Temperature- and magnetic field-induced magnetic structural changes in the Fe3Si/FeSi2 superlattice

Abstract

Artificial lattices with semiconductor spacers are expected to exhibit changes in their magnetic structure owing to the control of their electronic states. The temperature ( T ) and magnetic-field ( H _ext ) dependence of the in-plane magnetic structure of an [Fe _3 Si/FeSi _2 ] _20 superlattice with a nonmagnetic and semiconducting FeSi _2 spacer layer is investigated using magnetization and polarized neutron reflectivity measurements. When H _ext = 5 mT, nearly collinear antiferromagnetic (AF) structures are observed from 4 to 298 K. When H _ext = 1 T, field-induced fan-like, noncollinear AF structures showing ferromagnetic components along H _ext and transverse AF components are observed at low T .

Keywords

• superlattice
• polarized neutron reflectivity
• magnetic structure
• magnetization