Quantum Well States and Oscillatory Magnetic Anisotropy in Ultrathin Fe Films

Author

Li, J. ; Chen, G. ; Wu, Y.Z. ; Rotenberg, E. ; Przybylski, M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Fudan Univ., Shanghai, China

Volume

47

Issue

6

fYear

2011

fDate

6/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1603

Lastpage

1609

Abstract

The magnetic anisotropy of Fe film grown on vicinal Ag(1,1,10) surfaces studied with the in situ magneto-optic Kerr effect shows oscillatory behavior. We found that both the in-plane step-induced uniaxial anisotropy and the perpendicular anisotropy measured at low temperature show strong oscillations as a function of Fe thickness with a period of ~ 5.7 monolayers. Such novel oscillation of the anisotropy is attributed to the quantum well states (QWS) of d-band electrons at the Fermi level in the Fe film. These QWS have been observed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy from a Fe wedge films grown on Ag(001) surface.

Keywords

Fermi level; Kerr magneto-optical effect; iron; magnetic thin films; monolayers; perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; photoelectron spectra; quantum wells; Ag; Ag(001) surface; Fe; Fe wedge films; Fermi level; angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy; d-band electrons; in-plane step-induced uniaxial anisotropy; magnetooptic Kerr effect; monolayers; oscillatory magnetic anisotropy; perpendicular anisotropy; quantum well states; ultrathin Fe films; Anisotropic magnetoresistance; Geometry; Iron; Magnetic anisotropy; Magnetic hysteresis; Oscillators; Temperature measurement; Magnetic anisotropy; quantum well states; ultrathin magnetic film;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2011.2108273

Filename

5772203