An epitaxial film of the Pd-Fe alloy 116 nm thick with an iron concentration varying in depth from 2 at.% to 50 at.% has been synthesized. An experimental depth distribution profile of iron was obtained as a result of stepwise etching of the film surface with Ar+ ions. Profiling showed that, as a result of annealing, the impurity was redistributed in the film, and a layer of the L10-phase with a constant concentration was formed near the film surface. After removal of the L10-phase, the film exhibits easy-plane anisotropy. The study of spin-wave resonance spectra showed the presence of several modes of standing spin waves, the number of which depends on the residual film thickness.

The exchange bias of the magnetic hysteresis loop and the exchange-spring effect have been observed in thin-film heterostructures comprising layers of Pd_0.96Fe_0.04 low-temperature ferromagnet, metallic cobalt, and cobalt monoxide (CoO) grown on single-crystalline sapphire by methods of magnetron sputtering and molecular beam epitaxy in an ultrahigh-vacuum system. It is established that the exchange anisotropy of Pd_0.96Fe_0.04 layer in Pd_0.96Fe_0.04/CoO/Co/Al_2O_3 thin-film heterostructure is absent and the exchange-spring effect in this system is not manifested. In the case of a Pd_0.96Fe_0.04/Co/CoO/Al_2O_3 structure, it is shown that, according to the results of magnetometric measurements, the inversion of the order of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic layers leads to pinning of the magnetic moment of Pd_0.96Fe_0.04 layer at the interface with cobalt and to realization of the exchange-spring effect. Additional evidence in favor of this interpretation was obtained using the micromagnetic modeling of magnetic hysteresis loops.

Niobium films of 4–100 nm thickness were synthesized on a silicon substrate under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. Measurements of electrical resistance showed a high temperature of the superconducting transition Tc, in the range of 4.7–9.1 K, and extremely small transition widths ΔTc in the range of 260–11 mK. The dependences of Tc and ΔTc on the magnetic field were studied, and superconducting coherence lengths and mean free paths of the conduction electrons were determined for different thicknesses of the synthesized films. A specific effect of the magnetic field on ΔTc was found, which reveals a transition from three-dimensional to two-dimensional superconductivity at thicknesses below 10 nm. The dependences of Tc and ΔTc on the films thickness and the magnitude of the magnetic field are discussed in the framework of existing concepts of superconductivity in thin films of superconducting metals.