Dynamics of successive minor hysteresis loops

Abstract

Cumulative growth of successive minor hysteresis loops in Co/Pd multilayers with perpendicular anisotropy was studied in the context of time-dependent magnetization reversal dynamics. We show that in disordered ferromagnets, where magnetization reversal involves nucleation, domains' expansion, and domains' annihilation, differences among the time dependencies of these processes are responsible for the accumulation of nuclei for rapid domain expansion, the asymmetry of forward and backward magnetization reversals, and the respective cumulative growth of hysteresis loops. Loops stop changing and become macroscopically reproducible when populations of upward and downward nucleation domains balance each other and the respective upward and downward reversal times stabilize.