We investigate the temperature dependence of the magnetization reversal process and of spinwaves in epi-taxially grown (001)-oriented [Fem/Aun]30 multilayers (m = 1, 2; n = 1- 6). Both polar magneto-optic Kerrr effect and Brillouin light scattering measurements reveal that all investigated multilayers, apart from the [Fe2/Au1]30-sample, are magnetized perpendicular to the film plane. The out-of-plane anisotropy constants are obtained. At high temperature, the magnetization curves are well described by an alternating stripe domain structure with free mobile domain walls, and at low temperature by a thermal activation model for the domain wall motion.
We report on the exchange bias effect as a function of the in-plane direction of the applied field in two-fold symmetric, epitaxial Ni80Fe20/Fe50Mn50 bilayers grown on Cu(110) single crystal substrates. An enhancement of the exchange bias field, Heb, up to a factor of two is observed if the external field is nearly, but not fully aligned perpendicular to the symmetry direction of the exchange bias field. From the measurement of the ex-change bias field as a function of the in-plane angle of the applied field, the unidirectional, uniaxial and four-fold anisotropy contributions are determined with high precision. The symmetry direction of the unidirec-tional anisotropy switches with increasing NiFe thickness from  to .
An overview of the current status of the study of spin wave excitations in arrays of magnetic dots and wires is given. We describe both the status of theory and recent inelastic light scattering experiments addressing the three most important issues: the modification of magnetic properties by patterning due to shape aniso-tropies, anisotropic coupling between magnetic islands, and the quantization of spin waves due to the in-plane confinement of spin waves in islands.
Hexagonal BN films have been deposited by rf-magnetron sputtering with simultaneous ion plating. The elastic properties of the films grown on silicon substrates under identical coating conditions have been de-termined by Brillouin light scattering from thermally excited surface phonons. Four of the five independent elastic constants of the deposited material are found to be c11 = 65 GPa, c13 = 7 GPa, c33 = 92 GPa and c44 = 53 GPa exhibiting an elastic anisotropy c11/c33 of 0.7. The Young's modulus determined with load indenta-tion is distinctly larger than the corresponding value taken from Brillouin light scattering. This discrepancy is attributed to the specific morphology of the material with nanocrystallites embedded in an amorphous matrix.
We report on the observation of spin wave quantization in square arrays of micron size circular magnetic Ni80Fe20 dots by means of Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy. For a large wavevector interval several discrete, dispersionless modes with a frequency splitting of up to 2.5 GHz were observed. The modes are identified as magnetostatic surface spin waves laterally quantized due to in- plane confinement in each single dot. The frequencies of the lowest observed modes decrease with increasing distance between the dots, thus indicating an essential dynamic magnetic dipole interaction between the dots with small interdot distances.
The quasienergy spectrum of a periodically driven quantum system is constructed from classical dynamics by means of the semiclassical initial value representation using coherent states. For the first time, this method is applied to explicitly time dependent systems. For an anharmonic oscillator system with mixed chaotic and regular classical dynamics, the entire quantum spectrum (both regular and chaotic states) is reproduced semiclassically with surprising accuracy. In particular, the method is capable to account for the very small tunneling splittings.
The dispersions of dipolar (Damon-Eshbach modes) and exchange dominated spin waves are calculated for in-plane magnetized thin and ultrathin cubic films with (111) crystal orientation and the results are compared with those obtained for the other principal planes. The properties of these magnetic excitations are examined from the point of view of Brillouin light scattering experiments. Attention is paid to study the spin-wave frequency variation as a function of the magnetization direction in the film plane for different film thicknesses. Interface anisotropies and the bulk magnetocrystalline anisotropy are considered in the calculation. A quantitative comparison between an analytical expression obtained in the limit of small film thickness and wave vector and the full numerical calculation is given.
All contributing magnetic anisotropies in (110)-oriented exchange biased Ni 80 Fe 20 /Fe 50 Mn 50 double layers prepared by molecular beam epitaxy on Cu(110) single crystals have been determined by means of Brillouin light scattering. Upon covering the Ni 80 Fe 20 films by Fe 50 Mn 50 , a unidirectional anisotropy contribution appears, which is consistent with the measured exchange bias field. The uniaxial and fourfold in-plane anisotropy contributions are largely modified by an amount, which scales with the Ni 80 Fe 20 thickness, indicating an interface effect. The strong uniaxial anisotropy contribution shows an in-plane switching of the easy axis from  to  with increasing Ni 80 Fe 20 -layer thickness. The large mode width of the spin wave excitations, which exceeds the linewidth of uncovered Ni 80 Fe 20 films by a factor of more than six, indicates large spatial variations of the exchange coupling constant. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.