Enhanced Interfacial Magnetic Coupling of Gd<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>/</mml:mi></mml:math>Fe Multilayers

Abstract

The spatial extent zeta(AFM) and strength J(AFM) of the antiferromagnetic (AFM) exchange coupling at buried Gd /Fe interfaces in ferrimagnetic [Gd(50 A)Fe(15,35 A)](15) sputtered multilayers is obtained from combined x-ray resonance magnetic reflectivity and magnetic circular dichroism measurements. zeta(AFM) is 4.1(7) A or approximately 1-2 interatomic distances in bulk Gd and Fe; J(AFM) is 1050(90) K, comparable to the ferromagnetic exchange in bulk Fe.