Magnetism in nanometer-thick magnetite

Abstract

The oldest known magnetic material, magnetite, is of current interest for use in spintronics as a thin film. An open question is how thin can magnetite films be and still retain the robust ferrimagnetism required for many applications. We have grown one-nanometer-thick magnetite crystals and characterized them in situ by electron and photoelectron microscopies including selected-area x-ray circular dichroism. Well-defined magnetic patterns are observed in individual nano-crystals up to at least 520 K, establishing the retention of ferrimagnetism in magnetite two-unit-cells thick.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Half-metallic ferromagnets: From band structure to many-body effects
• Oxide spintronics
• Structure and magnetism in ultrathin iron oxides characterized by low energy electron microscopy

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• Iron Oxide Surfaces
• Initial Stages of FeO Growth on Ru(0001)
• Micromagnetism in (001) magnetite by spin-polarized low-energy electron microscopy
• Pyroelectric detection of spontaneous polarization in magnetite thin films
• Ferromagnetic resonance in the complex permeability of an Fe${}_3$O${}_4$ nanosuspension at radio and microwave frequencies
• Growth and characterization of ultrathin cobalt ferrite films on Pt(111)
• Size effects in the Verwey transition of nanometer-thick micron-wide magnetite crystals
• RBS/Channeling characterization of Ru(0001) and thin epitaxial Ru/Al${}_2$O${}_3$(0001) films
• Magnetic domain wall pinning in cobalt ferrite microstructures
• A Platform for Addressing Individual Magnetite Islands Grown Epitaxially on Ru(0001) and Manipulating Their Magnetic Domains
• Quantitative analysis of magnetic spin and orbital moments from an oxidized iron (1 1 0) surface using electron magnetic circular dichroism