Rhombus-shaped microobjects formed by strips of two micrometers wide were fabricated from the spin valve film. The influence of the shape anisotropy on the layers magnetic moment rotation during the spin valve magnetic reversal is studied. A method for two-stage thermomagnetic treatment in a direction-fixed magnetic field has been found. The method allows to obtain the opposite sign values of the exchange bias fields in the non-parallel rhombus sides. The direction of the formed exchange bias is determined by the deviation of the strip from the uniaxial anisotropy axis and from the magnetic field applied during thermomagnetic treatment. Based on a rhombus-shaped microobject made from a single spin valve film, the device is a Full Wheatstone bridge. Each side of the rhombus is an active magnetically sensitive element.

Layered nanoheterostructures Fe | MgO | Cr | MgO | Fe is an artificial ferromagnetic material in which the exchange interaction of the magnetic moments of Fe layers through intermediate dielectric and metal layers can lead to magnetic configurations that are not realized in the well-studied Fe | MgO | Fe and Fe | Cr | Fe. In this work, we investigated the correlations of the structural and magnetic properties of layered nanoheterostructures Fe (10 nm) | MgO (1.5 nm) | Cr (t nm) | MgO (1.5 nm) | Fe (7 nm) (thickness t = 0.9 and 1.8 nm). Structural studies performed using X-ray diffractometry and high-resolution reflectometry confirmed the formation of a textured structure and revealed its well-defined layered character with sharp interlayer boundaries.

The influence of structural properties on the formation of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Co/Dy superlattices is investigated. It is established that superlattices are a compositionally modulated alloy in which, on the one hand, a strict periodicity is maintained in the thickness and composition of the layers, and on the other hand, the interdiffusion of Co and Dy at the interlayer boundaries leads to a periodic change with the depth of the concentration of Co and Dy. It is shown that the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Co/Dy is due to the perpendicular orientation of the magnetization in the alloying CoDy layers, while the magnetization of the Co layers is oriented in the sample plane.

We have used spin-polarized neutron reflectometry to investigate the magnetization profile of superlattices composed of ferromagnetic Gd and superconducting Nb layers. We have observed a partial suppression of ferromagnetic (F) order of Gd layers in [Gd(d(F))/Nb(25 nm)](12) superlattices below the superconducting (S) transition of the Nb layers. The amplitude of the suppression decreases with increasing d(F). By analyzing the neutron spin asymmetry we conclude that the observed effect has an electromagnetic origin-the proximity-coupled S layers screen out the external magnetic field and thus suppress the F response of the Gd layers inside the structure. Our investigation demonstrates the considerable influence of electromagnetic effects on the magnetic properties of S/F systems.

The influence of a Pd spacer on the magnetic properties of Gd/Fe heterostructures has been studied. We have prepared using ultrahigh vacuum sputtering multilayered [Fe(3.5 nm)/Pd(1.2 nm)/Gd(5.0 nm)/Pd(1.2 nm)]12 structure. By using Polarized Neutron Reflectometry at temperature of 10 K we have observed strong increase in the intensity of neutron spin-flip scattering above magnetic field of 1.5 kOe. Combined analysis of magnetometry and polarized neutron reflectometry data allowed us to find out that the observed increase in spin-flip scattering is related to the spin-flop transition. Although the spin-flop transition were already seen in Fe/Gd systems, the use of Pd in our case allowed the suppression of the magnetic field of the transition making thus possible the use of Fe/Pd/Gd systems for diverse spintronic applications.