Structure and magnetic hysteresis of Gd/Fe multilayers patterned into periodic line patterns

Abstract

The structure and magnetic properties are reported for Gd/Fe multilayers with periodic line patterns fabricated by alternating UHV evaporation combined with photolithography or interference lithography and liftoff. In cross-sectional TEM images, the Fe layers show a grain structure, while no contrast was observed in the Gd layers. Magnetic hysteresis measurements show that the coercive field increases with line periodicity and magnetic layer thickness. This behavior might be attributed to not only the demagnetization field, but also the pinning effects of the crystal grain boundaries on the domain walls, and/or the influence of exchange coupling at the interface between Fe and Gd layers.