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Observation of the Domain Structures in Soft Magnetic (Fe97Al3)85N15/Al2O3 Multilayers
Journal of Magnetics, Volume 8, Number 1, 31 Mar 2003, Pages 13-17
Abstract
The longitudinal magnetooptical Kerr effect was used to analyse magnetic domains in soft magnetic (Fe97Al3)85N15/Al2O3 multilayers in order to get microscopic understanding of interlayer exchange coupling. The measuring system consists of a Kerr microscope, a CCIR camera (with an 8-bit framegrabber), 16 bit digital camera and computer system for real-time image processing and to control external magnetic field and cameras. The strength of ferromagnetic (EM) coupling as a function of the spacer thickness of Al2O3 was investigated. It was found that strong FM-coupling, strong uniaxial anisotropy and coherent rotation of the magnetization have been observed for the spacer thickness in the range of 0.2 nm≤ t ≤1 m, however, weak FM-coupling, patch domains and 360°-walls occur for the spacer thickness of t = 2.5 nm. At a spacer thickness of t ≥5 nm transition takes place from weak FM-coupling to the decoupled state where complex interlayer interactions and different types of the domain walls were observed.
Keywords: magnetic domains and walls of multilayers; Kerr microscope; real-time image processing; soft magnetic properties of multilayers
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