Dresden 2011 – scientific programme
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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus
MA 29: Micro- and Nanostructured Magnetic Materials II
MA 29.7: Talk
Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 12:30–12:45, HSZ 103
Magnetic reversal in a laterally structured spin valve system with one tunable magnetic layer — •Frank Brüssing, Melanie Ewerlin, Radu Abrudan, and Hartmut Zabel — Department of Physics, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany
We investigated the magnetization reversal of interacting Co islands and how their behavior is altered after switching on the interlayer exchange interaction to a second magnetic layer with different magnetic domain structure and different coercivity values. As a test system we grew via MBE an epitaxial magnetic heterostructure comprising two ferromagnetic layers, one with a high Curie temperature (TC) (Co) and one with a TC below room temperature (RT) (Fe1−xCrx), and a mediating Cr layer in between. This heterostructure was patterned via e-beam lithography and ion beam etching in the lateral direction. We have investigated the magnetization reversal of Co at RT and of the combined system at low temperature, using x-ray resonant magnetic scattering (XRMS), which allows element selective investigations of the magnetic behavior by tuning the x-ray energy to the respective L-edges of Co and Fe. As reference we also investigated the same heterostructure before patterning. The lateral periodic pattern gives raise to new in-plane Bragg reflections, revealing the structural and magnetic correlation between the islands. We have used a CCD camera for investigating the magnetic Bragg peaks and magnetic diffuse scattering as a function of temperature above and below the TC of Fe1−xCrx. Furthermore, by varying the field we followed the domain formation during the magnetization reversal for the respective layers.