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Magnetic nanorings are the object of increasing scientific interest because they possess the vortex (stray field free) state which ensures lower magnetostatic interactions between adjacent ring elements in high packing density memory devices. In addition, they have other potential applications such as single magnetic nanoparticle sensors, microwave-frequency oscillators and data processing. The stabilization of magnetization state, types of domains and domain wall structures depends on the competing energies such as magnetostatic, exchange and anisotropy. The nucleation/ pinning of domain walls depends on the local inhomogeneity in shape such as roughness, notches etc, which play an important role in stabilizing domain configurations that can be controlled by magnetic field/spin polarized current etc. The information gained by the study of magnetization reversal in the nanoring devices could help in understanding the possible stable magnetization states, which can be incorporated into the development of magnetic logic and recording devices in a NR-based architecture. The magnetization reversal and the stable states in the symmetric cobalt nanorings (NRs) attached with nanowires (NWs) (at diametrically opposite points), is studied through magnetoresistance (MR) measurements by application of in-plane magnetic field (H). Here, a strong in-plane shape anisotropy is introduced in cobalt thin films by patterning them into NR and NWs. The presence or absence of a DW in the device is detected utilizing the AMR property of the material, where the presence of DW leads to a decrease in the resistance of the probed section of the device. It is demonstrated that the magnetization reversal of the device with smaller width, proceeds through four distinct magnetization states, one of these is the stabilized vortex state that persists over a field range of 0.730 kOe. The effect of width (from 70 nm to 1 µm) and diameter (from 2 µm to 6 µm) on the switching behavior is demonstrated. The magnetization states observed in the MR measurements are well supported by micromagnetic simulations. A statistical analysis of switching fields in these devices was demonstrated by histogram plot (of switching counts) to understand the repeatability and reproducibility of switching characteristics. In addition, the magnetization reversal of permalloy NR is also studied by MR experiment when two NWs are attached to it in two different configurations. It has been demonstrated that a vortex state can be stabilized if the NWs are attached in a way that they are at an obtuse angle with respect to each other (type-II device) which is not the case if the NWs are attached at diametrically opposite points (type-I device). This occurs because the NWs reverse at different fields as they are asymmetric with respect to applied magnetic field at every angle. The angular dependence study of the magnetization states indicates that the vortex state could be always stabilized in the type-II device irrespective of the direction of in-plane applied magnetic field while it is not the case in type-I device. The experimental observations are in good agreement with micromagnetic simulations performed on similar device structures. Further, in the last part of the thesis, the magnetization reversal of geometrically engineered cobalt NR (of width 80 nm) devices are studied by application of H. Two types of cobalt nanoring devices were fabricated. In type-1 devices the NR is attached with two nanowires (NWs) at diametrically opposite positions. In type-2 devices the NR is attached with one NW, whose other end is attached to a 5 µm x 5 µm square pad. In type-2 device, the pad reverses first, thus causing the generation of a DW at the junction of the nucleation pad and the NW. The device type-2 possesses five distinct magnetization states, one of these is the vortex state. Easy nucleation of domain walls (DWs) results in a decrease of switching field corresponding to the reversal of the nanowire. This leads to an increase in the range of fields, where the vortex state exists. In addition, angular dependence of the switching behavior indicates that the vortex state can be stabilized at all in-plane orientations of H. This occurs because of the fact that symmetry was broken due to the presence of single domain wall pinning center which was the junction of the NR and NW. The results of our micromagnetic simulations are in a good agreement with the experimental results. These results are important to understand the role of NWs which allows the formation of vortex state at every angle of the in-plane H. In type-1 device, the simulation shows that when the field is applied at any angle away from the axis of the NW, the vortex state cannot be stabilized. The width dependent study of switching fields indicates, that the switching fields decrease with increasing the width of NR devices due to a reduction of the demagnetization field.

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den Auswirkungen der Ionenimplantation auf die Materialeigenschaften verschiedener magnetischer Probensysteme. Durch die Implantation mit Ionen kann man auf vielfältige Art und Weise die Eigenschaften von magnetischen Materialien modifizieren und maßschneidern, so zum Beispiel die Sättigungsmagnetisierung und die magnetische Anisotropie. Aus der Untersuchung von drei verschiedenen Probensystemen ergibt sich die Dreigliederung des Ergebnisteils. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit, dem Hauptteil, wird die Strukturierung von Permalloyschichten durch Ionen und der Einfluss auf den anisotropen Magnetowiderstand (AMR) untersucht. Der AMR ist direkt abhängig von der Ausrichtung der Magnetisierung eines Materials zum angelegten Strom. Um die Magnetisierungsrichtung sichtbar zu machen wurde ein Kerrmikroskop benutzt. Dieses wurde im Rahmen dieser Arbeit technisch erweitert um gleichzeitig auch den AMR messen zu können. Damit war es erstmalig möglich den AMR und die magnetischen Domänenkonfigurationen direkt zu vergleichen. Durch eine weitere Modifikation des Kerrmikrosops ist es möglich quantitative Bilder eines kompletten Ummagnetisierungsvorganges zu messen. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass der berechnete AMR des Bildausschnittes mit dem gemessenen übereinstimmt. Der AMR ist abhängig von der Streifenbreite, der Streifenausrichtung zum Strom, der Stärke der induzierten Anisotropie, dem angelegten Feldwinkel und der Sättigungsmagnetisierung. Im Fall von schmalen Streifen führt das zweistufige Schalten zu einem AMR-Maximum, wenn die Streifen mit der niedrigeren Sättigungsmagnetisierung geschaltet haben. Das Zusammensetzen der Streifenstruktur ermöglicht es den AMR gezielt zu manipulieren. Bei geringer induzierter Anisotropie sind verschiedene komplexe Domänen messbar, welche sich in einem asymmetrischen AMR widerspiegeln. So kann der AMR auf vielfältige Weise manipuliert und deren Abhängigkeit von den magnetischen Domänen mittels Kerrmikroskopie gemessen werden. Im zweiten Teil wurde die Erzeugung eines Anisotropiegradienten durch Ionenimplantation in einem Speichermedium untersucht. Hierbei handelt es sich um eine Kooperation mit Peter Greene (University of California Davis) und Elke Arenholz (Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory). Nachdem die Ionenverteilung in dem Material mit TRIDYN simuliert wurde, erfolgte eine Implantation in die oberen Schichten der Co/Pd Multilagen. Dieses hat eine Veränderung der magnetischen Anisotropie zur Folge. Die Ummagnetisierungskurven sind mit dem polaren magnetooptische Kerreffekt (polaren MOKE) und Vibrationsmagnetometrie vermessen worden. Außerdem fand eine Strukturanalyse mit Röntgenreflektrometrie und Röntgendiffraktometrie statt. Die abschließende Beurteilung des Schaltverhaltens erfolgte durch die Auswertung der Ummagnetisierungskurven erster Ordnung. Es ist uns gelungen die oberen Schichten durch die Implantation weichmagnetisch zu machen. Die darunterliegenden Schichten sind noch hartmagnetisch und das Material zeigt textit{exchange spring} Verhalten. Es erfüllt somit die Voraussetzungen, um als Speichermedium genutzt zu werden. Damit konnte erfolgreich gezeigt werden, dass man mit Ionenimplantation einen Anisotropiegradienten in einem Speichermedium erzeugen kann und dadurch das gewünschte Schaltverhalten erzeugt. Im dritten Teil, in einem Projekt mit Björn Obry (TU Kaiserslautern), geht es um die Erzeugung eines Spinwellenleiters und eines magnonischen Kristalls durch die Ionenimplantation in Permalloy. Zur Herstellung des Spinwellenleiters und des magnonischen Kristalls macht man sich die lokale Reduzierung der Sättigungsmagnetisierung durch die Implantation zu nutze. Es wurden Messungen mit dem polaren MOKE gemacht. Die Spinwellencharakterisierung ist mit dem Brillouin-Lichtstreumikroskop durchgeführt worden. Es war möglich die Ionenimplantation zur Herstellung eines magnonischen Kristalls und eines Spinwellenleiters zu nutzen. Das Verändern von magnetischen Materialeigenschaften durch Implantation eröffnet somit verschiedene Möglichkeiten. Mit Ionenimplantation kann man Permalloy so strukturieren, dass man den AMR gezielt manipulieren kann. Außerdem wurde Ionenimplantation genutzt um einen Anisotropiegradienten in einem Speichermedium zu erzeugen. Durch diesen Anisotropiegradient konnte das Schaltverhalten gezielt modifiziert werden. Mit Hilfe von Ionenimplantation kann man auch ein magnonisches Kristall und einen Spinwellenleiter herstellen.:Kurzfassung Abstract 1 Einführung 2 Grundlagen 2.1 Ferromagnetismus 2.2 Magnetische Domänen 2.3 Magnetooptischer Kerr-Effekt 2.4 Anisotroper Magnetowiderstand 2.5 TRIDYN 2.6 Spinwellen in magnonischen Kristallen 2.7 Brillouin-Lichtstreuung 3 Experimentelle Details 3.1 Duale Kerrmikroskopie mit gleichzeitiger Widerstandsmessung 3.1.1 Realisierung von Kerrmikroskopie mit simultaner Widerstandsmessung 3.1.2 Erweiterung zur dualen Kerrmikroskopie 3.2 Berechnung des Magnetowiderstandes 3.3 Röntgenzirkulardichroismus (XMCD) 3.4 Vibrationsmagnetometrie (VSM) 3.5 Röntgendiffraktometrie (XRD) 3.6 Röntgenreflektometrie (XRR) 3.7 Ummagnetisierungskurven erster Ordnung (FORC) 3.8 Brillouin-Lichtstreumikroskopie (BLS) 4 Anisotroper Magnetowiderstand in Hybridproben 4.1 Herstellung magnetischer Hybridproben durch Implantation 4.2 AMR von unstrukturiertem Permalloy mit induzierter Anisotropie 4.3 Modifikation des AMR durch Strukturierung 4.3.1 Streifenstrukturen senkrecht zur Stromrichtung 4.3.2 Zusammengesetze Streifenstruktur senkrecht und parallel zur Strom- richtung 4.3.3 Abhängigkeit des AMR von der Streifenbreite bei zusammengesetz- ten Streifenstrukturen 4.4 Einfluss der reduzierten Sättigungsmagnetisierung auf den AMR 4.5 Einfluss der Anisotropien auf den AMR 4.6 Nutzung der AMR Berechnung zur gezielten Manipulation des Widerstandes 4.7 Abhängigkeit des AMR vom Feldwinkel 5 Erzeugung eines Anisotropiegradienten durch Ionenimplantation 5.1 Herstellung eines senkrecht zur Ebene magnetisierten Materials 5.2 Simulation der Eindringtiefe der Ionen mit TRIDYN 5.3 Messungen der Rauigkeit 5.4 Messungen des Ummagnetisierungsverhalten 5.5 Domänenbetrachtung und Schaltfeldverteilung 6 Magnetisierungsveränderung durch Ionenimplantation 6.1 Herstellung eines Spinwellenleiters und eines magnonischen Kristalls 6.2 Messungen der Sättigungsmagnetisierung 6.3 Messungen der Spinwellenfrequenz 7 Zusammenfassung 8 Anhang Literaturverzeichnis Veröffentlichungen Danksagung / This thesis deals with magnetic modification of ferromagnetic films by ion implantation, such as induced changes of the magnetic anisotropy and changes in the saturation magnetization. Three different sample structures were investigated. Therefore the result section is divided into three parts. The influence of ion induced magnetic patterning on the anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) is investigated in the first part. The AMR directly depends on the angle between the applied current and the magnetization of the material. To investigate this relationship a Kerr microscopy,for observing the magnetic domains was combined with resistance measurements. The measurements were performed on stripe patterned permalloy samples. This is the main part of the thesis. The creation of an anisotropy gradient in a storage media by ion implantation is the topic of the second part. It was a collaborative project with Peter Greene (University of California Davis) and Elke Arenholz (Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory). The goal was to create a magnetic anisotropy gradient by introducing ions in the upper layer of the Co/Pd- multilayer. After TRIDYN simulations of the ion distribution, the implantation was performed and the magnetization curves were measured with polar magneto-optical Kerr effect and vibrating sample magnetometry. In addition to this, structural characterization was carried out by x-ray reflection and x-ray diffraction measurements. For the final determination of the switching behavior first order reversal curves were analyzed. The aim of the third part was to create a spin wave guide and a magnonic crystal by local ion implantation. In this project with Björn Obry (TU Kaiserslautern) the characteristic of the ions to reduce the saturation magnetization in permalloy was used and the effect on the spin wave propagation was analyzed. Polar MOKE was performed to determine the saturation magnetization. Brillouin light scattering microscopy was used to analyze the spin wave behavior inside the material.:Kurzfassung Abstract 1 Einführung 2 Grundlagen 2.1 Ferromagnetismus 2.2 Magnetische Domänen 2.3 Magnetooptischer Kerr-Effekt 2.4 Anisotroper Magnetowiderstand 2.5 TRIDYN 2.6 Spinwellen in magnonischen Kristallen 2.7 Brillouin-Lichtstreuung 3 Experimentelle Details 3.1 Duale Kerrmikroskopie mit gleichzeitiger Widerstandsmessung 3.1.1 Realisierung von Kerrmikroskopie mit simultaner Widerstandsmessung 3.1.2 Erweiterung zur dualen Kerrmikroskopie 3.2 Berechnung des Magnetowiderstandes 3.3 Röntgenzirkulardichroismus (XMCD) 3.4 Vibrationsmagnetometrie (VSM) 3.5 Röntgendiffraktometrie (XRD) 3.6 Röntgenreflektometrie (XRR) 3.7 Ummagnetisierungskurven erster Ordnung (FORC) 3.8 Brillouin-Lichtstreumikroskopie (BLS) 4 Anisotroper Magnetowiderstand in Hybridproben 4.1 Herstellung magnetischer Hybridproben durch Implantation 4.2 AMR von unstrukturiertem Permalloy mit induzierter Anisotropie 4.3 Modifikation des AMR durch Strukturierung 4.3.1 Streifenstrukturen senkrecht zur Stromrichtung 4.3.2 Zusammengesetze Streifenstruktur senkrecht und parallel zur Strom- richtung 4.3.3 Abhängigkeit des AMR von der Streifenbreite bei zusammengesetz- ten Streifenstrukturen 4.4 Einfluss der reduzierten Sättigungsmagnetisierung auf den AMR 4.5 Einfluss der Anisotropien auf den AMR 4.6 Nutzung der AMR Berechnung zur gezielten Manipulation des Widerstandes 4.7 Abhängigkeit des AMR vom Feldwinkel 5 Erzeugung eines Anisotropiegradienten durch Ionenimplantation 5.1 Herstellung eines senkrecht zur Ebene magnetisierten Materials 5.2 Simulation der Eindringtiefe der Ionen mit TRIDYN 5.3 Messungen der Rauigkeit 5.4 Messungen des Ummagnetisierungsverhalten 5.5 Domänenbetrachtung und Schaltfeldverteilung 6 Magnetisierungsveränderung durch Ionenimplantation 6.1 Herstellung eines Spinwellenleiters und eines magnonischen Kristalls 6.2 Messungen der Sättigungsmagnetisierung 6.3 Messungen der Spinwellenfrequenz 7 Zusammenfassung 8 Anhang Literaturverzeichnis Veröffentlichungen Danksagung

The static and dynamic properties of spin distributions within domain walls(DWs) confined by Permalloy nanowire conduits are investigated by numerical simulations and high-speed magneto-optic polarimetry. Phase boundaries and critical points associated with DW spin distributions of various topologies are accurately determined using high-performance computing resources. Field-driven mobility curves that characterize DW propagation velocities in 20 nm thick nanowires are calculated with increasing the width of nanowires. Beyond the simple one-dimensional solution, the simulations reveal the four distinct dynamic modes. Oscillations of the field-driven DW velocity in Permalloy nanowires are observed above the Walker breakdown condition using high-speed magneto-optic polarimetry. A one-dimensional analytical model and numerical simulations of DW motion and spin dynamics are used to interpret the experimental data. Velocity oscillations are shown to be much more sensitive to properties of the DW guide structure (which also affect DW mobility) than the DW spin precessional frequency, which is a local property of the material. Transverse bias field effects on field-driven DW velocity are studied experimentally and numerically. DW velocities and spin configurations are determined as functions of longitudinal drive field, transverse bias field, and nanowire width. For a nanowire that supports vortex wall structures, factor of ten enhancements of the DW velocity are observed above the critical longitudinal drive-field (that marks the onset of oscillatory DW motion) when a transverse bias field is applied. The bias-field enhancement of DW velocity is explained by numerical simulations of the spin distribution and dynamics within a propagating DW that reveal dynamic stabilization of coupled vortex structures and suppression of oscillatory motion in the nanowire conduit resulting in uniform DW motion at high speed. Current-driven and current-assisted field-driven domain wall dynamics in ferromagnetic nanowires have thermal effects resulting from Joule heating, which make difficult to separate the spin-torque effects on DW displacements. To understand the thermal effects on DW dynamics, the temperature dependence of field-driven DW velocity is explored using high-bandwidth scanning Kerr polarimetry. Walker critical fields are decreased with increasing temperature and temperature-induced dynamic mode changes are observed. The results show that Joule heating effects are playing an important role in current-driven/current-assisted field-driven DW dynamics. / text

Magneto-optical materials such as permalloy can be used to create artificial spin- ice (ASI) lattices with antiferromagnetic ordering. Magneto-optical materials used to create diffraction lattices are known to exhibit magnetic scattering at the half- order Bragg peak while in the ground state. The significant drawbacks of studying the magneto-optical generation of OAM using x-rays are cost, time, and access to proper equipment. In this work, it is shown that the possibility of studying OAM and magneto-optical materials in the spectrum of visible light at or around 2 eV is viable. Using spectroscopic ellipsometry it is possible to detect a change in the magnetization of thin permalloy films with thicknesses between 5 and 20 nm. Patterns consistent with OAM were found at 1.95 eV using a square lattice with a 4𝜋 radial phase shift in the antiferromagnetic ground state. Evidence of magnetic scattering at the half-order Bragg peak using 1.95 eV was also found.

La thèse traite d'un point de vue expérimental la dynamique d'aimantation induite par laser femtoseconde de nanostructures magnétiques. En premier lieu, nous nous sommes intéressés à la dynamique de spins dans des plots ferromagnétiques individuels de CoPt3 et de permalloy (le diamètre varie de 0.25 à 30 Μm). Le montage expérimental consiste en des mesures magnéto-optique Kerr pompe sonde en géométrie confocale (la résolution spatiale est 300 nm ; la résolution temporelle est 150 fs). Nous avons montré que la dynamique d'aimantation dépend fortement de la densité d'excitation laser notamment le temps de relaxation spin-réseau et la fréquence de précession. Nous avons également étudié l'expansion spatiale de la désaimantation dans un plot individuel. De plus, nous avons développé une technique d'imagerie résolue en temps permettant d'étudier le renversement d'aimantation dans des films et plots individuels de CoPt. Nous avons exploré l'effet des différents paramètres : intensité laser, champ magnétique appliqué, et la nature cristalline du substrat (alliage, multicouches) sur le renversement d'aimantation. Enfin, nous avons étudié par microscope à force magnétique la structure des domaines magnétiques induite par laser. <br />Nous avons également étudié la dynamique cohérente d'aimantation de nanoparticules magnétiques (le diamètre moyen varie de 2 à 10 nm) excitées par des impulsions laser. L'analyse de la trajectoire d'aimantation dans les trois directions de l'espace (polaire, longitudinal, transverse) après l'excitation optique (> 120 fs) nous a permis de mettre en évidence la désaimantation ultrarapide (~ 200 fs), le mouvement gyroscopique de l'aimantation (précession et l'amortissement de l'aimantation) qui précède les fluctuations super-paramagnétiques. Nous avons exploré le rôle de l'anisotropie magnétique sur la réorientation initiale de l'aimantation et nous avons montré que le damping augmente avec la diminution de la taille de particules.

Two types of rotary gate microvalves are developed for flow modulation in a microfluidic system that operates at high flow rate and/or uses particulate flow. This research work encompasses design, microfabrication, and experimental evaluation of these microvalves in three distinct areas compliant micromechanism, microfluidics, and electromagnetic actuation. The microvalve consists of a suspended gate that rotates in the plane of the chip to regulate flow through the orifices. The gate is suspended by a novel fully-compliant in-plane rotary bistable micromechanism (IPRBM) that advantageously constraints the gate in all other degrees of freedom. Multiple inlet/outlet orifices provide flexibility of operating the microvalve in three different flow/port configurations. The suspended gate is made of a soft magnetic material and is electromagnetically actuated like a rotor in a variable-reluctance stepper motor. Therefore, an external electromagnetic (EM) actuation at the integrated set of posts (stator) causes the gate mass to switch from its default angular position to a second angular position. The microvalve chip is fabricated by electroplating a soft magnetic material, Permalloy (Ni80Fe20) in a sacrificial photoresist mold on a Silicon substrate. The inlet/outlet orifices are then etched into the Silicon substrate from the back-side using deep-reactive ion etch process. Finally, the gate structure is released by stripping the PR and seed layers. This research work presents the realization of a new microvalve design that is distinct from traditional diaphragm-type microvalves. The test results are encouraging and show the potential of these microvalves in effectively modulating flow in microfluidic systems that may not require a tight seal. The microvalve uses a novel in-plane rotary bistable micromechanism that may have other applications such as optical shutters, micro-locks, and passive check valves.

In the present thesis, we have explored multiple aspects concerning the stochasticity of magnetic domain wall motion during magnetization reversal, all of which originated from our initial study of magnetic field sensing using planar Hall effect. Magnetic field sensors occupy a very important and indispensable position in modern technology. They can be found everywhere, from cellphones to automobiles, electric motors to computer hard disks. At present there are several emerging areas of technology, including biotechnology, which require magnetic field sensors which are at the same time simple to use, highly sensitive, robust under environmental conditions and sufficiently low cost to be deployed on a large scale. Magnetic field sensing using planar Hall effect is one such feasible technology, which we have explored in the course of the thesis. The work was subsequently expanded to cover some fundamental aspects of the stochasticity of domain wall motion, studied with planar Hall effect, which forms the main body of work in the present study. In Chapter 1, we give an introduction to the phenomenology of planar Hall effect, which is the most important measurement technique used for all the subsequent studies. Some early calculations, which had first led to the understanding of anisotropic magnetoresistance and planar Hall effect as being caused by spin-orbit interaction are discussed. In Chapter 2, we discuss briefly the experimental techniques used in the present study for sample growth and fabrication, structural and magnetic characterization, and measurement. We discuss pulsed laser ablation, which is the main technique used for our sample growth. Particular emphasis is given to the instrumentation that was carried out in-house for MOKE and low field magnetotransport (AMR and PHE) measurement. This includes an attempt at domain wall imaging through MOKE microscopy. Some of the standard equipments used for this work, such as the SQUID magnetometer and the acsusceptometer are also discussed in detail. In Chapter 3 we discuss our work on planar Hall sensors that led to the fabrication of a device with a very simple architecture, having transfer characteristics of 650V/A.T in a range of _2Oe. The sensing material was permalloy (Ni81Fe19), and the value had been obtained without using an exchange biased pinning layer. Field trials showed that the devices were capable of geomagnetic field sensing, as well as vehicle detection by sensing the anomaly in Earth's magnetic field caused by their motion. Its estimated detection threshold of 2.5nT made it well suited for several other applications needing high sensitivity in a small area, the most prominent of them being the detection of macromolecules of bio-medical significance. Chapter 4: The work on Barkhausen noise was prompted by reproducibility problems faced during the sensor construction, both between devices as well as within the same device. Study of the stochastic properties led us to the conclusion that the devices could be grouped into two classes: one where the magnetization reversal occurred in a single step, and the other where it took a 0staircase0 like path with multiple steps. This led us to simulations of Barkhausen noise using nucleation models like the RFIM whence it became apparent that the two different groups of samples could be mapped into two regimes of the RFIM distinguished by their magnetization reversal mode. In the RFIM, the nature of the hysteresis loop depends on the degree of disorder, with a crossover happening from single-step switching to multi-step switching at a critical disorder level. Appropriate changes also appear in the Barkhausen noise statistics due to this disorder-induced crossover. By studying the Barkhausen noise statistics for our permalloy samples and comparing them with simulations of the RFIM, we found nearly exact correspondence between the two experimental groups with the two classes resulting from crossing the critical disorder. What remained was to quantify the 0disorder0 level of our samples, which was done through XRD, residual resistivity and a study of electron-electron interaction effects in the resistivity. All these studies led to the conclusion that the samples reversing in multiple steps were more 0defective0 than the other group, at par with the model predictions. This completed the picture with respect to the modeling of the noise. In experiments, it was found that a high rate of film deposition yielded less 0defective0 samples, which severed as an important input for the sensor construction. These results can be viewed from a somewhat broader perspective if we consider the present scenario in the experimental study of Barkhausen noise, or crackling noise in general. Two classes of models exist for such phenomena: front propagation models and nucleation models. Both appear to be very successful when it comes to experiments with bulk materials, while the comparison with experiments on thin films is rather disappointing. It is still not clear whether the models are at fault or the experiments themselves. Through our study, we could demonstrate that there can be considerable variation in the Barkhausen noise character of the same material deposited in the same way, and what was important was the degree of order at the microscopic level. This may be a relevant factor when experimental papers report non-universality of Barkhausen noise in thin films, which can now be interpreted as either insufficient defects or a sample area too small for the study. Chapter 5: Defects in a sample are not the only cause for stochastic behavior during magnetization. In most cases, random thermal 0events0 are also an important factor determining the path to magnetization reversal, which was also true for our permalloy samples. We studied the distribution of the external fields at which magnetization reversal took place in our samples, and tried to explain it in terms of the popular Neel-Brown model of thermal excitation over the anisotropy barrier. The analysis showed that even though the coercivity behaved 0correctly0 in terms of the model predictions, the behavior of the distribution width was anomalous. Such anomalies were common in the literature on switching field distributions, but there seemed to be no unified explanation, with different authors coming up with their own 0exotic0 explanations. We decided to investigate the simplest situations that could result in such a behavior, and through some model-based calculations, came to the conclusion that one of the causes of the anomalies could be the different magnitudes of barrier heights/anisotropy fields experienced by the magnetic domain wall when the reversal occurs along different paths. Though an exact match for the behavior of the distribution width could not be obtained, the extended Neel-Brown model was able to produce qualitative agreement. Chapter 6 contains a study of some interesting 0geometrical0 effects on Barkhausen noise of iron thin films. By rotating the applied magnetic field out-of plane, we could observe the same single-step to multi-step crossover in hysteresis loop nature that was brought about by varying disorder in Chapter 4. We could explain this through simulations of a random anisotropy Ising model, which, apart from exhibiting the usual disorder induced crossover, showed a transition from sub-critical to critical hysteresis loops when the external field direction was rotated away form the average anisotropy direction. Once again, simulation and experiment showed very good agreement in terms of the qualitative behavior. In the second part of this chapter, a study of exchange biased Fe-FeMn system was carried out, where it was observed that the reversal mode has been changed from domain wall motion to coherent rotation. Barkhausen noise was also suppressed. Though many single-domain models existed for this type of reversal, our system was not found to be strictly compatible with them. The disagreement was with regard to the nature of the hysteresis, which, if present, had to be a single step process for a single domain model. The disagreement was naturally attributed to interaction with the nearby magnetic moments, to verify which, simulations were done with a simplified micromagnetic code, which produced excellent agreement with experiment. In Chapter 7, we have studied the temporal properties of Barkhausen avalanches, to compare the duration distributions with simulation. We had used a permalloy sample that was sub-critical according to avalanche size distributions, and our measurement was based on magneto-optic Kerr effect. We measured duration distributions which showed a similar manifestation of finite-size effects as were shown by the size distributions. The power law exponent was calculated, which was deemed 0reasonable0 upon comparison simulations of the sub-critical RFIM. Appendix A contains a study of high-field magnetoresistance of permalloy, which shows that the dominant contribution to magnetoresistance is the suppression of electron-magnon scattering. An interesting correlation is observed between the magnetization of samples and an exchange stiffness parameter d1, that was extracted from magnetoresistance measurements. Here we also re-visit our earlier observation of permalloy thin films possessing a resistance minimum at low temperature. The origin of this minimum is attributed to electron-electron interaction. Appendix B contains the source codes for most of the important programs used for simulation and data analysis. The programs are written in MATLAB and FORTRAN 95. LabView programs used for data acquisition and analysis are not included due to space requirements to display their graphical source codes. Appendix C discusses the studies on a disordered rare-earth oxide LaMnO3. The re-entrant glassy phase is characterized with ac susceptibility and magnetization measurements to extract information about the nature of interactions between the magnetic 0macrospins0 in the system. Appendix D deals with electron scattering experiments performed with spinpolarized electrons (SPLEED) from clean metal surfaces in UHV. A study of the scattering cross sections as a function of energy and scattering angle provides information about spin-orbit and exchange interactions of the electrons with the surface atoms, and can answer important questions pertaining to the electronic and magnetic structure of surfaces. In the course of this study, planar Hall effect is seen to emerge as a powerful tool to study the magnetic state of a thin film, so that it is interesting to apply it to thin films of other materials such as oxides, where magnetization noise studies are next to nonexistent. What also emerged is that there is still a lot of richness present in the details of supposedly well-understood magnetization phenomena, some of which we have explored in this thesis in the context of stochastic magnetization processes.

Magnetic materials have many applications in technology. The magnetic properties of materials are therefore important to catalogue for future use. In this project, the magnetic properties of thin films of permalloy are investigated. Specifically, the goal is to find the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy energy (PMAE) of thin film geometries of permalloy of varying film thickness. The PMAE is computed with powerful parallel computers using density functional theory (DFT) as implemented in the open-source DFT package OpenMX. The project consists of two parts: Computations on the bulk system and computations on six thin film systems of varying thickness. The thin films are periodic in the basal plane (the permalloy has a tetragonal crystal structure). The easy axis of magnetization was found to be along the c-axis of the tetragonal structure, both for bulk and thin film geometries. For the thin film geometries, this corresponds to an out-of-plane easy axis. The PMAE of the thinnest thin film geometries (4-5 atomic layers) were several times greater than that of the bulk system. Thin films with one more layer of Fe than Ni have especially great PMAE. When comparing the results to another study, the magnetocrystalline anisotropy as computed in this project turned out to be more than two orders of magnitude greater than in the previous study. It is hypothesised that this is because of the differing crystal structure of permalloy used in the study.