Fresnel diffraction of spin waves

The propagation of magnetostatic forward volume waves excited by a constricted coplanar waveguide is studied via inductive spectroscopy techniques. A series of devices consisting of pairs of sub-micrometer size antennae is used to perform a discrete mapping of the spin wave amplitude in the plane of a 30-nm thin YIG film. We found that the spin wave propagation remains well focused in a beam shape of width comparable to the constriction length and that the amplitude within the constriction displays oscillations, two features which are explained in terms of near-field Fresnel diffraction theory.