Morphological instability of ferromagnetic thin films

Kuo An Wu; Peter W. Voorhees

doi:10.1063/1.3239989

Morphological instability of ferromagnetic thin films

Kuo An Wu^*, Peter W. Voorhees

^*Corresponding author for this work

Materials Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

We investigate the morphological instability of ferromagnetic planar thin films using linear perturbation theory. We find that, for a uniformly magnetized ferromagnetic planar film with a nonzero component of the magnetization along the normal to the planar film, the planar surface is unstable with respect to perturbations having a wave number smaller than a critical value. In addition, the critical wave number changes with the direction of the surface perturbations, with the perturbations perpendicular to the in-plane component of the magnetization having the largest critical wave number. Such anisotropy could be important in controlling the evolution of the morphology of the film and nanoscale-island formation.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	073916
Journal	Journal of Applied Physics
Volume	106
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3239989
State	Published - 2009

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Physics and Astronomy

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10.1063/1.3239989

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@article{2e9c6ca064974a6bb7087bbc1404b100,

title = "Morphological instability of ferromagnetic thin films",

abstract = "We investigate the morphological instability of ferromagnetic planar thin films using linear perturbation theory. We find that, for a uniformly magnetized ferromagnetic planar film with a nonzero component of the magnetization along the normal to the planar film, the planar surface is unstable with respect to perturbations having a wave number smaller than a critical value. In addition, the critical wave number changes with the direction of the surface perturbations, with the perturbations perpendicular to the in-plane component of the magnetization having the largest critical wave number. Such anisotropy could be important in controlling the evolution of the morphology of the film and nanoscale-island formation.",

author = "Wu, {Kuo An} and Voorhees, {Peter W.}",

note = "Funding Information: The research is supported by the NSF Grant No. DMR-0502737. FIG. 1. A schematic diagram of a perturbed ferromagnetic thin film in an external magnetic field. FIG. 2. The variation of the minimum critical wavelength λ c min with the z component of magnetization M z for zero misfit strain sample (solid line) and for γ / E 0 = 10 nm (dashed line). FIG. 3. The polar plot of the critical wavelength for the magnetization M 0 = 10 4 Gauss , M z = 2 | M x y | , and the surface energy γ is 10 3 ergs / cm 2 . The critical wavelength is plotted for zero misfit strain (blue line, outer ellipse) and for γ / E 0 = 10 nm (red line, inner ellipse). ",

year = "2009",

doi = "10.1063/1.3239989",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "106",

journal = "Journal of Applied Physics",

issn = "0021-8979",

publisher = "American Institute of Physics",

number = "7",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Morphological instability of ferromagnetic thin films

AU - Wu, Kuo An

AU - Voorhees, Peter W.

N1 - Funding Information: The research is supported by the NSF Grant No. DMR-0502737. FIG. 1. A schematic diagram of a perturbed ferromagnetic thin film in an external magnetic field. FIG. 2. The variation of the minimum critical wavelength λ c min with the z component of magnetization M z for zero misfit strain sample (solid line) and for γ / E 0 = 10 nm (dashed line). FIG. 3. The polar plot of the critical wavelength for the magnetization M 0 = 10 4 Gauss , M z = 2 | M x y | , and the surface energy γ is 10 3 ergs / cm 2 . The critical wavelength is plotted for zero misfit strain (blue line, outer ellipse) and for γ / E 0 = 10 nm (red line, inner ellipse).

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - We investigate the morphological instability of ferromagnetic planar thin films using linear perturbation theory. We find that, for a uniformly magnetized ferromagnetic planar film with a nonzero component of the magnetization along the normal to the planar film, the planar surface is unstable with respect to perturbations having a wave number smaller than a critical value. In addition, the critical wave number changes with the direction of the surface perturbations, with the perturbations perpendicular to the in-plane component of the magnetization having the largest critical wave number. Such anisotropy could be important in controlling the evolution of the morphology of the film and nanoscale-island formation.

AB - We investigate the morphological instability of ferromagnetic planar thin films using linear perturbation theory. We find that, for a uniformly magnetized ferromagnetic planar film with a nonzero component of the magnetization along the normal to the planar film, the planar surface is unstable with respect to perturbations having a wave number smaller than a critical value. In addition, the critical wave number changes with the direction of the surface perturbations, with the perturbations perpendicular to the in-plane component of the magnetization having the largest critical wave number. Such anisotropy could be important in controlling the evolution of the morphology of the film and nanoscale-island formation.

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U2 - 10.1063/1.3239989

DO - 10.1063/1.3239989

M3 - Article

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SN - 0021-8979

VL - 106

JO - Journal of Applied Physics

JF - Journal of Applied Physics

IS - 7

M1 - 073916

ER -

Morphological instability of ferromagnetic thin films

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