Magnetism in very thin films of permalloy measured by spin polarized cascade electrons

The spin polarizationP of the low energy cascade electrons excited with a primary unpolarized electron beam is measured with ultrathin films of permalloy (Ni₈₀Fe₂₀) as a function of film thickness, external magnetic field, and temperatureT. Surface adsorbates of small concentrations of less than 10% of a monolayer can change the Curie point and the saturation value ofP ₀(T0) by as much as 30%. The Ta-substrate induces a magnetically dead region in permalloy. Conventional spin wave theory cannot account for the observed smallT-dependence of the magnetizationM. Films on a nonmagnetic substrate are compared to similar films coupled to bulk permalloy over an interface of Ta. TheT-dependence ofM with the coupled films can be explained by spin wave theory. At lowT, the films coupled to the bulk exhibit a faster decrease ofM than the uncoupled films. We propose that this thermal stabilization of the magnetization in very thin ferromagnetic films is due to quenching of the long wavelength spin modes.     

Probing depth of the low energy cascade electrons from a transition metal

A surface probing depth of only 2 layers for low energy cascade electrons excited with a 3.2 keV primary electron beam is clearly demonstrated by model experiments with non-magnetic overlayers of Ta on magnetic substrates of Fe/Ni₈₀Fe₂₀. This result establishes a short probing depth of low energy electrons in transition metals generalizing the previously observed short magnetic probing depth for spin-polarized electrons in ferromagnets. The short probing depth sheds new light on a number of spectroscopic observations on ferromagnetic transition metals, and has important implications concerning surface magnetic properties and scattering processes of hot electrons in transition metals.     

Exploring magnetic properties of ultrathin epitaxial magnetic structures using magneto-optical techniques

We describe magneto-optic Kerr effect studies of ultrathin Fe and Ni films on single crystal surfaces of Ag and Cu. Monolayer Fe films on Ag(100) exhibit the theoretically predicted spin-orbit anisotropy, but also yield some interesting discrepancies between behavior predicted by Kerr effect and by spin-polarized photoemission experiments. Layer-dependent studies of the magnetic moment of Ni on Ag(111) and Ag(100) suggest sp-d hybridization effects quench the first layer magnetic moment on Ag(111) but not on Ag(100). Temperature dependent studies of thin film magnetization obtained from Kerr effect measurements yield thickness dependent Curie temperatures, and critical exponents for several thin film systems.     

Spin wave excitations in Fe films grown on GaAs(1 1 3)A substrates

The spin wave excitation and its size effect has been studied in Al-capped Fe films grown on low-symmetry GaAs(1 1 3)A substrates. The temperature dependence of saturation magnetization follows an effective Bloch's law as long as magnetization remains larger than about 70% of its saturation value. A significant increase of the spin wave parameter B is found in Al-capped ultrathin Fe films grown on GaAs(1 1 3)A compared to bulk Fe, Fe films on GaAs(0 0 1) and other systems. This is explained as a result of the reduction in uniaxial magnetic anisotropy observed in this orientation for the same thickness range. However, this observed uniaxial magnetic anisotropy is found to be a likely reason for stabilizing the ferromagnetism.     

Disordered loops in the two-dimensional antiferromagnetic spin–fermion model

The spin–fermion model has long been used to describe the quantum-critical behavior of 2d electron systems near an antiferromagnetic (AFM) instability. Recently, the standard procedure to integrate out the fermions and obtain an effective action for spin waves has been questioned in the clean case. We show that, in the presence of disorder, the single fermion loops display two crossover scales: upon lowering the energy, the singularities of the clean fermionic loops are first cut off, but below a second scale new singularities arise that lead again to marginal scaling. In addition, impurity lines between different fermion loops generate new relevant couplings which dominate at low energies. We outline a non-linear σ model formulation of the single-loop problem, which allows to control the higher singularities and provides an effective model in terms of low-energy diffusive as well as spin modes.     

Magnetic structures and magnetocrystalline anisotropy in bulk and thin film Fe3Pt

Magnetic structures and magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA) of tetragonal phase Fe₃Pt with an L1₂ atomic ordering in bulk and thin film are investigated by means of the first-principles full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method. The results obtained predict that the tetragonal phase, in which the tetragonal distortion with (c/a) = 0.95 makes an asymmetry of magnetic properties along the c-axis (out-of-plane) and a-axis (in-plane), has an out-of-plane MCA. In addition, from the thin film calculations, the presence of surface is found to strongly enhance the out-of-plane MCA.     

Temperature dependence of magnetic stripe domain period in ultrathin films

In ultrathin films, due to the thermal activation and temperature dependencies of the magnetic parameters, magnetization reversal processes are strongly affected by thermal effects. We analyze changes of domain periods of ultrathin cobalt and L₁₀$\mathrm{L}{1}_0$ films in a wide temperature range. With regard to the temperature dependencies of the film magnetic parameters we calculate the equilibrium stripe period as a function of temperature. It is shown that on film heating the equilibrium domain structure (DS) period decreases and at the reorientation phase transition (RPT) approaches its minimal value corresponding to the temperature independent period of the sinusoidal domain structure. Just below the RPT temperature (or thickness) the stripe domain period was found to exponentially decrease with temperature. Irreversible temperature changes of the domain period affected by coercivity are also discussed.     

Monte Carlo simulation of the reorientation transition in Heisenberg model with dipole interactions

The change of magnetic states in ultrathin films with temperature have been simulated by Monte Carlo method. A Heisenberg model with long-range dipole interactions was adopted in our calculations. The results were qualitatively in good agreement with the experimental phenomena. That is at low temperatures the magnetization is perpendicular to the plane, and at higher temperatures but below the Curie point, the magnetization is mostly within the plane. In between these two regions, the magnetization seems to be suppressed. The simulations show that the loss of magnetization is a consequence of the special magnetic states in which the local domains orientations are reverse with the neighbor ones.     

Magnetic properties of 3d transition metal monolayers on metal substrates

We report results of systematic calculations for magnetic properties of 3d transition metal monolayers on Pd(001) and Ag(001). We find large similarities to interactions of magnetic 3d impurities in the bulk. Therefore the overlayer results are supplemented with results for 3d dimers in Cu, Ag, and Pd. Differences between the two classes of systems are utilized to reveal the interaction within the overlayers and between overlayers and substrates. In virtually all cases we find both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic solutions, showing large magnetic moments and similar densities of states. From the trend of the calculations we conclude that V, Cr, and Mn overlayers favor the antiferromagnetic c(2×2) structure, while Ti, Fe, Co, and Ni prefer the ferromagnetic one.     

Magnetic dipolar interaction in ultrathin films: Structural and size effects

A previously introduced formalism for calculating magnetic dipolar anisotropy energy ΔU in atomic layered structures is further developed. Numerical results are presented for ultrathin films with different close-packed (face centered cubic (FCC) [1 1 1]) and non-close-packed (FCC [0 0 1] and body centered cubic (BCC) [0 0 1]) structures. Structural effects become apparent in the magnetocrystalline dipolar anisotropy energy ΔU_L when the ratio between the interlayer separation c and the 2D lattice constant a is changed. Despite the long-range character of the dipolar interaction, it is shown that the number of significantly interacting layers, conventially called coupled layers, is limited and depends on the structural aspect ratio c/a. The slope in the observed linear dependence between ΔU_L and the inverse of the film thickness t is explained by the number of the so-called coupled layers, and not by a surface contribution to volume values. Size effects appearing in ΔU are unambiguously distinguished from structural effects. Effective anisotropy energy ΔU_eff and ΔU are presented for Co [0 0 0 1] and Ni [0 0 1] ultrathin films. It is verified that the dipolar interaction makes an important contribution to ΔU_eff, but the spin reorientation transition is determined by non-dipolar interactions. The former favors the magnetization switching only when the size aspect ratio d/t, with d the characteristic lateral dimension of the film, is sufficiently small. Applications to other layered arrays of magnetic dipoles are straightforward.     

Magnetic properties of FeSiB thin films displaying stripe domains

FeSiB amorphous thin films with thicknesses from 25 to 600 nm have been produced by rf sputtering on Si₃N₄ substrates. A spin reorientation transition has been observed on the as-prepared samples, as a function of thickness and temperature. Spin reorientation transition is shown to depend on the thermal treatments to which the as-prepared samples have been submitted. Static hysteresis loops obtained as a function of temperature, and magnetic force microscopy images taken at room temperature at the remanence and as a function of an applied magnetic field, have been employed to study the magnetic domain configuration of all the samples, and to see how it is affected by sample thickness, measurement temperature and annealing conditions.     

Calculations of localized modes on surface and impurity layer embedded in a semi-infinite Heisenberg ferromagnet

We investigate the magnetic excitations for the magnetic problem arising from the absence of magnetic translation symmetry in one dimension due to the presence of an impurity layer embedded within a semi-infinite ferromagnet. A Heisenberg model is employed to investigate the possibility that localized modes can occur with an impurity layer implanted within a semi-infinite ferromagnet. No electronic effects are considered. The theoretical approach employs the matching procedure in the mean field approximation and determines the propagating and evanescent spin amplitude fields including the contribution due to an applied field. The results are used to calculate the energies of localized modes associated with the impurity layer and with the surface. Numerical examples of the modes are given and they are found to exhibit various effects due to the interplay between the impurity layer and surface modes. It is shown that more localized modes can occur and the modification of the spin wave spectra can be signaled by the appearance of surface and impurity modes, besides the bulk excitations. Also, the bulk spin fluctuations field, the spin waves localized on the surface as well as on impurity layer depend are shown to depend on the nature of the exchange coupling between spin sites, the values of spin sites and the position of the impurity layer from the surface.     

Disordered correlated Kondo-lattice model

We propose a self-consistent approximate solution of the disordered Kondo-lattice model (KLM) to get the interconnected electronic and magnetic properties of ‘local-moment’ systems like diluted ferromagnetic semiconductors. Aiming at (_A1-xMx)$(A_{1-x}{M}_x)$ compounds, where magnetic (M)$(M)$ and non-magnetic (A)$(A)$ atoms distributed randomly over a crystal lattice, we present a theory which treats the subsystems of itinerant charge carriers and localized magnetic moments in a homologous manner. The coupling between the localized moments due to the itinerant electrons (holes) is treated by a modified RKKY-theory which maps the KLM onto an effective Heisenberg model. The exchange integrals turn out to be functionals of the electronic self-energy guaranteeing self-consistency of our theory. The disordered electronic and magnetic moment systems are both treated by CPA-type methods. We discuss in detail the dependencies of the key-terms such as the long-range and oscillating effective exchange integrals, ‘the local-moment’ magnetization, the electron spin polarization, the Curie temperature as well as the electronic and magnonic quasiparticle densities of states on the concentration x of magnetic ions, the carrier concentration n, the exchange coupling J, and the temperature. The shape and the effective range of the exchange integrals turn out to be strongly x-dependent. The disorder causes anomalies in the spin spectrum especially in the low-dilution regime, which are not observed in the mean field approximation.     

Magnetic properties of amorphous Bi2DyFe5O12

Amorphous Bi₂DyFe₅O₁₂ films have been prepared by rf sputtering technique. The magnetic properties, structure and effect of annealing have been investigated. The magnetization increases with increasing magnetic field and is not saturated at a high magnetic field of 65 kOe. In the temperature range 20 K<T<200 K the susceptibility can be described by a Curie-Weiss law with a Weiss constant of =–15 K. The effective paramagnetic moment for the iron ion (4.1 _B ) is much smaller than the theoretical moment (5.9 _B ). Above 200 K the slope in ^–1 vsT curve changes. The Weiss constant and effective paramagnetic moment for the iron ion increase. After annealing above 600°C the amorphous samples crystallize to a single garnet phase with the magnetization of 21 emu/g at 1.5 K and 7.2 emu/g at 300 K, which are the same as those of the bulk Bi₂DyFe₅O₁₂ garnet ferrites.     

Antiferromagnet IrMn thickness dependence in exchange-biased perpendicular magnetic anisotropy based on CoFe/Pt/CoFe/[IrMn(tIrMn)] multilayers

The effect of the antiferromagnetic IrMn thickness upon the magnetic properties of CoFe/Pt/CoFe/[IrMn(t_IrMn)] multilayers is studied. An oscillatory interlayer coupling (IEC) has been shown in pinned CoFe/Pt(t_Pt)/CoFe/IrMn multilayers with perpendicular anisotropy. The period of oscillation corresponds to about 2 monolayers of Pt. The oscillatory behavior of IEC depends on the nonmagnetic metallic Pt thickness and is thought to be related to the antiferromagnetic ordering induced by the IrMn layer. From the extraordinary Hall voltage amplitude (EHA) curves as function of IrMn thickness, we report that the oscillation dependence of IEC for the [CoFe/Pt/CoFe] multilayer system induced by IrMn with spacer-layer thickness is a important features of perpendicular exchange biased system.     

Magnetic and magneto-optical properties of FeRh thin films

The magnetic and magneto-optical properties of FeRh thin films epitaxially deposited onto MgO(1 0 0) substrates by RF sputter-deposition system have been investigated in conjunction with the structure. An intriguing virgin effect has been found in the M–T curves of the as-deposited FeRh thin films, which is presumably interpreted in term of a change in structural phase when heating. Also, a (negative) maximum peak of Kerr rotation at around 3.8 eV has been observed when FeRh thin films are in ferromagnetic state. The polar Kerr rotation angle is found to increase at temperatures above 100 °C, which corresponds to the antiferromagnet (AF)–ferromagnet (FM) transition of FeRh thin films.     

Magnetic properties of disordered structures deposited on reconstructed substrates

The magnetic properties of disordered layered structures grown on surface-reconstructed substrates are studied with respect to percolation and random fields phenomena. Both the layered site-dilution and fluctuating magnetic field are considered in the frame of the Ising model to describe the structural disorder in a deposited layer. The results of effective field calculations superior to the standard molecular field approximation are qualitatively comparable with the experimental data previously obtained for Fe films deposited on GaAs(001) (4×2)-reconstructed surface.     

From bubble to Skyrmion: Dynamic transformation mediated by a strong magnetic tip

Skyrmions in thin metallic ferromagnetic films are stable due to competition between the RKKY interaction and uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. We study static nonlinear excitations in magnetic film in the presence of strong cylindrical magnetic tip of nanometer size. We mimic the RKKY interaction by the next-nearest-neighbors ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic exchange interactions. We demonstrate analytically and numerically dissipative transformation of a bubble created by a strong magnetic tip into a stable Skyrmion.