Abstract
We present simulations of X-ray resonant magnetic reflectivity (XRMR) spectra of the surface magnetic dead layer in La1−x Sr x MnO3 (LSMO) films that take in account the effect of different forms of roughness that can be encountered experimentally. The results demonstrate a method to distinguish between surface (morphological) roughness, and two generic kinds of magnetic roughness at the buried interface between the surface dead layer and the fully magnetic bulk part of the film. We show that the XRMR technique can distinguish between different types of magnetic roughness at the dead layer/bulk interface only if the sample surface is nearly atomically flat (the morphological roughness is one unit cell or less). Furthermore, to distinguish between the two types of magnetic roughness, the simulations show that fitting of XRMR spectra out to very high incidence angles must be performed. In the specific case of LSMO films with a dead layer with average thickness of 4 unit cells, this corresponds to an incidence angle > 50∘.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
M. Getzlaff, Fundamentals of Magnetism (Springer, Berlin, 2008)
R. Zhang, R.F. Willis, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 2665 (2001)
G.P. Felcher, J. Appl. Phys. 87, 5431 (2000)
D. Niebieskikwiat, L.E. Hueso, J.A. Borchers, N.D. Mathur, M.B. Salamon, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 247207 (2007)
J.W. Freeland, K.E. Gray, L. Ozyuzer, P. Berghuis, E. Badica, J. Kavich, H. Zheng, J.F. Mitchell, Nat. Mat. 4, 62 (2005)
S. Valencia, A. Gaupp, W. Gudat, Ll. Abad, Ll. Balcells, B. Martinez, J. Appl. Phys. 104, 023903 (2008)
J.M. Tonnerre, M. De Santis, S. Grenier, H.C.N. Tolentino, V. Langlais, E. Bontempi, M. García-Fernández, U. Staub, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 157202 (2008)
S.D. Brown, L. Bouchenoire, P. Thompson, R. Springell, A. Mirone, W.G. Stirling, A. Beesley, M.F. Thomas, R.C.C. Ward, M.R. Wells, S. Langridge, S.W. Zochowski, G.H. Lander, Phys. Rev. B 77, 014427 (2008)
J.B. Kortright, Sang-Koog Kim, Phys. Rev. B 62, 12216 (2000)
A. Verna, B.A. Davidson, Y. Szeto, A.Yu. Petrov, A. Mirone, A. Giglia, N. Mahne, S. Nannarone, J. Mag. Mag. Mat. 322, 1212 (2010)
A. Verna, B.A. Davidson, A.Yu. Petrov, A. Mirone, F. Yakhou-Harris, P. Orgiani, N. Mahne, A. Giglia, S. Nannarone (unpublished)
J.W. Freeland, V. Chakarian, K. Bussmann, Y.Z. Idzerda, H. Wende, C.-C. Kao, J. Appl. Phys. 83, 6290 (1998)
D.R. Lee, S.K. Sinha, D. Haskel, Y. Choi, J.C. Lang, S.A. Stepanov, G. Srajer, Phys. Rev. B 68, 224409 (2003)
M. Elzo, E. Jal, O. Bunau, S. Grenier, Y. Joly, A.Y. Ramos, H.C.N. Tolentino, J.M. Tonnerre, N. Jaouen, J. Mag. Mag. Mat. 324, 105 (2012)
A. Yu Petrov, X. Torrelles, A. Verna, H. Xu, A. Cossaro, M. Pedio, J. Garcia-Barriocanal, G.R. Castro, B.A. Davidson (unpublished)
https://forge.epn-campus.eu/projects/ppm/wiki
D.W. Berreman, J. Opt. Soc. Am. 62, 502 (1972)
P. Bertrand, C. Hermann, G. Lampel, J. Peretti, V.I. Safarov, Phys. Rev. B 64, 235421 (2001)
D.W. Windt, Comput. Phys. 12, 360 (1998)
A. Gibaud, G Vignaud, in X-Ray and Neutron Reflectivity, edited by J. Daillant, A. Gibaud (Springer, Berlin, 2009)
C.T. Chen, Y.U. Idzerda, H.-J. Lin, N.V. Smith, G. Meigs, E. Chaban, G.H. Ho, E. Pellegrin, F. Sette, Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 152 (1995)
F. Bassani, M. Altarelli, in Handbook of Synchrotron Radiation, edited by E.E. Koch (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1983)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
About this article
Cite this article
Verna, A., Davidson, B.A., Mirone, A. et al. The influence of surface roughness in X-ray resonant magnetic reflectivity experiments. Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 208, 165–175 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2012-01617-0
Received:
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2012-01617-0