Geometric signature of reversal modes in ferromagnetic nanowires

Laboratoire de Magnétisme de Bretagne, CNRS FRE 3117, Université de Bretagne Occidentale 6, Avenue le Gorgeu C.S.93837, 29238 Brest Cedex 3, France, EU

Corresponding author: ^a tannous@univ-brest.fr

Received: 1 June 2010
Accepted: 26 June 2010

Abstract

Magnetic nanowires are a good platform to study fundamental processes in magnetism and have many attractive applications in recording such as perpendicular storage and in spintronics such as non-volatile magnetic memory devices (MRAM) and magnetic logic devices. In this work, nanowires are used to study magnetization reversal processes through a novel geometric approach. Reversal modes imprint a definite signature on a parametric curve representing the locus of the critical switching field. We show how the different modes affect the geometry of this curve depending on the nature of the anisotropy (uniaxial or cubic anisotropy), demagnetization and exchange effects. The samples we use are electrochemically grown nickel and cobalt nanowires.