The manipulation of the antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling in epitaxial Fe/Cr/Fe(001) trilayers by 5 keV He ion beam irradiation has been investigated. It is shown that even for irradiation with low fluences a drastic change in strength of the coupling appears. For thin Cr spacers (below 0.6-0.7 nm) it decreases with fluence, becoming ferromagnetic for fluences above 2x10(14) ions/cm(2). The effect is connected with the creation of magnetic bridges in the layered system due to atomic exchange events caused by the bombardment. For thicker Cr spacers an enhancement of the antiferromagnetic coupling strength is found. A possible explanation of the enhancement effect is given.

The local modification of antiferromagnetic ͑AF͒ interlayer exchange coupling by focused ion-beam irradiation has been studied experimentally in the epitaxial Fe/Cr/Fe͑001͒ trilayer systems. Square ferromagnetic ͑FM͒ areas of 200ϫ200 m 2 were created in the initially AF trilayer by ion irradiation with a fluence of 10 15 ions/cm 2. It was found, that in the range of the external magnetic field of about Ϯ200 Oe, the change of magnetic properties at the boundaries separating FM and AF areas occurs within distances of less than 200 nm. This fact allows the use of the technique for magnetic patterning of antiferromagnetically coupled trilayers on the submicrometer scale.

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