Influence of the number of periods on the magnetization reversal process of antiferromagnetically coupled amorphous CoxSi1-x/Si multilayers

The advantage of using amorphous materials for preparing complex magnetic structures, like magnetic/non-magnetic multilayers, is illustrated for the case of the study of the Co-Si system. In particular, the antiferromagnetic AF coupling recently reported for amorphous Co-Si alloys separated by Si spacers and the associated magnetization reversal processes have been studied in (Co0.75Si0.25/Si)(n) multilayers with different number of periods n. It has been found that the magnetic field corresponding to the onset of the reversal process increases with the number of periods in a linear way. For n > 2, the magnetization stabilizes not only in the AF state but also in other intermediate configurations between both saturated states. At the same time, as n increases, all the processes of formation and breaking of these states get smoothed. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.