Magnetic anisotropy of aligned magnetic stripe domains in FePd studied by soft X-ray resonant magnetic scattering, magnetic force microscopy and micromagnetic modeling

Abstract FePd thin-film samples with different perpendicular magnetic anisotropies have been studied with magnetic force microscopy (MFM), micromagnetic calculations and soft x-ray resonant magnetic scattering (SXRMS). The competition between perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and shape anisotropy leads to the formation of highly ordered stripe domain patterns with a magnetization component perpendicular to the film plane. The magnetic stripes with a period of ∼100 nm, which are seen in the MFM images and can be modeled by micromagnetic calculations, give rise to magnetic peaks in the diffraction pattern. Closure domains occur in samples with a low to medium PMA, while a high PMA inhibits their formation. The in-plane magnetization component of the closure domains is not observable with MFM. In the presence of closure domains the interference between the scattering amplitudes in SXRMS from perpendicular and in-plane magnetized domains gives rise to a circular dichroism in the transverse geometry, where the scattering plane is along the stripes. We also recorded the magnetic speckle pattern from an 8 μm FePd wire using coherent x-rays and CCD detection. A high degree of coherence was obtained as evidenced from the observed intensity fluctuations. The speckle pattern can in principle provide information about the local disorder of the magnetic stripe domains.