Mobility of domain wall motion in the permalloy layer of a spin-valve-like Fe20Ni80/Cu/Co trilayer

Keiki Fukumoto (1, 2) , Wolfgang Kuch (1, 2) , Jan Vogel (3) , Julio Camarero (4) , Stefania Pizzini (3) , Francesco Offi (1) , Yan Pennec (3) , Marlio Bonfim (3, 5) , Alain Fontaine (3) , Jürgen Kirschner (1)

1 MPI-HALLE - Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik
2 FU BERLIN - Institut für Experimentalphysik
3 LLN - Laboratoire Louis Néel
4 FMC - Departamento de Fisica de la Materia Condensada [Madrid]
5 Departamento de Engenharia Elétrica

The magnetization reversal of the magnetically soft permalloy (Fe20Ni80) layer in a spin-valve-like FeNi/Cu/Co trilayer was studied using photoelectron emission microscopy combined with X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, which allows to image the magnetic domain structure in an element-selective way. Nanosecond-short magnetic field pulses with amplitudes between 3.3 and 16.3mT were applied one by one to reverse the magnetization of the FeNi layer. Images of the magnetic domain structure were taken after application of each pulse, and the mobility of magnetic domain wall motion in the FeNi layer was deduced. The reversal mechanism of the FeNi layer was found to depend on the applied pulse length, amplitude, and on the energy and direction of the coupling between the two ferromagnetic layers.

Mots clés: spin-valve; PEEM; magnetization reversal

Domaines: Autre [cond-mat.other]

Keiki Fukumoto, Wolfgang Kuch, Jan Vogel, Julio Camarero, Stefania Pizzini, et al.. Mobility of domain wall motion in the permalloy layer of a spin-valve-like Fe20Ni80/Cu/Co trilayer. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, 2005, 293, pp.863. ⟨10.1016/j.jmmm.2004.12.009⟩. ⟨hal-00004890⟩