Magnetic anisotropy at material interfaces

In this dissertation, a comprehensive set of depth dependent magnetic measurements, as well as structural characterizations, were carried out on the Co/Pd multilayer system. The first-order reversal curve (FORC) technique is applied extensively to identify reversal mechanisms and different reversal phases within the material. In particular, the extension of the FORC technique to x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) as a surface sensitive technique that identifies reversible magnetization change was performed for the first time. Polarized neutron reflectivity (PNR) was also used to directly measure the magnetization as a function of depth.;The effects of deposition pressure grading within the Co/Pd multilayers were investigated. Structures were graded with three distinct pressure regions. FORC analysis shows that not only does increasing the deposition pressure increase the coercivity and effective anisotropy within that region, but also the order in which the pressure is changed also affects the entire structure. Layers grown at high sputtering pressures tend to reverse via domain wall pinning and rotation while those grown at lower pressures reverse via rapid domain wall propagation laterally across the film. Having high pressure layers underneath low pressure layers causes disorder to vertically propagate and lessen the induced anisotropy gradient. This analysis is confirmed by depth dependent magnetization profiles obtain from PNR.;Continuously pressure-graded Co/Pd multilayers were then sputtered at two incident angles onto porous aluminum oxide templates with different pore aspect ratios. The effects of pressure grading versus uniform low pressure deposition is studied, as well as the effect of the angle of the incident deposition flux. The coercivity of the pressure graded perpendicular flux sample is compared to the low pressure sample. Additionally the effect of deposition angle and pore sidewall deposition is investigated. It is shown that sidewall deposition strongly affects the reversal behavior.;As another way to induce a vertical anisotropy gradient, Co/Pd multilayers were bombarded with Ar+ ions at different energies and fluences. The effects of the depth dependent structural damage as a function of irradiation conditions were investigated. It is shown that the structural damage weakens the perpendicular anisotropy of the surface layers, causing a tilting of the surface magnetic moment into the plane of the film. The surface behavior is explicitly measured and shown to have a significant tilting angle in the top 5 nm depending on irradiation energy and fluence.;Continuing the study of vertical anisotropy gradients in Co/Pd multilayers, multilayers with varied Co thickness were studied. Four films with varying Co thickness profiles were created and then patterned into nanodot arrays with diameters between 700 nm and 70 nm. The different films were graded continuously, or in stacks with varying Co thicknesses. An anisotropy gradient is shown to be established in the graded samples, and the switching field is lowered as a result. Furthermore, in the continuously graded samples the magnetization reversal behavior is fundamentally different from all other samples. The thermal energy barriers are measured in the uniform and continuously graded samples, yielding similar results.;Finally, the establishment of exchange anisotropy at the ferromagnet / antiferromagnet (FM/AFM) interface in the epitaxial Fe/CoO system is investigated as a function of AFM thickness. The establishment of frozen AFM moments is analyzed using the FORC technique. The FORC technique combined with vector coil measurements also shows the transition from rotatable AFM to pinned AFM moments and suggests a mechanism of winding domain walls within the bulk AFM. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).