Long-lived ultrafast spin precession in manganese alloys films with a large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.

Spin precession with frequencies up to 280 GHz is observed in Mn(3-δ)Ga alloy films with a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy constant K(u)∼15  M erg/cm(3). The damping constant α, characterizing macroscopic spin relaxation and being a key factor in spin-transfer-torque systems, is not larger than 0.008 (0.015) for the δ=1.46 (0.88) film. Those are about one-tenth of α values for known materials with large K(u). First-principles calculations well describe both low α and large K(u) for these alloys.