• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.444-444
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• 2011

Recently, patterned magnetic films and elements attract a wide interest due to their technological potentials in ultrahigh-density magnetic recording and spintronic devices. Among those patterned magnetic structures, magnetic anti-dot patterning induces a strong shape anisotropy in the film, which can control the magnetic properties such as coercivity, permeability, magnetization reversal process, and magneto-resistance. While majority of the previous works have been concentrated on anti-dot arrays with a single magnetic layer, there has been little work on multilayered anti-dot arrays. In this work, we report on study of the magnetic properties of bilayered anti-dot system consisting of upper perforated Co layer of 40 nm and lower continuous Ni layer of 5 nm thick, fabricated by photolithography and wet-etching processes. The magnetic hysteresis (M-H) loops were measured with a superconducting-quantum-interference-device (SQUID) magnetometer (Quantum Design: MPMS). For comparison, investigations on continuous Co thin film and single-layer Co anti-dot arrays were also performed. The magnetic-domain configuration has been measured by using a magnetic force microscope (PSIA: XE-100) equipped with magnetic tips (Nanosensors). An external electromagnet was employed while obtaining the MFM images. The MFM images revealed well-defined periodic domain networks which arise owing to the anisotropies such as magnetic uniaxial anisotropy, configurational anisotropy, etc. The inclusion of holes in a uniform magnetic film and the insertion of a uniform thin Ni layer, drastically affected the coercivity as compared with single Co anti-dot array, without severely affecting the saturation magnetization ($M_s$). The observed changes in the magnetic properties are closely related to the patterning that hinders the domain-wall motion as well as to the magneto-anisotropic bilayer structure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.436-436
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• 2011

Recently, spintronic devices with submicron structures are widely investigated to take advantage of their unique micromagnetic properties. In this work, we study the temperature dependence of exchange bias in bilayer anti-dot arrays made by depositing Co (40 nm)/Ni (5 nm) ferromagnetic bilayer on Si substrate to form anti-dot arrays with a diameter $1{\mu}m$. The anti-dot patterning was done only for the upper Co layer, while the Ni underlayer was kept unperforated. The temperature dependences of magnetoresistance (MR) and exchange bias were studied along magnetic easy and hard axes. The in-plane MR measurements were performed using a physical-property measurement system (PPMS ; Quantum Design Inc.) at various temperatures. The standard in-line four-point probe configuration was used for the electrical contacts. As temperature was varied, the MR data were obtained in which in-plane field (H=3 kOe) was applied in the directions along the hard and the easy axes with respect to the lattice plane. The temperature dependences of magnetic anisotropy and exchange bias were also studied along the magnetic easy and hard axes. As temperature decreases, the single peak splits into two peaks. While no exchange bias was observed along the magnetic easy axis, the exchange bias field steadily increased with decreasing temperature along the magnetic hard axis. These results were interpreted in connection with the magnetic anisotropy and the effect of the anti-dots in pinning domain wall motion along the respective direction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.251-251
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• 2012

A lot of studies are undergoing on the magneto-optical (MO) properties of patterned magnetic systems for the reason that they have potential application to information technology such as ultrahigh-speed computing. Moreover, they can be considered as the future candidates for high-density MO storage devices. Not only the technical aspects, but there have been also tremendous interests in studying their properties related to the fundamental physics. The MO Kerr-rotation effects (both in reflected and the diffracted modes) and the magnetic force microscopy (MFM) are very useful techniques to investigate the micromagnetic properties of such periodic structures. Hence, in this study, we report on the MO properties of bilayered Cobalt (Co)/ nickel (Ni) micro-patterned anti-dot arrays. Such a ferromagnetic structure was made by sequentially depositing co (40 nm)/Ni (5 nm) bilayer on a Si substrate. The anti-dot patterning with hole diameter of $1{\mu}m$ was done only on the upper Co layer using photolithography technique, while the Ni underlayer was kept uniform. The longitudinal Kerr rotation (LKR) of the zeroth- and the first-order diffracted beams were measured at an incidence of $30^{\circ}$ by using a photoelastic modulator method. The external magnetic field was applied perpendicularly to the reflected and the diffracted beams using an electromagnet capable of a maximum field of ${\pm}5$ kOe. Significantly, it was observed that the LKR of the first-order diffracted beam is nearly 4 times larger than that of the zeroth-order beam. The simulated results for the hysteresis loops matched qualitatively well with the experimentally obtained ones. In conjunction with the LKR, we also investigated the magnetic-domain structure by using a MFM system, which were analyzed to elucidate the origin of the enhanced MO rotation.