Interfacial Alloying Contributions to the Magnetic Proximity Effect in Pt/Dysprosium Iron Garnet

Published

August 12, 2025

Author(s)

Miela J. Gross, Javier Herrero-Martin, Sergio Valencia, Alexander Grutter, Julie Borchers, Yongseong Choi, Gilberto Fabbris, Allison Kaczmarek, Alexander E. Kossak, Jackson Bauer, Subhajit Kundu, Supriya Ghosh, K. A. Mkhoyan, Angela Wittmann, Caroline A. Ross

Abstract

The magnetic proximity effect (MPE) plays an important role in the behavior of heavy-metal (HM)/ferro- or ferrimagnet thin film heterostructures, but for HM/rare earth iron garnet interfaces the presence and magnitude of the MPE has been debated. We previously reported an MPE in a Pt/dysprosium iron garnet (DyIG) heterostructure grown without breaking vacuum between the deposition of the two layers, finding that the magnetic moment present in the Pt layer scales with the magnitude of the DyIG moment through its compensation temperature. In contrast, Pt/DyIG grown with a vacuum break did not exhibit an MPE. Here we investigate the origin of the magnetic moment in the Pt layer using x-ray absorption spectroscopy and x-ray circular dichroism. The results are consistent with the presence of an intermixed FeDyPt interfacial layer formed during growth of the Pt.

Citation

Physical Review B

Volume

112

Issue

5

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

DOI Link

Keywords

Polarized neutron reflectivity, magnetic proximity, Iron garnets

Citation

Gross, M. , Herrero-Martin, J. , Valencia, S. , Grutter, A. , Borchers, J. , Choi, Y. , Fabbris, G. , Kaczmarek, A. , Kossak, A. , Bauer, J. , Kundu, S. , Ghosh, S. , Mkhoyan, K. , Wittmann, A. and Ross, C. (2025), Interfacial Alloying Contributions to the Magnetic Proximity Effect in Pt/Dysprosium Iron Garnet, Physical Review B, [online], https://doi.org/10.1103/7jdl-hkpp (Accessed October 9, 2025)