Phys. Rev. Lett. Phys. Rev. A Phys. Rev. B Phys. Rev. C Phys. Rev. D Phys. Rev. E Phys. Rev. ST AB Phys. Rev. ST AB Rev. Mod. Phys. Phys. Rev. (Series I) Phys. Rev. Volume: Page/Article:

Phys. Rev. B 52, 13436–13443 (1995)

[Issue 18 – 1 November 1995 ]

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Magnetic behavior of antiferromagnetically coupled layers connected by ferromagnetic pinholes

D. B. Fulghum and R. E. Camley

Department of Physics, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80933-7150

The magnetic behavior of a sandwich structure, where two ferromagnetic films are coupled antiferromagnetically across a nonmagnetic spacer film, can be described reasonably well by a simple theoretical model. However, sandwich structures produced experimentally in the laboratory sometimes show behavior not accounted for by this model. These multilayers can exhibit an increased net magnetic moment at low temperatures, as well as a net magnetic moment in the absence of an external field. It has been proposed that the presence of ferromagnetic pinholes could account for some of these features. Our work investigates the temperature-dependent properties of a system with pinholes, and relates this to the size of the pinholes. We also examine some assumptions made in previous work and determine the limits of validity for these assumptions.

©1995 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v52/p13436
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.52.13436
PACS: 75.50.Rr, 75.70.Cn, 75.70.Fr

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