Probing the magnetic state of Fe/FeO/Fe trilayers by multiple isotopic sensor layers

Abstract

To obtain depth-selected information in magnetic multilayers, we propose a measurement scheme based on nuclear resonant scattering from multiple isotopic sensor layers. It takes advantage of the depth dependence of the photon wavefield intensity in grazing incidence geometry to enhance the signal from a given part of a multilayer. The technique is applied to study the magnetic structure of a Fe/Fe-oxide/Fe trilayer. We are able to fully determine in a direct manner the magnetic state of two ultrathin F 57 e probe layers embedded in the system. The proposed technique can potentially be extended to various grazing incidence x-ray scattering methods. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.