Effects of surface acoustic waves on reversal of magnetic domains in patterned films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

Abstract

In this work, the magnetization reversal of patterned Pt/Co/Pt multilayers influenced by surface acoustic waves is investigated. For each patterned cell, the magnetization reversal involves formation of a reversal nucleus followed by rapid motion of a domain wall. The nucleation probability of the reversal nucleus increases with the power of the applied surface acoustic wave, which is explained by the magnetic droplet model, and fitting the experimental results with this model gives important parameters such as the domain-wall energy density and the reduction rate of local perpendicular anisotropy. The fitting results for different patterned cells are consistent with the experimental results, which validates this model for dealing with such issues.