No Arabic abstract
We studied the depth dependent magnetization profile of the magnetostrictive Co thin film layer in a PMN-PT (011)/Ta/Co/Ta structure under both zero and nonzero applied electric field using polarized neutron reflectometry. Application of electric field across the PMN-PT substrate generates a strain, which rotates the magnetization of the Co layer consistent with the Villari effect. At low magnetic fields (near remanence and coercive field conditions), we find that the depth dependent magnetization profile is non-uniform, under both zero and nonzero applied electric fields. These variations are attributable to the depth dependent strain profile in the Co film, as determined by finite element analysis simulations.
The creep motion of domain walls driven by external fields in magnetic thin films is described by universal features related to the underlying depinning transition. One key parameter in this description is the roughness exponent characterizing the growth of fluctuations of the domain wall position with its longitudinal length scale. The roughness amplitude, which gives information about the scale of fluctuations, however, has received less attention. Albeit their relevance, experimental reports of the roughness parameters, both exponent and amplitude, are scarce. We report here experimental values of the roughness parameters for different magnetic field intensities in the creep regime at room temperature for a Pt/Co/Pt thin film. The mean value of the roughness exponent is $zeta = 0.74$, and we show that it can be rationalized as an effective value in terms of the known universal values corresponding to the depinning and thermal cases. In addition, it is shown that the roughness amplitude presents a significant increase with decreasing field. These results contribute to the description of domain wall motion in disordered thin magnetic systems.
Polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR) has long been applied to measure the magnetic depth profile of thin films. In recent years, interest has increased in observing lateral magnetic structures in a film. While magnetic arrays patterned by lithography and submicron-sized magnetic domains in thin films often give rise to off-specular reflections, micron-sized ferromagnetic domains on a thin film produce few off-specular reflections and the domain distribution information is contained within the specular reflection. In this paper, we will first present some preliminary results of off-specular reflectivity from arrays of micron-sized permalloy rectangular bars. We will then use specular reflections to study the domain dispersion of an exchange-biased Co/CoO bilayer at different locations of the hysteresis loop.
We report a study of the magnetization reversals and skyrmion configurations in two systems - Pt/Co/MgO and Ir/Fe/Co/Pt multilayers, where magnetic skyrmions are stabilized by a combination of dipolar and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions (DMI). First Order Reversal Curve (FORC) diagrams of low-DMI Pt/Co/MgO and high-DMI Ir/Fe/Co/Pt exhibit stark differences, which are identified by micromagnetic simulations to be indicative of hybrid and pure Neel skyrmions, respectively. Tracking the evolution of FORC features in multilayers with dipolar interactions and DMI, we find that the negative FORC valley, typically accompanying the positive FORC peak near saturation, disappears under both reduced dipolar interactions and enhanced DMI. As these conditions favor the formation of pure Neel skyrmions, we propose that the resultant FORC feature - a single positive FORC peak near saturation - can act as a fingerprint for pure Neel skyrmions in multilayers. Our study thus expands on the utility of FORC analysis as a tool for characterizing spin topology in multilayer thin films.
Magnetic field-driven domain wall motion in an ultrathin Pt/Co(0.45nm)/Pt ferromagnetic film with perpendicular anisotropy is studied over a wide temperature range. Three different pinning dependent dynamical regimes are clearly identified: the creep, the thermally assisted flux flow and the depinning, as well as their corresponding crossovers. The wall elastic energy and microscopic parameters characterizing the pinning are determined. Both the extracted thermal rounding exponent at the depinning transition, $psi=$0.15, and the Larkin length crossover exponent, $phi=$0.24, fit well with the numerical predictions.
We report a synthesis route to grow iron nitride thin films with giant saturation magnetization (Ms) through an N inter-diffusion process. By post annealing Fe/Fe-N structured films grown on GaAs(001) substrates, nitrogen diffuses from the over-doped amorphous-like Fe-N layer into strained crystalline Fe layer and facilitates the development of metastable Fe16N2 phase. As explored by polarized neutron reflectometry, the depth-dependent Ms profile can be well described by a model with the presence of a giant Ms up to 2360 emu/cm3 at near-substrate interface, corresponding to the strained regions of these annealed films. This is much larger than the currently known limit (Fe65Co35 with Ms sim 1900 emu/cm3). The present synthesis method can be used to develop writer materials for future magnetic recording application.