Interlayer coupling in NiFe/Mo multilayers and effect of Fe underlayer

Authors

• M.L. Yan, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
• Z.S. Shan, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
• David J. Sellmyer, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• W.Y. Lai, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, People's Republic of China

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

April 1997

Comments

Published by American Institute of Physics. J. Applied Physics 81, 4785 (1997). ©1997 American Institute of Physics. Permission to use. http://jap.aip.org/jap/.

Abstract

We report our studies of exchange coupling in NiFe/Mo multilayers with and without Fe underlayer. The interlayer coupling of NiFe layers across the Mo spacer as well as the magnetic exchange coupling between Fe underlayer and the NiFe/Mo multilayers were observed: The interlayer coupling in NiFe/Mo multilayers exhibits the typical oscillations as a function of the Mo spacer with a period of about 11 Å, and the magnetic exchange coupling between Fe underlayer and the NiFe/Mo multilayers is strongly dependent on the thickness of the Mo spacer t_Mo and the bilayer number N of NiFe/Mo multilayers. For the [NiFe(20 Å)/Mo(t_Mo)]₃₀ samples with a 100 Å Fe underlayer, the hysteresis loops with thinner Mo spacer (t_Mo < 4 Å) are single loops indicating that the Fe underlayer is strongly magnetic exchange coupled with the NiFe/Mo multilayers; whereas hysteresis loops with thicker Mo spacer (t_Mo≥5 Å) show a two-magnetic-phase feature. For the [NiFe(20 Å)/Mo(10 Å)] ₃₀ sample with 100 Å Fe underlayer, the hysteresis loops are single loops for bilayer number N < 15, while hysteresis loops show the two-phase feature for N≥15.