Magnetization process in FePd thin films

A custom made magnetic force microscope is used to study the magnetization process in thin films of FePd throughout the entire hysteresis loop. The 40 nm thick sample has a strong perpendicular anisotropy, which leads to a maze of 80 nm wide stripes of opposite polarity in the remanent state. The growth of M, when H increases, happens through an unwinding of the reversed domain along their axis. Together with the length recession, the reversed domain width also contracts with increasing field. The later effect is estimated by comparison of our images with magneto-optical Kerr measurements. A large disorder in the propagation process of the domain walls is observed. It is also found that the bubble configuration near the saturation field is unstable. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.