Unidirectional anisotropy in ultrathin transition-metal films

Authors

Ralph Skomski, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
H.-P. Oepen, Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik
J. Kirschner, Max-Planck-Institut für MikrostrukturphysikFollow

Date of this Version

November 1998

Comments

Published by Am Physical Soc. Phys. Rev. B 58 (1998) 11138-11141. Copyright 1998. Permission to use. http://www.aps.org/.

Abstract

Unidirectional magnetic anisotropies in low-symmetry magnetic thin films such as cobalt on vicinal copper surfaces are investigated. Possible explanations of the observed uniaxial anisotropies are competing anisotropy (CA) coefficients and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interactions. Unidirectional CA is an interesting mechanism occurring in low-symmetry magnets and involves neither antiferromagnetic exchange nor spin canting. It is visible in the easy-cone regime and decides, for example, whether the preferential magnetization direction points up or down a stepped surface. In the case of Co/Cu(11n) films, however, the anisotropy direction speaks in favor of DM-type interactions.