No Arabic abstract
Magnetization reversal mechanisms and depth-dependent magnetic profile have been investigated in Co/Pd thin films magnetron-sputtered under continuously varying pressure with opposite deposition orders. For samples grown under increasing pressure, magnetization reversal is dominated by domain nucleation, propagation and annihilation; an anisotropy gradient is effectively established, along with a pronounced depth-dependent magnetization profile. However, in films grown under decreasing pressure, disorders propagate vertically from the bottom high-pressure region into the top low-pressure region, impeding domain wall motion and forcing magnetization reversal via rotation; depth-dependent magnetization varies in an inverted order, but the spread is much suppressed.
Magnetometry and neutron scattering have been used to study the magnetic properties of pressure graded Co/Pd multilayers. The grading of the multilayer structure was done by varying the deposition pressure during sputtering of the samples. Magnetic depth profiling by polarized neutron reflectometry directly shows that for pressure-graded samples, the magnetization changes significantly from one pressure region to the next, while control samples sputtered at uniform pressure exhibit essentially uniform magnetic depth profiles. Complementary magnetometry results suggest that the observed graded magnetic profiles are due in part to a decrease in saturation magnetization for regions deposited at progressively higher pressure. Increased deposition pressure is shown to increase coercivity, and for graded samples, the absence of discrete steps in the hysteresis loops implies exchange coupling among regions deposited at different pressures.
Depth-grading of magnetic anisotropy in perpendicular magnetic media has been predicted to reduce the field required to write data without sacrificing thermal stability. To study this prediction, we have produced Co/Pd multilayers with depth-dependent Co layer thickness. Polarized neutron reflectometry shows that the thickness grading results in a corresponding magnetic anisotropy gradient. Magnetometry reveals that the anisotropy gradient promotes domain nucleation upon magnetization reversal - a clear experimental demonstration of the effectiveness of graded anisotropy for reducing write-field.
We have shown that polarized neutron reflectometry can determine in a model-free way not only the mean magnetization of a ferromagnetic thin film at any point of a hysteresis cycle, but also the mean square dispersion of the magnetization vectors of its lateral domains. This technique is applied to elucidate the mechanism of the magnetization reversal of an exchange-biased Co/CoO bilayer. The reversal process above the blocking temperature is governed by uniaxial domain switching, while below the blocking temperature the reversal of magnetization for the trained sample takes place with substantial domain rotation.
Oriented Strontium Ferrite films with the c axis orientation were deposited with varying oxygen partial pressure on Al2O3(0001) substrate using PLD technique. The angle dependent magnetic hysteresis, remanent coercivity and temperature dependent coercivity had been employed to understand the magnetization reversal of these films. It was found that the Strontium Ferrite thin film grown at lower (higher) oxygen partial pressure shows Stoner-Wohlfarth type (Kondorsky like) reversal. The relative importance of pinning and nucleation processes during magnetization reversal is used to explain the type of the magnetization reversal with different oxygen partial pressure during growth.
Among the magnetostrictive alloys the one formed of iron and gallium (called Galfenol from its U.S. Office of Naval Research discoverers in the late 90s) is attractive for its low hysteresis, good tensile stress, good machinability and its rare-earth free composition. One of its applications is its association with a piezoelectric material to form a extrinsic multiferroic composite as an alternative to the rare room temperature intrinsic multiferroics such as BiFeO$_3$. This study focuses on thin Fe$_{0.81}$Ga$_{0.19}$ films of thickness 5, 10, 20 and 60 nm deposited by sputtering onto glass substrates. Magnetization reversal study reveals a well-defined symmetry with two principal directions independent of the thickness. The magnetic signature of this magnetic anisotropy decreases with increasing FeGa thickness due to an increase of the non-preferential polycrystalline arrangement, as revealed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations. Thus when magnetic field is applied along these specific directions, magnetization reversal is mainly coherent for the thinnest sample as seen from the transverse magnetization cycles. Magnetostriction coefficient reaches 20 ppm for the 5 nm film and decreases for thicker samples, where polycrystalline part with non-preferential orientation prevails.