| AVS 56th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures | Thursday Sessions |
| Session MI+TF-ThA |
| Session: | Magnetic Thin Films: Multilayers and Nanostructures |
| Presenter: | Z. Gai, Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
| Authors: | L. Yin, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Z. Gai, Oak Ridge National Laboratory J. Shen, Oak Ridge National Laboratory D. Xiao, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Z.Y. Zhang, Oak Ridge National Laboratory N. Widjaja, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville E.W. Plummer, Louisiana State University |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
We introduce a novel way—curved Cu(111) substrate—to smoothly modify the surface states by introducing a miscut angle and study the impact of modifying vicinal surface states on the ferromagnetic behavior of Fe nanodots. Fe nanodots are grown on a Cu(111)-curved substrate where the miscut angle changes from 0° (very large terrace width) to 8° (15-Å terrace width). With this curved substrate, the same growth parameter can be ensured in the whole miscut angle studied. When the Fe nanodot assemblies have an in-plane easy axis, two distinct regimes and a critical terrace width, separating these two regimes, can be identified. However, when the Fe nanodot assemblies have a perpendicular easy axis, we only observe one regime marked by a slight decrease in the critical temperature (Tc). There are three contributing factors: the vicinal surface state, the competition between the Fe nanodots diameter and the terrace width, and the in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. The couplings between these three factors lead to the interesting behavior observed in the Fe/vicinal Cu(111) nanodot assemblies. The vicinal surface strongly affects the coupling between Fe nanodots.
*Supported in part by Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U. S. DOE.