Magnetic transitions driven by temperature in surface oxidized Co0.10Ni0.90/Cu(001) ultrathin films

Abstract

The magnetization of Co0.10Ni0.90/Cu(001) films before and after surface oxidization at 300 K is presented. Before the oxidization, the magnetization of the films in the thickness of 11 to 20 monolayers (ML) is in the in-plane direction at the temperature ranging from 140 K to 300 K. After the oxidization, the magnetizations of the films are in the in-plane direction at the temperature above 200 K, but transit to magnetization demolishment, in-plane-and-out-of-plane co-existence, spin reorientation transition, and coercivity enhancement, for films of 11, 12, 13, and above 15 ML, respectively. The blocking temperature of this film is also 200 K, which implies the transitions might be driven by the ordering of the antiferromagnetic surface oxides. The various magnetizations provide a model system for manipulating the magnetization direction, as well as a spin valve device by combination of the oxidized films.

In-plane spin reorientation transition in Co/Py bilayers grown epitaxially on vicinal Cu(001)

“…This kind of SRT usually involves the competition between the perpendicular crystalline anisotropy and the in-plane shape anisotropy, and can be controlled by film thickness [8,9,10,11], temperature [12,13], structural transformation [5,6], and alloy composition [ 14 ], etc. The ability of controlling the perpendicular crystalline magnetic anisotropy has led the discovery of many important and interesting phenomena such as the magnetic stripes [15,16,17], bubbles [18,19], and the topological magnetic skyrmions [20,21,22], etc.…”