Microscopic magnetic structuring of a spin-wave waveguide by ion implantation in a Ni81Fe19 layer

We investigate the spin-wave excitation in microscopic waveguides fabricated by localized Cr+ ion implantation in a ferromagnetic Ni81Fe19 film. We demonstrate that spin-wave waveguides can be conveniently made by this technique. The magnetic patterning technique yields an increased damping and a reduction in saturation magnetization in the implanted regions that can be extracted from Brillouin light scattering measurements of the spin-wave excitation spectra. Furthermore, the waveguide performance as well as the internal field of the waveguide depend on the doping fluence. The results prove that localized ion implantation is a powerful tool for the patterning of magnon spintronic devices. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4775759]