Note: Vectorial-magneto optical Kerr effect technique combined with variable temperature and full angular range all in a single setup

Here, we report on a versatile full angular resolved/broad temperature range/vectorial magneto optical Kerr effect (MOKE) magnetometer, named TRISTAN. Its versatility relies on its capacity to probe temperature and angular dependencies of magnetization reversal processes without the need to do any intervention on the apparatus during measurements. The setup is a combination of a vectorial MOKE bench and a cryostat with optical access. The cryostat has a motorized rotatable sample holder with azimuthal correction. It allows for simultaneous and quantitative acquisition of the two in-plane magnetization components during the hysteresis loop at different temperatures from 4 K up to 500 K and in the whole angular range, without neither changing magnet orientation nor opening the cryostat. Measurements performed in a model system with competing collinear biaxial and uniaxial contributions are presented to illustrate its capabilitiesP.P. acknowledges financial support from MINECO through Contract No. JCI-2011- 09602. F.J.T. acknowledges financial support from Ramon y Cajal program (RYC-2011-09617). This work has been supported by MINECO through Project Nos. MAT2011-25598 and MAT2012-39308, by the Comunidad de Madrid through Project No. S2013/MIT-2850 NANOFRONTMAG-CM and by EU-FP7 through NANOPYME Project (No. 310516

Room Temperature In-plane <100> Magnetic Easy Axis for Fe3O4/SrTiO3(001):Nb Grown by Infrared PLD

We examine the magnetic easy-axis directions of stoichiometric magnetite films grown on SrTiO3:Nb by infrared pulsed-laser deposition. Spin-polarized low-energy electron microscopy reveals that the individual magnetic domains are magnetized along the in-plane film directions. Magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements show that the maxima of the remanence and coercivity are also along in-plane film directions. This easy-axis orientation differs from bulk magnetite and films prepared by other techniques, establishing that the magnetic anisotropy can be tuned by film growth.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure