Control of interlayer exchange coupling in Fe/Cr/Fe trilayers by ion beam irradiation.

The manipulation of the antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling in epitaxial Fe/Cr/Fe(001) trilayers by 5 keV He ion beam irradiation has been investigated. It is shown that even for irradiation with low fluences a drastic change in strength of the coupling appears. For thin Cr spacers (below 0.