Vortex-chirality control in mesoscopic disk magnets observed by photoelectron emission microscopy

We demonstrate the vortex-chirality control in mesoscopic disk magnets using photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM). Micrometer-sized vortex-chirality-control devices of permalloy were designed and fabricated by electron-beam lithography and lift-off. The magnetic images were obtained by PEEM using the x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) with circularly polarized synchrotron radiation. The XMCD-PEEM observation reveals that the vortex chirality in the designed devices was perfectly controlled by an external applied magnetic field. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.