Transition metal sublattice magnetization and the anomalous Hall effect in(110)-ErFe2/YFe2multilayers

Abstract

Bulk magnetometry and anomalous Hall effect measurements are presented and discussed, for rare earth (RE)--transition metal compound superlattices, grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The results are complemented with modeled hysteresis curves. It is found that there is good agreement between the anomalous Hall effect and the calculated Fe magnetization curve. This suggests that the anomalous Hall effect, in the ${\text{REFe}}_{2}$ intermetallics, is driven predominantly by the magnetization ${M}_{\text{Fe}}$ of the transition metal sublattice, and not by the total magnetization $M$. In addition, it is shown that the anomalous Hall effect in the superlattice (110)-$[{\text{ErFe}}_{2}(50\text{ }\text{\AA{}})/{\text{YFe}}_{2}(150\text{ }\text{\AA{}})]\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}23$ can be used to follow the complicated magnetization reversal processes found at high temperatures.