40 research outputs found
Magnetic Force Microscopy Using Electron-Beam Fabricated Tips
We used a new concept of tip preparation for magnetic force microscopy (MFM) proposed recently based on coating electron beam deposited carbon needles with appropriate magnetic thin film materials. In combining the advantages of electron beam fabricated needles with those of already widely used thin film tips, high resolution MFM tips can be prepared routinely and reproducibly on all type of cantilevers. Due to the fabrication procedure, which is described in detail, the effective magnetic tip volume is formed by a homogeneous, magnetically isolated, high aspect ratio thin film element favoring a single domain tip behavior. To reinforce the inherent shape anisotropy an additional uniaxial anisotropy is induced along the tip axis by applying an external field during the deposition of the ferromagnetic alloy. Because of the parallel side walls and the rounded tip end, most of the stray field will emanate from the apex region, resulting in a high field density and only little influence on the magnetization within the sample of interest. By using a material with high saturation magnetization, the thickness of the magnetic layer can be drastically reduced, leading to an increased resolution. To demonstrate the potential of the new concept various MFM observations on different types of materials for magnetic storage technology have been performed without changing the presented basic preparation parameters
Antiferromagnetically coupled CoFeB/Ru/CoFeB trilayers
This work reports on the magnetic interlayer coupling between two amorphous
CoFeB layers, separated by a thin Ru spacer. We observe an antiferromagnetic
coupling which oscillates as a function of the Ru thickness x, with the second
antiferromagnetic maximum found for x=1.0 to 1.1 nm. We have studied the
switching of a CoFeB/Ru/CoFeB trilayer for a Ru thickness of 1.1 nm and found
that the coercivity depends on the net magnetic moment, i.e. the thickness
difference of the two CoFeB layers. The antiferromagnetic coupling is almost
independent on the annealing temperatures up to 300 degree C while an annealing
at 350 degree C reduces the coupling and increases the coercivity, indicating
the onset of crystallization. Used as a soft electrode in a magnetic tunnel
junction, a high tunneling magnetoresistance of about 50%, a well defined
plateau and a rectangular switching behavior is achieved.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure
Control of interlayer exchange coupling in Fe/Cr/Fe trilayers by ion beam irradiation
The manipulation of the antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling in the
epitaxial Fe/Cr/Fe(001) trilayer system by moderate 5 keV He ion beam
irradiation has been investigated experimentally. It is shown that even for
irradiation with very low fluences (10^14 ions/cm^2) a drastic change in
strength of the coupling appears. For thin Cr-spacers (below 0.6 - 0.7 nm) the
coupling strength decreases with fluence, becoming ferromagnetic for fluences
above (2x10^14 ions/cm^2). The effect is connected with the creation of
magnetic bridges in the layered system due to atomic exchange events caused by
the bombardment. For thicker Cr spacers (0.8 - 1.2 nm) an enhancement of the
antiferromagnetic coupling strength is found. A possible explanation of the
enhancement effect is given.Comment: Submitted to PR
Interface sharpening in CoFeB magnetic tunnel junctions
We report grazing incidence x-ray scattering evidence for sharpening of the interface between amorphous Co60Fe20B20 and AlOx during in situ annealing below the Co60Fe20B20 crystallization temperature. Enhancement of the interference fringe amplitude in the specular scatter and the absence of changes in the diffuse scatter indicate that the sharpening is not a reduction in topological roughness but a reduction in the width of the chemical composition profile across the interface. The temperature at which the sharpening occurs corresponds to that at which a maximum is found in the tunneling magnetoresistance of magnetic tunnel junctions
Antiferromagnetic interlayer exchange coupling across an amorphous metallic spacer layer
By means of magneto-optical Kerr effect we observe for the first time
antiferromagnetic coupling between ferromagnetic layers across an amorphous
metallic spacer layer. Biquadratic coupling occurs at the transition from a
ferromagnetically to an antiferromagnetically coupled region. Scanning
tunneling microscopy images of all involved layers are used to extract
thickness fluctuations and to verify the amorphous state of the spacer. The
observed antiferromagnetic coupling behavior is explained by RKKY interaction
taking into account the amorphous structure of the spacer material.Comment: Typset using RevTex, 4 pages with 4 figures (.eps
Theory of interlayer exchange interactions in magnetic multilayers
This paper presents a review of the phenomenon of interlayer exchange
coupling in magnetic multilayers. The emphasis is put on a pedagogical
presentation of the mechanism of the phenomenon, which has been successfully
explained in terms of a spin-dependent quantum confinement effect. The
theoretical predictions are discussed in connection with corresponding
experimental investigations.Comment: 18 pages, 4 PS figures, LaTeX with IOP package; v2: ref. added.
Further (p)reprints available from http://www.mpi-halle.de/~theory
Electron beam fabrication and characterization of high- resolution magnetic force microscopy tips
The stray field, magnetic microstructure, and switching behavior of high‐resolution electron beam fabricated thin film tips for magnetic force microscopy (MFM) are investigated with different imaging modes in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). As the tiny smooth carbon needles covered with a thermally evaporated magnetic thin film are transparent to the electron energies used in these TEMs it is possible to observe both the external stray field emanating from the tips as well as their internal domain structure. The experiments confirm the basic features of electron beam fabricated thin film tips concluded from various MFM observations using these tips. Only a weak but highly concentrated stray field is observed emanating from the immediate apex region of the tip, consistent with their capability for high resolution. It also supports the negligible perturbation of the magnetization sample due to the tip stray field observed in MFM experiments. Investigation of the magnetization distributions within the tips, as well as preliminary magnetizing experiments, confirm a preferred single domain state of the high aspect ratio tips. To exclude artefacts of the observation techniques both nonmagnetic tips and those supporting different magnetization states are used for comparison
Magnetic phases and reorientation transitions in antiferromagnetically coupled multilayers
In antiferromagnetically coupled superlattices grown on (001) faces of cubic
substrates, e.g. based on materials combinations as Co/Cu, Fe/Si, Co/Cr, or
Fe/Cr, the magnetic states evolve under competing influence of bilinear and
biquadratic exchange interactions, surface-enhanced four-fold in-plane
anisotropy, and specific finite-size effects. Using phenomenological
(micromagnetic) theory, a comprehensive survey of the magnetic states and
reorientation transitions has been carried out for multilayer systems with even
number of ferromagnetic sub-layers and magnetizations in the plane. In
two-layer systems (N=2) the phase diagrams in dependence on components of the
applied field in the plane include ``swallow-tail'' type regions of
(metastable) multistate co-existence and a number of continuous and
discontinuous reorientation transitions induced by radial and transversal
components of the applied field. In multilayers (N \ge 4) noncollinear states
are spatially inhomogeneous with magnetization varying across the multilayer
stack. For weak four-fold anisotropy the magnetic states under influence of an
applied field evolve by a complex continuous reorientation into the saturated
state. At higher anisotropy they transform into various inhomogeneous and
asymmetric structures. The discontinuous transitions between the magnetic
states in these two-layers and multilayers are characterized by broad ranges of
multi-phase coexistence of the (metastable) states and give rise to specific
transitional domain structures.Comment: Manuscript 34 pages, 14 figures; submitted for publicatio