Reorientation transition of ultrathin ferromagnetic films

Abstract

We demonstrate that the reorientation transition from out-of-plane to in-plane magnetization with decreasing temperature as observed experimentally in Ni-films on Cu(001) can be explained on a microscopic basis. Using a combination of mean field theory and perturbation theory, we derive an analytic expression for the temperature dependent anisotropy. The reduced magnetization in the film surface at finite temperatures plays a crucial role for this transition as with increasing temperature the influence of the uniaxial anisotropies is reduced at the surface and is enhanced inside the film.