Magnetism of step-decorated Fe on Pd(110)

We investigate the growth and magnetic properties of submonolayer Fe wedges on a stepped Pd(110) substrate with reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and the surface magneto-optic Kerr effect. RHEED suggests that Fe atoms decorate the steps to form nanostripes. These stripes are ferromagnetic above 0.3 monolayer Fe coverage, or ∼6 Å average stripe width, and have a magnetic easy axis along the surface normal. The onset temperatures of the broadened transition exhibit finite-size scaling with a shift exponent λ of 1.2±0.3, consistent with two-dimensional Ising expectations. The coercivity is less temperature dependent than the magnetization