Chemical and magnetic structure of uranium/gadolinium multilayers studied by transmission electron microscopy, neutron scattering, and x-ray reflectivity

R. Springell*, S. Langridge, A. Wildes, S. B. Wilkins, C. Sanchez-Hanke, K. T. Moore, M. T. Butterfield, J. Chivall, R. C. C. Ward, M. R. Wells, G. H. Lander

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present a multitechnique approach to study the detailed chemical and magnetic structure of uranium/gadolinium multilayers. At low temperature the saturation magnetization is found to be similar to 60% of that of bulk gadolinium. We address this problem, which is found in many other multilayers and suggest a model that may have wider applications. transmission electron microscopy images indicate a microstructure, consistent with a columnar growth of Gd with crystallites of the order 20 -> 100 angstrom. Off-specular neutron scattering is most strongly visible at saturation field, indicating that Gd moments are not aligned with the applied field. X-ray resonant magnetic scattering provides proof of coupled in-plane length scales for both the structural and the magnetic roughness. A detailed x-ray scattering study of both the specular and off-specular reflectivities has been used to investigate the in-plane structure of the multilayers. We calculate the roughness and transverse correlation cut-off length, xi(x) = 120 +/- 30 angstrom, and present a simple model to determine an average column size of 27 +/- 6 angstrom and a reduction in the magnetic saturation of similar to 40%.

Original languageEnglish
Article number134434
Number of pages13
JournalPhysical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
Volume81
Issue number13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2010

Keywords

  • TOTAL EXTERNAL REFLECTION
  • ROUGHNESS CORRELATIONS
  • INTERFACIAL ROUGHNESS
  • DIFFUSE-SCATTERING
  • DIFFRACTION
  • SURFACES
  • SUPERLATTICES
  • REFLECTOMETRY
  • SPINTRONICS
  • INJECTION

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