Correlating Microstructure with Switching Field Distribution in Nanomagnetic Systems with Transmission Electron Microscopy

We examine how nominally identical nanostructure can exhibit different switching behaviors in two model systems. The first system consists of an array of perpendicularly magnetized Co/Pd multilayer nanodots. We found that the non-uniformity in switching fields among the nanodots in an array is due to a single grain of weak uniaxial anisotropy. In the second system consisting of in-plane magnetized Permalloy nanodot arrays, we found that edge roughness plays an important role in the switching uniformity of the nanodot array.