Magnetic linear dichroism studies of in situ grown NiO thin films

We report thickness dependence of magnetic linear dichroism (MLD) of in situ grown NiO(0 0 1) films on Ag(0 0 1) substrate at the Ni L 2 absorption edge. Antiferromagnetic domains at the surface of NiO(0 0 1) films are found to be preferentially aligned in-plane. For films thinner than a critical thickness t c (20–40ML), we observe a softening of the in-plane magnetic domain alignments with increasing film thickness, arising from the strain-relaxation effects. Films thicker than t c exhibits a residual in-plane anisotropy, possibly related to the finite-thickness effects.