Magnetocrystalline anisotropy of monatomic steps in Fe/Ag(001) nanopatterned films

We have experimentally determined the magnitude of the in-plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy of monatomic Fe steps on the surface of nanopatterned Fe/Ag(001) films. The films have been nanopatterned by the ion-sculpting technique, in which grazing-incidence ion sputtering is exploited to induce the formation of nanometer-scale surface ripples oriented along the ion-beam direction. We quantitatively assessed the ripple morphology in order to determine the density of Fe monatomic steps parallel to the ripple ridges. By correlating the morphology with the measured uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, we obtained the strength of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of Fe monatomic steps kappa(mc)(u)=(6.5 +/- 1.5)x10(-10) erg/cm.