Statistical Properties of Barkhausen Noise in Thin Fe Films

Abstract

The statistical properties of Barkhausen noise in an epitaxial Fe film grown on MgO have been characterized with magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements. The data reveal that magnetization reversal takes place via sudden jumps between a discrete number of randomly distributed magnetic configurations. The smallest jumps occur on a scale length of $10\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ and their amplitude distribution can be fitted with a power law: $P(\ensuremath{\Delta}M)\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\Delta}{M}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}}$ with $\ensuremath{\alpha}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1.1$ and $\ensuremath{\Delta}M$ spanning over several decades.