Local magnetic properties of ultrathin ferromagnetic fcc-Fe-films on Cu(001)

Conversion electron Mössbayer spectroscopy (CEMS) on three monolayers (ML) thick metastable fcc-Fe(001) films grown epitaxially on a Cu(001) substrate under different conditions shows that these films are characterized by a distributionP(B_hf) of magnetic hyperfine fieldsB_hf. The vast majority of⁵⁷Fe nuclei experience relatively large hyperfine fields at low temperature. The temperature dependence of the most probable fieldB_peak was found to follow aT^3/2 spin-wave law below 300 K. It is shown from the relative line intensities that preferential Fe spin orientation perpendicular to the film plane exists in films grown at 120 K, while preferential in-plane spin orientation is found for a growth temperature of 300 K. Coating a low-temperature grown Fe film by 2 ML of Cu(001) drastically reduces the hyperfine field, in contrast to the case of room-temperature grown Cu-coated films.Dedicated to Professor Ulrich Gonser on the occasion of his 70th birthday