Bulklike behavior of magnetoelasticity in epitaxial Fe 1 − x Ga x thin films

BARTUREN, M.; SANDER, D.; MILANO, J.; PREMPER, J.; HELMAN, C.; EDDRIEF, M.; KIRSCHNER, J.; MARANGOLO, M.

PHYSICAL REVIEW B

American Physical Society

Año: 2019 vol. 99

1098-0121

Bulk Fe1−xGax alloys present a strong sensitivity of the magnetostrictive properties with Ga content with maximum magnetostriction near x =0.19. Here, we present magnetoelastic coefficients measured by the cantilever method on Fe1−xGax thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs(001). We find that Ga-dependent magnetoelastic coefficients in nanometer thin films are comparable in magnitude to the respective bulk values. Moreover, we compare thin films with a tetragonal structure due to a slightly preferential alignment of Ga pairs along the growth direction with and a cubic structure. It turns out that magnetoelastic coefficients are unaffected by a preferential alignment of Ga pairs along the growth direction.