Magnetocrystalline anisotropy and Gilbert damping in iron-rich Fe1-xSix thin films

The magnetocrystalline anisotropy of Fe1-xSix (0 <= x <= 0.4) epitaxial thin films on MgO(001) was studied by ferromagnetic resonance. The experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions of ab initio electronic structure calculations using the fully relativistic Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker Green's function method within spin-density-functional theory. The Gilbert damping alpha is found to be isotropic by theory and experiment with a minimum at the composition x = 0.2.