Structural and magnetic properties of Fe/ZrO2 continuous and discontinuousmultilayers

Fe/ZrO2 multilayers have been studied mainly by EXAFS and Mossbauer spectro scopy with the aim of understanding the low-magnetoresistance (MR) amplitud e of this system compared with Co/ZrO2 multilayers. As-deposited thin iron layers (0.6-0.9 nm) are found to be amorphous or ill-ordered with Fe-Fe bon d lengths slightly larger than in BCC iron. The discontinuity of the layers brings about a superparamagnetic contribution which is increased by anneal ing at 500 degrees C. Thick iron layers (> 1.2 nm) are continuous whatever the annealing temperature. Non-magnetic Fe2+, Fe3+ sites account for at lea st 20% of the iron atoms in the as-deposited thin iron layers and up to 62% after annealing at 600 degrees C. The presence of these ions located near the interfaces can have drastic consequences on the spin-dependent tunnelli ng mechanism, that is, on the MR properties of the system. (C) 2000 Elsevie r Science B.V. All rights reserved.