Dynamic hysteresis behavior in epitaxial spin-valve structures

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We report the dynamic hysteresis behavior of epitaxial single ferromagnetic fcc NiFe(001), fcc Co(001) layers, and fcc NiFe/Cu/Co(001) spin-valve structures investigated as a function of field sweep rate in the range of 0.01–270 kOe/s using the magneto-optic Kerr effect. The hysteresis loop area A is found to follow the scaling relation A∝Ḣα with α∼0.13 and ∼0.02 at low sweep rates and ∼0.70 and ∼0.30 at high sweep rates for 60 Å NiFe and 40 Å Co single magnetic layer structures, respectively. For the single and double spin valves, the “double-switching” behavior which occurs at low sweep rates transforms to “single switching” at ∼154 and ∼192 kOe/s, respectively. Our results provide direct experimental evidence that the magnetic anisotropy strength affects dynamic hysteresis scaling in ultrathin magnetic films.