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Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics) -- September 1, 2000 -- Volume 62, Issue 9 pp. 5765-5770

Domain evidence for canted noncollinear interlayer coupling

Shi-shen Yan

Center for Materials for Information Technology, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0209

P. Grünberg

Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany

R. Schäfer

IFW, Helmholtzstraße 20, D-01069 Dresden, Germany

(Received 11 April 2000)

Domain observation by Kerr microscopy was carried out on Fe/Mn/Fe wedge-shaped sandwiches, which were prepared by molecular-beam epitaxy under optimal conditions. For the single-crystal (001)-oriented Fe layers with fourfold in-plane anisotropy, besides the four kinds of well-known domain patterns of ferromagnetic coupling, antiferromagnetic coupling, 90° coupling, and no coupling, we found a fifth kind of domain pattern. The interpretation of these domains inevitably results in the finding of the trivial canted noncollinear coupling between two Fe layers. The magnetic phase diagram of the coupling was analyzed according to the proximity magnetism model. We also found that the domain characters, the coercive field, and the coupling angle are closely related to one another. This investigation indicates that domain observation is a useful and sensitive method to detect locally the coupling types in the wedge-shaped sandwiches. ©2000 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v62/p5765
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.62.5765
PACS: 75.60.Ch, 75.70.-i, 75.70.Kw        Additional Information

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Citing Articles

1. Element-specific imaging of magnetic domains at 25 nm spatial resolution using soft x-ray microscopy
   P. Fischer et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 72, 2322 (2001)