Multiscale Symmetry Breaking Enables Tunable Magnetic Anisotropy and Damping in Co 2 FeAl Thin Films
ABSTRACT The ability to simultaneously engineer magnetic stability and spin dissipation remains difficult to realize in scalable metallic thin films. Here, we show that multiscale symmetry breaking provides a route to achieve this control in polycrystalline Co 2 FeAl films without epitaxy, compositional complexity, or heavy‐metal incorporation. By combining nanoscale ripple templating, oblique‐angle deposition (OAD), and mechanical strain, we create a magnetic architecture composed of conformally tilted nanocolumns embedded within a strain‐biased energy landscape. This cooperative design generates a robust and tunable in‐plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (UMA), with the anisotropy field increasing from ≈20 Oe in the isotropic reference film to ≈250 Oe (∼1200%) in the OAD‐ripple template film and further to ≈360 Oe (1700%) under strain, while simultaneously driving a threefold enhancement of the effective damping. Correlative structural, spectroscopic, and magnetic measurements reveal physically distinct, dominant microscopic mechanisms driving UMA and damping: anisotropy is governed primarily by ripple‐directed shape anisotropy and magnetoelastic energy, whereas damping is enhanced by nanocolumnar structure and strain‐induced orbital‐moment unquenching leading to strengthened spin–orbit coupling. This work establishes nanoscale morphology and mechanical deformation as tunable design parameters for adaptive spintronics, flexible microwave technologies, and strain‐tunable magnonics.
Authors
- Manisha Priyadarsini
- Anup Kumar Bera (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3471-9833)
- Md. Shahid Jamal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4782-167X)
- Bhagwati Prasad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2348-6993)
- Mukul Gupta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9622-656X)
- Arun Singh Dev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6147-4432)
- Sarathlal Koyiloth Vayalil (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3483-3310)
- Mukesh Ranjan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5145-4673)
- M. Sall (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3394-4572)
- Dileep Kumar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6368-5009)
- Sharanjeet Singh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6424-5965)
- V. Raghavendra Reddy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1608-665X)
- Sourav Chowdhury (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3965-002X)
- P. D. Gupta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2224-8766)
- Monika Saxena (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4796-4769)
- Abhishek Ghatge
- Kousik Malai
- Mahesh K. Swami (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8538-3026)
Institutions
- Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (IN)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (DE)
- Normandie Université (FR)
- Institute for Plasma Research (IN)
- UGC DAE Consortium for Scientific Research (IN)
- Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IN)
- Indian Institute of Science Bangalore (IN)
- Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IN)
- Université de Caen Normandie (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Published
- 2026-09-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.78474
- Primary Topic
- Magnetic properties of thin films
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Arthritis National Research Foundation
- Indian Institute of Science
- National Research Foundation
- Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India
- Department of Science and Technology, Government of Kerala
- Ministry of Electronics and Information technology
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron