Epitaxial Fe films on ZnSe(001): effect of the substrate surface reconstruction on the magnetic anisotropy

It is well known that Fe films deposited on a c(2 2)-reconstructed ZnSe(001) surface show a strong in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. Here, the effect of the substrate reconstruction on the magnetic anisotropy of Fe has been studied by in situ Brillouin light scattering. We found that the in-plane uniaxial anisotropy is strongly reduced for Fe films grown on a (1 1)-unreconstructed ZnSe substrate while the in-plane biaxial one is nearly unaffected by the substrate reconstruction. Calculations of magnetic anisotropy energies within the framework of ab initio density functional theory reveal that the strong suppression of anisotropy at the (1 1) interface occurs due to complex atomic relaxations as well as the competing effects originating from magnetocrystalline anisotropy and dipole–dipole interactions. For both sharp and intermixed c(2 2) interfaces, the magnetic anisotropy is enhanced compared to the (1 1) case due to the further lowering of symmetry. The theoretical results are in agreement with the experimental findings.