Angle-dependent spin-wave resonance spectroscopy of (Ga,Mn)As films

Abstract

A modeling approach for standing spin-wave resonances based on a finite-difference formulation of the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation is presented. In contrast to a previous study [C. Bihler et al., Phys. Rev. B 79, 045205 (2009)], this formalism accounts for elliptical magnetization precession and magnetic properties arbitrarily varying across the layer thickness, including the magnetic anisotropy parameters, the exchange stiffness, the Gilbert damping, and the saturation magnetization. To demonstrate the usefulness of our modeling approach, we experimentally study a set of (Ga,Mn)As samples grown by low-temperature molecular-beam epitaxy by means of angle-dependent standing spin-wave resonance spectroscopy and electrochemical capacitance-voltage measurements. By applying our modeling approach, the angle dependence of the spin-wave resonance data can be reproduced in a simulation with one set of simulation parameters for all external field orientations. We find that the approximately linear gradient in the out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy is related to a linear gradient in the hole concentrations of the samples.