Angular dependence of ferromagnetic resonance and magnetization configuration of thin film Permalloy nanoellipse arrays

In-plane and out-of-plane angular dependence of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) and magnetization measurements were performed on arrays of 20, 40, and 60 nm thick, 520 nm long, and 250 nm wide elliptical Permalloy elements. Besides the main FMR "volume" mode resonance, a well-defined second FMR mode was observed, which exhibits a very strong angular dependence. This mode originates from localized regions where the magnetization has a strong component perpendicular to the bias field and to the volume magnetization. These regions of nonuniform magnetization may be associated with magnetization canting at the edges of the ellipses, due to the nonuniformity of the demagnetizing tensor elements, and with magnetization vortices, which are predicted by micromagnetic simulation. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3633214]