Magnon spectrum of a symmetric-spin nanocontact on a ferromagnetic ultrathin film

A theoretical model is presented for the study of the magnetic properties and the coherent magnon transport via monatomic chains in ultrathin magnetic films. In particular, we studied a finite number of monatomic chains joining two slabs of ferromagnetic material. Each slab consists of five atomic layers of a cubic lattice with magnetically ordered spins coupled by the Heisenberg exchange. The system is supported on a non-magnetic substrate and otherwise considered free from magnetic interactions. The spin dynamics of the ultrathin film is studied by the matching method. The individual and the total magnon transmissions of the ultrathin ferromagnetic film, scattering coherently at the nanojunction zone, and the localized spin states in the boundary domain are calculated and analyzed. The interatomic magnetic exchange is varied on the boundary domain specifically for three cases of magnetic exchange to investigate the consequences of magnetic softening and hardening for the calculated properties. Numerical results show characteristic interference effects between the incident spinwaves and the localized spin states of the nanocontact. The calculated properties are presented for arbitrary incidence of the magnons on the boundary, for all accessible frequencies in the propagating bands, and for the interatomic magnetic exchange of the magnetic film. The localized magnon branches created by the nanocontact domain are observed in the Brillouin zone.