ANTIFERROMAGNETIC COUPLING AND GIANT MAGNETORESISTANCE IN FE V(0 0 1)SUPERLATTICES/

Structural and magnetic properties of Fe/V(0 0 1) superlattices consis ting of 3 monolayers Fe separated by V interlayers of thickness in the range 8-17 monolayers have been investigated. RHEED and X-ray diffrac tion investigations show that the samples are grown with well-defined interfaces and with an out-of-plane crystal coherence length of the or der of the film thickness, and an in-plane coherence length of about 5 00 Angstrom. For V thicknesses exceeding 16 monolayers, a transition f rom 2D to 3D growth was observed. The magnetisation measurements show that the magnetisation is aligned in the film plane and possesses an i n-plane isotropic behaviour. Antiferromagnetic coupling between the Fe layers was observed for a vanadium thickness in the region, 13-14 mon olayers, with a corresponding giant magnetoresistance effect reaching 7% at 10 K. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.