Surface magnetic order of ultra thin epitaxial vanadium films on silver

[摘要] Vanadium ultra-thin (1-7 monolayers) films are deposited epitaxially on well-defined single crystalline Ag(100) substrate. The topmost layers of the films are studied by electron capture spectroscopy(ECS). ECS is a surface-sensitive technique for the investigation of magnetic order existing at surfaces. It is found that the topmost atomic layer of V(100) films are ferromagnetic for all film thicknesses, in contrast to bulk vanadium which is paramagnetic at all temperatures. The films of thickness of 5 monolayers possess a surface Curie temperature T$sb{m cs}$ = 475.1 K, and the critical behavior of the magnetization of the films is identical to that predicted by the well-known two-dimensional Ising Model of ferromagnet.

[发布机构] Rice University