The domain formation in Fe/Ni/Fe nanoscale magnetic antidot arrays

In this paper we report the superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) and magnetic force microscope (MFM) measurements of magnetic multilayer nanoscale antidot samples. The systems used consist of Fe(60 angstrom)/Ni(90 angstrom)/Fe(60 angstrom) (FeNiFe) multilayer antidots with hexagonal lattice fabricated on nanochannel glass (NCG) substrates with antidot diameters of 260, 362, 530, and 800 nm. The results indicate that the domain structure is commensurate with the holes due to the pinning effect of the antidots. This pinning effect is inversely proportional to the diameter of the antidots. The field dependent MFM data show that the hexagonal antidot lattice induces a weak anisotropy with the magnetic easy axis along the nearest neighbor direction. The unit cell in the antidot arrays could be used for data storage. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3694011]