Experimental studies of the non-collinear magnetic states in epitaxial FeAu multilayers

We have investigated the magnetic structure and coupling in epitaxial [Fe3/Au(0 0 1)N/(Fe1Au1)3/Au(0 0 1)N]×2 multilayers. Our system contains alternating (Fe1Au1)3 monoatomic stacks with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and 3 atomic layer (AL) thick Fe films (Fe3) with an in-plane easy magnetization axis, separated by an Au(0 0 1) spacer layer. Giant magnetoresistance and magnetization measurements as a function of N=4, 5, …, 24 AL of the Au spacer revealed different non-collinear magnetic alignment of the sub-layer magnetization, dependent on the interlayer exchange coupling.