Magnetic properties of EuS-SrS semiconductor multilayer structures

Abstract

Magnetic and structural properties of EuS-SrS semiconductor multi-layers were studied by SQUID and magneto-optical Kerr effect magnetometry techniques and by X-ray diffraction method. The multilayers composed of monocrystalline, lattice matched ferromagnetic EuS layers (thickness 35-50 Å) and nonmagnetic SrS spacer layers (thickness 45-100 Å) were grown epitaxially on KCl (001) substrates with PbS buffer layer. Ferromagnetic transition in EuS-SrS multilayers was found at the Curie temperature Tc = 17 K. The multilayers exhibit only weak in-plane magnetic anisotropy with [110] easy magnetization axis. Coercive field of EuS-SrS multilayers shows a linear increase with decreasing temperature. Magneto-optical mapping of magnetic hysteresis loops of the multilayers revealed good spatial homogeneity of their magnetic properties.