Origin of thickness dependent spin reorientation transition of B2 type FeCo alloy films

We have investigated the origin of thickness dependent spin reorientation transition (SRT) of B2 type FeCo alloy using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave method. It has been reported that FeCo alloy films on various substrates show a SRT from perpendicular to in-plane magnetization at an approximate thickness of 15 monolayers (MLs). The enhanced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in bulk FeCo is attributed to a tetragonal distortion. However, we have found that the tetragonal distortion tends to suppress the magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA) energy at increasing film thickness in two-dimensional structure. In contrast, the magnitude of the shape anisotropy energy increases at increasing FeCo film thickness. Interestingly, the shape anisotropy overcomes the MCA and the SRT, from perpendicular anisotropy to in-plane magnetization, which occurs at a thickness of 15 ML. Consequently, we are able to clearly understand the physical mechanism of the thickness dependent SRT in terms of the competing reactions of these two counteracting contributions