Abstract
We have used polarised neutron reflection (PNR) to determine the absolute value of the ground state magnetic moment per atom of a Au/9 ML bcc Fe/Ag(001) epitaxial sandwich and of a Au/3 ML bcc Ni/5 ML bcc Fe/Ag(001) epitaxial sandwich grown by MBE. For the 9 ML Fe sample, we deduce a ferromagnetic moment per Fe atom in the range 1.9–2.2μ B, close to the bulk value and in agreement with FMR results. By comparing these results with that of a reduced Fe moment previously obtained for a Ag/8 ML Fe/Ag(001) sample, we conclude that extremely high quality epitaxial growth is likely to be required to test the recent theoretical predictions of enhanced moments in such ultrathin Fe layers. For the 3 ML Ni/5 ML Fe sample the data are consistent with a moment per Fe atom of at least the bulk value of 2.2μ B, a moment per Ni atom of at least 0.55μ B and ferromagnetic coupling between the Fe and Ni layer magnetisations.
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