Single crystalline Fe/NiO bilayers were epitaxially grown on Ag(001) and on MgO(001), and investigated by Low Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED), Magneto-Optic Kerr Effect (MOKE), and X-ray Magnetic Linear Dichroism (XMLD). We find that while the Fe film has an in-plane magnetization in both Fe/NiO/Ag(001) and Fe/NiO/MgO (001)
Fe/NiO/MgO/Ag(001) films were grown epitaxially and the Fe and NiO spin orientations were determined using X-ray Magnetic Dichroism. We find that the NiO spins are aligned perpendicularly to the Fe spins. Analyzing both the in-plane and out-of-plane spin components of the NiO layer, we demonstrate unambiguously that the NiO spins undergo a continuous spin reorientation transition from the in-plane to out-of-plane directions when tuning the in plane epitaxial strain from compressive to tensile with increasing the MgO thickness.
A vector magnet is designed and assembled with two electromagnets to produce a rotational magnetic field in any direction within a plane. This design allows a rotation of the magnetic field without a mechanical rotation of the magnets. The fast speed of the field rotation (~10 s for a complete 360° rotation) and the stability against mechanical vibration easily overcome the slow drifting effect in anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) and rotational magneto-optic Kerr effect (ROTMOKE) measurements. As an example we applied this vector magnet to carry out AMR and ROTMOKE measurements on epitaxial growth of Fe(10 nm)∕MgO(001) films. The result demonstrates the stability and high quality of the vector magnet in determining the magnetic anisotropy of magnetic thin films using AMR and ROTMOKE techniques.
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