A systematic study of magnetodynamic properties at finite temperatures in doped permalloy from first principles calculations

TL;DR

This study uses first principles calculations to systematically analyze how doping permalloy with 4d and 5d transition metals influences its magnetodynamic properties, revealing tunable damping and effects on spin stiffness.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive first-principles analysis of doping effects on permalloy's magnetodynamic properties, highlighting the distinct impacts of 4d and 5d transition metal impurities.

Findings

Doping with 5d elements significantly tunes Gilbert damping.

Temperature dependence of damping is very weak.

Early transition metal doping softens spin stiffness.

Abstract

By means of first principles calculations, we have systematically investigated how the magnetodynamic properties Gilbert damping, magnetization and exchange stiffness are affected when permalloy (Py) (Fe$_{0.19}$Ni$_{0.81}$) is doped with 4d or 5d transition metal impurities. We find that the trends in the Gilbert damping can be understood from relatively few basic parameters such as the density of states at the Fermi level, the spin-orbit coupling and the impurity concentration. % The temperature dependence of the Gilbert damping is found to be very weak which we relate to the lack of intraband transitions in alloys. % Doping with $4d$ elements has no major impact on the studied Gilbert damping, apart from diluting the host. However, the $5d$ elements have a profound effect on the damping and allows it to be tuned over a large interval while maintaining the magnetization and exchange stiffness. % As regards spin stiffness, doping with early transition metals results in considerable softening, whereas late transition metals have a minor impact. % Our result agree well with earlier calculations where available. In comparison to experiments, the computed Gilbert damping appears slightly underestimated while the spin stiffness show good general agreement.