Defect related switching field reduction in small magnetic particle arrays

An array of 42 mum square, 3 mum thick garnet particles has been studied. The strong crystalline uniaxial anisotropy of these particles results in the stable remanent state being single domain with magnetization parallel to the film normal. Magneto-optic measurements of individual particles provide distribution statistics for the easy-axis switching field H-sw, and the in-plane hard-axis effective anisotropy field, H-eff, which induces the formation of a metastable stripe domain structure. Both H-sw and H-eff are much smaller than the crystalline anisotropy field. Micromagnetic simulations show that the small H-sw cannot be attributed to shape anisotropy, but is consistent with smooth, localized reductions in the crystalline anisotropy caused by defects in either the particles or the substrate

Major loop reconstruction from switching of individual particles

Major hysteresis loops of groups of isolated 60 mm square garnet particles of a regular two-dimensional array, have been measured magnetooptically. Individual loops for each particle were measured, and the statistics of the distribution of coercivities and interaction fields was determined. It is shown that from the measured coercivity distribution and calculated magnetostatic interaction fields the major hysteresis loop can be reconstructed. The switching sequence, and the major loop of an assembly of 535 particles were calculated numerically for two cases: first, when calculating the magnetostatic interaction, the 25 particles were assumed to be isolated; second, the major loop of the same 25 particles, embedded into a 939 square, was reconstructed taking into account the interactions among all 81 particles. The numerically simulated major hysteresis loops agree very well with the measured loops, demonstrating the reliability of numerical modeling

Photoproduction of Long-Lived Holes and Electronic Processes in Intrinsic Electric Fields Seen through Photoinduced Absorption and Dichroism in Ca_3Ga_{2-x}Mn_xGe_3O_{12} Garnets

Long-lived photoinduced absorption and dichroism in the Ca_3Ga_{2-x}Mn_xGe_3O_{12} garnets with x < 0.06 were examined versus temperature and pumping intensity. Unusual features of the kinetics of photoinduced phenomena are indicative of the underlying electronic processes. The comparison with the case of Ca_3Mn_2Ge_3O_{12}, explored earlier by the authors, permits one to finally establish the main common mechanisms of photoinduced absorption and dichroism caused by random electric fields of photoproduced charges (hole polarons). The rate of their diffusion and relaxation through recombination is strongly influenced by the same fields, whose large statistical straggling is responsible for a broad continuous set of relaxation components (observed in the relaxation time range from 1 to about 1000 min). For Ca_3Ga_{2-x}Mn_xGe_3O_{12}, the time and temperature dependences of photoinduced absorption and dichroism bear a strong imprint of structure imperfection increasing with x.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figure

Fabrication of Flexible Oriented Magnetic Thin Films with Large in-plane Uniaxial Anisotropy by Roll-to-roll Nanoimprint Lithography

Here, we report wafer scale fabrication of densely packed Fe nanostripe-based magnetic thin films on a flexible substrate and their magnetic anisotropy properties. We find that Fe nanostripes exhibit large in-plane uniaxial anisotropy and nearly square hysteresis loops with energy products (BH)max exceeding 3 MGOe at room temperature. High density Fe nanostripes were fabricated on 70 nm flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) gratings, which were made by roll-to-roll (R2R) UV nanoimprintlithography technique. Observed large in-plane uniaxial anisotropies along the long dimension of nanostripes are attributed to the shape. Temperature dependent hysteresis measurements confirm that the magnetization reversal is driven by non-coherent rotation reversal processes.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

MAGNETIZATION ANOMALIES IN Ca2+ (Fe4+) DOPED YIG DILUTED WITH Ga OR Sc

The measurements of the temperature dependence of the magnetization of Cx2+My3+ : YIG (M3+= Ga, Sc ; 0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.3 ; 0 ≤ y ≤ 1.5) single crystal films has shown a 5-100 % decrease of the magnetization at low temperatures compared to the two-sublattice Néel-model. The anomalies are due to charge compensating Fe4+ ions, formed via a temperature dependent localization process of the extra hole introduced by the Ca2+ ; the canting of the unsubstituted sublattice ; and the low temperature ordering of the paramagnetic Fe3+ ions having less than two magnetic neighbors