Published November 23, 2005 | Version v1
Journal article

In-plane anisotropy and magnetostriction constants of Fe/Ga0.8In0.2As films with Cr overlayers

  • 1. Department of Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD (United Kingdom)
  • 2. Department of Electronics, University of York, York YO10 5DD (United Kingdom)

Description

Thin Fe films on the lattice-matched Ga0.8In0.2As substrate were investigated as part of a determination of the origin of the in-plane uniaxial anisotropy that is present in Fe/GaAs and Fe/InAs films. The epitaxial Fe films were grown using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), and were capped with a Cr overlayer. The in-plane anisotropies of each film were inferred from the normalized magnetization loops measured using a magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) magnetometer. Using a fitting method to the magnetization data, the cubic and uniaxial anisotropy constants for each film were determined. The Villari method was used to determine the magnetostriction constants. For all the films, they were negative, and became more negative as the Fe thickness decreased. The magnetic parameters of the Fe/Ga0.8In0.2As films were compared with those of the Fe/GaAs and Fe/InAs films, to determine the origin of the uniaxial in-plane anisotropy

Availability note (English)

Available online at http://stacks.iop.org/0953-8984/17/7253/cm5_46_009.pdf or at the Web site for the Journal of Physics. Condensed Matter (ISSN 1361-648X) http://www.iop.org/

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Journal of Physics. Condensed Matter
Journal Volume
17
Journal Issue
46
Journal Page Range
p. 7253-7262
ISSN
0953-8984
CODEN
JCOMEL