and for all directions of the magnetic anisotropy. We demonstrate our method using X-band ferromagnetic resonance on a micrometer-sized permalloy assembly.
We report an in situ study of the time evolution of magnetic anisotropy constants of an uncapped ... more We report an in situ study of the time evolution of magnetic anisotropy constants of an uncapped 4 nm [∼27 monolayers (ML)] Fe film epitaxially grown on a GaAs (110) substrate at room temperature under ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions. The structural and chemical properties are monitored by low energy electron diffraction and Auger spectroscopy with a sensitivity of 0.01 ML. The in situ UHV ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) study over a period of 6 days in <10−9 Pa reveals that there is a slow magneto-morphological transition of the Fe film surface at room temperature. The resonance field measured in situ in the [11−0] direction initially changes at a rate of 0.3 mT/h within 30 h after deposition and later at 0.1 mT/h over 80 h. We determine the time-dependent changes in the in-plane and out-of-plane anisotropy constants and find a sign change in the uniaxial in-plane anisotropy in the first 24 h due to morphological changes at the surface. The in situ FMR measurements and the Auge...
We present the element-specific and time resolved visualization of uniform ferromagnetic resonanc... more We present the element-specific and time resolved visualization of uniform ferromagnetic resonance excitations of a Permalloy (Py) disk–Cobalt (Co) stripe bilayer microstructure. The transverse high frequency component of the resonantly excited magnetization is sampled in the ps regime by a combination of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM-FMR) recording snapshots of the local magnetization precession of Py and Co with nanometer spatial resolution. The approach allows us to individually image the resonant dynamic response of each element, and we find that angular momentum is transferred from the Py disk to the Co stripe and vice versa at their respective resonances. The integral (cavity) FMR spectrum of our sample shows an unexpected additional third resonance. This resonance is observed in the STXM-FMR experiments as well. Our microscopic findings suggest that it is governed by magnetic exchange between Py and Co, showing for the Co strip...
Three-layer iron-rich Fe3+xSi1−x/Ge/Fe3+xSi1−x (0.2 < x < 0.64) heterostructures on a Si(11... more Three-layer iron-rich Fe3+xSi1−x/Ge/Fe3+xSi1−x (0.2 < x < 0.64) heterostructures on a Si(111) surface with Ge thicknesses of 4 nm and 7 nm were grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Systematic studies of the structural and morphological properties of the synthesized samples have shown that an increase in the Ge thickness causes a prolonged atomic diffusion through the interfaces, which significantly increases the lattice misfits in the Ge/Fe3+xSi1−x heterosystem due to the incorporation of Ge atoms into the Fe3+xSi1−x bottom layer. The resultant lowering of the total free energy caused by the development of the surface roughness results in a transition from an epitaxial to a polycrystalline growth of the upper Fe3+xSi1−x. The average lattice distortion and residual stress of the upper Fe3+xSi1−x were determined by electron diffraction and theoretical calculations to be equivalent to 0.2 GPa for the upper epitaxial layer with a volume misfit of −0.63% compared with a undistorted cou...
Solid solution AuFe nanoparticles with paramagnetic Fe atoms in the Au matrix synthesized at 25 °... more Solid solution AuFe nanoparticles with paramagnetic Fe atoms in the Au matrix synthesized at 25 °C transform into Janus particles upon annealing at 700 °C with the ferromagnetic bcc Fe phase epitaxially grown on fcc Au.
Skyrmions and antiskyrmions are topologically protected spin structures with opposite vorticities... more Skyrmions and antiskyrmions are topologically protected spin structures with opposite vorticities. Particularly in coexisting phases, these two types of magnetic quasi-particles may show fascinating physics and potential for spintronic devices. While skyrmions are observed in a wide range of materials, until now antiskyrmions were exclusive to materials with D2d symmetry. In this work, we show first and second-order antiskyrmions stabilized by magnetic dipole–dipole interaction in Fe/Gd-based multilayers. We modify the magnetic properties of the multilayers by Ir insertion layers. Using Lorentz transmission electron microscopy imaging, we observe coexisting antiskyrmions, Bloch skyrmions, and type-2 bubbles and determine the range of material properties and magnetic fields where the different spin objects form and dissipate. We perform micromagnetic simulations to obtain more insight into the studied system and conclude that the reduction of saturation magnetization and uniaxial mag...
Strong unidirectional anisotropy in bulk polycrystalline B20 FeGe has been measured by ferromagne... more Strong unidirectional anisotropy in bulk polycrystalline B20 FeGe has been measured by ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy. Such anisotropy is not present in static magnetometry measurements. B20 FeGe exhibits inherent Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, resulting in a nonreciprocal spin-wave dispersion. Bulk and micron sized samples were produced and characterized. By X-band ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy at 276 K ± 1 K, near the Curie temperature, a distribution of resonance modes was observed in accordance with the cubic anisotropy of FeGe. This distribution exhibits a unidirectional anisotropy, i.e. shift of the resonance field under field inversion, of KUD = 960 J/m3 ± 10 J/m3, previously unknown in bulk ferromagnets. Additionally, more than 25 small amplitude standing spin wave modes were observed inside a micron sized FeGe wedge, measured at 293 K ± 2 K. These modes also exhibit unidirectional anisotropy. This effect, only dynamically measurable and not detectable in st...
The direct and parameter-free measurement of anisotropic electrical resistivity of a magnetic Mn+... more The direct and parameter-free measurement of anisotropic electrical resistivity of a magnetic Mn+1AXn (MAX) phase film is presented. A multitip scanning tunneling microscope is used to carry out 4-probe transport measurements with variable probe spacing s. The observation of the crossover from the 3D regime for small s to the 2D regime for large s enables the determination of both in-plane and perpendicular-to-plane resistivities ρab and ρc. A (Cr0.5Mn0.5)2GaC MAX phase film shows a large anisotropy ratio ρc/ρab=525±49. This is a consequence of the complex bonding scheme of MAX phases with covalent M–X and metallic M–M bonds in the MX planes and predominately covalent, but weaker bonds between the MX and A planes.
The fct L10-FeNi alloy is a promising candidate for the development of high performance critical-... more The fct L10-FeNi alloy is a promising candidate for the development of high performance critical-elements-free magnetic materials. Among the different materials, the Au-Cu-Ni alloy has resulted very promising; however, a detailed investigation of the effect of the buffer-layer composition on the formation of the hard FeNi phase is still missing. To accelerate the search of the best Au-Cu-Ni composition, a combinatorial approach based on High-Throughput (HT) experimental methods has been exploited in this paper. HT magnetic characterization methods revealed the presence of a hard magnetic phase with an out-of-plane easy-axis, whose coercivity increases from 0.49 kOe up to 1.30 kOe as the Au content of the Cu-Au-Ni buffer-layer decreases. Similarly, the out-of-plane magneto-crystalline anisotropy energy density increases from 0.12 to 0.35 MJ/m3. This anisotropy is attributed to the partial formation of the L10FeNi phase induced by the buffer-layer. In the range of compositions we inve...
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Papers by Michael Farle