Impurity Assisted Interlayer Exchange Coupling in Iron/Silicon Multilayers

Abstract

The model of exchange coupling between ferromagnetic metal layers across a non-degenerate semiconductor spacer with point-like defects is considered. Calculation of an asymptotic behavior of the exchange integral is carried out. The exchange integral is found to alternate its sign depending on the position and filling of the deep impurity energy levels into the spacer. The results provide a basis for interpretation of recent experiments in iron/silicon multilayers.