Observation of second spin reorientation transition within ultrathin region in Fe films on Ag(001) surface

Abstract

We acquired direct measurements for in-plane and perpendicular-to-plane magnetic moments of Fe films using an x-ray magnetic circular dichroism technique with increase of the Fe thickness (up to 40 angstrom) on the Ag(001) surface. Epitaxial Fe/Ag(001) films were grown in situ with the thickness varying from 2 angstrom to 40 angstrom, and the magnetic anisotropy was carefully investigated as a function of the film thickness. We found re-entrance of the in-plane magnetic anisotropy of the Fe film in ultrathin region. The results manifest that the epitaxial Fe/Ag(001) film undergoes two distinct spin reorientation transitions from in-plane to out-of-plane at the film thickness t approximate to 9 angstrom and back to in-plane at t approximate to 18 angstrom as t increases. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.