Abstract
We studied the growth and magnetic properties of ultrathin Fe(001) films on Au(001) buffer layers grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on MgO(001) single crystals. Epitaxial growth could be achieved by use of a Cr seed layer. Epitaxial quality and surface structure were verified in situ by low-energy and reflection high-energy electron diffraction and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Magnetic anisotropy of Fe films in the range of 3–155 monolayers (ML) was determined by alternating gradient magnetometry, superconducting quantum interference device, and magneto-optic Kerr effect. The spontaneous magnetization was always in the film plane. Below a critical thickness of 7.3±0.7 ML we observe a rotation of the cubic easy axes by 45° from the 〈100〉 to the 〈110〉 directions within the film plane. This spin reorientation transition is equivalent to a sign reversal of an effective fourth order anisotropy constant K1eff. In addition, a uniaxial in-plane anisotropy is observed, which may be attributed to the step structure of the samples obtained from STM images.
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