AIP Advances (Jun 2013)

Magnetic anisotropy of ultrathin Fe films grown on vicinal Si (111)

  • Hao-Liang Liu,
  • Wei He,
  • Qiong Wu,
  • Jun Ye,
  • Xiang-Qun Zhang,
  • Hai-Tao Yang,
  • Zhao-Hua Cheng

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4809664
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 3, no. 6
pp. 062101 – 062101

Abstract

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We have investigated magnetic anisotropy of ultrathin Fe films grown on vicinal Si (111) with 4° miscut towards [11-2] direction. Spin reorientation transition (SRT) from out-of-plane to in-plane proceeds in a wider thickness range than on flat substrates. Meanwhile, the easy axis of in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy varies from [11-2] to [-110] with an intermediate state of approximate four-fold symmetry. The evolution of magnetic anisotropy is attributed to competition of surface magnetic anisotropy, first-order magnetocrystalline anisotropy, and step induced magnetic anisotropy from symmetry breaking and dipolar interactions.