STRUCTURE AND MAGNETIC-PROPERTIES OF FE V(110) SUPERLATTICES/

Structural, magnetic, and magnetotransport properties of Fe/V (110) su perlattices have been investigated. Using Al2O3 (<10(2)over bar 0>) su bstrates and Mo or MoxV1-x allay seed layers, the superlattices could be grown with a large in- and out-of-plane crystal coherence. Due to l arge strains, magnetoelastic effects give rise to a uniaxial in-plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy with the [001] direction as the easy axi s. The anisotropy energy of the strained Fe layers was found to be of similar magnitude as the one of bulk Co. The magnetotransport properti es were investigated on a series of superlattice films with the nomina l structure Al2O3/Mo (100 Angstrom)/[Fe (23 Angstrom)/V (4-23 Angstrom )](20). For V thicknesses below 15 Angstrom, only anisotropic magnetor esistance effects are present. For larger thicknesses giant magnetores istance effects are also present, indicating antiferromagnetic couplin g across the V interlayers. The interplay between the magnetic anisotr opy, hysteresis effects, and the antiferromagnetic coupling is discuss ed.