Iron and nickel surface and interface anisotropies

Authors

Ralph Skomski, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
D. Sander, Max-Planck-Institut fur Mikrostrukturphysik, Weinberg 2, 06120 Halle, Germany
C. Schmidthals, Max-Planck-Institut fur Mikrostrukturphysik, Weinberg 2, 06120 Halle, Germany
Axel Enders, Max-Planck-Institut fur MikrostrukturphysikFollow
J. Kirschner, Max-Planck-Institut fur MikrostrukturphysikFollow

Date of this Version

7-1-1998

Comments

Published in IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL 34, NO 4, JULY 1998.

Abstract

The anisotropy of fcc (111) Fe/Ni and Fe/Ni/Fe layers is investigated. The films exhibit an oscillating behavior of the preferential magnetization direction depending on whether the surface layer is Ni or Fe. Anisotropy fields are obtained from polar and perpendicular Kerr hysteresis loops and yield a comparatively small perpendicular Fe/Ni interface anisotropy of about 0.15 mJ/m2. The real-space origin of the interface anisotropy is the interlayer hybridization of the yz, zx, and z² orbitals.