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Physical Review Letters -- September 7, 1998 -- Volume 81, Issue 10 pp. 2144-2147

90° Magnetization Switching in Thin Fe Films Grown on Stepped Cr(001)

Ernesto J. Escorcia-Aparicio, Hyuk J. Choi, W. L. Ling, R. K. Kawakami, and Z. Q. Qiu

Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720

(Received 18 March 1998)

The ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic interfacial interaction was investigated in thin Fe films grown on stepped Cr(001) with the steps parallel to the [100] direction. Above the Néel temperature of the Cr, the atomic steps induce a uniaxial magnetic anisotropy with the easy axis parallel to the step edges. Below the Néel temperature, the Fe-Cr interfacial interaction favors the Fe magnetization perpendicular to the step edges. The competition between the Fe-Cr interaction and the step-induced magnetic anisotropy results in an in-plane 90° magnetization switching from perpendicular to the step edges at low step-density to parallel to the step edges at high step density. ©1998 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v81/p2144
PACS: 75.70.Ak, 75.30.Kz, 75.30.Pd, 75.50.Bb        Additional Information

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