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.