The epitaxial system Sm/Co(0001) was studied for Sm coverages up to 1 monolayer (ML) on top of ultrathin Co/W(110) epitaxial films. Two ordered phases were found for 1/3 and 1 ML Sm, respectively. The valence state of Sm was determined by means of photoemission and magnetic properties were measured by magneto-optical Kerr effect. We find that 1 ML Sm causes a strong increase of the coercivity with respect to that of the underlying 10 ML Co film. Element-specific hysteresis loops, measured by using resonant soft x-ray reflectivity, show the same magnetic behaviour for the two elements.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0506181,
title = {Magnetism of ordered Sm/Co(0001) surface structures},
author = {J. E. Prieto and O. Krupin and S. Gorovikov and K. Doebrich and G. Kaindl and K. Starke},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0506181},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 5 figures. Accepted version, minor changes: discussion of soft x-ray reflectivity spectra included, references added