Magnetic frustration of Cr at Fe(011)/Cr interfaces investigated by 119Sn Mossbauer spectroscopy

Magnetic properties of Cr layers in epitaxial Cr(011)/Sn and Fe(011)/Cr/Sn/Cr multilayers with monatomic Sn layers at the centre of the Cr layers were studied by means of Sn-119 Mossbauer spectroscopy. It was found that Cr/Sn interfaces tend to enhance the magnetic moments of Cr layers and Fe/Cr interfaces tend to reduce the magnetic moments of Cr layers. These results were compared with those for (001)-oriented multilayers with the same composition. The large reduction of Cr magnetic moments has been found in Fe(011)/Cr/Sn/Cr multilayers and this is attributed to a magnetic frustration effect caused by the intrinsic magnetic structure of ferromagnetic Fe(011) and antiferromagnetic Cr(011) planes at the Fe/Cr interfaces.