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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten

DS 16: Layer Properties: Electrical, Optical, and Mechanical

DS 16.8: Talk

Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 11:30–11:45, H11

Epitaxial growth of Fe on Ag(001) and magnetoelastic coupling in Fe — •Kenia Novakoski Fischer and Dirk Sander — Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Halle, Germany

Epitaxial atomic layers are often in a strain-state, which is determined by the lattice misfit to the substrate. This misfit contributes significantly to the magnetic anisotropy via magnetoelastic coupling. The magnetoelastic coupling coefficients are experimentally accessible from measurements of the stress change of the layers upon a magnetization reorientation [1]. In this work, we present results on the film stress and magnetoelastic stress for 4 to 30 layers of Fe on Ag(001). Our measurements of film stress show a non-monotonic stress change in the first layers, which indicates a deviation from an atomically sharp Ag-Fe interface. We measure an average film stress of 2 GPa, in qualitative agreement with lattice misfit stress. From our Auger measurements, even for 30 ML thick Fe films, we conclude that a few layers of Ag are on top of the Fe film. We measured the magnetoelastic coupling coefficient B2 from an in-plane reorientation of the magnetization along <110> directions of Fe, and we find +4.2, +3.1, +2.7, and +3.7 MJ/m³ for films of 4, 8, 15, and 30 layers, respectively. These values differ from the respective bulk value of +7.83 MJ/m³[2], and we discuss the results in view of the segregation of Ag and stress in the Fe films.

[1] Sander D. and Kirschner J., Phys. Status Solidi B 248, 2389, (2011).

[2] Sander D., Rep. Prog. Phys. 62, 809 (1999).