ARTICLE IN PRESS
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 310 (2007) e789e791
www.elsevier.com/locate/jmmm
Temperature dependence of magnetic properties in
single crystal particles of cobalt
Y. Kageyama, T. Suzuki
Information Storage Materials Laboratory, Toyota Technological Institute, 2-12-1, Hisakata, Tempaku, Nagoya, Aichi 468-8511, Japan
Available online 27 November 2006
Abstract
Single crystal Co lms (19220 nm in thickness with their c-axis parallel to the surface normal) were epitaxially deposited onto Al2O3
single-crystal substrates by electron beam evaporation, and from these lms, Co particles with diameters of 0.5, 1, and 2.5 mm were
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fabricated by electron beam lithography and Ar ion beam etching. Magnetic domain structures of the lms and the particles were
observed by magnetic force microscopy (MFM) with temperature up to 200 1C. For the 220 nm thick samples case, maze patterns in
domain structure were clearly observed both in the lm and the particles. MFM images taken at elevated temperatures do not show
drastic change in the domain patterns. On the other hand, for the 56 nm thick samples case, maze-type domain structure in the original
lm turns to concentric-type structure after patterning into particles, and furthermore, the domain structure exhibits vortex at 200 1C.
LandauLifshitzGilbert (LLG) simulation for domain pattern visualization was also conducted, and the results show good agreement
with experimental results of the 220 nm thick samples, though for the 56 nm samples case the agreement is not so satisfactory.
r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PACS: 5.70.i; 75.70.Kw; 61.10.Nz; 68.37.Rt
Keywords: Cobalt; Single crystal; Magnetic property; MFM; Magnetic domain pattern; LandauLifshitzGilbert equation
1. Introduction
Submicron and nano-magnetic particles have been
attracting interest both from academic and industrial
elds. More information is still required for further
development of these small particles to high-density
recording media. Co is one of the key elements for the
media, although details about its strong dependence of
magnetic anisotropy on temperature has not been fully
revealed yet even in a bulk form [1]. From this viewpoint,
Co single crystal particles were fabricated and their
magnetic properties at high temperature were examined.
2. Experimental
Co thin lms were deposited at 340 1C onto sapphire
single crystal substrates by electron beam
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Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 561 63 4727; fax: +81 561 63 6847.
0304-8853/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmmm.2006.11.084
Fig. 1. Dependence of Ku ( Ku1+2Ku2) on temperature measured by the
torque meter.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
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Y. Kageyama, T. Suzuki / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 310 (2007) e789e791
evaporation in vacuum less than 1 106 Pa with
deposition rate around 0.3 nm/min. Thicknesses of
the Co lms were from 19 to 220 nm X-ray diffraction
measurement revealed that the Co lms are epitaxially
grown single crystals and their c-axis are parallel
to the surface normal [2]. For the lms with the thicknesses of 220 and 56 nm, magnetic anisotropy was
measured by a torque meter with temperature. The
lms were patterned into circular dots by electron
beam lithography and Ar+ ion beam etching. The dot
diameters were from 0.25 to 10 mm. Before and after the
patterning, magnetic domain structures of the samples were
observed by a magnetic force microscope (MFM) with
changing sample temperature from 25 to 200 1C. Using Ku
values obtained by the torque measurements, simulation
Fig. 2. Magnetic domain structures (perpendicular component) obtained
by MFM observation for unpatterned lms (thicknesses of 220 and 56 nm)
and patterned particles (1 mm diam) at room temperature and 200 1C.
Results of LLG simulation are also shown.
using LandauLifshitzGilbert (LLG) equations was
conducted [3].
3. Results and discussion
Temperature dependence of Ku ( Ku1+2Ku2) is shown
in Fig. 1. Decrease of Ku with temperature is approximately
one third of bulk Co, and in the case of the 56 nm lm, Ku
shows complicated dependence. It is supposed that the lm
samples are strongly affected by the presence of substrates
which restrict mechanically free deformation of the lms,
and due to magnetostriction effect induced from the stress
between the lms and substrates, Ku values are thought to
be shifted compared to the bulk case.
It was found from MFM observation that the samples
with thicknesses more than 56 nm show stripe-type
magnetic domain patterns. The magnetization distribution
did not essentially change irrespective of patterning/unpatterning nor the change of temperature in the 220 nm
thick samples, whereas in the 56 nm thick samples, the
magnetization distribution strongly depends on these
conditions. In the case of 56 nm sample, after the
patterning, the maze-type domain structure in the unpatterned lm is rearranged into concentric-type structure,
and furthermore vortex structure was observed at 200 1C in
the patterned particles as shown in Fig. 2. LLG simulation
results using Ku values from the torque measurement
successfully demonstrate the observed domain patterns for
220 nm thickness samples and those which do not agree
with MFM images for 56 nm thickness samples can be seen
in Fig. 2.
It was found that the disagreement in the domain
patterns from MFM and LLG for the 56 nm samples can
be canceled if the Ku values are reduced to around
3 106 erg/cm3 as shown in Fig. 3. The simulation results
give similar images with the MFM ones, though Ku values
Fig. 3. Domain images by MFM (a and b) and by LLG simulation (c and d) of a Co dot (1 mm diam). Temperatures are 25 1C (a and c: Ku 9.3 106
erg/cm3 and Ms 1420 emu/cm3) and 200 1C (b and d: Ku 4.8 106 erg/cm3 and Ms 1350 emu/cm3). Ku values for the LLG simulations were tted to
match the MFM images (e: 3.3 106 erg/cm3 and f: 3.0 106 erg/cm3).
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Y. Kageyama, T. Suzuki / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 310 (2007) e789e791
do not agree with the unpatterned lms. This may be
attributed to in-plane mangetoelastic effects which cannot
be counted by the current method for estimation of
magnetic anisotropy constants (only Ku1 and Ku2) with
neglecting higher order components (including Ku4 which is
related to in-plane magnetic anisotropy with 6 folded
symmetry). More details will be claried in the future work.
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different dependence of Ku on temperature compared to
bulk. The thinner (56 nm) samples exhibit instability in
magnetic domain against patterning and increase of
temperature.
References
4. Conclusions
Single crystal Co lms/particles were fabricated and their
magnetic properties were examined. The lms showed
[1] M. Takahashi, T. Suzuki, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 18 (1979) 1071.
[2] Y. Kageyama, T. Suzuki, J. Appl. Phys. 99 (2006) 08Q506.
[3] M.R. Scheinfein, /http://www.llgmicro.home.mindspring.com/S.
