AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Wednesday Sessions
       Session MI-WeM

Invited Paper MI-WeM5
Spin-polarized STM as a Tool to Study Non-Periodic Magnetic Structures

Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 9:20 am, Room 2006

Session: Magnetic Imaging
Presenter: W. Wulfhekel, Universitaet Karlsruhe, Germany
Authors: W. Wulfhekel, Universitaet Karlsruhe, Germany
U. Schlickum, EPFL, Switzerland
C.L. Gao, Max-Planck Institut fur Mikrostrukturphysik, Germany
J. Kirschner, Max-Planck Institut fur Mikrostrukturphysik, Germany
Correspondent: Click to Email
The high lateral resolution of spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy (Sp-STM) offers the possibility to study the influence of crystal defects on ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic structures as well as combined systems. Atomic substrate steps in W(100) were found to influence the domain walls of thin Fe films leading to a reduced wall width and pinning. This is explained by the atomic arrangement at the step edges reducing ferromagnetic exchange and enhancing magnetic anisotropy. Further, steps in ferromagnetic substrates induce frustrations in thin antiferromagnetic films via the exchange interaction. The behavior of these topological frustrations in Mn films on Fe(100) was studied and linked with atomic exchange parameters in the film and across the ferromagnet-antiferromagnet interface. Similarly, in ferromagetic films grown on stepped antiferromagnets frustrations may arise due to the exchange across the interface as will be shown on the example of Co grown on NiMn(001). Finally, the use of Sp-STM to resolve the complex and non-collinear spin structure of reconstructed @alpha@-Mn films is demonstrated.