Magnetic coupling of structural microdomains in bcc Fe on Cu(001)

With increasing thickness, thin epitaxial Fe films on Cu(001) undergo a crystallographic transformation beyond 12 monolayers. Four types of elongated bcc domains are formed, producing the low-energy electron diffraction pattern previously called (3×1). The angular-dependent magneto-optical Kerr effect and magnon-light-scattering results indicate that the domains are tightly coupled magnetically, at least between twin pairs. Moreover the scattering length of surface magnons is found to depend strongly on their propagation direction. © 1993 The American Physical Society.