The coupling of interlayers in compositionally modulated (Fe-Si)/Si amorphous films

Compositionally modulated (Fe-Si)/Si amorphous films have been obtained by RF sputtering. Varying the thickness d s of Si layers with a fixed thickness of the Fe-Si layers, it is found that, when d s is smaller than a critical value, a strong-coupling effect between magnetic layers begins to occur. The results are that the low-hysteresis effect disappears, the saturation magnetization M s and Curie temperature T C increase monotonically with decreasing d s , and perpendicular anisotropy appears. The experiments showed that M s increases exponentially and T C increases linearly with decreasing d s because of the coupling effect.