Interfacial contributions to magnetic thin film anisotropy arising from epitaxial growth processes in metal/semiconductor structures

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Abstract
Modern thin film growth techniques have enabled the realization of low dimensional semiconductor heterostructures and hybrid metal/semiconductor structures with properties tailored for a variety of device applications. It has been empirically established, for example, that the net magnetic anisotropy exhibited by a simple metal epitaxial film on a semiconductor is strongly affected by the interactions at the metal/semiconductor interface, although the mechanisms have not been systematically addressed and remain an open issue. An understanding of these mechanisms is prerequisite to obtaining a fundamental description of anisotropy, and has significant implications for successful realization of spin sensitive device structures. We consider here how contributions to the net magnetic anisotropy arise from the formation of the interface and early stages of metal film growth. We suggest that these contributions originate in the initial metal adsorption sites and subsequent bond or site filling, and are strongly dependent on the semiconductor surface reconstruction. We consider specifically the cases of the epitaxial growth of Fe films on the various reconstructions of the ZnSe(001) and GaAs(001) surfaces, and attempt to interpret the net magnetic properties in light of the atomic structure of the film and interface.

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