A Study of Interlayer Exchange Coupling Across Alloyed Transition-Metal Films

Synopsis

Interlayer exchange coupling has been intensively studied for over thirty years and is incorporated in almost all spintronic devices. Unlike past research, which focused on the coupling between magnetic layers across a nonmagnetic spacer layer, we find that antiferromagnetic interlayer exchange coupling can be achieved across spacer layers containing over sixty atomic percent of iron or cobalt. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements reveal that the added iron atoms in the spacer layer have a large magnetic moment. The coupling strength was found to increase with iron concentration and decrease with cobalt concentration in our magnetic multilayers deposited with the industrial technique of choice, magnetron sputtering. Electronic structure calculations predict a dependence of interlayer exchange coupling on both the magnetic material concentration and the spacer layer thickness while offering insight into the role of magnetic atom interactions within the spacer layer in influencing interlayer exchange coupling.

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