AVS 47th International Symposium
    Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Thursday Sessions
       Session MI-ThA

Paper MI-ThA10
Magneto-optical and Optical Spectroscopies of Fe/Si Multilayered Films

Thursday, October 5, 2000, 5:00 pm, Room 206

Session: Magnetic Devices: GMR & Tunneling
Presenter: Y.P. Lee, Hanyang University, Korea
Authors: Y.P. Lee, Hanyang University, Korea
T.-U. Nahm, Hanyang University, Korea
C.O. Kim, Hanyang University, Korea
Y.V. Kudryavtsev, Institute of Metal Physics, Ukraine
K.W. Kim, Sunmoon University, Korea
J.Y. Rhee, Hoseo University, Korea
J. Dubowik, Institute of Molecular Physics, Poland
Correspondent: Click to Email
Fe/Si multilayered films (MLF) exhibiting a strong antiferromagnetic (AF) coupling were studied by optical and magneto-optical spectroscopies. The first set of Fe/Si MLF with a fixed Fe sublayer thickness of 3.0 nm and a variable thickness of Si sublayers (1.0 - 2.2 nm) was prepared by rf-sputtering onto glass substrates at room temperature with the number of repetition of 50. To replicate the spacer silicide layers in the MLF, the second set of Fe/Si MLF with very thin Fe and Si sublayers (0.3 - 0.8 nm and 0.4 - 0.8 nm, respectively) was also deposited. The results were compared with the computer-simulated spectra based on various structural models of the MLF. Neither semiconducting FeSi@sub 2@ nor @epsilon@-FeSi turned out to be considered as the spacer layer for a strong AF coupling. The optical properties of the spacer extracted from the effective optical response of the MLF strongly support its metallic nature. A reasonable agreement between experimental and simulated equatorial-Kerr-effect spectra was obtained with the fitted optical parameters of the spacer for the FeSi or Fe@sub 5@Si@sub 3@ stoichiometry. A comparison of the extracted optical properties for the spacer with the calculated ones based on the first principles showed that a B2-phase metallic FeSi compound is spontaneously formed at the interfaces of MLF during deposition. For the Fe/Si system with ultrathin Fe and Si sublayers, our optical data reveal that the overall structure of MLF is close to an amorphous and semiconducting @epsilon@-FeSi.