Effect of Cr Spacer on Structural and Magnetic Properties of Fe/Gd Multilayers

In this work, we analyze the role of a thin Cr spacer between Fe and Gd layers on the structure and magnetic properties of a [Fe(35 A)/Cr(tCr)/Gd(50 A)/Cr(tCr)]12 superlattice. Samples without the Cr spacer (tCr = 0) and with a thin spacer (tCr = 4 A) are investigated using X-ray diffraction, polarized neutron and resonance X-ray magnetic reflectometry, static magnetometry, magneto-optical Kerr effect, and ferromagnetic resonance techniques. Magnetic properties are studied experimentally in a wide temperature range 4–300 K and analyzed theoretically using numerical simulation on the basis of the mean-field model. We show that a reasonable agreement with the experimental data can be obtained considering temperature dependence of the effective field parameter in gadolinium layers. The analysis of the experimental data shows that besides a strong reduction of the antiferromagnetic coupling between Fe and Gd, the introduction of Cr spacers into Fe/Gd superlattice leads to modification of both structural and magnetic characteristics of the ferromagnetic layers.