Controllable two- and three-state magnetization switching in single-layer epitaxial Pd1- x Fe x films and an epitaxial Pd0.92Fe0.08/Ag/Pd0.96Fe0.04 heterostructure

Igor V Yanilkin; Amir I Gumarov; Gulnaz F Gizzatullina; Roman V Yusupov; Lenar R Tagirov

doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.28

Controllable two- and three-state magnetization switching in single-layer epitaxial Pd_1- _x Fe _x films and an epitaxial Pd_0.92Fe_0.08/Ag/Pd_0.96Fe_0.04 heterostructure

Beilstein J Nanotechnol. 2022 Mar 30:13:334-343. doi: 10.3762/bjnano.13.28. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Igor V Yanilkin¹, Amir I Gumarov^{1

2}, Gulnaz F Gizzatullina¹, Roman V Yusupov¹, Lenar R Tagirov²

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Physics, Kazan Federal University, Kremlyovskaya Str. 18, 420008 Kazan, Russia.
² Zavoisky Physical-Technical Institute, FRC Kazan Scientific Centre of RAS, 420029 Kazan, Russia.

Abstract

We have investigated the low-temperature magnetoresistive properties of a thin epitaxial Pd_0.92Fe_0.08 film at different directions of the current and the applied magnetic field. The obtained experimental results are well described within an assumption of a single-domain magnetic state of the film. In a wide range of the appled field directions, the magnetization reversal proceeds in two steps via the intermediate easy axis. An epitaxial heterostructure of two magnetically separated ferromagnetic layers, Pd_0.92Fe_0.08/Ag/Pd_0.96Fe_0.04, was synthesized and studied with dc magnetometry. Its magnetic configuration diagram has been constructed and the conditions have been determined for a controllable switching between stable parallel, orthogonal, and antiparallel arrangements of magnetic moments of the layers.

Keywords: Pd–Fe alloy; anisotropic magnetoresistance; magnetization reversal; thin epitaxial film.

Grants and funding

YIV, GAI, and YRV acknowledge the subsidy allocated to Kazan Federal University for the state assignment in the sphere of scientific activities No. FZSM-2020-0050. LRT thanks the support by a state assignment no. АААА-А18-118030690040-8 to the Federal Research Center of Kazan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.