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arXiv · 1104.5266

Interfacial nanostructure induced spin-reorientation transition in Ni/Fe/Ni/W(110)

J. -S. Lee·J. T. Sadowski·H. Jang·J. -H. Park·J. -Y. Kim·J. Hu·R. Wu·C. -C. Kao
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Abstract

We investigated the mechanism of the spin-reorientation transition (SRT) in the Ni/Fe/Ni/W(110) system using in situ low-energy electron microscopy, x-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements, and first principles electronic structure calculations. We discovered that the growth of Fe on a flat Ni film on a W (110) crystal resulted in the formation of nanosized particles, instead of a uniform monolayer of Fe as commonly assumed. This interfacial nanostructure leads to a change of the system's dimensionality from two dimensional- to three dimensional-like, which simultaneously weakens the dipolar interaction and enhances the spin-orbit coupling in the system and drives the observed SRT.

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J. -S. Lee, J. T. Sadowski, H. Jang, J. -H. Park, J. -Y. Kim, J. Hu, R. Wu, C. -C. Kao. 2011-04-27. Interfacial nanostructure induced spin-reorientation transition in Ni/Fe/Ni/W(110). https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.83.144420

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