Dynamics of spiral spin waves in magnetic nanopatches: influence of thickness and shape

We explore the dynamics of spiral spin waves in permalloy nanoelements with variable aspect ratio of geometric dimensions, and their potential use as improved spin wave emitters with no or little biasing field required. Numerical results show that above a certain thickness, propagating spiral waves can be obtained in circular and square shaped elements in a flux closure state. VNA-FMR experiments on 20-nm (thin) and 80-nm (thick) samples confirm two type of spectra corresponding to different dispersions for thinner and thicker elements. We show that, for the thicker films, the vortex core region acts as a source of large amplitude spiral spin waves, which dominate over other modes. In case of the thinner elements, these modes are critically damped. For different shapes of the patch, we show that a rich collection of confined propagating modes can also be excited, modifying the final wave front and enriching the potential of the nanodot as a spin wave emitter. We give an explanation for the intense spiral modes from the perspective of a balance of dipolar and exchange energies in the sample.