Oxygen-induced immediate onset of the antiferromagnetic stacking in thin Cr films on Fe(001)

Journal Article · Mon Apr 20 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4918987· OSTI ID:22398930

Berti, Giulia; Brambilla, Alberto; Calloni, Alberto; Bussetti, Gianlorenzo; Finazzi, Marco; Duò, Lamberto; Ciccacci, Franco ^[1]

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1. Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133 Milano (Italy)

We investigated the magnetic coupling of ultra-thin Cr films grown at 600 K on a Fe(001)-p(1 × 1)O substrate by means of spin-polarized photoemission spectroscopy. Our findings show that the expected antiferromagnetic stacking of the magnetization in Cr(001) layers occurs right from the first atomic layer at the Cr/Fe interface. This is at variance with all previous observations in similar systems, prepared in oxygen-free conditions, which always reported on a delayed onset of the magnetic oscillations due to the occurrence of significant chemical alloying at the interface, which is substantially absent in our preparation.

• OSTI ID: 22398930
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 16; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ANTIFERROMAGNETISM
CHROMIUM
COUPLING
FILMS
INTERFACES
IRON
LAYERS
MAGNETIZATION
OSCILLATIONS
OXYGEN
PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
SPIN ORIENTATION
SUBSTRATES