Surface reconstruction and induced anisotropy in [001] Ni films

Summary form only given. The authors have been able to identify a uniaxial anisotropy due to surface reconstruction on Ni[001] epitaxial films deposited on MgO. Upon annealing it was observed that the surface exhibited stripe reconstruction associated with strain relief mechanisms. They have studied the azimuthal dependence of the magnetization reversal, on annealed and nonannealed films of the same thickness and deposited under the same conditions, with MOKE. The nonannealed films exhibit 4-fold symmetry as expected from the symmetry of the crystal. The annealed films exhibit also a superimposed uniaxial symmetry associated with the observed surface reconstruction.