Radiation of spin waves by a single micrometer-sized magnetic element

Dynamic magnetic properties of a single micrometer-sized magnetic element consisting of a permalloy and a partially patterned CoFe layer separated by an intervening Cu spacer layer have been studied by means of a micro-focus Brillouin light scattering setup, which allows for local measurements of the magnetization dynamics on the submicrometer scale. It is shown that quantized spin-wave modes excited in the magnetic element act as radiation sources for spin waves in the surrounding magnetic film. It is found that the intensities of spin waves excited by different quantized modes follow different distance laws when traveling away from the region of excitation. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.