Regensburg 2013 – scientific programme

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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 24: Magnetic Imaging and Scattering Techniques

MA 24.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 10:30–10:45, H22

Domain pattern breakup in mesoscopic structures studied with x-ray microscopy — Stephanie Stevenson, Christoforos Moutafis, Laura Heyderman, Christoph Quitmann, and •Jörg Raabe — Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland

We report on the modification of the ground state domain pattern in Ni₈₁Fe₁₉ square islands due to RF excitation as monitored by scanning transmission x-ray microscopy at the PolLux beamline of the Swiss Light Source. A sinusoidal continuous wave field is applied via a stripline to excite the magnetisation of structures with physical dimensions in the micrometer range, fabricated at the Laboratory for Micro- and Nano-technology (LMN) at the Paul Scherrer Institute. During the RF excitation, a breakup of the domain configuration into a metastable state occurs. This metastable state returns to the ground state when the excitation is removed. Micromagnetic simulations and experiment agree that the domain breakup nucleates from a high amplitude motion of the domain walls. Directly visualising such metastable states provides insight into the tailoring of RF excitations for vortex core reversal and domain reorientation processes.