Session D40 - Poster Session I.
POSTER session, Monday afternoon, March 12
Exhibit Hall, Washington State Convention Center
The interface of Fe/Tb multilayers was investigated using x-ray diffraction and Mossbauer spectroscopy to study structural and magnetic ordering of the interface and its dynamics of growth as a function of Fe and Tb layer thicknesses. Two groups of samples, one with fixed Tb layer thickness and one with fixed Fe layer thickness, were prepared by planar magnetron sputtering. Two major structures were identified with x-ray, and two minor structures were identified from Mossbauer measurement. The composition and magnetic ordering of the interface critically depends on the thickness of both Fe and Tb layers. Results of Mossbauer measurements implies that an amorphous Tb-Fe component at the interface with an average composition close to that of the intermetallic compound TbFe-sub-2 may likely be the origin of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of Fe/Tb multilayers. It is also suggested that PMA in Fe/Tb multilayers and amorphous Tb-Fe films may have the same origin.