We present a magnetization and neutron-diffraction study of the basal plane magnetic structure of Dy epitaxial films and Dy/Er superlattices. The thermal evolution of the magnetic phases, the stability of the helical phase under a magnetic field, the thermal variation of the dysprosium in-plane and $c$ parameters, and of the dysprosium turn angle are successively shown. In Dy/Er superlattices, the dysprosium helix propagates coherently through paramagnetic erbium; at low temperature, individual dysprosium layers undergo a ferromagnetic transition and are coupled antiferromagnetically to each other for erbium layers thicknesses larger than 20 Å. In dysprosium films, as expected from the epitaxy effect, the Curie temperature of dysprosium is reduced if dysprosium is grown on yttrium and increased if it is grown on erbium, whereas it is unexpectedly close to the bulk value in Dy/Er superlattices. This amazing value of the Curie temperature in superlattices is correlated to two main experimentally observed effects: (i) the magnetoelastic driving force is reduced compared to bulk dysprosium because of the clamped $\gamma$ distortion; (ii) the difference between the exchange energies in the helical and the ferromagnetic phases is increased compared to the bulk value.

• Received 4 March 1996

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.54.6407