Magnetic Yoking and Tunable Interactions in FePt-Based Hard/Soft Bilayers

Published

September 8, 2016

Author(s)

Dustin Allen Gilbert, Jung-Wei Liao, Brian J Kirby, Michael Winklhofer, Chih-Huang Lai, Kai Liu

Abstract

Assessing and controlling magnetic interactions in magnetic nanostructures are critical to nanomagnetic and spintronic explorations, such as magnetic recording media, permanent magnets, magnetic memory and logic devices, etc. Here we demonstrate an extremely sensitive magnetic yoking effect and tunable interactions in FePt based hard/soft bilayers mediated by the soft layer. Below the exchange length, a thin soft layer strongly exchange couples to the perpendicular moments of the hard layer; above the exchange length, just a few nanometers thicker, the soft layer moments turn in-plane and act to yoke the dipolar fields from the adjacent hard layer perpendicular domains. The evolution from exchange to dipolar-dominated interactions is experimentally captured by first-order reversal curves, the {Δ}ń method, and polarized neutron reflectometry, and confirmed by micromagnetic simulations. These findings demonstrate an effective yoking approach to design and control magnetic interactions in wide varieties of magnetic nanostructures and devices.

Citation

Scientific Reports

Volume

6

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

Magnetic, Interactions, Domain, Thin Film, Multilayer, High Anisotropy, FePt, L10

Citation

, D. , Liao, J. , , B. , Winklhofer, M. , Lai, C. and Liu, K. (2016), Magnetic Yoking and Tunable Interactions in FePt-Based Hard/Soft Bilayers, Scientific Reports, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=921356 (Accessed January 2, 2025)