Formation of nonmagnetic<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>c</mml:mi><mml:mo>−</mml:mo><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Fe</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>1</mml:mn><mml:mi>−</mml:mi><mml:mi>x</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Si</mml:mi></mml:math>in antiferromagnetically coupled epitaxial Fe/Si/Fe

Strijkers, Gustav J.; Swagten, Hjm Henk; Jonge, de Wjm Wim

doi:10.1103/physrevb.60.9583

Cited by 60 publications

(95 citation statements)

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“…2 Fe/Si/Fe structures are complex objects for the study of magnetic and transport properties because of the interdiffusion at interfaces with the possible formation of iron silicides of different structure and composition. [3][4][5][6][7] As was shown earlier, Si grown on Fe tends to interdiffuse and to crystallize in epitaxially stabilized CsCl-type, metallic Fe 0.5 Si 0.5 ͑Ref. 3͒ and exhibits an exponential decay of coupling versus spacer thickness ͑Refs.…”

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confidence: 69%

Enhanced antiferromagnetic exchange coupling in Fe/Si/Fe epitaxial trilayers with Fe0.5Si0.5 boundary layers

Gareev

Bürgler

Büchmeier

et al. 2002

Applied Physics Letters

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Epitaxial Fe/Fe 0.5 Si 0.5 /Si-wedge/Fe 0.5 Si 0.5 /Fe structures are prepared by thermal evaporation with Fe 0.5 Si 0.5 boundary layers grown by coevaporation at 200°C. Magnetic properties are examined with Brillouin light scattering and longitudinal magneto-optic Kerr effect hysteresis. The interlayer coupling is found to increase in excess of 8 mJ/m 2 by introducing a boundary layer at the bottom interface. The coupling maximum shifts from 7 to 3 Å nominal Si thickness. This effect is related to reduced interdiffusion with the formation of an epitaxial, pinhole-free spacer at smaller thickness. Together with the strong increase of the coupling for decreasing spacer thickness, this results in an enhancement of the coupling. © 2002 American Institute of Physics. ͓DOI: 10.1063/1.1499229͔ Fe/Si/Fe structures are attracting interest due to strong antiferromagnetic ͑AF͒ coupling which is of significance in applications using artificial antiferromagnets and ferrimagnets as, for instance, in magnetic sensors 1 or more recently in antiferromagnetically coupled ͑AFC͒ storage media for hard disk drives. 2 Fe/Si/Fe structures are complex objects for the study of magnetic and transport properties because of the interdiffusion at interfaces with the possible formation of iron silicides of different structure and composition. [3][4][5][6][7] As was shown earlier, Si grown on Fe tends to interdiffuse and to crystallize in epitaxially stabilized CsCl-type, metallic Fe 0.5 Si 0.5 ͑Ref. 3͒ and exhibits an exponential decay of coupling versus spacer thickness ͑Refs. 5 and 7͒. This unusual behavior was related to a new type of exchange coupling across metallic-type spacers 5 in contradiction with the standard quantum interference model ͑QIM͒ of interlayer coupling. 8 The QIM predicts an exponential decay of AF coupling only for nonconducting spacers but oscillatory coupling for metallic spacers.In order to distinguish metallic and insulating-type spacers, we have previously prepared epitaxial Fe/Fe 1Ϫx Si x /Fe trilayers by codeposition of Fe and Si instead of relying on interdiffusion. We achieved a spacer composition close to Fe 0.5 Si 0.5 ͑Ref. 9͒ and spacers with variable Si content x in the range 0.4ϽxϽ1 ͑Ref. 10͒. We deposited Fe 0.5 Si 0.5 spacer layers at an elevated temperature (200°C) in order to form metallic, epitaxial iron silicides and obtained weak oscillatory coupling ͑less than 1 mJ/m 2 ͒. 9 In these samples, the coupling strength increased with decreasing temperature in agreement with the QIM for metallic spacers. 8 Second, we showed that the interlayer exchange coupling strongly increases with the nominal Si content x in epitaxial Fe 1Ϫx Si x spacers exceeding 5 mJ/m 2 for nominally pure Si spacers. With the increase of nominal Si content x, the thickness of the strongest AF coupling (t max ) shifted to a smaller Si thickness. We concluded that the very strong coupling ͑more than 5 mJ/m 2 ͒ observed for nominally pure Si spacers is not due to metallic iron silicides, but due to highly resistive, Si-rich spacers...

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mentioning

confidence: 69%

Enhanced antiferromagnetic exchange coupling in Fe/Si/Fe epitaxial trilayers with Fe0.5Si0.5 boundary layers

Gareev

Bürgler

Büchmeier

et al. 2002

Applied Physics Letters

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“…7,8 More detailed information about the growth dynamics, the structural quality and the Fe/Si interdiffusion can be found in Ref. 20.…”

Section: Experimental Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A more detailed study of the formation of the iron-silicide interlayers in Fe/Si/Fe͑001͒ using LEED, AES, and Möss-bauer spectroscopy was already presented in Ref. 20. But the GIXR data supply additional information: When the reflectivity calculations were fitted to the experimental data under the assumption that the Fe/Si interface width was equal to the Si/Fe interface width, the model calculations showed large discrepancies with the experimental data.…”

Section: Nϭ1ϫ␦ϫi␤ ͑2͒mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…16 The bilinear and biquadratic interlayer exchange in Fe/Si and their temperature dependence have been intensively studied by several groups and were shown to depend strongly on the properties of the iron silicide that is formed by intermixing at the Fe/Si interfaces during growth. 5,10,[17][18][19][20][21][22] In contrast to the oscillatory nature common in metallic systems, a strong antiferromagnetic coupling (J 1 Ͻ0) was found in MBE-deposited Fe/ Si/Fe trilayers, with J 1 exponentially decreasing for increasing spacer thickness. 23 An additional biquadratic contribution to the exchange coupling was also identified by a detailed analysis of magneto-optical Kerr effect ͑MOKE͒ measurements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From the distinct temperature and exponential thickness dependence of the derived coupling parameters J 1 and J 2 , the exchange coupling was identified to be originated from ''loose spins'' in the during the deposition formed crystalline iron-silicide spacer layer. 7,8,20 Although the interlayer exchange in single-crystalline Fe/ Si/Fe͑001͒ sandwiches has been determined by a hysteresis loop analysis, no direct observation of the microscopic spin orientations was obtained. Furthermore, it was recently recognized that fluctuations of the bilinear coupling due to fluctuations in the interlayer thickness both in-plane and throughout a multilayer stacking may mimic biquadraticlike behavior in the magnetization curves.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Magnetic interlayer exchange coupling in epitaxialFe/Si/Fe(001)studied by polarized neutron reflectometry

et al. 2002

Self Cite

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Polarized neutron reflectometry ͑PNR͒ has been used to investigate the magnetic interlayer coupling in a MBE-grown Fe/Si/Fe͑001͒ sandwich at room temperature and at 10 K. Both the magnitude and orientation of the magnetic moments of the Fe layers are obtained from a rigorous analysis of the PNR data. Orthogonal configurations of the Fe magnetizations were observed, providing unambiguous evidence for the presence of a biquadratic term in the exchange coupling energy. The competition between the bilinear and biquadratic exchange couplings results in distinct orthogonal and antiparallel configurations of the Fe magnetizations at room temperature. A previously unresolved magnetic configuration in the room-temperature hysteresis curve was identified by the PNR measurements as a 180°spin-flop transition. The dominant role of the biquadratic coupling at low temperatures is evident from the orthogonal configuration of the magnetizations at remanence in the measurements at Tϭ10 K. The magnetic configurations deduced by PNR are in good agreement with those obtained by fitting the magnetic hysteresis loops using a global energy minimum calculation.

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CEMS Study of the Interface Formation in the Fe-Si System during Pulsed Laser Deposition

Zenkevitch

Fanciulli

Weyer

et al. 2000

phys. stat. sol. (b)

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Formation of nonmagneticc−Fe1−xSiin antiferromagnetically coupled epitaxial Fe/Si/Fe

Cited by 60 publications

References 18 publications

Enhanced antiferromagnetic exchange coupling in Fe/Si/Fe epitaxial trilayers with Fe0.5Si0.5 boundary layers

Enhanced antiferromagnetic exchange coupling in Fe/Si/Fe epitaxial trilayers with Fe0.5Si0.5 boundary layers

Magnetic interlayer exchange coupling in epitaxialFe/Si/Fe(001)studied by polarized neutron reflectometry

CEMS Study of the Interface Formation in the Fe-Si System during Pulsed Laser Deposition

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