Magnetic anisotropy of textured CrO2 thin films investigated by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism

Highly a-axis-textured CrO2 films have been deposited on Al2O3 (0001) substrates by chemical vapor deposition. CrO2 has been found to have highly a-axis (010)-oriented columnar growth on a Cr2O3 (0001) initial layer. The sixfold surface symmetry of the Cr2O3 initial layer leads to three equivalent in-plane orientations of the a-axis-oriented CrO2 unit cell. We report Cr L-2,L-3 X-ray magnetic circular dichroism data along the surface normal and at 60degrees off-normal sample orientation. For a 60degrees sample alignment, a strong increase of the projected orbital moment could be observed for unoccupied majority t(2g) states using moment analysis. Therefore, the c axis is identified as the intrinsic magnetic easy axis of CrO2. In addition, a small spin moment and a very strong magnetic dipole term T-z have been found.