Patterned magnetic thin films are of fundamental scientific interest, with new phenomena occurring as the lateral dimensions are reduced below 1 μm. The resulting nanoscale magnetic elements are also of technological importance for a variety of industrial applications, for example magnetic recording heads and media, magnetic random access memory (MRAM) and miniaturised actuator elements.
We use electron beam lithography and EUV interference lithography to pattern the films into a variety of magnetic elements with different shapes and sizes. With the Photoemission Electron Microscope (PEEM) at the SLS it is possible to carry out detailed observations of magnetic domains, both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic, in multilayer systems. |
