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By means of magneto-optical Kerr effect we observe spin reorientations from in-plane to out-ofplane and vice versa upon annealing thin Fe films on Ag(001) at increasing temperatures. Scanning tunneling microscopy images of the different Fe films are used to quantify the surface roughness. The observed spin reorientations can be explained with the experimentally acquired roughness parameters by taking into account the effect of roughness on both the magnetic dipolar and the magnetocrystalline anisotropy. 75.70.Ak, 75.30.Gw, 75.50.Bb, 61.16.Ch *

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A Cr͑001͒/Fe͑001͒ superlattice with ten bilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a Ag͑001͒ substrate is studied by in situ scanning tunneling microscopy ͑STM͒ and ex situ x-ray diffraction ͑XRD͒. Layer-resolved roughness parameters determined from STM images taken in various stages of the superlattice fabrication are compared with average values reported in the literature or obtained from the fits of our XRD data. Good agreement is found for the rms roughnesses describing vertical roughness and for the lateral correlation lengths characterizing correlated as well as uncorrelated interface roughness if peculiarities of STM and XRD are taken into account. We discuss in detail ͑i͒ the possible differences between the STM topography of a free surface and the morphology of a subsequently formed interface, ͑ii͒ contributions due to chemical intermixing at the interfaces, ͑iii͒ the comparison of XRD parameters averaged over all interfaces versus layer-resolved STM parameters, and ͑iv͒ the question of the coherent field of view for the determination of rms values.