2025/12/11 by Oleg Kozlov, Kozlov, O., В. М. Каліта +9
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Magnetic Properties of Alloys #Magnetic properties of thin films #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Multiferroics and related materials
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2512.10511
openalex publication_date 2025/12/11 · openalex created_date 2025/12/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Interlayer exchange in synthetic antiferromagnets incorporating thin paramagnetic spacers can be controlled thermally. The spacer provides an additional ferromagnetic contribution that renormalizes the otherwise temperature-independent interlayer coupling. As a result, the system shows antiferromagnetic alignment at high temperatures and ferromagnetic alignment at low temperatures. This behavior is observed in Fe(2 nm)/Cr(0.4 nm)/Fe17.5Cr82.5(0.9 nm)/Cr(0.4 nm)/Fe(2 nm) multilayers with the inner spacer Fe17.5Cr82.5 paramagnetic at and above room temperature, and is shown to be due to the spacer being significantly magnetically polarized on lowering the temperature toward its Curie point. Although the Fe layers lack intrinsic magnetocrystalline anisotropy, the magnetization reversal demonstrates a field-induced uniaxial anisotropy of antiferromagnetic character. The resulting reversal process resembles that of a metamagnet with a spin-flip transition.