Magnetic anisotropy in multilayers

Magnetic anisotropy between in-plane and out of plane magnetic alignments is studied in a variety of multilayer systems using Mössbauer spectrosopy to observe the (Fe) magnetic orientation. The surface anisotropy in Fe/Au (1 1 1) multilayers is measured as K _s = 0.9 × 10^?3 Jm^?2. In Fe/Ni multilayers the dependence of magnetic orientation on external field applied normal to the layers enables volume and interface anisotropies K _v = (?5 ± 1) × 10⁴ Jm^?3 and K _s = (?0.6 ± 0.4)× 10^?3 Jm^?2 to be evaluated. In similar applied field experiments coherent rotation of the magnetic Fe and NiFe layers in Fe/Cu/NiFe/Cu multilayers was observed for intervening Cu layer thickness x = 5 Å but independent rotation for x = 50 Å. Out of plane magnetic components are observed for DyFe₂, YFe₂ thin films and DyFe₂/YFe₂ multilayers. In fields of up to 0.25 T applied inplane only the moments of the YFe₂ film showed significant rotation.