Local stress engineering of magnetic anisotropy in soft magnetic thin films

The magnetic anisotropy of amorphous thin films was modified laterally by masked ion irradiation without alteration of the intrinsic magnetic properties. The changes were introduced by local ion implantation in a protection layer, causing additional stress-induced magnetic anisotropy in the magnetostrictive layer. The underlying local variation of magnetic anisotropy was modelled and confirmed experimentally. The described method, relying purely on magneto-elastics, introduces a new path to the alteration of magnetic properties subsequent to magnetic film preparation. With the use of the resulting artificial magnetization patterns it is possible to tailor the ferromagnetic thin film structure used in magneto-electronic applications.