• Zelent, Mateusz
• Sobieszczyk, Paweł
• Lewandowski, Mikołaj
• Dobrotvorska, Mariya V.
• Murawka, Szymon
• Andrzejewska, Weronika
• Wojciechowski, Paweł

Abstract

<p>Single-crystal magnetic nanostructures with well-defined shapes attract lots of interest due to their potential applications in magnetic and spintronic devices. However, development of methods allowing controlling their mutual crystallographic and geometric orientation constitutes a significant scientific challenge. One of the routes for obtaining such structures is to grow the materials epitaxially on naturally-structured supports, such as vicinal surfaces of single-crystal substrates. Iron oxides are among the most well-known magnetic materials which, depending on the phase, may exhibit ferro/ferri- or antiferromagnetic ordering. We have grown iron oxide nanowires on a Cu(410) single-crystal substrate faceted with molecular oxygen. Scanning tunneling microscopy and low energy electron diffraction revealed that the oxide grows in the [111] direction, along the step edges of the substrate and rotated by ±15° with respect to the [010] direction of copper atomic terraces (so that the the growing elongated structures are orientated parallel to each other). Notably, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed that the nanowires represent the ferrimagnetic γ-Fe₂O₃ (maghemite) iron oxide phase, while micromagnetic simulations indicated that the wires are single-domain, with the easy magnetization axis orientated in-plane and along the long axis of the wire.</p>

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• surface
• phase
• x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
• simulation
• Oxygen
• copper
• iron
• wire
• magnetization
• low energy electron diffraction
• scanning tunneling microscopy