Magnetic anisotropy of glide-distorted fcc and of bcc ultrathin Fe/Cu(001) films

Abstract

The effective anisotropy fields, (Formula presented), of Fe films of 2 to 15 monolayers thick grown on Cu(001) were measured at 100 K for two growth conditions; 100 K growth with a room temperature anneal and room-temperature growth. First-order anisotropy constants, (Formula presented) and (Formula presented), are derived for the thickness independent anisotropy energy term and the thickness dependent anisotropy energy term, respectively. For 100 K growth, (Formula presented) for the glide-distorted fcc Fe film is two orders of magnitude larger than for the bcc Fe film and >30 times larger than for bulk bcc Fe. The fcc film has (Formula presented) ergs/(Formula presented), compared to 0.94 ergs/(Formula presented) for the bcc Fe film. The perpendicular easy axis in the glide-distorted fcc Fe, for either growth temperature, is observed only because both (Formula presented) and (Formula presented) result in large perpendicular anisotropy energies. A conversion to an in-plane easy axis occurs as the thickness dependent anisotropy energy decreases with increasing Fe thickness in the bcc phase and is not directly a result of the phase transformation to bcc Fe. Room-temperature growth gives similar anisotropy constants. © 1996 The American Physical Society.