Spin-dependent tunneling effects on magnetic nanostructures

The contrast mechanism of spin-polarized scanning tunneling spectroscopy (S P-STS) is demontrated on in-plane magnetized Gd islands grown on W (110) us ing Fe-coated tips. The use of Gd-coated tips enables the imaging of the an tiferromagnetic domain structure of Fe nanowires being perpendicularly magn etized grown on a stepped W(110) substrate. The influence of an external ma gnetic field on the nanowire domain structure is demonstrated. It is shown that the antiferromagnetic domain structure of the Fe nanowires strongly de pends on the miscut of the W(110) substrate. While at high miscut the magne tization direction alternates between adjacent DL stripes it was found to a lternate within single Fe DL stripes at low miscut. Nanoscale Fe islands wi th a height of two atomic layers were found to be single domain particles.