Mimicking of a strong biquadratic interlayer exchange coupling in Fe/Si multilayers

J. Kohlhepp; M. Valkier; A. van der Graaf; F. J. A. den Broeder

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.55.R696

Rapid Communication

Mimicking of a strong biquadratic interlayer exchange coupling in Fe/Si multilayers

J. Kohlhepp, M. Valkier, A. van der Graaf, and F. J. A. den Broeder

Phys. Rev. B 55, R696(R) – Published 1 January 1997

Abstract

The antiferromagnetic interlayer exchange coupling properties of sputtered Fe/Si multilayers have been studied by magnetometry and spin-polarized neutron reflectometry. Both the degree of antiferromagnetic alignment of adjacent ferromagnetic layers at zero field and the strength of the coupling are found to depend on the position in the multilayer stack. It is shown that these interlayer coupling variations are able to imitate an apparent strong biquadratic coupling.

Received 10 July 1996

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.55.R696

Authors & Affiliations

J. Kohlhepp

Philips Research Laboratories, Prof. Holstlaan 4, 5656 AA Eindhoven, The Netherlands
and Department of Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology (EUT), 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

M. Valkier and A. van der Graaf