Resonant spin-wave modes in trilayered magnetic nanowires studied in the parallel and antiparallel ground state

Abstract Brillouin light scattering has been utilized to study the field dependence of resonant spin-wave modes in layered NiFe(30 nm)/Cu(10 nm)/NiFe(15 nm)/Cu(10 nm)/NiFe(30 nm) nanowires of rectangular cross section, 150 nm wide and formed in arrays that are spaced laterally by 400 nm. The major and minor longitudinal hysteresis curves have been measured by the magneto-optical Kerr effect technique, with applied field parallel to the length of the nanowires. The light-scattering spectra were recorded as a function of the magnetic field strength, encompassing both the parallel and antiparallel alignments of the middle stripe with respect to the magnetization direction of the outermost ones. The field ranges for the antiparallel state are different from those for the parallel case, while the mode frequencies change abruptly at the parallel-to-antiparallel transition field (and vice versa). The modes detected in the antiparallel state are found to have only a weak dependence on the applied magnetic field, whether along the major or minor hysteresis curves, while in the parallel state the mode frequencies monotonically increase with the applied magnetic field. The experimental results have been successfully interpreted, across the whole range of the magnetic fields investigated, in terms of the mode localizations across the width and in the layered structure. This was accomplished by means of a microscopic (Hamiltonian-based) theory, which has been extended here to the case of non-parallel magnetic ground states.