Professor Stephen Blundell

Abstract:

A technique for engineering micron and submicron scale structures from magnetic films of transition metals has been developed using a combination of electron- and ion-beam lithography enabling high-quality arrays of submicron magnetic Fe wires to be fabricated. This process can be used to fabricate novel devices from a variety of metal combinations which would not be possible by the usual liftoff metallization method. The structure and magnetic properties are reported of an epitaxial 25 nm Fe(001)/GaAs(001) film and the wire gratings which are fabricated from it. The width of the wires in the grating is 0.5 μm for all structures studied, but the separation of each wire is varied in the range 0.5 to 16 μm. An artificially induced shape anisotropy field of around 1 kG, consistent with a magnetostatic calculation, was observed for all separations studied. The field dependence of the magneto-optic Kerr effect and magnetoresistance (MR) data is consistent with a twisted magnetization configuration across the width of the sample beneath saturation for transverse applied fields. In this case, the detailed form of the field dependence of the MR is strikingly modified from that observed in the continuous film and is consistent with coherent rotation of the magnetization.

Abstract:

Using a transfer matrix method, the band structure is calculated for a spin-dependent generalization of the Kronig-Penney model which consists of a one-dimensional array of delta function potentials whose strengths depend on the relative orientation of the electron spin and a vector located at each delta function site, the direction of which is helically modulated. This is compared with a spin-independent Kronig-Penney model in which only the amplitude of each delta function is modulated. The period of the modulation can be incommensurate with the periodicity of the delta function array. The fractal nature of the band structure in the spin-independent case is shown to be quenched by the additional symmetry in the spin-dependent model.

Abstract:

A novel combination of electron- and ion-beam lithography has been used to prepare Fe gratings with wire widths of 0.5 μm and wire separations in the range 0.5-4 μm from an Fe/GaAs (001) film of thickness 25 nm. With an in-plane magnetic field applied perpendicular to the length of the wires, a harder magnetisation loop is observed using the magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE), compared with that observed in the unprocessed film. We observe a strong effect in the magnetoresistance (MR) when the magnetic field is applied transverse to the wires. It is believed that this effect originates from the highly non-uniform demagnetising field in each wire of the grating. These results demonstrate that the combination of MOKE and MR measurements can provide important information about the magnetisation reversal processes in magnetic gratings and can be used to understand the effect of shape anisotropy on magnetic properties. © 1994.