CONFIGURATION OF TBFE MULTILAYERS

Neutron reflectometry with polarization analysis has been performed on evaporated terbium-iron multilayers with different thicknesses of iron and terbium. The use of polarization analysis allows one to determine the direction of the in-plane component of the magnetic moments. The angle of the iron moments depends on the thickness of the layer and on the type of interface. Textured and amorphous multilayers present very different behaviour: for Tb(0001) textured samples the projection of the iron moments is aligned along the six-fold anisotropy axis of the rare earth. For Tb amorphous systems, the iron moments remain at a constant angle with respect to the perpendicular axis, but are randomly oriented in the plane or along the external field.