Spin spring behavior in exchange coupled soft and high-coercivity hard ferromagnets

Author

Shull, R.D. ; Shapiro, A.J. ; Gornakov, V.S. ; Nikitenko, V.I. ; Jiang, J. Samuel ; Kaper, H. ; Leaf, G. ; Bader, S.D.

Author_Institution

Nat. Inst. of Stand. & Technol., Gaithersburg, MD, USA

Volume

37

Issue

4

fYear

2001

fDate

7/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2576

Lastpage

2578

Abstract

The magnetization reversal processes in an epitaxial Fe/Sm₂Co₇ structure were investigated using the magneto-optical indicator film technique. The dependence of the magnitude and the orientation of the structure average magnetization have been studied on both cycling and rotating the external magnetic field. Magnetization reversal of the soft ferromagnet was found to proceed by the formation of exchange springs due to spin winding in both the thickness and perpendicular directions as adjacent subdomains with opposite chirality are created. Experimental data is compared with a theoretical estimation of the rotational hysteresis loop for a spin system containing a one-dimensional (single chirality) exchange spring

Keywords

cobalt alloys; exchange interactions (electron); ferromagnetic materials; interface magnetism; iron; magnetic domains; magnetic epitaxial layers; magnetic hysteresis; magnetisation reversal; permanent magnets; samarium alloys; Faraday rotation; Fe-Sm₂Co₇; epitaxial structure; exchange coupled ferromagnets; exchange springs; high-coercivity hard ferromagnet; magnetic field cycling; magnetic field rotation; magnetization reversal processes; magneto-optical indicator film technique; one-dimensional spring; opposite chirality subdomains; permanent magnet; perpendicular direction; rotational hysteresis loop; soft ferromagnet; spin spring behavior; spin winding; thickness direction; Couplings; Iron; Magnetic domain walls; Magnetic films; Magnetization reversal; Magnetooptic effects; Saturation magnetization; Soft magnetic materials; Springs; Sputtering;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.951240

Filename

951240