Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
Annealing of CoAV(110) ultrathin films causes rather strong changes of film morphology and magnetic properties, which has been studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and alternating-current magneto-optical Kerr effect (ac-MOKE). Annealing above 500 K of room-temperature grown 2 monolayers (ML) thick Co/W(110) films leads to the formation of islands and a decrease of the Curie temperature 7C. At 4 ML, on the other hand, a network of interconnected islands is formed upon annealing, resulting in an enhanced TC. While the increase of TC at 4 ML is explained by an increase of the local film thickness, the anomalous TC behavior at 2 ML is assigned to the occurrence of superparamagnetism.