Enhancement of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy by compressive strain in alternately layered FeNi thin films

Abstract

The effect of the lattice strain on magnetic anisotropy of alternately layered FeNi ultrathin films grown on a substrate, Cu(tCu = 0–70 ML)/Ni48Cu52(124 ML)/Cu(0 0 1) single crystal, is systematically studied by means of in situ x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) analyses. To investigate the magnetic anisotropy of the FeNi layer itself, a non-magnetic substrate is adopted. From the RHEED analysis, the in-plane lattice constant, ain, of the substrate is found to shrink by 0.8% and 0.5% at tCu = 0 and 10 ML as compared to that of bulk Cu, respectively. Fe L-edge XMCD analysis is performed for n ML FeNi films grown on various ain, and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) is observed at n = 3 and 5, whereas the film with n = 7 shows in-plane magnetic anisotropy. Moreover, it is found that PMA is enhanced with decreasing ain, in the case where a Cu spacer layer is inserted. We suppose that magnetic anisotropy in the FeNi films is mainly carried by Fe, and the delocalization of the in-plane orbitals near the Fermi level increases the perpendicular orbital magnetic moment, which leads to the enhancement of PMA.