Abstract
Dy/Zr bilayers and multilayers were grown on oxydized Si(100) substrates by evaporation under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. X-ray and electron diffraction shows that both Zr and Dy layers are hexagonal, strongly textured with the c-axis along the growth direction. The grains can extend over several layers and have an in-plane diameter of about 200 Å. The Dy lattice displays an in-plane compression of about 1.5%. Interface profiles determined from high-resolution electron microscopy studies are sharp, extending over less than 3 lattice spacings. Magnetization measurements and polarized neutron reflectometry reveal a strong enhancement of T C, accompanied with a suppression of the helical antiferromagnetic phase in the multilayer samples. This effect can be understood as the result of the change in the balance between exchange and magnetoelastic energies caused by in-plane epitaxial compression of the Dy lattice by Zr. A large out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy energy is observed when the Dy layers are made thinner than 15 Å. Volume and interface contributions to this anisotropy compensate each other for a Dy layer thickness of about 8 Å. Comparison is made between the results of crystal-field calculations based on the point-charge approximation and the measured anisotropy energy.
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