No Arabic abstract
We present an investigation of the magnetic behavior of epitaxial MnAs films grown on GaAs(100). We address the dependence of the magnetic moment, ferromagnetic transition temperature ($T_c$) and magnetocrystalline anisotropy constants on epitaxial conditions. From thorough structural and magnetic investigations, our findings indicate a more complex relationship between strain and magnetic properties in MnAs films than a simple stretch/compression of the unit cell axes. While a small increase is seen in the anisotropy constants the enhancement of the magnetic moment at saturation is significant. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism results show a behavior of the spin- and orbital-moment which is consistent with a structural transition at $T_c$. In particular, we find that the ratio of the orbital to spin moment shows a marked increase in the coexistence region of the ferromagnetic $alpha$- and paramagnetic $beta$-phases, a result that is well in accord with the observed increase of the $c/a$-ratio in the same temperature region. The textit{ab initio} density functional calculations reveal that the magnetic properties are more sensitive towards change in in-plane axis as compared to a change of the out-of-plane axis, which is explained by the analysis of band structures. The effects of electron correlation in MnAs using textit{ab initio} dynamical mean field theory are also presented.
We demonstrate that chiral skyrmionic magnetization configurations can be found as the minimum energy state in B20 thin film materials with easy-plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy with an applied magnetic field perpendicular to the film plane. Our observations contradict results from prior analytical work, but are compatible with recent experimental investigations. The size of the observed skyrmions increases with the easy-plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy. We use a full micromagnetic model including demagnetization and a three-dimensional geometry to find local energy minimum (metastable) magnetization configurations using numerical damped time integration. We explore the phase space of the system and start simulations from a variety of initial magnetization configurations to present a systematic overview of anisotropy and magnetic field parameters for which skyrmions are metastable and global energy minimum (stable) states.
The magnetic properties of MnAs epilayers have been investigated for two different substrate orientations: GaAs(100) and GaAs(111). We have analyzed the magnetization reversal under magnetic field at low temperatures, determining the anisotropy of the films. The results, based on the shape of the magnetization loops, suggest a domain movement mechanism for both types of samples. The temperature dependence of the coercivity of the films has been also examined, displaying a generic anomalous reentrant behavior at T$>$200 K. This feature is independent of the substrate orientation and films thickness and may be associated to the appearance of new pinning centers due to the nucleation of the $beta$-phase at high temperatures.
Rare earth free alloys are in focus of permanent magnet research since the accessibility of the elements needed for nowadays conventional magnets is limited. Tetragonally strained iron-cobalt (Fe-Co) has attracted large interest as promising candidate due to theoretical calculations. In experiments, however, the applied strain quickly relaxes with increasing film thickness and hampers stabilization of a strong magnetocrystalline anisotropy. In our study we show that already 2 at% of carbon substantially reduce the lattice relaxation leading to the formation of a spontaneously strained phase with 3 % tetragonal distortion. In these strained (Fe$_{0.4}$Co$_{0.6}$)$_{0.98}$C$_{0.02}$ films, a magnetocrystalline anisotropy above 0.4 MJ/m$^3$ is observed while the large polarization of 2.1 T is maintained. Compared to binary Fe-Co this is a remarkable improvement of the intrinsic magnetic properties. In this paper, we relate our experimental work to theoretical studies of strained Fe-Co-C and find a very good agreement.
The magneto-crystalline anisotropy (MCA) of (Ga,Mn)As films has been studied on the basis of ab-initio electronic structure theory by performing magnetic torque calculations. An appreciable contribution to the in-plane uniaxial anisotropy can be attributed to an extended region adjacent to the surface. Calculations of the exchange tensor allow to ascribe a significant part to the MCA to the exchange anisotropy, caused either by a tetragonal distortion of the lattice or by the presence of the surface or interface.
Nanoscale CoFeB amorphous films have been synthesized on GaAs(100) and studied with X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). We have found that the ratios of the orbital to spin magnetic moments of both the Co and Fe in the ultrathin amorphous film have been enhanced by more than 300% compared with those of the bulk crystalline Co and Fe, and in specifically, a large orbital moment of 0.56*10^-6 B from the Co atoms has been observed and at the same time the spin moment of the Co atoms remains comparable to that of the bulk hcp Co. The results indicate that the large uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (UMA) observed in the ultrathin CoFeB film on GaAs(100) is related to the enhanced spin-orbital coupling of the Co atoms in the CoFeB. This work offers experimental evidences of the correlation between the UMA and the elementary specific spin and orbital moments in the CoFeB amorphous film on the GaAs(100) substrate, which is significant for spintronics applications.