Influence of the number of periods on the magnetization reversal process of antiferromagnetically coupled amorphous CoxSi1−x/Si multilayers

The advantage of using amorphous materials for preparing complex magnetic structures, like magnetic/non-magnetic multilayers, is illustrated for the case of the study of the Co–Si system. In particular, the antiferromagnetic AF coupling recently reported for amorphous Co–Si alloys separated by Si spacers and the associated magnetization reversal processes have been studied in (Co0.75Si0.25/Si)n multilayers with different number of periods n. It has been found that the magnetic field corresponding to the onset of the reversal process increases with the number of periods in a linear way. For n > 2, the magnetization stabilizes not only in the AF state but also in other intermediate configurations between both saturated states. At the same time, as n increases, all the processes of formation and breaking of these states get smoothed.