X-ray magnetic circular dichroism and reflection anisotropy spectroscopy Kerr effect studies of capped magnetic nanowires

Aligned Co wires grown on Pt(997) under ultra-high vacuum conditions have been capped successfully by the epitaxial growth of Au monolayers (ML) at room temperature. The samples were kept under vacuum except when transferring between apparatus or when making some of the measurements. No degradation of the Co wires was detected during the measurements. The magneto-optic response of the system was measured using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) at the Co L-2,L-3 edge and reflection anisotropy spectroscopy (RAS) at near normal incidence, which is sensitive to the normal component of the out-of-plane magnetization via the Kerr effect (MOKE). Capping the wires significantly impacts their magnetic properties. Comparison of the magneto-optic response of the system at X-ray and optical energies reveals small differences that are attributed to the induced moment in the Pt substrate and Au capping layer not picked up by the element specific XMCD measurements. The sensitivity of RAS-MOKE is sufficient to allow the determination of the easy axis direction of the capped wires to within a few degrees. The results for a 6-atom-wide Co wire sample, capped with 6 ML of Au, are consistent with the capped wires possessing perpendicular magnetization. (C) 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim