CoFe stripes:: Magnetization reversal study by polarized neutron scattering and magneto-optical Kerr effect -: art. no. 184415

We have studied the magnetization reversal of a laterally structured film with both, magneto-optical Kerr effect and with polarized neutron scattering in the off-specular regime. The lateral structure consists of 90-nm thick and 1.2-mum wide Co0.7Fe0.3 stripes with a grating period of 3 mum. Magnetization reversals were measured for different orientations of the sample with respect to the field directions. In addition, Kerr microscopy was used for visualizing the domain state. Due to the high aspect ratio of the individual stripes, the remagnetization process of the stripe array is dominated by a single domain state over most of the field range. For the easy axis direction, a nucleation and domain wall movement is observed at the coercive field. However, for all other orientations of the stripe array the magnetization reversal is dominated by a coherent magnetization rotation up to the coercive field. For the hard axis orientation the coherent rotation is complete. For this particular stripe array, the agreement between results obtained from MOKE and PNS experiments is very good, mainly due to the specific sample design chosen.