Tailoring of the perpendicular magnetization component in ferromagnetic films on a vicinal substrate.
We have engineered the magnetic properties of 1-8 nm Co films epitaxially grown on an Au-buffered bifacial W(110)/W(540) single crystal. The surface of Au/W(110) was atomically flat, whereas the Au/W(540) followed the morphology of the vicinal W surface, showing a regular array of monoatomic steps. For Co grown on Au/W(540), the existence of the out-of-plane magnetization component extended strongly to a thickness d of about 8 nm, which was accompanied by an anomalous increase of the out-of-plane switching field with increasing d. In addition, the process of up-down magnetization switching could be realized with both a perpendicular and in-plane external magnetic field.
Stupakiewicz
A
A
Laboratory of Magnetism, University of Bialystok, Lipowa 41, 15-424 Bialystok, Poland.
Maziewski
A
A
Matlak
K
K
Spiridis
N
N
Slezak
M
M
Slezak
T
T
Zajac
M
M
Korecki
J
J