Ion bombardment and light irradiation driven modifications of magnetic nanostructures

Much attention is paid to magnetic nanostructures due to their intrigiung properties and different applications. Appearance of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) when a magnetic layer thickness is decreased and a giant magneto-resistance effect are the most interesting effects. Tuning the magnetic domain sizes in a broad range (several orders of magnitude) by changing PMA, the geometrical parameters of the nanostructure, as well as by an applied external magnetic field is observed, see the review [1]. Patterned nanostructures with PMA are prospective for e.g.: mass memories together with magnetic ratchet memories, magnetic field sensors, spin wave applications.
A decrease of PMA as a result of the ion irradiation of the metallic ultrathin films, has been usually reported [2]. However we have recently shown that, Ga+ ion irradiation drives creation of the out-of-plane magnetization states, dependent on the ion fluence [3,4]. Irradiation with Ga+, Ar+, He+ ions results in an increase of magnetooptical effects and changes the coercivity field. We have also found that femtosecond light pulses induce: (i) reversible PMA changes which can be used to trigger magnetization oscillations [4] and (ii) irreversible PMA modifications [5] due to creation of out-of-plane magnetization states for low and high light power densities, respectively. Ion/light irradiation affecting magnetic and magnetooptical properties of nanostructures is a promising approach for new patterning purposes. Such desired modifications can be realized with fluence/energy densities lower than that reqired for the nanostructure surface etching. Moreover, using e.g. focused ion beam technique, lateral patterning can be performed with a nanometer precision. New metamaterials such as magnonic and magnetophotonic crystals or controllable transport of magnetic beads can be created in this way.

Acknowledgements
This work was supported by: National Science Center in Poland under the project HARMONIA Nr 2012/06/M/ST3/00475 and Foundation for Polish Science under the SYMPHONY project (Polish Science Team Programme, European Regional Development Fund, OPIE 2007–2013.

References
[1] A. Maziewski, et al., Phys. Status Solidi A, 211, 1005 (2014).
[2] H. Bernas (Ed.), Materials Science with Ion Beams, Vol. 116 (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Berlin, 2010).
[3] A. Maziewski, et al., Phys. Rev. B 85, 054427 (2012).
[4] M. Sakamaki et al., Phys. Rev. B 86, 024418 (2012).
[4] J. Kisielewski, et al., Phys. Rev. B 85 (2012) 184429.
[5] J. Kisielewski, et al., Journal of Applied Physics 115, 053906 (2014).