Thermal switching of the magnetization in an iron film on a magnetically active template MnAs/GaAs(001)

Maurizio Sacchi , Massimiliano Marangolo (1, 2) , Carlo Spezzani , Romain Breitwieser , Horia Popescu , Renaud Dealaunay , Benjamin Rache Salles (1) , Mahmoud Eddrief (1) , Victor H. Etgens

1 INSP - Institut des Nanosciences de Paris
2 de Lourmel

We show that the magnetization direction of a thin Fe film can be fully reversed in a thermal cycle of a few degrees close to room temperature, without making use of an external magnetic field. This result is obtained by depositing the Fe film on MnAs/GaAs(001), which displays a temperature-controlled self-organized pattern of submicron-wide stripes, alternating ferromagnetic and nonmagnetic phases. The temperature-dependent dipolar fields generated by this magnetically active template can be used to control the magnetization of the Fe overlayer.

Domaines: Matière Condensée [cond-mat]

Maurizio Sacchi, Massimiliano Marangolo, Carlo Spezzani, Romain Breitwieser, Horia Popescu, et al.. Thermal switching of the magnetization in an iron film on a magnetically active template MnAs/GaAs(001). Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (1998-2015), 2010, 81 (22), pp.220401. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevB.81.220401⟩. ⟨hal-01240951⟩