Polarized Neutron Reflection Studies Of The Interlayer Magnetic Coupling In Mbe Grown Metallic Superlattices, C.F.Majkrzak, Reactor Radiation Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899

What has been learned about the magnetic structures of epitaxially grown metallic superlattices from polarized neutron scattering studies will be reviewed. Examples which will be discussed include localized rare earth multilayers as well as itinerant systems such as Fe/Cr and Co/Cu which exhibit a giant magnetoresistance effect that is correlated with the interlayer magnetic coupling. The dependence of this coupling between ferromagnetic layers on the thickness and magnetic and electronic states of the intervening layers (e.g., in Fe/Cr and Fe/V for the latter two cases, respectively) will be considered. Some of the theoretical ideas which have evolved to explain certain experimentally observed magnetic structures, such as noncollinear configurations of the ferromagnetic layers in Fe/Cr superlattices, will also be examined.