Abstract
The degree of compensation of a normally uncompensated Cr(001) surface is controlled by using a curved substrate with steps parallel to the [100] direction. In this way, the degree of frustration caused by steps at the interface between an Fe overlayer and the Cr substrate can be systematically varied. Previous work on flat Cr(001) at temperatures below the Cr ordering temperature (311 K) has identified a critical Fe thickness of ∼35–38 Å, below which the Fe films display a reduced remanence. For our curved Cr substrate, below this critical Fe thickness three phases are observed for low (<∼2.5°), intermediate and high (>∼5°) miscut angle respectively: (i) multidomain; (ii) single domain with magnetization perpendicular to the step edges; and (iii) single domain with magnetization parallel to the step edges. At the same temperature, for Fe films above the critical thickness, region (i) disappears and only regions (ii) and (iii) remain. In a second experiment, the adsorption of submonolayer Au on the Fe is observed to increase the strength of the step-induced anisotropy and accordingly vary the position of the transition from regions (ii) to (iii).
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