Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 38: MagneticThin Films I

MA 38.3: Talk

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 10:00–10:15, H 0112

Morphology and magnetism of MnSi thin films — •Josefin Engelke, Tommy Reimann, Dirk Menzel, and Stefan Süllow — IPKM, TU Braunschweig, Germany

MnSi exhibits an intriguing magnetic behavior with a helimagnetic ground state below 29 K and field induced conical and ferromagnetic order. Thin MnSi films are prepared using molecular beam epitaxy in ultra high vacuum. MnSi thin films can be grown on Si(111) due to a small lattice misfit of 3% between the √3x√3R30 reconstructed Si surface and MnSi in <111> direction. We report on the influence of the preparation method on the morphology of the MnSi films. Two different growth procedures are compared, one of which is an alloying process of a deposited Mn layer on the Si substrate, where heating enforces a reaction forming MnSi. Alternatively, films have been grown by codeposition of Mn and Si. A structural characterization using RHEED, AFM and TEM reveals that the codeposition technique generally improves the film quality. Magnetization measurements show that the ordering temperature is dependent on the film thickness and reaches values up to 40 K.