Influence of miscut direction on magnetic anisotropy of magnetite films grown on vicinal MgO (100)

Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) was used to study the influence of miscut direction on the in-plane fourfold and uniaxial magnetic anisotropies of epitaxial [formula omitted] films grown on vicinal MgO (100) surfaces. In-plane angular dependent measurements at room temperature on [formula omitted] films on two different miscut directions (miscut along [formula omitted] and [formula omitted] directions) of MgO showed the presence of both in-plane fourfold (cubic) and in-plane uniaxial anisotropies. Temperature dependent FMR investigations show that the in-plane fourfold anisotropy constant [formula omitted] is approximately the same for both samples at room temperature. The magnitude of [formula omitted] increases gradually with decreasing temperature and changes sign from negative to positive values at 130 K. This behavior is consistent with that of bulk magnetite. In addition to [formula omitted], we find an additional uniaxial component [formula omitted], whose strength is quite different for the different miscut directions. The magnitude of [formula omitted] shows very little or no temperature dependence. The observed differences in the magnitude of [formula omitted] with miscut directions are related to the changes in the antiphase boundary structure and altered magnetic configurations at the boundaries.