Spiral-like continuous spin-reorientation transition of Fe/Ni bilayers on Cu(100)

Ramchal, R.; Schmid, Andreas K.; Farle, Michael; Poppa, H.

doi:10.1103/physrevb.69.214401

Cited by 48 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Another way to control DW orientations is to exploit the interaction of atomic surface steps with DWs. Results on related thin-film systems have shown how substrate step arrays can be used to orient DWs 34,35 . We have confirmed the viability of this approach.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unlocking Bloch-type chirality in ultrathin magnets through uniaxial strain

et al. 2015

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Chiral magnetic domain walls are of great interest because lifting the energetic degeneracy of left-and right-handed spin textures in magnetic domain walls enables fast current-driven domain wall propagation. Although two types of magnetic domain walls are known to exist in magnetic thin films, Bloch-and Néel-walls, up to now the stabilization of homochirality was restricted to Néel-type domain walls. Since the driving mechanism of thin-film magnetic chirality, the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, is thought to vanish in Bloch-type walls, homochiral Bloch walls have remained elusive. Here we use real-space imaging of the spin texture in iron/nickel bilayers on tungsten to show that chiral domain walls of mixed Bloch-type and Néel-type can indeed be stabilized by adding uniaxial strain in the presence of interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Our findings introduce Bloch-type chirality as a new spin texture, which may open up new opportunities to design spin-orbitronics devices.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unlocking Bloch-type chirality in ultrathin magnets through uniaxial strain

et al. 2015

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“…As the electron beam spin-polarization can be changed with respect to the sample, the magnetization vector can be determined in real space with nanometer resolution. 43 More details on the SPLEEM instrument, 44 the spin-polarization control method, 45 or the vector magnetometric application of SPLEEM can be found in the literature. 16,19,20 The low saturation fields around 150 mT evidence the high structural quality of our films, although often much higher saturation fields are reported for magnetite films on 100 substrates, probably due to magnetic domain pinning at defects.…”

Section: T)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Room temperature in-plane ⟨100⟩ magnetic easy axis for Fe3O4/SrTiO3(001):Nb grown by infrared pulsed laser deposition

Monti¹,

Sanz²,

Oujja³

et al. 2013

Journal of Applied Physics

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We examine the magnetic easy-axis directions of stoichiometric magnetite films grown on SrTiO 3 :Nb by infrared pulsed-laser deposition. Spin-polarized low-energy electron microscopy reveals that the individual magnetic domains are magnetized along the in-plane h100i film directions. Magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements show that the maxima of the remanence and coercivity are also along in-plane h100i film directions. This easy-axis orientation differs from bulk magnetite and films prepared by other techniques, establishing that the magnetic anisotropy can be tuned by film growth. 2 It is a highly correlated electron material that presents a prototypical metal-insulator transition close to 120 K (the Verwey transition 3,4 ). At low temperature it becomes ferroelectric, and thus, multiferroic. 5,6 A bad metal at room temperature (RT), but predicted to be a half-metal with only the minority-spin band crossing the Fermi level, 7 it has been considered a promising material for spintronic applications as an spin-injector 8,9 or as part of a spin-valve.10,11 For such purposes, it is often desired to obtain highly perfect magnetite films on different oxide substrates. In particular, SrTiO 3 is a very attractive material in the microelectronics industry and can be doped to provide either an insulating or metallic substrate. In consequence, there is interest in the magnetic and transport properties of magnetite films grown on SrTiO 3 , both Nb-doped 12-16 and undoped, 17-23 by using techniques such as molecular beam epitaxy or pulsed-laser deposition (PLD).The magnetization bulk easy-axis directions of Fe 3 O 4 at RT are the cubic h111i ones. The first order anisotropy constant changes sign upon cooling to 130 K, temperature below which the easy axis are the h100i directions, [24][25][26] down to Verwey transition at $120 K where the structure changes from cubic to monoclinic. Thus, in the (001) surface of bulk samples, the magnetization is expected to lie along the projection of the bulk h111i on the (001) surface, i.e., the in-plane h110i directions, 27 an expectation confirmed by spin-polarized low-energy electron microscopy observations (SPLEEM). 28 Most magnetic studies of thin films on SrTiO 3 are performed by techniques such as magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE), and SQUID or vibrating-sample magnetometry (VSM), all of which average over the full thickness of the magnetite film. 16,17,19,20,23 In most cases, h110i in-plane directions are reported for the easy-axis, 17,29,30 although some works indicate in-plane isotropic films. 20 There are several reports of real-space imaging of the surface domains by magnetic-force microscopy (MFM), 16,19,23 showing domains of about 60-100 nm in size, similar to the observed grain size, but they do not identify the local domain magnetization direction. On other (100) substrates, h110i easy-axis directions are also usually reported. 31,32 Although attempts have been made to modify the easy axis orientation by the use of piezoelectric substrates 29 or through growth on ste...

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“…The direction of the magnetization vector can be mapped with high angularand spatial resolution while the spin transition occurs, for instance when the thickness of the structure is increased, when the temperature is changed, or when the surface topography, morphology or chemistry is modified. Co on Au(111) [54], Co on Ru(0001) [61] and Co/Ru(0001) with noble-metal capping layers [62], Au/Co on Ru(0001) [54] and on W(110) [53,59], Fe on Cu(001) [67], Fe/Ni bilayers on Cu(001) [73] and Fe-Co alloys on Au(111) [82] are examples of systems exhibiting SRTs that have been investigated using SPLEEM. The capabilities of SPLEEM make it a complementary approach to other techniques, but also open new opportunities for magnetic investigations.…”

Section: Spin Reorientation Transitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetic imaging with spin-polarized low-energy electron microscopy

Rougemaille

Schmid²

2010

Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys.

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115

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Abstract. Spin-polarized low-energy electron microscopy (SPLEEM) is a technique for imaging magnetic microstructures at surfaces and in thin films. In this article, principles, advantages and limitations of SPLEEM are reviewed. Several recent studies illustrate how SPLEEM can be used to investigate spin reorientation transition phenomena, to determine magnetic domain configurations in low-dimensional structures, or to explore physics of magnetic couplings in layered systems. The work highlights the capability of the technique to reveal in situ and in real time quantitative information on micromagnetic configurations and structure-property relationships. In addition, spectroscopic reflectivity measurements with spin-polarized low-energy electron beams can be a useful tool to probe spin-dependent unoccupied band structure of magnetic materials and electronic properties of buried magnetic interfaces.

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Spiral-like continuous spin-reorientation transition of Fe/Ni bilayers on Cu(100)

Cited by 48 publications

References 23 publications

Unlocking Bloch-type chirality in ultrathin magnets through uniaxial strain

Unlocking Bloch-type chirality in ultrathin magnets through uniaxial strain

Room temperature in-plane ⟨100⟩ magnetic easy axis for Fe3O4/SrTiO3(001):Nb grown by infrared pulsed laser deposition

Magnetic imaging with spin-polarized low-energy electron microscopy

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