Interface modeling in Cr/Fe/Cr sandwiches studied by CEMS

Conversion electron Mossbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) was applied to model the buried interfaces in epitaxial 1-14 monolayer (ML.) Fe(0 0 1) films sandwic hed between Cr(0 0 1) layers. The local arrangement of Fe and Cr was derive d by analysis of the experimental hyperfine field distributions determined from 80 K GEMS spectra. A discontinuity in magnetic properties fur the 6 ML Fe film suggests that a modification of the magnetic structure occurs at t his thickness. The Fe-57 probe layer analysis showed that Cr/Fe and Fe/Cr i nterfaces are non-equivalent. The lower interface showed up to be smoother than the upper one. The Fe concentration profile obtained, form the GEMS an alysis displayed a considerable Interface Fe-Cr alloying for films deposite d at the room temperature. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserv ed.