Controlling and patterning the effective magnetization in Y3Fe5O12 thin films using ion irradiation

We report an approach to controlling the effective magnetization (Meff), a combination of the saturation magnetization and uniaxial anisotropy, of the ferrimagnet Y3Fe5O12 (YIG) using different species of ions: He+ and Ga+. The effective magnetization can be tuned as a function of the fluence, with He + providing the largest effect. We quantified the change in effective magnetization through an angular dependence of the ferromagnetic resonance before and after irradiation. Increases in 4πMeff were observed to be as much as 400 G with only a 15% increase in Gilbert damping, α (from 8.2e-4 to 9.4e-4). This result was combined with a method for accurate ion pattering, a focused ion beam, providing a mechanism for shaping the magnetic environment with submicron precision. We observe resonance modes localized by ion patterning of micron-sized dots, whose resonances match well with micromagnetic simulations. This technique offers a flexible tool for precision nanoscale control and characterization of the magnetic properties of YIG.