TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of adsorbate carbon on spin reorientation transitions in Cu-capped ultrathin Ni films on Cu(0 0 1)
AU - Nakagawa, Takeshi
AU - Watanabe, Hirokazu
AU - Yokoyama, Toshihiko
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful for financial support in the form of Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Nos. 15201029, 15087211, and 16710093) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT).
PY - 2005/12/30
Y1 - 2005/12/30
N2 - We have reinvestigated the Cu capping effect for Ni films on clean Cu(0 0 1) by means of polar and longitudinal magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements in order to account for previous discrepancies among the results regarding whether the Cu capping stabilizes perpendicular or in-plane magnetization. We concluded that Cu capping stabilizes perpendicular magnetization. We also found that the previous erroneous observation of in-plane stabilization could be accounted for by the presence of a small amount of C contamination, which was revealed to stabilize perpendicular magnetization surprisingly. The C atoms were found to act as surfactants and were always located at the top surface. As regards perpendicularly magnetized films on clean Cu(0 0 1), the enhancement of the coercivity with Cu capping was observed. This finding indicates that Cu does not act as a simple magnetism killer but effectively suppresses the surface anisotropy that favors in-plane magnetization.
AB - We have reinvestigated the Cu capping effect for Ni films on clean Cu(0 0 1) by means of polar and longitudinal magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements in order to account for previous discrepancies among the results regarding whether the Cu capping stabilizes perpendicular or in-plane magnetization. We concluded that Cu capping stabilizes perpendicular magnetization. We also found that the previous erroneous observation of in-plane stabilization could be accounted for by the presence of a small amount of C contamination, which was revealed to stabilize perpendicular magnetization surprisingly. The C atoms were found to act as surfactants and were always located at the top surface. As regards perpendicularly magnetized films on clean Cu(0 0 1), the enhancement of the coercivity with Cu capping was observed. This finding indicates that Cu does not act as a simple magnetism killer but effectively suppresses the surface anisotropy that favors in-plane magnetization.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.susc.2005.10.008
DO - 10.1016/j.susc.2005.10.008
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:28544440841
SN - 0039-6028
VL - 599
SP - 262
EP - 269
JO - Surface Science
JF - Surface Science
IS - 1-3
ER -