Measuring Lateral Magnetic Structure in Thin Films Using Polarized Neutron Reflectometry

摘要

Polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR) has long been applied to measure themagnetic depth profile of thin films. In recent years, interest has increasedin observing lateral magnetic structures in a film. While magnetic arrayspatterned by lithography and submicron-sized magnetic domains in thin filmsoften give rise to off-specular reflections, micron-sized ferromagnetic domainson a thin film produce few off-specular reflections and the domain distributioninformation is contained within the specular reflection. In this paper, we willfirst present some preliminary results of off-specular reflectivity from arraysof micron-sized permalloy rectangular bars. We will then use specularreflections to study the domain dispersion of an exchange-biased Co/CoO bilayerat different locations of the hysteresis loop.