Magnetic anisotropy of epitaxial Fe (0 0 1) micrometric squares

Abstract

Arrays of single crystalline Fe (0 0 1) squares separated by submicrometric distances have been fabricated by electron beam lithography and ion beam etching to study the influence of size reduction on the magnetic anisotropy properties. This magnetic behaviour has been analysed by in-plane magneto-optical hysteresis loops. For large square sizes, the angular dependence of the remanence is consistent with the Fe cubic magnetic anisotropy. On the other hand, a dramatic change is found for square sizes smaller than 3 μm, where an uniaxial magnetic behaviour is observed.