Mapping of localized spin-wave excitations by near-field Brillouin light scattering

We report on the experimental study of the spatial characteristics of high-frequency spin-wave modes localized at the edges of micrometer-size in-plane magnetized permalloy ellipses. Using a near-field Brillouin light scattering technique, we have mapped the modes with the spatial resolution of few tens of nanometers. We show that the width of the localization area strongly depends on the applied magnetic field and reduces to about 85 nm for high fields. We also demonstrate that the existing theoretical models do not appropriately describe spatial characteristics of the modes.