Photoemission microscopy from magnetically coupled thin-film systems

The magnetic microstructure and magnetic coupling phenomena in thin-film systems, relevant for applications in magneto-electronics, are investigated by means of photoemission electron microscopy. Element-selective magnetic information is obtained by exploiting magnetic circular dichroism in the soft X-ray regime. The domain shape and sizes found at the surface of anti ferromagnetically coupled metallic multilayers indicate the presence of a ferromagnetic coupling contribution, presumably caused by a build-up of roughness during the growth process, The magnetic domain patterns in FeNi microstructures on sputtered NiO films reflect the presence of a local exchange anisotropy, causing the phenomenon of exchange biasing or pinning of the ferromagnetic layer. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.