Engineering Gilbert damping by dilute Gd doping in soft magnetic Fe thin Films

By analyzing the ferromagnetic resonance linewidth, we show that the Gilbert damping constant in soft magnetic Fe thin films can be enhanced by ∼6 times with Gd doping of up to 20%. At the same time, the magnetic easy axis remains in the film plane while the coercivity is strongly reduced after Gd inclusion. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements reveal a strong increase in the orbital-to-spin moment ratio of Fe with increasing Gd concentration, in full agreement with the increase in the Gilbert damping obtained for these thin films. Combined with x-ray diffraction and vibrating sample magnetometry, the results demonstrate that the FeGd thin films with dilute Gd doping of up to 20% are promising candidates for spin-transfer-torque applications in soft magnetic devices, in which an enhanced damping is required.