Negative coercivity in epitaxially grown (110) DyFe2/YFe2 superlattices

Molecular beam epitaxial methods have been used to grow single crystal Laves phase DyFe2/YFe2 superlattice samples with a (110) growth direction. Detailed magnetization curves have been obtained for YFe2 dominated multilayer samples [wDyFe2/4wYFe2]× 16 with w=45, 50, and 55 Å. In particular, it is shown that the formation of magnetic exchange springs in the magnetically soft YFe2 layers, can be used to engineer multilayer samples with a negative coercivity. Further, by using asymmetric field cycling procedures, we have investigated the irreversible parts of the M-B loop, associated with the switching of the DyFe2 multilayers. © 2001 American Institute of Physics