Phase Diagram and Activation Energy for Vortex Pinning in Nb/(Co,Pd) Superconductor-Ferromagnet Bilayer

Using the magnetoresistance measurements we study the phase transition line and the activation energy for vortex pinning in superconductor/ferromagnet bilayer, built of a ferromagnetic Co/Pd multilayer with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, and a niobium film, with insulating layer in-between to eliminate proximity effect. The domain width is reversibly pre-defined using the angle-dependent demagnetization. We find that the enhancement of the activation energy for vortex pinning by magnetic domains is rather modest, by a factor of about 2.1. We attribute this to large domain width, and large dispersion of the domain width in this bilayer.