A microscopic magnetic antiphase domain structure has been observed in a single-crystal Gd-Y superlattice by neutron diffraction. Furthermore, this long-range antiferromagnetic correlation is found to occur in a multibilayer, in which each bilayer consists of NGd ferromagnetic atomic planes of Gd followed by NY planes of nonmagnetic Y, for NY=NGd=10 but not for NY=6 or 20. This oscillatory behavior is consistent with recent theoretical speculation that the Gd moments are coupled through the intervening Y via the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interaction.
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Majkrzak et al. (1986) studied this question.