Hysteresis phenomena in permalloy-niobium bilayer films

Kinetics of magnetization reversal is studied in bilayer permalloy-niobium hybrid nanofilms by means of a magneto-optic visualization technique. The Nb-sublayer is found to affect the width of magnetic domain walls, the type of the walls, the orientation of the walls, and the kinetics of magnetization reversal in permalloy. Moreover, the low temperature magnetization reversal dependence upon the high temperature prehistory is revealed for a permalloy layer with domain walls of Bloch type. The niobium retains the information about a magnetic pattern freezed in permalloy and causes its reproduction during magnetization reversal. The "memory" is intact under magnetic field cycling as well as under a current flow. The effect demonstrates the efficiency of magnetic pinning and opens a new method for reversible variation of electromagnetic properties of hybrid devices. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.