Magnetic springs in exchange-coupled DyFe2/YFe2 superlattices:: An element-selective x-ray magnetic circular dichroism study -: art. no. 094401

X-ray magnetic circular dichroism technique has been exploited to measure material-selective hysteresis loops in DyFe2/YFe2 exchange-coupled superlattices, The magnetization reversal in these systems depends strongly on the individual thickness of both compounds. In superlattices with 100-Angstrom-thick DyFe, layers, recall springs are shown to develop in the soft YFe2 layers, as expected from the domain wall energy values. On the contrary, when the DyFe2 layers are thinner, the YFe2 magnetization remains aligned along the field direction and the DyFe2 net magnetization rotates due to the interface exchange interaction. This observation proves that magnetic exchange springs penetrate into the magnetically hard DyFe2 layers.