| Structural, magnetic and in some cases magneto-transport properties of (1) symmetric and asymmetric ferromagnetic nanorings and (2) single layer, multilayer, and exchange biased ferromagnetic nanodots prepared by colloidal lithography are presented.;A fast, reliable and cost effective method has been developed to fabricate large number (∼ 109) of magnetic nanorings over macroscopic areas (∼ cm2) with large areal densities (up to 45 rings/mum 2). Cobalt nanorings with diameters ranging from 100 nm to 500 nm have been fabricated by sputtering Co onto nanosphere-coated substrates followed by ion beam etching. X-ray diffraction verifies that the Co nanorings still have hexagonal close-packed (hcp) structure. Scanning electron microscopy reveals that the cross-section of the symmetric nanoring is tapered and uniform along the circumference, and the cross-section of the asymmetric nanoring changes progressively along the circumference.;Two magnetic reversal processes have been found in magnetic nanorings---the vortex formation process and the onion rotation process. The co-existence of these two processes is the manifestation of the competition between the exchange energy and the magnetostatic energy in the nanorings. Micromagnetics simulations have been carried out to reveal the details of the magnetic reversals. The experimental and the computed hysteresis loops agree both qualitatively and quantitatively. For the 100 nm symmetric Co nanorings, the vortex formation process has a probability of about 40%, while the onion rotation process has 60% chances.;To increase the probability of vortex formation process, a desirable process for application, asymmetric nanorings have been fabricated by ion beam etching at oblique angles. Unlike the symmetric nanorings, the probability of the vortex formation process in asymmetric nanorings can be controlled by the direction of the external field. For the 100 nm asymmetric nanorings, the fraction of the vortex formation process changes from 38% to 98% when the direction of the external field changes from the symmetrical axis to the asymmetrical axis.;Three types of magnetic nanodot arrays have also been fabricated by colloidal lithography, including nanodots with in-plane anisotropy, nanodots with perpendicular anisotropy and nanodots with exchange bias. The magnetic properties of nanodots, including the switching characteristics and the domain patterns are different from those of the uniform films. |
