Abstract
The half-metallic half-Heusler alloy NiMnSb is a promising candidate for applications in spintronic devices due to its low magnetic damping and its rich anisotropies. Here we use ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements and calculations from first principles to investigate how the composition of the epitaxially grown NiMnSb influences the magnetodynamic properties of saturation magnetization , Gilbert damping , and exchange stiffness . and are shown to have a maximum for stoichiometric composition, while the Gilbert damping is minimum. We find excellent quantitative agreement between theory and experiment for and . The calculated shows the same trend as the experimental data but has a larger magnitude. In addition to the unique in-plane anisotropy of the material, these tunabilities of the magnetodynamic properties can be taken advantage of when employing NiMnSb films in magnonic devices.
- Received 28 September 2015
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.214424
©2015 American Physical Society