Magnetic stripe domains of [Pt/Co/Cu]10 multilayer near spin reorientation transition

Abstract

The dependence of magnetic anisotropy, magnetic domain patterns and magnetization reversal processes in [Pt/Co(tCo)/Cu]10 film stack epitaxied on Cu (111) substrate have been studied as a function of the Co layer thickness tCo, by magneto-optic polar Kerr magnetometry and microscopy. We find the film undergoes spin reorientation transition from out-of-plane to in-plane as tCo increases. The SRT thickness is verified by Rotating-field Magneto-Optic Kerr effect method. The film exhibits the stripe domain structures at remanence with the width decreasing while tCo approaches SRT. As demonstrated by the first order reversal curve measurement, the magnetization reversal process encompasses irreversible domain nucleation, domain annihilation at large field and reversible domain switching near remanence.