Coexistence of Low Damping and Strong Magnetoelastic Coupling in Epitaxial Spinel Ferrite Thin Films.

Low-loss magnetization dynamics and strong magnetoelastic coupling are generally mutually exclusive properties due to opposing dependencies on spin-orbit interactions. So far, the lack of low-damping, magnetostrictive ferrite films has hindered the development of power-efficient magnetoelectric and acoustic spintronic devices. Here, magnetically soft epitaxial spinel NiZnAl-ferrite thin films with an unusually low Gilbert damping parameter (<3 × 10 ), as well as strong magnetoelastic coupling evidenced by a giant strain-induced anisotropy field (≈1 T) and a sizable magnetostriction coefficient (≈10 ppm), are reported.