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 MoS2 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.