Magnetization Reversal Phenomena in Thin Films Presenting Stripe Domains

Abstract

We present a study of properties related to the magnetization reversal process in two thin filmsamples presenting magnetic stripe domains: Fe0.82Ga0.18 (Fe-Ga) and Ni0.81Fe0.19 (permalloy). InFe-Ga thin films, we focus on the magnetization reversal driven by thermal activation, by consideringthe magnetic viscosity behavior. The results suggest that the reversal process occurs gradually, wherethe magnetization switches direction via ~10 nm-long jumps of the magnetic domain walls. On theother hand, vectorial hysteresis loops were performed in permalloy thin films with the aim to studythe behavior of the transverse magnetization component (perpendicular to the applied field) duringthe magnetization reversal process. We show that the measurement of the transversal magnetizationcomponent shows a much higher sensitivity for the determination of the in-plane magnetic anisotropythan the usual hysteresis loops where the magnetization is parallel to the applied field. Moreover,this allows to highlight the competition between the intrinsic and rotatable anisotropies in thin filmsthat present stripe domains.

Keywords: Ferromagnetic thin films, stripe domains, reversal phenomena, magnetic viscosity, vectorial magnetization.