Quantum Well States and Oscillatory Magnetic Anisotropy in Ultrathin Fe Films

The magnetic anisotropy of Fe film grown on vicinal Ag(1,1,10) surfaces studied with the in situ magneto-optic Kerr effect shows oscillatory behavior. We found that both the in-plane step-induced uniaxial anisotropy and the perpendicular anisotropy measured at low temperature show strong oscillations as a function of Fe thickness with a period of ~ 5.7 monolayers. Such novel oscillation of the anisotropy is attributed to the quantum well states (QWS) of d-band electrons at the Fermi level in the Fe film. These QWS have been observed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy from a Fe wedge films grown on Ag(001) surface.