Abstract
Co islands and films are characterized by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism photoemission electron microscopy. The spatial resolution capabilities of the technique together with atomic growth control permit obtaining perfectly flat triangular islands with a given thickness (3 ML), very close to an abrupt spin-reorientation transition. The magnetic domain configurations are found to depend on island size: while small islands can be magnetized in a single-domain state, larger islands show more complex patterns. Furthermore, the magnetization pattern of the larger islands presents a common chirality. By means of dichroic spectromicroscopy at the absorption edges, an experimental estimate of the ratio of the spin and orbital magnetic moment for three monolayer thick films is obtained.
- Received 6 February 2009
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.80.172401
©2009 American Physical Society