Structural and magnetic properties of evaporated Fe thin films on Si(111), Si(100) and glass substrates

We present experimental results on the structural and magnetic properties of series of Fe thin films evaporated onto Si(1 1 1), Si(1 0 0) and glass substrates. The Fe thickness, t, ranges from 6 to 110 nm. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) have been used to study the structure and surface morphology of these films. The magnetic properties were investigated by means of the Brillouin light scattering (BLS) and magnetic force microscopy (MFM) techniques. The Fe films grow with (1 1 0) texture; as t increases, this (1 1 0) texture becomes weaker for Fe/Si, while for Fe/glass, the texture changes from (1 1 0) to (2 1 1). Grains are larger in Fe/Si than in Fe/glass. The effective magnetization, 4 pi M-eff, inferred from BLS was found to be lower than the 4 pi M-S bulk value. Stress induced anisotropy might be in part responsible for this difference. MFM images reveal stripe domain structure for the 110 nm thick Fe/Si(1 0 0) only. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.