Abstract

The magnetic field dependent reorientation phase transition of epitaxial Co (0001) films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy is studied as a function of the applied field angle. The experimental data reveal an abrupt qualitative change of the magnetization reversal path at a critical angle between in-plane and out-of-plane field orientation, which is caused by a change in the domain formation process occurring concurrently with the phase transition. By means of our experiments and model calculations, we demonstrate that the observations are due to a transition from instability driven magnetization reversal occurring near in-plane field orientation to domain nucleation processes, which occur near out-of-plane orientation of the magnetic field. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.