Studies of domain dynamics in amorphous Dy/Fe multilayers

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Abstract
Compositionally‐modulated Dy/Fe films were prepared by dc magnetron sputtering onto glass substrates. For this series of samples, the Dy thickness was fixed at 5 Å, while the Fe thickness was varied from 4 to 6 Å. To study the magnetization reversal, the samples were first saturated. The magnetic field was then reversed to a value near the coercive field, and the Kerr rotation was measured as a function of time after reversal. We interpret our results in terms of the model of domain reversal first described by Fatuzzo for ferroelectrics. For some Fe thicknesses, we found that the reversal process was dominated by domain nucleation, while for other thicknesses it was dominated by domain wall motion. The observed behavior is discussed in terms of the magnetic and structural properties of the films.