Research in magnetism and magnetic materials is undergoing explosive growth at the present time. This is driven, for the most part, economically by the $150G/yr magnetic-storage industry, and a comparable impetus provided by the semiconductor industry.

The ability to control thin-film growth and characterize these materials at the atomic level can now be used to tailor build complex nanostructures made to have properties not found in nature. Researchers are using these novel materials to provide technology not only to answer fundamental scientific questions but also provide society with technology to serve their ever growing passion for a better quality of life. There is a powerful synergy between science and technology that is driving each to higher levels of accomplishment. Advances in magnetism will affect every facet of society, including, energy production and conservation, and industrial competitiveness and innovation.

In order to accelerate the process by which science and innovation is accomplished, it will be necessary to bring together different kinds of scientists who heretofore rarely interact. For example, while there are all varieties of scientists, cross-fertilization of ideas is many times inhibited by their seperation in time and space. TelePresence collaboration is one way in which this problem can be mitigated.

Studies of magnetism frequently consist of measurements of magnetic fluxes at dimensions ranging from millimeters to tens of microns using traditional tools of solid state physics. The new nanodevices being developed require both the ability to observe and characterize a material at new levels of resolution. Bringing together groups of scientists of dramtically different expertise into a modern experimental lab to discuss, observe and conduct experiments is no longer a practical matter.

The recent advances in lithographical techniques, now allow materials to be patterned at the nano-meter length scale, and have led to the fabrication of a number of novel systems. The magnetic properties of arrays of nano-particles as well as nano-holes are receiving considerable attention due to their potential for practical applications, for example, as data storage devices. From a fundamental standpoint the switching mechanisms during magnetization reversal (for example a bit turning on and off in a data storage device) is an important issue which is not yet well understood in these systems. In this work, TelePresence enabled scientists who had heretofore never worked together to collaborate on part of a joint study to understand the magnetic properties of an array of nanometer sized elliptical holes in an Fe film. Fe was chozen as a model system designed to investigate nanoscale structures and their effects on magnetic properties.

The samples used in this work had been first studied using the diffracted magneto-optic Kerr effect (D-MOKE), and Brillouin scattering. D-MOKE indicated that magnetization reversal occurs with extensive domain formation when the field is applied along the short axis of the elliptical holes, and almost no domain formation when it is along the long axis. This tantalizingly implied that there is a direct interaction of the magnetization of the film with the shape of the holes, however, what exactly this interaction was could not be directly observed. Using TelePresence Microscopy, researchers were able to observe the actual domain structure using a newly developed technique of Lorentz STEM, which proved that the domain location is dramatically controlled by the elliptical holes.

Fig Cap. NanoMagnetic Domains in a patterned Fe Film. Image at the left is a conventional image
while that at the right shows the magnetic domains pinned by the holes.

Based upon a combination of all these experiments, it is possible to formulate a theoretical model describing the domain size, shape and interactions. From this work we can confirm that the shape of the individual elements plays a dominant role in the switching mechanism; equivalently it means that the shape anisotropy is an important contribution to the magnetic energy of the system. Reduced to it's basics this simply means that by controlling the shape and spacing of the lithographically produced nanostructures we can control a number of the properties of these materials.

Fig. Cap. A low resolution QuickTime movie illustrates how the magnetic domains move under an applied field
Click on the Image to start the movie (Quicktime View Required).