Regensburg 2022 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 26: Surface Magnetism

O 26.5: Talk

Tuesday, September 6, 2022, 11:30–11:45, H4

Magnetic Domain Structures of Gd(0001)/W(110) Films — •Patrick Haertl, Markus Leisegang, and Matthias Bode — Physikalisches Institut, Experimentelle Physik II, Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany

Rare earth metal films are known to exhibit an extremely rich magnetic behavior. Depending on the sign of the RKKY coupling and details of the film preparation various domain structures have been observed, for example on Dy(0001)/W(110) films [1]. Here we report on experiments on Gadolinium (Gd) films epitaxially grown on W(110). Gd is a ferromagnetic metal with a Curie temperature of 293 K. Its half-filled 4f shell results in an almost spherical charge distribution which –in comparison to other rare earth metals– results in a very low magnetic anisotropy [2]. Our investigation on Gd(0001) films grown on W(110) indeed show a rather rich magnetic structure in spin-polarized STM studies. In agreement with earlier Kerr measurements [2], we find a thickness-dependent spin reorientation transition from in-plane at thin films to out-of-plane for films thicker than around 40 nm. The latter form up and down magnetized stripe domains which are tilted by ± 30^∘ with respect to the W[001] direction. With increasing coverage their periodicity increases from (50 ± 10) nm up to (120 ± 40) nm and domain branching is observed. We will discuss the energetics of transition of the magnetic structure.
[1] L. Berbil-Bautista et. al., Phys. Rev. B 76, 064411 (2007).
[2] A. Berger et. al., Phys. Rev. B 52, 1078 (1995).
[3] P. Härtl et. al., Phys. Rev. B 105, 174431 (2022).