Electronic Resource
[S.l.]
:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Journal of Applied Physics
87 (2000), S. 1395-1401
ISSN:
1089-7550
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
Notes:
We describe experiments on arrays of polycrystalline Co structures fabricated by interference lithography. The dots are thin (15–40 nm), submicron in size, and are patterned with a uniaxial, in-plane, shape anisotropy axis. We use magnetic force microscopy (MFM) in the presence of an applied field to directly observe magnetic reversal in the dots. These experiments reveal that reversal occurs predominantly through the nucleation and annihilation of a single magnetic vortex in each dot. Hysteresis loop measurements indicate that the vortices are stable over a wide range of applied fields and that the limits of this range depend on the size and thickness of the dots. Using the MFM data, we determine the statistical distribution of the single-vortex nucleation field for several different arrays. We attribute the observed variance to the random orientation of the polycrystalline grains. Finally, we show that the average vortex nucleation and annihilations fields are linearly correlated to the demagnetization field of a uniformly magnetized structure. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.372026
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