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Phys. Rev. B 70, 060408 (2004) [4 pages]

Correlation between topography and magnetic surface anisotropy in epitaxial Fe films on vicinal-to-(001) Au surfaces with different step orientation

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M. Rickart
INESC Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias, Rua Alves Redol 9, 1000 Lisboa, Portugal

T. Mewes
Department of Physics, 1077 Smith Laboratory, Ohio State University, 174 W 18th Ave, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA

S. O. Demokritov and B. Hillebrands
Fachbereich Physik and Forschungsschwerpunkt MINAS, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, D-67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany

M. Scheib
Institut für Oberflächen- und Schichtanalytik (IFOS) GmbH, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, D-67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany

Rapid Communication Received 30 June 2004; published 31 August 2004

For an epitaxial, vicinal surface of a magnetic film, the twofold step-induced symmetry about the film normal in the atomic coordination implies a corresponding twofold magnetic surface anisotropy. We show, that for epitaxial Fe films grown on Au surfaces vicinal to the (001) plane, tilted about the in-plane [100]Au or the [110]Au axis, a strong correlation exists between the in-plane structural anisotropy in the height-height correlation function and the magnetic surface anisotropy. This correlation is clearly evident although both anisotropies are complicated functions of the vicinal angle, the tilt axis and the film thickness due to appearing reconstructions.


©2004 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v70/e060408
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.70.060408
PACS: 75.30.Gw, 75.70.Rf, 68.55.−a

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