Regensburg 2000 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help

DS: Dünne Schichten

DS 8: Magnetische Schichten II

DS 8.2: Fachvortrag

Monday, March 27, 2000, 17:30–17:45, H31

Magnetism of thin chromium films studied with low energy muon spin rotation — •H. Luetkens^1,2, J. Korecki³, H. Glückler², E. Morenzoni², T. Prokscha², M. Birke¹, F.J. Litterst¹, Ch. Niedermayer⁴, M. Pleines^2,4, and G. Schatz⁴ — ¹IMNF, TU Braunschweig, D-38106 Braunschweig — ²Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI — ³Academy of Minning and Metallurgy, PL-30-059 Krakow — ⁴Fakultät für Physik, U Konstanz, D-78457 Konstanz

Muon spin research (µSR) is well established in solid state physics to probe magnetic properties of bulk samples. The developement of a beam of polarized muons with a tunable energy in the eV to sevaral keV range opens the possibility to extend the µSR technique to the study of thin films and multilayers. Low energy muon spin rotation (LE-µ⁺SR) measurements were performed on 3.4 nm and 9.1 nm epitaxial Cr(001) films buried by non-magnetic boundary layers to study the collapse of the spin density wave (SDW) of bulk Cr, which is expected when decreasing the thickness of the film below the modulation period of the SDW (≈ 6 nm). Magnetic phases of Cr are identified by the fast relaxation of the muon spin polarization. While a reduced Néel temperature of 285 K with respect to the bulk value is found for the 9.1 nm Cr layer, the 3.4 nm film remains in a magnetic phase over the investigated temperature range of 20 K to 320 K.