The spin texture in Fe/Tb multilayers

Fe/Tb multilayers (ML) have been prepared in UHV. The layer thickness for Fe was varied from 10 to 80 Å with Tb-layer thicknesses of 3.5, 7, 14 and 26 Å. Different substrate temperatures T_s between T_s=130 K and RT have been used. The magnetic spin texture was studied by⁵⁷Fe-Mössbauer spectroscopy from T=4.2 K to 670 K. The ferrimagnetic coupling between Fe and Tb moments was observed by Mössbauer studies in external fields up to 5 T.     

Study of Tb/Fe multilayers by temperature-dependent CEMS

A comparative study is accomplished in the domain where iron layers are amorphous. The dependence of the magnetic structure of Tb/Fe multilayered films on temperature have been investigated by Mössbauer spectrometry. When the iron layer is thinner than 2.3 nm, the average hyperfine field at the iron site remains nearly constant at 4.2 K, while it decreases strongly for iron thickness higher than 1.5 nm at room temperature. This decrease of H is due to the decrease of the Curie temperature, which can be explained from the structure of iron layers.     

Magnetic and structural properties of Fe/Cu multilayers

Fe/Cu multilayers with Fe and Cu layers of equal thicknesses were grown by high-vacuum evaporation on Si(1 1 1) substrates at room temperature. The crystal orientation, the thickness of the elemental layers and the interplanar distances were analysed by both low- and high-angle X-ray diffraction in the θ–2θ configuration. The magnetic properties of Fe/Cu multilayers were studied by both a static and a dynamic technique, namely surface magneto-optical Kerr effect (SMOKE) and Brillouin light scattering (BLS). Longitudinal SMOKE cycles permitted us to determine the orientation of the easy axis of the magnetization and to put in evidence an appreciable in-plane magnetic anisotropy in multilayers with low periodicity and highly coherent structure. Polar loops were then used to determine the out-of-plane anisotropy fields, showing that both first- and second-order contributions are to be considered in order to reproduce the hysteresis cycle. BLS was then exploited to detect thermaly excited spin waves through inelastic scattering of light. The out-of-plane anisotropy fields evaluated by this high-frequency dynamic technique compare fairly well with the first-order values obtained by analysis of polar SMOKE hysteresis cycles.     

Magnetic property and magnetoresistance in Fe/ITO multilayers

Giant magnetoresistance was found in DC magnetron sputtering Fe/ITO multilayers. The magnetic properties, electrical properties and magnetoresistance were investigated. A critical temperature is found around 50 K where the temperature dependence of resistivity and magnetoresistance ratio exhibit an abruptly change. The temperature dependence of resistance is found to obey Mott's 1/4 law for low temperature. The max magnetoresistance ratio of 2.0% and 6.7% is found at room temperature and 12.5 K, respectively. The increase of magnetoresistance ratio at low temperature is due to the decrease of spin-mixing effect.     

Magnetic anisotropy in Fe/rare‐earth multilayers

Magnetic anisotropy of Fe/RE multilayers (RE=Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu) was studied using ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy. Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy was observed in Fe/Pr, Fe/Nd, Fe/Tb, and Fe/Dy multilayers. The external field dependence of the direction of magnetic moments was also examined for Fe/Tb multilayers. The results imply that the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy originates from the single ionic anisotropy of RE at the interfaces.     

Magnetic properties of (111) Cu/Fe multilayers

The magnetic properties of (111) Cu/Fe multilayers grown on Cu underlayers of several thickness (2000-500-50 Å) on cleaved mica have been investigated by Mössbauer spectroscopy and SQUID magnetometry. The analysis of experimental results suggests that 2.5 monolayers of ψ-Fe interfaced with Cu evolves partially from paramagnetic to ferromagnetic states as the Cu underlayer thickness is reduced to 50 Å and partially from weak to strong antiferromagnetism.     

Magnetic and transport properties of sputtered Fe/Si multilayers

The structural, magnetic and transport properties of sputtered Fe/Si multilayers were studied. The analyses of the data of the X-ray diffraction, resistance and magnetic measurements show that heavy atomic interdiffusion between Fe and Si occurs, resulting in multilayers of different complicated structures according to different sublayer thicknesses. The nominal Fe layers in the multilayers generally consist of Fe layers doped with Si, ferromagnetic Fe-Si silicide layers and nonmagnetic Fe-Si silicide interface layers, while the nominal Si spacers turn out to be Fe-Si compound layers with additional amorphous Si sublayers only under the condition either for the series or for the series multilayers. A strong antiferromagnetic (AFM) coupling and negative magnetoresistance (MR) effect, about 1%, were observed only in multilayers with iron silicide spacers and disappeared when -Si layers appear in the spacers. The dependences of MR on and on bilayer numbers N resemble the dependence of AFM coupling. The increase of MR ratio with increasing N is mainly attributed to the improvement of AFM coupling for multilayers with N. The dependence of MR ratio is similar to that in metal/metal system with predominant bulk spin dependent scattering and is fitted by a phenomenological formula for GMR. At 77 K both the MR effect and saturation field increase. All these facts suggest that the mechanisms of the AFM coupling and MR effect in sputtered Fe/Si multilayers are similar to those in metal/metal system. Received: 11 February 1998 / Revised: 9 March 1998 / Accepted: 9 March 1998     

Interfaces and solid state reactions of Zr/Fe multilayers

Metallic multilayers of Fe and Zr, prepared by electron-beam evaporation and sputter deposition, have been characterized by conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction. Amorphous phase formation occurs at the interfaces during deposition for all samples and there is a critical layer thickness near 10 monolayers of each constituent where complete amorphization occurs. The amorphous phase formed upon annealing the 50 monolayer electron-beam sample consumes only about one-third of the Fe before the process saturates.     

Magnetic properties of submicron size particles made from Fe/Co multilayers

Arrays of submicron size (0.15 μm) particles of 23 and 35 nm thick Fe(2 ML)/Co(6 ML) multilayers were investigated by magnetization measurements and magnetic force microscopy. The behaviour of elliptical particles is mainly determined by their shape anisotropy. Varying the lateral size and thickness of the particles there is a transition from multi-domain to single-domain states.     

Effect of Interface Roughness on Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy of Fe/Tb Multilayers

Fe/Tb multilayers have been prepared which exhibit significant perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) even at RT. The effect of systematic variation in the interface roughness on PMA has been studied in these multilayers which were deposited simultaneously on a set of float glass substrates prepared with varying root mean square surface roughness. The amount of intermixing at the interfaces and uncorrelated part of the interface roughness of different multilayers remain similar, thus allowing one to separate out the effect of the correlated interface roughness only. X-ray reflectivity and conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy and SQUID magnetometry was used to characterise the systems. PMA was found to depend weakly on the correlated interface roughness.     

Solid state amorphization reaction in Fe−Zr multilayers

The solid state reaction of thin multilayered Fe?Zr films has been studied by means of Conversion Electron Mössbauer Spectroscopy and Rutherford Backscattering. The results for the samples with the overall composition Fe_0.67Zr_0.33, Fe_0.50Zr_0.50 and Fe_0.33Zr_0.67 reveal the formation of an amorphous phase. The growth of this phase and the crystallization of the intermetallic compound FeZr₃ for the rich zirconium sample are discussed.     

Magnetic interface polarization of the La-5d states in Fe/LaHx multilayers

For rare-earth (RE)-hydrides (REHx), a metal-to-insulator transition is observed if the hydrogen concentration is increased from the dihydride (x=2) towards the trihydride (x=3). This transition provides an object for studies of the magnetic interface polarization in layered ferromagnet/insulator structures. For different samples with a fixed Fe and varied LaH_x sublayer thickness t_LaHx ([15 ? Fe/t? LaH_x]xn), the H concentration x in the LaH_x sublayer is gradually increased in the experiment. Starting from the as prepared dihydride REH_2-δ, the modification of the magnetic polarization of the La-5d states at the Fe/La_x interface is studied across the transition by magnetic circular dichroism measurements at the La-L₂ and L₃ edges. The experiments reveal an induced magnetic polarization of the La-5d hole states on a length scale of 9 ? that is independent of the altered electronic structure of the La-5d states. Received: 23 May 2001 / Accepted: 4 July 2001 / Published online: 5 October 2001     

Structure of sputter-deposited Pt/Fe and Cr/Fe multilayers

Conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) have been used to investigate the structure of Pt/Fe and Cr/Fe multilayers deposited by magnetron sputtering. The Cr/Fe samples consisted of four samples prepared under Ar sputtering pressures of 1.3, 3.0, 5.0, and 10.0 mT, all with the same multilayer structure of 3.5 nm Cr/2.5 nm Fe, repeated 35 times onto c-Si wafer substrates. The quality of the interfaces between Cr and Fe is clearly degraded with increasing sputter pressure, as seen by changes in the relative intensities of four magnetic subspectra in the CEMS and the gradual appearance of a single-line resonance similar to Fe in solution in Cr. The low-angle XRD superlattice peaks also disappear with increasing sputter pressure, while the high-angle XRD shows a tendency for loss of the preferred (110) texture. Two films of Pt/Fe were deposited epitaxially onto MgO single crystals with bilayer periods of 1.3 nm and 2.6 nm and total thickness of 300 nm each. A transition from fcc-PtFe with near-perpendicular magnetic anisotropy to a bcc-Fe/fcc-PtFe mixture with in-plane magnetic texture is observed by CEMS for the factor of two increase in bilayer period.     

Magnetic properties and static-dynamic magnetostrictive characteristics for SmFe2/Fe exchange-coupled multilayers

Giant magnetostrictive SmFe₂/Fe exchange-coupled multilayers were fabricated by ion beam sputtering deposition on glass substrates. The effects of SmFe₂/Fe exchange coupling action and vacuum annealing on soft-magnetic property and static-dynamic magnetostrictive characteristics of SmFe₂/Fe multilayers were investigated. The results showed that the soft-magnetic, static-dynamic magnetostrictive characteristics were greatly improved by SmFe₂/Fe exchange coupling action and proper vacuum annealing treatment temperature. Compared with that of SmFe₂ single film, the coercivity in the direction of easy magnetization axis for SmFe₂/Fe exchange-coupled multilayers exhibited a greater decrease. Better soft-magnetic properties were achieved (H_c=2.54 kA/m, M_s=120.38 emu/g, and M_r/M_s=0.21) after vacuum annealing at certain temperature. The magnetostrictive coefficient for SmFe₂/Fe exchange-coupled multilayers was about 135 ppm at 16 kA/m magnetic field. At first order resonant frequency (99.2 Hz), the amplitude peak-peak value for the as-deposited SmFe₂/Fe exchange-coupled multilayers was 46 μm. After the vacuum annealing treatment at 250 °C, the amplitude peak-peak value increased to 650 μm.     

Current-perpendicular-to-plane magnetoresistance in Co/Gd multilayers with twisted spin structure

Current-perpendicular-to-plane magnetoresistance was measured for ferrimagnetic Co/Gd multilayers which have twisted spin structure accompanied with spin-flop transition. The influence of twisted spin structure on the electronic transport was exclusively obtained, eliminating the effect of anisotropic magnetoresistance. MR curves showed a downturn around the spin-flop field, suggesting that the formation of twisted spin structure leads to a negative resistance change.     

Proton irradiation and solid state reaction of Fe−Zr multilayers

The amorphization of Fe−Zr multilayers due to ion-beam mixing and solid state reaction is studied in detail using the CEMS and CXMS. The nature of the amorphous Fe−Zr phase produced by both processes is the same suggesting that diffusion of Fe is an important mechanism during ion-beam mixing.     

Structural investigations of laser-deposited Fe/Al multilayers

Fe/Al multilayers are prepared by crossed-beam pulsed laser deposition and investigated by Rutherford backscattering, conversion electron M?ssbauer spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The results are compared to purely ballistic simulations of the deposition process using the TRIDYN4.0 code. It is found that the intermixing of adjacent layers must be described in terms of ballistic mixing followed by chemical mixing. The phase formation in the transition layer between adjacent layers follows the non-equilibrium behavior of Fe/Al in analogy to investigations on mechanically alloyed and ion-beam-mixed Fe/Al. In Fe-rich areas a bcc solid solution is formed. In Al-rich environment an amorphous phase is observed. Received: 13 January 1999 / Accepted: 14 January 1999 / Published online: 7 April 1999     

57Fe Mössbauer study of Fe/Bi multilayers

Fe/Bi artificially structured films (ASF's) have been prepared by alternate depositions of Fe and Bi in an ultrahigh vacuum. X-ray diffraction measurements in the small angle range confirmed the formation of periodic structures in all the samples prepared on glass substrates cooled down to about 125K. the CEMS at room temperature indicated that the samples are ferromagnetic except the one with 2Å-thick Fe layers. The CEM spectra also indicated that the structure of Fe layers is amorphous when the Fe layer thicknesses are less than 15Å. Magnetization measurement and CEM spectrum at 6K show that Fe monolayers in the Fe/Bi ASF are ferromagnetic.     

Ion-beam-mixing induced amorphization of Fe/Zr multilayers

The Ar-ion-beam-mixing of the Fe/Zr multilayers is studied by conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy. The dependence of the amorphization process on ion dose is studied in detail for two sample thicknesses with an Fe to Zr ratio of 1 and modulation wavelength of 20 and 60 nm. Experimental results are compared with the predictions of the ballistic cascade and thermal spike models of mixing.