Study of Fe/Mn/Fe(0 0 1) multilayers by means of scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy

To elucidate the magnetic properties of a magnetic multilayer film, an understanding of the local geometry, electronic structure, and possible intermixing at the interfaces is of utmost importance. By gradually increasing the Fe coverage on the Mn(0 0 1) film, we obtained this information on the interface region by means of Auger spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy. Intermixed atoms and various geometries and density of states are found to exist in this system.