Magnetization reversal processes of single nanomagnets and their energy barrier

Micromagnetic simulations were performed to investigate the influence of geometry and magnetic anisotropy constant on energy barrier and magnetization reversal mechanism of individual bits important for the bit patterned media concept in magnetic data storage. It is shown that dependency of the energy barrier on magnetic and geometric properties of bits can be described by an analytical approach in the case of quasi-coherent magnetization rotation process. However, when the bit size exceeds a critical size, for which an incoherent magnetization reversal is preferred, the analytical approach becomes invalid and no self-consistent theory is available. By systematically investigating the influence of bit size on the magnetization reversal mode, it was found that the transition from quasi-coherent to incoherent magnetization reversal mode can still be described analytically if an activation volume is considered instead of the bit volume. In this case, the nucleation volume is an important parameter determining thermal stability of the bit. If the volume of the bit is larger than twice the activation volume, the energy barrier stays nearly constant; with further increase in bit size, no gain in thermal stability can be achieved.     

Modeling of irreversible switching and viscosity phenomena in perpendicular thin films

We have developed a simple numerical model for simulating domains as well as remanence and viscosity curves in the slow dynamics regime, for thin films characterized by perpendicular magnetization and irregular domain configurations due to strong disorder. The physical system is represented as constituted of identical switching units, described by proper switching field distributions and energy barrier laws for pinning and nucleation processes. The model also includes an effective field which accounts for magnetic forces proportional to magnetization, on average. Simulations of DCD curves show that when the reversal of magnetization is governed by pinning, the coercive field depends on the physical size of the film area on which the external field is applied. In the case of viscosity phenomena described by a linear energy barrier law associated with a single predominant reversal process (pinning or nucleation), universal viscosity curves can be generated by properly transforming the DCD curve of the system. We also demonstrate that a reduction of the maximum viscosity coefficient can coexist with a reduction of the energy barrier heights.     

The crossover from collective motion to periphery diffusion for two-dimensional adatom-islands on Cu(111)

The diffusion of two-dimensional adatom-islands (up to 100 atoms) on Cu(111) has been studied, using the self-learning kinetic Monte Carlo method (Trushin et?al 2005 Phys. Rev. B 72 115401). A variety of multiple-?and single-atom processes are revealed in the simulations, and the size dependences of the diffusion coefficients and effective diffusion barriers are calculated for each. From the tabulated frequencies of events found in the simulation, we show a crossover from diffusion due to the collective motion of the island to a regime in which the island diffuses through periphery-dominated mass transport. This crossover occurs for island sizes between 13 and 19 atoms. For islands containing 19-100 atoms the scaling exponent is 1.5, which is in good agreement with previous work. The diffusion of islands containing 2-13 atoms can be explained primarily on the basis of a linear increase of the barrier for the collective motion with the size of the island.     

Nonuniform and sequential magnetization reversal via domain structure formation for multilayered system with grain size induced enhanced exchange bias

We report on the magnetization reversal in series of exchange-biased multilayers NiFe(10.0 nm)/[ Ir20Mn80(6.0 nm)/Co80Fe20(3.0 nm)] N studied by specular reflection and off-specular scattering of polarized neutrons. All specimens are sputtered and post-annealed at 530 K (i.e. above the IrMn Néel temperature of 520 K) in Ar atmosphere before cooling to room temperature in the presence of a field of 130 Oe which induces the unidirectional anisotropy. We find HEB is dependent upon the number of bilayers N as it gradually increases from 0.33 kOe for N=1 to a considerably higher value of upto ≈0.9 kOe for N=10. X-ray specular and diffuse scattering data reveal no significant variation of the lateral correlation length and only a weak dependence of the vertical rms interface roughness on N. Atomic and magnetic force microscopy, however, show a strong reduction of the grain size accompanied by distinct changes of the ferromagnetic domain structure. The enhancement of the exchange bias effect is presumably related to the shrinking of the related domain size in the antiferromagnet due to the structural evolution in the multilayers. Polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR) measurements are done at different applied fields sweeping both branches of the hysteresis loop. The spin-flip (SF) cross section of both the N=10 and 3 samples show diffusely scattered intensity appears gradually as the field approaches HEB and is most intense where the net magnetization vanishes. The disappearance of diffuse scattering in saturation indicates that the off-specular intensity is related to the reversal process. The reversal proceeds sequentially starting with the bottom (top) CoFe layer for decreasing (increasing) field and is related to the evolution of the grain size along the stack. The reversal of each CoFe layer is for both field branches due to domain wall motion. Thus as a main result, we observe a sequential and symmetric magnetization reversal in exchange-biased multilayers. The concomitant in-plane magnetization fluctuations revealed by off-specular spin-flip scattering indicate a more complex reversal mechanism than hitherto considered. Moreover, although the grain size decreases from N=3 to 10 by a factor of about four the reversal mechanism remains similar.     

Nucleation, coarsening and kinetic scaling of two-dimensional islands on GaSb(0 0 1)

Using a combination of molecular beam epitaxy and in situ surface X-ray diffraction, we investigate the nucleation and coarsening of monolayer high islands on GaSb(0 0 1) during deposition in real time. We find an activation energy for island nucleation of 1.55 ± 0.16 eV, indicating a stable nucleus size larger than two atoms. For intermediate temperatures where GaSb homoepitaxy is stable, the lateral coarsening of the islands after deposition is described by Ostwald ripening. The average island sizes during coarsening are isotropic, although with different size distributions in different directions. The size distributions do not change during coarsening, implying kinetic scaling.     

Shape-dependent thermal switching behavior of superparamagnetic nanoislands

The thermal switching behavior of individual perpendicularly magnetized nanoscale Fe islands consisting of 200-600 atoms only is studied by low-temperature spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy. Our results reveal that the switching rate is strongly affected by the particle shape; i.e., elongated islands switch much more rapidly than compact islands of the same volume. This observation is explained by different processes of magnetization reversal. Our results suggest that compact magnetic particles are an ideal choice for future perpendicular magnetic recording media because they are robust against thermal magnetization reversal.     

Thermally activated depinning of a narrow domain wall from a single defect

We describe the field induced depinning process of a magnetic domain wall (DW) from a single bidimensional nanometric defect. The DW propagates in a wire lithographed on a film with strong perpendicular anisotropy. We observe a statistical distribution of the relaxation time consistent with a Néel-Brown picture of magnetization reversal. This indicates that the nanometric DW can be considered as an ideal monodomain particle switching over a single energy barrier. Such a stochastic character of DW depinning has to be taken into account for spintronic applications.     

薄膜外延生长的计算机模拟

以Cu膜为例，用Monte-Carlo算法模拟了薄膜生长的随机过程，并提出了更加完善的模型.在合理选择原子间相互作用计算方法的基础上，考虑了原子的吸附、在生长表面的迁移及迁移所引起的近邻原子连带效应、从生长表面的脱附等过程.模拟计算了薄膜的早期成核情况以及表面粗糙度和相对密度.结果表明，随着衬底温度的升高或入射率的降低，沉积在衬底上的原子逐步由离散型分布向聚集状态过渡形成一些岛核，并且逐步由二维岛核向三维岛核过渡.在一定的原子入射率下，存在三个优化温度，成核率最高时的最大成核温度Tn、薄膜的表面粗糙度最低 关键词： Monte-Carlo算法 计算机模拟 薄膜生长     

Non-monotonous dependence of surface roughness on factors influencing energy of adatoms during thin island film growth

Many experimental results show that surface roughness of thin films can increase, decrease, stay constant or pass through the minimum with the change in substrate temperature, energy of arriving atoms or assisted beam (electrons, photons, ions), depending on material and interval of variation of those parameters. The aim of this paper is to explain and analyze this non-monotonous behavior of surface roughness by proposed kinetic model. The model is based on rate equations and includes processes of surface diffusion of adatoms, nucleation, growth and coalescence of islands in the case of thin films growth in Volmer-Weber mode. It is shown by modeling that non-monotonous dependence of surface roughness on the factors influencing energy of adatoms (e.g. temperature, assisted beam irradiation, accelerating voltage) occurs as a result of interplay between diffusion length of adatoms and size of islands, because both parameters depend on energy of adatoms. Variation of island size and diffusion length results in atomic jumps from islands forming rougher or smoother surface. The functions of surface roughness, island size, island density on diffusion length of adatoms and on other parameters are calculated and analyzed in this work.     

Quantum size effects in adatom island decay

The decay of hexagonal Ag adatom islands on top of larger Ag adatom islands on a Ag(111) surface is followed by a fast-scanning tunneling microscope. Islands do not always show the expected increase in decay rate with decreasing island size. Rather, distinct quantum size effects are observed where the decay rate decreases significantly for islands with diameters of 6, 9.3, 12.6, and 15.6 nm. We show that electron confinement of the surface state electrons is responsible for this enhancement of the detachment barrier for adatoms from the island edge.     

EFFECTS OF ISLAND-EDGE EXCHANGE BARRIER ON 2D PATTERN FORMATION IN SURFACTANT-MEDIATED EPITAXY

The nucleation and growth of two-dimensional islands in a surfactant-mediated epitaxy system have been studied by computer simulation. To improve the recent results published in the literature, we use a configuration-dependent energy barrier for the exchange process at the island edge in our model. The simulations produce fractal islands at high temperatures or low deposition fluxes, and a transition to regular compact islands occurs at lower temperatures or higher fluxes, in good agreement with the recent experimental results. The barrier for the island-edge exchange has quite a strong effect on the island density as a function of temperature and flux. A small change of the island-edge exchange barrier induces a large variation of the island density in the low-temperature or high-flux region. The flux-dependent island density shows a clear scaling-law behaviour in the intermediate-flux region. The scaling exponent increases evidently as the island-edge exchange barrier increases.     

Critical dimensions for YBCO islands grown by pulsed laser deposition

Islands of constant width at half maximum of approximately 100 nm have been observed during the pulsed laser deposition of films of nominal thickness from 0.7 to 3.0 nm of the material YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ(YBCO) on substrates of SrTiO₃. The critical island dimensions of width, height and spacing were analyzed with classical kinetic and thermodynamic theories. Analytically it was calculated that the equilibrium island width for a 29-nm-high island should be 111 nm. The analysis also predicted that islands of smaller height should be wider, and higher islands should be narrower. Islands of height from 3.5 nm to 29 nm were observed with an atomic force microscope to have a constant width at half maximum of approximately 100 nm. There are several possible differences between experiment and analysis that could explain the difference in the results: the islands formed in a non-equilibrium phase of YBCO, the island strain relaxed from the base to the top, and smaller islands may not have reached their equilibrium width. Larger islands had significant roughening at the top. Calculations predict that these islands would be unstable with respect to surface perturbations. Calculations of relaxation strain energy and surface energy showed that there was excess strain energy available for island heights above 9 nm to provide the extra surface energy that would be necessary for surface perturbations to develop. The minimum observed interisland spacing of 36 nm agreed with calculations of the average atom diffusion length (40.6 nm). Received: 2 April 2001 / Accepted: 6 September 2001 / Published online: 20 December 2001     

Mechanism and kinetics of early growth stages of a GaN film

The growth of GaN islands on the substrate surface covered with an AlN buffer layer is theoretically investigated at the stages of nucleation and Ostwald ripening in the temperature range 480–1000°C. The following inferences are made from analyzing the results obtained. (1) At temperatures T>650°C, the growth of islands is controlled by the chemical reaction of formation of GaN molecules around the periphery of the island surface. Islands nucleated at these temperatures are characterized by a large spread in their sizes. (2) At temperatures T<600°C, the island growth is governed by the surface diffusion of nitrogen atoms. Islands nucleated at these temperatures are virtually identical in size. (3) In the temperature range 600–650°C, the mechanism of island growth gradually changes over from the mechanism associated with the surface diffusion of nitrogen atoms with a large mean free path to the mechanism determined by the diffusion of gallium atoms with a smaller mean free path. The supersaturation, flux, and size distribution functions of GaN nuclei are calculated at different substrate temperatures. The phase diagrams describing the evolution in the phase composition of GaN islands with variations in temperature are constructed.     

Role of anisotropy on the domain wall properties of ferromagnetic nanotubes

In this paper we investigate the role of magneto-crystalline anisotropy on the domain wall (DW) properties of tubular magnetic nanostructures. Based on a theoretical model and micromagnetic simulations, we show that either cubic or uniaxial magneto-crystalline anisotropies have some influence on the domain wall properties (wall size, propagation velocity and energy barrier) and then on the overall magnetization reversal mechanism. Besides the characterization of the transverse and vortex domain wall sizes for different anisotropies, we predict an anisotropy dependent transition between the occurrence of transverse and vortex domain walls in tubular nanowires. We also discuss the dynamics of the vortex DW propagation gradually increasing the uniaxial anisotropy constant and we found that the average velocity is considerably reduced. Our results show that different anisotropies can be considered in real samples in order to manipulate the domain wall behavior and the magnetization reversal process.     

Kinetics of shape equilibration for two dimensional islands

We study the relaxation to equilibrium of two dimensional islands containing up to 20 000 atoms by Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. We find that the commonly assumed relaxation mechanism - curvature-driven relaxation via atom diffusion - cannot explain the results obtained at low temperatures, where the island edges consist in large facets. Specifically, our simulations show that the exponent characterizing the dependence of the equilibration time on the island size is different at high and low temperatures, in contradiction with the above cited assumptions. Instead, we propose that - at low temperatures - the relaxation is limited by the nucleation of new atomic rows on the large facets: this allows us to explain both the activation energy and the island size dependence of the equilibration time. Received 7 December 1998 and Received in final form 18 March 1999     

Au/Cu(001)异质外延岛演化的分子动力学研究

利用分子动力学弛豫方法模拟了Au/Cu(001)异质外延生长初期Au异质外延岛的形貌演化，分析了Au外延岛演化过程中的局域应力及与基体结合能随表面岛尺寸的变化. 研究结果表明：当异质外延岛小于7×7时，外延岛原子分布呈现赝Cu点阵形貌；当外延岛达到8×8后，外延岛内开始出现失配位错，失配位错数量随外延岛尺寸的增加而增加. 局域压力分析指出，外延岛上原子之间的近邻环境不同导致了所受应力的差异，而外延岛的形变则是由外延岛原子的应力分布所决定. 研究还发现，失配位错的产生导致错位原子与基体原子之间的结合强度减弱，但相对增加了非错位原子与基体原子之间的结合强度. 关键词： 异质外延 表面形貌 局域压力 分子动力学模拟     

Observation of "Ghost" islands and surfactant effect of surface gallium atoms during GaN growth by molecular beam epitaxy

We observe "ghost" islands formed on terraces during homoepitaxial nucleation of GaN. We attribute the ghost islands to intermediate nucleation states, which can be driven into "normal" islands by scanning tunneling microscopy. The formation of ghost islands is related to excess Ga atoms on the surface. The excess Ga also affect island number density: by increasing Ga coverage, the island density first decreases, reaching a minimum at about 1 monolayer (ML) Ga and then increases rapidly for coverages above 1 ML. This nonmonotonic behavior points to a surfactant effect of the Ga atoms.     

Island adsorption and adatom diffusion on 3D non-crystalline silver nanoclusters

We report a systematic study of island adsorption and single-adatom diffusion on free silver nanoclusters, and discuss the consequences on the growth. In our calculations, silver is modelled by semiempirical many-body potentials. We consider magic non-crystallographic structures at different sizes: icosahedra (Ih) at 55, 147 and 309 atoms; Marks-truncated decahedra (m-Dh) at 75, 146 and 192 atoms. We calculate the map of adsorption sites and the energy barriers for the different diffusion processes. We find that, due to purely geometrical reasons, medium-size (from 6–8 to 30–40 atoms depending on the cluster) islands on the cluster (1 1 1) facets prefer the hcp stacking on both Ih and Dh structures, while both smaller and larger islands are better placed on fcc stacking. Interfacet diffusion is easy on both Dh and Ih, indicating that large islands are easily grown; in particular, there are multi-atom diffusion processes which allow fast diffusion among the two caps of Dh clusters. For Dh clusters, islands on hcp stacking may lead to the appearance of new fivefold symmetry points, and to the transformation of the cluster into an icosahedron.     

Quantum nucleation in a single-chain magnet

The field sweep rate (upsilon = dH/dt) and temperature (T) dependence of the magnetization reversal of a single-chain magnet is studied at low temperatures. As expected for a thermally activated process, the nucleation field (H(n)) increases with decreasing T and increasing upsilon. The set of H(n)(T,upsilon) data is analyzed with a model of thermally activated nucleation of magnetization reversal. Below 1 K, H(n) becomes temperature independent but remains strongly sweep rate dependent. In this temperature range, the reversal of the magnetization is induced by a quantum nucleation of a domain wall that then propagates due to the applied field.     

薄膜生长中的表面动力学(Ⅱ)

本文较全面地从理论上研究了薄膜生长过程中原子在表面上的各种动力学表现 ,涉及的内容包括亚单层生长时 ,原子在表面上的扩散 ,粘接 ,成核 ,以及已经形成的原子岛之间的相互作用 ,兼并 ,失稳 ,退化等一系列过程。在第一部分 (即 0～ 6章 ,刊登在《物理学进展》2 3卷 1期上 )介绍了薄膜生长动力学的基础之后 ,从第 7章开始我们侧重研究一个在向同性和各向异性表面都普遍成立的原子岛尺寸大小及密度分布的标度定律 ;建立了一套研究在各向同性和各向异性表面上二维原子岛退化过程的广义动力学标度理论。基于对层间质量扩散通道的研究 ,本文提出了两种不同的原子下跃机制 ,既任意跃迁机制和选择跃迁机制 ,并做了进一步的实验验证。利用这一新的层间质量扩散机制 ,我们成功地解释了实验上观测到的三维原子岛的退化规律。更加有趣的是 ,本文讨论了应力对岛的形状和各种动力学规律的影响。在最后我们还提出了一个利用凝聚能转化来控制二维原子岛生长的方法 ,其目的是希望能够找到一种人为有效地在表面上制备低维量子结构的方法。