Quantitative analysis on correlation between local coercivity and reversal time in ferromagnetic thin films

Abstract

We report a method to quantitatively analyze the correlation between the local coercivity variation and the local reversal-time distribution in ferromagnetic thin films. The spatial distribution of the local coercivity on a film plane was directly measured from the hysteresis loops of each local area of 320x320 nm(2) and then, the local coercivity distribution was quantitatively correlated with the local reversal-time distribution obtained from time-resolved domain evolution patterns grabbed at precisely the same position of the film. We demonstrate a clear experimental evidence of the direct correlation between the real coercivity distribution and the magnetization reversal dynamics, which could be explained within a context of a thermally activated relaxation process. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)07718-5].