Modeling magnetization reversal in multilayers with interlayer exchange coupling

Autor(en)

Elliot Wadge, Afan Terko, George Lertzman-Lepofsky, Paul Omelchenko, Bret Heinrich, Manuel Rojas, Claas Abert, Erol Girt

Abstrakt

Spin spirals form inside the magnetic layers of antiferromagnetic and noncollinearly coupled magnetic multilayers in the presence of an external field. This spin structure can be modeled to extract the direct exchange stiffness of the magnetic layers and the strength of the interlayer exchange coupling across the spacer layer. In this article, we discuss three models which describe the evolution of the spin spiral with the strength of the external magnetic field in these coupled structures: discrete energy, discrete torque, and continuous torque. These models are expanded to accommodate multilayers with any number of ferromagnetic layers, any combination of material parameters, and asymmetry. We compare their performance when fitting to the measured magnetization data of a range of sputtered samples with one or multiple ferromagnetic layers on either side of the spacer. We find that the discrete models produce better fits than the continuous for asymmetric and multiferromagnetic structures and exhibit much better computational scaling with high numbers of atomic layers than the continuous model. For symmetric, single-layered structures, the continuous model produces the same fit statistics and outperforms the discrete models. Last, we demonstrate methods to use interfacial layers to measure the exchange stiffness of magnetic layers with low interlayer exchange coupling. An open-Access website has been provided to allow the fitting of magnetization as a function of field in arbitrary coupled structures using the discrete energy model.

Organisation(en)

Physik Funktioneller Materialien

Externe Organisation(en)

Simon Fraser University

Journal

Physical Review B

Band

110

Anzahl der Seiten

16

ISSN

2469-9950

DOI

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2408.16222

Publikationsdatum

11-2024

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103015 Kondensierte Materie, 103017 Magnetismus

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Condensed Matter Physics

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/f4d47180-a18e-40f7-a830-1788fb722352