The domain structure of an antiferromagnetic superlattice is studied. Synchrotron Mössbauer and polarized neutron reflectometric maps show micrometer-size primary domain formation as the external field decreases from saturation to remanence. A secondary domain state consisting mainly of at least 1 order of magnitude larger domains is created when a small field along the layer magnetizations induces a bulk-spin-flop transition. The domain-size distribution is reproducibly dependent on the magnetic prehistory. The condition for domain coarsening is shown to be the equilibrium of the external field energy with the anisotropy energy.

For the design of multicompositional materials with a spatially defined order of different components symmetric polystyrene(deuterated)-block-polybuthyl methacrylate P(Sd-b-BMA) lamellar thin films are used as a structure-directing matrix for the nanoparticle arrangement. A P(Sd-b-BMA) diblock-copolymer film spontaneously self-assembles upon annealing into a lamellar multilayer and orders the PS-coated nanoparticles, incorporated into the polymer solution prior to annealing, in a periodic lamellar structure. Specular reflection and off-specular neutron scattering were applied to determine the distribution of magnetite Fe3O4 nanoparticles in a symmetric P(Sd-b-BMA) film with a concentration of the nanoparticles of 7% of the volume fraction. From the experiments on neutron specular reflection and off-specular scattering, we obtained information about the distribution of the nanoparticles within the lamellae and about the distortion of the lamellar order of the copolymer matrix. LA026818A