A Magneto-Optical Study of Co on Step Bunched Vicinal Substrates

Abstract

We have studied the magnetization behaviour of Co deposited on step bunched vicinal Si(111) misoriented 4° towards (11-2) using two complementary magneto-optical techniques : magnetization induced second harmonic generation (MSHG) and linear magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE). MSHG rotational anisotropy measurements have shown clear step induced contributions thereby allowing accurate determination of the direction of the steps. MOKE measurements exhibited a uniaxial anistropy with the hard axis perpendicular to the step edges and an interesting bulk magnetization behaviour for intermediate angles which is shown to be due to the flipping of the magnetization of the material.