Anomalous hysteresis properties of iron films deposited on liquid surfaces

Abstract

A nearly free sustained iron film system, deposited on silicone oil surfaces by vapor-phase deposition method, has been fabricated and its crystal structure as well as magnetic properties has been studied. Both the temperature-dependent coercivity Hc(T) and exchange anisotropy field HE(T) of the iron films possess a maximum peak around the critical temperature Tcrit=10–15 and 4K, respectively. Our experimental results show that the anomalous hysteresis properties mainly result from the oxide surfaces of the films with spin-glass-like phase below freezing temperature Tf=30–50K.