Element-specific study of epitaxial NiO/Ag/CoO/Fe films grown on vicinal Ag(001) using photoemission electron microscopy

Journal Article · Mon Jan 10 04:00:00 EST 2011 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3595274· OSTI ID:1048259

Meng, Y; Li, J; Tan, A; Jin, E; Son, J; Park, J S; Doran, A; Young, A T; Scholl, A; Arenholz, E; Wu, J; Hwang, C; Zhao, H W; Qiu, Z Q

NiO/Ag/CoO/Fe single crystalline films are grown epitaxially on a vicinal Ag(001) substrate using molecular beam epitaxy and investigated by photoemission electron microscopy. We find that after zero-field cooling, the in-plane Fe magnetization switches from parallel to perpendicular direction of the atomic steps of the vicinal surface at thinner CoO thickness but remains in its original direction parallel to the steps at thicker CoO thickness. CoO and NiO domain imaging result shows that both CoO/Fe and NiO/CoO spins are perpendicularly coupled, suggesting that the Fe magnetization switching may be associated with the rotatable-frozen spin transition of the CoO film.

• Research Organization: Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: Advanced Light Source Division; Materials Sciences Division
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 1048259
• Report Number(s): LBNL-4913E
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 21 Vol. 98; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
COBALT COMPOUNDS
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
IRON
MAGNETISM
MAGNETIZATION
MICROSCOPY
MOLECULAR BEAM EPITAXY
MOLECULAR BEAMS
NICKEL
PHOTOEMISSION
SILVER
SPIN
SUBSTRATES
SWITCHES
THICKNESS