Design of a vector magnet for the measurements of anisotropic magnetoresistance and rotational magneto-optic Kerr effect

J Li; E Jin; H Son; A Tan; W N Cao; Chanyong Hwang; Z Q Qiu

doi:10.1063/1.3698297

Design of a vector magnet for the measurements of anisotropic magnetoresistance and rotational magneto-optic Kerr effect

Rev Sci Instrum. 2012 Mar;83(3):033906. doi: 10.1063/1.3698297.

Authors

J Li¹, E Jin, H Son, A Tan, W N Cao, Chanyong Hwang, Z Q Qiu

Affiliation

¹ Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.

PMID: 22462937
DOI: 10.1063/1.3698297

Abstract

A vector magnet is designed and assembled with two electromagnets to produce a rotational magnetic field in any direction within a plane. This design allows a rotation of the magnetic field without a mechanical rotation of the magnets. The fast speed of the field rotation (~10 s for a complete 360° rotation) and the stability against mechanical vibration easily overcome the slow drifting effect in anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) and rotational magneto-optic Kerr effect (ROTMOKE) measurements. As an example we applied this vector magnet to carry out AMR and ROTMOKE measurements on epitaxial growth of Fe(10 nm)∕MgO(001) films. The result demonstrates the stability and high quality of the vector magnet in determining the magnetic anisotropy of magnetic thin films using AMR and ROTMOKE techniques.