Magnetic anisotropy in ultrathin Fe films on GaAs, ZnSe, and Ge (001) substrates

作者：Tivakornsasithorn K^*; Liu X; Li X; Dobrowolska M; Furdyna J K

来源：Journal of Applied Physics, 2014, 116(4): 043915.

DOI：10.1063/1.4891253

We discuss magnetic anisotropy parameters of ferromagnetic body-centered cubic (bcc) Fe films grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on (001) substrates of face-centered cubic (fcc) GaAs, ZnSe, and Ge. High-quality MBE growth of these metal/semiconductor combinations is made possible by the fortuitous atomic relationship between the bcc Fe and the underlying fcc semiconductor surfaces, resulting in excellent lattice match. Magnetization measurements by superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) indicate that the Fe films grown on (001) GaAs surfaces are characterized by a very strong uniaxial in-plane anisotropy; those grown on (001) Ge surfaces have a fully cubic anisotropy; and Fe films grown on ZnSe represent an intermediate case between the preceding two combinations. Ferromagnetic resonance measurements carried out on these three systems provide a strikingly clear quantitative picture of the anisotropy parameters, in excellent agreement with the SQUID results. Based on these results, we propose that the observed anisotropy of cubic Fe films grown in this way results from the surface reconstruction of the specific semiconductor substrate on which the Fe film is deposited. These results suggest that, by controlling surface reconstruction of the substrate during the MBE growth, one may be able to engineer the magnetic anisotropy in Fe, and possibly also in other MBE-grown ferromagnetic films.

• 出版日期2014-7-28