First-principles calculations of magnetization relaxation in pure Fe, Co, and Ni with frozen thermal lattice disorder

The effect of the electron-phonon interaction on magnetization relaxation is studied within the framework of first-principles scattering theory for Fe, Co, and Ni by displacing atoms in the scattering region randomly with a thermal distribution. This “frozen thermal lattice disorder” approach reproduces the nonmonotonic damping behavior observed in ferromagnetic resonance measurements and yields reasonable quantitative agreement between calculated and experimental values. It can be readily applied to alloys and easily extended by determining the atomic displacements from ab initio phonon spectra.