Eur. Phys. J. B 53, 463-469 (2006)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2006-00410-8

A new type of temperature driven reorientation transition in magnetic thin films

¹ Lehrstuhl Festkörpertheorie, Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstr. 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany
² Technische Universität Ilmenau, Theoretische Physik I, Postfach 10 05 65, 98684 Ilmenau, Germany

Corresponding author: ^a koermann@physik.hu-berlin.de

Received: 7 July 2006
Published online: 17 November 2006

Abstract

We present a new type of temperature driven spin reorientation transition (SRT) in thin films. It can occur when the lattice and the shape anisotropy favor different easy directions of the magnetization. Due to different temperature dependencies of the two contributions the effective anisotropy may change its sign and thus the direction of the magnetization as a function of temperature may change. Contrary to the well-known reorientation transition caused by competing surface and bulk anisotropy contributions the reorientation that we discuss is also found in film systems with a uniform lattice anisotropy. The results of our theoretical model study may have experimental relevance for film systems with positive lattice anisotropy, as e.g. thin iron films grown on copper.