Mikrostruktur und Magnetisierungsdynamik feinmodulierter Co/Pt-Heterostrukturen

Gegenstand dieser Arbeit ist die Untersuchung der strukturellen und magnetischen Eigenschaften von (111)-texturierten epitaktischen dünnen Co/Pt-Vielfachschichten und Pt/Co/Pt-Heterostrukturen. Mit Hilfe von Röntgen-Diffraktions-Experimenten wurde der Einfluß der Oberflächenqualität des MgO (111) Substratmaterials auf die Zwischenlagenstruktur und die kristalline Ordnung in den Filmen analysiert. Es konnte nachgewiesen werden, daß die Unordnung an der Co/Pt-Grenzfläche unterhalb einer Längenskala von 6 nm allein durch die Wachstums- und Interdiffusionsprozesse zwischen der Co- und der Pt-Lage bestimmt ist, unabhängig von der Qualität der Substratoberfläche. Demgegenüber zeigte sich, daß durch eine besondere Substratbehandlung eine langreichweitige kristalline Kohärenz der Schichten und eine Unterdrückung der Verzwillingung aus abc- und acb-Wachstumsdomänen des fcc-Platin erzielt werden können. Anhand integraler Messungen des magneto-optischen Kerr-Effektes wurde ein direkter Zusammenhang zwischen der Substrat-induzierten Defektdichte der Filme und der Nukleation magnetischer Domänen während der Ummagnetisierung nachgewiesen. Pt/Co/Pt-Dreifachlagen mit Kobalt-Dicken bis zu 1 nm besitzen eine senkrechte magnetische Anisotropie und zeigen magnetische Domänen mit Größen von bis zu einigen hundert Mikrometern, die mit Hilfe optischer Kerr-Mikroskopie visualisiert wurden. In Pt/Co/Pt-Dreifachschichten mit weniger als drei Monolagen Kobalt, welche auf vicinalen MgO (111)-Substraten aufgebracht wurden, treten während der Ummagnetisierung aufgrund anisotroper Domänenwandbewegung charakteristische dreieckige Domänenformen auf. Es wurde ein mikroskopischer Mechanismus vorgeschlagen, welcher dieses anisotrope Pinning von magnetischen Domänenwänden an mesoskopischen Stufen-Strukturen der Substratoberfläche beschreibt. Zur quantitativen Beschreibung der anisotropen Domänenwandbewegung wurden zweidimensionale numerische Simulationen durchgeführt, basierend auf einem modifizierten Random-Field-Ising-Modell mit einem Ginzburg-Landau-artigen Hamiltonian, in dem der Einfluß der Stufenkanten auf den Ordnungsparamter durch ein neu eingeführtes effektives anisotropes Feld G(r) repräsentiert ist. Unter Annahme einer lateralen Anordnung der Stufenkanten in Form eines Fischgrätenmusters konnten im Rahmen dieses Modells die experimentell beobachteten charakteristischen anisotropen Domänenformen sowie die Skaleneigenschaften der Domänenwände in exzellenter Weise numerisch reproduziert werden.

Electronic transport in the heavy fermion superconductors UPd 2 Al 3 and UNi 2 Al 3

This work addresses the electronical properties of the superconductors UPd2Al3 and UNi2Al3 on the basis of thin film experiments. These isotructural compounds are ideal candiates to study the interplay of magnetism and superconductivity due to the differences of their magnetically ordered states, as well as the experimental evidence for a magnetic pairing mechanism in UPd2Al3. Epitaxial thin film samples of UPd2Al3 and UNi2Al3 were prepared using UHV Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE). For UPd2Al3, the change of the growth direction from the intrinsic (001) to epitaxial (100) was predicted and sucessfully demonstrated using LaAlO3 substrates cut in (110) direction. With optimized deposition process parameters for UPd2Al3 (100) on LaAlO3 (110) superconducting samples with critical temperatures up to Tc = 1.75K were obtained. UPd2Al3-AlOx-Ag mesa junctions with superconducting base electrode were prepared and shown to be in the tunneling regime. However, no signatures of a superconducting density of states were observed in the tunneling spectra. The resistive superconducting transition was probed for a possible dependence on the current direction. In contrast to UNi2Al3, the existence of such feature was excluded in UPd2Al3 (100) thin films. The second focus of this work is the dependence of the resisitive transition in UNi2Al3 (100) thin films on the current direction. The experimental fact that the resisitive transition occurs at slightly higher temperatures for I║a than for I║c can be explained within a model of two weakly coupled superconducting bands. Evidence is presented for the key assumption of the two-band model, namely that transport in and out of the ab-plane is generated on different, weakly coupled parts of the Fermi surface. Main indications are the angle dependence of the superconducting transition and the dependence of the upper critical field Bc2 on current and field orientation. Additionally, several possible alternative explanations for the directional splitting of the transition are excluded in this work. An origin due to scattering on crystal defects or impurities is ruled out, likewise a relation to ohmic heating or vortex dynamics. The shift of the transition temperature as function of the current density was found to behave as predicted by the Ginzburg-Landau theory for critical current depairing, which plays a significant role in the two-band model. In conclusion, the directional splitting of the resisitive transition has to be regarded an intrinsic and unique property of UNi2Al3 up to now. Therefore, UNi2Al3 is proposed as a role model for weakly coupled multiband superconductivity. Magnetoresistance in the normalconducting state was measured for UPd2Al3 and UNi2Al3. For UNi2Al3, a negative contribution was observed close to the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature TN only for I║a, which can be associated to reduced spin-disorder scattering. In agreement with previous results it is concluded that the magnetic moments have to be attributed to the same part of the Fermi surface which generates transport in the ab-plane.

Magnetization dynamics in spin valves

Key technology applications like magnetoresistive sensors or the Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) require reproducible magnetic switching mechanisms. i.e. predefined remanent states. At the same time advanced magnetic recording schemes push the magnetic switching time into the gyromagnetic regime. According to the Landau-Lifschitz-Gilbert formalism, relevant questions herein are associated with magnetic excitations (eigenmodes) and damping processes in confined magnetic thin film structures.rnObjects of study in this thesis are antiparallel pinned synthetic spin valves as they are extensively used as read heads in today’s magnetic storage devices. In such devices a ferromagnetic layer of high coercivity is stabilized via an exchange bias field by an antiferromagnet. A second hard magnetic layer, separated by a non-magnetic spacer of defined thickness, aligns antiparallel to the first. The orientation of the magnetization vector in the third ferromagnetic NiFe layer of low coercivity - the freelayer - is then sensed by the Giant MagnetoResistance (GMR) effect. This thesis reports results of element specific Time Resolved Photo-Emission Electron Microscopy (TR-PEEM) to image the magnetization dynamics of the free layer alone via X-ray Circular Dichroism (XMCD) at the Ni-L3 X-ray absorption edge.rnThe ferromagnetic systems, i.e. micron-sized spin valve stacks of typically deltaR/R = 15% and Permalloy single layers, were deposited onto the pulse leading centre stripe of coplanar wave guides, built in thin film wafer technology. The ferromagnetic platelets have been applied with varying geometry (rectangles, ellipses and squares), lateral dimension (in the range of several micrometers) and orientation to the magnetic field pulse to study the magnetization behaviour in dependence of these magnitudes. The observation of magnetic switching processes in the gigahertz range became only possible due to the joined effort of producing ultra-short X-ray pulses at the synchrotron source BESSY II (operated in the so-called low-alpha mode) and optimizing the wave guide design of the samples for high frequency electromagnetic excitation (FWHM typically several 100 ps). Space and time resolution of the experiment could be reduced to d = 100 nm and deltat = 15 ps, respectively.rnIn conclusion, it could be shown that the magnetization dynamics of the free layer of a synthetic GMR spin valve stack deviates significantly from a simple phase coherent rotation. In fact, the dynamic response of the free layer is a superposition of an averaged critically damped precessional motion and localized higher order spin wave modes. In a square platelet a standing spin wave with a period of 600 ps (1.7 GHz) was observed. At a first glance, the damping coefficient was found to be independent of the shape of the spin-valve element, thus favouring the model of homogeneous rotation and damping. Only by building the difference in the magnetic rotation between the central region and the outer rim of the platelet, the spin wave becomes visible. As they provide an additional efficient channel for energy dissipation, spin waves contribute to a higher effective damping coefficient (alpha = 0.01). Damping and magnetic switching behaviour in spin valves thus depend on the geometry of the element. Micromagnetic simulations reproduce the observed higher-order spin wave mode.rnBesides the short-run behaviour of the magnetization of spin valves Permalloy single layers with thicknesses ranging from 3 to 40 nm have been studied. The phase velocity of a spin wave in a 3 nm thick ellipse could be determined to 8.100 m/s. In a rectangular structure exhibiting a Landau-Lifschitz like domain pattern, the speed of the field pulse induced displacement of a 90°-Néel wall has been determined to 15.000 m/s.rn

Efficient calculation of gluon amplitudes with n legs and an implementation of parton showers using the dipole formalism

The conventional way to calculate hard scattering processes in perturbation theory using Feynman diagrams is not efficient enough to calculate all necessary processes - for example for the Large Hadron Collider - to a sufficient precision. Two alternatives to order-by-order calculations are studied in this thesis.rnrnIn the first part we compare the numerical implementations of four different recursive methods for the efficient computation of Born gluon amplitudes: Berends-Giele recurrence relations and recursive calculations with scalar diagrams, with maximal helicity violating vertices and with shifted momenta. From the four methods considered, the Berends-Giele method performs best, if the number of external partons is eight or bigger. However, for less than eight external partons, the recursion relation with shifted momenta offers the best performance. When investigating the numerical stability and accuracy, we found that all methods give satisfactory results.rnrnIn the second part of this thesis we present an implementation of a parton shower algorithm based on the dipole formalism. The formalism treats initial- and final-state partons on the same footing. The shower algorithm can be used for hadron colliders and electron-positron colliders. Also massive partons in the final state were included in the shower algorithm. Finally, we studied numerical results for an electron-positron collider, the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider.