Adsorption induced modification of in-plane magnetic anisotropy in epitaxial Co and Fe/Co films on Fe(110)

A study of in-plane magnetic anisotropy (MA) in epitaxial bcc Co films and Fe/Co bilayers on a Fe(110) surface is reported. Surface MA of as-deposited Co films and Fe/Co bilayers strongly depends on the Co (dCo) and Fe (dFe) thickness. Adsorption of residual gases drastically modifies in-plane MA of both Co films and Fe/Co bilayers. We present two dimensional MA maps in the (dCo, dFe) space for both as grown and adsorption-modified films. Our results indicate how to precisely engineer in-plane MA that can be controlled by dCo, dFe and is sensitive to the residual gas adsorption.