Influence of growth temperature on the spin reorientation of Ni/Cu(100) ultrathin films

Ni/Cu(100) films were prepared by thermal deposition at room temperature (R T) and 170 K low temperature (LT) separately to study the influence of subs trate temperature on the spin reorientation. The critical thickness of the LT grown films is observed to be about 1 ML smaller than that of the RT fil ms. Though both types of films show similar tetragonal distortion and chemi cal composition, their morphology differs dramatically: the island density of the LT films is significantly higher than that of the RT films. We use t his to interpret the different magnetic behavior between the RT and LT film s. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)64708-9].