Interface magnetization reversal and anisotropy in Fe/AlGaAs(001)

The reversal process of the Fe interface layer magnetization in Fe/AlGaAs heterostructures is measured directly using magnetization-induced second-harmonic generation, and is compared with the reversal of the bulk magnetization as obtained from magneto-optic Kerr effect. The switching characteristics are distinctly different due to interface-derived anisotropy--single step switching occurs at the interface layer, while two-jump switching occurs in the bulk Fe for the magnetic field orientations employed. The angle between the interface and bulk magnetization may be as large as 40-85 degrees. Such interface switching will dominate the behavior of nanoscale structures.     

Exchange-coupling-induced fourfold magnetic anisotropy in CoFeB/FeRh bilayer grown on SrTiO3(001)

Exchange coupling across the interface between a ferromagnetic (FM) layer and an antiferromagnetic (AFM) or another FM layer may induce a unidirectional magnetic anisotropy and/or a uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, which has been extensively studied due to the important application in magnetic materials and devices. In this work, we observed a fourfold magnetic anisotropy in amorphous CoFeB layer when exchange coupling to an adjacent FeRh layer which is epitaxially grown on an SrTiO₃(001) substrate. As the temperature rises from 300 K to 400 K, FeRh film undergoes a phase transition from AFM to FM phase, the induced fourfold magnetic anisotropy in the CoFeB layer switches the orientation from the FeRh$\langle 110\rangle $ to FeRh$\langle 100\rangle $ directions and the strength is obviously reduced. In addition, the effective magnetic damping as well as the two-magnon scattering of the CoFeB/FeRh bilayer also remarkably increase with the occurrence of magnetic phase transition of FeRh. No exchange bias is observed in the bilayer even when FeRh is in the nominal AFM state, which is probably because the residual FM FeRh moments located at the interface can well separate the exchange coupling between the below pinned FeRh moments and the CoFeB moments.     

Interplay between anisotropic strain relaxation and uniaxial interface magnetic anisotropy in epitaxial Fe films on (001) GaAs

Grazing incidence x-ray diffraction study of Fe epitaxial ultrathin films (1.5-13 nm) on GaAs (001) reveals an anisotropy of both domain shape and strain, with [110] and [1-10] as the principal directions. It is shown that the observed thickness-dependent strain anisotropy, together with a uniaxial interface term, can provide an unambiguous explanation to the usual in-plane magnetic anisotropy and its thickness dependence observed in this magnetic thin-film system.     

Isolating the step contribution to the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in nanostructured Fe/Ag(001) films

We have investigated the possibility of isolating the step-induced in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in Fe/Ag(001) films on which nanoscale surface ripples were fabricated by the ion sculpting technique. For rippled Fe films deposited on flat Ag(001), the steps created along the ripple sidewalls are shown to be the only source of uniaxial anisotropy. Ion sculpting of ultrathin magnetic films allows one to selectively study the step-induced anisotropy and to investigate the correlation between local atomic environment and magnetic properties.     

Ferromagnetic resonance in monocrystalline spin valves CoFeB/Ta/CoFeB and CoFeB films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

Orientation dependences of ferromagnetic resonance in a MgO/CoFeB/MgO/Ta film with one ferromagnetic layer (monolayer) and in a MgO/CoFeB/Ta/CoFeB/MgO/Ta spin valve containing two single-crystal ferromagnetic CoFeB layers divided by a nonmagnetic Ta layer (bilayer) were investigated. Analysis of the orientation dependences of the structures with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy allowed calculating constants of magnetic anisotropy and damping factors. Physical reasons underlying the differences between these parameters in one- and two-layered structures are discussed.     

Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy induced by tetragonal distortion of FeCo alloy films grown on Pd(001)

We grew tetragonally distorted FexCo1-x alloy films on Pd(001). Theoretical first-principles calculations for such films predicted a high saturation magnetization and a high uniaxial magnetic anisotropy energy for specific values of the lattice distortion c/a and the alloy composition x. The magnetic anisotropy was investigated using the magneto-optical Kerr effect. An out-of-plane easy axis of magnetization was observed for Fe0.5Co0.5 films in the thickness range of 4 to 14 monolayers. The magnetic anisotropy energy induced by the tetragonal distortion is estimated to be almost 2 orders of magnitude larger than the value for bulk FeCo alloys. Using LEED Kikuchi patterns, a change of the easy axis of magnetization can be related to a decrease of the tetragonal distortion with thickness.     

Selective-resputtering-induced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in amorphous TbFe films

Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy energy in rf magnetron sputtered amorphous TbFe films is measured to increase exponentially with pair-order anisotropy induced by the selective resputtering of surface adatoms during film growth.     

Singularity in high-frequency susceptibility of thin magnetic films with uniaxial anisotropy

A sharp peak of magnetic susceptibility has been observed in the ferromagnetic resonance spectra of uniaxial magnetic films placed in a planar field directed orthogonal to the easy magnetization axis, along which a pumping high-frequency magnetic field has been oriented. The peak width is considerably narrower than the line width of the uniform ferromagnetic resonance, and its position in a field equal to the film anisotropy field does not depend on the pumping frequency. The nature of the peak is associated with a drastic increase in the static transverse susceptibility of the film in the vicinity of the anisotropy field. It is shown phenomenologically that the peak can be observed only for quality samples with small angular and amplitude dispersion of the uniaxial anisotropy.     

The sandwich domain structure in a Fe-based amorphous ribbon with uniaxial magnetic anisotropy

The formation and motion of two domain walls parallel to the ribbon surface are discovered during its dynamic magnetic reversal. The domain walls form near by the middle plane of a ribbon and move to its opposite main surfaces with different velocities.     

Epitaxial Fe films on ZnSe(001): effect of the substrate surface reconstruction on the magnetic anisotropy

It is well known that Fe films deposited on a c(2 × 2)-reconstructed ZnSe(001) surface show a strong in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. Here, the effect of the substrate reconstruction on the magnetic anisotropy of Fe has been studied by in situ Brillouin light scattering. We found that the in-plane uniaxial anisotropy is strongly reduced for Fe films grown on a (1 × 1)-unreconstructed ZnSe substrate while the in-plane biaxial one is nearly unaffected by the substrate reconstruction. Calculations of magnetic anisotropy energies within the framework of ab initio density functional theory reveal that the strong suppression of anisotropy at the (1 × 1) interface occurs due to complex atomic relaxations as well as the competing effects originating from magnetocrystalline anisotropy and dipole-dipole interactions. For both sharp and intermixed c(2 × 2) interfaces, the magnetic anisotropy is enhanced compared to the (1 × 1) case due to the further lowering of symmetry. The theoretical results are in agreement with the experimental findings.     

Dynamic self-organization of magnetic domains in amorphous films with perpendicular anisotropy

Dynamic self-organization of magnetic domains is observed in amorphous gadolinium-cobalt films in narrow temperature intervals on both sides of the magnetic compensation point. Spiral dynamic domains form in a limited range of ac magnetic field amplitudes and frequencies. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 66, No. 11, 688–692 (10 December 1997)     

Analyzing in-plane magnetic anisotropy from surface morphology for amorphous films

A method is developed to analyze the in-plane magnetic anisotropy from surface morphology for amorphous films. The lateral sizes along radial direction (R_RD) and tangent direction (R_TD) of rotational substrate, which are extracted from the surface morphology of Co_66.3Zr_33.7 amorphous films, are used to calculate stress anisotropy energy E_σ. It is found that E_σ is consistent with the magnetic anisotropy energy K_μ for the samples deposited on Si (1 0 0) substrate and then a relationship K_μ ∝ 1/R_RD − 1/R_TD can be obtained. This method is sensitive to the initial state of substrate so its application range is discussed.     

Influence of imperfections in magnetic thin films on the relaxation of the uniaxial anisotropy

Skew aging and its dependence on stabilization treatments have been investigated in cylindrical, electroplated permalloy films by annealing in hard axis magnetic fields. The skew fieldH _± was measured with the Belson test method. Plots ofH _± versus a logarithmic time scale show nearly straight lines in a range of four decades for temperatures between ambient temperature and 200 °C. This behaviour is supposed to be explained with a distribution of the relaxation processes in activation energy between 0·8 and 1·6 eV independent of the stabilization treatment. The frequency factor lying between 10⁹ and 10¹⁰ sec is found to be a function of the stabilization temperature. The values can be interpreted by first-order kinetic processes, while this is not possible by assuming discrete activation energies. The reason for the distribution is the highly defective structure of thin films, especially in grain boundaries, dislocations and around impurities. By stabilization treatments the total volume of these regions and the vacancy concentration decrease. Only the Fe-Fe pair ordering mechanism is necessary to interpret the annealing data, if one assumes that also pairs in locally defective regions contribute to the anisotropy.     

Plastic relaxation anisotropy in epitaxial films grown on miscut Si(001) substrates

A way of calculating the structural parameters of semiconductor epitaxial layers grown on miscut (0 0 1) substrates is developed. It is shown that the difference between the tensor of film elastic strains and the spherical tensor of strains translating the film’s crystal lattice into the substrate’s lattice is a tensor whose components are proportional to X-ray strains. The technique is used to analyze GaAs and Ge_0.2Si_0.8 films grown on (1 1 13) Si substrates. The anisotropy of the degree of plastic relaxation is established for lateral directions perpendicular and parallel to the interfacial steps in the GeSi film. It is proposed that noninteger Miller indices be used to denote the direction and value of the rotation of the film’s crystal lattice with respect to the substrate lattice.     

Thickness dependent manipulation of uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in Fe-thin films by oblique deposition

The uniaxial magnetic anisotropy of obliquely deposited Fe(001)/Pd film on MgO(001) substrate is investigated as a function of deposition angle and film thickness. The values of incidence angle of Fe flux relative to surface normal of the substrate are 0°, 45°, 55°, and 70°, respectively. In-situ low energy electron diffraction is employed to investigate the surface structures of the samples. The Fe film thicknesses are determined to be 50 ML, 45 ML, 32 ML, and 24 ML(1 ML = 0.14 nm) by performing x-ray reflectivity on the grown samples, respectively. The normalized remanent magnetic saturation ratio and coercivity are obtained by the longitudinal surface magneto-optical Kerr effect. Here, the magnetic anisotropy constants are quantitatively determined by fitting the anisotropic magnetoresistance curves under different fields.These measurements show four-fold cubic anisotropy in a large Fe film thickness(50 ML) sample, but highly in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropies in thin films(24 ML and 32 ML) samples. In the obliquely deposited Fe films, the coercive fields and the uniaxial magnetic anisotropies(UMAs) increase as the deposition angle becomes more and more tilted. In addition, the UMA decreases with the increase of the Fe film thickness. Our work provides the possibility of manipulating uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, and paves the way to inducing UMA by oblique deposition with smaller film thickness.     

The dependence of the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in evaporated films on the angle of incidence

The method of local ferromagnetic resonance and direct torsional measurements were used to measure the dependence of the magnetic anisotropy in permalloy films on the angle of incidence in a broad range of such angles. It was found that this dependence is not monotonous and that at larger angles of incidence the easy axis of magnetization is rotated. An interpretation of this phenomenon is proposed.

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In conclusion the authors wish to thank J. Grolmus for performing some of the measurements, members of the mechanics workshop of the Institute of Physics, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, for carefully preparing the apparatus, and particularly K. Schaffner for accurately making the resonance cavity. We thank J. Kaczér and V. Janovec for carefully reading this paper and for a number of valuable remarks.