Spin canting of Ni/CoO/Fe films grown on curved MgO(0 0 1) substrate

M. Yang, Q. Li, A. T. N'Diaye, P. Shafer, C. Klewe, T. Y. Wang, Y. Z. Wu, Xixiang Zhang, C. Hwang, Z. Q. Qiu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Using element-resolved x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and x-ray magnetic linear dichroism (XMLD) measurements, we determined the spin orientations of Ni, CoO and Fe films in Ni/CoO/Fe films grown on a curved MgO(0 0 1) substrate. We find that the vicinal surface of MgO(0 0 1) substrate results in a spin canting towards out-of-plane direction in the Ni and CoO films as a result of the interfacial coupling. The Ni spin canting angle increases monotonically with the vicinal angle in the studied range of 0–17° and the CoO spin canting angle increases more rapidly towards saturation only at a few degrees of the vicinal angle. The uniaxial magnetic anisotropy induced in the Ni layer by the Ni/CoO interfacial coupling is quantitatively determined and is shown to increase monotonically with the vicinal angle. Our result provides a new pathway for tailoring the spin orientation by modifying the substrate surface symmetry in combining with the ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic interfacial interaction in thin-film based spintronic devices.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)169668
JournalJournal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
Volume561
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 19 2022

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2022-09-14
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): ORA-CRG10-2021-4665
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to express their deepest gratitude to Prof. Chia-Ling Chien, a pioneer in the field of magnetism, who inspired generations of scientists and educators worldwide. This work was supported by US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division under Contract No. DE-AC02-05-CH11231 (van der Waals heterostructures program, KCWF16). This research used resources of the Advanced Light Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231 and and Beamlines MCD-A and MCD-B (Soochow Beamline for Energy Materials) at NSRL. This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 12174364, 12104003, 11734006 and 11974079), Users with Excellence Program of Hefei Science Center CAS (No. 2021HSC-UE003), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. wk2310000104), Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (Grant No. 2108085QA20), Open Fund of State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics of Fudan University (No. KF2020_06, KF2021_05), Future Materials Discovery Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (No. 2015M3D1A1070467), Science Research Center Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (No. 2015R1A5A1009962) and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) under Award No. ORA-CRG10-2021-4665. The nanofabrication in this work was carried out at the USTC Center for Micro and Nanoscale Research and Fabrication.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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