Dependence on growth conditions of surface anisotropy and magnetization reversal in Au/Co (0.8 nm)/Au/MoS2

Abstract Magnetic properties of Au/Co (0.8 nm)/Au sandwiches elaborated on MoS 2 with different growth rates are presented. The topography of the top most Au layer is investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The magnetic properties are measured by magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) with parallel and perpendicular magnetic field. The reduction of the deposition rate (from 17 ML/min to 4 ML/min) is found to enhance the perpendicular anisotropy and to favour a domain wall motion process for the magnetization reversal when a perpendicular magnetic field is applied. For a low deposition rate (1 ML/min) the obtained structure is made of nearly isolated crystallites (1 μm average diameter). On the scale of a single crystallite, magnetic force microscopy (MFM) reveals that the magnetic domains have a concentric pattern where up and down domains alternate, separated by in-plane magnetized domains.