Magneto-Optical Studies of Iron, Nickel, and Vanadium Epitaxial Ultra Thin Films on SILVER(100) and SILVER(111) Substrates.
Abstract
Magneto-optical techniques have been used to study the thickness, temperature, and field dependence of the magnetization of Fe, Ni, and V in epitaxial ultra thin films (UTF) stabilized on Ag(100) and Ag(111) substrates. Films were prepared by molecular beam epitaxy under ultra high vacuum conditions (below 1 times 10^{-10}) characterized with LEED and Auger spectroscopy and studied in situ with a surface magneto-optical Kerr effect (SMOKE) spectrometer with a 5 seconds of arc resolution. An atomic layer of Fe on Ag(100) or Ag(111) is found to be ferromagnetic at room temperature with a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy on Ag(100) and a small in-plane anisotropy on Ag(111). Fe/Ag(100) keeps the perpendicular anisotropy up to a critical temperature dependent thickness (2.5 monolayers at room temperature) and presents an in-plane anisotropy above 6 monolayers. An atomic layer of Ni on Ag(100) is found ferromagnetic at 110 K but presents no evidence of ferromagnetic behavior on Ag(111). Thicker UTF are ferromagnetic at 110 K on both substrates with in-plane anisotropy. A perpendicular anisotropy is found at about 10 monolayers on Ni/Ag(100). V on Ag(100) shows no evidence of ferromagnetic behavior above 110 K for in-plane or normal applied magnetic fields below 1.8 KOe. Ferromagnetic UTF show a layer dependent transition temperature lower than the bulk value and a rather linear temperature dependent magnetization.
- Publication:
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Ph.D. Thesis
- Pub Date:
- December 1988
- Bibcode:
- 1988PhDT........70A
- Keywords:
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- Physics: Condensed Matter