title: Guiding Spin Spirals by Local Uniaxial Strain Relief.
abstract: We report on the influence of uniaxial strain relief on the spin spiral state in the Fe double layer grown on Ir(111). Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements reveal areas with reconstruction lines resulting from uniaxial strain relief due to the lattice mismatch of Fe and Ir atoms, as well as pseudomorphic strained areas. Magnetic field-dependent spin-polarized STM measurements of the reconstructed Fe double layer reveal cycloidal spin spirals with a period on the nm scale. Globally, the spin spiral wave fronts are guided along symmetry-equivalent [112̅] crystallographic directions of the fcc(111) substrate. On an atomic scale the spin spiral propagation direction is linked to the [001] direction of the bcc(110)-like Fe, leading to a zigzag shaped wave front. The isotropically strained pseudomorphic areas also exhibit a preferred magnetic periodicity on the nm scale but no long-range order. We find that already for local strain relief with a single set of reconstruction lines a strict guiding of the spin spiral is realized.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, D-20355 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Pin-Jui
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, D-20355 Hamburg, Germany.|Département de physique, École normale supérieure, 45 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Aurore
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Finco
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, D-20355 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Lorenz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, D-20355 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kubetzka
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, D-20355 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Kirsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: von Bergmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, D-20355 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wiesendanger