Structure and magnetism of Fe/Si multilayers grown by ion-beam sputtering

Chaiken, A.; Michel, R. P.; Wall, M. A.

doi:10.1103/physrevb.53.5518

Cited by 142 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…2 Fe/Si/Fe structures are complex objects for the study of magnetic and transport properties because of the interdiffusion at interfaces with the possible formation of iron silicides of different structure and composition. [3][4][5][6][7] As was shown earlier, Si grown on Fe tends to interdiffuse and to crystallize in epitaxially stabilized CsCl-type, metallic Fe 0.5 Si 0.5 ͑Ref. 3͒ and exhibits an exponential decay of coupling versus spacer thickness ͑Refs.…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Enhanced antiferromagnetic exchange coupling in Fe/Si/Fe epitaxial trilayers with Fe0.5Si0.5 boundary layers

Gareev

Bürgler

Büchmeier

et al. 2002

Applied Physics Letters

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Epitaxial Fe/Fe 0.5 Si 0.5 /Si-wedge/Fe 0.5 Si 0.5 /Fe structures are prepared by thermal evaporation with Fe 0.5 Si 0.5 boundary layers grown by coevaporation at 200°C. Magnetic properties are examined with Brillouin light scattering and longitudinal magneto-optic Kerr effect hysteresis. The interlayer coupling is found to increase in excess of 8 mJ/m 2 by introducing a boundary layer at the bottom interface. The coupling maximum shifts from 7 to 3 Å nominal Si thickness. This effect is related to reduced interdiffusion with the formation of an epitaxial, pinhole-free spacer at smaller thickness. Together with the strong increase of the coupling for decreasing spacer thickness, this results in an enhancement of the coupling. © 2002 American Institute of Physics. ͓DOI: 10.1063/1.1499229͔ Fe/Si/Fe structures are attracting interest due to strong antiferromagnetic ͑AF͒ coupling which is of significance in applications using artificial antiferromagnets and ferrimagnets as, for instance, in magnetic sensors 1 or more recently in antiferromagnetically coupled ͑AFC͒ storage media for hard disk drives. 2 Fe/Si/Fe structures are complex objects for the study of magnetic and transport properties because of the interdiffusion at interfaces with the possible formation of iron silicides of different structure and composition. [3][4][5][6][7] As was shown earlier, Si grown on Fe tends to interdiffuse and to crystallize in epitaxially stabilized CsCl-type, metallic Fe 0.5 Si 0.5 ͑Ref. 3͒ and exhibits an exponential decay of coupling versus spacer thickness ͑Refs. 5 and 7͒. This unusual behavior was related to a new type of exchange coupling across metallic-type spacers 5 in contradiction with the standard quantum interference model ͑QIM͒ of interlayer coupling. 8 The QIM predicts an exponential decay of AF coupling only for nonconducting spacers but oscillatory coupling for metallic spacers.In order to distinguish metallic and insulating-type spacers, we have previously prepared epitaxial Fe/Fe 1Ϫx Si x /Fe trilayers by codeposition of Fe and Si instead of relying on interdiffusion. We achieved a spacer composition close to Fe 0.5 Si 0.5 ͑Ref. 9͒ and spacers with variable Si content x in the range 0.4ϽxϽ1 ͑Ref. 10͒. We deposited Fe 0.5 Si 0.5 spacer layers at an elevated temperature (200°C) in order to form metallic, epitaxial iron silicides and obtained weak oscillatory coupling ͑less than 1 mJ/m 2 ͒. 9 In these samples, the coupling strength increased with decreasing temperature in agreement with the QIM for metallic spacers. 8 Second, we showed that the interlayer exchange coupling strongly increases with the nominal Si content x in epitaxial Fe 1Ϫx Si x spacers exceeding 5 mJ/m 2 for nominally pure Si spacers. With the increase of nominal Si content x, the thickness of the strongest AF coupling (t max ) shifted to a smaller Si thickness. We concluded that the very strong coupling ͑more than 5 mJ/m 2 ͒ observed for nominally pure Si spacers is not due to metallic iron silicides, but due to highly resistive, Si-rich spacers...

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confidence: 97%

Enhanced antiferromagnetic exchange coupling in Fe/Si/Fe epitaxial trilayers with Fe0.5Si0.5 boundary layers

Gareev

Bürgler

Büchmeier

et al. 2002

Applied Physics Letters

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“…The non-stoichiometric c-Fe 1Àx Si phase (0 x 0.5) has been proposed as that paramagnetic compound. 11,27,29,30,[32][33][34][35] We focus our attention on the analysis of the paramagnetic component given by the doublets. The c-FeSi phase with the cubic CsCl structure should show a singlet.…”

Section: B Compositional Study By Cemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is in agreement with previously reported values on Fe-Si multilayers. 11,[32][33][34]36,37 The analysis of the remaining sextet components is not straightforward and requires a comparison with the possible structures of the Fe 1Àx Si x alloys. These have been long time ago studied in bulk samples 24,[38][39][40] and in homogenous thin films prepared by co-deposition.…”

Section: B Compositional Study By Cemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Iron silicide formation at different layers of (Fe/Si)3 multilayered structures determined by conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy

Badía-Romano

Rubín

Magén

et al. 2014

Journal of Applied Physics

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The morphology and the quantitative composition of the Fe-Si interface layer forming at each Fe layer of a (Fe/Si)3 multilayer have been determined by means of conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). For the CEMS measurements, each layer was selected by depositing the Mössbauer active 57Fe isotope with 95% enrichment. Samples with Fe layers of nominal thickness dFe = 2.6 nm and Si spacers of dSi = 1.5 nm were prepared by thermal evaporation onto a GaAs(001) substrate with an intermediate Ag(001) buffer layer. HRTEM images showed that Si layers grow amorphous and the epitaxial growth of the Fe is good only for the first deposited layer. The CEMS spectra show that at all Fe/Si and Si/Fe interfaces a paramagnetic c-Fe1−xSi phase is formed, which contains 16% of the nominal Fe deposited in the Fe layer. The bottom Fe layer, which is in contact with the Ag buffer, also contains α-Fe and an Fe1−xSix alloy that cannot be attributed to a single phase. In contrast, the other two layers only comprise an Fe1−xSix alloy with a Si concentration of ≃0.15, but no α-Fe.

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“…5 For Fe/Si multilayers, the antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling between the Fe films was associated with a spacer consisting of metallic, crystalline iron silicide. 6,7 The absence of coupling was ascribed to amorphous Si. The analysis of the magnetic coupling and the magnetoresistance of transition-metal/Si layers seems to be difficult due to the lack of detailed knowledge about the structure and composition of the spacer film.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interlayer coupling in Co/Si sandwich structures

2000

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The combinations of magnetic materials with traditional semiconductors are interesting possibilities for new magnetoresistive structures. In this work the interlayer magnetic coupling in Co-Si systems has been studied. The coupling has been calculated within the density-functional theory, and it has been observed to oscillate with a spatial period of two Si layers. The electronic structure analysis indicates the formation of quantum wells within the Si spacer.

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Structure and magnetism of Fe/Si multilayers grown by ion-beam sputtering

Cited by 142 publications

References 43 publications

Enhanced antiferromagnetic exchange coupling in Fe/Si/Fe epitaxial trilayers with Fe0.5Si0.5 boundary layers

Enhanced antiferromagnetic exchange coupling in Fe/Si/Fe epitaxial trilayers with Fe0.5Si0.5 boundary layers

Iron silicide formation at different layers of (Fe/Si)3 multilayered structures determined by conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy

Interlayer coupling in Co/Si sandwich structures

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