2007/03/12 by M. G. Pini, A. Rettori, P. Betti +5 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Magnetic properties of thin films #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0953-8984/19/13/136001
published as J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 19 (2007) 136001 · 24 pages, 7 figures
openalex publication_date 2007/03/12 · arxiv created 2007/03/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
We studied the transition between the antiferromagnetic and the surface spin–flop phases of a uniaxial antiferromagnetic [Fe(14 Å)/Cr(11 Å)] x 20 superlattice. For external fields applied parallel to the in-plane easy axis, the layer-by-layer configuration, calculated in the framework of a mean-field one-dimensional model, was benchmarked against published polarized neutron reflectivity data. For an in-plane field H applied at an angle to the easy axis, magnetometry shows that the magnetization M vanishes at H = 0, then increases slowly with increasing H . At a critical value of H , a finite jump in M ( H ) is observed for ψ<5°, while a smooth increase of M versus H is found for ψ>5°. A dramatic increase in the full width at half maximum of the magnetic susceptibility is observed for ψ≥5°. The phase diagram obtained from micromagnetic calculations displays a first-order transition to a surface spin–flop phase for low ψ values, while the transition becomes continuous for ψ greater than a critical angle, ψ max ≈4.75°. This is in fair agreement with the experimentally observed results.