Magnetization reversal in weakly coupled magnetic patterns

Ion irradiation is an original process to pattern the structural and as a consequence the magnetic properties of ultrathin films, down to the nanometer scale. Patterns of dots and tracks have been fabricated by focused Ga+ ion beam scanned onto a Co layer with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Depending on the dose, the magnetic behaviour of the nanometric irradiated lines can be tuned from the ferromagnetic with reduced coercivity to paramagnetic. The larger the fluence, the smaller is the exchange between dots or tracks. These systems enabled investigations of the competition between exchange and dipolar interactions. For arrays designed with high irradiation doses and only coupled by dipolar interactions, the magnetic relaxation proceeds by the magnetization reversal of individual dots and follows a power-law time decay. Monte Carlo simulations reproduce this time dependence. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.