Magnetism and magnetic anisotropy of NixPd1-x alloy

Single-crystalline NixPd1-x thin films with a face-centered cubic structure for the whole stoichiometry 0 <= x <= 1 have been achieved on Cu(100) via molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The ferromagnetism shows up at x >= 0.25 at 300 K and the total magnetization decreases as the Pd concentration increases, which confirms our earlier first-principles calculations (Y.S. Shi, M.F. Wang, D. Qian, G.S. Dong, X.F. Jin, D.S. Wang, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 277 (2004) 71). The magnetocrystalline anisotropy of NixPd1-x is determined to be cubic with a negative K-1, as measured by the magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) technique with a rotating magnetic field (ROTMOKE). (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.