Effect of chromium interlayer on magnetic exchange coupling of SmCo/Cr/TbFeCo multilayer thin films

A series of SmCo/Cr/TbFeCo multilayer thin films with perpendicular anisotropy were prepared by RF-magnetron sputtering system, and the effects of Cr interlayer thickness on magnetic properties and interlayer exchange coupling were investigated. It was found that the magnetic properties varied with the thickness of Cr interlayer, especially the values of saturation magnetization Ms and the coercivity Hc fluctuated periodically with the thickness of Cr interlayer. STM images revealed that the variation of coercivity Hc was attributed to the microstructure change of SmCo layer influenced by Cr interlayer, and the variation of Ms was related to interlayer exchange coupling.