Structural and magnetic properties of Er thin films and Er/Y superlattices. II. Modification of the commensurate spin states

Journal Article · Sun Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 1991 · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.44.11814· OSTI ID:5104029

Borchers, J A; Salamon, M B ^[1]; Erwin, R W; Rhyne, J J ^[2]; Nieuwenhuys, G J ^[3]; Du, R R; Flynn, C P; Beach, R S ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics and Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801 (United States)
2. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899 (United States)
3. Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9506, 2300 RA Leiden (Netherlands)

Continuing the analysis of epitaxial erbium thin films and Er/Y superlattices, we report the effects of basal-plane strain on the modulated spin structure as determined from bulk magnetization and neutron-diffraction measurements detailed in a previous paper (Phys. Rev. B 43, 3123 (1991)). The phase angle of the {ital c}-axis-modulation spin order is larger than that of bulk Er in even the thickest films and is virtually independent of temperature in the superlattices. The sequence and stability of {ital c}-axis commensurate states in bulk Er are altered in all samples considered. In the superlattices, the {ital c}-axis-modulation net moment state with four spins up followed by three spins down dominates the temperature and field phase diagram. In addition, an additional intermediate spin configuration with a net moment of half the saturation moment develops in the superlattice with the thinnest Er interlayers. A phenomenological calculation of the exchange integral demonstrates that epitaxial strain and lattice clamping can lead to an enhancement of the phase angle. Specifically, additional commensurate phases may arise due to strain-induced variations of the nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor spin interactions, as shown in the context of the axial-next-nearest-neighbor Ising model.

• OSTI ID: 5104029
• Journal Information: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States), Vol. 44:21; ISSN 0163-1829
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ERBIUM
MAGNETIC PROPERTIES
SUPERCONDUCTING FILMS
SUPERLATTICES
YTTRIUM OXIDES
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
ISING MODEL
NEUTRON DIFFRACTION
PHASE DIAGRAMS
STRAINS
CHALCOGENIDES
COHERENT SCATTERING
CRYSTAL MODELS
DIAGRAMS
DIFFRACTION
ELEMENTS
FILMS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METALS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RARE EARTHS
SCATTERING
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
YTTRIUM COMPOUNDS
360102* - Metals & Alloys- Structure & Phase Studies
360104 - Metals & Alloys- Physical Properties