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MA: Magnetismus
MA 7: Micro- and Nanostructured Magnetic Materials I
MA 7.4: Talk
Monday, March 27, 2006, 15:45–16:00, HSZ 03
Magnetic patterning of interlayer exchange coupled Fe/Cr/Fe-trilayers induced by ion irradiation — •S. Blomeier1, B. Hillebrands1, V. E. Demidov2, S. O. Demokritov2, B. Reuscher3, A. Brodyanski3, and M. Kopnarski3 — 1Fachbereich Physik, TU Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany — 2Institut für Angewandte Physik, Westfaelische Wilhems-Universitaet Muenster, 48149 Muenster, Germany — 3Institut für Oberflaechen- und Schichtanalytik, TU Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany
We demonstrate the fabrication of small ferromagnetic elements embedded in a continuous, antiferromagnetically coupled epitaxial Fe/Cr/Fe-trilayer with a zero net-magnetic moment in remanence. The trilayer is locally irradiated with 30 keV Ga+ ions within a fluence range of 1.25 − 6 · 1016 ions/cm2, using a focused ion beam source. According to a previously established model [1], the irradiation leads to interfacial intermixing and to a change of the interlayer thickness. As a result, a local transition from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic coupling due to direct exchange through ferromagnetic pinholes is achieved. Micron-sized areas with different geometries are irradiated in this way and analyzed with atomic force microscopy and magnetic force microscopy. It is shown that small ferromagnetic elements embedded into a smooth, antiferromagnetically coupled film can be created with this technique.
This work was supported by the EC-RTN NEXBIAS and by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
[1] Demokritov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 097201 (2003).