Buckminsterfullerene (C60) can exhibit ferromagnetism at the interface (called as a spinterface) when it is placed next to a ferromagnet (FM). Formation of such spinterface happens due to orbital hybridization and spin polarized charge transfer at the interface. The spinterface can influence the domain size and dynamics of the organic/ferromagnetic heterostructure. Here, we have performed magnetic domain imaging and studied the relaxation dynamics in Pt/Co/C60/Pt system with perpendicular anisotropy. We have compared the results with its parent Pt/Co/Pt system. It is observed that presence of C60 in the Pt/Co/Pt system increases the anisotropy and a decrease in the bubble domain size. Further the switching time of Pt/Co/C60/Pt system is almost two times faster than Pt/Co/Pt system. We have also performed the spin polarized density functional theory (DFT) calculations to understand the underneath mechanism. DFT results show formation of a spin polarized spinterface which leads to an enhancement in anisotropy.
The demand of fast and power efficient spintronics devices with flexibility requires additional energy for magnetization manipulation. Stress/and strain have shown their potentials for tuning magnetic properties to the desired level. Here, we report a systematic study for the effect of both tensile and compressive stresses on the magnetic anisotropy (MA). Further the effect of stress on the domain structure and magnetization relaxation mechanism in a perpendicularly magnetized Co/Pt film has been studied. It is observed that a minimal in-plane tensile strain has increased the coercivity of the film by 38$%$ of its initial value, while a very small change of coercivity has been found under compressive strain. The size of ferromagnetic domains decreases under tensile strain, while no change is observed under the compressive strain. Magnetization relxation measured at sub-coercive fields yields longer relaxation time in the strained state.
A perpendicularly magnetized ferromagnetic layer is an important building block for recent/future highdensity spintronic memory applications. This paper reports on the fabrication of perpendicularly magnetized Ni / Pt superlattices and the characterization of their structures and magnetic properties. The optimization of film growth conditions allowed us to grow epitaxial Ni / Pt (001) superlattices on SrTiO$_{3}$ (001) single crystal substrates. We investigated their structural parameters and magnetic properties as a function of the Ni layer thickness, and obtained a high uniaxial magnetic anisotropy energy of 1.9 x 10$^{6}$ erg/cm$^{3}$ for a [Ni (4.0 nm) / Pt (1.0 nm)] superlattice. In order to elucidate the detailed mechanism on perpendicular magnetic anisotropy for the Ni / Pt (001) superlattices, the experimental results were compared with the first-principles calculations. It has been found that the strain effect is a prime source of the emergence of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.
We demonstrate a ten-fold resonant enhancement of magneto-optical effects in perpendicularly magnetized $[$Co/Pt$]_{N}$ nanodots mediated by the excitation of optimized plasmon modes. Two magnetoplasmonic systems are considered; square arrays of $[$Co/Pt$]_{N}$ nanodots on glass and identical arrays on a Au/SiO2 bilayer. On glass, the optical and magneto-optical spectra of the nanodot arrays are dominated by the excitation of a surface lattice resonance (SLR), whereas on Au/SiO${}_{2}$, a narrow surface plasmon polariton (SPP) resonance tailors the spectra further. Both the SLR and SPP modes are magneto-optically active leading to an enhancement of the Kerr angle. We detail the dependence of optical and magneto-optical spectra on the number of Co/Pt bilayer repetitions, the nanodot diameter, and the array period, offering design rules on how to maximize and spectrally tune the magneto-optical response of perpendicularly magnetized $[$Co/Pt$]_{N}$ nanodots.
Understanding the effect of fabrication conditions on domain wall motion in thin films with perpendicular magnetization is a mandatory issue in order to tune their properties aiming to design spintronics devices based on such phenomenon. In this context, the present work intends to show how different growth conditions may affect domain wall motion in the prototypical system Pt/Co/Pt. The trilayers were deposited by dc sputtering, and the parameters varied in this study were the Co thickness, the substrate roughness, and the base pressure in the deposition chamber. Magneto-optical Kerr effect-based magnetometry and microscopy combined with X-ray reflectometry, atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy were adopted as experimental techniques. This permitted us to elucidate the impact on the hysteresis loops and on the domain wall dynamics, produced by different growth conditions. As other authors, we found that Co thickness is strongly determinant for both the coercive field and the domain wall velocity. On the contrary, the topographic roughness of the substrate and the base pressure of the deposition chamber evidence a selective impact on the nucleation of magnetic domains and on domain wall propagation, respectively, providing a tool to tune these properties.
We investigated the perpendicular exchange bias (PEB) switching from negative- to positive-exchange bias state for Cr2O3/Pt/Co exchange coupling thin film system exhibiting positive exchange bias phenomena. By changing Pt spacer layer thickness or measurements temperature, we demonstrated the control of two kind of intermediate state of the switching; the double hysteresis loop indicating local, non-averaged PEB, and single hysteresis loop indicating averaged PEB. We proposed the way to control the lateral ferromagnetic domain though the control of PEB magnitude.