Growth, Characterization and Physics of Antiferromagnetic Thin Films and Superlaptices

Most of the interest in the magnetic thin films or multdayers has been focused on ferromagnetic materials because of the inherent potential applicability. Very little attention has been given to the experimental study of the most fuadamentally important structures -from a physics point of view- the antiferromagnetic (AF') insulators. Also, proportionally little attention has been given to the growth characte ization of ionic materials. Using relatively primitive MBE techniques, we have grown el itaxial thin films of MnF 2 , FeF 2 , as well as superlattices of (FeF 2 ) m (CoF 2 ) n and (FeF 2 ) m (ZnF 2 ) n . In the FeF 2 /CoF 2 superlattices we have deduced coherence lengths of up o ξ ≈ 2,200 A from x-ray θ–2θ scans, for superlattice periods of 90≈ We will review some of our recent results in the characterization of the magnetic, structural and infrarod phonon properties, using high resolution x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, AF resonance, infrared spectroscopy, capacitance, and dilation measurements.