Magnetic properties of Fe films on flat and vicinal Au(111): Consequences of different growth behavior

Electronic structure and magnetism of strained bcc phases across the fcc to bcc transition in ultrathin Fe films

“…Similar results are reported for the growth of Fe on Au(111) in Ref. [15], where bcc crystallites are detected with STM after the completion of the first Fe layer, about 1 ML before the appearance of satellite spots in LEED. Another example is related to the growth of ultrathin Fe films on Cu(111) by pulsed laser deposition, where a hexagonal p(1 × 1) pattern is observed with LEED up to a thickness of 6 ML [19], i.e., well after the formation of the bcc nuclei starting from the second Fe layer (see, for instance, the STM study of Ref.…”

“…In those cases where the growth of different crystallographic domains is observed, no in-plane easy magnetization axes are found and the film cannot retain its full magnetization at remanence. This results in a reduced polarization of the photoemission spectra which show, for instance, the same features (with different intensities) in both spin channels [15]. At variance with this picture, Figs.…”

“…The use of different substrates (with different lattice parameters and surface crystallographic orientation) and different growth methodologies (molecular beam epitaxy either * alberto.calloni@polimi.it at cryogenic substrate temperature or at room temperature vs pulsed laser deposition or electrochemical deposition), for instance, gave rise to a complex phenomenology [9][10][11]. One-layer-thick Fe films [or Fe monolayers (ML)] on notmagnetic fcc (hcp) substrates such as Cu [12] or Ir (Ru) [13], are characterized either by an antiferromagnetic ordering, or a rather complex noncollinear arrangement of the local magnetic moments [14], while a paramagnetic behavior has been reported for Au [15]. Thicker Fe films have been also investigated, the most known example being Fe on Cu(001) for Fe thicknesses in the 5-10 ML range, which shows a peculiar behavior with a ferromagnetic top bilayer sitting on an antiferromagnetic bulk [16,17].…”

Illustrative view on the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of adatoms and monolayers

“…For a Fe monolayer it is probably safe to say that experiment suggests an out-of-plane easy axis, [44][45][46][47] as our calculations do. For a Co monolayer, the situation is more complicated.…”

In situ Polarized Neutron Reflectometry: Epitaxial Thin-Film Growth of Fe on Cu(001) by dc Magnetron Sputtering

“…Therefore, we decided to investigate the current state of viability and the potential of iPNR in the context of analyzing the progressive evolution of the accessible microstructure parameters and the magnetic properties of a sputter deposited epitaxial Fe film on a Cu(001) 45 nm /Si(001) substrate. This sample type was specifically chosen as its structural and accompanying magnetic properties have been widely studied in the past for different deposition and analysis techniques on a variety of substrates [22][23][24][25][26][27][28], yet, only little work has been done on sputter deposited Fe thin films [29]. Any potentially different growth mode and a deviating magnetic behavior of sputtered films could provide both, more insight into the physics of thin magnetic films and a benchmarking of the iPNR method.…”