Wall energy and wall thickness of exchange-coupled rare-earth transition-metal triple layer stacks
- Philips Research, Weisshausstrasse 2, D-52066 Aachen (Germany)
- University Kaiserslautern, Erwin-Schroedinger-Strasse 56, D-67663 Kaiserslautern (Germany)
The room-temperature wall energy {sigma}{sub w}=4.0{times}10{sup {minus}3}J/m{sup 2} of an exchange-coupled Tb{sub 19.6}Fe{sub 74.7}Co{sub 5.7}/Dy{sub 28.5}Fe{sub 43.2}Co{sub 28.3} double layer stack can be reduced by introducing a soft magnetic intermediate layer in between both layers exhibiting a significantly smaller anisotropy compared to Tb{endash}FeCo and Dy{endash}FeCo. {sigma}{sub w} will decrease linearly with increasing intermediate layer thickness, d{sub IL}, until the wall is completely located within the intermediate layer for d{sub IL}{ge}d{sub w}, where d{sub w} denotes the wall thickness. Thus, d{sub w} can be obtained from the plot {sigma}{sub w} versus d{sub IL}. We determined {sigma}{sub w} and d{sub w} on Gd{endash}FeCo intermediate layers with different anisotropy behavior (perpendicular and in-plane easy axis) and compared the results with data obtained from Brillouin light-scattering measurements, where exchange stiffness, A, and uniaxial anisotropy, K{sub u}, could be determined. With the knowledge of A and K{sub u}, wall energy and thickness were calculated and showed an excellent agreement with the magnetic measurements. A ten times smaller perpendicular anisotropy of Gd{sub 28.1}Fe{sub 71.9} in comparison to Tb{endash}FeCo and Dy{endash}FeCo resulted in a much smaller {sigma}{sub w}=1.1{times}10{sup {minus}3}J/m{sup 2} and d{sub w}=24nm at 300 K. A Gd{sub 34.1}Fe{sub 61.4}Co{sub 4.5} with in-plane anisotropy at room temperature showed a further reduced {sigma}{sub w}=0.3{times}10{sup {minus}3}J/m{sup 2} and d{sub w}=17nm. The smaller wall energy was a result of a different wall structure compared to perpendicular layers. {copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}
- OSTI ID:
- 548599
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 82, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: Aug 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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