Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 5290-5293 (1997)

                                                                  [Issue 26 - December 1997 ]

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Ferrimagnetic tau - MnAl/Co Superlattices on GaAs

       G. Lauhoff,1 C. Bruynseraede,2 J. De Boeck,2 W. Van Roy,2 J. A. C. Bland,1 and G. Borghs2 
       1Cavendish Laboratory, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OHE, United Kingdom
       2IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001, Leuven, Belgium

Received 19 July 1996; revised 27 May 1997

We report on the ferrimagnetic superlattice ordering in epitaxial tau -MnAl/Co superlattices on GaAs. For ultrathin Co layers (3.5-7 Å), both the ferromagnetic tau MnAl and
Co layers display a large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy together with an antiferromagnetic interface exchange coupling. As a result, an abrupt transition from the
ferromagnetically aligned state at saturation to a ferrimagnetic superlattice ordering occurs at unusually high fields (3-7 T) followed by a reversal of the total sample moment at
low fields (0.3-1.6 T).

©1997 The American Physical Society

URL: http://publish.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v79/p5290
PACS: 73.61.At, 75.70.Cn, 78.20.Ls