MAGNETIC-STRUCTURE OF FE CR FE TRILAYERS

Soft x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (SXMCD) is used to determine in dependently the magnetic behavior of each layer of Fe/Cr/Fe trilayers deposited on GaAs(001). Submonolayer coverages of Cr on Fe(001) films are found to be ferromagnetic and antialigned to the Fe moment. Subseq uent Cr deposition shows a monotonically decreasing total moment, cons istent with island growth of ferromagnetic Cr sheets antialigned with adjoining Cr layers. For thin Cr interlayers, the second Fe film is an tialigned with the first Fe film, but a second Fe film of less than 2- ML thickness shows no SXMCD signal.