Fabrication and characterization of novel nano-magnets

Abstract: Magnetic data storing has been of great interest since 1950 when the first magnetic hard drive was fabricated. A lot has happened since then, but there is still a need for smaller and cheaper devices.  One way to achieve this is by creating nano-sized ferromagnetic areas in a thin film at room temperature, or nano-magnets. In this thesis, the aim is to fabricate and characterize novel amorphous nano-magnets. Using a chromium mask ions can be implanted in a nano-sized pattern in an amorphous iron zirconium thin film. The mask is fabricated by depositing chromium over the iron zirconium and etching the nano-structures into the chromium film.  This requires the parameters for the etching to be optimized. It is discovered the parameters change with the size and shape of the pattern. Magnetization and structural characterization were performed by using the magneto-optical Kerr effect and a magnetic force microscope. The result shows that the nano-magnets become magnetically harder than the reference sample. The study further reveals structural details for further improvements in implanted regions.