The interlayer exchange coupling (IEC) in synthetic antiferromagnets (SAFs) is attracting considerable attention in the spintronics community. While exciting physics is revealed, systematic control of the IEC via tuning the thickness of the magnetic layer is yet to be adequately addressed in SAFs with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). In this work, we experimentally investigate this aspect in Pt/Co/Ru/Fe 0.55 Tb 0.45 [ferromagnet (FM)/Ru/ferrimagnet (FIM)] multilayers with PMA, which possess a broader material-parameter space beyond what can be achieved with traditional SAFs. More importantly, the incorporation of the Fe− Tb FIM layer into the SAF multilayers allows us to directly probe the layer-resolved magnetization reversal by utilizing the anomalous Hall effect and standard magnetometry measurements. Our findings are further verified by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements by providing …
https://journals.aps.org/prapplied/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.18.054051