Surface Morphology and Magnetic Anisotropy

Abstract. Understanding the correlation between film structure and its ferromagnetic properties is very important for applications. Despite significant lattice mismatch epitaxial (001) fcc Ni films can be grown on MgO substrates using sputtering or molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). For both types of films it is observed that the average magnetization switching field is very similar but its azimuthal dependence is not. Structural characterization indicates very similar structure for both types of films where subtle differences are responsible for the striking difference in the anisotropy of the magnetic properties. STUDIES ON EPITAXIAL (001) NI FILMS We have shown that epitaxial single-crystal magnetic thin films may be used in magnetic devices such as spin-dependent tunneling applications [1]. In general, the physical properties, particularly the anisotropy [2], of epitaxial thin films are dominated by the crystallographic structure of the metal/substrate interface as well as the surface quality. In addition, for many technological applications, the roughness at the surface must be very small. To that end, we have considered the growth of Ni films on MgO substrates, which can be prepared with very smooth surfaces [3]