The ideal substrate for yttrium iron garnet films in quantum magnonics

Rostyslav O. Serha; Carsten Dubs; Christo Guguschev; Bernd Aichner; David Schmoll; Julien Schäfer; Jaganandha Panda; Matthias Weiler; Philipp Pirro; Michal Urbánek; Andrii V. Chumak

doi:10.1038/s43246-026-01146-5

The ideal substrate for yttrium iron garnet films in quantum magnonics

Rostyslav O. Serha (Corresponding author)
, Carsten Dubs
, Christo Guguschev
, Bernd Aichner
, David Schmoll
, Julien Schäfer
, Jaganandha Panda
, Matthias Weiler
, Philipp Pirro
, Michal Urbánek
, Andrii V. Chumak (Corresponding author)

Nanomagnetism and Magnonics

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Abstract

Quantum magnonics leverages the quantum properties of magnons to advance nanoscale quantum information technologies. Ferrimagnetic yttrium iron garnet (YIG), valued for its exceptionally low magnetic damping, is typically grown as thin films on gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) for lattice matching. However, paramagnetic GGG introduces additional damping at low temperatures due to substrate magnetization, limiting quantum applications. Here, we study magnetic damping in a 150 nm-thick YIG film grown on yttrium scandium gallium aluminum garnet (YSGAG), a newly developed diamagnetic alternative to GGG. Ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy down to 30 mK reveals that YIG/YSGAG maintains low damping from room temperature to millikelvin temperatures, with a room-temperature Gilbert damping of 4.29 × 10−5, comparable to state-of-the-art YIG/GGG films and bulk YIG. Crucially, no low-temperature damping increase is observed. By eliminating paramagnetic substrate-induced dissipation, YSGAG enables consistently low damping in YIG films across the entire temperature range, establishing it as an ideal substrate for quantum magnonics and paving the way for spin-wave-based quantum technologies.

Original language	English
Article number	134
Number of pages	7
Journal	Communications Materials
Volume	7
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-026-01146-5
Publication status	Published - 30 Mar 2026

Funding

This research was funded in part by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project Paramagnonics [10.55776/I6568]. The work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) under the reference numbers (13N17108, 13N17109, and 13N17110) within a collaborative project “Low-loss materials for integrated magnonic-superconducting quantum technologies (MagSQuant)”. M.U. acknowledges the support of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, project no. 23-04120L. Microstructuring of the sample was done at CzechNanoLab Research Infrastructure supported by MEYS CR (LM2023051). B.A. acknowledges support by COST Action Polytopo CA23134 (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). C.D. thanks Oleksii Surzhenko for room temperature magnetic measurements and R. Meyer (INNOVENT e.V.) for technical support. R.O.S., B.A., D.S., and A.V.C. thank Adam Krysztofik for fabricating and providing the YIG/YAG sample used in this work.

Funders	Funder number
Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF)	10.55776/I6568

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103018 Materials physics
103017 Magnetism

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10.1038/s43246-026-01146-5Licence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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title = "The ideal substrate for yttrium iron garnet films in quantum magnonics",

abstract = "Quantum magnonics leverages the quantum properties of magnons to advance nanoscale quantum information technologies. Ferrimagnetic yttrium iron garnet (YIG), valued for its exceptionally low magnetic damping, is typically grown as thin films on gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) for lattice matching. However, paramagnetic GGG introduces additional damping at low temperatures due to substrate magnetization, limiting quantum applications. Here, we study magnetic damping in a 150 nm-thick YIG film grown on yttrium scandium gallium aluminum garnet (YSGAG), a newly developed diamagnetic alternative to GGG. Ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy down to 30 mK reveals that YIG/YSGAG maintains low damping from room temperature to millikelvin temperatures, with a room-temperature Gilbert damping of 4.29 {\texttimes} 10−5, comparable to state-of-the-art YIG/GGG films and bulk YIG. Crucially, no low-temperature damping increase is observed. By eliminating paramagnetic substrate-induced dissipation, YSGAG enables consistently low damping in YIG films across the entire temperature range, establishing it as an ideal substrate for quantum magnonics and paving the way for spin-wave-based quantum technologies.",

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AU - Schmoll, David

AU - Schäfer, Julien

AU - Panda, Jaganandha

AU - Weiler, Matthias

AU - Pirro, Philipp

AU - Urbánek, Michal

AU - Chumak, Andrii V.

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The ideal substrate for yttrium iron garnet films in quantum magnonics

Abstract

Funding

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

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Propagating Low-Energy 4f Paramagnons

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The ideal substrate for yttrium iron garnet films in quantum magnonics

Abstract

Funding

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

Access to Document

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Projects

Propagating Low-Energy 4f Paramagnons

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