Highlights of magnetic multilayer research at Argonne are presented. The most recent past can be taken as the era of giant magnetoresistance multilayers. From there we move to the present where we are addressing issues associated with magnetic pinning across diverse interfaces. Illustrative examples include the coupling between ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, as well as between "hard" and "soft" ferromagnets. The former is of importance in understanding the design of spin valves and magnetic random access memory (MRAM). The later provides a possible nanotech route to the creation of a new generation of ultra-strong permanent magnets. In the future the expectation is that lateral patterning, self-assembly and spintronics will open new vistas.
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@footnote 1@ This work was supported by the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, under contract number W-31-109-ENG-38.