1 ML Mn/Fe(001) : is Mn coupling with Fe antiferromagnetic or ferromagnetic ?

International audienceThe magnetic properties of Mn thin films deposited on (001) bcc iron were studied by soft X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). The coupling between Mn and Fe at the interface is found to be ferromagnetic. This result is in contradiction with a similar recent study (Roth et al., Phys. Rev. B 52 (1995) 15691), where an antiferromagnetic coupling was observed. These contradictory results are explained to come from the different sample preparation used by both groups. This leads us to conclude that 1 ML Mn/bcc Fe(001) is ferromagnetic with a ferromagnetic with a ferromagnetic interfacial Mn/Fe coupling