Micromagnetic and Magnetooptical Properties of Ferromagnetic/Heavy Metal Thin Film Structures

Abstract

The magnetic properties of CoPt, CoPd, and FePd thin films with different contents of a ferromagnetic material fabricated by electron beam evaporation have been compared. The micromagnetic structure investigations have shown a decrease in the magnetic domain size with an increase in the Co content in the CoPt and CoPd films, which has been attributed to the presence of two magnetic phases in the films. The magnetooptical studies have shown anomalously large Faraday angles and the absence of Kerr effect in the CoPt films, which make them attractive for application in optics. In the FePd films, the minimum coercivity values have been obtained from the magnetic-field dependences of the magnetization, which has also been related to the magnetic structure features.