Structural and magnetic properties of Fe on Cu84Al 16(100)

Abstract

The structure and magnetism of epitaxial ultrathin Fe films deposited on Cu84Al 16(100) single crystal have been investigated by electron diffraction and surface magneto-optical Kerr effect (SMOKE). The correlation between structural and magnetic properties was explored for Fe films grown at two different temperatures, 160 K (LT) and 300 K (RT). The results show that the Fe films on Cu84Al16(100) undergo a sensitive structural change, starting from a critical thickness, which depends on the deposition temperature. The critical thickness was estimated as approximately 2 atomic monolayers (ML) and approximately 10 ML for Fe films deposited at LT and RT, respectively. The SMOKE measurements show that the Fe films deposited at RT are non-magnetic up to approximately 10 ML, whereas the Fe films deposited at LT are ferromagnetic, starting from approximately 1.5 ML. The magnetic anisotropy of the LT-grown films changes from out-of-plane to in-plane at approximately 3.5 ML Fe. The spin reorientation transition in the LT-grown Fe ultrathin films is connected to a fcc (100) to bcc (110) astructural transformation.