In-situ magnetic nano-patterning of Fe films grown on Cu(100)

WoS Article

en

Metastable paramagnetic face-centered cubic (fcc) Fe films grown on a Cu(100) single crystal at room temperature can be transformed to the ferromagnetic body-centered cubic (bcc) structure by ion irradiation. We have employed this technique to write small ferromagnetic patches by Ar irradiation through a gold coated SiN mask with regularly arranged 80-nm diameter holes, which as placed on top of the as-prepared fcc Fe films. Nanopatterning was performed on both 8-monolayer (ML) Fe films grown in ultrahigh vacuum as well as 22-ML films stabilized by dosing carbon monoxide during growth. The structural transformation of these nano-patterned films was investigated using scanning tunneling microscopy. In both 8 and 22-ML fcc Fe films, the bcc needles are found to protrude laterally out of the irradiated part of the sample, limiting the resolution of the technique to a few 10 nm. The magnetic transformation was confirmed by magnetic force microscopy.

ferromagnetic-paramagnetic transitions; ion beam effects; iron; magnetic force microscopy; magnetic thin films; scanning tunnelling microscopy

2011-07-27

0021-8979

Journal of applied physics

110

2

024309-1–024309-6

6