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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 46: Magnetic Thin Films I

MA 46.8: Talk

Thursday, March 19, 2015, 17:00–17:15, H 1012

Thickness-dependent magnetic domain structure of Fe films on Rh(001) — •Stefan Wilfert, Jeannette Kemmer, Pin-Jui Hsu, and Matthias Bode — Physikalisches Institut, Experimentelle Physik II, Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany

We have investigated the thickness-dependent magnetic domain structure of epitaxial Fe films on Rh(001) by means of spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy (SP-STM) at low-temperature (T = 5 K). In agreement with earlier density functional theory calculations [1,2] we find a first atomic layer (AL) that exhibits a perpendicular antiferromagnetic spin structure equivalent to a c(2 × 2) checkerboard pattern. In the Fe thickness range between 1 AL and 3.5 AL the film consists of out-of-plane ferromagnetic domains, as proposed by Takada et al. [3]. We find that the domain size quickly decreases with increasing thickness. The data will be discussed in terms of competing contributions to the magnetic anisotropy.

[1] D. Spisák and J. Hafner, Phys. Rev. B 73, 155428 (2006).
A. Al-Zubi et al., Phys. Rev. B 83, 024407 (2011).
M. Takada et al., J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 329, 95 (2013).