Effects of field annealing on Gilbert damping of polycrystalline CoFe thin films

The effects of annealing and magnetic field annealing on the Gilbert damping constant of polycrystalline CoFe thin films were investigated. Angle dependent ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) demonstrates that an in-plane (IP) anisotropy is developed by field annealing which dramatically reduces the effective Gilbert damping constant. An inverse relation between effective IP anisotropic field and effective damping is shown by FMR measurement in cryogenic environment. This relation is further confirmed in bilayer films of IrMn/CoFe where a strong in-plane unidirectional anisotropy is developed. A large effective IP anisotropic field is possibly associated with a smaller distribution of local fields which reduces the FMR linewidths and subsequently effective damping.