Spatially nonuniform oscillations in ferrimagnets based on an atomistic model
Xue Zhang, Baofang Cai, Jie Ren, Zhengping Yuan, Zhengde Xu, Yumeng Yang, Gengchiau Liang, Zhifeng Zhu
Abstract
Ferrimagnets, such as ${\mathrm{Gd}}_{x}\mathrm{Fe}{\mathrm{Co}}_{(1--x)}$, can produce ultrafast magnetic switching and oscillation due to the strong exchange field. The two-sublattice macrospin model has been widely used to explain the experimental results. However, it fails in describing the spatially nonuniform magnetic dynamics which gives rises to many important phenomena such as domain walls and skyrmions. Here we develop a two-dimensional atomistic model and provide a torque analysis method to study the ferrimagnetic oscillation. Under spin-transfer torque, the magnetization oscillates in the exchange mode or the flipped exchange mode. When the Gd composition is increased, the exchange mode first disappears, and then appears again as the magnetization compensation point is reached. We show that these results can only be explained by analyzing the spatial distribution of magnetization and effective fields. In particular, when the sample is small, a spatially nonuniform oscillation is also observed in the square film. Our work reveals the importance of spatial magnetic distributions in understanding the ferrimagnetic dynamics. The method developed in this paper provides an important tool to gain a deeper understanding of ferrimagnets and antiferromagnets. The observed ultrafast dynamics can also stimulate the development of THz oscillators.