Metastable states during magnetization reversal in square permalloy rings

The magnetic reversal process in a two-dimensional array of permalloy square rings is presented. Rings of thickness of 25 nm, of lateral size of 2.1 {μ}m, and with ring width of 240 nm were microfabricated using electron-beam lithography and lift-off techniques. Analysis of the diffracted magneto-optical Kerr effect hysteresis loops, magnetic force microscopy images, and micromagnetic simulations show that the magnetization reversal path depends on the direction of the in-plane applied magnetic field. On reducing the field from saturation, for fields along an edge or a diagonal of the square, the ``onion'' state is the stable state at remanence. In a narrow field range around reversal we find that the reversal occurs via a metastable intermediate state. For fields along the diagonal this intermediate state is a magnetic vortex. When the field is applied along an edge direction the intermediate state is a ``horseshoe'' state.