Growth and micromagnetism of self-assembled epitaxial fcc(111) cobalt dots

TL;DR

This paper reports the development of self-assembled epitaxial fcc(111) cobalt dots, analyzing their growth, surface energies, and magnetic vortex structures, with experimental results aligning well with micromagnetic simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a method for fabricating self-assembled epitaxial cobalt dots and characterizes their magnetic structures, providing insights into their surface energies and flux-closure patterns.

Findings

Atoms form flat facets on cobalt dots.

Magnetic vortex structures are observed.

Experimental results agree with simulations.

Abstract

We developed the self-assembly of epitaxial submicrometer-sized face-centered-cubic (fcc) Co(111) dots using pulsed laser deposition. The dots display atomically-fl at facets, from which the ratios of surface and interface energies for fcc Co are deduced. Zero- field magnetic structures are investigated with magnetic force and lorentz microscopies, revealing vortex-based flux-closure patterns. A good agreement is found with micromagnetic simulations.