Structural and magnetic study of submicronic single crystal cobalt box arrays

Abstract
We present a study of magnetic dot arrays fabricated in Ru(5 nm)/Co/Ru(32 nm) films with cobalt thickness varying from 10 to 500 nm. Large array areas up to 5×5 mm2 have been obtained with lateral dot size and spacing of 0.5 μm. The magnetization curves are characteristic of a perpendicular magnetized multidomain structure. Lateral size reduction does not drasti‐ cally change the domain structure but has immediate consequences on the nucleation and saturation fields. A magnetic force microscopy study confirms the perpendicular multidomain struc‐ ture and provides intrinsic magnetic characteristics.