Properties of magnetic nanodots with perpendicular anisotropy

摘要

Nanodots wjth magnetic vortices have many potential applications, such as magnetic memories and spin-transfer nano-oscillators. Adding a perpendicular anisotropy term to the magnetic energy of the nanodot, it becomes possible to tune the vortex core properties. This can be obtained, e.g., in Co nanodots by varying the thickness of the Co layer in a Co/Pt stack. Here we discuss the spin configuration of circular and elliptical nanodots for different perpendicular anisotropies; we show for nanodisks that micromagnetic simulations and analytical results agree. Increasing the perpendicular anisotropy, the vortex core radii increase, the phase diagrams are modified, and other configurations appear; the knowledge of these phase diagrams is relevant for the choice of optimum nanodot dimensions for applications. MFM measurements on Co/Pt multilayers confirm the trend of the vortex core diameters with varying Co layer thicknesses.