Controllable two- and three-state magnetization switching in single-layer epitaxial Pd Fe films and an epitaxial PdFe/Ag/PdFe heterostructure.

We have investigated the low-temperature magnetoresistive properties of a thin epitaxial PdFe film at different directions of the current and the applied magnetic field. The obtained experimental results are well described within an assumption of a single-domain magnetic state of the film. In a wide range of the appled field directions, the magnetization reversal proceeds in two steps via the intermediate easy axis. An epitaxial heterostructure of two magnetically separated ferromagnetic layers, PdFe/Ag/PdFe, was synthesized and studied with dc magnetometry. Its magnetic configuration diagram has been constructed and the conditions have been determined for a controllable switching between stable parallel, orthogonal, and antiparallel arrangements of magnetic moments of the layers.