Studies of domain dynamics in amorphous Dy/Fe multilayers

Authors

Roger D. Kirby, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
J.X. Shen, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Z.S. Shan, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
David J. Sellmyer, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

November 1991

Comments

Published by American Institute of Physics. J. Applied Physics 70, 6200 (1991). © 1991 American Institute of Physics. Permission to use. http://jap.aip.org/jap/.

Abstract

Compositionally-modulated Dy/Fe films were prepared by dc magnetron sputtering onto glass substrates. For this series of samples, the Dy thickness was fixed at 5 Å, while the Fe thickness was varied from 4 to 6 Å. To study the magnetization reversal, the samples were first saturated. The magnetic field was then reversed to a value near the coercive field, and the Kerr rotation was measured as a function of time after reversal. We interpret our results in terms of the model of domain reversal first described by Fatuzzo for ferroelectrics. For some Fe thicknesses, we found that the reversal process was dominated by domain nucleation, while for other thicknesses it was dominated by domain wall motion. The observed behavior is discussed in terms of the magnetic and structural properties of the films.