Correlated structural and magnetization reversal studies on epitaxial Ni films grown with molecular beam epitaxy and with sputtering

Abstract

The correlation between Ni film structure, grown with molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and dc magnetron sputtering, and the azimuthal dependence of the magnetization reversal, was analyzed. It was found that the aggressive field in the sputtered (001) Ni films showed fourfold azimuthal symmetry whle MBE(001) Ni grown films showed an additional uniaxial symmetry superimposed to the fourfold symmetry. It was observed that both type of films had epitaxial growth and excellent strain less crystalline quality, differing only in magnetic anisotropy. The results show that the magnetic anisotropy difference between the two films is due to varying interfacial structure and/ or morphology due to the formation of a NiO interfacial layer.