Magnetic characterization of (001) and (111) Ni films epitaxially grown on MgO

One interesting application of epitaxial magnetic thin films is to use them as one of the electrodes in a spin-dependent tunneling junction, in order to use the magnetocrystalline anisotropy to define the required two states of the magnetization. [1] In our preliminary work, we prepared epitaxial magnetic films on copper buffer layers grown on silicon substrates. [2] The single crystalline quality of the films was particularly evident in the magnetization hysteresis loops, showing a sharp reversal at fairly high fields (120 Oe), when the samples were magnetized along the crystallographic easy axis. One technological disadvantage in this type of samples is the chemical interaction between the metallic layers and the silicon substrate. In order to explore the possibility of epitaxial magnetic films on less reactive substrates, we studied the growth on MgO substrates. We have shown that it is possible to obtain epitaxial (001) and (111) Ni films grown on MgO substrates. [3] In particular we observed that the crystalline quality of the films improved considerably after 10 nm of film growth. We will now present our studies on the magnetic properties of these films, particularly the azimuthal dependence of the magnetization reversal using MOKRE, correlating our finding with the structural characterization obtained with RHEED, STM and XRD.