Thickness-induced spin-reorientation originated from competing magnetic shape anisotropies
Jin Tang,
Wei He,
Yong-Sheng Zhang,
Wei Zhang,
Yan Li,
S.Sheraz Ahmad,
Xiang-Qun Zhang,
Zhao-Hua Cheng
Affiliations
Jin Tang
State Key Laboratory of Magnetism and Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Wei He
State Key Laboratory of Magnetism and Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Yong-Sheng Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Magnetism and Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Wei Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Magnetism and Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Yan Li
State Key Laboratory of Magnetism and Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
S.Sheraz Ahmad
State Key Laboratory of Magnetism and Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Xiang-Qun Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Magnetism and Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Zhao-Hua Cheng
State Key Laboratory of Magnetism and Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Engineering the surface morphology of magnetic film is one of the important methods to tune the magnetic anisotropy of ultrathin magnetic material. However, the influence of competing shape effects on magnetic anisotropy of ultrathin film is still not clearly demonstrated. Here, we investigated the magnetic anisotropy of obliquely deposited Fe films on vicinal Si(111) substrate by using in-situ and ex-situ surface magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE). Thickness-induced in-plane spin-reorientation transition, i.e. magnetization easy axis gradually rotates away from the step direction, was observed. MOKE measurements and micromagnetic simulation demonstrate this spin-reorientation transition process largely originated from the competition between step-induced magnetic shape anisotropy and oblique-deposition-induced magnetic shape anisotropy. Our study indicates the possibility of tuning magnetic spin order orientation by the competing magnetic shape anisotropies.
