Angular dependence of site preference in growth-induced anisotropy

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Abstract
We have investigated the dependence of the growth‐induced anisotropy on the orientation of the crystalline growth face in a series of (YLaEu)3 (FeGa)5 O12 films epitaxially grown so that the growth face normal deviates from the [111] direction in a (11̄0) plane by angles varying from 0° to 14.6°. We have determined the direction of the respective net easy axis tilt angles and have found them all to lie in the (11̄0) tilt planes at angles ranging up to ∼60°. We have also measured the azimuthal dependence of the ferromagnetic resonance field in the film plane for the various samples. The tilt angle data were analyzed using an expansion for the growth induced anisotropy carried to fourth order in β, the direction of the growth face normal. The results of this analysis were used to compute the angular variation of the ferromagnetic resonance field; the results are qualitatively correct in shape although deviating quantitatively by ∼20%. In contrast, the conventional fit to second order in β is qualitatively incorrect.