Tuning of the nucleation field in nanowires with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

We report on domain nucleation and pinning of domain walls in Co/Pt multilayer nanowires with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy which are patterned using electron-beam lithography, sputter deposition, and lift-off processing. It is found that the nucleation field in these wires can be tuned by changing the geometry of the wire ends. A reduction of the nucleation field by up to 60 percent is achieved when the wire ends are designed as tips. This contrasts with the behavior of soft-magnetic wires for which the domain wall nucleation field increases when they are designed with triangular pointed ends. In order to clarify the origin of the reduced nucleation field observed for Co/Pt nanowires micromagnetic simulations are employed. As result the effect can be attributed to a local reduction of the perpendicular anisotropy caused by shadowing effects of the resist mask during sputter deposition of the multilayer. Related aspects concerning the creation of pinning sites for domain walls are addressed.