Spin-wave excitation and propagation in microstructured waveguides of yttrium iron garnet/Pt bilayers

We present an experimental study of spin-wave excitation and propagation in microstructured waveguides consisting of a 100 nm thick yttrium iron garnet/platinum (Pt) bilayer. The life time of the spin waves is found to be more than an order of magnitude higher than in comparably sized metallic structures, despite the fact that the Pt capping enhances the Gilbert damping. Utilizing microfocus Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy, we reveal the spin-wave mode structure for different excitation frequencies. An exponential spin-wave amplitude decay length of 31 mu m is observed which is a significant step towards low damping, insulator based micro-magnonics. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.