Magnetic transformation of metastable fcc Fe/Cu(100) films by focused ion beam

Metastable paramagnetic face-centered cubic (fcc) Fe thin films deposited on a Cu(100) single-crystal are good candidates for focused ion-beam magnetic patterning, due to their structural and magnetic phase transformation to ferromagnetic body-centered cubic (bcc) Fe upon ion-beam irradiation. However, pure fcc Fe films undergo spontaneous transformation when their thickness exceeds 10 ML. This limit can be extended to approximately 22 ML by deposition of Fe at increased CO background pressures. We show that much thicker films can be grown by alloying with Ni, that stabilizes the fcc phase. The amount of Ni necessary to stabilize non-magnetic, metastable fcc Fe films in dependence on the residual background pressure during the deposition is determined and a phase diagram revealing the metastable region is presented. It is also shown that the stabilizing effect of CO can be removed by artificial O saturation of the surface and thus the Ni-stabilized films can be grown also in systems with lower vacuum. Finally, we present fabrication of micro- and nanostructures in 44 ML thick films of Fe alloyed with Ni on Cu(100) by focused ion beam