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Phys. Rev. B 74, 212402 (2006) [4 pages]

Tailoring the spin direction of antiferromagnetic NiO thin films grown on vicinal Ag(001)

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Y. Z. Wu1,2, Z. Q. Qiu1, Y. Zhao3, A. T. Young4, E. Arenholz4, and B. Sinkovic3
1Department of Physics, University of California–Berkeley, Berkeley California 94720, USA
2Surface Physics Laboratory (National Key Laboratory), Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China
3Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA
4Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

Received 23 October 2006; published 13 December 2006

The magnetic properties of antiferromagnetic NiO thin films grown on curved Ag(001) substrate were investigated using x-ray magnetic linear dichroism. We show that atomic steps on a vicinal Ag(001) surface induce an in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, which favors the Ni spins to be perpendicular to the steps, which are parallel to a [110] axis and parallel to the steps for steps that are along a [100] axis. Temperature- and thickness-dependent measurements show that [110] and [100] steps produce different in-plane crystal field, which may be responsible for the different NiO in-plane magnetic anisotropy.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.74.212402
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevB.74.212402
PACS:
75.70.Ak
 
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