title: Origin of biquadratic exchange in fe/si/fe.
abstract: The thickness and temperature dependences of the interlayer exchange coupling in well-defined molecular beam epitaxy-grown Fe/Si/Fe sandwich structures have been studied. The biquadratic coupling shows a strong temperature dependence in contrast to the bilinear coupling. Both depend exponentially on thickness. These observations can be well understood in the framework of Slonczewski's loose spins model [J. Appl. Phys. 73, 5957 (1993)]. No bilinear contribution of the loose spins to the coupling was observed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics and COBRA, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Strijkers
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Kohlhepp
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Swagten
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: de Jonge