Artificially modulated chemical order in thin films: A different approach to create ferro/antiferromagnetic interfaces

We report on a unique magnetic exchange interaction in a thin film of FePt3, comprising an artificially created ferromagnetic (FM)/antiferromagnetic (AFM) modulation, but homogeneous chemical composition and epitaxy throughout the film. The chemical order, on the other hand, is modulated resulting in the formation of alternating FM/AFM layers. To determine the existence and form of the magnetic structure within the monostoichiometric thin film, we use a unique combination of polarized neutron reflectometry, x-ray/neutron diffraction, and conventional magnetometry. This artificial stratified AFM/FM FePt3 exhibits a high magnetic exchange bias thus opening up possibilities to study such magnetic phenomena in a perfectly lattice-matched system.