Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 63: [MA] Surface magnetism III

O 63.7: Talk

Thursday, March 17, 2011, 12:30–12:45, HSZ 103

Magnetic Properties of Fe-Co alloy films on Ir(001) — •Rantej Bali, Marek Przybylski, and Jürgen Kirschner — Max Planck Institut für Mikrostruktur Physik, Halle, Germany 06120

We report on the magnetic behavior of Fe_1−xCo_x alloy films grown on the Ir(001) surface. A variety of properties are observed depending on the Co content and film thickness. The first 4 monolayers (ML) of Fe (x = 0) do not exhibit magnetic hysteresis hinting to the existence of an antiferromagnetic phase, since thicker films are ferromagnetic. Ferromagnetism in the first 4 ML begins to be observed above x = 0.25 and further increase in Co content causes the easy axis to be perpendicular to the film plane [1]. For 10 ML thickness, this perpendicular anisotropy remains larger than the shape anisotropy at least up to the x = 0.6 composition. The increase and decay of the perpendicular anisotropy are observed through spin reorientation transitions that occur between the out-of-plane and in-plane magnetization directions of the film.

The differences in magnetic ordering such as the occurrence of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic phases and in-plane and perpendicular easy axes can be caused by the combination of strain induced modification of the electronic structure and the composition dependent adjustment of the Fermi energy.

[1] F. Yildiz et al., J. Appl. Phys. 105, 07E129 (2009).