Ripple induced modifications of magnetic properties

Self-organized ripple formation during ion erosion of a Si wafer is used to create a template system with a well defined roughness of uniaxial symmetry. By using special buffer layers subsequent thin magnetic film deposition by molecular beam epitaxy leads to a periodically modulated magnetic thin film with drastically modified magnetic properties with respect to a nominally “flat” film of the same thickness. In the case of Permalloy thin films, an enhancement of the uniaxial in-plane anisotropy by approximately a factor of 20 is observed (see Fig. 2). The enhancement can be explained by a combination of step induced dipolar and magnetocrystalline surface anisotropy contributions.
If a ferromagnet/antiferromagnet-bilayer is deposited a superposition of ripple-induced uniaxial anisotropy and exchange coupling induced unidirectional anisotropy is observed. Since the direction of the unidirectional anisotropy depends only on the magnetic field direction during a field cooling procedure any angle between both anisotropy contributions can be set. The observed angular dependence of the magnetization reversal behavior is in perfect agreement with simulations based on the Stoner-Wolfarth coherent rotation model.