Imaging of Spin Dynamics in Closure Domain and Vortex Structures.pdfVIP

Imaging of Spin Dynamics in Closure Domain and Vortex Structures J. P. Park, P. Eames, D. M. Engebretson, J. Berezovsky, and P. A. Crowell School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, 116 Church St. SE Minneapolis, MN 55455 Abstract Time-resolved Kerr microscopy is used to study the excitations of individual micron-scale ferromagnetic thin film elements in their remnant state. Thin (18 nm) square elements with edge dimensions between 1 and 10 µm form closure domain structures with 90 degree Néel walls between domains. We identify two classes of excitations in these systems. The first corresponds to precession of the magnetization about the local demagnetizing field in each quadrant, while the second excitation is localized in the domain walls. Two modes are also identified in ferromagnetic disks with thicknesses of 60 nm and diameters from 2 µm down to 500 nm. The equilibrium state of each disk is a vortex with a singularity at the center. As in the squares, the higher frequency mode is due to precession about the internal field, but in this case the lower frequency mode corresponds to gyrotropic motion of the entire vortex. These results demonstrate clearly the existence of well-defined excitations in inhomogeneously magnetized microstructures. PACS numbers: 75.40.Gb, 75.75.+a, 75.60.-d 1 The excitation spectra of ferromagnetic films have been probed in detail using tools such as ferromagnetic resonance,[1] and Brillouin light scattering.[2] In the past several years, there has been an increasing focus on patterned ferromagnetic films with transverse dimensions on the order of 10 microns or less.[2-6] In this limit, there is not necessarily a clear distinction between exchange-dominated excitations (spin-waves) and magnetostatic