Micromagnetic properties of small ferromagnetic particles are under the research focus nowadays because of the development of nanoscale nonvolatile magnetic memory cells. The usage of nonrectangular magnetic film patterns as a memory element, e.g. of ellipsoidal shape, is one of the promising ways to avoid the thermal instability of the switching threshoulds. Such magnetic elements are formed in the thin superparamagnetic film by the interference laser annealing [1]. In this work the investigation findings of both magnetization reversal and rest states of CoCr and FeCr ellipsoidal particles are discussed. Theoretical analysis of magnetization reversal processes in elliptical pattern was carried out by numerical calculation of Landau-Lifshits equations for free boundary conditions. Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) with commercial scanning probe microscope SOLVER P47 (NT-MDT Co, Russia) was used for the experimental observation of magnetic structure of particles. The lattice of the uniformly magnetized dipoles is obtained after the saturation in the easy direction. Either subdomains of uniformly polarized magnetic particles with opposite polarization directions or the regions with fully demagnetized particles are formed in the rest state depending on the particles parameters and the remagnetization history. Micromagnetic simulations show that the magnetized along the easy direction particle saves its rest state after the perpendicular magnetizing up to the critical field, which is determined by the effect of antisymmetric spin pinning. Above this field the irreversible transition of the particle into the saturation state is observed. The critical field of magnetization depinning is appreciably higher than the switching field along the easy axis. Both switching and depinning fields are decreased with the film thickness decreasing. The main peculiarities of magnetization processes found by the simulations agree in general with the results of MFM measurements [2].This work was supported by grants RFBR (02-02-16704-a) and ISTC (1522).
1. A.M.Alekseev et al. JETP Letters 73, 192 (2001)