Magnetic Properties of Epitaxial and Polycrystalline Fe/Si Multilayers

TL;DR

This study investigates the magnetic properties of Fe/Si multilayers grown on different substrates, revealing how epitaxial growth and interface quality influence magnetic behavior and anisotropy.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how substrate choice affects the crystallinity, interface roughness, and magnetic properties of Fe/Si multilayers.

Findings

Epitaxial multilayers exhibit magnetocrystalline anisotropy.

Films on glass have rougher interfaces and higher remanent magnetization.

Better layering correlates with reduced remanent magnetization.

Abstract

Fe/Si multilayers with antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling have been grown via ion-beam sputtering on both glass and single-crystal substrates. High-angle x-ray diffraction measurements show that both sets of films have narrow Fe peaks, implying a large crystallite size and crystalline iron silicide spacer layers. Low-angle x-ray diffraction measurements show that films grown on glass have rougher interfaces than those grown on single-crystal substrates. The multilayers grown on glass have a larger remanent magnetization than the multilayers grown on single-crystal substrates. The observation of magnetocrystalline anisotropy in hysteresis loops and $(hkl)$ peaks in x-ray diffraction demonstrates that the films grown on MgO and Ge are epitaxial. The smaller remanent magnetization in Fe/Si multilayers with better layering suggests that the remanence is not an intrinsic property.