Uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in electrodeposited thin films arising from lattice distortion

Abstract

The usual expression for the magnetocrystalline anisotropy is rewritten for the magnetization referred to the easy axes of the f.c.c. lattice. It is suggested that distortion due to planar film strain produces easy directions different from the [Formula: see text] crystallographic directions and results in the appearance of a large uniaxial anisotropy, Ku, superimposed upon the expected magnetocrystalline anisotropy. A strain of 1 × 10−4 in nickel is considered and is shown to produce a Ku of the order of 105 erg cm−3, comparable with that measured experimentally on electrodeposited (110) single-crystal nickel thin films.