| AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Focus Topic | Friday Sessions |
| Session EL+AS+EM+MS+PS+TF-FrM |
| Session: | Spectroscopic Ellipsometry: Future Directions and New Techniques |
| Presenter: | Daniel Schmidt, University of Nebraska - Lincoln |
| Authors: | D. Schmidt, University of Nebraska - Lincoln C. Briley, University of Nebraska - Lincoln E. Schubert, University of Nebraska - Lincoln M. Schubert, University of Nebraska - Lincoln |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Sculptured thin films are self-organized and self-assembled three-dimensional nanostructures with tunable geometries. These artificial nanostructured thin films exhibit highly anisotropic physical properties, which mainly depend on their specific geometry.
Slanted, highly-spatially coherent, columnar nanostructure samples were prepared by glancing angle electron-beam deposition. Glancing angle deposition is a bottom-up fabrication technique that employs a physical vapor deposition process at oblique angles where the trajectory of the incoming particle flux is not parallel to the substrate normal. The technique allows to engineer the columnar film structure and is today amongst the most promising self-organized fabrication processes in micro- and nanotechnology.
We present and discuss the novel approach of vector-magneto-optical generalized ellipsometry on ferromagnetic permalloy nanostructured thin films carried out at room temperature. Investigations have shown that the metal alloy thin films are highly transparent, reveal strong form-induced birefringence, and exhibit intriguing magneto-optical anisotropy. Spatial magnetization orientation hysteresis and magnetization magnitude hysteresis properties are studied using a three-dimensional Helmholtz coil arrangement. This particular octupole setup allows for arbitrary magnetic field directions at the sample position with field strengths up to 200 mT while optical access is granted for reflection and transmission-type ellipsometry measurements. Analysis of data obtained within this unique vector-magneto-optic setup reveals magnetization anisotropy of the permalloy slanted nanocolumns and gives insight into switching behavior of confined magnetic domains.