Magnetic moment orientation and in depth distribution of dysprosium near the surface of DyCo$_{4.6}$ thin films determined by the analysis of their X ray circularly polarized absorption Dy $M_{5}$ spectra

TL;DR

This study uses XMCD spectroscopy to analyze the distribution and magnetic orientation of dysprosium in DyCo4.6 thin films, revealing a layered structure with varying magnetic coupling and segregation effects near the surface.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed spectral analysis method to determine dysprosium distribution and magnetic moment orientation in ferrimagnetic thin films.

Findings

Dysprosium exhibits a gradation of concentration due to segregation.

The top layer of the film is magnetically uncoupled from cobalt.

Dysprosium moments are partially aligned with cobalt at room temperature.

Abstract

We have investigated the RE atomic distribution and its magnetic moment orientation at the region near the surface of DyCo$_{4.4 \& 4.6}$ ferrimagnetic amorphous films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). XMCD spectroscopy of the films at the Dy $M_{4,5}$ and Co $L_{2,3}$ edges using total electron yield (TEY) detection was performed at 2 K and 300 K temperatures, and at sample orientations ranged from 0$^{\circ}$ to 70$^{\circ}$ with respect to the magnetic easy axis. The measurements showed an apparent partial decoupling between the cobalt and dysprosium magnetic sublattices. At RT, the magnetic moment per atom of dysprosium was below the minimum value expected if all dysprosium moments were AF coupled to cobalt. At 2 K, the cobalt sublattice presented a stronger magnetic anisotropic behavior than the dysprosium sublattice. A detailed analysis of the circularly polarized spectra of the Dy $M_{5}$ edge, based on the deconvolution of the spectra in their related parallel, antiparallel and transverse to $J_{z}$ spectral components, demonstrates that the spectra are composed by dysprosium with different magnetic moment distributions. The fit of the Dy $M_{5}$ spectra using the $J_{z}$ spectral components evidenced a gradation of dysprosium concentration due to segregation at the region probed by TEY. The topmost layer was magnetically uncoupled from cobalt. At RT, 25$\%$ of the dysprosium magnetic moments in the under layer were found averaged oriented in the same direction as cobalt. The expected weak magnetic coupling of these dysprosium atoms to cobalt would explain the surprisingly lower magnetic anisotropy of the dysprosium sublattice compared to that of cobalt probed by TEY at 2 K.