Probing magnetic anisotropy effects in epitaxial CrO2 thin films

The magnetic anisotropy in ferromagnetic chromium dioxide thin films (T-c similar to 393 K) grown epitaxially on (100) TiO2 substrates, is probed using precise rf transverse susceptibility (chi(T)) measurements. Singular peaks in chi(T) ale observed that are associated with the anisotropy (+/-H-K) and switching (+/-H-s,) fields in CrO2. Theoretical calculations of chi(T) based on a simple coherent rotation model display remarkable agreement with the experimental data, indicating that these thin films behave like single-domain magnetic particles. Magnetoelastic contributions to the total anisotropy energy are needed to describe the evolution of chi(T) peaks at lower temperatures.