Abstract
Ferromagnetic bcc-FexCo1-x(100) films have been successfully grown on GaAs(100) and ScyEr1-yAs(100) by molecular beam epitaxy. X-ray diffraction combined with reflection high energy electron diffraction and low energy electron diffraction patterns revealed the epitaxial orientation of bcc-FexCo 1-x(100)〈010〉∥GaAs(100)〈010〉 and bcc-FexCo1-x(100) 〈010〉∥ScyEr1-yAs(100)〈010〉. Rutherford backscattering channeling minimum yields, Xmin∼3%, suggest epitaxial films of high crystalline quality. Vibrating sample magnetometry measurements show in-plane uniaxial anisotropy and fourfold in-plane anisotropy for FexCo1-x grown on GaAs(100) and ScyEr1-yAs(100), respectively. The difference in magnetic anisotropy is interpreted as arising from the ScyEr1-yAs interlayer altering the surface symmetry from twofold symmetry for GaAs(100) to fourfold symmetry. Misoriented substrates were also used to increase the step density in the [Oil] direction, which induced an additional uniaxial anisotropy with a [Oil] easy axis and a [01 1̄] hard axis. This step structure symmetry-induced magnetic anisotropy generated a split field ∼50 Oe in the hard axis for bcc-FexCo1-x(100) grown on ScyEr1-xAs(100) surfaces.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 2057-2062 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 4 |
State | Published - 2000 |