Magnetic Properties of Coupled Co/Mo/Co Structures Tailored by Ion Irradiation

Magnonic crystals (metamaterials to control magnetism) are attractive for manipulating spin waves in digital logic and storage applications, but in the end one needs to be able to actually produce them---an interesting challenge in nanotechnology. This work shows how interlayer coupling and magnetization strength can be engineered in Co/Mo/Co ultrathin-film structures by ion irradiation. Modifications of magnetic properties are correlated to and explained by structural evolution, as revealed by numerical simulations. The authors propose numerous types of magnonic crystals that can be fabricated according to these insights.