Deposition of a Fe-57 probe layer at the top of iron layers in Tb/Fe multil
ayers has allowed us to study locally the atomic mixing induced by high-ene
rgy heavy-ion irradiation at the Tb-on-Fe interface. The structural and mag
netic transformations induced by ion irradiation of the probe layer were in
vestigated by Fe-57 conversion electron Mossbauer spectrometry. To study di
rectional effects of the ion beam, we have irradiated a stack of two pieces
of the same multilayer set face to face. No change in the average composit
ion of the mixed Tb-on-Fe interface was observed when the incident ion dire
ction is changed from a Tb layer to a Fe layer, or from a Fe layer to a Tb
layer.