Magnetoresistance of single magnetic vortices

The magnetoresistance in a 1 mum Permalloy disk, that develops a vortex state during reversal, has been experimentally measured and modeled. The agreement between measurements and numerical simulations shows that the conventional anisotropic magnetoresistance effect is the main source of magnetoresistance. The results demonstrate that magnetoresistance can be used to determine the chirality of the vortex thereby improving the chances that patterned dot arrays could be used in data storage technology. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.