Observation of laser-induced local modification of magnetic order in transition metal layers

Laser-induced local modifications of magnetic order in thin Fe-Cr layers were investigated. Local modification in the layers were induced by interfering laser beams. The results of the study give evidence for the formation of submicron-sized anisotropically shaped ferromagnetic regions with a well-defined direction of the easy magnetic axis in the interference maxima at the modification threshold. It was also found that the magnetic anisotropy of a medium is drastically reduced with changing the shapes of these local regions and distances between them. This may be due to the strengthening of the interaction between the regions through the paramagnetic matrix.