Citation

Carlisle JA, Blankenship SR, Smith RN, Chaiken A, Michel RP, Van Buuren T, Terminello LJ, Jia JJ, Callcott TA, Ederer DL. Journal of Cluster Science 1999; 10(4): 591-599.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999)

DOI

10.1023/A:1021917427431

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Soft x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy has been used to examine the electronic structure of deeply buried suicide thin films that arise in Fe/Si multilayers. These systems exhibit antiferromagnetic (AF) coupling of the Fe layers, despite their lack of a noble metal spacer layer found in most GMR materials. Also, the degree of coupling is very dependent on preparation conditions, especially spacer layer thickness and growth temperature. The valence band spectra are quite different for films with different spacerlayer thickness yet are very similar for films grown at different growth temperatures. The latter result is surprising since AF coupling is strongly dependent on growth temperature. Combining near-edge x-ray absorption with the fluorescence data demonstrates that the local bonding structure in the suicide spacer layer in epitaxial films which exhibit AF coupling are metallic. These results indicate the equal roles of crystalline coherence and electronic structure in determining the magnetic properties of these systems.

Language: en

Keywords

Electronic structure; Interlayer coupling; Magnetic multilayers; Thin-film growth; X-Ray emission spectra