We recently reported on a method to determine the easy axis position in a 10 nm thick film of the fully compensated antiferromagnet CuMnAs. The film had a uniaxial magnetic anisotropy and the technique utilized a magneto-optical pump and probe experiment [Saidl et al. Nat. Photonics 11, 91 (2017)]. In this contribution, we discuss the applicability of this method for the investigation of a broader set of epitaxial CuMnAs films having different thicknesses. This work reveals that the equilibrium magnetic anisotropy can be studied only in samples, where this anisotropy is rather strong. However, in the majority of CuMnAs films, the impact of a strong pump pulse induces nano-fragmentation of the magnetic domains and, therefore, the magnetic anisotropy measured by the pump–probe technique differs substantially from that in the equilibrium conditions. We also demonstrate that the optical pump–probe experiment can be used very efficiently to study the local heating and heat dissipation in CuMnAs epitaxial layers. In particular, we determined the electron–phonon relaxation time in CuMnAs. We also observed that, for a local film heating by a focused laser, the thinner films are heated more, but the heat is dissipated considerably faster than in the case of thicker films. This illustrates that the optical pump–probe experiment is a valuable characterization tool for the heat management optimization in the CuMnAs memory devices and can be applied in a similar way to those used during the heat-assisted magnetic recording technology development for the latest generation of hard drive disks.
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21 June 2020
Research Article|
June 16 2020
Investigation of magnetic anisotropy and heat dissipation in thin films of compensated antiferromagnet CuMnAs by pump–probe experiment
Special Collection:
Antiferromagnetic Spintronics
M. Surýnek
;
M. Surýnek
1
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University
, Ke Karlovu 3, 121 16 Prague 2, Czech Republic
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V. Saidl;
V. Saidl
1
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University
, Ke Karlovu 3, 121 16 Prague 2, Czech Republic
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Z. Kašpar;
Z. Kašpar
1
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University
, Ke Karlovu 3, 121 16 Prague 2, Czech Republic
2
Institute of Physics ASCR
, v.v.i., Cukrovarnická 10, 162 53 Prague 6, Czech Republic
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V. Novák
;
V. Novák
2
Institute of Physics ASCR
, v.v.i., Cukrovarnická 10, 162 53 Prague 6, Czech Republic
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R. P. Campion;
R. P. Campion
3
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham
, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
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P. Wadley;
P. Wadley
3
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham
, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
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P. Němec
P. Němec
a)
1
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University
, Ke Karlovu 3, 121 16 Prague 2, Czech Republic
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: nemec@karlov.mff.cuni.cz
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: nemec@karlov.mff.cuni.cz
Note: This paper is part of the special topic on Antiferromagnetic Spintronics.
J. Appl. Phys. 127, 233904 (2020)
Article history
Received:
March 02 2020
Accepted:
May 24 2020
Citation
M. Surýnek, V. Saidl, Z. Kašpar, V. Novák, R. P. Campion, P. Wadley, P. Němec; Investigation of magnetic anisotropy and heat dissipation in thin films of compensated antiferromagnet CuMnAs by pump–probe experiment. J. Appl. Phys. 21 June 2020; 127 (23): 233904. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0006185
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