Dresden 2003 – scientific programme

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MA: Magnetismus

MA 2: Magnetische Dünne Schichten I

MA 2.11: Talk

Monday, March 24, 2003, 12:45–13:00, HSZ/04

Microscopic mechanisms mediating topological phase transitions in the domain structure of ultrathin Fe films on Cu(001) — •Oliver Portmann, Andreas Vaterlaus, and Danilo Pescia — Laboratorium für Festkörperphysik, ETH Zürich

Perpendicularly magnetized ultrathin Fe films on Cu(001) exhibit a variety of different domain patterns, including an inverse transition from a labyrinthine to a stripe pattern on approaching the Curie temperature. Detailed images of the domain structure allow to track the mechanisms mediating the pattern transfomations on a microscopic scale. Defects such as bridge and knee-bend instabilities have not been associated with two-dimensional melting yet, but are now found to be the defects driving the inverse transition from a labyrinthine to a stripe domain pattern. Such defects have, however, been predicted in theoretical studies on general pattern forming equations [1].

The imaging of the domain structure is performed by means of a SEMPA (Scanning Electron Microscope with Polarization Analysis).

[1] A. C. Newell et al., Physica D 97, 185 (1996)