title: Interlayer magnetic coupling interactions of two ferromagnetic layers by spin polarized tunneling.
abstract: Magnetic interactions involving ferromagnetic layers separated by an insulating barrier have been studied experimentally on a fully epitaxial hard-soft magnetic tunnel junction: Fe/MgO/Fe/Co. For a barrier thickness below 1 nm, a clear antiferromagnetic interaction is observed. Moreover, when reducing the MgO thickness from 1 to 0.5 nm, the coupling strength increases up to J=-0.26 erg.cm(-2). This behavior, well fitted by theoretical models, provides an unambiguous signature of the interlayer exchange coupling by spin-polarized quantum tunneling.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Matériaux, BP 239, 54506 Vandoeuvre lès Nancy, France.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Faure-Vincent
authors.forename: C Tiusan C
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Bellouard
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Popova
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hehn
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Montaigne
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schuhl