The body-centered-cubic (bec) phase of Ni, which does not exist in nature, has been achieved as a thin film on GaAs(001) at 170 K via molecular beam epitaxy. The bec Ni is ferromagnetic with a Curie temperature of 456 K and possesses a magnetic moment of 0.52 \uc2\ub1 0.08 \uce\ubcB/atom. The cubic magneto-crystalline anisotropy of bec Ni is determined to be +4.0 \uc3\u97 105 ergs \uc2\ub7 cm-3, as opposed to -5.7 \uc3\u97 10 4 ergs \uc2\ub7 cm-3 for the naturally occurring face-centered-cubic (fcc) Ni. This sharp contrast in the magnetic anisotropy is attributed to the different electronic band structures between bec Ni and fcc Ni, which are determined using angle-resolved photoemission with synchrotron radiation
