Interlayer coupled spin vortex pairs and their response to external magnetic fields


Interlayer coupled spin vortex pairs and their response to external magnetic fields

Wintz, S.; Bunce, C.; Banholzer, A.; Körner, M.; Strache, T.; Mattheis, R.; McCord, J.; Raabe, J.; Quitmann, C.; Erbe, A.; Fassbender, J.

We report on the response of multilayer spin textures to static magnetic fields. Coupled magnetic vortex pairs in trilayer elements (ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic/ferromagnetic) are imaged directly by means of layer selective magnetic x-ray microscopy. We observe two different circulation configurations with parallel and opposing senses of magnetization rotation at remanence. Upon application of a field, all of the vortex pairs investigated react with a displacement of their cores. For purely dipolar coupled pairs, the individual core displacements are similar to those of an isolated single layer vortex but also a noticeable effect of the mutual stray fields is detected. Vortex pairs that are linked by an additional interlayer exchange coupling (IEC) mainly exhibit a layer-congruent response. We find that –apart from a possible decoupling at higher fields– these strict IEC vortex pairs can be described by a single layer model with effective material parameters. This result implies the possibility to design multilayer spin structures with arbitrary effective magnetization.

Keywords: magnetic vortex; multilayer; coupling; field; x-ray microscopy; effective magnetization

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-16877
Publ.-Id: 16877