The effect of interfacial steps on the ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic interface of thin Fe films on Cr(001)

Author

Escorcia-Aparicio, Ernesto J. ; Choi, Hyuk J. ; Ling, W.L. ; Kawakami, R.K. ; Qiu, Z.Q.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

34

Issue

4

fYear

1998

fDate

7/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1219

Lastpage

1221

Abstract

The effect of regular interfacial steps on the magnetic properties of ultrathin Fe films grown on Cr(001) is studied by using a curved Cr(001) substrate. Independent of the Fe-Cr interaction, the steps introduce a uniaxial anisotropy which favors an easy axis parallel to the step edges. For certain values of the vicinal angle, the Fe-Cr interaction can overcome the effect of the step-induced anisotropy and align the easy axis perpendicular to the step edges

Keywords

antiferromagnetic materials; chromium; ferromagnetic materials; interface magnetism; interface structure; iron; magnetic anisotropy; magnetic thin films; surface topography; Cr; Fe-Cr; ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic interface; interfacial steps; magnetic properties; step-induced anisotropy; uniaxial anisotropy; vicinal angle; Anisotropic magnetoresistance; Antiferromagnetic materials; Chromium; Iron; Magnetic anisotropy; Magnetic films; Magnetization; Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; Substrates; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.706501

Filename

706501