Magnetization reversal dynamics in epitaxial spin-valve structures

Abstract

We report the dynamic hysteresis behavior of epitaxial single ferromagnetic NiFe, Co layers, and NiFe/Cu/Co spin-valve structures investigated as a function of field sweep rate $\mathrm{H\ifmmode \dot{}\else \.{}\fi{}}(dH/dt)$ in the range 0.01--270 kOe/sec using the magneto-optic Kerr effect. In situ reflection high-energy electron-diffraction images confirmed that the NiFe, Cu, and Co layers grew epitaxially in the (100) orientation where the fcc NiFe, Co〈110〉 in-plane directions correspond to the Si〈100〉 directions. For $\mathrm{Cu}/60\AA{}\mathbf{NiFe}/\mathrm{C}\mathrm{u}/\mathrm{S}\mathrm{i}{(H}_{c}=5\mathrm{Oe})$ and $\mathrm{Cu}/40\AA{}\mathbf{Co}/\mathrm{C}\mathrm{u}/\mathrm{S}\mathrm{i}{(H}_{c}=104\mathrm{Oe})$ single magnetic layer structures, the hysteresis loop area A is found to follow the scaling relation $A\ensuremath{\propto}{H}^{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$ with $\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\sim}0.13$ and \ensuremath{\sim}0.02 at low sweep rates and \ensuremath{\sim}0.70 and \ensuremath{\sim}0.30 at high sweep rates, respectively. This result indicates that the NiFe and Co layers in the spin-valve structures can be expected to show distinct scaling behavior at high sweep rate. We found that the ``double-switching'' behavior which occurs at low sweep rates transforms to ``single switching'' at \ensuremath{\sim}154 kOe/sec and \ensuremath{\sim}192 kOe/sec, respectively, for the single and double spin valves due to the different dynamic response of the NiFe and Co layers. Our results provide direct experimental evidence that the magnetic anisotropy strength affects dynamic hysteresis scaling in ultrathin magnetic films, in contrast with the predictions of current theoretical models.