The evolution of ferromagnetic (FM) domains across the temperature-driven antiferromagnetic (AF) to FM phase transition in uncapped and capped epitaxial FeRh thin films was studied by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and photoemission electron microscopy. The coexistence of the AF and FM phases was evidenced across the broad transition and the different stages of nucleation, growth, and coalescence were directly imaged. The FM phase nucleates into single domain islands and the width of the transition of an individual nucleus is sharper than that of the transition in a macroscopic average.

A spin reorientation accompanying the temperature-induced antiferromagnetic (AFM) to ferromagnetic (FM) phase transition is reported in strained epitaxial FeRh thin films. (57)Fe conversion electron Mössbauer spectrometry showed that the Fe moments have different orientations in FeRh grown on thick single-crystalline MgO and in FeRh grown on ion-beam-assist-deposited (IBAD) MgO. It was also observed, in both samples, that the Fe moments switch orientations at the AFM to FM phase transition. Perpendicular anisotropy was evidenced in the AFM phase of the film grown on IBAD MgO and in the FM phase of that grown on regular MgO. Density-functional theory calculations enabled this spin-reorientation transition to be accurately reproduced for both FeRh films across the AFM-FM phase transition and show that these results are due to differences in strain.

FeRh undergoes an unusual antiferromagnetic-to-ferromagnetic (AFM-FM) transition just above room temperature (T(AFM>FM)) that can be tuned or even completely suppressed with small changes in composition. The underlying temperature-dependent entropy difference between the competing AFM and FM states that drives this transition is measured by specific heat as a function of temperature from 2 to 380 K on two nearly equiatomic epitaxial Fe-Rh films, one with a ferromagnetic ground state (Fe-rich) and the other with an antiferromagnetic ground state (Rh-rich). The FM state shows an excess heat capacity near 100 K associated with magnetic excitations that are not present in the AFM state. The integrated entropy and enthalpy differences between the two alloys up to T(AFM>FM) agree with the previously measured entropy of the transition (ΔS = 17 ± 3 J/kg/K) and yield a T=0 energy difference of 3.4 J/g, consistent with literature calculations and experimental data; this agreement supports the use of the Fe-rich FM sample as a proxy for the (unstable) FM state of the AFM Rh-rich sample. From the low-temperature specific heat, along with sound velocity and photoemission measurements, the lattice contribution to the difference (ΔS(latt) = -33 ± 9 J/kg/K) and electronic contribution (ΔS(el) = 8 ± 1 J/kg/K) to the difference in entropy are calculated, from which the excess heat capacity in the FM phase and the resulting entropy difference are shown to be dominated by magnetic fluctuations (ΔS(mag) = 43 ± 9 J/kg/K). The excess magnetic heat capacity is dominated by the magnetic heat capacity of the FM phase, which can be fit to a Schottky-like anomaly with an energy splitting of 16 ± 1 meV and a multiplicity of 1 per unit cell.

The role of the capping material in stabilizing a thin ferromagnetic layer at the interface between a FeRh film and cap in the nominally antiferromagnetic phase at room temperature was studied by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism in photoemission electron microscopy and polarized neutron reflectivity. These techniques were used to determine the presence or absence of interfacial ferromagnetism (FM) in films capped with different oxides and metals. Chemically stable oxide caps do not generate any interfacial FM while the effect of metallic caps depends on the element, showing that interfacial FM is due to metallic interdiffusion and the formation of a ternary alloy with a modified antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic transition temperature. V

The evolution of the antiferromagnetic phase across the temperature-driven ferromagnetic (FM) to antiferromagnetic (AF) phase transition in epitaxial FeRh thin films was studied by x-ray magnetic linear and circular dichroism (XMLD and XMCD) and photoemission electron microscopy. By comparing XMLD and XMCD images recorded at the same temperature, the AF phase was identified, its structure directly imaged, and its evolution studied across the transition. A quantitative analysis of the correlation length of the images shows differences between the characteristic length scale of the two phases with the AF phase having a finer feature size. The asymmetry of the transition from FM to AF upon cooling and AF-FM upon heating is evidenced: upon cooling the formation of AF phase is dominated by nucleation at defects, with little subsequent growth, resulting in a small and non-random final AF domain structure, while upon heating, heterogeneous nucleation at different sites followed by significant domain size growth of the FM phase is observed, resulting in a non-reproducible final FM large domain structure.

Stoichiometric FeRh undergoes a temperature-induced antiferromagnetic (AFM) to ferromagnetic (FM) transition at ~350 K. In this Letter, changes in the electronic structure accompanying this transition are investigated in epitaxial FeRh thin films via bulk-sensitive valence-band and core-level hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy with a photon energy of 5.95 keV. Clear differences between the AFM and FM states are observed across the entire valence-band spectrum and these are well reproduced using density-functional theory. Changes in the 2p core levels of Fe are also observed and interpreted using Anderson impurity model calculations. These results indicate that significant electronic structure changes over the entire valence-band region are involved in this AFM-FM transition.

The CoFeB/MgO system shows promise as a magnetic tunnel junction with perpendicular magnetization and low critical current densities for spin-torque driven magnetization switching. The distribution of B after annealing is believed to be critical to performance. We have studied the distribution of B in a Ta/Co0.2Fe0.6B0.2/MgO sample annealed at 300 °C for 1 h with standing-wave hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (SW-HXPS). Comparing experimental rocking curve data to x-ray optical calculations indicates diffusion of 19.5% of the B uniformly into the MgO and of 23.5% into a thin TaB interface layer. SW-HXPS is effective for probing depth distributions in such spintronic structures.

No abstract