Search

We report on the multiferroic behavior of 2%-magnesium-doped Ga0.6Fe1.4O3 thin film at room temperature. The sample was grown by pulsed laser deposition on a Pt-coated Yttrium-Stabilized Zirconia substrate. Magnetic measurements indicate a net magnetization of 105 emu/cm3 at 295 K, and the persistence of magnetic ordering above room temperature. Ferroelectric measurements show clear polarization switching with negligible contribution from leakage currents, with a polarization of 0.2 μC/cm-2 and a coercive field of 133 kV/cm. Scanning probe microscopy confirms the low leakage current and detects a stable piezoelectric signal. This could open original perspectives for the application of single-phased multiferroic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dependence of the magnetic domain structures on mesoscopic hop (0001) cobalt structures are reported. For thin Co films grown, islands having a diameter of approximately 100nm and height from 10 to 30nm are observed. Domain structure is determined by the size and shape of the islands. As the thickness of the Co layer increases a topologically modulated continuous film is obtained whose domain structures are perturbed by the islands and the pine-holes introduced by the defect sites. The role of local imperfections on the instabilities and/or singularities in the domain structure are discussed. Index Term - Atomic and magnetic force microscopy, domain effects, self-organized structures, spin ordering.

The magnetization states of 20-nm-thick rectangular Co thin-film elements are studied with micromagnetic modeling and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism photoemission electron microscopy. The energies of ten domain configurations obtained in the modeling are compared with the frequency of occurrence of the corresponding virgin domain structures as a function of aspect ratio from 1:1 to 1:3 and of width from 200 to 600 nm. The results show that the abundance of the virgin states is largely determined by the magnetic energy densities of the elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tails of x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES)/x-ray magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy (XMCD) spectra (50–100 eV above the edges) are characterized by the beginning of the extended x-ray absorption fine-structure/magnetic extended x-ray absorption fine-structure oscillations. We present a systematic study of these tails for three different thin films: Fe and Fe[sub 0.65]Ni[sub 0.35] on stepped Cu(111) and Fe/ZnSe(001). The dependance of the detected oscillations on the film thickness leads us to conclude that XANES/XMCD tails are a useful in situ probe of the structural and magnetic phase of the sample. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy-loss magnetic chiral dichroism approach is emplpyed to explain the different magnetic properties of the various FeCo alloys. The method is shown to be extremely sensitive to the magnetic properties of the system.

The results of nonintrusive high-resolution imaging of the magnetic states present in wide Co rings with a small inner hole are presented. The uniformity and the magnetic states in these wide rings are found to be more typical of disks than of rings.