Specular and off-specular polarized neutron reflectometry of canted magnetic domains in loose spin coupled CuMn/Co multilayers

T. Saerbeck, N. Loh, D. Lott, B. P. Toperverg, A. M. Mulders, M. Ali, B. J. Hickey, A. P. J. Stampfl, F. Klose, and R. L. Stamps

Phys. Rev. B 85, 014411 – Published 17 January 2012

Abstract

Specular and off-specular polarized neutron reflectometry of strong biquadratic coupling in a Cu $_{0.94}$ Mn $_{0.06}$ /Co multilayer is presented. Detailed analysis of the reflectivity via the distorted-wave Born approximation reveals a formation of on average $〈 \pm$ 30 $^{\circ} 〉$ canted lateral magnetic domains. Domains with mean width of 0.43 $μ$ m extend throughout the multilayer structure and magnetization alternates in the sign of the canting with subsequent layers. Temperature and field dependence of the magnetic structure are evaluated and included in the magnetic model, which is used to deduce bilinear and biquadratic interlayer exchange coupling energies.

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Received 18 September 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.85.014411

Authors & Affiliations

T. Saerbeck^1,2,*, N. Loh^1,2, D. Lott³, B. P. Toperverg^4,5, A. M. Mulders^2,6,7, M. Ali⁸, B. J. Hickey⁸, A. P. J. Stampfl^2,9, F. Klose², and R. L. Stamps^1,10

¹School of Physics, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA6009, Australia
²Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Menai, NSW 2234, Australia
³Institute for Materials Research, Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht, D-21502 Geesthacht, Germany
⁴Department of Physics, Ruhr-University Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, Germany
⁵Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, 188300 Gatchina, Russia
⁶School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences, UNSW in Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
⁷Department of Imaging and Applied Physics, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
⁸School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS29JT, United Kingdom
⁹School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
¹⁰School of Physics and Astronomy (SUPA), University of Glasgow, Glasgow 612 8QQ, Scotland, United Kingdom

^*thomas.saerbeck@ansto.gov.au

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Vol. 85, Iss. 1 — 1 January 2012

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