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Home > Issues > Volume 8 (2003) > No.1(pp.1-78)

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
T. Stobiecki* (Department of Electronics, University of Mining and Metallurgy), M. Zoladz(Department of Electronics, University of Mining and Metallurgy)
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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