Photo-induced antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling in Fe superlattices with iron silicide spacers.

摘要

Sputtered Fe/FeSi films possessing antiferromagnetic (AF) interlayer coupling at room temperature develop ferromagnetic remanence when cooled below 100K, but the AF coupling can be restored at low temperature by exposure to visible light of sufficient intensity (>10 mW/mm(sup 2)). We attribute these effects to charge carriers in the FeSi spacer layer which, when thermally or photo-generated, are capable of communicating spin information between the Fe layers.