OSCILLATORY INTERLAYER COUPLING IN CO AU(111)/CO/

The antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic interlayer coupling across Au( lll) has been investigated employing a 2 Angstrom Co/Au/7 Angstrom Co trilayer with the Au spacer layer in the form of a wedge. The sample w as deposited by Molecular Beam Epitaxy on a Cu single crystal substrat e covered by a Au base layer. A highly localized magneto-optical Kerr effect hysteresis loop study revealed an oscillatory coupling extendin g to Au thicknesses of 40 Angstrom. The period was found to increase m arkedly with increasing Au thickness, whereas a more than quadratic de crease of the coupling strength with increasing Au thickness was obser ved.