Hysteresis of Granular FePt:Ag Films With Perpendicular Anisotropy

Authors

M. L. Yan, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Ralph Skomski, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Arti KashyapFollow
L. Gao
Sy-Hwang Liou, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
David J. Sellmyer, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

7-1-2004

Comments

Published in IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 40, NO. 4, JULY 2004. Copyright 2004 IEEE. Used by permission.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2004.832168

Abstract

Intergranular interactions in nanostructured FePt:Ag thin films and their effect on magnetic hysteresis are investigated. The films, produced by multilayer deposition plus rapid thermal annealing, consist of FePt nanoparticles embedded in a silver matrix. They are investigated by magnetization measurements and magnetic force microscopy. Analytical model calculations, supported by micromagnetic simulations, are used to elucidate the relation between coercivity, hysteresis-loop slope, and spatial correlations during magnetization reversal. The analytical calculations yield simple expressions for the loop slope and the coercivity as a function of the intergranular exchange. Small intergranular exchange enhances the coercivity, but for strong exchange there is a self-energy cutoff, associated with the onset of cooperative reversal and preventing alpha from becoming negative.