Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-19T06:35:32.897Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Comparison of Magnetic Properties of Thin Films of Fe/GaAs(100) and Ni/MICA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2011

Bruce Andrien
Affiliation:
Analytica of Branford.Inc, 29 Business Park Dr., Branford, CT, 06405
David Miller
Affiliation:
Dept. AMES, Univ.of Calif., San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093–0310
Get access

Abstract

A comparison between the morphology and magnetic properties has been made with thin films of Fe grown on GaAs(lOO) and of Ni grown on natural mica in the 10Å to 1000Å thickness range, in ultra high vacuum. The films are characterized in-situ by Auger spectroscopy and by an in-situ UHV M/H hysteresis loop tracer. If the films are thermally annealed, above 550°C for less than a few seconds, the film morphology changes. The Fe films form surface assembled clusters which are epitaxial with the GaAs substrate with diameters of order of the original average film thickness, while the Ni films grow large grains. The Auger signals show that the Fe clustering exposes the GaAs substrate while the Ni films are continuous and cover the mica substrate. In-situ adsorption studies of CO on the Ni films were consistent with the continuous nature of the Ni films. Hysteresis M/H curves are taken as a function of thickness and plots of coercivity versus film thickness or average cluster size shows a maximum near 100Å for both the Ni and the Fe films. The maximum is believed to be due to a trade-off between super-paramagnetism and magnetostatic forces, but with the grains in the Ni film playing the role of the clusters in the Fe film.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Andrien, B. and Miller, D., in Evolution of Thin Film and Surface Microstructure(Mater.Res.Soc.Proc. 202, Boston, 1991)pp 193198.Google Scholar
2. Haugdahl, J. and Miller, D., Rev.Sci.Instru. 59(3), 480 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3. Bruce, Andrien, PhD thesis, Univ. of Calif, at San Diego, 1991 Google Scholar
4. Gerd, Wedler, Chemisorption;An Experimental Approach, (Butterworths Publishers, London, 1976), pp 4956 and 194–195.Google Scholar
5. Zhu, J. and Bertram, H. N., J. Appl.Phys. 63(8), 3248 (1988).Google Scholar