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Phys. Rev. B 71, 024410 (2005) [6 pages]

[Issue 2 – 1 January 2005 ]

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Interlayer coupling across semimetallic iron monosilicide

B. Croonenborghs¹, F. M. Almeida¹, C. L’abbé¹, R. R. Gareev², M. Rots¹, A. Vantomme¹, and J. Meersschaut^1*

¹Instituut voor Kern- en Stralingsfysica, K.U.Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

²Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany

We studied the interlayer exchange coupling between Fe films across iron monosilicide spacer layers with the metastable CsCl structure. The bilinear ( J₁ ) and the biquadratic ( J₂ ) coupling strengths are determined by fitting the in-plane easy- and hard-axis magnetization curves. Both coupling coefficients have a strong, nonmonotonous temperature dependence and vary exponentially as a function of the spacer thickness. The temperature dependence of the coupling constants is explained within the framework of Slonczewski's loose spin model [J. Appl. Phys. 73, 5957 (1993)] in which a decrease of the loose spin concentration upon cooling is introduced. The exponentially decaying coupling strength with increasing spacer layer thickness is attributed to the semi-metallic nature of the metastable monosilicide phase.

©2005 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v71/e024410
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.71.024410
PACS: 75.70.Cn, 75.50.Bb, 75.30.Et, 73.61.At

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