MAGNETISM AT INTERFACES IN METALLIC MULTILAYERS

The interface properties are crucial for most of the unique properties of ferromagnetic multilayers. Typical examples and results of the influence of interface structural and electronic properties on the magnetic anisotropy and the interlayer exchange coupling effects will be reviewed for various Fe/M interfaces (M: Cr, Al, Ag, Au, Gd, Y). Emphasis will be put on interface investigations by Fe-57-Conversion Electron Mossbauer Spectroscopy (CEMS) on magnetic interactions at Fe/Gd interfaces and on the recent studies of amorphous Fe films. Those films can be stabilized below a critical thickness of about 2.3 nm at Fe/R interfaces (R: Gd, Y). Between Y layers amorphous Fe can be studied to temperatures well above the average Curie temperature of T(c) = 80 K.