Correlation of site-selective oxygen adsorption with step-induced magnetic anisotropy in nanopatterned Fe films

We investigate the effect of oxygen adsorption on the in-plane magnetic anisotropy of monatomic Fe steps in nanopatterned Fe/Ag(001) films. We selectively resolve the effect of different adsorbate binding sites on the anisotropy, deducing that the step anisotropy was strongly quenched upon decoration of the atomic steps by oxygen, whereas it was considerably enhanced by adsorption on fourfold-coordinated terrace sites. We exploit this previously unreported correlation between adsorption sites and magnetic anisotropy to delve into the contributions to the overall step-induced anisotropy of differently coordinated atoms in the proximity of the step.