Unusual magnetic susceptibility and magnetoresistance in †Fe/Cr„001...‡10 multilayers at low temperatures

Transport and magnetic properties near a field-induced orientation phase transition sOPTd from the easy to the hard axis in the magnetization of antiferromagnetically coupled epitaxial fFe/Crs100dg10 multilayers have been studied. It was found that in the vicinity of the OPT both the amplitude of the magnetic susceptibility anomaly and the relaxation rate of the magnetoresistance change dramatically below a few Kelvin. These observations, together with the previously observed strong reduction of zero-field magnetic losses at temperatures below 5–7 K, indicate a qualitative transformation of the magnetic dynamics in Fe/Cr multilayers at very low temperatures. © 2005 American Institute of Physics. fDOI: 10.1063/1.1847992g