S. M. Ryabchenko

Growth-induced perpendicular anisotropy of grains in Co-Al-O nanogranular ferromagnetic films

This paper reports on the results of the magnetostatic measurements for Co-Al-O nanogranular films over a wide range of concentrations of the ferromagnetic component x. It has been revealed that grains in the films are characterized by the growth-induced anisotropy with easy axes directed perpendicular to the film plane. The maximum field of the single-grain perpendicular anisotropy reaches ∼2.5 kOe for samples in the vicinity of the percolation threshold (x ≈ 61 at % Co). It has been established that the characteristic features of the superparamagnetic behavior of an ensemble of oriented Stoner-Wohlfarth particles are retained for the sample with x ≈ 61 at % Co in the presence of the demagnetization field associated with the net magnetization of the film. The influence of the demagnetization field of the film on the shape of the magnetization reversal curves, the coercivity, and the blocking temperature has been investigated and simulated. The results of the simulation are consistent with the experimental data.

Intergranular interactions in nanogranular (CoFeB)x–(SiO2)1−x films with temperature and angular variations in coercivity

The temperature (4.5–550K) and angular (in the film plane) dependences of the coercivity field for physically nonpercolated nanogranular (CoFeB)x–(SiO2)1−x films with an oriented intraplane granule anisotropy have some unusual properties compared to those owing to blocking of thermally activated reorientation of the magnetic moments of the granules. At temperatures above the blocking temperature Tb≈350–370K, the dependence of the coercivity on the measurement duration is weak compared to that below Tb. Its angular (in the film plane) dependence differs qualitatively from that expected with blocking of superparamagnetic particles. This behavior is explained by the appearance of superferromagnetic ordering of the granule magnetic moments at T>Tb owing to interactions among them. As the temperature is reduced below 100K, the coercive field Hc for magnetization in the easy direction increases significantly more than expected for a blocked superparamagnetic ensemble. Here Hc≠0 for magnetization along the hard ...

Influence of the demagnetizing factor on the magnetization of an ensemble of Stoner-Wohlfarth particles

The influence of the demagnetizing factor on the coercivity of a sample of oriented uniaxial Stoner-Wohlfarth particles is investigated in the approximation of a relaxation model with a self-consistent determination of the demagnetization field. The demagnetizing field is shown to change the particle magnetization reversal conditions and to reduce the blocking temperature and coercivity, for which, despite allowance for the demagnetizing field, the Neel-Brown relation holds. It is also shown that under the demagnetizing field, the internal magnetic field in which the particles are located is not stationary but varies with time concordantly with the time sweep of the temperature during magnetization in a constant external field after zero-field cooling (ZFC). Nonstationarity of the internal field in the ZFC regime causes the interval of transition temperatures of the ensemble particles from a blocked state to a state with equilibrium magnetization to increase.

Rotatable magnetic anisotropy in Si/SiO2/(Co2Fe)xGe1?x Heusler alloy films

Polycrystalline (Co2Fe)(x)Ge(1-x) Heusler alloy films are fabricated by sputtering on amorphous substrates and shown to possess three types of magnetic anisotropy. The nearly stoichiometric composition of x = 50 m.f.% shows a rectangular hysteresis loop and isotropic coercive and ferromagnetic resonance fields when the film is field-magnetized along any in-plane direction, thus predominantly possessing rotatable in-plane magnetic anisotropy. Higher-x compositions show evidence of two- and fourfold in-plane anisotropy superposed on the rotatable one. A qualitative model of the observed anisotropic magnetic properties is proposed. The model explains the rotatable anisotropy by taking into account dry friction for the in-plane rotation of the magnetization direction in a fine-grained polycrystalline film with the magnetic grain size smaller than the correlation length of the inter-grain exchange interaction. The observed two- and fourfold magnetic anisotropy contributions are attributed to partial texturing of the fine-grained films, even though the films are grown on amorphous SiO2 substrates. These results should be valuable for understanding and controlling the magnetic behaviour of highly spin-polarized Heusler alloy films used in various magnetic nanodevices.

The role of defects in the formation of the multidomain state of easy-plane antiferromagnets with magnetoelastic interaction

We analyzed the field dependences of forced magnetostriction in the multidomain state of the easy-plane antiferromagnet CoCl2 obtained in the following cycles: the introduction-removal of a magnetic field lying in the easy plane, the introduction-removal of a magnetic field lying in the easy plane and directed normally to that introduced earlier, etc. The magnetostriction of the crystal in the multidomain state was shown to contain two components. First, the component reversible in the cycle magnetic field introduction-removal, which makes the major contribution in the crystal under consideration, and, second, a comparatively small irreversible component, that is, the contribution retained after magnetic field removal. In low fields, the reversible magnetostriction component was proportional to the square of the applied magnetic field. Field-induced rearrangement of the multidomain antiferromagnetic state was found to be responsible for singularities of the field dependence of crystal magnetization. In particular, in a near-zero field that lay in the easy plane, the transverse susceptibility decreased twofold compared with its value in fields in which the crystal is already in the monodomain state. At the same time, close to the “monodomainization” field, transverse magnetic susceptibility was maximum. Defects were shown to favor the formation of the reversible multidomain state. Determining factors in this process were elastic and magnetoelastic interactions. The multidomain state of antiferromagnets was described using the domain distribution function over the orientations of domain antiferromagnetic vectors with respect to the magnetic field direction and the magnetic field dependence of this function. The results of our analysis were in close agreement with the experimental data on CoCl2.

Magnetic properties and anisotropic coercivity in nanogranular films of Co/Al2O3 above the percolation limit

Magnetic properties of nanogranular ferromagnetic Co/Al2O3 films with 74.5 at% Co, which is above the percolation limit, are investigated. It is established that the films have perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and a weaker in-plane anisotropy. The magnetization curves show that the film consists of two magnetic components: a dominating contribution from magneto-anisotropic isolated grains with the anisotropy axis perpendicular to the film plane and a weaker contribution from the percolated part of the film. This two-component magnetic composition of the films, with the dominating contribution from the nanograins, is confirmed by transmission electron microscopy as well as by ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy. It is further established that the coercive field of the film is almost entirely determined by the percolated part of the film. In this, the angular dependence of the coercive force, H-c(theta(H)), is essentially proportional to sin(-1)theta(H), where theta(H) is the angle between the applied field and the films normal. However, for theta(H) -> 0, H-c(theta(H)) there is a narrow minimum with H-c approaching zero. Such non-linear dependence agrees well with our modelling results for a two-component magnetic system of the film, where the non-percolated nanograins have a distinct perpendicular anisotropy. The reported results should be important for in-depth characterization and understanding the magnetism and anisotropy in inhomogeneous systems as well as for applications, specifically in perpendicular magnetic recording.

Critical magnetization and hysteresis of nanogranular films with perpendicular anisotropy

The magnetic-field dependences of the stability boundaries of the nonequilibrium magnetic states that exist in a nanogranular film with perpendicular anisotropy in tilted magnetic fields are theoretically described, and the corresponding critical magnetization is calculated. The field dependences of the critical magnetization of the film are analyzed at various ratios of the anisotropy field of particles to the maximum possible demagnetizing field of the film. In a tilted magnetic field, the magnetization reversal curves, which include hysteresis loops, are shown to consist of segments of the following three types: equilibrium stable magnetization, nonequilibrium stable magnetization, and critical type of magnetization.

Features of the temperature dependence and magnetic-field dependence of the critical current density close to the critical temperature in YBa2Cu3O7−δ thin films

The temperature dependence of the critical density of superconducting current jc(τ) [τ=(1−T∕Tc), and Tc is the critical temperature] of two epitaxial c-oriented YBa2Cu3O7−δ thin films grown on LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 substrates has been investigated by the method of dynamic magnetic susceptibility. In both samples, the jc(τ) dependence has two sections with power dependences jc∼τ3∕2 and jc∼τ2 in the temperature region from 77K to Tc, with crossover between them. Measurements were made of the temperature dependences of the dynamic relaxation rate Q(τ) (magnetic flux creep), which turned out to be unconnected with the observed crossovers. It is shown that the observed features of jc(τ) are not caused, as was assumed earlier, by the limitation of the critical depairing current density in the interdislocation gaps of the interblock boundaries of YBa2Cu3O7−δ epitaxial thin films. Based on numerical calculations, it is shown that the existence of crossovers and the breakdown of H∕τ scaling detected in one of the samp...

Effect of multidomain structure on the field dependences of magnetization and forced striction in easy-plane antiferromagnets

The forced magnetostriction and magnetization are measured in the easy-plane-type two-sublattice NiCl2 antiferromagnet (AFM) in the case where this AFM passes from the multidomain to a single-domain state. It is shown that, in accordance with the magnetoelastic nature of the multidomain state, the field dependences of the forced magnetostriction and magnetization are interrelated and affected by the transition from the multidomain to the single-domain state. The character of these dependences corresponds to the case where the magnetization and striction are proportional to the number of domains with an energetically favored orientation with respect to the external magnetic field.

Hysteresis of magnetization reversal loops in films with perpendicular anisotropy in an inclined magnetic field

Numerical calculations of magnetization reversal loops of nanogranular films having perpendicular anisotropy in an inclined magnetic field at finite temperature, for film “quality parameters” both less than, and greater than, one. The calculations are performed with consideration of the films demagnetizing field in the two-level approximation for the energy of the granule. It is found that the hysteresis of the transition fields between states with uniformly directed and non-uniformly directed magnetic moments for all granules narrows with increasing temperature and field deviation angle from the normal to the film. As the field deviation increases this hysteresis vanishes, and there is a transition from the uniformly magnetized state of the granules to the equilibrium non-homogeneous state without hysteresis. In the case of large field deflection angles, at finite temperature the magnetization consists of three regions. At the center of the magnetization curve there is a hysteresis region in which the m...