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Continuous films and nanostructures of atomically stacked epitaxial Fe(0 0 1)/Au(0 0 1) multilayers have been studied by soft X-ray and Lorentz microscopy as well as micromagnetic simulations. Domain imaging shows about 65 nm wide magnetic stripe domains, in which the magnetization is oriented perpendicular to the film plane. These results are confirmed by micromagnetic simulations, which also yield additional information about the internal structure of domains and walls.

The paper reports some investigations made with VITROVAC 6025 X ribbons and their applicability for parallel-gated configuration sensors. During appropriate stress annealing a hard axis anisotropy was induced in the ribbon. The effect depends both on the pre-annealing temperature and its duration and on the applied longitudinal tensile stress. The obtained results are discussed in terms of the magnetization processes which take place within the ribbon. The applicability of VITROVAC 6025 X amorphous alloy for parallel-gated configuration sensors was proved by developing TFS-3 type sensors. Measurements of the functional parameters indicated good thermostability, lower magnetic noise levels and lower offset values for the sensors using suitably heat treated VITROVAC 6025 X ribbons.

We succeeded in growing ultrathin Fe(110) films in ultrahigh vacuum sandwiched between Au(111), which show ferromagnetic behaviour even below monolayer coverage. For the first time, low-temperature magnetization measurements on such Au-Fe-Au sandwiches reveal a switching of the easy axis from the film plane to the film normal in iron films thinner than 3 monolayers (ML). We interpret this as an interface effect. The usually dominating shape anisotropy is overcompensated by a magnetic interface anisotropy at smaller iron coverages. The effective magnetic anisotropy field at 10 K is proportional to the inverse iron thickness down to 2 ML. The related interface anisotropy field is determined to 40 kOe per single Fe(110)-Au interface.

The order-disorder transition in Fe-Co thin films has been studied by secondary electron Mossbauer spectroscopy. The inhomogeneous character of the disordering process and the role of lattice defects for the interpretation of asymmetric Mossbauer spectra in the case of Fe-Co are pointed out.