Preparation and Mossbauer Study of Epitaxial Cr/Sn Multilayers

Epitaxial Cr/Sn multilayers composed of Cr(001) layers and very thin Sn layers were grown on MgO(001) substrates. The magnetic properties of the prepared multilayers were studied by 119 Sn Mossbauer spectroscopy. Magnetic hyperfine fields of 11∼13 T, which are larger than the value reported for dissolved Sn sites in a Cr matrix, were found to be induced at the Sn nuclear sites of [Cr( t Cr )/Sn(2 A)] multilayers ( t Cr =6, 10, 20, and 30 A) at room temperature. The result indicates that the magnetic ordering temperature of the Cr layers is much higher than the Neel temperature of bulk Cr ( T N =311 K). Possible magnetic structures in the Cr layers are inferred from the size and direction of the magnetic hyperfine field transferred at the Sn nuclear sites.