Singularity in high-frequency susceptibility of thin magnetic films with uniaxial anisotropy

A sharp peak of magnetic susceptibility has been observed in the ferromagnetic resonance spectra of uniaxial magnetic films placed in a planar field directed orthogonal to the easy magnetization axis, along which a pumping high-frequency magnetic field has been oriented. The peak width is considerably narrower than the line width of the uniform ferromagnetic resonance, and its position in a field equal to the film anisotropy field does not depend on the pumping frequency. The nature of the peak is associated with a drastic increase in the static transverse susceptibility of the film in the vicinity of the anisotropy field. It is shown phenomenologically that the peak can be observed only for quality samples with small angular and amplitude dispersion of the uniaxial anisotropy.     

On the problem of the dependence of uniaxial magnetic anisotropy of thin films on the angle of deposition

Czechoslovak Journal of Physics -     

Thickness dependent magnetization dynamics of perpendicular anisotropy Co/Pd multilayer films

We present the measurements of the picosecond magnetization dynamics of Co/Pd multilayer films. The dynamic magnetization properties of sputtered multilayer films were analyzed as a function of Co layer thicknesses and applied bias field. Both the eigenfrequencies of the magnetization precession in the multilayers and the associated Gilbert damping exhibit extreme sensitivity to the magnetic layer thickness on an atomic monolayer scale. The eigenfrequency increases more than threefold when the Co thickness decreases from 7.5 to 2.8 Å, mainly due to the changes in effective saturation magnetization and perpendicular anisotropy constant. A concomitant 2.6-fold increase in the damping of the oscillations is observed and attributed to stronger interface dissipation in thinner Co layers. In addition, we introduce a quasi-1D micromagnetic model in which the multilayer stack is described as a one-dimensional chain of macrospins that represent each Co layer. This model yields excellent agreement with the observed resonance frequencies without any free parameters, while being much simpler and faster than full 3D micromagnetic modeling.     

Growth-induced magnetic anisotropy behavior in thin garnet films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

The effect of target rotation rate on the magneto-optical properties and induced magnetic anisotropy of pulse laser deposition grown Bi:YIG garnets has been investigated. The rotation rate dependence of magnetic properties of thin films has been studied using magneto-optical Faraday rotation combined with magneto-optical Kerr measurement setup. Our results show that decreasing the target rotation rate can also increase the polar coercive field and hence magnetic anisotropy. Also the spectral answer of samples show the capability of use of them in one off optical ranges such as visible, near infrared and far infrared regions.     

Thickness dependence of microwave magnetic properties in electrodeposited Fe-Co soft magnetic films with in-plane anisotropy

In this work, the thickness effect of Fe₅₂Co₄₈ soft magnetic films with in-plane anisotropy on static and microwave magnetic properties was investigated. The hysteresis loop results indicated that the static in-plane uniaxial anisotropy field increased from almost 0-60 Oe with increasing film thickness from 100 to 540 nm and well-defined in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy can be obtained as the thickness reached 540 nm or larger. Based on Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation, the microwave complex permeability spectra were analyzed and well fitted. The LLG curve-fitting results indicated that the initial permeability increased from 106 to 142 and the resonant frequency was shifted from 4.95 to 4.29 GHz as the film thickness was varied from 540 to 1500 nm. Moreover, it was found that there was a discrepancy between the static and the dynamically determined anisotropy field, which can be explained by introducing an additional effective isotropic ripple field. The decreased ripple field was suggested to result in a significant decrease of damping coefficient from 0.109 to 0.038.     

Influence of imperfections in magnetic thin films on the relaxation of the uniaxial anisotropy

Skew aging and its dependence on stabilization treatments have been investigated in cylindrical, electroplated permalloy films by annealing in hard axis magnetic fields. The skew fieldH _± was measured with the Belson test method. Plots ofH _± versus a logarithmic time scale show nearly straight lines in a range of four decades for temperatures between ambient temperature and 200 °C. This behaviour is supposed to be explained with a distribution of the relaxation processes in activation energy between 0·8 and 1·6 eV independent of the stabilization treatment. The frequency factor lying between 10⁹ and 10¹⁰ sec is found to be a function of the stabilization temperature. The values can be interpreted by first-order kinetic processes, while this is not possible by assuming discrete activation energies. The reason for the distribution is the highly defective structure of thin films, especially in grain boundaries, dislocations and around impurities. By stabilization treatments the total volume of these regions and the vacancy concentration decrease. Only the Fe-Fe pair ordering mechanism is necessary to interpret the annealing data, if one assumes that also pairs in locally defective regions contribute to the anisotropy.     

Interface induced uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in amorphous CoFeB films on AlGaAs(001)

We demonstrate an isolated magnetic interface anisotropy in amorphous CoFeB films on (Al)GaAs(001), similar to that in epitaxial films but without a magnetocrystalline anisotropy term. The direction of the easy axis corresponds to that due to the interfacial interaction proposed for epitaxial films. We show that the anisotropy is determined by the relative orbital component of the atomic magnetic moments. Charge transfer is ruled out as the origin of the interface anisotropy, and it is postulated that the spin-orbit interaction in the semiconductor is crucial in determining the magnetic anisotropy.     

The character of oblique anisotropy in quantum wells formed by vacuum deposition

The nature of oblique anisotropy formation in ferromagnetic quantum wells produced by vacuum deposition is considered. The developed results are compared to the known experimental data on the basis of numerical methods.     

The dependence of the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in evaporated films on the angle of incidence

The method of local ferromagnetic resonance and direct torsional measurements were used to measure the dependence of the magnetic anisotropy in permalloy films on the angle of incidence in a broad range of such angles. It was found that this dependence is not monotonous and that at larger angles of incidence the easy axis of magnetization is rotated. An interpretation of this phenomenon is proposed.

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In conclusion the authors wish to thank J. Grolmus for performing some of the measurements, members of the mechanics workshop of the Institute of Physics, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, for carefully preparing the apparatus, and particularly K. Schaffner for accurately making the resonance cavity. We thank J. Kaczér and V. Janovec for carefully reading this paper and for a number of valuable remarks.     

Phase transitions in biperiodic stripe domain structures of uniaxial magnetic films with a positive anisotropy constant

New phase transitions induced by a magnetic field and accompanied by a change in the symmetry or the period of the distribution of the magnetization vector are observed in biperiodic stripe domain structures of iron garnet films with a positive anisotropy constant. A symmetry classification of the observed types of domain structures is derived, and the form of the state diagram of the films is determined in the H∥H⊥ plane, where H∥ and H⊥ are the components of the magnetic field vector perpendicular and parallel to the normal to the surface. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 114, 2089–2110 (December 1998)     

Investigation of induced parallel magnetic anisotropy at low deposition temperature in Ba-hexaferrites thin films

In this paper we present the effect of low substrate temperature on structural, morphological, magnetic and optical properties of Ba-hexaferrite thin films. Films were deposited on single crystal Silicon (1 0 0) substrate employing the Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique. The structural, morphological, magnetic and optical properties are found to be strongly dependent on substrate temperature. The low substrate temperatures (room temperature to 200 °C) restrict the formation of larger grains. For the higher substrate temperature i.e., 400 °C, the grain size of the deposited thin film are much larger. The film grown at low substrate temperature do not show any anisotropy. As the substrate temperature is increased, the easy axis of the films alinged itself in the direction parallel to the film plane whereas the hard axis remained in the perpendicular direction. The higher substrate temperature caused the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, which is very important in magnetic recording devices. The saturation magnetization and optical band gap energy values of 62 emu/cc and 1.75 eV, respectively, were achieved for the film of thickness 500 nm deposited at 400 °C. Higher values of coercivity, squareness and films thickness are associated with the growth of larger grains at higher substrate temperature.     

Domain walls confined in magnetic nanotubes with uniaxial anisotropy

We present calculations of the different domain wall structures confined in magnetic nanotubes, such as transverse wall, asymmetric vortex wall, branch fashion wall, and horse-saddle wall. The wall structures were calculated by micromagnetic simulations. The tube radii R=50 nm and 100 nm, and aspect ratios length/radius L/R≤15 were considered. The magnetic phase diagrams of the stability of different kinds of the domain walls were plotted as function of the tube aspect ratio L/R and the tube thickness (difference of the outer and inner tube radii).     

On the effective magnetization and uniaxial anisotropy of permalloy films

The values of the effective magnetization and uniaxial induced anisotropy were measured on permalloy films, vacuum deposited on unheated glass slides, by the method of local ferromagnetic resonance. The double resonance curves of these films indicate the existence of two magnetically different components; to both components there correspond different values of the effective magnetization and uniaxial anisotropy. These quantities have different local and time variations for each component. The results of measurement agree with the recently proposed model of the stratification of thin ferromagnetic films.The authors thank J. Kaczér and F. Kroupa for valuable discussions.     

Complex domain structure in a magnetic film with oblique anisotropy

Analytical formulas have been derived to calculate the distortion of the stripe domain structure in a ferromagnetic film under the action of a bubble domain formed in this film. On the basis of the formulas obtained, an experimentally obtained domain configuration has been calculated. The results of the calculation coincide with the observation data within the experimental error.     

Thickness dependent magnetic and ferroelectric properties of LaNiO3 buffered BiFeO3 thin films

BiFeO₃ (BFO) thin films with thickness increasing from 40 to 480 nm were successfully grown on LaNiO₃ (LNO) buffered Pt/Ti/SiO₂/Si(100) substrate and the effects of thickness evolution on magnetic and ferroelectric properties are investigated. The LNO buffer layer promotes the growth and crystallization of BFO thin films. Highly (100) orientation is induced for all BFO films regardless of the film thickness together with the dense microstructure. All BFO films exhibited weak ferromagnetic response at room temperature and saturation magnetization is found to decrease with increase in film thickness. Well saturated ferroelectric hysteresis loops were obtained for thicker films; however, the leakage current dominated the ferroelectric properties in thinner films. The leakage current density decreased by three orders of magnitude for 335 nm film compared to 40 nm film, giving rise to enhanced ferroelectric properties for thicker films. The mechanisms for the evolution of ferromagnetic and ferroelectric characteristics are discussed.     

Surface and guided magnetic polaritons in a film with perpendicular uniaxial magnetic anisotropy

The dispersion relations of surface and guided polaritons in a ferromagnetic film are obtained for perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in the Voigt geometry. A new frequency window for guided modes is predicted for small external magnetic field. The frequency of surface-guided mode decreases at first as a function of intensity of the external magnetic field applied parallel to the film surface, then goes through a minimum and finally increases with the field intensity. The calculations are carried out for physical parameters now available in substituted iron garnet films.     

Manipulating magnetic anisotropies of Co/MgO(001) ultrathin films via oblique deposition

We present a systematic investigation of magnetic anisotropy induced by oblique deposition of Co thin films on MgO(001) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy at different deposition angles,i.e.,0?,30?,45?,60?,and 75?with respect to the surface normal.Low energy electron diffraction(LEED),surface magneto–optical Kerr effect(SMOKE),and anisotropic magnetoresistance(AMR) setups were employed to investigate the magnetic properties of cobalt films.The values of in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy(UMA) constant Ku and four-fold magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant K1 were derived from magnetic torque curves on the base of AMR results.It was found that the value of Ku increases with increasing deposition angle with respect to the surface normal,while the value of K_1 remains almost constant for all the samples.Furthermore,by using MOKE results,the Ku values of the films deposited obliquely were also derived from the magnetization curves along hard axis.The results of AMR method were then compared with that of hard axis fitting method(coherent rotation) and found that both methods have almost identical values of UMA constant for each sample.     

Isolating the step contribution to the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in nanostructured Fe/Ag(001) films

We have investigated the possibility of isolating the step-induced in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in Fe/Ag(001) films on which nanoscale surface ripples were fabricated by the ion sculpting technique. For rippled Fe films deposited on flat Ag(001), the steps created along the ripple sidewalls are shown to be the only source of uniaxial anisotropy. Ion sculpting of ultrathin magnetic films allows one to selectively study the step-induced anisotropy and to investigate the correlation between local atomic environment and magnetic properties.     

Contribution of electrolyte pH and deposition potentials to the magnetic anisotropy of electrodeposited nickel films

The influence of electrolyte pH and cathode potential on the magnetic properties of single layer Nickel films electrodeposited on polycrystalline titanium substrates was studied. The films were deposited at the electrolyte pH=3.5±0.1, 2.5±0.1 and 2.1±0.1 by varying the deposition potentials (?1.2, ?1.5 and ?1.8 V vs saturated calomel electrode, SCE) applied in continuous waveform. The structural analysis by X-ray diffraction revealed that the films have face-centred cubic structure. Results of the magnetic measurements obtained by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) indicated that the magnetic properties were affected by the electrolyte pH and the cathode potentials in terms of magnetic anisotropy. At the highest pH the films deposited at the lowest potential had in-plane magnetic anisotropy. As the electrolyte pH decreased from the high (pH=3.5±0.1) to low (pH=2.5±0.1), which is aided by increasing the potentials, resulted in an almost magnetic isotropy in the films. However, isotropic magnetic behaviour was observed for the film deposited at the low pH combined with the high potential (?1.8 V vs SCE). Magnetic thickness profile of the samples obtained by VSM revealed that the isotropic films have a smoother magnetic variation across the film from one edge than the anisotropic ones. This is also verified with a microscopic observation by an optical microscope and the surface of the isotropic films is observed to be smoother than that of the anisotropic ones. Furthermore, all films were found to have planar magnetic anisotropy irrespective of the pH’s and the potentials.