Ordered arrays of magnetic nanowires investigated by polarized small-angle neutron scattering

Abstract

Polarized small-angle neutron scattering (PSANS) experimental results obtained on arrays of ferromagnetic $\mathrm{Co}$ nanowires ($\ensuremath{\phi}\ensuremath{\approx}13$ nm) embedded in self-organized alumina (${\mathrm{Al}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$) porous matrices are reported. The triangular array of aligned nanowires is investigated as a function of the external magnetic field with a view to determine experimentally the real space magnetization $\stackrel{P\vec}{M}(\stackrel{P\vec}{r})$ distribution inside the material during the magnetic hysteresis cycle. The observation of field-dependent SANS intensities allows us to characterize the influence of magnetostatic fields. The PSANS experimental data are compared to magnetostatic simulations. These results evidence that PSANS is a technique able to address real-space magnetization distributions in nanostructured magnetic systems. We show that beyond structural information (shape of the objects, two-dimensional organization) already accessible with nonpolarized SANS, using polarized neutrons as the incident beam provides information on the magnetic form factor and stray fields ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{0}{H}_{\mathrm{d}}$ distribution in between nanowires.