Measuring the magnetization of three monolayer thick Co islands and films by x-ray dichroism

A. Mascaraque, L. Aballe, J. F. Marco, T. O. Menteş, F. El Gabaly, C. Klein, A. K. Schmid, K. F. McCarty, A. Locatelli, and J. de la Figuera
Phys. Rev. B 80, 172401 – Published 6 November 2009

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 CoL absorption edges, an experimental estimate of the ratio of the spin and orbital magnetic moment for three monolayer thick films is obtained.

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  • Received 6 February 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.80.172401

©2009 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

A. Mascaraque1, L. Aballe2, J. F. Marco3, T. O. Menteş2, F. El Gabaly4, C. Klein5, A. K. Schmid5, K. F. McCarty4, A. Locatelli2, and J. de la Figuera3,6

  • 1Departamento de Física de Materiales, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain
  • 2Elettra Sincrotrone SCpA, Trieste, Italy
  • 3Departamento de Sistemas de Baja Dimensionalidad, Superficies y Materia Condensada, Instituto de Química-Física “Rocasolano,” CSIC, Madrid 28006, Spain
  • 4Department of Materials Physics, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California 94550, USA
  • 5National Center for Electron Microscopy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 6Centro de Microanálisis de Materiales, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid 28049, Spain

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Issue

Vol. 80, Iss. 17 — 1 November 2009

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