Interfacial alloying as a source of stacking order dependence of the Gilbert damping constant of the Fe/Pt bilayer system
Phys. Rev. B 112, 014444 – Published 25 July, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/7s36-k2n3
Abstract
Due to its critical role in magnetization dynamics, Gilbert damping in ferromagnet/nonmagnet multilayer systems has been widely studied. This paper investigates the Gilbert damping of V/Fe/Pt/MgO and V/Pt/Fe/MgO systems using the time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect to study the stacking order dependence, that is, the difference between Fe/Pt and Pt/Fe. Significant effective Gilbert damping differences were observed between the Fe/Pt and Pt/Fe systems, with intrinsic Gilbert damping playing a dominant role. As the Fe thickness increases, difference in damping between the two stacking orders decreases. We attribute this difference in stacking orders to varying degrees of interfacial alloying at the Fe/Pt and Pt/Fe interfaces.
