Ferromagnetic interlayer coupling in C-Co compound/Ni bilayer structure

Matsumoto, Yoshihiro; Sakai, Seiji; Entani, Shiro; Takagi, Yasumasa*; Nakagawa, Takeshi*; Naramoto, Hiroshi*; Avramov, P.; Yokoyama, Toshihiko*

X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) spectroscopy was employed to investigate the electronic and magnetic structures of the bilayers of a C-Co compound and Ni. A few -several nm thick C-Co compound layers on the Ni(111) surface are found to show intense XMCD signals attributed to the localized Co d-spins only with the remanent magnetization of Ni layer. It is suggested that the region of the C-Co compound within 3 nm from the interface is ferromagnetically coupled with Ni due to the indirect exchange interaction mediated by C, probably relevant to the interlayer charge transfer.