Relaxation of a single defect spin by the low-frequency gyrotropic mode of a magnetic vortex

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that exciting the gyrotropic mode of a magnetic vortex in permalloy disks can significantly enhance the relaxation of a nearby nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center's spin, revealing a new pathway for magnetic-spin interactions.

Contribution

We show that the low-frequency gyrotropic mode of a magnetic vortex can induce strong relaxation in a nearby NV center, despite frequency detuning, highlighting a novel interaction mechanism.

Findings

Enhanced NV spin relaxation when exciting the vortex gyrotropic mode.

Spatial dependence of interaction mapped by vortex core displacement.

Strong relaxation observed within 250 nm of the NV center.

Abstract

We excite the gyrotropic mode of a magnetic vortex and observe the resulting effect on the spin state of a nearby nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect in diamond. Thin permalloy disks fabricated on a diamond sample are magnetized in a vortex state in which the magnetization curls around a central core. The magnetization dynamics of this configuration are described by a discrete spectrum of confined magnon modes, as well as a low-frequency gyrotropic mode in which the vortex core precesses about its equilibrium position. Despite the spin transition frequencies being far-detuned from the modes of the ferromagnet, we observe enhanced relaxation of the NV spin when driving the gyrotropic mode. Moreover, we map the spatial dependence of the interaction between the vortex and the spin by translating the vortex core within the disk with an applied magnetic field, resulting in steplike motion as the vortex is pinned and de-pinned. The strong spin relaxation is observed when the vortex core is within approximately 250 nm of the NV center defect. We attribute this effect to the higher frequencies in the spectrum of the magnetic fringe field arising from the soliton-like nature of the gyrotropic mode when driven with sufficiently large amplitude.