1209.1703 (Sunjae Chung et al.)

Critical role of next-nearest-neighbor interlayer interaction in
magnetic behavior of magnetic/nonmagnetic multilayers    [PDF]

Sunjae Chung, Sangyep Lee, Taehee Yoo, Hakjoon Lee, J. -H. Chung, M. S. Choi, Sanghoon Lee, X. Liu, J. K. Furdyna, Jae-Ho Han, Hyun-Woo Lee, Kyung-Jin Lee

We report magnetoresistance data in magnetic semiconductor multilayers, which exhibit a clear step-wise behavior as a function of external field. We attribute this highly non-trivial step-wise behavior to next-nearest-neighbor interlayer exchange coupling. Our microscopic calculation suggests that this next-nearest-neighbor coupling can be as large as 24% of the nearest-neighbor coupling. It is argued that such unusually long-range interaction is made possible by the quasi-one-dimensional nature of the system and by the long Fermi wavelength characteristic of magnetic semiconductors.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1209.1703