Imaging the hybridized eigenmodes of a confined magnetic vortex resulting from propagating spiral spin waves from the core

The hybridized spin wave modes of a ferromagnetic vortex confined to a microscale disc have been directly observed in response to a microwave field excitation using time-resolved scanning Kerr microscopy. Micromagnetic simulations demonstrate that the observed curling nature of confined spin waves in the region of circulating in-plane magnetization is a result of the hybridization of different gyrotropic eigenmodes of the vortex core with the azimuthal (4 - 9 GHz) and radial (~10 GHz) eigenmodes of the in-plane magnetization. Hybridization with the fundamental gyrotropic mode leads to splitting of azimuthal modes with counter propagating wavevector, while hybridization of an azimuthal mode with the first-order gyrotropic mode allows the direction of the core gyration to be determined through hybridization rules. A higher frequency radial mode reveals evidence of excitation at the disc perimeter, but also evidence of hybridization with the first higher order gyrotropic mode. These experimental observations confirm the recent theoretical predictions of such hybridization. The measured spatio-temporal character of the hybridized modes is accurately reproduced by the simulations, which demonstrate that the mechanism for the hybridization is the emission of propagating short-wavelength spiral spin waves from the core. These results will have importance in the field of magnonics and spintronics that aim to utilize spin wave emission from highly localised, nanoscale regions of non-uniform magnetization, and their subsequent interaction with modes that may be supported nearby.