Journal article
Nanometer-size magnetic domains and coherent magnetization reversal in a giant exchange-bias system
University of Nancy 11
Los Alamos National Laboratory2
National Institute of Standards and Technology3
Nano-Microstructures in Materials, Materials Research Division, Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark4
Materials Research Division, Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark5
Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark6
University of Maryland, College Park7
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre8
The role of magnetic domains and domain walls in exchange bias has stimulated much contemporary deliberation. Here we present compelling evidence obtained with small-angle scattering of unpolarized- and polarized-neutron beams that magnetization reversal occurs via formation of 10-100s nm-sized magnetic domains in an exchange-biased DyFe2/YFe2 superlattice.
The reversal mechanism is observed to involve rotation of magnetization in and out of the sample plane. Remarkably, the domains are arranged in a quasiperiodic manner in the plane of the sample. The length scale of domain formation is similar to that of structural defects at the seed-layer-superlattice interface.
| Language: | English |
|---|---|
| Year: | 2011 |
| ISSN: | 1550235x , 10980121 , 01631829 and 10953795 |
| Types: | Journal article |
| DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevB.84.064420 |
