Artificially modulated chemical order in thin films: a different approach to create ferro/antiferromagnetic interfaces

We report on a unique magnetic exchange interaction in a thin film of FePt3, comprising an artificially created ferromagnetic (FM)/antiferromagnetic (AFM) modulation, but homogeneous chemical composition and epitaxy throughout the film. The chemical order, on the other hand, is modulated resulting in the formation of alternating FM/AFM layers. To determine the existence and form of the magnetic structure within the monostoichiometric thin film, we use a unique combination of polarized neutron reflectometry, x-ray/neutron diffraction, and conventional magnetometry. This artificial stratified AFM/FM FePt3 exhibits a high magnetic exchange bias thus opening up possibilities to study such magnetic phenomena in a perfectly lattice-matched system. © 2010, American Physical Society

Keywords

Thin films, Magnetic properties, Exchange interactions, Anisotropy, Alloys, Neutron diffraction

Citation

Saerbeck, T., Klose, F., Lott, D., Mankey, G. J., Lu, Z., LeClair, P. R., Schmidt, W., Stampfl, A. P. J., Danilkin, S. A., Yethiraj, M., & Schreyer, A. (2010). Artificially modulated chemical order in thin films: a different approach to create ferro/antiferromagnetic interfaces. Physical Review B, 82(13), 134409. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.82.134409