Magnetic properties of submicrometric antidot arrays in cobalt films

Arrays of elliptical and square shaped submicrometric antidots were successfully prepared in a continuous cobalt layer using a technique combining electron beam lithography and ion beam etching. Their dynamic magnetic properties were investigated using Brillouin light scattering (BLS) spectroscopy. The BLS results are interpreted with the help of a semi quantitative model taking account of the demagnetizing field arising from the antidots array. In addition, we present magnetic force microscopy (MFM) images showing magnetic domains connecting each square antidot to its neighbours: this indicates that the antidots behave as pinning sites for domain walls through the whole patterned array. The MFM observations are compared to the magnetic topography calculated using the public OOMMF code.