Magnetization configurations and hysteresis loops of small permalloy ellipses

We investigated systematically the easy axis magnetization reversal of 20 nm thick permalloy ellipses with a fixed major axis of 1.47μm and minor axes of 0.22–1.47μm. Lorentz transmission electron microscopy was used to image the micromagnetic configurations during magnetization reversal. Hysteresis loops of single ellipses were recorded by means of micro-Hall magnetometry and could be traced back to certain reversal mechanisms observed by Lorentz microscopy. In most cases, the magnetization reversal is initiated by the evolution of a magnetization buckling, followed by the formation of a single, a double, or a trapped vortex configuration. For ellipses with high aspect ratio (length-to-width ratio), the magnetization switches in the reversed magnetic field without creation of a stable vortex configuration. Our experiments show that the characteristic field values for vortex creation, single vortex annihilation, and switching strongly depend on the shape anisotropy of the elements