1,628 research outputs found
Magnetic remanent states in antiferromagnetically coupled multilayers
In antiferromagnetically coupled multilayers with perpendicular anisotropy
unusual multidomain textures can be stabilized due to a close competition
between long-range demagnetization fields and short-range interlayer exchange
coupling.
In particular, the formation and evolution of specific topologically stable
planar defects within the antiferromagnetic ground state, i.e. wall-like
structures with a ferromagnetic configuration extended over a finite width,
explain configurational hysteresis phenomena recently observed in
[Co/Pt(Pd)]/Ru and [Co/Pt]/NiO multilayers.
Within a phenomenological theory, we have analytically derived the
equilibrium sizes of these "ferroband" defects as functions of the
antiferromagnetic exchange, a bias magnetic field, and geometrical parameters
of the multilayers. In the magnetic phase diagram, the existence region of the
ferrobands mediates between the regions of patterns with sharp
antiferromagnetic domain walls and regular arrays of ferromagnetic stripes.
The theoretical results are supported by magnetic force microscopy images of
the remanent states observed in [Co/Pt]/Ru.Comment: Paper submitted by the Joint European Magnetics Symposia 2008, Dublin
(4 pages, 3 figures
Thermally induced magnetic switching in bit-patterned media
This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 122, 043907 (2017) and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4992808.We have studied the thermal variation of the switching field of magnetic islands at room temperature. A model bit-pattern media composed of an assembly of islands with 80 nm width was fabricated by sputter deposition onto a pre-patterned substrate. Using direct magnetic-contrast imaging of the islands under applied field, we extract the switching probabilities of individual islands. Based on an analytical model for the thermally activated switching of the islands, we are able to determine the intrinsic magnetic anisotropy of each island and, consequentially, a distribution of anisotropies for the island ensemble investigated. In the distribution, we identify a separated group of islands with a particularly small anisotropy. We attribute this group to islands containing misaligned grains triggering the magnetic reversal. At room temperature and slow field sweep rates, the observed thermal broadening of the switching-field distribution is small compared to the intrinsic broadening. However, we illustrate that thermal fluctuations play a crucial role at high sweep rates by extrapolating our results to technological relevant regimes
Frustration Driven Stripe Domain Formation in Co/Pt Multilayer Films
We report microscopic mechanisms for an unusual magnetization reversal
behavior in Co/Pt multilayers where some of the first-order reversal curves
protrude outside of the major loop. Transmission x-ray microscopy reveals a
fragmented stripe domain topography when the magnetic field is reversed prior
to saturation, in contrast to an interconnected pattern when reversing from a
saturated state. The different domain nucleation and propagation behaviors are
due to unannihilated domains from the prior field sweep. These residual domains
contribute to random dipole fields that impede the subsequent domain growth and
prevent domains from growing as closely together as for the interconnected
pattern.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, to appear in AP
Evidence for a dynamic phase transition in [Co/Pt]_3 magnetic multilayers
A dynamic phase transition (DPT) with respect to the period P of an applied
alternating magnetic field has been observed previously in numerical
simulations of magnetic systems. However, experimental evidence for this DPT
has thus far been limited to qualitative observations of hysteresis loop
collapse in studies of hysteresis loop area scaling. Here, we present
significantly stronger evidence for the experimental observation of this DPT,
in a [Co(4 A)/Pt(7 A)]_3-multilayer system with strong perpendicular
anisotropy. We applied an out-of-plane, time-varying (sawtooth) field to the
[Co/Pt]_3 multilayer, in the presence of a small additional constant field,
H_b. We then measured the resulting out-of-plane magnetization time series to
produce nonequilibrium phase diagrams (NEPDs) of the cycle-averaged
magnetization, Q, and its variance, Var(Q), as functions of P and H_b. The
experimental NEPDs are found to strongly resemble those calculated from
simulations of a kinetic Ising model under analagous conditions. The similarity
of the experimental and simulated NEPDs, in particular the presence of a
localized peak in the variance Var(Q) in the experimental results, constitutes
strong evidence for the presence of this DPT in our magnetic multilayer
samples. Technical challenges related to the hysteretic nature and response
time of the electromagnet used to generate the time-varying applied field
precluded us from extracting meaningful critical scaling exponents from the
current data. However, based on our results, we propose refinements to the
experimental procedure which could potentially enable the determination of
critical exponents in the future.Comment: substantial revision; 26 pages, 9 figures; to appear in Phys. Rev.
Addendum to: Determining the preferred directions of magnetisation in cubic crystals using symmetric polynomial inequalities
On relativistic elements of reality
Several arguments have been proposed some years ago, attempting to prove the
impossibility of defining Lorentz-invariant elements of reality. I find that a
sufficient condition for the existence of elements of reality, introduced in
these proofs, seems to be used also as a necessary condition. I argue that
Lorentz-invariant elements of reality can be defined but, as Vaidman pointed
out, they won't satisfy the so-called product rule. In so doing I obtain
algebraic constraints on elements of reality associated with a maximal set of
commuting Hermitian operators.Comment: Clarifications, reference added; published versio
Influence of ion irradiation on switching field and switching field distribution in arrays of Co/Pd-based bit pattern media
International audienceWe have used ion irradiation to tune switching field and switching field distribution ͑SFD͒ in polycrystalline Co/Pd multilayer-based bit pattern media. Light He + ion irradiation strongly decreases perpendicular magnetic anisotropy amplitude due to Co/Pd interface intermixing, while the granular structure, i.e., the crystalline anisotropy, remains unchanged. In dot arrays, the anisotropy reduction leads to a decrease in coercivity ͑H C ͒ but also to a strong broadening of the normalized SFD/ H C ͑in percentage͒, since the relative impact of misaligned grains is enhanced. Our experiment thus confirms the major role of misorientated grains in SFD of nanodevice arrays. Today a major research effort in magnetism is targeted toward achieving ultrahigh density data storage with nano-scale magnets. Spin-transfer magnetic random access memory ͑spin-RAM͒ and bit patterned media ͑BPM͒ technologies are currently part of the most promising media. The implementation of both of these technologies relies on achieving in-detail physical understanding and control of the magnetization reversal mechanism in each nanoscopic individual bit to ensure reproducibility of the bit properties in order to avoid write errors. Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy ͑PMA͒ materials, such as polycrystalline Co/Pd, Co/Pt, and Co/Ni multilayers, are believed to be promising materials for both spin-RAM and BPM applications. 1–4 Indeed, they have a well defined high amplitude uniaxial anisotropy that provides good thermal stability while offering low critical current in spin-transfer devices 2 and tunable switching fields in BPM.
Disorder-induced magnetic memory: Experiments and theories
Beautiful theories of magnetic hysteresis based on random microscopic
disorder have been developed over the past ten years. Our goal was to directly
compare these theories with precise experiments. We first developed and then
applied coherent x-ray speckle metrology to a series of thin multilayer
perpendicular magnetic materials. To directly observe the effects of disorder,
we deliberately introduced increasing degrees of disorder into our films. We
used coherent x-rays to generate highly speckled magnetic scattering patterns.
The apparently random arrangement of the speckles is due to the exact
configuration of the magnetic domains in the sample. In effect, each speckle
pattern acts as a unique fingerprint for the magnetic domain configuration.
Small changes in the domain structure change the speckles, and comparison of
the different speckle patterns provides a quantitative determination of how
much the domain structure has changed. How is the magnetic domain configuration
at one point on the major hysteresis loop related to the configurations at the
same point on the loop during subsequent cycles? The microscopic return-point
memory(RPM) is partial and imperfect in the disordered samples, and completely
absent when the disorder was not present. We found the complementary-point
memory(CPM) is also partial and imperfect in the disordered samples and
completely absent when the disorder was not present. We found that the RPM is
always a little larger than the CPM. We also studied the correlations between
the domains within a single ascending or descending loop. We developed new
theoretical models that do fit our experiments.Comment: 26 pages, 25 figures, Accepted by Physical Review B 01/25/0
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