Magnetic anisotropies of laterally confined structures of epitaxial Fe films on GaAs (001)

Meng KK (Meng K. K.)
Lu J (Lu J.)
Wang SL (Wang S. L.)
Meng HJ (Meng H. J.)
Zhao JH (Zhao J. H.)
Misuraca J (Misuraca J.)
Xiong P (Xiong P.)
von Molnar S (von Molnar S.)

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Publication date

January 2010

DOI

10.1063/1.3480423

ISSN

0003-6951

Citation count (estimate)

Abstract

We have investigated magnetic properties of laterally confined structures of epitaxial Fe films on GaAs (001). Fe films with different thicknesses were grown by molecular-beam epitaxy and patterned into regular arrays of rectangles with varying aspect ratios. In-plane magnetic anisotropy was observed in all of the patterned Fe films both at 15 and 300 K. We have demonstrated that the coercive fields can be tuned by varying the aspect ratios of the structures. The magnitudes of the corresponding anisotropy constants have been determined and the shape anisotropy constant is found to be enhanced as the aspect ratio is increased