Evidence for Antiferromagnetic Coupling between Fe Layers through Cr from Neutron Diffraction

抄録

Small-angle neutron diffraction measurements have been made for a multilayer, [Fe(27 Å)/Cr(12 Å)]×30, at room temperature. It was found that the magnetizations of adjacent Fe layers are coupled in antiparallel. The decrease of antiferromagnetic peak intensity as a function of external field was observed. It is confirmed that the giant magnetoresistance in Fe/Cr multilayers is due to the antiferromagnetic ordering of Fe layers caused by the interlayer coupling across an intervening Cr layer.