Interface modeling in Cr/Fe/Cr sandwiches studied by CEMS

Conversion electron Mossbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) was applied to model the buried interfaces in epitaxial 1–14 monolayer (ML) Fe(0 0 1) films sandwiched between Cr(0 0 1) layers. The local arrangement of Fe and Cr was derived by analysis of the experimental hyperfine field distributions determined from 80 K CEMS spectra. A discontinuity in magnetic properties for the 6 ML Fe film suggests that a modification of the magnetic structure occurs at this thickness. The 57 Fe probe layer analysis showed that Cr/Fe and Fe/Cr interfaces are non-equivalent. The lower interface showed up to be smoother than the upper one. The Fe concentration profile obtained form the CEMS analysis displayed a considerable interface Fe–Cr alloying for films deposited at the room temperature.