Growth and magnetic characterization of single-crystal Ni films on ZnSe(001)

We have grown single-crystal films of Ni by molecular-beam epitaxy on ZnSe(001) epilayers which were grown in turn on GaAs(001) substrates. The surface structure and composition were determined by reflection high-energy electron diffraction and Auger electron spectroscopy. X-ray θ-2θ and oscillation/Weissenberg measurements show that the films retain the normal fcc lattice structure and grow in the (001) orientation, despite the large misfit to the substrate. Ferromagnetic resonance and vibrating sample magnetometry were used to obtain the magnetic properties of the samples. The films exhibit a reduced magnetization relative to bulk Ni, a perpendicular component to the anisotropy, and an in-plane uniaxial anisotropy such that the hard in-plane <100> axes are inequivalent.