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Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics)
Print Issue of 1 June 2002

Phys. Rev. B 65, 224417 (2002) (6 pages)

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Ferromagnetic domain distribution in thin films during magnetization reversal

W.-T. Lee,1 S. G. E. te Velthuis,2 G. P. Felcher,2 F. Klose,1 T. Gredig,3 and E. D. Dahlberg3
1Spallation Neutron Source, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831
2Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439
3Department of Physics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455

(Received 20 December 2001; revised 8 April 2002; published 3 June 2002)

It is shown that polarized neutron reflectometry can determine in a model-free way not only the mean magnetization of a ferromagnetic thin film at any point of a hysteresis cycle, but also the mean-square dispersion of the magnetization vectors of its lateral domains. This technique is applied to elucidate the mechanism of magnetization reversal of an exchange-biased Co/CoO bilayer. The reversal process above the blocking temperature Tb is governed by uniaxial domain switching, while below Tb the reversal of magnetization for the trained sample takes place with substantial domain rotation. ©2002 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v65/e224417
doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.65.224417
PACS: 75.25.+z, 75.60.Jk, 75.70.-i        Additional Information

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