STRUCTURAL STUDY OF THE PLASTIC-DEFORMATION IN EPITAXIAL FE MGO(001) THIN-FILMS/

The ''atomic saw'' method has been applied to cut epitaxial Fe thin fi lms deposited on (0 0 1)MgO substrates into stripes. Previous magneto- optical results performed on such samples have evidenced a strong magn etic anisotropy with the easy magnetic axis perpendicular to the strip es. We report on microstructural studies performed by atomic force mic roscopy and transmission electron microscopy on deformed samples. This work shows that the plastic deformation induces a non-homogeneous ani sotropic relaxation of the strained Fe film. The magnetoelastic effect associated with this relaxation is then assumed to be responsible for the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.