Artificial domain structures realized by local gallium focused ion-beam modification of Pt/Co/Pt trilayer transport structure - art. no. 123102

We demonstrate that a high-resolution Ga focused ion beam can be used to introduce artificial domain structures in Pt(1.6 nm)/Co(0.5 nm)/Pt(3.5 nm) trilayer transport structures. We have used thin SiO2 overlayers to control the effective energy and dose of Ga ions at the Pt/Co interface. The extraordinary Hall effect (EHE) was used to characterize the magnetic properties of the patterned films. Using 30 keV Ga ions and SiO2 overlayer thicknesses in the range of 0-24 nm, we achieve complete control of the coercive field of our Pt/Co/Pt trilayer structures. The magnetization reversal mechanism for an artificial domain of size of 3x0.5 mu m(2) is investigated using EHE. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.