Tuning Perpendicular Anisotropy Gradients in Co/Pd Multilayers by Ar Ion Irradiation

Magnetic nanostructures with graded anisotropy offer a solution to both thermal stability and writability challenges in advanced magnetic recording media. The interlayer exchange coupling lowers the overall coercivity, facilitating the writing process, while the magnetically hard layer provides pinning for the media and ensures its thermal stability. Typically, the anisotropy gradient has been achieved by changing the sample growth conditions [3-5]. In this work we report an alternative approach of using Ar ion irradiation to create an anisotropy gradient in Co/Pd multilayer films.