Abstract
Magnetic phase transition and spin-reorientation transition in a Cu/Ni/Fe/Cu(001) system are investigated at room temperature using photoemission electron microscopy. For fixed Fe film thickness, the Cu/Ni/Fe/Cu(100) film exhibits two transitions with increasing Ni thickness: one transition corresponds to a paramagnetic to ferromagnetic transition, and the other transition corresponds to a spin-reorientation transition. A phase diagram is constructed in the Ni-Fe thickness plane to describe these two transitions. For each transition, we find that the Ni transition thickness changes monotonically as the Fe film thickness increases from 0 to 4 ML, and then remains a constant value for Fe thickness in the range of 5-11 ML. These results are attributed to the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases of the fcc Fe film and to the in-plane Ni/Fe interfacial magnetic anisotropy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 024423 |
| Pages (from-to) | 024423-1-024423-6 |
| Journal | Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics |
| Volume | 70 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 2004 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work is supported by the National Science Foundation under Contract No. DMR-0110034, the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098, the ICQS of the Chinese Academy of Science, and NSFC-10304023.