We investigate the magnetization dynamics of ferromagnetic nanoparticles in the atomistic approach taking account of surface anisotropy and the spin misalignment it causes. We demonstrate that such inhomogeneous spin configurations induce nutation in the dynamics of the particle's magnetization. More precisely, in addition to the ordinary precessional motion with frequency $f_p\sim 10\mathrm{GHz}$, we find that the dynamics of the net magnetic moment exhibits two more resonance peaks with frequencies $f_c$ and $f_n$ which are higher than the frequency $f_p$: $f_c=4\times f_p\sim 40\mathrm{GHz}$ is related with the oscillations of the particle's magnetic moment between the minima of the effective potential induced by weak surface anisotropy. On the other hand, the much higher frequency $f_n\sim 1\mathrm{THz}$ is attributed to the magnetization fluctuations at the atomic level driven by exchange interaction. We have compared our results on nutation induced by surface effects with those rendered by the macroscopic approach based on the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation augmented by an inertial term (proportional to the second-order time derivative of the macroscopic moment) with a phenomenological coefficient. The good agreement between the two models has allowed us to estimate the latter coefficient in terms of the atomistic parameters such as the surface anisotropy constant. We have thus proposed a different origin for the magnetization nutations as being induced by surface effects and have interpreted the corresponding resonance peaks and their frequencies.

• Received 19 July 2018
• Revised 4 October 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.98.165444