Substrate Induced Strain Field in FeRh Epilayers Grown on Single Crystal MgO (001) Substrates

Equi-atomic FeRh is highly unusual in that it undergoes a first order meta-magnetic phase transition from an antiferromagnet to a ferromagnet above room temperature (Tr ≈ 370 K). This behavior opens new possibilities for creating multifunctional magnetic and spintronic devices which can utilise both thermal and applied field energy to change state and functionalise composites. A key requirement in realising multifunctional devices is the need to understand and control the properties of FeRh in the extreme thin film limit (tFeRh < 10 nm) where interfaces are crucial. Here we determine the properties of FeRh films in the thickness range 2.5–10 nm grown directly on MgO substrates. Our magnetometry and structural measurements show that a perpendicular strain field exists in these thin films which results in an increase in the phase transition temperature as thickness is reduced. Modelling using a spin dynamics approach supports the experimental observations demonstrating the critical role of the atomic layers close to the MgO interface

Tunable exchange bias in dilute magnetic alloys – chiral spin glasses

A unidirectional anisotropy appears in field cooled samples of dilute magnetic alloys at temperatures well below the cusp temperature of the zero field cooled magnetization curve. Magnetization measurements on a Cu(13.5 at% Mn) sample show that this anisotropy is essentially temperature independent and acts on a temperature dependent excess magnetization, ΔM. The anisotropy can be partially or fully transferred from being locked to the direction of the cooling field at lower fields to becoming locked to the direction of ΔM at larger fields, thus instead appearing as a uniaxial anisotropy. This introduces a deceiving division of the anisotropy into a superposition of a unidirectional and a uniaxial part. This two faced nature of the anisotropy has been empirically scrutinized and concluded to originate from one and the same exchange mechanism: the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction