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Microstructures

Spin-engineering magnetic media

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Abstract

The explosion in demand for increased data-storage density is driving the exploration of new magnetic media. Here we describe a new type of magnetic medium in which the spin configurations are engineered in chemically homogeneous magnetic films: regularly arranged in-plane and out-of-plane spin configurations are defined by altering the magnetic anisotropy. These spin-engineered media not only maintain the surface planarity but also the homogeneity of the magnetic materials, and our method is likely to find immediate application on account of its simplicity and ease of integration.

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Figure 1: Selective epitaxy in spin engineering and magnetic characterization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, UK

    S. P. Li, W. S. Lew, J. A. C. Bland, L. Lopez-Diaz & C. A. F. Vaz

  2. Laboratoire de Microstructures et de Microélectronique (CNRS), 196 Avenue Henri Ravera, Bagneux Cedex, 92225, France

    M. Natali & Y. Chen

Authors
  1. S. P. Li
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  2. W. S. Lew
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  3. J. A. C. Bland
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  4. L. Lopez-Diaz
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  5. M. Natali
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  6. C. A. F. Vaz
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  7. Y. Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. A. C. Bland.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Li, S., Lew, W., Bland, J. et al. Spin-engineering magnetic media. Nature 415, 600–601 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/415600a

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