42 research outputs found
Critical Susceptibility Exponent Measured from Fe/W(110) Bilayers
The critical phase transition in ferromagnetic ultrathin Fe/W(110) films has
been studied using the magnetic ac susceptibility. A statistically objective,
unconstrained fitting of the susceptibility is used to extract values for the
critical exponent (gamma), the critical temperature Tc, the critical amplitude
(chi_o) and the range of temperature that exhibits power-law behaviour. A
fitting algorithm was used to simultaneously minimize the statistical variance
of a power law fit to individual experimental measurements of chi(T). This
avoids systematic errors and generates objective fitting results. An ensemble
of 25 measurements on many different films are analyzed. Those which permit an
extended fitting range in reduced temperature lower than approximately .00475
give an average value gamma=1.76+-0.01. Bilayer films give a weighted average
value of gamma = 1.75+-0.02. These results are in agreement with the
-dimensional Ising exponent gamma= 7/4. Measurements that do not exhibit
power-law scaling as close to Tc (especially films of thickness 1.75ML) show a
value of gamma higher than the Ising value. Several possibilities are
considered to account for this behaviour.Comment: -Submitted to Phys. Rev. B -Revtex4 Format -6 postscript figure
Metastability in Monte Carlo simulation of 2D Ising films and in Fe monolayer strips
Effective Curie temperatures measured in Fe monolayer strips agree reasonable
with computer sinulations of two-dimensional Ising model strips. The
simulations confirm the domain structure seen already by Albano et al.Comment: 3 pages, plain tex, 5 postscript figure
First principles calculation of structural and magnetic properties for Fe monolayers and bilayers on W(110)
Structure optimizations were performed for 1 and 2 monolayers (ML) of Fe on a
5 ML W(110) substrate employing the all-electron full-potential linearized
augmented plane-wave (FP-LAPW) method. The magnetic moments were also obtained
for the converged and optimized structures. We find significant contractions
( 10 %) for both the Fe-W and the neighboring Fe-Fe interlayer spacings
compared to the corresponding bulk W-W and Fe-Fe interlayer spacings. Compared
to the Fe bcc bulk moment of 2.2 , the magnetic moment for the surface
layer of Fe is enhanced (i) by 15% to 2.54 for 1 ML Fe/5 ML W(110), and
(ii) by 29% to 2.84 for 2 ML Fe/5 ML W(110). The inner Fe layer for 2
ML Fe/5 ML W(110) has a bulk-like moment of 2.3 . These results agree
well with previous experimental data
Monte Carlo Simulation of Magnetization Reversal in Fe Sesquilayers on W(110)
Iron sesquilayers grown at room temperature on W(110) exhibit a pronounced
coercivity maximum near a coverage of 1.5 atomic monolayers. On lattices which
faithfully reproduce the morphology of the real films, a kinetic Ising model is
utilized to simulate the domain-wall motion. Simulations reveal that the
dynamics is dominated by the second-layer islands, which act as pinning
centers. The simulated dependencies of the coercivity on the film coverage, as
well as on the temperature and the frequency of the applied field, are very
similar to those measured in experiments. Unlike previous micromagnetic models,
the presented approach provides insight into the dynamics of the domain-wall
motion and clearly reveals the role of thermal fluctuations.Comment: Final version to appear in Phys. Rev. B. References to related works
added. 7 pages, 5 figures, RevTex, mpeg simulations available at
http://www.scri.fsu.edu/~rikvol
Size effect on magnetism of Fe thin films in Fe/Ir superlattices
In ferromagnetic thin films, the Curie temperature variation with the
thickness is always considered as continuous when the thickness is varied from
to atomic planes. We show that it is not the case for Fe in Fe/Ir
superlattices. For an integer number of atomic planes, a unique magnetic
transition is observed by susceptibility measurements, whereas two magnetic
transitions are observed for fractional numbers of planes. This behavior is
attributed to successive transitions of areas with and atomic planes,
for which the 's are not the same. Indeed, the magnetic correlation length
is presumably shorter than the average size of the terraces. Monte carlo
simulations are performed to support this explanation.Comment: LaTeX file with Revtex, 5 pages, 5 eps figures, to appear in Phys.
Rev. Let
Tuning of crystal structure and magnetic properties by exceptionally large epitaxial strains
Huge deformations of the crystal lattice can be achieved in materials with
inherent structural instability by epitaxial straining. By coherent growth on
seven different substrates the in-plane lattice constants of 50 nm thick
Fe70Pd30 films are continuously varied. The maximum epitaxial strain reaches
8,3 % relative to the fcc lattice. The in-plane lattice strain results in a
remarkable tetragonal distortion ranging from c/abct = 1.09 to 1.39, covering
most of the Bain transformation path from fcc to bcc crystal structure. This
has dramatic consequences for the magnetic key properties. Magnetometry and
X-ray circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements show that Curie temperature,
orbital magnetic moment, and magnetocrystalline anisotropy are tuned over broad
ranges.Comment: manuscript, 3 figures, auxiliary materia
Magnetic Reversal on Vicinal Surfaces
We present a theoretical study of in-plane magnetization reversal for vicinal
ultrathin films using a one-dimensional micromagnetic model with
nearest-neighbor exchange, four-fold anisotropy at all sites, and two-fold
anisotropy at step edges. A detailed "phase diagram" is presented that catalogs
the possible shapes of hysteresis loops and reversal mechanisms as a function
of step anisotropy strength and vicinal terrace length. The steps generically
nucleate magnetization reversal and pin the motion of domain walls. No sharp
transition separates the cases of reversal by coherent rotation and reversal by
depinning of a ninety degree domain wall from the steps. Comparison to
experiment is made when appropriate.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
Comparative study of an Eden model for the irreversible growth of spins and the equilibrium Ising model
The Magnetic Eden Model (MEM) with ferromagnetic interactions between
nearest-neighbor spins is studied in dimensional rectangular geometries
for . In the MEM, magnetic clusters are grown by adding spins at the
boundaries of the clusters. The orientation of the added spins depends on both
the energetic interaction with already deposited spins and the temperature,
through a Boltzmann factor. A numerical Monte Carlo investigation of the MEM
has been performed and the results of the simulations have been analyzed using
finite-size scaling arguments. As in the case of the Ising model, the MEM in is non-critical (only exhibits an ordered phase at ). In
the MEM exhibits an order-disorder transition of second-order at a finite
temperature. Such transition has been characterized in detail and the relevant
critical exponents have been determined. These exponents are in agreement
(within error bars) with those of the Ising model in 2 dimensions. Further
similarities between both models have been found by evaluating the probability
distribution of the order parameter, the magnetization and the susceptibility.
Results obtained by means of extensive computer simulations allow us to put
forward a conjecture which establishes a nontrivial correspondence between the
MEM for the irreversible growth of spins and the equilibrium Ising model. This
conjecture is certainly a theoretical challenge and its confirmation will
contribute to the development of a framework for the study of irreversible
growth processes.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figure
Effects of boundary conditions on magnetization switching in kinetic Ising models of nanoscale ferromagnets
Magnetization switching in highly anisotropic single-domain ferromagnets has
been previously shown to be qualitatively described by the droplet theory of
metastable decay and simulations of two-dimensional kinetic Ising systems with
periodic boundary conditions. In this article we consider the effects of
boundary conditions on the switching phenomena. A rich range of behaviors is
predicted by droplet theory: the specific mechanism by which switching occurs
depends on the structure of the boundary, the particle size, the temperature,
and the strength of the applied field. The theory predicts the existence of a
peak in the switching field as a function of system size in both systems with
periodic boundary conditions and in systems with boundaries. The size of the
peak is strongly dependent on the boundary effects. It is generally reduced by
open boundary conditions, and in some cases it disappears if the boundaries are
too favorable towards nucleation. However, we also demonstrate conditions under
which the peak remains discernible. This peak arises as a purely dynamic effect
and is not related to the possible existence of multiple domains. We illustrate
the predictions of droplet theory by Monte Carlo simulations of two-dimensional
Ising systems with various system shapes and boundary conditions.Comment: RevTex, 48 pages, 13 figure
MAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF ULTRA-THIN FILMS
Magnetic properties of ultra-thin films are reported with main emphasis on recent analysis of Fe(110)-films on W(110) using Conversion Electron Mössbauer Spectroscopy (CEMS) and Torsion Oscillation Magnetometry (TOM), including the ferromagnetic pseudomorphic monolayer Fe(110) on W(110), which forms a thermodynamically stable system